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1. Appoint a good manager. 2. Back him - keeping him would be nice but as with Martinez and Darren Ferguson sometimes you just can't. 3. Let the manager talk to the press and avoid giving interviews yourself. The club needs one voice and for that voice to be authorative. Make it clear to the press (and the players) the manager is in charge and his decisions will be supported. The worst thing is when you have a chairman more often on SSN than a team's manager - it suggests you are in it for the fame and attention and not the club. 4. Let fans give their opinions but don't think you have to listen to them. Our experience of Championship Manager and fantasy football makes us all think we are experts - when we're not. 5. Fans will appreciate effort - be it in the boardroom, on the sidelines or on the pitch. So have a go.

Spurs bid 20M for Kenwyne Jones in January, who would have saw that happening 2 years ago...........stranger things have happened.

True, think Freddie Eastwood

think he played much better behind a out and out striker and Forest will be looking to do the same with him and Blackstock. Thing is end of last season who wanted to go as was never playing and think his family is in Notts. Its only cos we ditched all our strikers over the summer that he got a game and we saw some of the potential people had been talking about. So in that way over 1M would be good as last year he would have gone for pittance but why not hold onto him for another season and see if he really kicks on with another full season. Esp in League 1 where he could get quite a few and his value would go up as well. Expect he'll want to go though but with the new owners hope we can hold out for closer to 2M.

you work for NASA?

makes you wonder if Saga's contact (and others signed in that period) has a relegation clause in it. If that board didn't bother it shows their stupidity cos as you say its one of RL's few good ideas. Also shows why we have to get him off the wage bill for L1. Also think we did get 500K for the Crouch sale - something like 20% of the profit if I remember right. He could negotiate on transfers you've got to give him that - mind you theres alot on the negative column as well.

think the key to some of my positivity is that its not like we have had a few big names carrying the team with the youngsters and less well known trying to plug the gaps in the team but failing. Euell, Saga, Thomas and Schneiderlin (I suppose for the money we paid) all struggled to stay fit or perform and I don't think will be missed. Unlike say selling Crouch in our first season down. If they go with BWP, Rasiak, John etc... it won't really hit our starting 11 all that much. If we lost James, Surman, Lallana, Holmes, DMG and others then I think over the summer we'd all change our tune. But I don't think many of them will go and now Coppell's left that was the only real interest in Drew. But if we keep them and add a few players - with a unified fan base under a new owner with a siege mentality (like Leeds in their first season in L1) then I can see lots of positives. Lots of 'ifs' mind.

Wonder if Watford are hoping to keep Rasiak for another year and avoid any fee, now or at end of the season when his contract has expired to sign him, because we need to get him off the wage bill over the summer. Dyer will go as well. Wotte does seem to be pro-active - but have the nagging suspicion he will go when/if the new owners arrive.

before the season started no one was singing the praises of Gillett, James, KD and DMG - they either hadn't really played consistently or had up and down form. They were either dismissed ans not gd enough or too young. They turned out to be our better than average performers this season above Euell, Saga and other well paid 'names' and much the same could happen with new players next season - if we have money or not. Shelvey at Charlton has only been heard of cos they were forced to play him due to lack of finances and now he's the next Wonderkid ©.

Totally agree especially when you factor in it would have been very easy for him (and understandable) to put the boot in to Saints and Lowe over being let go in the media all season long. Us being relegated with his team taking our place but I haven't heard him once lower himself to that level. He comes across considered, reasonable and capable. For me it was the draw at Charlton where you could see him organising the team from the sidelines, motivating them, giving individual players tips and most key of all 11 players working their socks off for a point, chasing everything. I often didn't see that this season. I also think its a bit cheap to now say he's done so well cos he's learned his trade in League 1 - it would seem an argument being created to head off the "I told you so's" when Pearson does well next year. He saved Saints prior to that and Leicester went top early on and stayed there so I don't think you could argue he learnt it all in the first 2 months of his time in League 1. But as with all things Saints some will never accept this and vice versa.

Gretna as well I think

Apparently Skacel agreed with the club to reduce his contract from the remaining two years to 1. So he's out of contract this summer and so no fee I'm afraid. Mind you given the the way we haven't been able to shift on a free over the last 18 months not really surprising. Agreed with the common thoughts on Smith - talented but not consistent - Wotte's words were purely to talk the kid up prior to our run in. Gasmi apparently great for the reserves but poor otherwise and if the agreed fee was anything near Schneiderlin's then best to not buy him. Whole season of his wages mind for about 100 minutes in the first team. What a waste. BWP is ok but I think we can get a similar option for alot less money in League 1. Euell is good in the air and would be a help but has been dire some games and I doubt his wage demands will come down enough for us. Think we should keep KD and Saejis - I'm sure we can get the Dutch club to drop the fee if they want rid of him.

Lucy Pinder? saints fan and a name in my household

would tie in with the daily echo reporting the jersey lot are not being taken seriously as they haven't bothered with DD. Still 700K when there was talk of 1.5M last summer is hard to take but suppose we can't bargain all that much. Stick in the 500K that Swansea will eventually agree to pay for Dyer and thats surely enough to keep us going till June 30th when all the big wages leave Is a shame though as he genuinely has a go and his shooting seemed to be getting better - but you can understand he wants to get to the Prem. Anyway we'll still have Pulis...................

I heard from Jeff Stelling (we talk every week) that Davis and Euell had deferred there salaries until the end of the season. They wanted the younger players to get money that they were relying on. Better than nothing - but something tells me it won't catch on with other senior pros. Skacel could have moved several times to play in the Bundesliga or at Ipswich but the salary he was on here was too good, to warrant the drop in wages. Doubt he'll now sacrifice that wage unfortunately.

I'm the same - oddly positive. Though we have slipped down into league 1 and got a -10 penalty I get the feeling the club is more unified than it has been since Strachan left. The kids are a year better and with some gd new players should have every chance of doing well and hopefully the -10 an give us a siege mentality. If we can get some momentum and confidence up who knows? Bristol City got promoted from league 1 and reached the championship play offs the next season (missing out on automatic in the last few games), Swansea almost did it this year and Peterborough and Leicester will have a gd chance as well I reckon. Settled clubs, full of confidence and with stability = success. Got my fingers crossed that Saints will be described like that shortly cos lets face it those words haven't been used for Saints in years.

26000 tickets sold apparently - things are looking up - this idea is catching on. good skills for organising it. i only hope the kids that we are all sponsoring get to see a win.

just bought some tickets though I can't go - ticket office says only 6,000 left with the corners open and selling very well. think the donate a ticket idea to Saints in the community is working a treat - should have somewhere close to a full house fingers crossed. If people do want to help but are skint a kids ticket is only £10, with no booking fee on a debit card - get the next generation interested in the torture of being a saints fan. But I understand those that have already forked out fortunes can't.

apparently the Board believed we wouldn't get it so had no concerns about putting us in admin - talk about backfire http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8016748.stm

Skacel will be off - surprised it took him this long considering every window he's linked with a german club. Got to keep Mills and with the promise of 1st team football and the example of how McG has got into the top 50 best young players in the world (according to the Times) by staying and playing we should be able to.......hopefully. Jurys still out on the scouse lad - heard he had two big knee operations at everton and wonder if we signed him based on his form before those ops - wouldn't surprise me.

he strikes me as a scorer of great goals, but not a great goal scorer © Big Sam. never performed consistently but on occasion lobs a keeper from thirty yards or bags a volley. Inevitable he'd go, just a question of whether we get a fee. If new owners are in, they may be able to hold out for one but otherwise its 8K (or similar) off the wage bill.

Exactly. It's no surprise the big clubs in the prem pay their managers big money - on a par with their best players cos they have realised that the manager is one of the most important ingredients. It's how Ramos at Spurs with one squad got 2 points from 8 games and how Redknapp (as much as it grates) with the same squad got another 40 points. Pearson should have been kept even if he was on 120K and we saved, say, 60K by getting rid of him. He had the team organised, motivated and it had just achieved a huge psychological boost after staying up at the end of season. To say we need to save 60K on the managerial wage bill but on the player wage can afford Gasmi and Pulis' wages (say 100K) - is perverse. It smacks of someone fundamentally misunderstanding the impact a good manager can have on a team. Someone who appoints Head Coaches and not Managers. Someone who let his personal feelings towards Leon Crouch to get in the way of a rational decision. That handicapped the club from the start and the rest is history. All we can now do is look forward......or down, as the case seems to be

Shef Wed almost scored by the sounds of it

but you do have better protection from viruses..........every cloud.......

click on it and should open windows media player and run, if not working may be check your cookie settings aren't too restricted