Capel Saint

How can Poopey afford to bring good League 1 players in whilst in Admin that other League 1/2 clubs can ill afford? It is staggering that the FL can just stand by and let them do it. Any other club wouldn't get a look in, so why them? There is even talk of players being given six month loan deals to Pompey. WTF!! How? The club is still in admin, the only credible buyers are the PST that have questionable amount of finance let alone all the questions re creditors, money owed to players issues, paying for the ground etc, I do not see how they can conduct business as a normal football club considering they are, at present, in so much debt and have no means of continuing beyond the next month. Pure utter madness and other L1 clubs must be very annoyed that the FL are sitting back and letting them do it.

Think it is an excellent approach and could serve Southampton well by casting a much bigger net wider rather than just relying on a scouting network that could miss a few gems. Interesting that the article refers to setting up other academies in other areas of the world so you would think that they would be looking at maybe USA, Carribbean, South America, South East Asia, Australia, Scandanavia and Eastern Europe as possible other locations.

Who cares? They paid their money like everyone else and if they want to leave on 85 mins then that is up to them. Personally I will be staying to enjoy the promotion party! (positive thinking? you bet!) :-)

I think the team as a whole have wobbled inform recently which is partly down to nerves to get promoted and also now playing teams who have something to play for. Reading - it was to go above us to get promoted Boro - to have a chance of getting into the play offs. Of course the ref didn't help when he completely bottled the decision to send Hines off which changed the impetus of the game. Still, with Coventry who have nothing to play for and a packed St Mary's I can't see why Saints can't get a win, irrespective of what West Ham do. With regards to Fonte being able to cope in the Prem, no doubt time will tell.

Perhaps you should put the gf out then!! ;-)

Would suggest you put the cat out first thus avoiding gf's wrath!

Thought we outplayed Reading until their second goal went in due to poor defending on our part. Our defence has been getting nervy of late hence why we have started to concede goals, they need to tighten up. I thought a draw would have been a fair result but the difference between Reading and Saints is that we were trying to pass the ball into the net. There were some great passing by Saints but this was a game where the full backs needed to support our wingers to get the ball in early. Time after time I wished Fox and Butterfield would make runs past their last defender but they didn't. Didn't help with the ref siding with Reading on 50/50 decisions on a number of occasions. Although we lost 3-1 the scoreline flattered Reading and I think we will win two of our last three and go up second.

It's a difficult one. There are a few players in the team who have found it more difficult to cope in the Championship this season, rather than League 1. I would say that Fonte, Hammond and Harding have all struggled and therefore not been as effective. Adkins does eeem to want to develop players rather than making whole sale changes and you can see his point as Saints have been in the top two all season whilst West Ham and Leicester who have both brought in over 12 players each, have struggled to find consistent form. Saying that, if we do get promoted Nigel will have to revamp the team quite substantially as I don't think half our current team would cope with the speed and quality of teams in the Prem.

Unfortunately there are too many fans that turn up to the game and just do not sing and spur the team on. I sit in the Chapel end and at times get frustrated with the lack of singing. It is not helped when some people go who are not there for the footy but just go with their partner. Last night a woman next to me was constantly texting her mates and not watching the game. Why bother going if you are clearly not interested in watching the game. Again I found it annoying as being a sell out, it denied a genuine fan the chance of buying a ticket. Hey ho!

Would be surprised to see Hooper arriving at St Mary's in this transfer window considering Celtic need him for their current campaign. A summer move would be more likely. Collins looks a dead cert to sign on a loan deal which makes sense. We need an experienced centre half to slot in alongside Martin and can give cover at the centre back role for future injuries and suspensions over the remainder of the season. Sharp or Maynard are more likely scenarios, depending on wether player, his agent and Cortese agree on the wages. At least we will know by 11pm, Tuesday.

There has been no mention of Sharp since it was alleged Saints put in a bid a couple of days ago. Could a deal be in the offing? Also the speculation about Maynard going as he is out of contract in the summer and Bristol City want to cash in before then, has also gone quiet since Wigan pulled out/didn't put a formal bid in (delete least plausable). Perhaps Saints are doing a deal for him on the quiet.

Yes, we do need to be looking at a replacement keeper as I am not sure Bart is up to the job. The Blackpool game was not the first time he has had a nervy performance in the first team and I do wonder whether he has got so used to playing much less pressured reserve games that he can't handle the pressure any more when he appears in the first team. Kelvin will need replacing in a couple of seasons so Adkins needs to be looking at this area of the team. There was a rumour that Saints were looking at a keeper who plays in the Dutch league but haven't heard anymore about that.

Was at the game yesterday and thought Fox had a shocking game. He never puts the boot in and the right winger got the better of him time and again. Thought the team had better balance when Harding came on and would start him for the Pompey game.

Seems our attack and delivery just isn't working today.

Have to say that some of the Saints players looked a little fatigued last night. Guly especially was lethargic and did little running off the ball. Thought the back four did well and nice to see Harding back at left back, putting in some tackles. Not sure about Hammond and Schneiderlin in the middle of the park. They didn't seem to get that stuck in and were guilty on a number of occasions of backing off just in front of our back four so giving space for Hull to mount an attack. Hull seemed to have so much more energy than Saints and it was a blessing when De Ridder came on at half time as it gave the team more natural balance. One thing does annoy me though is that since Connelly was dropped, every Saints player feels the need to go back into the penalty area when the opposition has a corner. Arggh!!

If Cortese is thinking about expanding the ground to 44,000 sometime in the future then that is great, as it shows ambition. He is probably thinking back to the JPT final when 55,000 Saints fans bought tickets and had the FA given the go ahead, a further 20,000 ticket scould have been sold. I appreciate that the game was at Wembley and Saints fans were riding high on Marcus saving our beloved club but perhaps he is thinking that eventually he can attract some of those fans to attend SMS on a regular basis and globally increase the awareness of the club. This ambition will be tempered on a number of factors which includes in the short term, getting promoted to the Prem, being able to compete and avoid annual relegation dogfights and sound investment in the squad to improve it year on year. Every Chairman dreams that their academy can produce a flow of excellent players to supplement their squad but in reality the flow is just a trickle. However, even if a manager could bring on one or two players a season into the team successfully, then that is a great achievement. Everton are a good example of being able to bring on youngsters and eventually cement them into the first team, providing one of the big six or seven teams doesn't poach them. Fergie was very lucky in the early 90's to have Beckham, the Neville brothers, Scholes, Giggs and Lee Sharpe all mature at the same time and be able to be integrated into the first team at once and which paid him dividends for years afterwards. Therefore I am sure Cortese would certainly consider expanding the stadium but only when attendances get back to the stage where we were regularly filling the stadium to capacity (factoring in empty away fan seats). The reason Lowe didn't consider expanding the stadium was because the club could never afford to do so in a plc structure. If the Liebherr Family decide to invest heavily into the club if and when we are back in the Prem then expansion of the stadium could happen. Time will tell peeps!

Can't believe it, truely shocked. RIP Gary.

Also more money through tv and with a bigger fanbase, maybe the ground will be expanded. I guess it will depend if the Liebherr family wish to keep hold of the club and invest long-term. I hope they do keep ownership as they are investing in the right areas eg improving the training ground.

Hopefully Saints have all the Scandanavian countries covered as there used to be a good flow of good footballers coming from these countries as they adapt well to the fast paced English game. Don't think there are as many as in the 90's although I'm not sure why. Lets face it, one of our best defensive pairings ever (Claus and Killer) were Scandanavian!

I'm not afraid of success as if you look at clubs like Swansea and Norwich, they seem to have a mindset that they will give it their best shot whilst in the Prem and if its not good enough and they are relegated, then they haven't pushed the clubs financially by paying millions and millions to improve their squads. Instead they would have seen how far away they are competing against the top teams in British football. I enjoy the Championship as it is far more open, unlike the Premiership where it is becoming rather stale as the clubs with the financial might dominate proceedings. This of course could alter slightly when FIFA bring in the rules where clubs have to live within their means but as Man Utd have a colossal marketing revenue (approx £175m a year) these rules would not really affect their spending power. If Saints did get promoted then I could see a similar scenario to Norwich and Swansea. Adkins and most of the existing squad would give it a go but I can't see the Liebherr Family letting Adkins spend £15-20m in one season. They would no doubt add to the squad but it wouldn't be wholsesale changes as Adkins likes to bring on his players rather than buy and sell lots of players. Of course the other question should Saints get promoted is, will the Liebherr Family want to continue owning the club once Markus's dream has been fulfilled? I know this is going slightly off the OP's original question but I guess it would be in Saints fans minds, should promotion happen.

Not as good as last season but as other posters have mentioned, he has not had a regular defensive partner yet. Hopefully Hooiveld will be the answer and he can improve. Whether he can make it at Prem level would be highly questionable at this stage.

I would be prepared to give Beattie a trial with a view to a short term contract, providing his attitude was right and Nige could be given time to get his fitness improved as he did with Lambert. He may be 33 but at Championship level he could succeed. Look at Phillips at Blackpool (I know he is a different style of striker) but he is banging them in for Blackpool and he is 38! With regards to his attitude, I'm sure he if he brought is big balls opinion along he would be shown the door very quickly. Adkins would not stand for it as was shown when Puncheon was quite rightly told to bugger off. It probably depends if Beattie has got a little older and a little wiser and realises he can no longer walk into a first 11 and would need to work very hard to get into the starting team. Form wise he didn't impress at Everton, Rangers or Blackpool and sometimes a player is not able to settle at a club for a thousand different reasons. Look at Delap. Was an average player for us but at Stoke he has been superb for them. Beattie had his best form at Saints so maybe it is worth giving him a chance to rekindle that old spark? He would certainly give cover should Lambert get injured or need to be rested. At the end of the day Adkins and Cortese will make the decision and it is up to them.

Quite! It has taken 4 pages for someone to raise the fact that he hasn't responded. Why? Probably because he is purely a wind-up merchant and his only agenda is to create arguments over the slightest thing. The person who typed under the user name of Scooby was much the same. They will disappear for a couple of days and then pop up with another couple of absurd comments that will start another debate/argument amongst posters. Can't think he is a Saints fan. I wonder if Docker-P stands for Docker-Portmouth and if it is, then you have your answer!

Quite! They should send the army in who would not be afraid to wade in and give those mindless yobs a good kicking!

Oxo wanting away is now showing in The Sun and The Mirror, as well as The Echo. It's a shame if true as he would have been sensational for Saints at Championship level and would have been a good stepping-stone in his career. It's a shame Jack Cork doesn't have a quick word with him to say that being at a big club isn't necesssarily the best place to be. I can't see him jumping straight into the first team if he does end up at Arsenal. He'll probably play reserve team football at best and then loaned out to a Championship side anyway!