That's true. But Pardew wanted to get Saints playing the right way. His heart was in the right place, and I'll always remember him and his tenure favourably because of that. He helped to start the ball rolling, so to speak. Adkins is just on another planet.
Don't get me wrong, I have a very soft spot for Pardew, he brought the "winning mentality" which had all but disappeared. But as you say, Nigel is from a different planet.
Southampton have never been a dirty team. I remember on a couple of occasions we had a chance of getting into the then equivalent of the Europa league on the basis of fair play. The reason we're so saintly at the moment is that all the team are concentrating on playing football and the opposition are set on stopping us. I reckon we're going to get quite a few penalties this season.
I beg to differ with you on that fran. Bill Shankley once desribed our team in the early 70s as a bunch of alehouse brawlers and in my opinion he was being very polite. They frightened the life out of me and I was at the back of the terraces. Ted bates was reputed to feed them raw steak for their pre match day lunch.
