Credit to Adkins

[ROSM]

Adkins has done very well indeed, I think we are too sensitive at times about comments from opposition managers/players etc. After all Gus is no stranger to inflammatory remarks himself.

As for the crap about it being Pardew's team he inherited, the same could be said about Wendy when he took over from Pardew, and Saints results under Wilkins were P4 W0 D0 L4, so Adkins should be given a lot of credit. He has a very good squad, and if we finish close to them this season I'll be very happy.

El Pres - I thought this 'oing soft/devils advocate' pproach of yours was restricted to the man love you feel for Glenn Murray. You really have had a road to damascus moment havn't you

Or more likely all that porn and cheap totty in manchester has finally sent you gaga

Actually - to be serious for a moment, I cant disagree with your comment. We tried to get Adkins when he was being relegated with Scunthorpe and almost persuaded him. At the time I would have liked that although I think now that no matter what he's achieved at Southampton, I wouldn't swap him for the stylish, classy and frankly verging on bonkers at times Poyet. He is now my favourite Albion manager of all time.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

El Pres - I thought this 'oing soft/devils advocate' pproach of yours was restricted to the man love you feel for Glenn Murray. You really have had a road to damascus moment havn't you

Or more likely all that porn and cheap totty in manchester has finally sent you gaga

Actually - to be serious for a moment, I cant disagree with your comment. We tried to get Adkins when he was being relegated with Scunthorpe and almost persuaded him. At the time I would have liked that although I think now that no matter what he's achieved at Southampton, I wouldn't swap him for the stylish, classy and frankly verging on bonkers at times Poyet. He is now my favourite Albion manager of all time.

I'd agree with that, Poyet is brilliant verging on mad, but then genius very often is. Question when Gus does move on, would anyone welcome Adkins becoming our manager?

 

[SaintsWillToppleBrighton]

I'd agree with that, Poyet is brilliant verging on mad, but then genius very often is. Question when Gus does move on, would anyone welcome Adkins becoming our manager?

We'll be in the Premier League, why would he drop a division to manage you lot !!??

 

[ROSM]

We'll be in the Premier League, why would he drop a division to manage you lot !!??

Because Cortese will have fired him in a fit of rage?

 

[redneb]

He signed Fonte, who was their most important player last season. You're making a bit of an idiot of yourself here tbh.

To be fair my ginger friend, Fonte was signed by Pardew not NA. You might be confused with Forte who was NA's signing but probably not as significant.

 

[Simster]

Here's what I imagine to be the general view of most Saints fans:

By the end of last season I would say our team was as good as any other in L1, playing with style and grit. Did we deserve to win the league? No. You did, you won it, you got more points than us, you were the better side over the course of last season. You were fantastically consistent, demonstrating mental strength with seemingly endless late winners and had some good flair players. Our team started poorly, looking demotivated - Lambert a prime example - and we found ourselves in real trouble.

Adkins came in and immediately looked to instil a winning mentality. Poor pitches would never again be used as an excuse for poor performances. By the time we played you at St Marys we looked a decent side again, and I'm sure when Adkins made his comment even most Brighton fans wouldn't have expected you to reach the points total you did (could be wrong on this, but it would surprise me if you were that confident at that stage). Adkins' answer came back to haunt him, we would have done the same to Poyet.

Poyet is unpopular with us after trying to get one of our players sent off and claiming that the only difference between us and D&R is Rickie Lambert. Could have been a strange attempt at a mind-game, but, as with Adkins, it only served to gee us up for the rest of the season.

This season we've both flown out of the traps. In my opinion people are going over the top about Saints, I've always known that these players could play superb football and cut teams open, but a few injuries in key areas could expose us. I don't want to see us go up this season, it would be bad for the club in the long run (I think Norwich will suffer this season). I expect you must feel something similar re. Brighton, building the club slowly would be more likely to lead to success.

Should be interesting to see where we both finish, my prediction would be both of us somewhere between 4th-8th. Now lets put an end to last season's squabbling, its boring.

This. samej and looney are two of the board muppets. Best ignore them like everyone else does.

 

[SaintsWillToppleBrighton]

Because Cortese will have fired him in a fit of rage?

Our Nicola doesn't do fits of rage, he makes cool calm and calculated decisions don't you know.

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

You said this yesturday... my response was:

Pre-season perspectives

Leeds - playoff favourites
Barnsley - bottom half
Ipswich - promotion contneders
Millwall - Mid table
Leicester - Promotion favourites
Forest - Play off contenders
Birmingham - Promotion contenders


18 points from that is very impressive imo. There are no 'easy' games in this league.

18 points is indeed impressive - there are no easy games. But those are presumably your pre-season perspectives, and don't actually match up with what's going on on the pitch, which is considerably more important. But FWIW, my pre-season predictions for that lot were:

Leeds - Lower middle half. Tipped by Adrian Durham to go down!
Barnsley - bottom half
Ipswich - bottom half
Millwall - Mid table. May well struggle for goals without Morison (spelling?)
Leicester - Promotion favourites
Forest - McLaren in charge (until around December at any rate). Not going to feature anywhere near the play-offs unless they ditch him quickly
Birmingham - Fighting to stay up. Lost basically an entire first team of players.

Anyway, let's not argue. The win against Leicester was impressive, certainly. I don't think too many people on here cast aspersions on Adkins' managerial abilities or achievements. It was much more about his gob than his work. We should both be absolutely delighted with the starts we've made, but they are just starts. Neither club should be giving it too large just yet, there's a very long way to go.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

. The win against Leicester was impressive, certainly. .

Er....

It would have been (if they actually had...)

 

[SaintsWillToppleBrighton]

18 points is indeed impressive - there are no easy games. But those are presumably your pre-season perspectives, and don't actually match up with what's going on on the pitch, which is considerably more important. But FWIW, my pre-season predictions for that lot were:

Leeds - Lower middle half. Tipped by Adrian Durham to go down!
Barnsley - bottom half
Ipswich - bottom half
Millwall - Mid table. May well struggle for goals without Morison (spelling?)
Leicester - Promotion favourites
Forest - McLaren in charge (until around December at any rate). Not going to feature anywhere near the play-offs unless they ditch him quickly
Birmingham - Fighting to stay up. Lost basically an entire first team of players.

Anyway, let's not argue. The win against Leicester was impressive, certainly. I don't think too many people on here cast aspersions on Adkins' managerial abilities or achievements. It was much more about his gob than his work. We should both be absolutely delighted with the starts we've made, but they are just starts. Neither club should be giving it too large just yet, there's a very long way to go.

I must admit it felt like a win at the end of that Leicester game, and it bloody well should have been, but for some amazing goalkeeping from Kaspar Schmeichael !

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Question when Gus does move on, would anyone welcome Adkins becoming our manager?

Absolutely not.

 

[Don Quixote]

I fail to see how their squad is better than our squad, I really do.

 

[redneb]

Here's what I imagine to be the general view of most Saints fans:

By the end of last season I would say our team was as good as any other in L1, playing with style and grit. Did we deserve to win the league? No. You did, you won it, you got more points than us, you were the better side over the course of last season. You were fantastically consistent, demonstrating mental strength with seemingly endless late winners and had some good flair players. Our team started poorly, looking demotivated - Lambert a prime example - and we found ourselves in real trouble.

Adkins came in and immediately looked to instil a winning mentality. Poor pitches would never again be used as an excuse for poor performances. By the time we played you at St Marys we looked a decent side again, and I'm sure when Adkins made his comment even most Brighton fans wouldn't have expected you to reach the points total you did (could be wrong on this, but it would surprise me if you were that confident at that stage). Adkins' answer came back to haunt him, we would have done the same to Poyet.

Poyet is unpopular with us after trying to get one of our players sent off and claiming that the only difference between us and D&R is Rickie Lambert. Could have been a strange attempt at a mind-game, but, as with Adkins, it only served to gee us up for the rest of the season.

This season we've both flown out of the traps. In my opinion people are going over the top about Saints, I've always known that these players could play superb football and cut teams open, but a few injuries in key areas could expose us. I don't want to see us go up this season, it would be bad for the club in the long run (I think Norwich will suffer this season). I expect you must feel something similar re. Brighton, building the club slowly would be more likely to lead to success.

Should be interesting to see where we both finish, my prediction would be both of us somewhere between 4th-8th. Now lets put an end to last season's squabbling, its boring.

I agree with all this except I find the squabbling quite fun.

 

[redneb]

18 points is indeed impressive - there are no easy games. But those are presumably your pre-season perspectives, and don't actually match up with what's going on on the pitch, which is considerably more important. But FWIW, my pre-season predictions for that lot were:

Leeds - Lower middle half. Tipped by Adrian Durham to go down!
Barnsley - bottom half
Ipswich - bottom half
Millwall - Mid table. May well struggle for goals without Morison (spelling?)
Leicester - Promotion favourites
Forest - McLaren in charge (until around December at any rate). Not going to feature anywhere near the play-offs unless they ditch him quickly
Birmingham - Fighting to stay up. Lost basically an entire first team of players.

Anyway, let's not argue. The win against Leicester was impressive, certainly. I don't think too many people on here cast aspersions on Adkins' managerial abilities or achievements. It was much more about his gob than his work. We should both be absolutely delighted with the starts we've made, but they are just starts. Neither club should be giving it too large just yet, there's a very long way to go.

To be fair though, the only half decent team youve beaton is Cardiff, and youve played the bottom 2 - we havent.

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

Oops! Thought they'd beaten Leicester.

Oh well. Overall point still holds, I hope.

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

To be fair though, the only half decent team youve beaton is Cardiff, and youve played the bottom 2 - we havent.

Quite so. But nobody was bottom on opening day, which is when we played Donny. And, as I said, it's still early. There are teams in positions at the moment which will be a very long way from where they ultimately end up. We must just both hope that we're not two of them.

 

[mitch01]

mitch01 I liked your post until I read the part about you not wanting us to be promoted this season. Do you think Adkins and Cortese share that view? That's just ridiculous IMO. We all know the money is there to improve the squad accordingly, so why not go for it. Glad you're not manager. As for Looney and Samej? What a pair of mongs.

No, I'm sure that they don't share my view. I'm just looking at what happened to Derby when they were promoted 2 years earlier than they anticipated (yes yes, I know there are no guarantees of promotion later, should grab it when it comes along etc), but the team wasn't ready and they were battered.

Sorry to use Saints examples on a Brighton forum but hopefully you can see similarities in your squad: Injuries to Lallana, Fonte, Connolly or Lambert would diminish us in a big way, we are yet to see how we would deal with that. I think we'd become a fairly average NPC team. If we could add some more really strong players to our squad over the next year I think we would be better suited to a promotion challenge and then Premiership survival. Just a fan's view, it doesn't mean I'm not loving it every time we win and wouldn't love successive promotions, but there is another part of me that thinks it wouldn't be best for the club in the long run.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

To be fair though, the only half decent team youve beaton is Cardiff, and youve played the bottom 2 - we havent.

And Saints haven't played anybody in the top eight which, since Cardiff are sixth and using your own definition above, means you've yet to play a team that's even half decent - or have I missed something (apart from Notts Forest being 22nd)?

 

[SaintsWillToppleBrighton]

Its completely irrelevant who's played who, the fact is that if you want to succeed then you have to beat who's in front of you regardless of where they stand in the table at the time. If Ipswich had beaten us they would be in 7th or 8th place, if Brum or Barnsley had beaten us they would be in approx 10th place, if we had beaten Leicester (which i'm still astonished that we didnt) they would be right down in 14th and we would be 4 points clear at the top, WE ARE 7 GAMES IN!! for what its worth I expect us to fall away and settle in the play off places, and I expect the same of Brighton.

 

[ROSM]

Our Nicola doesn't do fits of rage, he makes cool calm and calculated decisions don't you know.

And who says irony doesnt come across in the written word