Message Board regular Singapore Saint gives his overview on whats been happening at St Mary's since we were promoted to the Premier League 

I am not of the belief that we should be content with the current situation because we were in league 1 a couple of years ago. We were an established top flight club for 27 or so years in a row - far more established than the Newcastle, Stoke, Sunderland's of today. Certainly when we were on the pitch v Coventry I felt all around me believed we deserved to be in the Premier. In my view Southampton FC should be a top flight club and with a level of investment I expect us to compete.

I commented throughout the summer that our behaviour in formation change and transfer activity (not strengthening the key areas all had highlighted, not bringing in prem experience) felt like an 'experiment'. To be honest it draws me back to 2004/5 - where we took our eye off the ball as to why we were successful - we had a chairman who spent more time outside the club than in it and we 'experimented' with bringing in new ways of doing things i.e. rugby coaches instead of focusing on preparing a side to win premiership football games. We also had a manager who was a good clubman but didnt have any premiership management experience. I was also intrigued by the statements around challenging for Europe over this summer and even comments on the title being spouted from the club - wild ambition without realistic grounding usually results in failure.

We have invested, in fact we have invested a shocking amount - we have spent the 7th largest sum in Europe this summer - not just in England but in Europe! With this outlay performances should have been better as clear weaknesses in the squad should have been fixed - and the fans (and owners) have cause to be upset with our start.

We are in the situation we are and we have to galvanise what we have and start to win football games. We need the manager to pick the right players and that starts with the keeper - for me KD's form is a problem. He doesnt look safe, big enough and doesnt appear to inspire confidence in his defence. A change is warranted, a Craig Gordon needs to come in or Gazzinga needs a go - if nothing else to take the pressure off Davis and get him to work on his game..

The worry is not we are losing games, it is the manner of goals we have conceded. We need defensive drilling and look to limit the amount of goals against - a defensive coach is needed (or if we have a good one - THE priority is to focus on this) to get them to defend as a unit (inc the midfield at times) and also individually i.e. when to get tight and drop off.. Yoshida must play and lead - he a proven international defender who has come from the top league in Holland. There may be some language barriers but I play football in Asia and you can communicate the basics in a game. We need to prevent the supply line of ball in the box ongoing and better plan corners, not least as Hooiveld is injured and his main strength is as our primary aerial ball winner.

Going forward we need to get people around the C Forward - many have talked about the change in formation and we can not isolate Lambert - Ramirez supporting him (in the hole) should help. Wide midfield is not great. I dont think Punch is a top flight starting player - he was a sub in the Champ for us and mainly sub at QPR and Blackpool and they finished 17th and 18th. We need a player who can go past the fullback and hit the byline, not only come inside - we didnt sign this type of player although were linked with many, but I'd pick Lee to do this job out of who we have, maybe J Rod can play on the right too as he doesnt look comfortable on the left and I want to see 7M of talent. Lallana is very similar to Ramirez and as now we have Ramirez, Lallana needs to hold down a flank and as such work on his strength and fitness - he may rotate a bit with Ramirez but we can not afford Lallana to be a 'luxury' player.

Finally we need the team to be prepared tactically to win premiership games; formations, selections, substitutions must be made to best improve our chances of winning at the top level, putting Guly on 'to run his socks off' doesnt work for me - Guly doesnt run his socks off! We need NA to prove his is a Premiership manager and not a good lower league one and he has to do it now.. In April I thought with some investment in key areas we may make 10-14th. If we survive it looks like we will be more likely 15 to 17th. We need to pick up points until Christmas and then strengthen in the window. We can survive and need to believe that, we've played 4 games not 14, we had very good moments against Man U and Man City with MS / JWP doing well in the middle and are now playing some of the lesser teams.

We all need to get behind the club and players but to paraphrase a great man, this needs to be the end of the beginning. We must get it right from now on........... COYR.

Photo: Action Images

mgprobert added 13:54 - Sep 18 If (OK its a big if) we had held on at Man City and for another 5 mins at home to Man Utd we'd be 6 points better off and saying that we're on the verge of Champions League qualification - its a fine line. I'm sure NA knows where he needs re-enforcements and tried to do something about it. Lets see where we are in a couple of months time.
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slynch added 14:41 - Sep 18 Everything you say has more than an element of truth in it. However, it is difficult to criticise NA and NC's transfer policy when they have been so ambitious. Some areas have not been strengthened but I'm sure they have been addressed: If the "right" player does not want to come there is little you can do. The club should float about mid table with a customer base of 30k. The owners don't want mediocrity but Europe and more but they cannot achieve that regularly with only 30k paying customers so they have to try another approach. And that is to create a modern trading environment with the club with best practice and a school (many millions have been invested here and is rarely commented upon) which produces cheap talent which can be used or sold to subsidise the lack of conventional finance. The idea is that this will "artificially" boost the club some 5 or 6 places. Getting into Europe considerably increases revenue and with that further investment can be made to increase the customer base, maybe a new stand or ground. I don't think this can be passed off as a mere experiment, it is a ground breaking and properly financed business development. The results for 4 or 5 matches makes no difference to the situation, even relegation will make no difference. The business is "lucky" to find itself in this position so soon, but for a couple of missed shots Saints would still be in the Championship. NC has moved quickly to uprate the team to match the current situation and may well have done enough all ready, although I expect more to come. As far as the current situation on the field: How many points will all the other mid table teams have after playing MC, MU, Ars and Wig? (Especially if they had to do it, as Saints did, with a half-formed, second team!) Use that thought to put the current situation into perspective. The team have many new players yet to find their place. Relax and enjoy the ride out of mediocrity.

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helmz7 added 14:58 - Sep 18 Who do you play for in Asia? Id be interested in what you think of you coach..I get annoyed with people on the echo website but I can handle random fans having a little rant but articles are a bit much. Few points mate. 1.Yoshida. Really the guy comes on at Emirates, gets a little excited trying to defend tight and learns a lesson. Cut the guy a bit of slack, it was about 8 minutes into a debut. 2.defensive coach. All teams attack fox. I'm assuming Shaw will be ready before long but even so Once he has a quicker inside centre back he should be fine if his body shape starts facing the sideline rather than forward. Clyne can make mistakes as long as he learns from them. E.g 1st goal, getting caught square with the centre back. 3. Tactics. Takes Longer than a pre-season to teach a new formation with pressing tactics. You want to go to the next level but you have to have patience. It doesn't happen over night. 4. Agree if you mean a goalkeeper. I love kelvin. Such a good club man but is he better than any other keeper in the league, I dunno. 5. Look how long it is taking Liverpool to change their system, yes it's a new coach but we are playing a new system with a fair few new players. 6. By the time I go to my first game of the year on the 29th of December at Fulham, I think we will be nestled into mid table. And would u prefer the club to say we want to finish 17th? Fair dinkum 7. Do u dream at night of shagging the ugly girl down the road instead of Mila Kunis? do you have ambitions or are you scared to dream? 8. At least you backed the team somewhere in there...but back the manager too. He is a gun...we all make mistakes, that's what makes us human, from what we have seen from Adkins though, he learns from every lesson and that is what makes a champion. Paul COYR

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Iceberg added 15:00 - Sep 18 I like fluffy kittens.
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mg2104 added 16:04 - Sep 18 Any chance you can write more regularly for TUI?
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SanMarco added 18:00 - Sep 18 I think the '7th largest sum in Europe' is a net amount. It represents purchases minus sales and as we haven't actually sold anyone our figure overtakes quite a few clubs that have spent more. Even so - we have invested heavily and it is a perfectly legitimate criticism to say that more of it should have been spent on strengthening defensively. The people saying that, including those on this site, have been saying so since before the season started. They are not becoming wise after 4 games - and mgprobert's 'big if' could have been a reality with sounder defending. Of course we all sincerely hope that Saints can patch up at the back and start moving up the table but it is perfectly reasonable to point out where we feel NA and/or NC have got it wrong (it doesnt mean they havent got a lot right as well. Also to slynch's "relegation will make no difference" - really??? Well that's alright then...

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Dperc added 08:46 - Sep 19 Singapore Saint - a hypothetical question for you; do you think you'd have posting the same blog/article if we'd have taken a point from City and beaten United? Were NA and NC entirely to blame for us not picking up points in these games or did last seasons joint top pointscorers in the Prem also play some part in the outcomes? Seriously, although you raise some very obvious points (that everyone else is making), this does read as though you think the club are doing everything wrong. We deserve to be in the Premier League this season because we were promoted from the Championship last season, and for that reason only. I'm proud of our history, but to think we're more deserving of a place here than Newcastle, Stoke and Sunderland is ridiculous, and you're criticising the club for being unrealistic with their expectation!? Those clubs have been strengthening and maintaining their top flight place whilst we've been down to league one and back. On your point about transfers, players with Prem experience are generally going to be asking for wages that their skills do not justify in comparison with our existing squad. Instead we've signed Ramirez - one of Europe's hottest young talents at only 21, the African Cup of Nations winner and golden boot holder Mayuka (also 21) and Yoshida, a regular Japan international. And this reminds you of Rupert Lowe bringing Clive Woodward in? You and I have no idea which players were targetted and who we tried to sign but couldn't. Deals through fall late in the window, and NC is experienced enough not go out and panic buy at the last minute. It's all very well sitting back criticising and saying we should have signed this or that, but I have faith that NA and NC are aware of what we need and will be looking to strengthen where necessary in January. With regards to the Arsenal result - we played a Champions League team who were bang on form. We scored two unfortunate own goals and had a CB playing most of the game after a days training with the squad. We're new to the Prem this time round and results like this happen. QPR lost 5-0 to Swansea at home, Norwich lost 5-0 at Fulham. Those results would worry more a lot more if we'd been on the end of them.

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SingaporeSaint added 10:05 - Sep 19 Just a quick note in context to this post - apologies if one or two views may be seen as critical by some. I am not anti NA - I like NA - I genuinely think he wanted to sign a keeper, 2 C Backs, a left back and a right winger - hence we were linked with many players in these positions. For some reason 'we' have not signed players in these positions - we can only speculate why, and would make an interesting blog topic. It seems and seemed very obvious that these are areas which needed strengthening (plenty of people on this site inc. me have commented on this for some time so is not being wise after the event). We had a formation and system which won us games and we have changed it. NA does now have a massive job on his hands to galvanise the side and best patch the defensive frailties we have seen, make the new signings work without a preseason with them and get us winning. He is the manager of the football club so is the one in the hot seat to make this happen. I desperately want the club to do well on and off the pitch - I'd like to see some positive comments from NC as I have had fears on alignment between NA and NC for a while. I'd also like to see NC's relationship with club legends like MLT improved too to look after the image of the club. Great to see the U21s and 18's top of the league btw! Roll on Saturday - we have to put in a much improved performance and I'm giving up corporate tickets for the Grand Prix qualifying to watch the game.. : )

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slynch added 11:45 - Sep 19 SanMarco Makes a difference to the football but makes no difference to the final aim of the company
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bstokesaint added 12:56 - Sep 19 Generally not a bad article Singapore and yes it does highlight some of the problem areas. As others have pointed out though isn't it a bit early in the season for such detailed criticism? I love the fact that the club are essentially reaching for the stars and have huge ambition. We never had this under Rupert and I strongly believe NC will fulfill all of his obligations to ML. Okay, so we've been found out by three of the top sides in the Prem, arguably Europe, but we expected that. I think the key word is 'patience' and not 'panic'. NA needs a bit of time to work out what works for us and what doesn't. Even in a moment of madness which which resulted a new manager coming in, and I stress this would be ridiculous, then that manager too would need time to adapt. Success isn't always instantaneous. I'm positive NA will get it right. In Nigel we trust.

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brianletiss added 20:53 - Sep 19 I didn't expect anything from 3 out of the 4 games at the start of the season. But the result against Arsenal was shocking, we should have got something against Wigan and we let leads slip against the two Manchester Clubs. That is a really bad start. I really hope NA can turn it around. But don't pretend it will be easy. Reading who had an easy win at St Mary's last year are one of the worst teams in the division. And they have a point on the board. Morale will be a major issue on Saturday. Lets hope the players aren't shell shocked and really turn in a performance. Like others I am disappointed in our transfer dealings over the Summer. We seem to have signed players willy nilly. What is the plan for JRod and Mayuka? Why did Sharp go? It is difficult to understand the logic behind it all. It seems we are danger of picking our best 11 players and not the best team. The side needs to have balance and it is a hard league. Can Ramires and Lallana play in the same struggling side? Come on Nigel and COYR

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BoondockSaint added 04:50 - Sep 21 You have a lot of good points. One that has been on my mind too: The image of the club. This is the Premier League, you can't come off as petty and small. Yet we have : The alienation of former players. A squabble over nothing with the local paper. The attempt to control and charge for all photos in the stadium. The rumor (I don't know if it is true) that the employees have to pay for their own parking. The story that NC wanted NA to quit his previous position so we wouldn't have to pay compensation. We don't want this type of rep. It makes us look cheap, petty and paranoid. It will make it more difficult to sign players if they think even if they play great for us, the club will treat them like pariahs in the future. Also, you have to get along with the other teams if you want player loans or deals in the future. Stiff one club in a deal, and all the other teams will know about and avoid doing business with us. Over the years we've always had a rep as a likeable club that gets on with everyone (except that place I can't mention for fear of being banned for using foul language). Oh, yeah, and change back to the damn stripes! That's at least 50% less income the club could have had from sales this year-not to mention the players identity as a team. Rant Over.

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