yorkiesaint

It might be, but what I'm sure will appeal to Cortese is how little money he will need to spend to get us out of league 1, or to stabilise us in the championship. We are going to be the Ryanair of the football league IMHO.

You must be on a wind-up about Jewell? He's never going to recover from the naked photos.

To all those that think Adkins is the wrong man because he's only ever managed players bought on a small budget: If we appoint Adkins, I think it means NC is looking for someone with experience of working on a shoestring budget, because that is exactly what NC intends to give the new manager. The appointment of Adkins would be a sign that the days of (relatively) big-spending southampton are behind us.

You mean the forum is imploding I presume.

So crazy diamond, any advance on adkins and 'not shearer'. Any clue to the identity of the unpreferred candidate?

Surely Brown has a fluke on his CV followed by a meltdown.

Wait for Keegan's odds to come crashing down..

To me Keegan makes more sense than O'Neil, you can imagine him coming back (did he not have 2 goes at Newcastle?) and you can imagine him linking up with Les Reed again. However, if he has checked out this might not be a good sign!

Keegan and Reed worked together in the england set-up. If this is our dream team lets hope their record at saints is one hell of a lot better.

People on this forum presumably!

It all does sound a bit Lowe-esque, but then for a while the academy was working for us under Lowe. Seems to rule out some names, especially Curbishley, Keegan, and O'Neil. And who on here has put so much money on O'Neil so that he is now favourite on skybet?

Foreign : Zola Wow: Shearer UaC: Southgate

I've lost my grip with the excitement of it all.

Well it doesn't edit itself....

Deppo has been editing wikipedia

Brown could have been interviewed, doesn't mean he is going to be appointed.

Yes you are absolutely right, but I guess I was rather hoping that that was a bit of a straw man and that most people on here realise that.

The problem with the arguments proposed on this thread is that rumours do sometimes turn out to have a base in reality, as often they do not. Think about the rumours of the breakdown in the Blair-Brown relationship, with today we learn were spot on and perhaps even underestimated the truth, even so far that Brown was blackmailing Blair. To brand everyone interested in rumours as of low intelligence and reactionary is to brand all journalists idiots, as that is their job. Should the News of the World have investigated the rumours surrounding the pakistani cricket team and corruption? Perhaps you think instead they should just stick to reporting official information on the pakistani cricket board website? I can't disagree that fans are fickle and often remember only the last few games...but Cortese clearly also understands this as even the BBC say he waited until a positive result before sacking Pardew to underline that it was not a footballing decision. And Cortese is treading a dangerous line taking on the Sun. Just ask all the other people whose careers have been ruined by Murdoch's cooperation.

That's good spot Benji, and a good reason to take it with a pinch of salt.

Think of the Jaidi/Martin issue like this. The chairman and spends loads of wonga on Jaidi, because the manager tells him its the best thing to do. For the chairman, if he is not the best player then why has the manager told him to spend all that cash on him? For the chairman, the strongest team should be the most expensive team, or else the manager has made an error. So basically Pardew was dammed if he plays Jaidi (cos he's ****e) and dammed if he plays Martin (cos he's cheaper than Jaidi by a country mile, so why the f*** are we spending all this cash on Jaidi). In this way the chairman can influence team selection without saying 'you must pick Jaidi'.

Is this a deliberate leak to blame the sacking on a dead man

The point is that we are hoping/expecting a chelsea-like season by league 1 standards, not one like like liverpool or everton

imagine the unrest if chelsea had one point from their opening 2 games, both of which were at home. I think it is reasonable to cut some slack as the death of ML must have made things harder. That said a couple more games without a win and pardew might be toast.

Signing him on loan suggests we've covered our bases in case he is crap. Which suggests we can't be confident he's going to be any good. Let's hope he is the midfield general we have been looking for.

I think it is abundantly clear why many have taken a dislike to Cortese. He is banning this, banning that from going to St Marys, upsetting the entire media completely unnecessarily, seems to make dictatorial descisions which come with an air of arrogance and which create a cloud of negativity. In addition to what we do 'know' there are all sorts of rumours coming from inside the club that these are not isolated occurences, but part of Cortese's normal 'climate of fear' modus operandi. And we have his apparent closeness to sacking Pardew, which most of us would agree would have been an incorrect decision. Joensuu, I can't believe that this is really your idea of a 'dream CEO'. The reason we should be concerned is that this ruthless attitude may one day be reflected in the sale of the club for profit, regardless of the suitability of the buyer or long-term sustainability, as well as damaging the club in the meantime by creating sour relationships with other clubs, the football league, the media, fanbase and so on. I for one thing see Cortese as a man with great ambition, but perhaps lacking the maturity needed to manage such a complex business.