Latheal

I get we're in debt to the future loan, but its hardly the 100m+ that West Ham are. If you look over the spending in the last calendar year, it will be pretty close on expenditure on new players as well. Just surprised they can keep spending vast amounts of money when they were already so much in debt. When we spent our 30mil earlier, I was under the impression it was new debt with our previous debt having been converted to equity. They already appeared to have 100m+ and have not have continued to spend large sums again.

Is BFS attempting to buy our forward line? Is that now Lambert and Punch they are rumoured in? Looks like unsettling tactics to me, I still think West Ham will drop like a stone second half of this season. They are one of the worst teams I've seen and have a horrendus injury list. There is no way Punch will go in Jan, if he wants to go on a free in the Summer I wouldn't be surprised. It's his last big move at his age so understandable if he wants to look for a big payday. Having said that, don't think it's cut and dried that he will go. Can somebody also shed some light on where they are getting their money from? I thought they were 100mil+ in debt last season and all they have done is spent ****loads and offered players ridiculous contracts again.

So if Cortese has been involved in team selections do we praise him for the last few years? And praise him for the buys of Lambert (pound for pound one of the greatest buys this club as ever made), Clyne and Ramierez? Should we laud him for the way Saints play football? To me, it's quite simple. The club is a business. He's in charge of it. He's done a bang up job so far. I support the club. I don't care if he and MLT don't like each other. I also love MLT. I pay my money to watch the club I love. Last few years, that's been money well spent. If Cortese has picked the team and Adkins is still managing, then I have less respect for Adkins than Cortese. But most of the players seem happy with very little rumours of major players leaving. It seems a little unfounded to me. FFS, lets just enjoy what we've got. We almost lost our team. Tomorrow we're paying a Premier League game.

Understand what you are saying. My point is that lots go on during the football pitch. I'm sure Ferdinand used abusive language at Terry. Terry's thrown it back. It happens. I'm sure it happens every week and players shake hands at the end of he game, and leave it on the pitch. To say he's a racist because he said it is wrong. If its not a heat of the moment thing but a deep lying hatred of black people, then fair enough. Pretty sure Cole wouldn't have stood up for him in a court of law if that was he case though. The guy (and I don't like him, let's get that straight) is going to be branded a racist for the rest of his life and I don't think he is. Put it this way, what if Ashley Cole was the one who said it to Ferdinand? What would the FA have done then? Is he also a racist?

Nope, I'm half black so do see racism as an issue. I just think racism is very subjective. I've been called exactly what Terry said on the pitch, and given back as much as I've got. Been called it by mates and it's never been in a racist way. The same as saying it without the colour in there. It's the context in how it's used to me. Also studied Law so understand the difference. Agree his whole argument was rubbish, but should he branded now as a racist?

Which part? You think he's actually racist (which, let's face it, he's now going to be branded)?

Cheers, will try that then. Understand about Holloway Rd, I use it nearly every week as have two customers there. Thought they could have shut off the stairs and organised something for the lifts but thinking about it, was probably better closing it and just using Arsenal. Was a nightmare getting out of there though.

It's a joke to me. Don't like Terry at all, but this has been a witch hunt. The guy is blatantly not a racist. Apparently, if he had called him a "f ing c**t" that's fine. You can abuse each other on the pitch kids. Add a word of colour and you'll get a ban and a fine the price of a house. World has gone crazy.

Took all of 30 seconds to buy my two. Site seems to be working much better now. Never been to Upton Park so that's another one chalked off the list. What's the best tube station to get off at or do try close it ala Holloway Rd for Arsenal (still can't fathom why they do that)?

To be fair, we've gained 4k on last season which is not to be sniffed at. Empty seats seem to be in the same place each week (Itchen centre). Pricing problem you reckon?

Totally disagree on that. Lallana was awful last week but was a captains performance today. Was easily as good as Ramierez and dragged us back into it. We should be thankful that we have both, will be a nightmare to mark. His trickery on the ball was awesome and created space for Ramirez to play his passes. Villa didn't know where the threat was coming from 2nd half as here was so much confidence and quality on the ball. If only Lallana coud shoot...

Read through and can't believe nobody has mentioned Lallana. I thought he was by far our best player and had a captains performance. Picked us up when we were down, great run and desire for the first goal, and generally was just a class above. So many good performances, it's easier to pick out the bad (Fox). Been a critic of Fonte, but he looked a Premiership defender today, Yoshida looked class, just playing the ball out from an interception makes such a difference. But the front 4... Wow. That was as good as I've seen for years. It took me back to the Nicholl 4-2-4 days and it was just a joy to watch. Ramirez, Puncheon, Lambert, Lallana, if they play like that for the rest of the season we are in with a chance of doing more than just staying up. Not getting carried away - perhaps it was a poor Villa side, but jesus, we looked good. Even first half I thought we controlled it. Call out to Adkins as well. As others have mentioned, really emotional moment when the crowd started singing his name and he responded. Don't know if it's just drunken thoughts, but actually feel like everybody in this together. Proud of the team, proud of the way we play, proud of the manager, and just amazed that half that team were playing in league 1 just 2 years ago. Three out of the front 4 were with us on that journey. None of them looked out of place today (or this season). Whatever this season brings, I'm totally sold. Rather go down playing like that than trying to nick a goal here and there. It's great entertainment down at St Mary's at the moment.

Made me laugh.

Haha, point taken! Think we're just changing cars, been a long journey and some parts are showing wear and tear. Looks like we put wrong petrol in the new one, Adkins has just realised, but to be fair to him it was a hell of a big hill to drive up, especially with the wrong fuel. Started to look a little better with the Gastron GTX oil and once he fits the Japanese parts in, fixes the flat left tyre and works out where the dodgy African turbo boost goes, we'll be ok.

As I've said since we got taken over, going to enjoy the ride. Playing some great stuff, if we can cut out the mistakes at the back, think we'll be ok. We can only get better!

7. Still enjoying the ride and trying to guess what happens next. Also trying not to get too worked up over playing 4-3-3/4-5-1 when we blatantly haven't got the players to do it. Understanding that it was a 5 year plan and we're well ahead of schedule and that the club hasn't let us down yet. If it takes a relegation to understand the Premiership, then so be it. Fact is, Wigan were far better than anything we played in the Championship last year and apart from right back, I'd argue that was a weaker team than what we put out for the majority of last season. Would love for us to just go for it though, ala Blackpool. We can't defend for ****, may as well go for broke. If we could just move the ball a little quicker, we'd give ourselves a much better chance. It's not all doom and gloom!

Really? Sounded loud from where I was. Not from where you were? Always makes me wonder how loud it actually is when people say that. I was in block 40.

Half empty is pushing it, we're only 3k short. Had it been Pompey v Wigan it would have been "what a great turnout". think the crux comes against the "B" category teams. If we sell out those and as well as the "a" games, there is a pretty good case to expand. For the record though, if we have sold 22k season tickets, and Wigan brought less than 1k, I'm taking it that means we attracted 6k in other supporters? Not bad, but like you, was expecting more. Signings will help I think. Jury's out whether we can fill a bigger stadium. Personally, would prefer the money going on players, as quite frankly, right now, we ain't good enough, and that's not Adkins fault. On another note, couldn't fault the support today. Great stuff.

That will teach me not to read the whole thread first!

Literally just got my 2. For the record, I'm a season ticket holder and have 1 linked season ticket holder to my account. Was only allowed to purchase 1 for each account (other season ticket holder also went to Man City) so what it allowed me to do, was what it should have let me do. Had to add a different card though, no idea why. Didn't like the one that was already saved (and yes, there are funds available). Didn't say how many we're left.

PMSL, you couldn't make it up. Trust just been "outed" on SSN. How will Mr Allen react to this?

Honestly interested, Kraken. I don't post much, but read this forum almost everyday and have seen this kind of debate opened up before and it just seems that while some think we can grow and challenge, others don't. It plays into a wider argument about football as a whole. Is the top 4-7 places in England pretty much taken by City, Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and then one of the Newcastle's, Aston Villas, Evertons of the world or can another club now break into it and sustain it for 10 years? I take your point its about sustainability and I agree that is where we might fall down as well. There's been a few that don't even believe we need a bigger stadium and that's their opinion, I respect it, even if I don't agree with it. I just find it a really interesting subject and wandered what others seriously thought. Is it because of the heartache we have all felt whilst supporting Saints that we don't believe it would ever happen to our club or do people honestly believe we don't need a bigger stadium, we can't challenge those elite clubs? Not trying to be a WUM, if that's what you are getting at.

Really interested in what people think about this, and without people resorting to the normal cat fight that happens when this forum has a debate, do you think it's impossible for a club to now grow? I can honestly see both sides, I think. Personally, I think it's not impossible. It's not a short term thing, and it would mean having a successful team for a period of time but when I was at school in the 80s, my friends were all Liverpool or Everton supporters. Move on to now, kids at school now probably support Utd, City or Chelsea. If anybody said to me 20 years ago that Chelsea would be the first London club to win the European Cup you would have laughed at them. Yes it's cost a ridiculous amount a money, but is that now the only way of doing it? I'm not so sure anymore.

Which a lot of people got shouted down for to be honest. Personally, I'm on MLG's camp, think we'll expand the stadium in the next couple of years, will be looking for Europe in the next 5 and have a much bigger profile in the game. Even if we don't, I'm going to enjoy the ride. The last three years have been the most exciting since the time of 4-2-4 days of Nicholl in my own personal memory. When you take into account what little comments do come from the players, it's all the same story as what Holmes is saying here. I believe the spin when we've just had two promotions in a row, sell outs in League 1, Championship, kept hold of our better players for once and are bidding for Champions League team's best striker. Nothing NC has done so far makes me question that we are striving to break into the upper levels of the game. As others have mentioned, whether we get there or not is another question, but I admire the ambition and am proud of it. Some people seem to think The top 7 is a closed shop and that clubs can't grow in size and stature. If that was the case, Newcastle would not have just finished 5th, Swansea wouldn't be Premier League and Cardiff would not have got to a major Cup Final. You get what you earn in football and at the moment, I'm loving this club. I can't wait to see what happens next, and if it all goes pear-shaped and we do go down, it will be in the knowledge that we hopefully tried doing something different and going for it, rather than accepting the status-quo and accepting our supposed place in the football hierarchy. If nothing else, league 1 should have shown some of most negative fans that we do have a rather sizeable core fan base. Be proud of what the club is trying, and in the way they are trying it. Glad for Holmes, thought he was unlucky here, hope he does well at Swindon.

I'm 34 and yes I remember how big Sheffield Weds, Notts For were. But that was my point about history. I think, and it's only my opinion, that too much is placed on historic events. Are Forest a big club because they won the European Cup? Are Wednesday a big club because they were challenging for cups years ago? Personally, on the latter, I think Wednesday are massive. I would argue all day long about Forest though. My point is we have a potential to get to a Newcastle sized club in fan base and revenue. Wednesday averaged the same attendance as us in League 1 near enough. Whose to say with the same sized stadium we couldn't fill it? Yes they have history, but in the modern age what does that count for? We'll exceed both Forest's and Wednesday's revenue and attendance next year. There is an opportunity to grow. I'm all for it. Whether we do or not is another question. Yes the big clubs dominate. But the big club "club" is not the closed shop everybody seems to think it is.