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Personally I think Big Sam has all the right attributes for the England job, but if I was Stuart Lancaster I would be gutted to be passed over like that after a great campaign:)

Oops - quite right! Was told this originally by a financial advisor many years ago who I think was working with Bassett then - when he had just finished as a player with Wimbledon. Never questioned it until now. Always beware of what financial advisors tell you1 Just back from my weekly game of Futsal so a few other points to comment on. Don't think Cortese is in anyway influenced by what Lowe wanted, or anyone else for that matter. I am sure everything that is happening is his own idea. After all he was not the sort of banker sat in an office all day, but more a personal relationship manager for high net worth customers especially in the sports sector if I recall, so would have mixed with a large number of agents/club officials across Europe during his career, as well as businessmen like Marcus. I wouldn't agree that this vision is that universally shared across English football, hence why we are one of the few taking the academy proposal so seriously. Yes, all may wish it to happen but not all see it as a fundamental part of the plan, which both Lowe and Cortese do. I would imagine the presence of the academy and our track record with development of young players was a positive factor in the decision to purchase. For all Lowe's faults, this was a success and Prost's reputation was quite high across Europe, I think. Andy Oldknow only came on the scene during the Wilde years, and I think he had gone by the time Lowe returned, so not sure the two of them worked together for any time. Clearly Cortese didn't appear that impressed with him given his short tenure after the takeover and some of the comments made about Pardew's appointment later. As for Cortese not making the same mistakes as Lowe did, I hope not but hard to be certain. Lowe wasn't always so unpopular with the majority of fans (both will always have a number against them) and I can remember a testimonial game at the Dell, when Stuart Gray was newly appointed, when he appeared as a sub to a warm reception. Yes, this was later used to ridicule him but I think at the time most of us were quite happy with him. It was the later decisions, which got more crazy as time went on, that led to the intense dislike for most. But both can be accused of arrogance and single mindedness. Both had little time for their predecessors or club legends. At the moment Cortese seems to be getting everything right - long may it continue. And no, the Falcao of the Futsal world has never played full blown football at any significant level, as far as I am aware. The game is that big in some other countries that eventually you can have a career just in Futsal. I believe it is professional in places like Spain, Portugal, Brazil with purpose built stadiums. Falcao is that outstanding that I am sure he would also make money from endorsements and sponsorship. A bit like the various forms of cricket now where some are suitable for one form but not another.

Futsal is closer to the skills needed for 11-a-side football than the 5-a-side we have tended to play in the UK. size 4 ball, no head height rule, the ball goes out for throw-ins (actually a kick in), corners, goalkicks (throw out), goalies can come out of area. There are 4 second rules for getting ball back in play, and restrictions on passbacks to keeper. No offsides fortunately! Once played, it is unlikely you would want to play the old English version again. Clifford's is very different, and as I said, I think more appropriate to younger players. Australia seems ahead of us on this one as my son in Melbourne says it seemed to be the standard version played there.Plenty of video clips on YouTube, one showing a young Ronaldhinho somewhere I think. Look for any featuring a player called Falcao to see why it is so popular in some places - amazing skills! Sadly, at my age attempting any of those tricks would cost me a fortune in chiropracter bills but still keeps me fit chasing the younger lads! I don't think Clifford's arrogance does him any favours and I don't think there was ever a place for him in the professional game. I imagine he earns more from his schools business than he ever would have as a schoolteacher, and I guess he has a lot more freedom than reporting to a headmaster. As he bought Garforth Town with money earned in the first few years of his business and now has 320 schools worldwide, he probably isn't struggling for a penny or two now. He seems a master in self promotion, developed the idea after meeting Juninho, had Socrates at one stage playing in his team (I think only for one game but I remember it got on the main BBC news at the time) so no surprise Woodward was impressed initially. I always admired Lowe's vision although the delivery was too often flawed, no more so than in the appointment of these two at the same time as he was trying to work with Harry. I doubt if Harry was his choice at all and suspect that he was forced into that appointment. The differences between the two of them always meant we were heading for disaster from that moment on, regardless of what happened with Woodward. I finfd it interesting now that Cortese has a very similar vision to Lowe's but is executing this so much better - possibly helped by being totally in control. Obviously had his "Harry" in Pardew but back on track now with a Director Of Football doing the Woodward role but fully supported by a young upcoming English first team coach in Nigel (ala Gray/Wigley). Going forward playing a "continental" passing game, which starts at youth level right up to the first team, developing our own players who are comfortable playing that way, with sports science significant in the background to achieve the maximum from the resources available. Very much the ideas that Rupert had but lacked the control to carry out, and he was trying to change a relatively successful structure, where Cortese has the advantage of starting from the beginning again, and possibly access to greater funds (although I suspect the intention is not to access these unless essential and not long term, if there is access). I hope he continues to be more successful than Rupert was in achieving the end result they both wanted. As for Harry, we were really the one black mark on his CV, although I can't help thinking much of his success has been on the back of having a generous transfer budget that allows him to deal in estabilished names - not sure how much development of young players he has achieved since his West ham days. Finally, one recollection of those days that always amused me. I was waiting in the reception area with a friend, for a Herbie tour before a game. The reception staff were arguing with someone on the phone who insisted he was a friend of Harry Bassett and must speak to him at once. The staff were all convinced he was a chancer and clearly wasn't a friend of anyone on the staff as he had confused the names of both the manager and his assistant. There was universal agreement until I pointed out that Dave bassett had been known for years as Harry, a reference to his surname and a character on a liquorice allsort pack! a few mumbled words of apology and he was put through!

No you read it right first time. Not the same and Clifford prefers "his" version, which is why he compares the number of touches. I would say his is good for kids but we are making progress if we are now adopting Futsal. Harry wouldn't have understood either and I can imagine that he would not have given Clifford much credit for suggesting it as a training method.

As a keen futsal enthusiast for several years, I was originally quite pleased when Clifford joined Saints, and did investigate the differences between the two variations back then. His version is played with a much smaller ball and one that hardly bounces at all. It seems an ideal early training method for young children (up to teens) and is probably why his soccer schools are such a success. I don't doubt that many brazillian legends started this way. Futsal is now the most popular (and, I think, only official FIFA) version of the small sided game. Back in the mid 80's there were numerous small sided games, all with different rules and I think there was a movement to get one standard game for all. Futsal was the result, which I would say is more suitable for teen/adults. I have played 5-a-side for years and switched to Futsal about 8 years ago. It is vastly superior to the version traditionally played in the UK, encouraging greater skill in ball control, interpassing and pass & go style play. No surprise it is a higly popular in Spain, Italy and most of Eastern Europe. There are World Cups and European tournaments - needless to say we lag significantly behind the rest of the world on this and have hardly won any games. We have been very slow to get leagues up and running in this country, mainly centred around Sheffield up until now. In Brazil, Spain, Portugal etc there are often crowds of several thousand at league games and it is an entertainment form in it's own right. pleased to see Saints adopt this at a local level and hopefully we will see this introduced at more of our local schools and sports centres as the standard version of the game (whoever thought kicking an oversized tennis ball against walls was a good idea!!!) I think it is a vital tool in the upskilling of our youngsters and will help us close the gap on those more technically competant countries like Spain.

Not sure which Bolton match you were thinking off but the one I was referring to happened in August. Our 4th game of the season, where we had not got off to the flying start against Plymouth, good result in the same cup against Bournemouth the Tuesday after, then a weekend off before a draw against Orient on the Saturday before the Bolton game. Did the strategy work? We beat Bristol 4-0 away the weekend after - that seems to suggest Pards got it right. The players had clearly had plenty of recuperation time, not that it should be too difficult at that stage of the season and Pardew did play a fringe player that night, resting Jaidi to give one of his younf centrebacks a chance to grow (Seabourne would have played but was injured). So the overriding problem you suggest doesn't seem that apparant to me, and certainly the reason wasn't to do with fitness levels. He didn't say it was a priority over the league but I would read his comment to imply that he regarded this as of equal importance to the league games, to get the performances back on track. I don't believe he had visions of going all the way to Wembley in this trophy but he had always stated that he believed we should set out to win all games, to build that winning mentality that had been lacking, as important for the supporters to get used to as it is for the players. We didn't win that night but we were very unlucky not to have done, against a strong Premiership side. I know as one of the few who turned up that I came away with a better feeling than I had the weekend before after the Orient game. Was it a stupid comment in view of previous warnings from Cortese? Possibly, but I suspect Pards had his own standards to live by and knew that the Cortese relationship had already broken down (despite Cortese's assurances publicly that it hadn't). I would think that he may have thought Cortese would see the football logic of the decision, as I did. If this was the reason that he was sacked, why did we not hear that in the club statement? Nigel didn't seem to get the message yesterday, even with NC not being there. Only two changes, although he did take an age bringing on the last two substitutes when all of us could see that Guly just wasn't up to it yesterday and even moving him out wide didn't change anything. Both subs had been ready to go for ages, they almost had lost any benefit of a warm up. I don't believe I have disputed the fundamental relationship between ML & NC, how it came about or that Cortese ended up in sole charge of the club. I do think there are questions about whether everything was as NC suggests, as we only have his version of this. Marcus hardly ever said anything publicly, (willing to be corrected) - even Pardew said he was a man of few words, so not a lot of contact there either. NC could see how immensly popular with the supporters ML was, so to quote ML gives anything a more trusted status. Could it be that the family are also a little concerned about the "unequivocal and total control with no interference from Liebherr" - which may be behind the dispute leftback alludes to? I don't know but my experiences of family matters would lead me to think they will have questions. We truly know very little about ML, or his family, or even the state of his health prior to his death. OK, perhaps it is just me who thinks there is a propoganda campaign out there but view all of the interviews during the summer about backroom staff - isn't Nicola fantastic? I think he chooses to avoid the media because he can't control the outcome - hence the promotion of the official website, the banning of photographers earlier in the season (now quietly changed), the trumped up dispute with the echo. Any one been to the fans forum organised by Solent this season - no, I thought not. Only the private dinner with a small select group of season ticket holders, quietly organised but you can't help feeling that they knew details would be passed back to various forums. I can live with quiet professionism but this version of it is very selective and that leads me to think we only got told the things NC wants us to know. Sometimes it is not very professional - comments re Pardew/Shrewsbury tickets? It would have been great to remove the politics and at the outset I genuinely thought that was what was happening. But actually it is the replacement of old regimes with a new order - sorry, but it seems more like a dictatorship to me, not common sense. The removal of all whose views clash with the new regime. Totally my view and I could be wrong. I am grateful that the club was saved but then I was grateful when Rupert Lowe took it over initially. I was grateful when Wilde took it over from him, and even when Crouch came along. By the time Rupert came round the second time, I was becoming more cynical, so I am far more cautious over the current regime for the same reason. Like Rupert, many of NC's plans seem wonderful on the surface - it is the execution that lets them down and I suspect the problem with both of them that they have a blinkered approach to how they would achieve those goals. At the moment, everything seems calm again but as a longterm Saints fan I do care what the future brings. I do believe that much of what leftback is passing on is probably true, and there are enough reasons to suggest that we shouldn't get our hopes up too much about the brilliant future so many seem to suggest.

Not sure which Bolton match you were thinking off but the one I was referring to happened in August. Our 4th game of the season, where we had not got off to the flying start against Plymouth, good result in the same cup against Bournemouth the Tuesday after, then a weekend off before a draw against Orient on the Saturday before the Bolton game. Did the strategy work? We beat Bristol 4-0 away the weekend after - that seems to suggest Pards got it right. The players had clearly had plenty of recuperation time, not that it should be too difficult at that stage of the season and Pardew did play a fringe player that night, resting Jaidi to give one of his younf centrebacks a chance to grow (Seabourne would have played but was injured). So the overriding problem you suggest doesn't seem that apparant to me, and certainly the reason wasn't to do with fitness levels. He didn't say it was a priority over the league but I would read his comment to imply that he regarded this as of equal importance to the league games, to get the performances back on track. I don't believe he had visions of going all the way to Wembley in this trophy but he had always stated that he believed we should set out to win all games, to build that winning mentality that had been lacking, as important for the supporters to get used to as it is for the players. We didn't win that night but we were very unlucky not to have done, against a strong Premiership side. I know as one of the few who turned up that I came away with a better feeling than I had the weekend before after the Orient game. Was it a stupid comment in view of previous warnings from Cortese? Possibly, but I suspect Pards had his own standards to live by and knew that the Cortese relationship had already broken down (despite Cortese's assurances publicly that it hadn't). I would think that he may have thought Cortese would see the football logic of the decision, as I did. If this was the reason that he was sacked, why did we not hear that in the club statement? Nigel didn't seem to get the message yesterday, even with NC not being there. Only two changes, although he did take an age bringing on the last two substitutes when all of us could see that Guly just wasn't up to it yesterday and even moving him out wide didn't change anything. Both subs had been ready to go for ages, they almost had lost any benefit of a warm up. I don't believe I have disputed the fundamental relationship between ML & NC, how it came about or that Cortese ended up in sole charge of the club. I do think there are questions about whether everything was as NC suggests, as we only have his version of this. Marcus hardly ever said anything publicly, (willing to be corrected) - even Pardew said he was a man of few words, so not a lot of contact there either. NC could see how immensly popular with the supporters ML was, so to quote ML gives anything a more trusted status. Could it be that the family are also a little concerned about the "unequivocal and total control with no interference from Liebherr" - which may be behind the dispute leftback alludes to? I don't know but my experiences of family matters would lead me to think they will have questions. We truly know very little about ML, or his family, or even the state of his health prior to his death. OK, perhaps it is just me who thinks there is a propoganda campaign out there but view all of the interviews during the summer about backroom staff - isn't Nicola fantastic? I think he chooses to avoid the media because he can't control the outcome - hence the promotion of the official website, the banning of photographers earlier in the season (now quietly changed), the trumped up dispute with the echo. Any one been to the fans forum organised by Solent this season - no, I thought not. Only the private dinner with a small select group of season ticket holders, quietly organised but you can't help feeling that they knew details would be passed back to various forums. I can live with quiet professionism but this version of it is very selective and that leads me to think we only got told the things NC wants us to know. Sometimes it is not very professional - comments re Pardew/Shrewsbury tickets? It would have been great to remove the politics and at the outset I genuinely thought that was what was happening. But actually it is the replacement of old regimes with a new order - sorry, but it seems more like a dictatorship to me, not common sense. The removal of all whose views clash with the new regime. Totally my view and I could be wrong. I am grateful that the club was saved but then I was grateful when Rupert Lowe took it over initially. I was grateful when Wilde took it over from him, and even when Crouch came along. By the time Rupert came round the second time, I was becoming more cynical, so I am far more cautious over the current regime for the same reason. Like Rupert, many of NC's plans seem wonderful on the surface - it is the execution that lets them down and I suspect the problem with both of them that they have a blinkered approach to how they would achieve those goals. At the moment, everything seems calm again but as a longterm Saints fan I do care what the future brings. I do believe that much of what leftback is passing on is probably true, and there are enough reasons to suggest that we shouldn't get our hopes up too much about the brilliant future so many seem to suggest.

I usually just watch the comments on here and for some time now have been at a loss to understand the growing divide the two posts here show. For some time I have had a growing uneasy feeling about NC and the truth behind so much of what has gone on since we came out of admin. Leftbacks posts have all fitted with what I was beginning to feel - I am not ITK but simply base my judgements on what I read on the club website, saints player and posts on here. Much of what leftback says seems to be based on some inside information and has already been proved correct. Yes - he seems to dislike NC and Reed and his team. It is always interesting to see people talk about what Marcus wanted. Apart from the fact that he looked like everybody's favorite uncle, a jolly smiling man a la Father Christmas, what else do we know about him? I don't recall any direct interviews with him and everything we know has come either from NC or David Bick. So we only know he insisted on NC running the club because Nicola told us so. In the same way we only know he stayed away from the last game of last season because of the style of play, or wanted Pardew sacked was because NC told us so. There has been a growing tide of propaganda designed to make NC look a wonderful man and it was that that first started making me suspicious. Add to comments made by a range of people on here and the way the Pardew matter was handled after the JPT final, even down to the loss of long term club people behind the scenes. I don't know why he & Pardew fell out, but clearly goalposts moved last year. I do suspect meddling with transfers and pressure about picking certain players. Papa was inconsistant, brilliant one minute but awful the next (did he know the offside rule?) and I could see why Pardew used him as he did - as an impact player. I think Guly is almost a direct replacement in so many ways. Re the Bolton game, I could see exactly why Pardew made that comment. He was focused on the league but after a mucked up close season (can see some interference in the arrangement of all that) and a poor start to the campaign, this was an excellent opportunity to put his best team out against higher opposition and hopefully kick start the season. A good performance against Bolton would bring much needed confidence, lift the crowd and be a good springboard. Players hardly needed a rest and as many as pointed out, he had hardly played his first team together in the preseason games - I suspect because the arrangements had been so badly out of line that the right chance to play his best team only came with the Reading game. TBH I am a bit disappointed Nigel has not made more changes today, if leftback has called the team right. I would have liked to see more of the just on the fringe players (Dickson, Martin, Connelly, Holmes, even Wotton) as well as those selected (Bart, Jaidi, Guly) as this does seem an ideal opportunity. The cup will only be of value if we do get to the later rounds and draw a big club (I am not sure NC has access to the same finance he had when ML was alive), so we can improve the war chest. We have reached a stage where some players do need a week off, so a chance missed I feel. Personally, I didn't see much wrong with Pardew, so I am not sure we have been done a big favour. I have long been an admirer of NA, so I am happy to see him here - I just hope he gets the backing he needs and is allowed to run things the way he wants, otherwise there could be more problems ahead

Didn't notice Stuart Gray but Kevin Bond was in the Corporate seats for second match running. And Oldknow & McManaman looked as if they knew each other, and were talking quite a bit before the game and at start of second half.

Spotted that as well - wondered whether he had doubts following the second goal on Saturday where he palmed it back into the path of the Swansea player.

Only half the story. While he was caught out for speed of movement often, and committed several fouls and I thought was lucky not to be booked on two occassions, he showed the passion & rolled up sleeves approach that was at the heart of this display. He battled away all over the pitch, showed as much energy as many of the younger players, got his body in the way, won headers - a real battling performance. True, technically not great (OK - poor) but all effort and was constantly talking to & directing the younger players around him. He has not been my favorite on many games this season for all the reasons you suggest but I think we are now at that stage where his attitude & spirit could be a key factor. Heads dropped after the second Swansea goal but not his - he redoubled his efforts. Shortcomings - yes, but the right person to have alongside you in a battle. Interesting to see he was noticeable by the way he was one of the last of the pitch as he applauded all 4 sides of the ground - not sure I have seen that from him before. Oh - and I can't see what extra Molyneux has given us, except more discipline problems but maybe he will improve with time. Stupid challenge today that could have cost us dear. There is passion and aggression and stupidity - that challenge was firmly in the latter group.

No idea who the bloke in the photo is but bumped into Tommy Forecast's dad in a pub after the Man U match and he mentioned a name like that. He said he was the one who had spotted Tommy playing some time ago and was keen to sign Tommy as soon as the new coaching team were in place. TF's dad described De Wit as "some sort of DoF". My friend & I assumed he was referring to Wotte but he had already mentioned his name earlier and he has mainly had to watch his son play in reserve games, we figured he probably did know who was in charge of that team. Unfortunately, he had to fly off as he had the only key to Tommy’s flat and his son wanted to get back in, so couldn’t get any more detail. He did say that Spurs had been very reluctant to lose Tommy.

Getting rid of Lawrie's picture from the boardroom didn't really surprise me. I went on a tour around StM's about 3 years ago and although there were photo's of other significant Saints heroes, Lawrie was conspicous by his absence - not just from the boardroom. It was the first time I was aware of the deep dislike of each other that Rupes & Lawrie have. As there were only two of us on the tour and both lifelong fans, we had quite a good insight into the club history & politics already but this struck us as amazingly petty. Whatever people say about Lawrie, in my eyes he ranks second only to Ted Bates as Saints greatest ever manager, and certainly the most successful, so to ignore him in that way is to try to wipe out a large chapter in Saints history. Oh... and I wouldn't describe myself as anti Lowe, just a neutral who will be pleased when he moves on because he is so divisive.