madruss

To be fair to Morgan, these quotes were taken from the interview he gave solent after the match last night. What was he supposed to do, say "sorry I'm not going to let you interview me in case it goes on the OS and upsets some of the more precious members of our fanbase"? He was trying to put a positive spin on a sh*t evening having just come off the pitch a disappointed loser for the 4th week running. He was well within his rights to say "f*ck off I'm not doing an interview" but he didn't, he faced up to it and I for one give him some credit for that

I've read some tripe on this forum, but this is something else. Are you actually saying that 'goals scored' is a meaningless stat by which to measure a goal scorer??? In one post you call RL a one season wonder because of all the GOALS he scored, but then next you say that all the GOALS he scored in the other seasons are meaningless?! Hysteria

Was very impressed with the way he answered the 'how long will it take for you to have an affect on the side?' He answered by saying there is no time to waste, and re-emphasising how crucial promotion was

Unfit. Unconfident. Underperforming. Mr Adkins has his work cut out

Seems to be working for Scu_nthorpe tonight, they're 2 up away to Sheff.utd in their new manager's first game!

Hmmm Adkins: two promotions in three years. Promotions which were out of the league we're currently in. Gray: No managerial experience of any kind ever. Yeah, I can see how you got those two mixed up

Maybe this was why Pardew was sacked. Cortese reads the forum, sees that alpine knew about the squad's shortcomings and then fires AP for not realising something even a simple forum member can see. NC: You told me the squad was fine and that we didn't need a pacy winger or another attacking option and you specifically said 'please call off the search for any new signings' AP: it's true. I deserve to be sacked. Despite mine and my colleagues' many years of experience in professional football, we failed to identify something that a humble forum poster spotted ages ago. We all deserve our p45s

I'm looking forward to Adkins. Twice he's managed to get a squad with only a fraction of the talent of our current squad, out of this league. He clearly knows how to get the best out of players, and is well regarded as a very intelligent manager in the football world. I understand people might have doubts, but to write him off is utter lunacy imo

No Saints fan could honestly admit that if they were Martin O'Neil they would accept the Saints job. But it'll be a challenge...but we're a really big club...but you'll have a transfer budget higher than the other league 1 clubs. MON: All the same, thanks and everything but I think I'll hold out for one of the top European jobs for which I'll be in demand

This guy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Atkins

Oh dear, Chris Coleman fits that description. Zoinks!!

haha! SSN know nothing! They might as well say "We know it will be a human being, and the appointment will be made sometime between now and the end of all life as we know it"

I can't find the exact quote, but I definitely remember an interview around the time NC was appointed executive chairman (the clue's in the title surely?!) where ML effectively said Cortese would be running the club and making the business decisions. Interesting interview Cortese did with the echo last year seems to back this up, particularly this bit: "Does Markus Liebherr have any input on either transfers or in Alan’s appointment? So far, no he doesn’t." http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/4553769.Nicola_Cortese_s_exclusive_interview/

I don't buy that rumour. Right from the outset, Markus made it clear that NC was in charge of the running of the club. Therefore the ultimate decision of whether AP stayed or was fired was held by NC. I think it's a lot more plausible that NC wanted to sack Pardew at the end of the season, but bowed to media and fan pressure and kept him on. Whatever argument or 'incident' happened recently would most probably not have resulted in the manager losing his job, but because NC needed very little excuse to sack Pardew, it did for him in this case.

Which makes me worry he'll give the job to the manager who doesn't make that clear. Interview 1. NC: Will you let me interfere with the football side of things? MON: No. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life NC: Thank you for your time, we'll be in touch Interview 2. NC: Will you let me interfere with the football side? PH: Yes Mr. Cortese SIR! NC: The job's yours.

But what happens when the new guy has a disagreement with Cortese, because clearly they will - unless they're just an agreeable 'yes man' who'll concede to all of Nicola's demands. Granted, Pardew was rumoured as a bit of an egotist but which successful managers aren't? Most fans would be delighted with MON as manager, but there's no chance he'd take any s*it from Cortese. My biggest worry is that we're never going to have stability at the club unless NC agrees to let the manager manage the club and put complete faith in him. Perhaps he's prepared to do this with the new guy but, if not, I can see the Pardew situation happening again and again.

Nice re-writing of history you're doing there. Pretty impressive. I will grant you that August and September under Pardew were not up to scratch. However after that things clicked into gear and we were the best team in the league. That's not my opinion, that is based on actual results. From October onwards we won 22 of the 36 games we played, scored 75 goals, amassed 74 points and played some bloody good football. Norwich away, BR away, Huddersfield + Walsall at home....you go to any of those games? Hoofball was it? Now for a manager who didn't have a clue, and who was booed in every game (seriously where did you get that from?!?) and had no plan B...those are actually some pretty good stats. I'm sure you'll come back and say "well October, November, December, January, February, March and April don't matter, it's only over the course of the whole season that Pardew can be fairly judged" but that would be to ignore some cold hard facts and suit your anti-Pardew agenda. Did it ever occur to you that these 'know-it-alls' who thought AP was doing a good job, might just be normal fans who watched a load of wins and saw a load of goals last season. Last time I checked lots of goals + lots of wins = good (in terms of a football club's success)

Find a tape of the first half of the Leyton orient game, then watch a replay of the first half of today's game and you tell me there's no difference. The first 30 minutes of the LO game was as good as, if not better than, our best performances last season. God, people seem to be re-writing history and making out that the LO game was some kind of trai-wreck. It really wasn't. Far from it.

Yeah, they should wait until after the game when Cortese's gone home, there's no media broadcasting and no-one else can hear them. Good plan that

That's the trouble though, it's not 'as usual'. Against Orient we created 6 or 7 gilt-edged chances...but through a combination of goalkeeper, post and luck we only got one goal. Today we've only created one such chance. Big difference

All I ask is that for once the 'new manager effect' works in OUR favour for once, and we win the new manager's first game against Swindon!

True, but surely a massive part of that vision was an experienced manager with a proven track record in this league and the one above. He no longer has that part of the vision to sell to these players

You've broken my sarcasm detector you b*stard

I agree, and a big name manager would hopefully be able to attract a higher calibre of loan player. The only downside of appointing a Howe/Adkins type is that they might not be as persuasive in the loan market. As for Cortese selling the vision? Does he really have a lot of credibility in the football world at the minute?

Trouble is, Norwich sacked a complete novice manager with a poor record and replaced him with a proper manager. Ie, the replacement was an obvious improvement from day 1. We've sacked a manager with promotion experience from this league and the league above, who had an excellent record (if you focus on the period in which he'd built his own team, and don't keep harping back to August/September 09 as 'evidence' that Pardew was a shi*e manager). Therefore if we're going to repeat the Norwich scenario, we need an improvement on Pardew. Most of the candidates listed are not clear improvements, and their appointment will be a gamble. A gamble we really didn't need to make.