Frank's cousin

Might be a mad idea or not, don't know, but always felt that a way round the disparity in wages might be to set a 'target' amount say 70mil. for every mil spent above that amount clubs are deducted a certain number of points. It would be calculated on the total spent on all squad players remuneration so includes basic, image rights, bonuses etc - so no hiding wages on 'extras' - It should also be based on the total ANNUAL salaries of any player who makes a first team appearance in any competition that a club participates in in a given season excluding U21s that have been at the club before their 17th birthday - but including players out on loan - might encourage more youngsters to be a given a chance? Would make FFP redundant and would not restrict transfers spend.

Used to really like och... now I think he's a ***t - oh the fickle nature of fans like me...

They get Sunny SOG, because that is the safest and correct way to ride (see Highway Code). This is because when in single file, drivers think its fine to overtake whilst traffic is coming teh over way as if no bikes are there - leaving cyclists no room... I have been overtaken by such arseholes who overtake cars passing cyclists...

Well in the case above it is pretty apt - I thought God is meant to have said 'vengance is mine', yet there seem plenty of religious 'nations' happy to dish a bit out here and now for good measure (or hedging their bets as God does not seem to be answering any prayers of late and striking down the unbelievers... like he used to in the olden days) - and the promise of fire and burning in hell does seem scarily similar to the hideous genocide offered up by the despot mentioned above....

Don't think the big G is big on irony... big on handing out suffering and then washing his hands saying its free will... uhm yes the free will of babies born with abnormalities or as Mr Fry states, 'bone cancer in children' .... its a pretty crazy concept to begin with, but what is even crazier is that so many seem to believe is such utter nonsense.

Can I come to? Aintforever, may be 'direct' in his argument, but cant disagree with his POV. I always find the question of the 'need for faith' or how faith provides 'so much comfort for so many people' an interesting one... I am sure it does and those who have it would be lost without it.... which begs the question of what is missing from their lives that it it needs to be filled with made up rubbish about devine beings - and cruel, spiteful devine beings at that? Given that there are so many gods, faiths and religions to chose from, are we not ALL atheists really? Afterall, the devout Christians, Jews and Muslims (ironically all worshiping the same God) pour hate on those who worship false 'idols' - so what do they think of Hinduism, Budism, etc? Olden days would have seen some right religious wars.... oh wait... these still on going? So even the devout don't believe or have faith in all gods - so are they not also atheists? I just happen to believe in one less than them.

... that's the problem on here, everyone always seems to want to make these situations out as something 'sinister/mistakes' etc and find a side to blame. Truth is thankfully usually much less 'headline grabbing' and part and parcel of the game. Jack is unfortunately/fortunately one of those players who is easily good enough for a first team spot at many a prem club. Problem is we have an approach/style that means he is often a bench player, not because he is less of a player than others, but that we don't play in the style formation that best suits him as often as he would like... so he is part of the first team squad. Fully understand if he is frustrated with that and wants to play... in addition, because we are not one of the 'big/rich' clubs, we cannot afford to pay high wages for players who are part of the larger squad, even if they deserve it.... and there in lies the problem as he probably could get a bit more and be guarranteed more frequent starting at some of the other clubs... so victim of circumstance, rather than any fault of the club or Jack. As to the club not offering a new contract earlier, why should it? we know that there is simply no room for sentiment and contracts are not given for that reason. So quite rightly RK has wanted to see those approaching the last year in action first - and then offer a contract. Jack is rightly considering his options, and it must be a dilemma, especially given the progress we have made, but at same time wants more playing time and possible a few extra quid.... nowt wrong with that.... same as nowt wrong with the club wanting an answer asap as it may influence activity in the transfer window now... Both parties acting pretty normal IMHO... I hop he stays as he is a good player and decent chap by all accounts and has been part of our progress... and would play a bigger part in a larger squad should we qualify for Europe.

You know, for a 'teacher' the fact that you seem rather ill at ease with entering reasonable discussion, is pretty sad... as for 'whatever' .... . Fans ARE fickle, we criticise players for disloyalty when they want to leave, yet are happy to see the back of those we don't rate, same with managers. Adkins knew his part in the plan would be over - you might not like the 'evil dwarf' or 'whatever', but getting up on your high horse as if it was some terrible tragedy, or he was the first to ever get sacked in football, despite pretty crap results, is somewhat juvenile, and actually quite funny...

where as your response is typically ignorant

Not quite sure he was treated as appallingly as some like to think/suggest. His somewhat strange interview after the Coventry promotion game suggested he knew he was on limited time as soon as we were promoted - his part in the plan - with someone new required for the next stage of the project. The fact he knew means he must have accepted this as part of his contract. Sure it seems strange, weird because its at odds with what seems normal in football, but its pretty normal in other business. Yes he is a great coach and a decent man, but so was Steve Wiggley, and Stuart Gray, but we as fans were happy they got sacked... results have shown that Poch was better. Fans are fickle - happy to treat players and managers like sheidt when they are crap - The treatment of Adkins was no different, if anything better as he knew his role. The pious attitude of some on here about it has more to do with WHO did the deed than the deed itself...

Indeed.... but we cant pay them £150k a week.... its always about the money, whatever BS they come out with about 'testing themselves' - as for the other old chestnut about 'winning things', they seem to forget that if they stayed they would here.... Sadly, the game is all about money, as opposed to the 'TEAM' challenge, and being part of something unique and special.

Its the wrong question really - ALL fans would love us to WIN the cup - history books for ever, trophy in the cabinet, open top bus... etc. NO contest against a CUP WIN... but a WIN is not guaranteed - so the question is whether a good cup run maybe getting to semis or whatever v qualifying for the champions league. For fans winning the cup is the best - but in the modern era where the top clubs have budgets that are 5-8 times that of saints, to finish 3rd or 4th would be the bigger sporting achievement. CB Fry suggests that we will probably be a 4th-8th side next season whatever happens... and that is true to some extent. But for me that is EXACTLY why we should be focused on the league this season - because we will NOT get this sort of chance to gain CL qualification every year - whereas the Cup is always there and the road to the final is as much down to the luck of the draw as anything else. CL group stage qualification would be great for fans - sure we will be fighting for the 3rd spot, but who cares if the draw is good against some European heavy weights? its a chance to experience that something different - and cup runs we CAN have every year. I think a club like Saints qualifying for the CL would also be amazing for the game in this country - fans of those top four sides who seem to believe its their right to be in those slots - when its only the cash advantage that gives them that annual success - need to be brought down a peg or two ;-)

Yep Cortese was just useless, just like spending over folks money.... so useless in fact that as a successful banker, he became the confident and close friend of a certain billionnaire called M Liebherr. If Cortese was as incompetent and useless as some on here would like us to believe, then they must also be suggesting M Liebherr was a poor judge of character and ability? He was egotistical and he put a few noses out of joint - but to suggest 'history will show' that our success was 'inspite' of him is one of two things; ignorance and plain stupid, or as is more likely, about 6.5 in the WUM scale (or must try harder)

I think we have progressed as per the plan... and its to Katherina's (and Ralph's) credit that that the continues the progression as first envisioned by Marcus and Nicola. If we ignore the WUMs on here looking for a bite and remember a few 'facts' - then the truth is probably a lot more 'normal' and less sensationalist than some on here like to go on about. To make a fair assessment you have to separate the the fact that Cortese irritated a lot of folks and fell out with them, from the model and strategy that was implemented by him and Marcus, and continued by Reed and KL/RK since. My biggest concern when he left was that the speculation that KL was not really interested in football and the club, might lead to her selling up and then we could well be back to square one. I really thought that would be the case so its great to have been wrong on that score. What Marcus and Nicola did was build from the ground up - The Southampton Way - some joked about Cortese's soundbite, but I believe its the foundation for the success we are seeing now. To me it seems a bit like what the Germans did at national level - first identify the style and approach - the way they wanted to play, the identity. For us this was our passing and pressing style - and then recruit coaches, managers and players (and coach those players from 8 years to first team) in that style - eventually getting more of these home developed players into the squad and becoming more self sustainable. It's also what he meant when suggesting that managers were just 'heads of department' - because we now have a structure and approach that does not suddenly evaporate the moment a manager leaves - we have CONTINUITY of our style and 'way' and its that that breeds success. Many other clubs suffer the full change when a manager goes as we used to... and its why most clubs will struggle when so many players leave... and why many thought we would... but the 'way' continued, just under different leadership. In some respects our position in L1 gave us the opportunity to do this - we were rock bottom and had time and funding to fundamentally change the way we were organised. For most clubs they either don't have the funding, or the pressure for short term success/avoiding relegation means its follow the 'tried and tested' and hope the manager's makes a difference. I am not saying that having a manager of the caliber of 'koeman' does not have a big impact, but its subtle - devil in the detail stuff - and in this game its all about fine margins, but he was able to come in and not have to build from scratch, merely fine tune and improve small things that make big differences... I think if Marcus had not passed away, the pace of this progress may well have been a little slower - I think NC got a bit carried away - his ego was obviously huge - and so he accelerated the plan by using alternative financial resources - especially around the development of Staplewood... and KL quite within her rights was keen to ensure a more democratic control over this... and they fell out. These things happen. Had NCs ego not been so huge, I believe he would still be here as part of an expanded board room. Thankfully, the strategy has continued and we are reaping the rewards of a well designed and solid foundation laid down by Marcus, Cortese and Reed. failure to acknowledge that is simply down to prejudice or ignorance... or simply a dislike of the man for his fallings out over Benali's bathroom carpet (which seemingly has a lot to answer for) - after all the 'everyone pays for their ticket' and stopping of pay outs for former managers etc in the exec suites began under Marcus... and were accepted in general. Benali rented Nicola his house... and the rest is...public bickering that did nobody any favours.... some fans seemed happy to spread rumours of NC not giving a fig about our history... yet many many of the 76 cup winners were invited to events as were other former players... just not those he fell out with. Do we miss him? NO, because the work/approach has been continued and by all accounts with less autocracy. But we can not ignore his contribution to our current success.

The Bear Bro (Yogi - not the Jellystone one) speaks much sense here.... which is freaking me out a bit.

Well Spiderman looks pretty chilled ;-)

Indeed, the Trollhunter General... a Man for all Seasons ;-) Great win, deserved. I for one was cacking it at the start of the season - conventional wisdom did suggest we would struggle given the volume of changes - and I did not get any confidence from the way Ralph struggled to communicate that all would be OK... we have had a bit of luck, but hats off to all at the club from top to bottom... its so great being wrong ;-)

Plastic should win an award simply for having the audacity to have an avatar of a monkey sucking its own cock... tremendous.

You must smell nice

Totally agree..... but, the 'fads' can help in that its the psychology of change. The key to sticking with these things is making a life change, so the nutrition, portion control and exercise become routine/the norm. For some the fad diet is just a way of making you feel good about the life change because its 'different' to what you have been used to. For me the diet has been the hardest to change - gave up the cigs 12 months ago, got back on the bike and now cycle 400-600km a month and have lost 7kg .... but still need to lose 18 more to get back to 'normal' - but cutting out the bad stuff has been more tricky. Did a detailed calorie count for a while and even just a few glasses of wine and a couple of beers a week, makes a huge difference to the total weekly intake... foods high in sugar and carbs also more tricky to give up as v tasty ;-)

Not sure about genius, but certainly the best possible set up for a club of our size and resources to be both sustainable and potentially competitive. I think we were really lucky - because Lowe had invested in infrastructure, when down and out in L1 it was a perfect opportunity for ML and NC to build something without mega millions on new stadia etc... With what Marcus called a 'modest' investment, it was clear that he, NC and Reed all recognised that we were in perhaps a unique situation and able to rebuild all departments to bring about such a set up... Something most other clubs simply cannot do as it's always a hand to Louth existence - so many follow the 'tried and tested' go with new manager and let them do their thing....changing top to bottom... When it's works, great, but it causes major upheaval every time the manager changes.... And what's worse when a good one is poached? We seem to be following the 'German' system - all sides from U8 upwards play the southampton way - we adopted a style we wanted to play and then recruit coaches and players who fit within it ..... Rather than recruiting a name manager and adapting everything including high numbers of players sales to bring in manager wishes.... It should be cheaper and more successful.... NC was not trying to insult managers with his statement! merely making a statement of fact that they should NOT be come irreplaceable! otherwise clubs end up with all eggs in one basket. In addition, the set up we have ensures continuity even if managers do go.... Its really only only now where the benefits of this set up are really clear .... We lost manager coaches and players in the summer , yet have been able to get better as we have that continuity... Yeah we still needed a bit of luck that the recruits would adapt quickly and fit in culturally, but it's surprised many, but perhaps least of all Reed, or even NC... Surmised me no end that it worked so well. Ultimately we have ML any NC to thank for putting it in place, and Reed and RKr + KL for making sure it was continued.

We were the better side, but made two errors that were punished.... We could not punish theirs.... But good to see us playbalot better again than we did against Villa or City.... Can't comment on the the Gunners game as did not see any of it, but we see to be heading in a better direction again...despite the key injuries. But can someone explain how the Granny ****ger was still on the pitch? He is shaming the England captain role, with his constant F off to the ref - all he ever seemed to be saying whenever in close up ... What example is he setting... And yes he should be setting one... It's normally why players get these honours...because they can control emotions.... I am convinced that had it been one of ours they would have seen red well before Rooney got his over due yellow...

This ^ excellent post

A post from page 3..... Swap Saints for PFc and it's quite prescient ;-)

Maybe he has to go after also being caught 'making love' to Sharon? I demand the club tell us the truth (other more 'earthy' words to describe 'making love' are available, but asterisks can offend the sensitive)