sambosa75

I dont think we used him as well as we could have. For me, he was not a right-winger. We got some fantastic performances from him when he was in the middle of the park, box-to-box, throwing his weight about. He had a fantastic engine and good athleticism. I never really understood why we wasted him out on the wing.

Following on from my last post, Ben (my nephew) played for the elite team against Chelsea on Wednesday and did so well Chelsea asked him to play for them against Bristol Rovers academy yesterday. I'm not sure of the final result but I know Ben scored as my brother in law called me just after. Apparently Ben is leaning towards the Saints as half the players he was playing alongside at Chelsea yesterday were foreign and the emphasis there was massively on individual talent as opposed to team play. For the record, the team he is playing for is Pace. I asked my sister yesterday. I watched them play a few weeks ago and I've never seen a bunch of kids that young spray the ball around like they do. The coach they have (incidentally a skate!) is top class. Just hope the lad can keep this development up. For a 9 year old to have Saints, Chelsea, Reading, Pompey and Bournemouth fighting over him must mean he is a pretty promising talent.

Use ragworm as bait. Nasty looking feckers but very effective.

cosyuboc... safg...

Thats just it though. The common misconception that every one holds belief in who wants to see the back of Lowe. It really wouldnt bring the fans back. Well, maybe for 1 or maybe 2 home games, the performances would still be the same however as we are playing with kids, most of which arent particularly special which in turn would begin to see the decline in attendance figures yet again. That really isnt Rupert Lowe's fault however. I remember a couple of years back 90% of fans practically baying for Rupert Lowe's blood in order for someone... ANYONE!!! to ride in on a white horse and takeover the reigns. Well my friends, you all got your wish and like it or not, IT IS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE POSITION WE FIND OURSELVES IN NOW. Rupert Lowe is not the architect of our current predicament. I agree, we might not have invested as heavily as we all liked back in 2003 and yes, he was chairman when we were relegated to this division. There is an awful lot of good that Rpert Lowe has overseen too but we all seem more than willing to look beyond that and simply focus on the negatives. How about we look at this particular negative for a moment... It was NOT Rupert Lowe that ploughed £8m in to the team in an all or nothing attempt at getting us promoted. It is that money that we are missing, nay craving for now and Rupert Lowe is simply the man who is not afraid of making the tough decisions with regards to finding the least bit of stability in the clubs finances. If it werent necessary to sell all we had sold, I really dont think Lowe is evil enough to simply go out and sell them anyway. I understand a lot of people feel they need a scapegoat but it seems a lot of these statements have been made in wake of Stern John's transfer to Bristol City. Here we had a player probably on anything up to £10k a week, not getting a look-in in the first team. Right or wrong, other players are ahead of him in the pecking order. Are we as a club expected to simply let him not play but collect his wages which will be amongst the higher ones being paid, or get him shipped out and save ourselves the expense of having an expensive player not adding anything to or benefitting the club? Man United had to sell Gabi Heinze for a similar reason. They werent prepared to pay him as he wanted out so they let him go to Real Madrid. If Man Utd cant afford to carry dead-wood... what gives us the right to do it?

Have you ever been to Charlton though? Paulsgrove in Portsmouth is more cultured than Charlton. Its a sh!thole. I live within walking distance to Loftus Road, its in West London and has its fair share of wealthy fans, also Shepherds Bush is currently going through a massive regeneration that will see it become a very fashionable area to live in. I think Bernie and Flavio have been quite shrewd with that one. But I do agree. It seems just because a club is based in a London postcode they become a viable club to invest in, which is bollix.

Amazing. How on earth could people look at Charlton as a more viable investment opportunity than us? It really does beggar belief. Yes they are in London but have you tried getting to Central London from Charlton? It'll be quicker to get there from Southampton. We've got a beautiful stadium, great fans when all pulling in the same direction and a youth setup the envy of clubs in the Prem, let alone the Championship. Everything at this club is set up to be a Premier League club apart from the finances and the first team which is directed related to the financial status of the club.

Definately agree. He was quality at times for Newcastle. Sometimes unbeatable. The thing is though, he was part of a defence that was ridiculed from all sides during his time at Newcastle which did his confidence no good at all. Dont get me wrong he's still capable of the odd howler but by the same token, he's still capable of defending the likes of Didier Drogba out of a game. Put Bramble in the Championship, he'd be the best defender in the league by a country mile.

Bang goes the annual award for best playing surface, thats all I can say...

I'd tend to agree with this. Money is so tight at the moment that any player signed needs to come straight in and do a job for the team, no matter whether that involves a transfer fee, a loan or a free transfer. Quite frankly, whilst the idea of signing a load of players on the basis of their athleticism is a very good one, for every Kenwyne Jones, there has been a Federico Arias, Kleber Chala or Jason St. Juste (sp?). That said, if we were ever to win promotion to the prem or inherit a cash injection from a lovely wealthy benefactor it would definately be an approach I'd be in favour of. You only have to look at Arsene Wenger. Adebayor and Kolo Toure were pony when first signed but had every natural attribute required to make them top players. The same way Kenwyne Jones developed from a sprinter to a football player.

Redknapp wasnt actually offered a position by Newcastle, so how he could turn it down? He was invited up for talks and used that purely as a way of engineering a pay-rise at Pompey. Keegan DID make those signings, in so much as Wise did his job by recommending them to KK and he also voted in favour of bringing them in. That was what Wise was supposed to do; head up the scouting network to find players to recommend to the manager. That was the protocol set out by Newcastle to follow that of Arsenal, which Keegan was massively in favour of. What he wasnt told though was if he happened to disagree with Dennis Wise, the club would still carry on with signing the player. Do you reckon that sort of thing happens at Arsenal? Do you reckon Arsene Wenger would stand for that kind of thing? I certainly dont, and that is why I dont blame KK for walking. As for saying he's got a name for doing this, he did it with Newcastle in 1997, purely because there was a lot of outside interference with the Halls which he didnt agree with. He stood down from the England job because he admitted his managerial talents were not up to scratch tactically and he left Man City as a mutual agreement because he didnt want to sign a new contract. As for me seeming to know a lot about this, the baulk of my family are Geordies and NUFC season ticket holders so I speak to them a lot and keep up to speed with the goings on at Newcastle also. Also, whoever said it was a bit romantic to say all Newcastle fans want is a bit of attacking football, maybe it sounds strange but it really is true. If they were really that hung up about winning a trophy after so long without one, do you really think they'd pack 50,000 into St James Park almost every week (last few matches being the exception). They just want to be entertained and watch their players put a bit of effort in. That really is all they ask for.

Keegan didnt know the structure. That is a common mis-interpretation of what happened. He knew Wise was coming in but was told by Ashley in no uncertain terms that he would have final say on transfers incoming and outgoing, and all Wise was there for was to pursue the players that Keegan identified and to head up the scouting of young "future" players such as Tamas Kadar, Ben Tozer and Fabio Zamblera. With regards to the first-team transfer dealings, Keegan was under the impression he was in charge of that and with the signings of Gutierrez, Guthrie and Coloccini made some decent signings. Ashley then tried covering himself by saying the list of players Keegan gave to Wise included Lampard, Henry, Ronaldinho etc... which is not the case at all. Keegan wanted to sign Stephen Warnock... Hardly a Galactico. Instead he gets a lightweight forward from Deportivo and some Uruguayan on loan who's never played in La Liga, let alone the Prem. I would say the Newcastle fans had every right to be "over-emotional" about this. Keegan was honest with the fans, dispelling their delusions on grandeur by making it clear he wasnt able to break in to the top 4 any time soon. He did however get them playing positive attacking football and seemed to have the players enjoying playing their football again. The Newcastle fans dont ask for anything else but that. Attacking football, the feeling as if the players are at least trying to entertain and their players to look as if they are enjoying earning the vast amounts Newcastle United are prepared to lavish upon them. I dont think thats too much to ask at all.

How would people feel then if he bought the club. Said publicly that he would stick by Jan Poortvleit, only to sack him. Then, lets say he brings back Gordon Strachan which is met with 100% approval from the fans and they love him for it. Two weeks later, he brings in Dennis Wise to work above Strachan and to be the decision maker on all players signed, taking the responsibility away from WGS, only for WGS to leave (which is no doubt what he'd also do) leaving the club with a chairman with a ridiculous structure in place and no other managing wanting to touch us with a bargepole. If you dont think Newcastle fans have any right to kick up a stink about whats gone on recently then you are very much a deluded person.

Get the f*ck in there you little beauty!!! Come on Saints, lets make this the turning point of the season.

What a brilliant game that was!!! My team was abolutely amazing, Colin Murdoch signed from Preston for £50k, Jermaine Wright on a free- he was a pacey winger in that game, Erik Nevland in on a free who would bang in at least 20 goals a season and Tommy Svindal Larsen from Stabaek for £250k on the left wing. I'd play it now if I could. Much better than the recent versions.

American humour is only funny to absolute 'tards. IMHO.

I'm sorry but McGoldrick is absolute pony. His movement is poor, his body language is awful and he couldnt trap a sand bag. If rumours are to be believed his attitude stinks also. He scored a couple at the start of the season but I've never been convinced he can cut it on a regular basis. Please start playing John or even Pekhart ahead of him. John might be getting on a bit but he still bagged c. 20 goals for us last season. Without those goals we'd be in League 1 now.

Good point. I heard he's got a dodgy [mango chut]knee anyway

Anyone else think after signing Anthony Pulis from Stoke, we should go back to them and pop a Dominic Matteo into our squad?

I work on High Holborn... Can I come?

In my opinion, Rooney's place in the team is hanging by a thread... He's a modern day John Barnes. Good for club, useless for country. I honestly wouldnt have him starting for England. He's a liability.

Did you book it, pack it and then f*ck off???!

Especially at Ninian Park. They wont drop many points there this season.

Yyyyeeeesssss!!! ****ing get in there!!!!!