You were quite welcome until you mentioned "that" name Seiously it is always good to read posts from sensible fans
Just kidding mate. I have made my thoughts on Redknapp clear on the other thread but I can see why he divides opinion somewhat. Dunno about the "sensible" part. I am more than capable of coming on here after a few glasses of wine and making some pretty provocative, mis-judged comments! But it's all good fun IMO! Back to Pardew you are right. So many rumours. Some might say no smoke without fire. But in my opinion there are too many rumours for them all, if any, to be true. Most of you still seem to like him which is good. Top man if you ask me.
Just to clarify the 'rumour' I personally saw him with Ashley in a casino in London while he was our manager and only a couple of weeks after the JPT semi final. Another friend of mine who was at said casino a couple of weeks later said to me when he saw me. Saw your manager and his buddy again. Ashley was £300k up at one point and ending up going home down. There was a lot of interest in that table as you can imagine from the money actually being gambled so it isn't rocket science that news would feed back to Cortese. Not so much a rumour as a fact. What they spoke to each other about or planned is rumour and I have no knowledge of that.
I have no prob with you coming here Trixter, hope I didnt come across that way. Good to see other perspectives. Most of us Soton fans will have label Fat Sam as a long ball merchant, big spender and as the table stands its working fine. How do you see our Nige working out, we havent picked up enough points, gave the Man teams a bloody good show, 4-1 to your lot and stuffed by the Gunners, from outside do we look good, look like we could stay up? I know we cant help but be biased but what your honest opinion on Saints?
After he was at Charlton, when news broke that he was coming to St. Marys we were inundated from Charlton posters warning us that he wasn't good for us, I think it must have been on the old BBC606 site and I cannot remember the details. Seems that they were proved correct but we, of course poo pooed it at the time.
Hello mate. I have made my views on Adkins pretty clear on the Redknapp thread but I will briefly re-cap. I find it difficult to like Adkins. He seems incredibly cocky and wears a permanent smirk. That said he is clearly a good football man and his achievements in the last 2 years are fantastic. Long term he may go on to be a wonderful top flight manager but right now I worry for you while he is in charge as I think he has a lot to learn and may be out of his depth. I personally think keeping him will be a gamble but if that gamble pays off and you stay up then he could be with you for many years and build something a bit special. However he is probably more likely to take you down IMO and with the championship getting more and more competitive each year, it may be tough to come back. Therefore I think it would make sense for you to thank him for his work and move him on and appoint a proven top flight man that has been there and done it. Redknapp seems to divide the fans too much but I am sure there is someone else out there that would be a good appointment for the next 2-3 seasons. Maybe then, as a more established prem club, a younger manager could take over or even Adkins himself? I think you have great potential and I think you are probably 2-3 good defensive signings away from being a good premier league side. Adkins could well make those signings but you still have November and December of making do with what you have and I think Adkins might struggle to get enough points on the board before January and by then the signings might be too late. That said, I am just an outsider looking in and I have seen far less of your club that you all have. A lot of you believe 100% that Adkins is the man for the job. Your poll shows about 80% in favour of his staying so he must be doing a lot right. That it my honest opinion. Whether he stays or goes, I want you to stay up as you are a superb club who I can't really say anything bad about. Ok so my re-cap wasn't that brief! But once I start typing I get into a flow!
The appointment of Pardew was the first sign that Cortese was serious. Sacking him was the second! In my view he was a very good manager, picking us up from the floor. With the wrong person at the helm we could have dropped through the divisions. He gave us back our self-respect. There was clearly a major fall out, but I for one will applaud him onto the pitch in November. Only question mark against him at WHU. In the last minute of the FA Cup Final why didn't he tell your full back to put the ball into row X rather than play the ball to Gerrard? Just a thought!! Watched that game in a pub full of Evertonians - one of those "and everything went silent" moments. Seriously he was good for West Ham and for SFC. Lest our morons get this wrong, this is not any disloyalty towards Nigel Adkins, simply doffing my cap to a good manager.
This is one of those massive moments in our history that we will remember forever. We will never forget the name Lionel Scaloni! The thing that gets me about that was Liverpool were giving the ball back to us from a throw in after we put the ball out when one of their players was injured. They launched the ball at him and then crowded him and he panicked and tried to clear. The ball went straight to Gerrard and he hit one of those one in every fifty shots he does now and then. I still think about it and I still can't bring myself to watch it again!
I was sorry to lose AP, especially after our great day out at Wembley. However, would he have got us back to back promotions?...I doubt it because I think he would have moved on of his own volition before then. Cortese has said they didn't share the same vision...that may cover any of the rumours...but suspect it probably suggested that he was less than fully committed to Saints. It worked out well for all parties anyway.
The thing I like about Pardew is that he does not have one style of playing- he could mix it up abit, but he was accused of a lack of Plan B. I would kill for 3 or 4 of his players
I didn't have any problem with Pardew, and I still don't. But I'm delighted he was sacked, solely because it allowed us to find Nigel. But yes, if Pardew was to ever return to the St Mary's dugout, I wouldn't have a problem with that. And I certainly won't be booing him when Newcastle come to town next month.
I heard there was only one mirror in the board room which is not enough for two men who like to preen themselves so i am afraid Alan had to go. Good manager though.
I was never a huge fan to be honest. I thought he never had a plan B. when he came, a charlton fan told me to watch out for bizarre subs. I remember away to Huddersfield early on when we went 2-1 down, he subbed a CB for a CB when we needed fresh attacking options. There was always something I didn't like about him and never really trusted him. Having said that, I'm grateful he signed Rickie and I must say thanks for a great day at wembley.
I had been in London with a few friends watching a mate trying to qualify for the England 8 ball pool team. He lost in the last 16 so missed out on that one round early (the last 8 got into the England team, not guaranteed to be playing but into the squad.) After that we went to a casino because we had a famous poker player from Lincoln (One of those that are on TV all the time) with us so we thought we'd* watch him playing. * I have put an asterix after 'we' because I was not really of the mind to make any decisions after a drinking. I don't drink at all when I gamble. So the answer is I didn't leave up or down. I didn't gamble that night due to the beers which were topped up for free due to the 'famous' gambler in our group. Was sober enough to notice he was a clinger on with Ashley always making sure his hair was perfect, looking around to see who was admiring him rather than any interest in other people Being narcissistic doesn't have any bearing on being a good manager though I admit. Totally different character to Redknapp. One of them would not be risking moving small sums of cash to Monaco accounts to save a couple of pennies. The other would've moved much lower sums than HMRC would ever be bothered about and probably did. Don't particularly like either but IMO Pardew is a much better manager than Redknapp. Doesn't need to make 20 signings to get lucky on one and Pardew would've recognised that Bale was quality and not need to forced to play him.
