Southampton have sacked Alan Pardew after winning 4-0 at the weekend.
Well that seems very very strange, soomething major must have happened behind the scenes for this to have occured now.

Already he is the 4th manager to lose his job this season.

I can only conclude there is some kind of power struggle going on behind the scenes, given the owner (Markus Leibherr) died a couple of weeks back and was, as far as I can ascertain, highly thought of by fans. He certainly didn't appear to be the meddling type.

Mind you, after saying that, Southampton is, I think, the only club in the country where the press are banned from taking pix inside the ground. I'm not entirely sure the deceased owner was necessarily behind that, however.

The ownership of Southampton is staying within the Leibherr family, which is an official notice.
Also one presumes it will cost them a fair bit of dosh for him to go.
By the way from the dreggs of administration, I have been told they are making a lot of money again and are in a stable financial situation again like they always have done.

According to Sky Sports we are trying to sign Spurs England U21 Danny Rose on loan. Any good, SE Merc?

---

Ex Leeds Academy. Made an impact last season when he scored a wonder goal for Spurs. Hopefully he won't be like most of the Academy products who went to bigger clubs but have now faded into obscurity.

---

I think all academies are like that. I can only think of Lita, Rosenior and Skuse that have come through ours to any notable success. Tempted to say a total waste of money. I know our chairman shares that view

---

Our Academy has spawned:

Lennon

Milner

Woodgate

Delph

Rose

Taewoo (last heard of at Carlisle after Chelsea farmed him out)

and probably one or two others. If nothing else it's paid a few bills over the past few years.

 

Of the current the current crop only Howson is a regular, though Parker would be playing left back, no doubt, if he wasn't forever injured. Aidy White made his debut two years ago and is still only 18!

Whether it's worth the money I don't know.

---

There you go, in case you didn't see it first time round.

http://soccer-portal.org/cat/goal-of-the-day/1734-danny-rose-goal-v-arsenal.html

---

Our Academy has spawned:

Lennon

Milner

Woodgate

Delph

Rose

Taewoo (last heard of at Carlisle after Chelsea farmed him out)

and probably one or two others. If nothing else it's paid a few bills over the past few years.

 

Of the current the current crop only Howson is a regular, though Parker would be playing left back, no doubt, if he wasn't forever injured. Aidy White made his debut two years ago and is still only 18!

Whether it's worth the money I don't know.

We have had many that have come into the first team, been crap and moved on to lower league clubs. Obviously there's money involved there. I know for a fact after the Liam Rosenior debacle that our chairmen seriously considered whether it was worth the time and money to keep it going. This was several years back admittedly. It wont happen now as the club has spent millions on a state of the art facility and set-up for the academy. I'm never convinced by them, although I suppose all players have to start somewhere.

Edit: ah yes, I remember the goal, didn't realise it was him. I wonder how his all-round game is viewed. I've done a bit of searching on him. As always seems to be the case some think he is god and others think he's a knob.

Merc, you seen him from your armchair seat?

Obviously it's a rumour on Sky. May well not even happen. I've heard nothing to back it up. A left sided defender should be our priority right now. We've got strikers and midfielders coming out our ears, but no back 4

---

According to Sky Sports we are trying to sign Spurs England U21 Danny Rose on loan. Any good, SE Merc?

He's not bad. Actually, he's pretty good. Goals like the following - against the South London upstarts - always help of course. I certainly got up out of my armchair for that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtqXdPRbtOU

Good grief, I forgot there was 'football' on today. And there I was thinking there was a two-week break because of the internationals.

Unfortunately, it has become necessary due to the automatic inclusion in Euro 2012 of minnows such as Andorra, the Faroe Islands, San Marino, Liechenstein and Wales without having to go through pre-qualification first.

The Owls 1 down to Brentford, bottom v top, could be a shock result coming up

---

Wednesday go down 1-0 but stay top

---

This has just popped up on News Now for some reason, even though it's from February.

We're not famous any more etc etc etc

http://www.web-fans.com/walsall/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=589%3Adownload-our-leeds-united-victory-desktop-wallpaper&catid=12%3Awalsall-wallpapers&Itemid=12

That's one of my early impressions of the Championship which is excellent. We're by no means every team's cup final which is great news

 

---

Rose to Bristol City confirmed.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2897/championship/2010/09/09/2110658/bristol-city-agree-deal-to-sign-tottenham-youngster-danny

There's a surprise - he's injured! Unbelievable! 😞

---

Noooo, surely not.

It would be funny if it wasn't so annoying for you.

Back to real football after all that dreadful international stuff last weekend

---

Sorry, but more bigging up of our support.

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20100910/barnsley-joins-growing-sell-out-list_2247585_2149443

6,700 going to Barnsley next Tuesday night. Probably only Newcastle, Manchester United and Liverpool could do that for an evening game, especially with another away game (sold out) at Doncaster three days later. Anyone going to the Swansea game tomorrow, Barnsley, Doncaster & the home game v Sheffield United the week later will have shelled out over £100 in tickets alone.

It's all the more remarkable because our tickets never go on general sale for away games. You either have to be a ST holder or a member which in itself costs £35.

BTW Matty - I know that City could do something similar, but with it being midweek and with the membership criteria (one ticket per member) I think nearly 7,000 at any away game is remarkable these days.

---

😂 Unreal isn't it? He picked up a knock on his ankle in the England U21 game this week. Fortunately it's precautionary and he should be fine for next week. Yes, back to the real stuff 👍 although it's still going to be a while before we start turning out results. Really annoying when you look at the strength of our squad.

---

Yeah, there's no way we would take that many to Barnsley, or to use a local comparison, Swindon. Mind you that is Swindon 😂 Our poor start Tongue season and the injury situation has definately knocked our away following. We only took 1000 to Ipswich.

---

1000 to Ipswich isn't bad mate.

We're just nutters. I think you'll find the quality of our support at Ashton Gate far outweighs the atmosphere that we create at Elland Road, especially as that's one of the few aways I'll be putting in for this season.

---

Yeah I think as a rule away fans create a better atmosphere because it's your hardcore, any weather, any circumstance supporter on the whole. Whilst we continue to get outplayed and beat each week our support will continue to dwindle 😞

---