Red And White Barmy Army

I presume that it will also be unveiled as The Markus Liebherr Training Ground tomorrow. Don't really know what other tribute the club would have planned. Are there any new signs under cover or anything?

99% would also have rather stuck with Adkins. Didn't make it the right one as these questions were present in June - just most people probably weren't looking at it as logically given the high we were on from having climbed a rather steep hill quite quickly, even though we were running out of energy to make it any further.

Controversy alert... Doubtful we would have for the controversy/outcry itself, but questions would have remained... 1) Was Pochettino capable of moving us forward any further with his playing style (lack of adaptability). 2) Would he have stood in the way of sensible business decisions being made whereby players were replaced by ones of similar (better?) ability at a lesser cost, thus risking our sustainability and ability to strengthen the depth of the squad as such? 3) Was MP showing enough commitment to us? Koeman is certainly a breath of fresh air for his honesty and English alone! Pochettino always seemed very reserved in public and potentially didn't fit in with the open culture Liebherr and Kreuger want to instil. Couldn't believe the immediate contrast when Ronald went off to the nuns for a week to improve his already very good English right at the start of his reign. 4) Although Pochettino did well, would it have still been for the good of the club to keep him if we had someone in mind that the board thought could do an even better job (like the Adkins-Pochettino change over)? On the other hand, would it have been too much of a risk to give up our status as a 'safe' mid-table club in search of greater prosperity? Helmet on. Discuss...

Nobody is mentioning Clement. Ancelotti's number two, impressive CV. Is the feeling that he needs to prove himself at a smaller club first? Don't know much about his philosophy etc, but doubt it's far attached from Carlo's. One thing is for certain - we will appoint a manager who can maximise the academy resources we have. The academy play 4-3-3 (or variations of) in every age group which is the philosophy directed by Les Reed (and Cortese) and the reason for changing Adkins in the first place. This rules out quite a few names like Lennon, Sherwood, Moyes. It rules in the likes of Yakin (who has an extremely impressive playing style for anyone that's watched them), Laudrup (although his dismissal at Swansea will virtually guarantee being below Yakin in the pecking order), Koeman, de Boer (although probably thinks he can move to bigger teams than us) & Benitez (doubt he would leave Napoli at this time unless it was for a top top club). I think the majority of names on the list would attract interest from teams in the bottom 10 but would show a lack of ambition for an 8th placed EPL team looking to move forward. The bottom line is, to move forward we either need better players than we currently have (unlikely) or we need a better manager than Pochettino. Also remember that Poyet absolutely loathes Southampton - his league victory over us at the Stadium of Light consisted of a half-time rant about why he detested Southampton so much from his time at Brighton! Seems to be a man with a chip on his shoulder. I'll throw McClaren into the mix as well though for being a very intelligent coach who could fit the long-term vision of this club and impress the directors. I'm sure him and Les Reed must sing off a similar hymn sheet. He is the only candidate I believe could fit the philosophy and also be a good long-term option for the club. My preferred (realistic) choices: 1) McClaren; 2) Yakin; 3) Koeman; 4) Clement

There was definitely an issue with the training kit at the start of the season which caused NC (and Pochettino himself) to kick up a fuss.

From the little I've picked up about his background, I would have thought his job title would be closer to "High Performance Director" than "Motivational Speaker". A lot of knowledge and experience in this type of role can be transferred across sports and seems to relate closely to the things directly affecting the players that Cortese has been credited for (i.e. bringing mattresses to away games, diet, and all the other little things that we probably haven't heard about). Makes sense to have someone who has this specific role and is a specialist in sport alongside a CEO responsible for finances (completely different jobs!).

Maybe it's Francesca now

Yea ignore that. Didn't read the OP properly

Was it FA? Fran Alonso. Was on my UEFA B course. Very nice and humble guy if lacking a bit in confidence at the time. Madrid native and fluent in English. Didn't pass the B licence first time but don't know if he has done since.

A lot of who's in and out of the team comes down to the system (and player adaptability within it). Did we play 4-2-3-1 last year because MP thought we wouldn't have enough possession to gradually gain ground and get the CMs up the field? If so, we may do a Barca and go to 4-1-2-2-1 if we are better at ball retention (because of better players). 2 questions because my research is limited (sorry if already discussed) - 1) Did MP always play 4-2-3-1 at Espanyol or did he try to progress it to 4-1-2-2-1 at any point? and 2) How flexible is Wanyama - can he play #10 in the 4-2-3-1?

Sorry to make a serious point but it's only just occurred to me. Now Schneiderlain has lived in England for a while, could he be eligible to play for England? I know he already has youth caps etc for France but not sure on the rules...

ambitious new plans? wants the stadium expanded now, but liebherr's more cautious in case of relegation next year? just speculation but that's my hat in the ring!

I got Figueroa from Wigan. I'm white. Not even a tan :/

Are teams playing badly against us? Of course City did underperform yesterday but I think the way we are playing makes teams look like they're playing worse than they actually are because we simply don't let them play their 'normal' game. If you constantly pressurise opponents for 90 minutes you are going to unsettle them technically, tactically and psychologically. Teams think they can come and play their own way against us at the moment rather than adapting their system. I think the real challenges might come next season when some of the lesser teams give us more respect and may even sit back with 10 men behind the ball and hit us on the counter atack (as was the way for City's only goal yesterday). The big boys could have a problem dealing with us for some time - just look at Barcelona to see that high pressure even unsettles them. Based on current performances, and with a bit of strengthening in the summer, I find it difficult to conceive us finishing lower than 7th next season. The future's bright.

I've noticed this actually in a few of his interviews. The translaters clearly aren't getting across some of the information very well. MP actually corrected the guy once in the pre-man city press conference. Wonder what else we are missing! Where's the next Jose Mourinho when we need him.

I think we should wave white handkerchiefs.

Jesus. You sound like the guy sat a couple of rows behind me today. Stop being so fickle and have a little patience. We are in a transition period with our new manager. The performances have improved dramatically, the results, goals, clean sheets, etc are things to be ironed out over the next couple of weeks. Don't forget we scored 2 goals today, and deservedly so - the only thing that stopped us winning today was poor set piece defending. When things come good they will come very very good judging by these performances. And what evidence can you see that playing long ball football will be any more effective?? We don't have the players for it (with the exception of Lambert who can offer a great outlet if we need to mix things up whilst playing mainly shorter balls in order to send the opposition defence back an extra 5 yards which will create more room in the middle third when we don't play the longer ball).

Well if we think about it - the SSN interview will be something we can pretty much spell out already so no transfers, etc that would be 'announcements'. The very nature of interviews is that he doesn't pick the questions exactly so obviously they will centre upon the sacking of NA and appointment of MP. And now the emotion has died down somewhat he had the ability to rationally speak and allow others to make judgment based on facts/ambition. Expect "NA did great things but we needed someone to take us to the next level etc; MP fits our philosophy and can help attract a different calliber of players in this window; hard decision but it's what I'm payed to do by the owners". Might get a bit of respect back and some decent PR after the criticisms lately in the mass media by making it seem like a reasoned and well-considered decision based on long-term logic rather than emotion. I'd expect to see virtually the same in the Sun, but it could be with MP - nevertheless stating virtually the same thing about ambitions for the future and how SFC can evolve under him.

Fantastic replacement for Lambert who's just signed for Villa apparently

What about Antarctica?

Mayukaaaaaa!

You don't spend a whole evening in the office to write about something small. But i kinda hope it's not ramires so we have something else to cheer about tomorrow hopefully!

No Hammond? Anyone else missing? Could be just the site not functioning properly of course! http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/stats/player-stats/

Is that Guly? God I hope he isn't playing regular premiership football next season. Poster indicates he will be but it might just be a thing to show they're not racist.

MLG do you agree with my comments on the previous page? I'm interested as you seem to know more about it than most. In particular, will the standards and requirements continue to be raised every year, and is there a 'cap' on the number of academies that can be category 1 (i.e. 20)?