Suomi Saint

Don't worry................Southampton Saints will be appointing a top quality coach. Don't know about us, though.

Calm down boys....what's the worst that can happen, relegation? Anyway, Karma will dictate that we sell Gazza to Spurs as payback for Fourpast.

The new Board is all fur coat and no knickers......................Still, life goes on.

As one poster said...............he'll be gone by Christmas. Silly man.

Well, if he leaves then he leaves...so what? I'd rather have a Manager who wants to be here - like Nigel for example. Same goes with the players. Shaw may think it's amusing making his tweets, but will he find it amusing sitting on the United bench in the pouring rain? Look lads and lasses, we all enjoyed League 1, so why can't we just enjoy whatever the new season brings us - even if we have to field the whole U21 side, which seems increasingly likely. MP is a good manager, no doubt, but he doesn't want us and we must learn to move on.

It's up to the new Board isn't it? Depends on their ambitions. If they don't want to push on then players like Luke will question whether the grass is really green here. If MP is signed up and 1 or 2 new faces come in then I don't think anyone will leave. Personally, I don't think AL will ever leave whatever happens. I have to say I am a bit wary of this new Board, though. Painting the financial situation as 'difficult' is really odd - the figures looked surprisingly good to me for a PL football club.

Cortese, whatever you think of him, did a really good job. Obviously this was done with the significant input of others - Pardew, Adkins, Reed and now MP. But it was Cortese that saw their potential and employed them. Of course the Don didn't use parlance straight of the middle manger's guide to success, he was too single minded, stubborn even, to bother with placating/reassuring others. He knew what he was doing was right and that's all that mattered to him. This new guy is obviously not all fur coat and no panties - he's had success wherever he has been it seems. But not, as yet, in football. I will reserve my judgement on him for now because he has to walk the walk (like Cortese) and not just talk the talk. We should support him of course, even though it's quite clear the club is planning to 'live within its means.' This will inevitably mean changes, perhaps in playing staff as they look to forward their careers at the very top, or the Manager, as MP obviously has ambition. It really is just a case of wait and see and enjoy the next match.

Selling SRL would be a very bad idea on so many levels. Is all this nonsense because of the fact that Guly is still injured and Fox/Jos/Gazza are finally out of the team for the foreseeable future? Who is next under the microscope?

Thinking sensibly, it is probable that this run of form is just down to the quality of opposition, a little bit of bad luck, and the injuries that we have had. However, a run of defeats can cause self doubt and a drop in confidence, which leads to an overall drop in performance.....leading to more defeats. That is football. This is why I think Saints need to grind out a few results to avoid this Domesday scenario from happening. If we lose to Chelsea then the pressure begins to build, not only on the team but also on MP. The positive thing is that we are never out of our depth, home or away, which means our competiveness is still there. I'm sure that once Boruc is back then things will begin to improve.

I think a bit of complacency is setting in with us Saints fans. Sure, we've battled fairly well of late considering the injuries we have had, but our current results are still indicative of relegation form. Another couple of defeats and the players 'confidence' will decline - maybe even NC's, who knows? Do we really have greater qualities than the team that went 20 matches without a win in the late 80's? I think that we do, but don't take anything for granted. I, for one, won't be relieved until we have passed the 40 points barrier. Also, please remember that we were 5th or 7th at Christmas in 1973 and then got relegated! I think this team is too good for that, but it must now ignore all the hype about MP, the Academy, the England hopefuls, and just concentrate on grinding out 'ugly' results for a few games. Are we hard to beat? Clearly not. Do we compete? Yes, we do.

One would imagine that this is a tongue-in-cheek quote - our best seasons (1978-1985) were spent at the Dell. Side packed with internationals, great one-touch football, and loads of goals. I, too, have been in the Dell a few times when there were over 31/32,000. Halcyon days, which, most probably, will never be bettered.

The answer is not long - which is why white South Africans have been leaving for many years. Zimbabwe on a grander scale.

Another example of chasing a player who will never sign for us. Why does NC do it? Meanwhile, achievable targets are joining other clubs. This will run to 30 pages before he joins a club who has qualified for the CL.

Ivan the Terrible sounds like a guy who would not back down in order to save face. Cortese is probably the same, although, in this instance, he has done nothing wrong and shouldn't budge. Basically, Wanyama will go to Cardiff if there are no other offers for him. I'm not sure how Wanyama and his agents know that Cardiff will pay the 1M+ 'commission' for doing naff all - if Cardiff have already spoken to them aren't they guilty of tapping the player up? I'm not going to read this thread any longer - this saga has become very boring now. Credit to Lennon, though, his comments are very mature and balanced.

I think we are all bored of this one now - time to move on.....

I don't think it's games to be honest, more an expression of disgust and a signalling of the end of our interest in Wanyama and his cohort of greedy agents.

Too much water under the bridge now - he'll end up at Cardiff for 10M most likely. His agents will be very happy: they will get their cool 1M+ for doing nowt, and they can get another 1M+ when he moves on after Cardiff are relegated.

It seems that the player and his agent(s) are getting squeezed - one side by Saints and the other by Celtic. Otherwise, Celtic would have given Cardiff permission to speak to Wanyama. However, the current situation could also be very simple - it reflects that Saints are no longer interested and that Celtic are holding out for 12M from Cardiff or another club. To be honest, we should move on. If Wanyama and his mates are trying to get 1M+ for doing very little then that is just an insult to Saints, the fans, and the football industry in general. And there is no guarantee that this guy would actually be a success. Jog on mate.

Good comment.

Our targets are currently unrealistic for sure. Saints are not a big club and that is why these guys won't come here. Of course NC wants to turn us into a big club, but that takes a lot of time and of course continued success. He is trying to jump too many rungs of the ladder at once, and prospective players will not be convinced by mere words. Take Wanyama for instance, why would he want to leave Celtic for Saints? Celtic is a huge club, in the CL, have great history etc. etc. He clearly wants to join the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool et al. If they don't want him then do we really want to find ourselves in a Kevin Phillips situation - where a player joins but really and truly doesn't want to be here. And the cost of these guys is just enormous. Take a breath, Nicola, and try and make steady progress with so called lesser talented players who don't have an attitude problem. SRL is a shining example.

This......and we are wasting a lot of valuable time by pursuing these players.

Yes, I agree. He's going to bide his time and hold out for the bigger fish.

This one could drag on and perhaps Cortese will lose his patience. Wanyama will obviously want to go for the best personal offer as he has no particular allegiance to any club. Of course Celtic won't want to accept a lower transfer fee.

Once again Cortese is setting his sights too high and is consequently wasting valuable time. There is no way an Italian international would ever come to Saints.

He could easily get injured or have a strop early doors and sit moping around the whole season destroying team spirit. No thanks.