isorry

it was also good that he interrupted the question he was asked to slate Cortese for not mentioning/thanking Adkins in his programme notes. He does seem to have the right idea about how a football club should be run, and he chose the right time to give his opinion on the lack of class that has been shown without tarring the whole club with that brush

Dramatic words at the end but completely true in my opinion. I also agree with everything the last poster says about logic. The combination of lack of logic, lack of decency, and the massive arrogance of the decision maker, all leaves me feeling a bit cold. Ultimately it seems quite boring to me taking the well trodden path of throwing money in, chopping and changing managers ruthlessly, and maybe achieving success if you get lucky, or sinking without trace if not (and obviously you've got to have a big investment in youth). I was enjoying the process of doing it properly by getting the right people on board and letting them work hard to succeed, I felt like we were proving something at the same time.

I didn't read the original post, but this one does make me think how many supporters are genuinely finding it difficult to come to terms with this decision, and how many feel significantly less passionate about the club than they did a few days ago. I feel strange writing it, as nothing in the last 20 years has made me waver for a moment, but I have to admit that for now the shine has gone from supporting Southampton. I may well just be taking my time in moving through those 5 phases mentioned above, but currently it seems to go a bit deeper than that. If this was clearly in the interests of the club I would understand, but you can't really argue that by explaining that it is just extreme ambition. The only club to achieve champions league qualification from outside the usual names in recent years is Everton. They didn't need to appoint a foreign coach to attract the players to do it with. They've stuck with one manager because they found someone who is clearly good at the job. Getting rid of good people is not something you'll find anyone in business advocating. You will find them saying that ruthless leaders do not create great companies. To my knowledge Cortese is a banker by trade. He might be financially astute but that is something different to being a good leader. A manager who learns from his mistakes can't be called out of his depth, at least not for long, and if Adkins was accused of that this season it was only because he wasn't afraid to show some imagination and do what he thought was right, rather than play everything safe. For all of my years of irrational love for Southampton, I currently struggle to feel enthusiastic about an organisation that conducts itself in this way. Hopefully at 8 o'clock tonight that will change. Anyway, i've not exactly stuck to my point here, but is anyone else in the same boat?

I do find it momentarily humiliating, but not so that I want to rip up everything that has been successful over a period of 2 or more years based on 45 minutes or 8 games at most. I'm confident that I could find you an example of humiliation for any team in our division within the last couple of years. Example: Manchester Utd 1 - 6 Manchester City. Manchester Utd fans still remain proud of their club and rightly so (I suppose). At no point did I argue for Steve Wigley or Stuart Gray to be given more time, and I was delighted when the Scottish FA took Burley off our hands, but this situation is completely different. The biggest problem with everything you're saying is that you are basing your judgements on much too short a period of time to be significant. How many times would you have sacked Roberto Martinez if you were in charge of Wigan? You could get through 5 managers this season by your reasoning. But the original point of this is that we should still be enjoying the different experience this season brings, and have a positive impact on what is going on at the moment. We're only one place off where we would probably accept being at the end of the season, although the league table still doesn't contain a lot of information that we didn't know at the start of the season. We've got 30 games left to climb that one place. I'd back us to achieve that and a bit more.

I don't see how it can be right to think in these terms after such a small portion of the season. No one is claiming it is fine for things to stay as they are just because we're a lot higher up the leagues than we used to be, or that it is ok if things are bad because they used to be really bad. But there is a much longer period of evidence to suggest that changing managers often leads to bad things and massive set backs in the long term. As some earlier posts allude to, we currently have a team that it is worthwhile to support, not a group of players and managers that change every 6 months into a completely different set of people that just happen to put the same shirt on as the last ones. Far from being humiliating the current manager has been part of creating something to be proud of, and that can't turn into something humiliating the moment there is a set back or two. I'm still enjoying being a Southampton fan, after a period of watching players who I didn't believe cared much, I'm pretty sure these ones do which I like. Let the same people fix their own mistakes and back them to do so in the meantime, Adkins seems intelligent enough to do that even though some of the mistakes (in my opinion) with substitutions etc have happened more than once.

can we give adkins more time? answer is yes if we lose the next 3 it won't be too late, we weren't even in the bottom 3 before this weekend! as for the £30m spent, the biggest chunk of that has missed the last 2 games. i wish we had an experienced prem centre back too but it doesn't mean we're all doomed. for those that insist on analysing tiny samples of games and basing their entire judgement of the state of the team on it we have 4 points from the last 4 games. that isn't too bad for a newly promoted side. A bit of defensive improvement, mainly from getting confident playing against the best strikers, and we'll comfortably be a top-17 side

well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who isn't panicing. Completely agree that we need to show loyalty if we're ever going to expect it in return. I also agree that saying Adkins is out of his depth is completely premature, I'd go so far as to say there is currently no significant evidence to think it. It is more likely to be that players used to a lower level need a chance to learn how to adapt their game to more skilled forwards than the manager himself needing to learn. How much does the ability of managers even vary from one league to the next - it is surely less clear cut than changes in player ability. Again I agree you're bound to hit a sticky patch if you rise up as quickly as we have, and to not be patient about it is to penalise people for how successful they have been.

I've resisted coming on to this forum all season as I remember how quick people are to complain. A couple of years ago I thought I might never see Southampton in the Premier League again, and I'm not very old. We've only played 8 games and we're not adrift at the bottom, and that's after a ridiculous first 4 games (in which we outplayed Man Utd). We always used to win one of our first 8 in my memory anyway. Half of our goals conceded have been against Man City, Man Utd, and Arsenal. We lost 6-1 away at Arsenal and got to the final of the FA Cup and came 10th(i think?) in the Premier League in 2003. It just happens sometimes in the Premier League. Yes the defence has been a bit shambolic but even without any additions, a bit more confidence, fewer injured full backs, and getting the run of the ball for a game or two would probably sort it out. My own theory is that losing out on all of those opening games left them a bit rattled and they've not been able to settle in to the league yet. So can't we wait for them to do that? Mistakes have been made, and I know nothing about goings on behind the scenes, but we are in a position I dreamed of being in the very recent past, and I wish everyone would just enjoy it. I don't understand why Lambert is being used so sparingly, and repeatedly taken off when we're winning when it's so much easier for the opposition when he isn't on the pitch. BUT why are so many people ignoring that over the years changing the manager every other season hasn't worked all that well? And not just for Southampton. Especially when you sack a promising manager who is yet to reach his full potential and replace him with someone with proven mediocrity. Adkins is one of the most interesting, ambitious, and thoughtful managers I've seen and i'd love to go back to the days (before I followed Southampton) when we kept a manager for 10 or more years, then you can actually support the same team for a prolonged period. Reading comments about needing someone like Redknapp in order to move forward is scary. I mean come onnnn, just get a grip of yourselves!!

I don't know about the 2nd free kick but was anyone else surprised at how much time everyone wasted celebrating the equaliser rather than grabbing the ball and lining up to go for the winner? It brought back memories of Danny Higginbotham doing the same thing against palace the year we got relegated from the Premier League. I would like to have seen more of a desire to win the game and claim 2 extra points.

Is it just me or is 'the saints are coming' really corny and generally a very poor tune? The only music I've ever enjoyed saints coming on to was one vision by queen at the dell, so I'd vote for bringing that back if i had the chance