itchen

Well thanks for that. I was worried there might be something to all these rumours about MoPo leaving but you've put my mind at rest.

Guardian does, sort of, acknowledge Les Reed's statement in its "Fiver" email: 'And Southampton executive director Les Reed [yes, that Les Reed – Fiver Ed] has denied that the club are preparing to trouser vast sums of cash for Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana. "There is not going to be a fire-sale," trilled the former Charlton boss."'

The Martin Samuels article made a lot of assertions but never really explained why Saints must sell our best players. I think the thrust was probably sympathetic but it was so badly written it was difficult to judge whether its central point was valid. I don't think anybody believes that Man City sustain themselves purely on matchday and replica kit income so I'm not sure why we'd be hit if our owners decided not to cash in on Shaw and Lallana.

Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

Look. If I've gone to the trouble of blocking a poster, you'd oblige me by not quoting him. Thanks.

I think you meant "revolutionary" but never mind. Yes, you're right. If that's what he did (and I think he did) it's a good strategy but not unknown in other organisations. It had just never been done at Saints in the previous forty years or so. It took NC to do it; that's the point. I have no strong feelings on the man one way or the other but the fact remains that he did what Askham, Lowe, Wilde and Crouch either couldn't or wouldn't do. Let's hope the new regime doesn't go back to the old ways of under-investment and poor planning. I don't think they will.

Apparentl., I've rarely seen any from forum "wits". Except Bearsy , of course. He makes me smile.

Done. Good luck. Too many dodgy owners in football. Saints were so lucky.

I was just assuming Glasgow and Alpine would be making a joint application. They've been telling Cortese where he was going wrong for five years. This could be their moment.

Yep. Their contributions for their respective clubs on Saturday completely back your argument.

Now come on, be fair. Alpine has been disrespectful to most of our players, managers, chairmen and supporters over the years.

As Adrian has pointed out, you would have been amongst those baying for new signings. But also consider that Puncheon, by all accounts, wanted to return to South London. Whether that was just a romantic desire to walk the picturesque streets of Streatham and Upper Norwood or a realisation that he would not be first choice at Saints, I don't know. But he wanted to go and the Palace loan deal suited all parties. To make it permanent seems sensible. I'm not sure why some people have to have a scapegoat in our own team, let alone give them childish nicknames. Yes, Gaston has not yet achieved everything that we thought he would. But perhaps that's as much to do with our own expectations as anything he's done. I still think he has the ability and potential to become an important part of our team. Some people on here were slagging Lallana off last year but look how much he has improved. But if Gaston doesn't make it here then I have no doubt there will be other clubs willing to take him on and pay us a good fee to do so. No football club gets all of its signings right. Why should Saints be any different? But I understand some people need someone to blame, in life probably as well as football. It's one the reasons why my status has gone from "full member" to "registered user".

Then somebody is not being truthful. Only yesterday JRod was on TV talking about the spirit in the squad and that nobody wanted to leave. Could be JRod was lying, could be the Sun. Which has form?

No, it's live.

Fixed it for you ;-)

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/nov/12/england-grassroots-southampton-youth-academy

I think it is because the teams you list are not small fry and therefore able to put out strong teams from their second string that they have succeeded both in the cup and the league. While I like to think most of our reserves can step up when required on an individual basis, I don't think playing them all together is a match for the second strings of the truly big clubs. We clearly are striving to be a bigger club than we are. How far that can be achieved is a matter of debate but clearly Cortese is targeting as high a league finish as possible this year and probably an even higher place next year. Putting out our first team in a competition we are frankly unlikely to win - given the continued presence of most of the big teams you listed - is a distraction. The other argument is that the manager can have a look at players who are currently not first choice in a competitive match and give them match practice so that they are ready to step up when needed. The young players who are now regular members of the first team got there partly by showing their potential in cup competitions before they were risked in the league. Yes, it would have been nice to have progressed a bit further, maybe even all the way given a following wind. But, if we're realistic, we do not have the strength in depth yet to make a serious challenge in more than one competition. But we are building to be able to do that in future.

Hop Inn has a sign saying over 21s only.

As I tweeted yesterday, it was boys against (old) men.

I suppose you speak your mind so often because it doesn't take very long.

I knew all that except the bit about trains. Does that mean I would be breaking the law if I had a beer on the train to Waterloo and then went to watch Saints at Spurs, but would be OK to down five pints in the Hole in the Wall? As long as I wasn't completely drunk, where's the logic in that?

Trolling at its most blatant.

I am having to miss this game so we will win by a massive margin.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/gallery/2013/sep/17/rickie-lambert-the-gallery

In my lifetime, attitudes to homosexuality have changed behind all recognition. When I was a small child, homosexual acts were still illegal. Even after legalisation all sorts of restrictions applied that didn't apply to heterosexuals. The age of consent was 21 until about 1998. When I was at school kid didn't come out for fear of bullying. Now society has moved on. We have gay cabinet ministers, athletes and tennis players. People talk openly about their same sex partners. My wife is a teacher and tells me that kids in her school are openly gay and don't suffer from the majority. A glaring exception to this is professional football. It cannot be that there are no gay players but no one is willing to risk the repercussions of coming out. This is a shame. I don't know whether the campaign under discussion would improve things but please let's not pretend there isn't a problem.