spyinthesky

Benjii I do believe Guly has a bit of talent but would really worry about him replacing Morgan or Hammond primarily because, from what I have seen, he may be unable to fit into a League 1 central midfield system where tackling ability and communication are particular requirements. Perhaps right or left midfield would be Ok but not central

Fair comments but didn't he only come on as a sub for Pardew and has only stated the one game under Wilkins v Swindon? Guly was signed under Pardew's stewardship and, for a lot of people, he did not seem to be a 'Pardew' type player ie English speaking and used to the hurly burly of League 1. I sincerely hope that Guly does make an impression here but if I was a manager, or indeed a Chairman, I would hope that any acquisition would be able to make an instant impact especially as named player is unlikely to have come as a cheap and cheerful signing.

What's to become of Gin Gan? Looked good in the video (but who wouldn't) and we all expected the real deal. Pardew, Wilkins and now Atkins don't seem to rate him and it must be assumed the signing was a Cortese inspired faux pas. Very unlikely the option will be taken up post January (but Tone Pulis's was so anything can happen). Would be interested to learn how much Guly's loan period will cost the club

Apparently paid £1.8m so Nicola baled in with a tasty wedge!! btw how is Roger the Dodger these days?

Looks as though our current poor run of form is percolating down through the ranks with our Academy boys yet to record a win this season. Supposedly Youth development was going to be our springboard to a bright new future. Of course individual player development is more important that team results at this level but the latter is a decent barometer to the overall strength of the current crop of youngsters. Anyone seen any games so far? Is the Staplewood development proceeding?

Planned for next month. This time with invited members of the Exec Club. Hope they provide some constructive criticism which is received and acted upon in the right way

Prof I guess you and I can only speculate about the contract of Pulis Junior. I guess we should be worried if it was Mr Cortese that decided to extend young Antony's contract and this had nothing to do with Pardew. I do hope that the inclusion of young Pulis was not at the insistence of Mr Cortese I am also concerned that Gin Gan Guly may have only arrived here at the behest of our erstwhile Chief Exec and that the latter is turning into a Lowe clone I sincerely hope not. Returning to the footballing ability of A. Pulis Jnr and Tommy Forecast. I have good contacts in Lincolnshire and reports from Lincoln City and Grimsby Town followers reckon that the two mentioned players were absolutely dire whilst on loan during their (short) loan periods in Div 2 (Div 4 in old money!) last season

Over the last 50 years (ie a reasonable maximum time period for most current supporters) Pompey have averaged 14,326 a game compared to Saints at 20,982. ie Saints had average crowds almost 50% higher than Pompey Bear in mind that during this period Pompey had the larger capacity stadium for 42 of the 50 years. Pompey had 8 seasons with sub 10,000 averages (Saints none) Saints lowest average 13,263, Pompey 8,269 Pompey had a higher average crowds than Saints in all of 4 during the past 50 seasons Puts the recent past in to some sort of perspective I think as far a 'loyal' support is concerned

A year or two ago Bournemouth were looking at relegation to non league. Now look at them A month or so ago Pompey were facing the abyss. They can still go for a gutser but their recent signings should see them comfortably achieve mid table. Pre season Saints and Middlesborough were both strong favourites for promotion and now look at us. Things do have a habit of changing quickly in football but at the moment my initial pessimism about our chances for automatic promotion this season seems to be justified. Buggar!!

As a young kid we used to live in Milton Rd before moving out to the suburbs. Have regularly stood/sat in every part of the ground apart from the Archers. In one game v Liverpool (1st home game in the 2nd Div after getting promotion) the boys entrance fee was put up 50% from 1/- to 1/6d. Quite a few of us boys only had the shilling so there was a lot of kerfuffle at the turnstiles. Fortunately my Dad was a Steward and was able to get me in for a bob. Think of the stick the management would have got today if suddenly entrance fees went up by that amount without warning I vividly remember the 3 goal fight back in the Nottm Forest Cup game in 1963 and the Anderlecht European game in 1977. Stood in the lower Milton Chocolate Box for both games. Only time ever I heard the choco box singing was in the Forest game Both fantastic atmospheres as was the Mick Channon Testimonial which I watched from the back row of the Upper West Stand next to a handful of QPR fans who couldnt believe the vibes on the night. If truth be told the atmosphere at the Dell was often wanting mainly because of the open ends. This improved when the 'hardcore' moved to the terraces under the stands and again when the Archers was covered. However I was often embarrased about the third world state of the stadium and it's limited capacity. The move to St Mary's was a great leap forward and I still have to pinch myself when walking towards a modern 21st century ground (OK of limited architectural merit) when for many, many years I supported my team in very basic surroundings.

Shortly after noticing new arrivals at the rugby club site (they must really hate the intrusion most years), my house nearby has been flyered by people offering Tree Maintenance and Driveway work. All mobile numbers. Co-incidence or what? I guess some people get caught

2-4 Reading - Played well until multi changes affected the result 0-1 Plymouth - Dominated game. Caught by sucker punch 1-1 Orient - Dominated game. Couldn't overcome massed defence. Defensive error. 2-0 Bournemouth - Eventually won in a fairly open game 0-1 Bolton - Good performance in a fairly open game against decent opposition 0-3 Swindon - Poor performance against a team who defended well and broke with pace 0-2 Rochdale - Poor performance. Couldn't break down an organised defence. Another defensive lapse, or two. P 7.. W 1.. D 1.. L 5.. F 5.. A 12.. Not good Relatively decent performances against teams who want to play football. Against well organised teams who soak up pressure and hit us on the break, we are pants, as Pardew warned we might be. Maybe we will be better way from home. Not good news for us season ticket holders!!

Latest rumour is that AP flipped when Cortese asked him to pay for parking at St Mary's on match days!!

Scott IMHO the charts have often reflected bland music catering for the masses. I can't say I have ever bought a record that made the top twenty singles apart from in the very early days of the Beatles. I am quite proud of the fact but as the man with the wooden leg said .. 'It's all a matter of apinion (sic)'... so I keep to the record buyinmg high ground whilst never directly criticising other people's music taste, even though it may be crap!!.

Absolutement!! Bit tongue in cheek my De Vere comment!!

Update I saw Jose Fonte leaving West Quay in a Silver Merc Sports with a personalised number plate (F10NTE) or something similar. Could be off to meet the new manager in the De Vere perhaps?

Not bad in the circumstances How did our gate shape up to others? However will struggle to exceed 18,000 for Saturday methinks!!

Guernsey's not really foreign but if it was MLT would be right at the top!!

I like Lambert at the level we are in. However IMHO he would never make a Prem player. However, having said that who would have thought that dear old Brett Omerod and even Jason Euell would be still hacking it in the Prem. Also Fuller,Higgy, Kevin Davies etc Remember Davies struggled on loan at Millwall but was touted, by some, as an England possibility last year!!

Andy/Andy My parameter for 'successful' was hacking it regularly in the Prem Rasiak only played for us in the 2nd Tier and Kenwyne made only cameo appearances in the Prem. I am willing to be persuaded on Fernandez

As a change from the current Manager & Transfer speculations, the Football Echo did a good piece at the weekend on foreign players signed by Saints and actually played for the club- 72 in total. (another 8 signed but never played + Guly) Of these the following IMHO were successful: Ivan Golac Ken Monkou Antti Niemi Claus Lundekvam Egil Ostenstad Micheal Svensson Anders Svensson Marian Pahars Hassan Kachoul Total : 9 Generally Ok: Fabrice Fernandes ** Morgan Schneiderlin Ronnie Eklund (a definite with more games) Jo Tessem Bart Gregor Rasiak Marek Saganowski Eyal Berkovic ** Youssef Safri Van Gobbel Stern John Kenwyne Jones John Viafara Jose Fonte Inigo Idiakez Radhi Jaidi Papa Waigo JP Saejs Total 18 ** Possibly worth considering for a 'Good' as performed regularly in the Prem Waste of Space Baseya Gasmi Pericard Johansen Bliedelis Pekhart Ali Dia Sarmiento Delgado Almeida Brennan Total 11 Indifferent: The rest Not a wonderful conversion rate

Presume the new 2010/11 squad photo is yet to be released Looking at last years there were 38 people in the picture. Of these the following are no longer associated with the club: Gillett White Molyneux Mellis Mclaggon James Papa Thomas Lancashire Trotman Paterson Saganowski Perry Murty Markus L Pardew Henderson Chris Lovegrove (not sure) Murdoch = 19 Leaving : Pulis!! Forecast!! Saville? Doble? Mills Davis Bart Wotton Holmes Schneiderlin Lambert Jaidi Hammond Lallana Harding Cortese Mo Gimpel? Nick Harvey? Dean Wilkins =19 + Fonte/Dickson/Martin/Richardson/Butterfield/Martin/Connolly/Puncheon/Seabourn/Guly Quite a change. More to come I guess

In my personal opinion AP did a decent job and had the majority of fans on his side. He did, of course, benefit from a large war chest but had to overcome many of the poor management from the previous (mis) management However, by all accounts, AP appeared to be a 'dead man walking' more or less from the time he was appointed. I wonder if Cortese was involved in his appointment?

Actually I know No 1 through work. He's actually not a bad lad. Hard worker and not full of airs and graces

As a long standing supporter, who has generally seen it all before, I never believed the hype that we would walk away with the League. Too many disappointments to expect Saints to find it easy. However whilst it is easy to condemn the team and the manager for 1 point out of 6, the fact is we are creating (but not taking chances) and have given away two soft goals from otherwise sound (ish) defensive performances. On another day at least one of Barnard's efforts would have gone in and with a bit of daylight between the teams think we would have gone on to win handsomely, as really we should have done against Plymouth after a sparkling first half performance. As most people realise the team is lacking in pace and creativity and a big striker is needed to take the onus off of Lambert who does not look fit. I am sure this season will not be easy and it is worthy of note that both Nottm Forest & Leeds took 3 years to get out of L1