Verbal

Only if you read the OP.

"Yes."

Yep, we can give you him, tommac, Helpmerhonda, the 'other' wacko jacko, Wilde, Lowe, Askham... Any one of them could do a job for you.

Well, we're not first scorers in the League. Gillingham are one up.

I don't know, Daren. The way you pose the original question, surely only a dufus would answer: P*mpey. Perhaps it would be fairer to compare our actual position in League 1, -10, new minted, honest owner, etc, with a Southampton in a parallel universe: with an 'owner' in property development from the land of the mother of all property collapses, millions in debt, including a £35 million payment due any day, a squad being decimated by the football equivalent of a Woolworths closing down sale, a stadium that could actually be improved with a few judicious swings of a wrecking ball...and Premiership status at a time when, the big four or five aside, it seems the top division has an unusually high number of relegation candidates?

Good grief, OBS. Since we're asking questions, what state are you going to be in if Millwall.. (and I hesitate to say this for fear of causing you psychological damage)... win? Judging from the above, you'll be posting at a pitch that only dogs can hear.

The logic of all this escapes me somewhat. If the only reason someone didn't buy a season ticket last year because they boycotted the club under Lowe, why on earth would they continue to boycott it now?

What was this thread about again?

Wrong. Alpine is now one of us happy clappy clowns.

Seems Stefanovic is still recovering from a serious knee injury. Given our track record, I suppose it would make sense to go for another one-legged centre back. Or hopefully not.

I've just seen that, you cheeky b*gger.

What happened to your status, trousers? I can't believe you'll be able to contain yourself to three posts a day for more than five minutes.

You mean Lowe has just reverse-taken over?

I'm sorry but that's too complacent by half. The Luton example is a pretty good illustration of that. The fact that football clubs fall into administration has everything to do with the insane economics of the game. To take one example, the blindingly high wages dangled in front of players at the top - £250,000 a week offered to a defender with a bad back! - invariably trickle down to wage demands further down the food chain. Hence our problems, I suspect, in getting new signings in that are of the quality to get us out of this league. The pressures on football clubs are immense and have never been greater. The solution to these problems does not lie, ultimately, in punishing smaller, less powerful clubs, but in tackling the rich and powerful and forcing the Man Citys and Chelseas of this world to put their house in order for the greater good of the game. Will that happen? No, if it's down to the FA...

Actually it was worse than that. The new regime at Luton reported the financial misdemeanours of the old regime after studying the books. The FL responded by punishing the new owners. Brilliant - but what do you expect from an organisation led by a dimwit with an deeply unpleasant political record for mendacity?

Our transfer budgey is an ex-budgey. It has gone to meet its maker.

We have officially split into two factions. The girly men - who are having fainting fits at the failure to sign budget-busting players in an almighty hurry and have written off the season before a football is kicked in anger. (Membership secretary: Original Bournemouth saint) And the common-sense brigade, who are prepared to wait and see. (We accept anyone) You decide.

There's no reason why the club can't conclude a deal with Jaidi before going to appeal. That's the usual way of doing things - a 'subject to work permit' agreement. If the club doesn't do this, it suggests AP has other players in mind and doesn't want to deal with the potential hold-ups associated with an appeal. If so, this is more of an example of the club trying to move things on quickly than being chronically slow.

I'm disappointed that Gillett's player profile fails to carry the 'FFS' Saintsweb logo. I thought we'd discussed this.

I’m not sure who you think is in that brigade of yours. I’d have thought there was a rough consensus on here – of which you’re clearly not a part – that says something like: saving the club deserves being given the benefit of the doubt – and certainly before a football has been kicked in anger. I hardly see how this makes anyone on here ‘slaves to the new regime’. Fans as a whole can be cussedly difficult to please. I worry that what you appear to want from ML are some big-ticket footballers being brought in at fees and wages that suggest that we, in some sense, ‘mean business’ (a dubious term, in this context at least). If Pardew doesn’t have a plan beyond bringing in one or two ageing freebies, it’ll quickly be shown up. But it hardly seems likely, does it? He has, after all, been fairly explicit about what he intends to do over the next five years. So, quite apart from our experience the last time we tried the brilliant idea of spending like there’s no tomorrow, I have to ask why you’re not prepared to hang fire at least until the season gets underway. I seem to recall that you leaked on TSF quite often about AO during the dark days of the executives’ coup. And I grant you, if half of what you said at the time is still true, there are some causes for concern. But it can also look as if you have a bit of a personal agenda here. So as far as AO is concerned – as well as the team and Pardew’s management of it – isn’t it better to wait just a little longer? At least let's get Millwall out of the way first before manning the siege towers.

Call me a cynic, but I think benjii is engaged in the delicate art of pl*nker-pulling.

That's no longer a problem. Every corner against QPR sailed over not just the last forward but the last spectator. It was like watching satellites in near-Earth orbit.

Team morale is a huge factor in relegation - it's not just down to the quality of the squad. I think that'll be a bigger problem at P*mpey than any of the three you mention.

But thankfully this thread started past Original BS's bedtime, so he won't be able to work himself up into a fainting fit until about 10 tomorrow morning - or whatever time they roll out of bed in Glasgow.