Mowgli

Not sure whether you are agreeing or being sracastic. Yes, it did work out. He was definately a player who gave us options and who could come on for a tiring midfielder and make an impact. No it didn't work out to the extent that one error of judgment was costly and we lose him for three games. The point is, we only need to get through three games because after that he will be back in contention with that much more 'experience' under his belt. If you are telling me McNish, Dean and Reeves are rubbish I would be more worried about the long term future of the club. If they are good enough, let's use them. The coaching staff probably know a lot more about their abilities and limitations than someone from Arsenal or Chelsea youth squad.

Well it looks like we have Harlee Dean available for selection again. Not to mention Callum McNish. Ben Reeves is impressing too. Personally, as we are talkng about backup to Hammond and Chaplow, I would rather we look within.

I think you need to have bit more about the debate yourself if you expect anyone to take you seriously. Dismissing Adkins cos Scunny aren't Saints and he got them relegated between two promotions is hardly a credible argument. To judge Adkins potential you need to analyse what he did with limited resources and then consider what he could do in our club where the whole set up is different from youth, training facilities, marketing, finance, fans, etc. At the end of the day Adkins has got a young team playing football the way he wants it played - a rare achievement for any Saints manager - ask Strachan! He has taken us from the lower half of the league to within a point of automatic promotion and still has 1/4 of the season to go. He has shown he can attract the best youth to the club and can retain the likes of Chamberlain and Lallana. There is a good spirit in the camp. The players clearly want to play for him and most fans, recognising there is still room for some improvement can see we are moving in the right direction. Most imprortantly we have shown that we will not be held to ransome or try to buy our way to the top. That clearly does not work in the real world - only on computer games! For the last few years people have been banging on about the negative effect of constant change at management and board level. We now have some consistency and - surprise surprise - it's working.

Absolutely no need for loans. Guly gets injured - Barney comes in and proves himself as a quality striker. Schneiderlin gets injured - in comes Gobern and proves to be a real star. We would never have got players as good as that on loan. And we have not yet started talking about McNish and the others. If you want to add quality to the existing squad, call a couple of the loanees back from Stockport or Bishops Stortford. But as it stands we have some pretty good bench players like Richardson, Dickson, Martin and Seabourne.

Great game on Tuesday. we actually improved a bit when he replaced the cautious (yellow carded) Chaplow. I know NA rated him very highly as soon as he arrived here. Seems a lot bigger and stronger than when he first debuted for us (a few years ago now!)

Martin reminds me of Jack Charlton. No nonsense defender but not much finesse in his play. In my view finesse is a bit of a wasted quality in a defender anyway. He has very good awareness of what is happening around him and holds the line well. Seabourne was on the bench on Tuesday so gives us additional options.

Deano was a great player. I was surprised and disappointed there was nothing tonight. Sheff Wed will not be too late to do something. Maybe terming it a disgrace is a bit dramatic.

A real bonus. I was not expecting that. I think a win Tuesday is well on the cards. Would settle for as draw at Bournemouth if I'm honest.

I don't actually remmber this quote but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Even so, everyone needs to remember this IS the season of no excuses.

Can't see us winnnig this one but still confident we will go up.

Don't think I really commented at all but a fair question. We created chances and on most days, 20 sots on goal would warrant a couple of goals. Walsall played out of their skin and deserved the win but if we perform like that on saturday we are more likely to win than lose. As for the league table, I think it's already been said the idea of a football league is to judge the positions at the end of the season not half way through so if we overtake Bournemouth we deserve to be there. if we don't, Bournemouth deserve the second place. Simples. Most teams have down spots and hot bursts. I always think there is less pressure to come from about 6th or 7th to secure second place rather than hold on to second the whole season. I know that makes no sense but supporting Saints makes very little sense. We always start a season poorly and often finish stronger than others.

The idea of putting him on the bench even though he had a slight strain is actually quite sound. It's playing mind games with the opposition a bit. Sometimes it works. As for playing him, I am quite sure this was done with the support of the physio's or he would not have gone on the pitch. Simple as. It seems a bit pointless to criticise on the basis of one sentence in a post match interview when the full facts are not available.

I was depressed by the title of the thread but was glad to read all the way through. There are so many who have put sensible arguments forward it has renewed my faith in Saints fans altogether. If you have ignored this thread because you think it is stupid, then don't. Put your thoughts down so people can see the true balance of views!

You can say that again. I think maybe what others are judging him on are the occassional late challenges that inevitably and deservingly gets a yellow card. When he is late, he is sooooo late!

And every player did have an off game against Carlisle! So I agree with you - bit harsh to single out N'Guessan

I'm not sure how one ordinary fan speculating can give a story more credibility. Cortese has similarly stated since the summer that the club is not for sale. I think I know who I would put my money on People will always pick the same stories up on google and regurgitate them (I acccidentally did it myeslf the other day re a trialist). Does not make the rumours any more credible.

Forget that about Smit - I think it is an old article coming up on google with a Feb 2011 date for some reason....

Scheiderlin and Chaplow for me but Schneiderlin has been inconsistent. He was showing his best form ever just before he was injured so would ease him back in. There's room for all three to play a part in every game to be honest. Also, did I see somewhere we have Arvid Smit (PSV Eindhoven) on trial with us this week - could give us even more options in the middle!

Not really confusing, but the key is in the word 'season'. I stilll have expectations of being comfortably in the top two this season - but why would you conclude that the expectations were too high when we are only half way through (roughly). NA said he wanted to be 'in touch' around Christmas and push on from there. That's exactly what has happened. I'm not too worried about leading the pack at this stage - I would much prefer a late run. Besides, if you forget about that side of things you can sit back and enjoy the football which is (mainly) pretty entertaining. If we were ten points clear at the top there would still be the doom 'n' gloom merchants pointing out after the first dropped point that 'if we keep this up we will soon be knocked off the top.... '

You've just described Ray Wilkins - and he played many times for England!

Have seen the clip and cannot see what the fuss is about. It seems to have been a great evening and everyone enjoyed themeselves. that's all that matters really. As far as the quote is concerned, from SFC I thought that was a positive. an award from the club would be rated 6/10 by most people. An award by your peers is nothing short of 10/10. Were not SFC making the point that this award really means something much more than an award from the club. Come on people. Chill out and get on with supporting the team / club/ LM/ MLT and all past players...

It saddens me to think that there are people who think booing their own team is OK. But it amuses me how they are so precious themselves they leap back on the board to defend themselves against the slightest criticism. In the scale of things though they are as annoying as an ant on an elephants arse and it should not really affect the performance of a professional footballer. I have no doubt our two new wingers will be producing top performances soon. Besides, N'Guessan was MOTM at Exeter in some people's eyes. Both showed some potential on Saturday but not a good game to judge anyone on really.

I blame Championship Manager. If you set the level of play to 'easy' and give yourself unlimited funds to manage Manchester United, you will see a team that performs week in week out and wins every game. Meanwhile in the real world, we have off days. One was against Tranmere. One was on Saturday. Not a bad result to still end up with three points eh? But like others, I would prefer to be entertained so hopefully not too many games like Saturday. People do lose perspective a bit, hence the the comments about Rickie (5 goals in 3 games) being out of form and N'Guessan being judged by some before he has played a full game for us. The stats that matters for me is that we are pushing the top three all the time and in the last 9 league games have won 6 drawn 2 and lost 1. 26 goals for and 9 against (4 of which came in one game).

Wasn't Lallana and Guly signed up on new contracts under Adkins? And Chamberlain retained? I suspect that puts him ahead of Pardews impressive signings of Lambert and Fonte and we still have the new boys to assess from this window. But as has already been said - pretty pointless thread. Even more so when you think what a 'team' effort it is these days to get new players in. Managers should be judged on their coaching abilities translated into results not which players the club signs.

Enough already!