Fitzhugh Fella

I was impressed with Ralph's personality, openness and desire to build bridges. As for his capabilities to make good footballing decisions I have no idea. I am more concerned with Reed mainly from things I have heard re the Dodd and Williams dismissals. He flopped badly at Charlton and considering the importance of his position at SMS it is crucial he gets some very big decisions coming his way, spot on. I am crossing my fingers.

Whatever the rights and wrongs or the pluses and minuses of Shaw's transfer, the truth remains the very good side of last year is no more and a rebuilding we must go and quickly. We need at least 3 forwards for example to replace Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez and now a full-back. I am sure Lallana and Lovren are on their way too, so RK (himself a new boy on the block) is going to have to buy a lot of players in a short period of time and then gel them into a team capable of competing in the toughest league in the world. No easy task. Money in the bank is no substitute for proven quality players who have already cut it in the Prem. I am apprehensive to say the least and Reed is yet to convince me he is the right man in an increasingly important position.

Whatever the rights and wrongs or the pluses and minuses of this transfer the truth remains the very good side of last year is no more and a rebuilding we must go. We need at least 3 forwards for example to replace Lambert, Osvaldo and Rodriguez and now a full-back. I am sure Lallana and Lovren are on their way too, so RK (himself a new boy on the block) is going to have to buy a lot of players in a short period of time and then gel them into a team capable of competing in the toughest league in the world. No easy task. Money in the bank is no substitute for proven quality players who have already cut it in in the Prem. I am apprehensive to say the least and Reed is yet to convince me he is the right man in an increasingly important position.

So if we had held on to Rickie until after the WC we could well off eked out another half million from the Scousers?

flogging you a horse dead are or straws dead at clutching will leave you to work out my gist +

That's wrong - that applies to players whose contract runs out. I checked with the club and they said Lambert is officially a Liverpool player

Err because they have not qualified for the CL next season?

Fair and reasoned post - and one I agree with - which is a nice thing to say considering we often do not see eye to eye!

Time for Roy to blood all those who have not started yet v Costa Rica

Well I won't lose much sleep if it is all the same to you. The best access ever given to Hagiologists was under the reign of Rupert Lowe, I don't think you will find much evidence of me defending him. Sort of blows your theory out of the water. Independent my arse!

Bang on cue, I was waiting for your comment. Nothing like a bit of jealousy to bring out the venom. For the record, I have no idea about RK's abilities as a chairman of a football club, but one thing I would hazard, having personally spoken to him and heard him is that he was very fan and community orientated while also being interested in our history, something that has been conspicuously missing in recent years. No doubt Manji, in your sour little world, that means little. However to most Saints fans I reckon that means quite a bit, and even if he has left or is leaving I would say the six months he has been here have been of value.

"take it or leave it" offers usually imply the vendor is eager to sell, which in this case is patently untrue.

I think he said "different" not "better".

He did hand in a transfer request and the club did not ignore it so the Mail story yesterday was half correct. This I am 100% certain about.

So it's not a woman, that narrows it down a tad!

£1000, never had you down as a Guardian reader? I also agree with you which is a real worry. I have just had an exchange of e mails with the Echo and I would like to point out that those who cover football/Saints ie Gordon and Adam still do a fine job. There is a lot of politics going on (like life in general) and sometimes things are printed which they themselves are unhappy with. My criticism was for the Echo in general but like you said standards are slipping all over the place.

Nick the Echo have been very supportive of the book (I don't know why you have to keep thinking the book is behind everything). I don't think you have read my OP thoroughly otherwise you wouldn't have asked the question you did. My point was the timing of the message. They obviously picked the story up from the Mail, which in itself is pretty pathetic. The story is over 2 weeks old (if true), so why is our local newspaper printing stories about the local team that are neither original, topical or up-to-date? Unless it is to make mischief or grab attention.

Alpine, I only blame the messenger when the message is deemed to be A) unreliable, B) timed to deliberately cause trouble or unrest and C) is second hand Always said over the last 5 years with Cortese at the helm, it would end in tears

Fair point

The Echo are 100% reactive though, that is my point. They react to the Daily's stories and never source their own. They have no idea what the word "proactive" means They are always 24 hours behind what is discussed on here. They are not providing the service a local newspaper should. A good local newspaper should have its local football club in the palm of its hands. The Echo is a rag.

Agree 100 per cent

Indeed. good newspapers, honest journalists are vital to our democratic future and at present I feel our local newspaper is letting us down.

Ignore it unless they had some kosher news? Listen the story might be true but sure as eggs are eggs, the Echo are following rather than leading. This city and this club needs a local paper that reports things as they are, not crap they pick up out of Twitter or this Forum.

Yet to comment which hopefully means he is at least investigating rather than Echo like repeating **** garnered off the web!

Yes but then Graham later left Saints because he no longer stand being told what to write by Lowe. He has found his true niche at Solent Uni although last time we spoke he was still coming to terms with how students conduct themselves.