Wes Tender

I agree that a team functions better when players are accustomed to playing together and get to understand each other's game. But which players will be playing together most of the time? Injuries and suspensions are setbacks to that and there have to be understudies able to step into the breach who also need to have an understanding with their team mates. And when Murty for example returns, presumably he will have to adapt to the new players around him both in defence and up ahead of him since his injury. Lambert will have begun to develope an understanding with Paterson because Saga has been away, but Saga must be the senior first choice, but then another striker might be brought in too. The midfield is currently more settled as you say, but Waigo is presumably going to right midfield or striker which makes it difficult to accommodate Lallana or Lambert or Saga. If Holmes is fit, do we stick with Mills, or play Holmes? As you say, we have not played Jaidi together with Trotton yet, so all the understanding between KD, Perry, Thomas and Harding goes out of the window if the two CBs are replaced. Other teams also have these problems too. To a certain extent, as I argued, the players that we have brought in ought to have a degree of professional aptitude that should negate much of that need to gel. I fully expect that when we have introduced players like Jaidi and Waigo to the team, they will complete the jigsaw within a game or two, especially as that bonding, gelling process will already have begun on the training ground. When we have two or three captains from other teams, the best defenders in the division, the top scorers for this level, players used to games in the top flight of British or Italian football, I do not expect them to take ages to figure out what a team mate is likely to do in a certain situation.

4-6 weeks would be fantastic if it happens. Am I the only one who believes that with what he brought to us in strength of defence at RB, ability to get forward and put a ball on a striker's head from the byeline, great throw ins, good corner kicks and leadership qualities, we would have had an extra win or two already under our belts?

But I have it under good authority from the owners that afterwards it is disinfected properly every time the Skates use it.

This is where I feel some sympathy to the views raised by DD, Alpine and SnailOB (welcome to the forum, by the way). We have bought the division's leading scorer and suddenly his ability to score goals appears to have vanished. It's almost as if Lallana is our best striker at the moment on goals scored. If Saga was good enough to represent his country and play in the Champions' league, he has the pedigree to score in the English third division, surely? So who would be the striker to bring in? A top scorer in this division? We already tried that. A striker from a much higher level? We already have one. Perhaps it is time to try an on form striker from the 4th division. Surely a part of the problem is that the strikers are not getting the service from the midfield. Most have moaned at one time or another that we hardly ever play with any width, as we do not have the wide men with pace. Maybe Waigo will be the answer. From set pieces like corners, Lallana's deliveries are often awful, so perhaps somebody else should be given a go. Murty's deliveries from corners and throws were exceptional, but surely somebody else has better ability than Lallana, perhaps James until he returns, (if ever) St. Marco and others speak of the importance of allowing the team to gel together. This is a connundrum for me, as although Saints players notoriously take a massive amount of time to gel together, other makeshift teams seem to meld together much more quickly. Other teams have the losing mentality, but manage to turn it around quite quickly with the injection of new players or a new manager. I'm not having a go at Pardew, as I think that he has done a great job so far of bringing in some pretty decent players to replace those who are not good enough, or have left. Also, thank God, he is the first manager for some time to both bring in players for specific positions and play them there and also address the defensive weaknesses we have endured since the Premiership days with Killer and Claus at the heart of things. So when we talk of the team gelling, what do we mean exactly? These players are supposed to be professionals and ought to be able to do the job that their positions have taught them to do through experience. Defenders should be able to defend effectively by good positioning, hard accurate tackling, ability to hold a line to catch forwards offside and ability to clear their lines. Midfielders ought to be able to track back to help the defence, pass forward to the strikers, etc. Strikers ought to be able to hold up the ball waiting for reinforcements and the ability to shoot on sight or provide the scoring chance for their fellow striker. All this is fundamental stuff and we have a decent blend of players who ought to be able to fashion themselves into a good team in this division. So why this emphasis on the team gelling? All that is left if they have the basic abilities, is for them to be able to understand the players around them in the team, to predict what they are likely to do in any given situation, to develop a camaraderie and spirit amongst themselves. Surely that is something that is already well underway on the training ground and only the new players need to gain that understanding. But why make such a big thing about it? If it had any real validity as a basis for debate, how about the situation about players in the reserves? They get to know how their reserve team mates like to play and all of a sudden they are deemed good enough to be promoted to the first team where they might not be used to playing with half of the players. How long do they then need to gel with their team mates before they are effective?

So Lambert's performance as the top scorer in this division was incredibly good luck, presumably, if he is not a natural goalscorer? Also Saganowski has played for Poland as a striker as well as for a team in the Champions league. Agreed that Paterson is not up to the job at the moment and we could do with cover for him.

I'd put it much higher than that. As well as KD, Hammond and Lambert, I'd say that Harding has consistently performed well, often as man of the match. Jaidi was in the Birmingham squad in the Premiership and Waigo was playing for Fiorentina, so both are arguably much better players than most at this level. Lallana was approached by Premiership teams, so obviously also deemed to be capable of playing at that level too. Murty is another, captain of Reading while they were in the Premiership. Loanees from a club like Chelsea ought also to be at a higher standing than 3rd division players, even if they have not broken into the first team yet. You also seem to have forgotten Saganowski too. Granted that some of these players like Murty have had problems with injuries, but overall, I'd say that most of our players would walk into most of the 3rd division teams and that our squad is the envy of most. When Pardew can get them all to play to the maximum extent of their capabilities as a team, we will be very hard to beat. The bold bit is the crucial part and really what any debate about Pardew is all about. Beyond a reasonable period allowing for the newer players to bed in and gel with their team mates, the excuses will begin to wear a little thin given the quality that we have in this squad at this level.

Taken from the article in The News:- "Storrie also said he had seen nothing of a 48-page dossier that was said to have been drawn up by Al Fahim in the run-up to the takeover. He said it could have been a publicity stunt." I reckon that somehow he got a copy of Michael Wilde's manifesto telling us how we'd got our club back and then just altered Southampton to Portsmouth.

I've been working over on the Channel Islands two or three times a year for several years. Between St Peter Port and St Sampsons on Guernsey, there is a little terraced house with the name of Fratton End and a Pompey crest. The owner runs a removal company called Mac's removals, I think, as there is a small lorry nearby also featuring the Skate livery on it. I sincerely hope that his allegiance to the blue few loses him a lot of business on the island where the three Le Tissier brothers are still lauded.

You took entirely the wrong course of action. The correct thing to do is laugh.

Well, increasingly it will be an embarassment for the blue few to watch their team being humbled by others in the Premiership as they go into freefall towards the relegation trapdoor.

It was noticeable how many plastics crawled out of the woodwork when they first gained promotion and Harry spent loads of dosh buying star players. I suppose that it reached its height when they won the FA Cup, had a decent Premiership position and several players in the England National team. It was galling seeing so many Skate shirts about, many encroaching further annd further on to our patch. Now though, it is almost just as noticeable that they are disappearing as quickly as they arrived and the fall in plastics will gain momentum as they stay rooted to the foot of the Premiership, failing to gain the victories to lift them of the floor and having sold all of the players who might have brought credence to the club. If we go on a decent run, we'll start to take even more away from them, as it becomes clear that we are on the way up and they are conversely on the way back down to where they belong.

Well, happily add me in with St Marco. There are good reasons to be have an optimistic outlook this season compared with last season. And instead of "slowly", I'd say that we were steadily heading in the right direction Last season:- Crap chairman largely despised by most of the fan base, a failure during his first period in charge and returning with the support of another failed chairman. Responsible for two relegations and eventually administration. Crap managers (two). Neither well known for their management prowess and both with nil experience in this Country, even at Fizzy Pop level. Directed by incompetent chairman to employ mainly the youth team playing a formation alien to them, expectations that the end result would be failure were entirely predictable. Crap players; or at least youngsters thrown in at the deep end before they were ready. Used to winning at youth level, it did not take a genius to predict that they would find it difficult psychologically to come to terms with failing more often then not. Senior experienced players would have been able to help them, but they were all out on loan elsewhere. This season we have a wealthy owner and decent investment coming in for the first time in years and years. We have a manager with experience in this division and the two above. He is arguably a much better manager than we could reasonably expect to have at this level. We have a very decent squad being formed, as you rightly say. So I'm with St. Marco. It's all about perspective. Last season after those first few home games, it was already becoming apparent that the mad experiment was going to fail dismally and relegation was a realistic prospect with the infrastructure we had in place then. This season, although the results have not been spectacular in terms of wins, we have been hard to beat with the defence looking solid for the first time in many years. Most sensible fans acknowledge that it has taken time to identify and get in those new players that are completing the jigsaw, but that everything is almost ready and that real progress will ensue. The outlook looks considerably brighter for the club and its future prospects than it did one year ago.

Fahim is a brilliant self-publicist, it must be granted. He probably wrote the guff and had his press agents send it off for publication. The Yanks know little about football and even less about the history and geographical demographics of it, so he is on safe ground in thinking that they will swallow it hook line and sinker and not dismiss it as the self-serving rubbish it really is. In reality, Fahim did not leave the group that put in place the Manchester City takeover, but was thrown of it because instead of being "quietly spoken", he had a boastful mouth on him bigger than a Texan's. The irony will also escape most of the article's readers that despite a catchment area of 8 million, the Blue few get lower attendances in the Premiership than we do in the third division. They also will not have an inkling that plans for the new 40,000 seater stadium will probably not get past the Local Government planning permission and will almost be impossible to justify financially should relegation take place. No mention was made that those players left the club at a time when Fahim was actively attempting to buy the club, whereas one would have thought that somebody of his immense wealth would have rebuffed attempts to prise away the club's best assets. Perhaps Fahim is already putting the publicity in place to sell on the club to some Yank billionaire, if he can find one stupid enough to pour his money down the drain.

We are like an oil tanker that takes several miles to effect complete turn around. We are currently at the 270 degree stage and will shortly have made the about turn and can then steam full ahead. We are several players towards a complete new team and had Murty not been injured, I still believe that he would have been the difference between us drawing the last two matches and winning them. He would have put in far better corners than Lallana and better throw-ins than most. Also, our right flank is where a lot ot the oppositions attacks have been focussed, perhaps because they sense that as being our weaker side. It wouldn't be with Murty there. Otherwise, the team is functioning well, with the new players blending well with existing ones and growing in stature and confidence with every match. Jaidi and Waigo will certainly add something good in terms of solidity in defence and pace and width in attack respectively. Although earlier our results against some other teams was decried as poor, it turns out that these were form teams so far. I really so feel that we are within an ace of completing the jigsaw and will begin to give some teams in this division an absolute tonking. When that happens, our confidence boost will be massive and we will go on a run of wins and be hard to stop. Charlton's confidence will have received a bit of a dent from our dominance over large parts of the game when they were on home soil. If they are honest with themselves, they will acept that we were the better team and ought to have won.

Yes Birmingham has a large catchment area as Britain's second city. But then again, they also have Aston Villa, Wolves, WBA, Walsall vying for support too. And then there are all those other Midland clubs at similar distances to those that are travelled typically by our fans, Leicester, Coventry, Derby, Notts, etc. Add in that Birmingham were historically the newer addition to the top flight compared to some of those others and you have very good reasons why their support might not equate to their catchment area. Wigan is also a Rugby town and geographically has lots of competition from other major football clubs, where it is unglamorous. Pompey has little excuse, because apart from us in the third division, there is little in the way of competition as a Premiership club until London 50 miles away.

P*ssing myself laughing! But I also believe that our resident Skate is mistaken to believe that if the fake sheik withdraws or is forced out through administration, it will be easy for them to find a new owner like they have before. Anybody looking seriously at them as a decent investment opportunity, would see that there had been a succession of wealthy owners (well, apart for Fahim, that is) who had sensed the same opportunities. None of them had been able to reap any reward via development of the new stadium and most had lost heavy sums of money trying. How many would really be prepared not to take notice, or to think that they had better abilities to do what the others had failed to do? Without the Premiership income, it will be far less attractive too.

Never able to criticise Chris Perry's lack of commitment. As you say, if we can get it throughout the team we will be very hard to beat.

Isn't it rather strange that almost simultaneously to the takeover by the fake sheik, people are already considering who the Skates' next owner will be?

You make a decent enough point, Vectis. Nobody expects Lowe to have any moral scruples, nor any of his cronies from the former old board before the reverse takeover. They proved themselves to be morally and ethically bankrupt by the way that they behaved then and since. Matt Le Tissier on the other hand had thus far a totally untarnished reputation and was held in high regard by most for his loyalty and his self-effacing modesty, as well as his brilliance as a footballer. I suppose that on that basis much more surprise and disappointment would attach to MLT's transgression, whereas if Lowe had pulled a similar stunt, nobody on here would be that surprised, apart from one or two who believe that the sun shines from his posterior sphincter. Lowe did not have far to fall in most peoples' eyes as for them, as he was never on a pedestal , but more like at gutter level.

Indeed it is and I certainly heard some rumours that there were certain individuals who profitted from knowledge that Southampton Football Club was to be taken over by Secure Retirement. Seemingly it isn't just the players who are capable of this immoral behaviour at our club. And almost certainly it isn't only just our club either.

It doesn't matter how often you care to repeat it, it will not make it right. The youth policy was not the only option. In fact most would say that it was the policy of playing too many youngsters under inept Dutch lower level management that caused our demise. It was perfectly possible to have played a team of youth and experience combined without breaking the bank. Ironic though that you applaud Lowe's tight fiscal policy and say that he was the best of the bunch to have taken the reins, but then you also say that in connection with his appointment of the double Dutch non-entities, you are unable to know what his reasoning was behind those appointments. Frankly, the entire total football exercise was total lunacy and many had the foresight to see that it would end in ignominious disaster. It might be a matter of opinion reviewing most of his tenure here as to what he did right or wrong, but this final chapter was idiotic, making it very hard to argue that he was the best of a bad bunch. I'm sure that others would have taken a more reasonable approach and employed tried and tested measures of a decent blend of players and a manager with experience at this level instead of the massive gamble that Lowe undertook. As for the attendance levels and your assertion that unless they rise, investment from Liebherr will not follow, how do you know? Attendances are at a very reasonable level for this division and undoubtedly will rise with our further progress towards the Premiership. I get the impression from everything that ML has said that this is a 5 or 6 year plan, so it is hard to conceive that it has much to do with having a certain attendance level in the third division where the opposition is not exactly the most exciting spectacle.

Let's get some perspective on this. After everything the club has been through recently? Was the press we received negative through all the turbulence of the recent administration and takeover? I would have thought that most readers of the press coverage of our demise would feel that it was a case of poor management of the club by the board and that the instability of constant changes of the board and the manager caused our downfall. I'm sure most will have just shrugged their shoulders and thought that the end result was only to be expected. But then the press reaction to our takeover by a billionaire and the developments since would only show us in a positive light, most fans of other clubs envying our good luck. Bad publicity was what we had at the time of the reverse takeover and coverage on National TV by Panorama in their Share Game documentary. This was a mere blip in comparison. As to MLT, although it is disappointing to know that he was prepared to act in an immoral way in this matter, again, most will be quite capable of accepting that everybody has some failing or other in their make-up. But most will feel perfectly capable of divorcing the tremendous ability of a player during his career and the pleasure it brought to thousands, from the activities of that player in his private or business life. It does not diminish the memories I have of watching his brand of footballing genius for this club one iota.

No, not feasible. All have giant genitalia, I am led to believe.

On their forum somebody thought that we would pack our defence and hit them on the break. If Parky thought that, I think he is in for a bad surprise. I think that we will play open attacking football with a solid defence giving us the encouragement to foray forward. We have to give them the respect that they deserve as leaders of the division, but if they don't respect us in return, they could pay for it by surrendering their unbeaten record.