Charlie Wayman

I think they are training tops for the warm up only, not match shirts as such. Waste of money! 90% of fans either won't be in their seats during the warm up or concentrating on polishing off their pasties to take much notice.

Martin is probably Wilcox's responsibility. As Wilcox was not part of the Ankerson induced managerial fiasco of last season expect him to be more circumspect about managerial shortcomings and new appointments than we fans. My guess is that Martin will be given at least a dozen games to prove his metal. If nothing improves after that then he will go. I remain unconvinced that SR are really expecting promotion this season or probably next. Things may have to get a lot worse before we take a turn for the better. Our kids need a couple of years at least to mature and there is still plenty of deadwood to be cleared.

You cannot be serious!

That simply is not true. Who disliked him? People disliked the way that Nigel Adkins had been treated but there was no animosity towards Maurizio, just the opposite in fact.

That's the most interesting thing I've read on this thread. Keep it up.

Seems you have to be Scottish or Irish to become undroppable under Martin or at least of Celtic origin.

Are you sure you understood the context of my earlier submission? If you read it thoroughly you will have seen that it is no way contradictory to what I have posted today. My point was that many fans on here thought the Championship would be a doddle and we would win it by right. I was pointing out that it was far from a doddle and that we might find it a lot harder than some thought to get out again. The same point is made in my latest post.

The 8-0 demolition of Sheff U by Newcastle yesterday shows exactly what would happen to Saints next season if by some miracle this bunch of players and their hapless manager somehow managed to scrape promotion this season. Our squad of transfer window rejects, other team's cast offs and raw kids who have potential but little real world experience is nowhere near fit for purpose judged by this season's performances and suggests we are a million miles away from rebuilding and honing a side fit to survive in the PL. We should be fearful of the fact that last season's top three are now this season's PL bottom three. It serves to teach us that the rebuilding project at Southampton is going to take a lot longer than the one or two seasons promised from above and expected by some fans. Many on here but not me exclaimed that they were looking forward to life in the Championship as a welcome respite from our endless failures in the PL. They have their wish and it looks increasingly likely that Saints will be in this league for quite some time. At the moment we do not have good enough players or a good enough manager and coaching staff. It will take time and a lot of money to put that right. The point of me saying this is to limit your expectations of what can be achieved against more ambitious clubs like Leeds. On current form a 0-0 draw would be an excellent result.

Leeds are one of those teams that I would never watch going back over 30/40 years so no excuses needed this weekend. Salisbury market on Saturday seems infinitely more appealing.

Agree 100%. Edozie deserves to start over Fraser too, the lad is one of our better players and doesn't deserve to be dropped. Don't get me started about Adams and Armstrong! How they get into the team is beyond me.

Looks like another day for hiding behind the sofa. One thing's for sure we aren't going to get a miraculous transformation from Tuesday night. This will likely be a back's to the wall gritty determination type of performance from Saints rather than Martin's mythical total football, that's if any of our players care enough and are up for it. Personally I think that a disjointed and bizarrely selected group of players will do their usual bottle job of failing to score and making their usual quota of enforced errors at the back to encourage Boro to have a field day. 0-3 for me, could be more.

The bloke has lost it! What's that cap all about at the PC? Trying to disguise himself in the hope we don't notice he's still here? It's become a complete switch off for me, he has nothing remotely interesting to say anymore.

https://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/at-home-with-harry-redknapp-24348242#

I am not sure I want to be there when Martin goes on a streak.

RedKrap sold his house in Sandbanks at least 5 years ago. Where've you bin?

He has to go. The crap we are being served up is no better than the crap we've endured for the past three years. No way we are promotion candidates, if things go on the way they are we'll be in the mix for relegation.

You're a good man Whitey, We are all praying for you. Love and Best wishes.

I'm pretty sure they would.

Well, he hasn't given up his day job yet!

Presumably once Stewart is fit and running all these discussions will become academic. I agree Mara doesn't seem to be the answer.

Being 'spoon fed' with 'the ball on a plate' is class?

Poor performances from Adams who looked clueless and Armstrong who looked disinterested suggests that both players are past their sell-by dates for Scotland and not that far off the same fate at Saints. Both looked pedestrian last night. I'd be very surprised if either started on Friday - they certainly don't deserve to on merit - but Mr Martin is becoming as unpredictable as his predecessors on team selection.

I was talking about his value to Saints as a footballer not as an anonymous asset itemised on the balance sheet. Surely that much was blindingly obvious. We sent the player out on loan to improve him as a footballer with the intention of bringing him back to play football for Saints. He became a very good footballer. When he returned he didn't want to play for Saints again. How is that not a huge cock-up and a learning point for future loans such as Ballard? It seems that the grey bean counters upstairs have succeeded in brainwashing you.

Ballard PL2 Player of the Month. Well done Dominic! I hope he doesn't get fancy ideas or 'spotted' by a big club whilst out on loan and we end up in a similar situation to the Tella saga and lose him. Loaning players out can cut both ways but if you tell a young player it's good for his development to spend a year playing lower league football elsewhere isn't the player bound to feel he is being discarded? These are young and very impressionable lads after all and full of emotional highs and lows at that age. We certainly cocked up the Tella situation so I hope this isn't a case of pressing Repeat?