RobM

Murty said so post-match, he made a comment about not being too hard on him since he is staying at his place.

Agree entirely. With Lamberts hold-up play and through balls, combined with De Ridders pace, tricks and eye for goal I think it could work.

I'd love to see him start up front against Palace, to see how well he would be in that position.

Well that answers the question about the OP being a knob then. This and the seemingly made up comment about Murty being a SFS employee.

Guly is a luxury player, but he has improved a lot in his overall game play. Back at the start of his time with us he would try something clever, lose the ball and then stand still watching the opposition bugger off with it. Now he chases it down when he loses it, he has more fight and determination. But... he does lose the ball too often. When it works for him though it's superb and he has the ability to make things happen (like De Ridders goal!), so he's worth having around. Fonte worries me. I know he is a big favourite among us all, but he has worried me this season and today looked like a different man to the player of the season we had last year. Not just the stupid handball, but just looking a yard behind the play and a lesser player than before. Something has changed and I'm not convinced it's just the opposition. De Ridder needs to start up front next game, IMO. Chaplow was excellent today, the hardest working person in our team and my MoM. Overall, a point is a fair result and one to be satisfied with. If we can win and home and draw away, we will do OK.

We didn't lose.

Sounds like he has a good sense of humour then, good lad.

Likewise, I thought he was very fair, especially considering he was there as an an ex-player of both Reading and Saints.

It's like the Hooiveld thread all over again.

My misunderstanding then, I thought you were on the side of reserving judgement until we had seen a player play for us. But, as you quite rightly say, all this B.S. is what makes football fun and football forums infuriating

Have a read: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?32340-Jos-Hooiveld-signs-on-loan To me, some of the comments in that thread are unfairly negative before he had played for us. I don't think that's right, just as I don't think it's right to judge any player we don't know about - good, bad or otherwise - before they have played. I'm with you, judgement should be reserved. The exception is when a player signs who we know a lot about, who we know is good or bad. If we re-signed Pulis I think it would be fair to be angry. If we signed somebody at the other end of the scale, it would be fair to get excited. But if we don't know, the sort of comments you can read in that thread are unfair, IMO. I think we're arguing in agreement

The trouble is that minority of idiots shout the loudest and the most often, so their opinions tend to spring to mind quickest. It's what this forum is all about. And whilst I don't think many people openly wrote him off, there were too many (IMO) comments about how Celtic fans don't want him and are glad to see him go, about how we 'failed' to address our CB weakness and other such comments that didn't write him off, but we clearly putting him down before he had worn a Saints shirt.

Comments like that have a habit of coming back to haunt us.

'Nigel forces Rickie to stay and watch his turtle impression just one more time...'

English football is a long way off what he is used to, but pure footballing quality will always shine through. He needs more time, I think NA is doing the right thing in introducing him gradually, but he will get there and be a star for us I'm sure. You get glimpses of what he can offer, his control, his crosses and distribution... it's only a matter of time before it all comes together in a way suitable for this league. We have time.

So what's the difference between this rumour and all the others that come from 100% credible sources?

Our squad is certainly good enough for this league... but what about the Prem? Look at when we signed our key players for this season... with a couple of exceptions brought in this year, the core of our squad for the NPC was formed in L1, giving the squad time to develop as a team which has really paid off! If we're looking at promotion seriously this season, Jan is the time to repeat that winning formula and start building for life in the Prem. The alternative you have suggested is build for the league we're in and not sign anybody in Jan. But if we then get promoted do you think our players are good enough for the Prem? I'm doubtful, so we'd need to sign new players which would leave us with pre-season only to build and prepare. That's not long enough. Successful teams look into the future and plan for what they are aiming for. They don't simply say 'This will do, we're good enough'.

I don't think it's make or break, but it will tell us a lot about our position and whether we can maintain it for the season. A two-week break for all clubs will see a lot of injury or fitness worries dealt with, meaning everyone comes back fitter and ready to go, so our competition will take a step up a gear. As for Jan, if we're serious about promotion this season then Jan is the time to bring in Prem-ready players. Bringing them in Jan will give them time to integrate with our team, get used to this new 'Southampton way' so they are ready to go next season.

To answer the OP's question, I don't feel scared but I certainly don't feel ready. I think we need to do as we did in League 1, which is to build a squad of players capable of competing in the league above. We've got those players now and they are competing in the league they were bought for. We need to repeat that now and aim for the Prem, by bringing in players capable of playing in that league while we're in this one. However, once bought it takes time to be a true part of the togetherness we have now, longer than half a season IMO. So if we spent out this Jan, I'm not confident that it would prepare us well enough for the Prem next season and we would lose one of the key parts of our current success.

I agree entirely... with both points. If 'Arry gets the job I'll lose the tiny bit of interest in international football I have left. England need to rebuild from the ground-up, not just the international team but football development in general and that doesn't require a current manager, it requires passion, commitment and a figure head to drive it forward and grow with it.

Shows how much your average poster on a football forum knows

The problem will be how many players we lose to the dirty ones in the process. They may lose two of their **** players, but if they take out two of ours in the process nobody wins.

I think the beginnings came from sports science, which CW was a big believer of. To credit him for inventing sports science is going a bit far. However I agree with your sentiment, CW had a lot of great ideas that would have made a difference, if his ego and arrogant approach didn't get in the way.

Call my cynical, but I'd imagine some sweet talking and money was behind that. All the more reason to blame those that made the decision - why invest all that time into somebody with no experience who says they don't want the job?

Can't disagree with that. Common sense tells you that a good coach doesn't necessarily make a good manager, they are very different roles. You can't blame them for taking the roles - who wouldn't want to better their career? But the idiot who put them in charge should have known better.