Saints were right to be ruthless (From Daily Echo)

Harsh but inevitable. They have all played a part in our promotions but we must move on and develope a genuine premier league squad.

Good luck guys and going out on a free is maybe quite a good result.

This part of the evolution not a revolUtion at the cluB

Any offers for Forecast Butterfield Seabourne Dickson Harding Hammond Chaplow Forte and Barnard should be accepted

All have been fantastic for the Saints but dont think any will cut it in the Prem

Can we exspect European football - you bet COYR

It's hardly being ruthless. There were several other contracts that were due to expire this summer but the key ones were renegotiated well before the end of season. Those whose contracts 'expired' had, effectively, good notice that they would be free to speak to other clubs so no surprises at all from their point of view.

That said, they all leave with good memories from many fans. They were all part of the setup that got us ack to he premier league.

I thought they would clear the decks. Always new that Holmes, Jadi Connolly would go. According to the list on BBC Barts not on the list. Also four players given pro contracts Stephens, Shaw, Prose-ward and Chambers. Barnard, Seabourne, Forcaste to go. Burnley interested in Seabourne.

Had to have a cull to pay the wages of the Michael Owen.
(not my opinion, just the rumour sites are in overdrive with this story atm).

Bart has been released which mean we'll be signing a new keeper..... Paul Robinson would do very nicely indeed.

Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Di matteo taking over at saints i think not. NC Will need to cut his own throat if he sacked adkins after 2 successive promotions

this was not "ruthless". Those players knew they were off. It was pretty obvious... regards rumours on NA job : obviously false. If he was fighting for his job then NC would hardly have sent him off to Europe to watch player(s) like he did since the end of the season...

WE AINT GOT NO RESERVE TEAM NO WONDER THESE PLAYERS NEED TO PLAY!

Some of them could strike lucky and get into a team that will get into the promotion stream!

Saints wern't Ruthless but now they are definitely Holmless. HA!

Absolutely the right thing to. It appears that NA and NC are being very levelled headed and running the club right. The books must be balanced and we need a good footing in the premiership. Pity Pompey never followed that business model (well almost pity)

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Something is definitely wrong.

NIGEL ATKINS is a fantastic Manager.

Minor criticisms during last Season were as follows :

1) Very loyal to his Players - would find it difficult to release Bart DC etc and therefore the Squad could not reasonably improve.

WELL HE DID IT AND WELL DONE TO HIM FOR SHOWING GOOD JUDGEMENT.

2) He showed Tactical Naivety during Key Games.

Look- Bart was a bag of nerves and cost us points vs blackpool at home and Jose Fonte struggled in games and pulled back the man instead of going for the ball and cost us the chance of at least a draw at boro away.

Saints could have sat back and not pressed for the WIN against reading at home and boro away
and a combinations of factors between individual player errors and tactical awareness cost us being crowned at Champions.

I am not pointing fingers but that's what happened.

WE MUST STRENGTHEN OUR GOALKEEPING SQUAD AND DEFENCE.

Not worried about Kelvin - the New Keeper and him can fight for the Number 1 Jersey and share games for all I care.

WE DEMAND CLEAN SHEETS.

We also need a new CB for Jaidi to challenge Jose (who must be a lot more consistent.) Also LB and RB need to be strengthened
Only Jos Hooiveld has earned his Premier League Place.

WE DEMAND A STRONG DEFENCE.


WE ALSO NEED A GOAL SCORING MIDFIELDER WITH PACE AND ANOTHER STRIKER (like hooper) TO ADD TO OUR OPTIONS.

Neutral Supporters think we are weak at defending set pieces and we need to beef up our Defence.

WE NEED TO MAKE A BIG IMPACT IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE.

NO FEAR - NO SURRENDER.

RED ARMY 2012. FIGHT + WIN.
WE ARE NUMBER ONE IN THE SOUTH.

p.s After the Tournament we should have an Open Top Bus to celebrate the Double Promotion.

(It's not too late to organize it - just needs one phone-call)

This event will not happen again in our life-times as SAINTS WILL BE IN THE PREMIERSHIP FOR ANOTHER 100 YEARS +

RED ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMY

Echo say's Saints can't afford to carry any players. That is why they have kept Tommy Forecast :L. How many apps has he made since his time at Southampton???. Shame about David being released as he is the only player to have played in the prem and had any success. I also feel sorry for Bartosz, I would have give him a deal and sent him out on loan to give him a confidence boosting season, as he is only 24!!!!!!.

Let's just hope Cortese get's the cheque book out and signs Hooper and a GK back up for SKD!!! COYR

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Yep. Nigel going to Chelsea too.

costa gaz wrote:
Had to have a cull to pay the wages of the Michael Owen.
(not my opinion, just the rumour sites are in overdrive with this story atm).

Bart has been released which mean we'll be signing a new keeper..... Paul Robinson would do very nicely indeed.

Why on earth would we want Owen? Long passed his use by date.

sammy_m wrote:
Echo say's Saints can't afford to carry any players. That is why they have kept Tommy Forecast :L. How many apps has he made since his time at Southampton???. Shame about David being released as he is the only player to have played in the prem and had any success. I also feel sorry for Bartosz, I would have give him a deal and sent him out on loan to give him a confidence boosting season, as he is only 24!!!!!!.

Let's just hope Cortese get's the cheque book out and signs Hooper and a GK back up for SKD!!! COYR

Tommy Forecast is a waste of rations - the most exercise he got last year was against Eastleigh reaching down to get the ball out of his own net over and over again.

AS POSTED BEFORE - DC IS A LEGEND (super goal vs brighton at withdean) AND BEST WISHES TO BART AND LEE HOLMES.

RED AND WHITE.
TOP TEAM IN THE SOUTH - FACT.

p.s f*ck the Skunts - Start Liquidizing the Blue Few asap.

truelysaints wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Had to have a cull to pay the wages of the Michael Owen.
(not my opinion, just the rumour sites are in overdrive with this story atm).

Bart has been released which mean we'll be signing a new keeper..... Paul Robinson would do very nicely indeed.

Why on earth would we want Owen? Long passed his use by date.

Owen did visit St Mary's at some point ... the issue is that he would be expensive and spend most of his time out injured like DC.

He would get goals in the Cup - but so will our Strikers !!

Paul Robinson - Kasper - Rob Green all names mentioned in connection with new Keeper.

WE DEMAND SUCCESS.

WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON. COYR.

I do feel sorry for the Bartman, he nightmare earlier in the season didn't help him.

Before his knee injury he looked the dog nuts, a really good young prospect, he will get a team, I have no doubt.

As for DC I reckon he expected it, his age goes against him, Lee Holmes is injury prone, played well on loan a Swindon, Paulo seems to like him, so maybe his future lays there.

As for the Jedi retiring time finally called, a coaching role is in the offing I believe, which will good for the young defenders at the club.

I think there something wrong between our manager and chairman, rumours are rife, I'm one who believes there's no smoke without fire, hope I'm wrong.

Over the Edge wrote:
I do feel sorry for the Bartman, he nightmare earlier in the season didn't help him.

Before his knee injury he looked the dog nuts, a really good young prospect, he will get a team, I have no doubt.

As for DC I reckon he expected it, his age goes against him, Lee Holmes is injury prone, played well on loan a Swindon, Paulo seems to like him, so maybe his future lays there.

As for the Jedi retiring time finally called, a coaching role is in the offing I believe, which will good for the young defenders at the club.

I think there something wrong between our manager and chairman, rumours are rife, I'm one who believes there's no smoke without fire, hope I'm wrong.

Any day now one of the tabloids will be saying that Nigel ate Nicola's hampster.

I do find it hard to believe that with the departure of Bartosz that NC/NA have not got a replacement lined up. Surely it is a very dangerous strategy to "hope" an acceptable replacement will be found.

The comment in the article ...
"Adkins must name a 25-man squad from which he can pick next season", isn't completely correct.
.
The Club only has to name a 25 man squad of OVER 21 year olds at the end of each Transfer Window i.e. 31 August and 31 January for League games.
This means :-
- the 4 kids named yesterday are not included in the 25.
- players could be on the books but sent out on loan on 31 August.
- If a player has a serious injury in pre-season or (?? the 1st couple of games ??) they can be exclude from the 25 man squad named on 31 Aug.
- I believe one PL club (poss Stoke) had a player who only played in the 3 cups (League,FA and Europe) but was excluded from one of their squads.

Off topic, but I was watching the Manchester 10k run today as my stepson was taking part; and I saw a runner in a Saints top to whom i gave an extra cheer and wondered of it was a member of this site.
Well done it was great to see a shirt from the futre premier league champions on display at the home town of the current champions and runners-up.

COYMS

Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Something is definitely wrong.

Stranger things happen.

The team that won promotion was predominantly Pardew's, and we know what happened to him - and we know how he has turned Newcastle around.

Confucious wrote:

Over the Edge wrote:
I do feel sorry for the Bartman, he nightmare earlier in the season didn't help him.

Before his knee injury he looked the dog nuts, a really good young prospect, he will get a team, I have no doubt.

As for DC I reckon he expected it, his age goes against him, Lee Holmes is injury prone, played well on loan a Swindon, Paulo seems to like him, so maybe his future lays there.

As for the Jedi retiring time finally called, a coaching role is in the offing I believe, which will good for the young defenders at the club.

I think there something wrong between our manager and chairman, rumours are rife, I'm one who believes there's no smoke without fire, hope I'm wrong.

Any day now one of the tabloids will be saying that Nigel ate Nicola's hampster.

Nigel ate the dog nuts, or was it the doughnuts, or was it the dog's nuts, or was it Bart's nuts? No it was Nicola's nuts!

The hampster was unhurt, despite reports to the contrary and is living on a nut free diet in Nicola's office.

Nicola has gone to Tesco's to buy more nuts for himself and the hampster. But don't blame Nigel, he isn't nuts, said an article in the Sunday Nutter.

The hampster and the dog and the doughnuts declined to comment.

Could Nigel be getting an interview for the Liverpool job?i'm sure he would be interested in it as they are his first love

RedArmy1 wrote:

truelysaints wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Had to have a cull to pay the wages of the Michael Owen.
(not my opinion, just the rumour sites are in overdrive with this story atm).

Bart has been released which mean we'll be signing a new keeper..... Paul Robinson would do very nicely indeed.

Why on earth would we want Owen? Long passed his use by date.

Owen did visit St Mary's at some point ... the issue is that he would be expensive and spend most of his time out injured like DC.

He would get goals in the Cup - but so will our Strikers !!

Paul Robinson - Kasper - Rob Green all names mentioned in connection with new Keeper.

WE DEMAND SUCCESS.

WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON. COYR.

Fernado Torres leaving Chelsea and going south
....................
....................
.................to catch the ferry home

Linesman wrote:

Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Something is definitely wrong.

Stranger things happen.

The team that won promotion was predominantly Pardew's, and we know what happened to him - and we know how he has turned Newcastle around.

Pardew was sacked for a fist fight on the team bus.

I think Adkins is our long term manager, tactically aware and mentally strong, cool under pressure, more than capable of taking us into Europe.

Linesman wrote:

Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Something is definitely wrong.

Stranger things happen.

The team that won promotion was predominantly Pardew's, and we know what happened to him - and we know how he has turned Newcastle around.

still talking out of your backside i see , why does a skunt pretend to be a saint ? ........ jealousy is all i can think of .

george chivers wrote:

Confucious wrote:

Over the Edge wrote:
I do feel sorry for the Bartman, he nightmare earlier in the season didn't help him.

Before his knee injury he looked the dog nuts, a really good young prospect, he will get a team, I have no doubt.

As for DC I reckon he expected it, his age goes against him, Lee Holmes is injury prone, played well on loan a Swindon, Paulo seems to like him, so maybe his future lays there.

As for the Jedi retiring time finally called, a coaching role is in the offing I believe, which will good for the young defenders at the club.

I think there something wrong between our manager and chairman, rumours are rife, I'm one who believes there's no smoke without fire, hope I'm wrong.

Any day now one of the tabloids will be saying that Nigel ate Nicola's hampster.

Nigel ate the dog nuts, or was it the doughnuts, or was it the dog's nuts, or was it Bart's nuts? No it was Nicola's nuts!

The hampster was unhurt, despite reports to the contrary and is living on a nut free diet in Nicola's office.

Nicola has gone to Tesco's to buy more nuts for himself and the hampster. But don't blame Nigel, he isn't nuts, said an article in the Sunday Nutter.

The hampster and the dog and the doughnuts declined to comment.

My Sunday Nutter claims Nigel had a fling with Nicola's mistress, the kit washing lady and has run off with her.

It's on page 22 headlined: "Nut screws washer and bolts"

Just another reader wrote:

Linesman wrote:

Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Something is definitely wrong.

Stranger things happen.

The team that won promotion was predominantly Pardew's, and we know what happened to him - and we know how he has turned Newcastle around.

Pardew was sacked for a fist fight on the team bus.

I think Adkins is our long term manager, tactically aware and mentally strong, cool under pressure, more than capable of taking us into Europe.

No he wasnt.

Mongoose wrote:
Any offers for Forecast Butterfield Seabourne Dickson Harding Hammond Chaplow Forte and Barnard should be accepted

All have been fantastic for the Saints but dont think any will cut it in the Prem

Can we exspect European football - you bet COYR

Spot on......apart from Chaplow.

Footballfootballandm
orefootball wrote:

Mongoose wrote:
Any offers for Forecast Butterfield Seabourne Dickson Harding Hammond Chaplow Forte and Barnard should be accepted

All have been fantastic for the Saints but dont think any will cut it in the Prem

Can we exspect European football - you bet COYR

Spot on......apart from Chaplow.

spot on apart from chaplow, hammond, harding, forte and barnard !?!? what planet are your from !?!? do you think professional players will sign for saints to replace them to sit on the bench for most of the season !?!? where is your reality button !?

truelysaints wrote:

RedArmy1 wrote:

truelysaints wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Had to have a cull to pay the wages of the Michael Owen.
(not my opinion, just the rumour sites are in overdrive with this story atm).

Bart has been released which mean we'll be signing a new keeper..... Paul Robinson would do very nicely indeed.

Why on earth would we want Owen? Long passed his use by date.

Owen did visit St Mary's at some point ... the issue is that he would be expensive and spend most of his time out injured like DC.

He would get goals in the Cup - but so will our Strikers !!

Paul Robinson - Kasper - Rob Green all names mentioned in connection with new Keeper.

WE DEMAND SUCCESS.

WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON. COYR.

Fernado Torres leaving Chelsea and going south
....................

....................

.................to catch the ferry home

Matt Jarvis ... Craig Gordon .. all being linked to SAINTS.

We all wish Nigel every success with the signings.

Nigel is not out of his depth and like the fans WILL FIGHT FOR EUROPEAN FOOTBALL.

WE ARE SOUTHAMPTON. COYR.

Puncheon + £2 million for Tom Ince Deal or no Deal?

flashhart2000 wrote:
Puncheon + £2 million for Tom Ince Deal or no Deal?

Tom Ince looks a good prospect and I am sure will be a future ENGLAND Player.

NIGEL will have both choice and money to get in some good Players.

RED ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRMY.

The rumour on Owen comes from Matt le Tiss asking him would he consider saints and Owen said he would consider it.

ref Ap's team winning us promotion.
Richardson,Fonte, Lambert were the only first team regulars that AP bought.
Harding,Butterfield,
Seabourne played bit parts.
Davies, Spider and Adam were already here
Nigel will not be going anywhere.He has commited himself long term to Saints and as yet not proved himself at PL Level.
May have been different if Dalgleish had been made director of football at LC.
Wouldn't be surprised if MU are building a file on him.
There is no doubt there will be a few top clubs watching his progress with interest.
I do think though NA and NC both have a dream here and NA loves being here.
I am sure on transfer front there are players here for sale. You just can't finish their contracts.
There is no doubt there is a set transfer budget here. How much who knows, but however much it is, you can't afford to waste it.

I don't think the 3 'first-team' players who are definitely leaving (Holmes, Bart & DC) can have too many complaints.

Bart had his chance and, alas, blew it, the other two have had a number of injuries.

I wish them all well.

If Bart can nail a first-team place in, say, L1, I'm sure he'll get back to something like his best.

If Holmes really is now fully fit, he could do well in a number of Championship teams.

DC could have a role off the bench in any Championship team.

Good luck to them - and the youngsters who are being released - and thank you for sharing in these great last 3 years.

Others who may be 'helped' out of the club are:
Forte - like DC we'll never forget those memorable goals.
Dickson - Never managed to push Harding out of the team.
Forecast - Only saw him once (Switzerland) and he did okay. Clearly not in NA's plans, though.
Punch - if he matures, he could yet show what he can do. Maybe he needs to listen to a wiseman rather than a greedy agent.
Barnard - Needs a fresh start away from the area where he had his hand injured.
Seabourne - Really hard to tell, but if Burnely are interested, then, like Barnard, it might not be a bad thing for him to move elsewhere.

Then there are the youngsters - especially Martin. How they are helped with their development will be very interesting.

Confucious wrote:

Over the Edge wrote:
I do feel sorry for the Bartman, he nightmare earlier in the season didn't help him.

Before his knee injury he looked the dog nuts, a really good young prospect, he will get a team, I have no doubt.

As for DC I reckon he expected it, his age goes against him, Lee Holmes is injury prone, played well on loan a Swindon, Paulo seems to like him, so maybe his future lays there.

As for the Jedi retiring time finally called, a coaching role is in the offing I believe, which will good for the young defenders at the club.

I think there something wrong between our manager and chairman, rumours are rife, I'm one who believes there's no smoke without fire, hope I'm wrong.

Any day now one of the tabloids will be saying that Nigel ate Nicola's hampster.

Is that true?

Over the Edge wrote:
I do feel sorry for the Bartman, he nightmare earlier in the season didn't help him. Before his knee injury he looked the dog nuts, a really good young prospect, he will get a team, I have no doubt. As for DC I reckon he expected it, his age goes against him, Lee Holmes is injury prone, played well on loan a Swindon, Paulo seems to like him, so maybe his future lays there. As for the Jedi retiring time finally called, a coaching role is in the offing I believe, which will good for the young defenders at the club. I think there something wrong between our manager and chairman, rumours are rife, I'm one who believes there's no smoke without fire, hope I'm wrong.

"No smoke without fire" should be the founding principle of any decent legal system. If there are rumours there's DEFINITELY something up.

stockysaint wrote:
Off topic, but I was watching the Manchester 10k run today as my stepson was taking part; and I saw a runner in a Saints top to whom i gave an extra cheer and wondered of it was a member of this site. Well done it was great to see a shirt from the futre premier league champions on display at the home town of the current champions and runners-up. COYMS

It wasn't me, but I did do the Manchester Marathon in a Saints top the day after we secured promotion. I also spend most evenings running down the Bridgewater Canal in a Saints training top.

To be fair to the United fans (the proper ones who actually live in Manchester) they seem quite knowledgeable about Saints and our current squad.

JohnItaly wrote:
I do find it hard to believe that with the departure of Bartosz that NC/NA have not got a replacement lined up. Surely it is a very dangerous strategy to "hope" an acceptable replacement will be found.

It's not a tactic he has come to the end of his contract and there is no point in offering him a new and improved one if he isn't going to cut it. There is the whole summer and Euros for Saints to go out and find a decent replacement. I think NA will run the rule over a lot of midfielders at the Euros to find a quality winger and central midfielder.

Seedhouse the Unrepentant wrote:

costa gaz wrote:
Talking of rumours, if the People is to be believed, Nigel Adkins is fighting to save his job and will be replaced by Di Matteo should he not land the Chelsea job.....
Good grief !!!!!

Something is definitely wrong.

I'm no expert on body language, but take another look at the after match celebrations, after the Coventry game, and compare the way NC greeted Kelvin and Nigel. One received a beaming smile and a hug and the other got a smaller smile and a handshake at arms length.
Add in NA's "odd" (because of the timing) comments the same day about moving on at some stage in the future, indicates to me that all is not sweet between the two most important men at the club.

WHATS THE WAR CHEST TOTAL GOING TO BE THEN?

Fatty x Ford Worker wrote:
WHATS THE WAR CHEST TOTAL GOING TO BE THEN?

Geordie asking Page 3 girl to flash 'em?