As I said I am well aware of what a great job he has done and agree that Cortese "pulled a master stroke" in appointing him and I'm fully behind him being in charge of Saints, I was just saying that I can see why other fans would see him as smug. He has every reason to be for the reasons you've outlined, and maybe it is his attitudes and mannerisms that make him appear this way when he actually isn't. For example Dalglish came across as a miserable bastard in all of his interviews that I saw when he was Liverpool manager but I reckon there are very few people who wanted that job more than he did. Yes the way he handled the Suarez thing was extremely poor which invited questions from the media that may have pissed him off, but even before that in the first 6 months or so when he was doing well he never seemed anywhere near as happy/positive/smug as Adkins does in any of his interviews. Again it just goes down to personality. You are right of course that it doesn't matter what opposition fans think of him, and after reading a bit of KUMB it does seem like they have a bit of a chip on their shoulder regarding us, but i have heard similar comments from non Saints supporting friends of mine regarding Adkins, not that its a problem anyway.
When you have a miserable old sod like Big Sam in charge anyone must seem cheerful and smug. Not really, I'm doing exactly the same thing as them. I don't really care about Allardyce. The same thing happened in League 1 with Brighton who absolutely hated Nigel (and they had Poyet!). Some people don't like what they might call "psycho-babble", but never mind because we know that Nigel is a really nice guy and top manager. As TSS says, I bet he works hard as hell.
Not vengeful at all. Butters would suit this 'old style physical hoofball team' as will Jos. Never heard of someone being useful for a first half? Is that any different from saving an aging striker for the last 30 minutes as a sub cameo? Jarvis will destroy most people and all in our squad at the mo. who else to put there? Yoshida? Reeves from the off? JWP will help out butters and he and Schneiderlin will be very stretched to cover both for Fox and the right back. West Ham are going to play long ball down the middle and on the ground on the wings / long ball to the corners to get crosses in. And I am not vengeful against Fox at all. I wish he was better and can see he tries for us. I just think that some excuse many of his mistakes and failings and start to say that people are judging him on a few poor performances in the Prem. I'm not he has performed badly ever since the pressure came on in Feb. Seems to be a player that suffers under pressure. Big Sam will be targeting Fox for sure and would still do so even if we put a 15 year old debutant or a 40 year Jaidi on the right!!! They will target Fox and they will find a lot of success through it. Lallana needs to stay upfield because his linkup with Lambert has suffered since he started playing much deeper. The midfield 3 can sit a little deeper and cover more.
I really couldn't care less how west ham do this season i've neither cared for them nor disliked them, all I want is to stay up this season, but even if we do go down it's not the end of the world just a tumble on our road to success. I didn't have this problem with Brighton, didn't care that we finished below them nor did I gloat that we finished above them the following season, don't see why West Ham should care about our club they have plenty of London rivalries to be concerned about.
Although I have disagreed on the very same point, Saintmagic has made, I do come across the odd person who'll feel that Adkins is too good to be true. They can't quite believe that someone can be that upbeat, happy and positive all the time. All I can say is I've met a few people in my time who are Adkins-like, and they actually can be a bit wearing with their ever bouncy demeanour. However, if you want someone to lead and get the best out of people, then it helps a lot if the leader has that attitude because they send you off feeling 10ft tall, and you perform better as a result. I've always tried to cultivate the same attitude. It takes effort, believe me, if you're not naturally predisposed to doing it, but it is possible. Some Saints fans could certainly try doing it.
I have a disliking for London fans in general, but especially Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham. Spurs fans are deluded in thinking they are still a big force in English football, they had a good team but that was 30 years ago. West Ham have never been a big club but have managed to stay up there by playing nice football which they have abandoned now, and Chelsea must be the poorest team ever to win the European cup. London fans can not accept that the power of English football was with Liverpool for 10 years, then Everton for 3 years and then Man U for 20 odd years and now probably being split by both Manc teams, I can not see a time when the likes of Chelsea or Spurs or Arse will gain control for an extended period. If you want to stay in the EPL then Big Sam is the perfect manager, his record is beyond dispute- but your club will not play nice football. The yardstick of how far we have progressed will be against West Ham as last year we were pretty level in the 2 games. They are a bigger stronger team than us, so we have to play it quick and one thing that has impressed me this year is that when we lose the ball(or Fox gives it away) we press and harrass as a team unit making it harder for the oppsition. Hoping JWP gets a yellow in the first 5 minutes for whacking Nolan, just to let him know that he is there
It is very difficult to be positive and upbeat all the time like Adkins is. I don't know how he does it.
That forum is hilarious, I remember reading after the game at Upton Park last season; they were all up in arms that Billy Sharp had dived to get Matt Taylor sent off. When a picture of Matt Taylor with his hands around Sharp's throat came out, the conversation turned into a lot of "it shouldn't have been a red card because he deserved it" and "it shouldn't be a sending off offence to defend yourself" and generally people condoning throttling as long as it's in West Ham's favour.
They knew they would get spanked by Barca if they tried to play football, so they parked the bus and hit them on the break- fair enough as it worked but if they had lost then they would have recieved alot of flack. Generally poor football, they are the only big team I can not watch as a neutral as thier style of football was so negative, hoping this will change with the addition of Hazzard and the Brazilizn kid
Even Adkins is stuggling to be Adkins-like at the moment. Although he obviously shouts during games, he only seemed annoyed post-match on about two occasions last season...much more common this season. I think he has the image of what he wants the team to do, but some are struggling to keep up with the plan.
I predict that before too long, Hoover will get his head together and return to the form and confidence that made him such a key player last year.
Agreed. I don't think ourv problems have been at Centre Half anyway. We have a few decent options in that position, hooverbag included, but we only really have one Prem quality full-back in Clyne, which leaves the central defenders exposed and makes them look bad. We had similar problems for much of last season, but could get away with it in that league..
Yep, look at Fonte for example - a few games ago, he was getting all kinds of grief - not good enough, blah, blah. He looked mighty good to me to Sunday.
It's a squad game-JF, MY and JH will all get plenty of games this season. He'll certainly get a chance to put this bad form behind him.
Yeah, but all that counts is winning. It's great to win by playing lovely football, but sometimes you just need a bit of "negative" football to win games. I enjoyed watching them out think Barca and Bayern Munich. The best team always wins.
I'm not sure Adkins really knows, although he cites plenty of reasons, and I have to admit that I'd probably feel slightly more inclined to his way if I'd got my life sorted as well for me, as he undoubtedly has for his. Fair play to the bloke. He deserves it. Remember this..? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/15126250
