Wes Tender

Thank God that they're all gone, eh?

Did I miss something? I thought that we did go out of business. You mean that we might have gone out of business sooner, perhaps and got up to speed earlier as a result? Anyway, where did I bad mouth him? He had the opportunity to leave a team sinking into the third division and take his chance of playing in the Premiership. I can't blame him for that, but it might yet turn out that Wolves are back in the Fizzy Pop next season and it is faintly possible that we might be there too. Taking your comment that he is one of us, then I suspect that my feeling that he might have preferred in retrospect to be playing here rather than warming the Wolves bench is possibly correct.

I'm finding it difficult to get Southampton to scan at the end of the original version, VS. "The Saints" works well enough though as it's only two syllables (like Goodbye) instead of three. Perhaps we could add "he's scored" instead of goodbye for Lallana's version..

Well the bone has no meat on it anymore and even if you're not tired at gnawing on it, Nineteen, I am. For that reason, I'm out.

Yes, the Bananarama version is the right speed, but the other version gives a good idea how it would sound sung by the masses. So the "Oh Lallana, Lallana, Lallana" part is tailor made. What do we sing after that? Goodbye, meaning goodbye, you're beaten, or do we sing something else?

If Lallana leaves us for pastures greener, we can sing "yes, we have no Lallanas"

"Matter of opinions isn't it? I really didn't think we were that bad tonight, we were unfortunate in some poor decisions and that knocked the stuffing out of us a bit. The ref was giving very little our way, and the lino next to nothing." According to Merrington, they ought to have had Laurent sent off, had the referee awarded him a yellow card for each of the wicked tackles he put in, mostly on Harding. The blind gits also failed to notice the clear punch on James, I think it was. They also penalised Schneiderlin for a dive when in the opinion of Merrington it was quite easy for him to have stayed on his feet and scored. Still, it's nice to hear rival fans complaining about the refereeing too. As somebody else said elsewhere, I hope that Pardew complains about him to the FL and they examine the tape, as this bloke was truly incompetent.

We've just got to get something from this song; the chorus is tailor made for sure.

Both conjecture, but if Lowe and the paupers managed to move us out from the Dell and into St. Mary's, there's no way that somebody with the cash clout that Liebherr has would not have succeeded to achieve the same. In fact there is no doubt at all in my mind that we would have had the stadium at Stoneham instead, as I am positive that both Liebherr and Cortese have far better business and diplomacy skills than Lowe and Cowan and wouldn't have c*cked it up. Who knows, we might have added that extra tier onto the stadium and be playing in Europe by now. Anyway, as I said in another thread, I'd rather be under Liebherr and Cortese in this division than under Lowe in the Fizzy Pop; not that he had managed to keep us there himself, of course.

It would make an interesting subject for a poll, wouldn't it Alpine? Subject: Would you prefer to be in this division under Liebherr, Cortese and Pardew, or in the Fizzy Pop under Lowe and Wilde? Under the current circumstances, I can't see many opting for the latter option. Of course, things didn't need to take the route they did; Lowe could have put aside his petty vendetta against Crouch and kept on Pearson. He might well have kept us up and solvent too. But much as I liked and admired Pearson, even if that were part of the option, I'd still take our current position over anything that included those incompetent idiots in the boardroom over the past few seasons. Now that they're all gone, I'm back in love with my club again.

Yes, it certainly does. Furthermore, there is no financial imperative that we have to sell any player if a higher league club comes knocking. If we want to keep a player, we can tell them to go and get lost unless they offer stupid money. Players here could still decide to go and then it would be better to have them go if they don't want to be here. But the players are now part of an exciting new era where they have the choice of hanging on for a year or two and being in the top flight anyway, or going to a top flight team and warming the bench, much like Surman. I bet he regrets not being here now under our new circumstances.

Being the cynic I am, my immediate thought was that their manager almost had to say how good we were to excuse the shortcomings of his team, the reverse situation of Ferguson saying that United were poor when a team beats them. Undoubtedly progress is being made though. I do believe that the team is almost there and in terms of the quality of the squad, we do have arguably the best in the division. However, although growing, the team's confidence is probably still a little brittle and it will take a string of wins to make them believe that they are almost invincible before they can harbour thoughts of promotion this year. Add me to the list who would be happy with a finish short of the play-offs this year. If we do get there, then we have every chance of getting through, but I'm not going to sulk if we don't get there.

As it turns out, you can put me in that camp too. It would be a bold wish not knowing what would replace him. But as things have turned out, had I known that we would end up with Liebherr, Cortese, Pardew and that we would be rid of Lowe, Wilde, Askham, Crouch, etc, but that the price would be relegation to the third division, then in hindsight I would definitely take it.

No irony at all then, Nineteen, you talking about integrity, what with your multiple user names on here and all. Just a simple question; does this transgression say more about MLT, or does this relentless dog with a bone campaign of yours say more about you?

Sounds as if Schneiderlin had a storming game running the midfield. Also Lallana appears to be growing in stature and confidence with every match and really ought to have had a hat trick. I think that we can forgive him though for the easy one he missed scoring, in view of the other two. Whereas I have been a stern critic of Wotton, he has done a good job as the holding midfielder protecting the centre backs, who in turn have been solid. Lambert again has been very industrious and I suspect that he ties up the defenders as the main threat, allowing others to score. What with Papa and the new boy Antonio both offering pace out wide for the squad and Mills making a decent option as a sub to add fresh legs if called on to close down a game, all of a sudden we are starting to look the real deal. So far, all of the Pardew signings have been spot on. Although the Torquay match was poor, because we scraped a win, the confidence that inspired must have helped towards the right attitude to this match. Three wins in a row is a real boost and now that we are in positive points, we have 5 and are starting to cause the teams above us to look nervously over their shoulders. If we can string another few wins together, we can gain the momentum to provide ourselves with the springboard towards the play off places if we are mid table by the turn of the year.

I'm just doing my best to make out a case for shifting the away fans to the opposite corner. If it turns out that there are insurmountable problems with doing that, then if we want to have both ends full with home fans and the away fans shoe-horned into a corner, then the Itchen corner is then the only option, isn't it?

Same planet as you, actually. You obviously ignored my comments that the Policing could actually be reduced by funelling the two rival groups of fans apart after a match. You're talking about coach problems and ignoring the face to face confrontations between fans, which is where the real troubles start.

Point 1 So what's to stop those people exiting the ground via the Kingsland car park into Britannia Road and then on to the Woolston Bridge, Ocean Village or wherever they go. If they're heading towards town, then they could go via Northam. Point 2 These will be the same tight roads that are negotiated daily by big haulage lorries delivering to the industrial units, yes? The fact that they might go past Britannia Road is neither here or there. That's where they leave from currently. Are you insinuating that people would throw missiles at the coaches if they drive past there, but feel no inclination to damage them while they are parked there? Please explain what grounds the Police would have for objecting to that, as it is a mystery to me. Point 3 Show me the evidence that the Police would not allow it. If it could be organised that the away fans would be chanelled away from the home fans in the way that i have suggested, they ought to welcome the change, instead of the ridiculous situation that currently exists whereby the two groups of fans exit together on to the Northam end car park.

I'm not missing the point at all. Of course I realise that the reason that we had to ship out the high earners was financial. As you have no evidence at all to support your assertion that Pearson would not have been interested in the challenge, your comment is pure conjecture. But certainly he had plenty of experience of working with youngsters, even though as I already pointed out, finances did not dictate that he would have been forced to use youngsters exclusively. That was down to Lowe's mad experiment.

I still find it hard to believe that Pearson would have cost more than the double Dutch and the other guy who came in with them. As for the assertion that Pearson was unprepared to work with the kids, again that is unsubstantiated. Um Pahars would have jumped on this, as he has done several times already in the past. Several of the players in Leicester's promotion team and indeed his current team are youngsters. There was not an edict that the team had to be entirely composed of kids; that was purely an integral part of the mad experiment and was the reason it floundered. I'm sure that Pearson would have had a blend of young and older players with experience.

Again, you showcase your inability to be consistent. Why did Leicester need a disciplinarian and a motivator and we didn't? Even in the division above, we didn't exactly head for the Officers' mess to look for an expensive manager with a pedigree, preferring instead to chance it with a couple of foreign mercenary corporals. At the start of last season, many had the foresight to envisage the situation whereby Pearson would pass us on the way up whilst we went in the other direction. So it has transpired. I know that you and SOG find that hard to swallow, but that's how the cookie crumbles. As Pearson has proved his pedigree in this division, there is scant reason why MM would sack him, is there? Time you got this chip off your shoulder. Lowe, Wilde, Crouch, McMenemy, Askham, etc, are all history.

How do you know that it had no bearing on the result of the penalty shoot-out? Where do you stand on whether the noise made by fans is like a twelth man? If it makes no difference, then we might as all treat the game with the hushed reverence that seems to pervade the Bovril and blanket stands on three corners of the ground. From the peaceful environs of block 5, I detected a noticeable increase in volume, particularly before their player struck their fourth shot, the one that Kelvin saved. I remember thinking that it must have been like a bear pit, unnerving for the poor lad.

And the other side of the coin is to consider that although many are annoying little scrots, at least they do happen to realise that the purpose of their being there is actually to give vocal support to the team, to make some noise. I really do believe that the noise that they made when Torquay players took their penalties might well have been intimidating enough to have broken their concentration. Imagine how it would have been had the Itchen main stand regulars been behind that goal doing their knitting and reading their books. We might well have lost that game because of the silence that would have accompanied the shoot-out. I wonder what it might need to stir them from their slumbers? Perhaps the only time that they grow excited is when they look down and realise that they ought to shout "House" or "Bingo" or whatever it is.

Why does SOG feel the need to defend Pardew? There aren't many on his back, as most accept the difficulties he has had to face since Lowe's inept running of the club got us relegated. He's just singing from the same sheet as Nineteen, because Pearson was hired by Crouch and dismissed by Lowe. That's the agenda.

As I had said before, the away fans could be funnelled by barriers towards their waiting coaches, the home fans departing via the Kingsland car park. Therefore there would be few if any Saints fans in the industrial estate, apart from those who pay to park there. Compare that with the policing necessary with segregating the two sets of fans exiting the stadium at the same time through the Northam end car park. If anything, Police numbers could possibly be reduced. At the entrance to the industrial estate, the coaches have the choice of either exiting left towards Britannia Road, or right towards the East Street centre. I really don't see the problem at all and nobody has come up yet with a really convincing argument backed with facts against it.