SaintDonkey

I'm dreading Saturday, not the match itself. I'm resigned to us losing - first match of the season? Live on Sky? Of course we going to lose. That I can live with. What's going to drive me to the pit of despair is all the doom mongers on here afterwards.

Sounds very good target - and importantly one we might be able to realistically get.

Well according to his profile on the OS - "His campaign was cut short ... by a hip injury which required an operation to keep him sidelined prior to the summer" So he had to have an operation just before the summer break and is probably still recovering. Thought he looked pretty decent myself. Never going to set the world alight but a decent squad player at this level. Sahme he's another left footer though. I think that's Pulis's secret to getting games - he's the only right footer in the squad!

I wonder if we can do the 92 in 11 Saints players? Peter Shilton in goal of course Leicester City Stoke City Nottingham Forest Derby County Plymouth Argyle Wimbledon Bolton Wanderers Coventry City West Ham United Leyton Orient Give us another 4 clubs (although I don't think he started a match for Wimbledon or Coventry)

And Ted MacDougall - a suggestion from a bloke at work - adds Bournemouth Liverpool Manchester United Norwich City West Ham United (plus a few duplicates of course) 4 players - 32 clubs... Any more journeymen out there?

According to wikipedia he got round (deep breath) Aston Villa Blackpool Crystal Palace Darlington Derby County Lincoln City Manchester City Newcastle United Northampton Town Notts County QPR Sheffield United Southend United Wolves So that's 14 of the 92 accounted for (and that's just his current League sides) plus of course Saints. Fitz Hall adds just Barnet, Oldham Athletic and Wigan to that list. Any more suggestions of well travelled ex-saints? My own name off the top of my head Frank Worthington adds Bolton Wanderers Birmingham City Brighton and Hove Albion Hudderfield Town Leeds Unted Leicester City Preston North End Stockport County Sunderland Tranmere Rovers So in 3 players we have 27 of the 92. What next?

I hope O-C comes good - thought he looked a bit lightweight against Barnet but the talent is clearly there. Where was he playing btw? Anyone else look ready for the first team?

+1 We need to strengthen but it's nowhere near the crisis situation some seem to want to paint it

I think the readership on here is possibly representative, but the majority of posts are not. Yes we have 16 pages of posts on Nick Illingsworth but the majority of posts on there are from the same half dozen posters. So the views expressed on here are not representative, but it is possible that the people reading those posts does give a fair cross-section of fans. The OP is actually quite telling in itself with the ascertation that the "general concenus of the forum was support for Lowe". I'm not sure that's true - more the case that if one did not cast Lowe as the devil incarnate then one was labelled a 'Lowe-luvvie'. Most fans did not 'support' Lowe - they just didn't care about him one way or the other. The majority of fans just care about what's happening on the football pitch - the hyper active posters on here seem to just care about the board room.

Yep all the greats wore stripes... We spent the best part of a decade out of stripes. In terms of the league that was our most successful decade in our history. Grow up and get over it. p.s. yeah I know calling Gerry Forrest a great is pushing it but I could only be aresed to go to one site for pictures

If he wins his bonus through the success of the club then, speaking as a supporter, fantastic. Yes I might get screwed over a bit by paying a little over the odds for tickets and such like along the way, but that's part and parcel of supporting a successful team. I may not like it, but it's a fact of life that you get what you pay for. Cortese can be a petty vindictive tyrant for all I care so long as Southampton are successful. If a few supporters get their noses put out of joint along the way then so be it. Of course this is all contingent upon Saints being successful. If the time comes when Southampton are failing to perform on the pitch because of Cortese's actions - selling players, knee jerk manager dismissals, not loosening the purse strings or some other issue then he will deserve the abuse that some are already according him. Until then just shut up and swallow.

Here here! We need players with Wotton's attitude.

I was impressed with the range of beers at Barnet last night - pretty standard stuff on tap but a choice of Spitfire, London Pride, Old Speckled Hen and something else in bottles. Admittedly it was effectively the directors bar but it was a very pleasant change to your standard football fare.

No he didn't - well not exactly. He said "We're still hoping to bring one or two players in before we start. We might not secure them but we'll be pretty close - I'm pretty confident we can start the season with the squad we've got but we do want a couple more additions - maybe three" So the quote was entirely in the context of strengthening the squad.

What lack of action is this Alps? The most glaring hole in the side was at right back. Now AP has signed 2 right backs - plus brought in another left back so Harding can cover it as well if need be. That would be action. Next we've got a need for central midfield cover so we don't have to see Wotton on the pitch. Carter appears out of nowhere last night and looked decent. That would be action. We need a bit more competition up front - although we do have 2 of the leagues top scoring strikers - and we know there's been a bid for Tyson turned down. That would be action. The only position we've not seen any transfer action on is the right side of midfield. That doesn't mean there hasn't been any obviously, and maybe AP does think that youth players can cover it - from what I saw last night they can't. Personally I think we're in trouble if we don't get some right wing cover sorted - but we are just talking about cover as Puncheon is class in that position. Alps - you actually talk a lot of sense some of the time but when you spout blatent untruths it undermines that.

I'm not bricking it over losing players. I read AP's words as just being that he doesn't think the squad is strong enough and would like to bring in players - but does believe that the first 11 is strong enough to start the season. I don't think any one would argue with the idea that we have a strong starting 11 but need two or three players to strengthen the squad.

Just back from the game - bit of a mishmash really. Carter looked a touch off the pace but had a couple of decent runs and worth getting in on loan with a view to buying in January I reckon. Could provide that extra bit in central midfield. Oxlade-Chamberlain was disappointing - didn't use his pace well and shrugged off the bll too easily. Holder-Spooner was the better of the double-barrelled IMO a bit of the Antonio to him. Defense looked solid but we always seem to have a problem with clearing our lines. Barnard looked interested up front but needed someone with him - I guess that was supposed to be O-C. Reeves impressed with his composure when he came on but there's a long queue of left backs ahead of him. Anyone else notice Holmes and the Barnet #2 getting a bit tasty? The ref certainly didn't

I was going to give it a miss - but after realising I can get a bus direct from my front door to Underhill it would be criminal not to go!

It'll certainly reduce the nuumber of young players avaiable for loans - players under 21 don't count towards the 25 man squad so I imagine the Premiership sides will hang on to them for injury cover. However there will be a glut of 22 year old Premiership fringe players who'll be available for loans - on the assumption that they'll probably offload older players but want to hang on to the youngsters. Looking at the Man City squad and discounting players how got 20 or more starts last season that's including players like Nedum Onuha, Javier Garrido, Adam Johnson and Micahel Johnson. None household names but all very decent players.

The first priority has to be the men's team obviously - but the amount we're talking about to properly fund a women's team probably wouldn't cover the wages of a third choice right back. If it came done to a choice between Anthony Pulis and funding the women's team I'd go for the latter!

They used to be a very good side - I think they've won the women's FA Cup 8 times or something (including in 1976 ). They've been drifting down the pyramid in recent times and at the risk of garnering the vitriol of the 'women should out of football' mob I think it would be good if Markus re-estblished the links between the men and women's teams and punted some dosh the way of the women to arrset and hopefully reverse their slide.

I'm fairly confident that it won't happen, but it's not beyond the bounds of probablity (certainly more likely than the Benjani rumour) and I'd imagine that it could work out for both parties. Vassell was a decent player a few years back, never prolific but a decent foil to an out and out goal scorer like Rickie. It didn't really work for him at Manchester City after the first season. The situation at Ankaragücü was a bit strained and although it seems he won over some of the fans with his work rate his goal return it seems he was a bit of an Omerod. Now he was something to prove and so do we, it could be a good fit and I wouldn't be disappointed to see him at Saint Marys. Only if we miss out on Raul of course.

Can't see why we couldn't wear our sash kit to be honest Not really much of a clash there

It's far too early for this thread, my heart is disappointed that we haven't signed more players yet but my head says that Pardew plugged the one obvious gapping hole at right back and then took the players out for the pre-season tour to assess/confirm where else he wanted to get players in.

edit - beaten to it by a mile