sadoldgit

There is a big difference at someone throwing a stone at a car and a street riot. Rioting is rioting and is no less so if it involves football. I have had my car vandalised and it is very annoying, but I don't put that in the same league as a major brawl kicking off in the streets.

£30,000 of criminal damage. Throwing missiles that could have caused serious injury. If this had been Pompey supporters those of you who say this is wrong would expect harsher sentencing. The only way to stamp out mindess violence is to dish out tough sentences. A riot in the streets isn't any less so because it is carried out by football supporters.

Pearson and Burley have at least 2 things in common. Both managed Saints. Both failed in the play offs. Is Pearson "turd"?

In the last few years only 3 managers have given us anything to get excited about, Strachan, Burley and Pardew. 2 of these get grief.

The problem with England is lack of quality in depth. We end up taking crocked players and praying they can stay fit. King was never really going to last was he? Rooney ended the season crocked and looks nothing like his old self. Terry seems to have been crushed by the bad press and pressure. YOu need you best players firing on all cylinders. We have few class acts and if they don't come up wit the goods, at this level. we are stuffed. We should have walked this group and we currently look the worst team of the 4.

To be a world class player you need to perform at the very highest level. You can't blame Heskey for Rooney's performance last night, he was just awful. His control was a bad as mine and he coulnd't pass. mind you the rest were pretty awful too!

Why do we have to keep on slagging off ex employees? Most of them did the best they could for the club (aprt from Redknapp who I don't believe gave us anything like 100%). Most of the managers we have had have failed to achieve anything of note. Burley did at least put a team together that made the play offs. Pardew won a cup but still we had people speculating about when to get rid of him. We have had very few managers who have acheived anything of note so why pick on Burley? We are never going to get managers of the standard of Ferguson or Wenger so at least give the poor b*ggers who have to please you lot some credit for doing what they can for the club.

They might also get used to:- getting promoted, getting into Europe the next season, scoring lots of goals, winning every other game.....

I doubt it Robbie, he was still getting stick when we tonked Wolves away,yet Pearson took us to withing 20 mins of relegation and he is a hero? Some manager's faces fit, Burley's obviously didn't so many. Yes he did play some players out of position, so has every manager at some point, including Strachan. Yes he had a blind spot for some players, like Wright, but Strachan had that with Telfer. He still managed to give us our most competitive season for some time and deserves some credit. He also brought in 2 players of the season (Davis and Davies) but some people only want to dig up negative stuff.

Burley did what he set out to do, he made the play offs. His side scored goals and won games at home and away. To suggest that he was some kind of monemental failure is quite ridiculous but some on here who don't seem to understand the nature of football and not being able to buy success They will always see him in a poor light. Until Pardew came along he had the best win ration of any manager at SFC. Play offs in his first full season, 3 best players sold from under him the next season but still nearer the top than the bottom when he left. Best Saints manager ever? No. Worst ever? No. Really, what is the problem? As for being an alchy, how many of those can run the London Marathon?

Rooney doesn't look look fit or worth his place in the side. The rest look like frightened rabbits. Heskey should not be there. Don't mess around with light weights like Lennon or Wright Phillips. Play Joe Cole. Change the system.

Exactly. The most important position of the season is the final one. We were a decent team that year if a little inconsistant. To call a manager "turd" when he makes the play offs in his first full season just shows how little DD knows about football. We were very unfortunate not to make the play off final. If the manager had been "turd" we would not have got anywhere near that postion. "Turd" managers also do not manage to win every other game. Still, if you live in a world where you think you can buy success, you probably aren't going to have a balanced view of what happens in the real world are you? I have been supporting the Saints since 1966. We have one the FA Cup once and have noever finsished the top of any league in all of those years, yet one manager gets called "turd" because, in his one and only full season he took us to the play offs. Hmmmmm

It may have been a "freak" result but we did make the play offs so I really don't know what your problem is. Oh hang on, yes I do, you think we can buy promotion.

Not even when we went to Wolves and scored 6 away from home? We were as good as any team in the top 6.

Do you think he will?

Fully agree. Claus was okay but ceratinly not a legend and had an awful season the season we went down.

Everything has to be right, including the attitude. It doesn't really matter what the bookies think once the whistle blows and it won't be easy for us as it hasn't been easy for Leeds.

Signing the European Player of the Year.

To be honest Alps, it takes very liitle to get you exasperated and I could have put money on you posting this in early June. How do you know that transfers have not been identified? Why sign people now and pay wages they are not going to earn for some weeks? You show consistently that you know nothing about running a football club. Given you total support for Mr Cortese are you saying now that he doesn't know what he is doing Do you really believe that we wil start the season without the players that Pardew feels he needs?

The best squad we had was after the 1966 victory. Our 1970 squad was better but as above their were odd things that happened. Moore was arrested for suposedly stealing a bracelet and Godron Banks went down with Monezuma's Revenge before the Germany game (whn ramsey also made his biggest gaff by taking off Charlton). The fact is though, we don't win the tournament because we are not good enough.

I think that Lowe was a pragmatist and did what he could do with what he had. Don't forget that some of our best players were "cheap". He even told Strachan that he couldn't have the keeper he wanted and brought in Niemi instead, not a bad move. He brought in Redkapp, probably against his better judgement and gave him £6m to spend to keep us up - a fortune in Saints terms. Cortese is working in a complelty different situation and can do things that Lowe would not have been able to do...but I tell you what...I bet he still keeps a very tight hold on expenditure. Look at the players were are being linked with this summer...3rd Divison players...

The direction is undoubtably better. No complaints there. My main worry is that Cortese, like Lowe, is not a football man. I don't think he has 100% faith in Pardew but hope I am wrong. I would be happier if I felt that he supported his manager and left him to do his job. The few commest he uttered last season make me think that he is another CEO of a football club who can only run thinsg by a business model. Every seaosn clubs spend money and don't get a return. We have proved that you can spend £3m and not buy promotion. There is so much more to what goes on on a football pitch than can be dictated by cash and I hope that is a lesson well learned by Cortese last season.

Would we have stayed in the CCC (or out of admin) if he hadn't had come back? Who knows? But we were totally screwed financially the season before last and in big trouble, Lowe or no Lowe.

I totally agree that it is not a popularity competion. What I find hard to fathom is that when Lowe made "unpopular" decisions it was witch hunt time, but when someone else does it, it is okay? As I said before, if Cortese delivers the goods, fair enough. But even when Lowe was delivering the goods (ie continued life in the Prem) he was constanstly slagged off. Double standards.

Perhaps we were relegated with that squad because that is all we could afford? Perhaps we would have gone into administration, even liquidation, way before if measues hadn't been taken to cut costs and to keep the club afloat a bit longer? From what i heard at the time Lowe was brought in to try and sort out the mess left by Wilde and Crouch. I don't know if he considers himslef a financial genious or not, but he certainly did a better job than the other clowns, no matter how fine their motives. Even with the relegation clauses this club was hamstrung by relegation from the Premiership in the same way that the Norwichs and Leeds were - clubs that Lowe had nothing to do with). For a number of years he did manahe to keep the wolf from the door and we even had some relative success, but ultimately the lack of real financial cout did for us, as it does for three clubs every season. We all agree that Lowe had many faults, but as many CEOs find, you can only keep the plates spinning for so long before they come crashing down if you don't have the money to sustain your ambitions.