PARDEW SACKED!!!!!..........AND ADKINS IN!!!! CONFIRMED!!

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/8360649.Pardew_sacked/

According to the Echo. Is it April 1?

The statement on the OS.......

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2139306,00.html

I really can't believe Cortese would do this unless he has a replacement lined up. I expect more news within 48 hours.

According to the Echo the bookies odds for the replacement are.......

9/2 Paul TISDALE
6/1 Eddie HOWE
8/1 Dean WILKINS
8/1 Gareth SOUTHGATE
11/1 Chris COLEMAN
11/1 Steve COPPELL
14/1 Alan CURBISHLEY
16/1 Kevin BLACKWELL
20/1 Gary MEGSON
25/1 Iain DOWIE
25/1 Phil BROWN
25/1 Paul INCE


I can't see anyone there to get excited about, can you?

Maybe Cortese has his eye on someone from outside the UK.

On BBC website....

Alan Pardew described Saturday's 4-0 victory at Bristol Rovers as a big relief, but it obviously wasn't enough to persuade the decision makers at Southampton that the 49-year-old should remain in charge at the League One club.

A press release landed in my inbox at 0821 BST on Bank Holiday Monday morning informing me that Pardew, assistant Wally Downes and goalkeeping coach Stuart Murdoch had all been "relieved of their duties with immediate effect".

They had been sacked, in other words, just three games into the League One season.

The club statement was just six paragraphs in length and, bizarrely, started by announcing that the club would be appointing a new manager and coaches rather than explaining that the previous ones had left.

I tweeted the news, asking what people thought about it. The reaction wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement of the club's decision. Bonkers, disgraceful, ridiculous and gutted were a few of the words that featured in the replies.

Saints, red-hot pre-season favourites to win League One, haven't exactly made a blistering start to the new campaign. But four points from three games isn't a disaster either and surely does not merit sacking your manager at such an early point in the campaign. Especially when the club's previous result was such an emphatic victory.

Chairman Nicola Cortese has made no secret of his desire to transform Saints into an established Premier League club. I met him last year and found him to be a calm and reasoned man but he is also fiercely ambitious and regards automatic promotion as a minimum requirement for the current season.

However, is Pardew's dismissal not so much a reflection on this season's results but the consequence of problems behind the scenes at the club's Staplewood training ground?

Saints started the process of overhauling their coaching staff last season. Les Reed was appointed as head of the club's football development and support centre in April and Martin Hunter was brought in as under-21 coach in July. Stewart Henderson, who worked for the club for 20 years in a variety of coaching positions, left in July as part of the restructuring.

I have been told that several support staff based at the club's training ground have recently resigned, claiming an inability to work with Pardew.

At first glance the decision to sack Pardew makes Saints look ridiculous, but if Pardew's dismissal is the consequence of off-the-field issues then that would at least partially explain why it comes just two days after a comprehensive 4-0 victory.

There was a lot of speculation that Pardew was going to be fired at the end of last season. Pardew was appointed in July 2009 and his first campaign in charge had seen Saints win the Johnstone's Paint Trophy but miss out on the play-offs by one place despite starting the season on minus 10 points.

Back in May, Cortese described reports of Pardew's imminent demise as "ill informed". A source close to Cortese told me that the chairman mounted a strong defence of Pardew's position at a time when owner Markus Liebherr, who tragically died in early August, wanted a change of manager.

Pardew was allowed to strengthen his squad over the summer, bringing in the likes of Ryan Dickson, Frazer Richardson and Danny Butterfield.

Only last week the club signed Brazilian midfielder Guiherme do Prado from Cesena and Pardew stated his intention to further bolster his squad before the transfer window closed on Tuesday.

Again, it would be extremely short-sighted if the club allowed Pardew to mould his squad over the summer only to sack him so early into the new season. Unless, of course, Cortese had decided that he was wrong not to dismiss Pardew in May and had now acted swiftly to ensure that any new manager would still have the vast majority of the campaign in front of him.

There had been rumours that Cortese and Pardew did not see eye to eye, but the former Saints boss has yet to comment on his dismissal.

Either way, sacking Pardew is unlikely to be a popular decision with the majority of the club's supporters. It hints at either a club strong enough to resist the pressure of public opinion or one that is out of touch with its fanbase.

The press release announcing Pardew's dismissal stated: "We recognise that frequent changes to the football management are unlikely to assist in the winning of trophies and promotions."

The suggestion is that Cortese, who arrived at the club shortly after Pardew's appointment, is hopeful of making a long-term appointment.

On the one hand, Southampton is an extremely attractive proposition for a prospective manager - a financially stable club with a good squad, a sound infrastructure and a large fanbase.

But the fact that Pardew has been sacked so early in the season might make a prospective new manager think twice before joining the League One side.

Well, I hope Cortese has a decent replacement lined up otherwise it's a bloody stupid move. Absolutely insane. WTF is Cortese playing at? Granted we've had a slow start but, FFS,we're only three games into the L1 season. Time will tell, but I think the club has made a stupid and wrong decision.

Typical, this season was supposed to be an exciting one. It is, but for all the wrong reasons. It's quickly turning into a disaster area - Markus dying, the lunacy with the photographers, Pardew being sacked, the slow start before the 4-0 win. FFS why can't we have stability for once, without sackings, things going wrong and stupid, damaging rumours flying around?

There has apparently been a lot of unrest at the training ground as well as the fact that he failed last season to get us promoted. On a few occasions he left a lot of fans bemoaning his team selections and or substitutions.

Crazy

I've heard Martin O'Neill was at the Bristol game on Saturday..........just a wicked rumour I'd guess!

On a Bournemouth website......


AFC Bournemouth Chairman Eddie Mitchell has revealed that he has received no approach from local rivals Southampton for manager Eddie Howe.

Southampton sacked manager Alan Pardew on Monday following their 4-0 away win at Bristol Rovers.

Eddie Howe has been named as the 5/1 joint favourite by betting company Jem Racing, with Phil Brown, Gianfranco Zola.

Mitchell told the Daily Echo...

"I am sure Eddie (Howe) will be linked with the post because he is a good prospect. Eddie and Jason (Tindall) have a proven track record with us.

"If I were chairman of a club that had just got rid of their management team, they would be high on my list. We haven`t had any dialogue with Southampton and would have to cross that bridge if it came to it...'

'...Like with the players though, we have to let people progress if the opportunities arise. It probably would be a step forward but we would be very disappointed if he took it if he were offered it."

A post on the Echo website......

On a bbc website, whom I think are a little more factual than some other media sources, it refers to last season when Markus, god rest his soul, what a hero, wanted pardew moved on, and cortese put a good case together in favour of keeping A.P. charlton fans had said he was well known for throwing his toys out of the pram. I think that any man who can make it big in the swiss banking industry, would not make rash decisions, and would conduct in a thoughtfull and careful way when dismissing one of his top members of staff. I feel for A.P but also have full trust in N.C, that he would have done this with the best interest of the club, which he refers to as `his baby`. Gone are the days when we would lose good managers (such as Strachan) as they were not allowed to spend on the team. and it was a way of a chairman trying to show the blame of poor play to be the fault of managers not a Chairman who was trying to squeeze as many pennies out of the club as possible.
I think that N.C has done the right thing at the right time, and may have even carried out one of M.L`s last wishes, as a mark of respect for the great man. Whoever comes in to replace A.P will be a manager with drive, determination and a wealth of experience in football managment. And can we please not forget that although M.L was the man who paid for our club, N.C was the man who convinced him to inject the cash needed to not only save our club, but to bring it up to be one of the most envied in modern footbal, with cash not just being spent on players, but the whole infrastructure, to enable us to be a viable business, not just a rich mans play toy. A.P has gone, but not for no reason and we may never know the reasons, but we should all know that our club will be as good or better with whoever Mr Cortese gets in.
Up the saints!!

Our member Waxrose tells me he has made the following comment on the Echo website. Do you agree??

With one stroke of his pen, or a vitriolic comment from his mouth NC has single handed set the club back to the bad old days and it will need a miracle appointment to finish in the playoffs let alone get promotion. Take a hike and leave the club to people who really have it at heart. I'm planning a trip for 2011 I surely hope he is not around to spoil the visit to St Mary's.

Sky Sports:

Southampton have approached former Portsmouth boss Paul Hart over the vacant managerial position at St Mary's, Sky Sports sources understand.

Saints chairman Nicola Cortese surprisingly sacked Alan Pardew on Monday just two days after a 4-0 victory over Bristol Rovers.

Dean Wilkins has been placed in caretaker charge for Tuesday night's Johnstone's Paint Trophy meeting with Swindon, but the search is on for a permanent appointment.

Sky Sports News understands that Hart has been contacted by the League One club, who have also been linked with former player Alan Shearer, Gianfranco Zola, Paul Tisdale and Eddie Howe.

Any appointment of Hart could prove controversial on the South Coast after Hart managed Southampton's fierce rivals Portsmouth in 2009.

The 57-year-old has since spent time in charge of Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace.

Southampton want to earn promotion from League One and were the pre-season favourites to win the title.

Pardew therefore paid the price as the victory over Rovers marked a first success in the league in 2010/11.

Good grief!! Appointment of Paul Hart would make us even more of a laughing stock? He managed 3 clubs last season!!

Please not Paul Hart, its not April 1st is it???

Certain managers have got to be in the no box: Paul Hart, Sven, Ian Branfoot in dramatic return. So which one of the three will it be?

Oh f**king hell, not Paul Hart, please. I hope that's just a skate-fuelled rumour with no basis in fact. If there isn't a decent replacement, as good as or better than Pardew, lined up then promotion isn't going to happen. If it's a rubbish appointment - Hart, Dowie, Sven, etc, then I know the club's going backwards.

Harts management record:
Chesterfield Matches 111, wins 38
Forest Matches 134, wins 42
Barnsley Matches 51, wins 14
Rushden Matches 16, wins 4
Portsmouth Matches 30, wins 9
QPR Matches 5, wins 1
Palace Matches 14, wins 3

By any standards - that is a really crap record.

Looks like a good record, oh hang on we are supposed to be promotion candidates not relegation!!!!

I am really confused surely NC had someone lined up before he decided Pardew had to go, unless there is more to it? Otherwise we might not have a new manager until Swindon away, let alone Saturday!!!!

I certainly don't think that Pardew is as good as some make him out to be, but there is no one who is going to do a better job who would be willing to manage at this level.

Could not agree more teamsaint. (nail on head)

We will not get anyone better. More than happy to be corrected on this NC!!!

Alf Tupper wrote:Harts management record:
Chesterfield Matches 111, wins 38
Forest Matches 134, wins 42
Barnsley Matches 51, wins 14
Rushden Matches 16, wins 4
Portsmouth Matches 30, wins 9
QPR Matches 5, wins 1
Palace Matches 14, wins 3

By any standards - that is a really crap record.

Isn't it just? While I think Cortese's made a bad decision here, I don't think he's stupid and I am sure he has someone lined up, or at least in mind, and it won't be someone as crap as Hart, not if Cortese is as switched on as well all believe him to be. I hope! Someone mentioned, both here and on S Web that Martin O'Neill had been seen at an SMS game recently. Frankly, I don't believe that but, if he was and he does come here that would put a lot of people's doubts to bed but I don't think he'd drop this far, unless he fancies a challenge and Cortese waves a load of dosh at him.

No, Pardew isn't the best manager on the planet, if he was, he'd be managing a top PL side, but he's not bad and the best Saints could get. It's a pity that, if the rumours are true, he was divisive and caused bad feeling among the staff.

I've said on another thread that I will always back the club but the appointment of Hart would sure make it difficult.

I keep telling myself that Cortese has always seems to be fantastic at keeping things secret till he wants to make an announcement so surely he wouldnt have let this leak if its true...................

As much as I'm annoyed with Cortese for getting rid of Pardew, I honestly don't believe that he would be stupid enough to bring in Hart.

teamsaint wrote:As much as I'm annoyed with Cortese for getting rid of Pardew, I honestly don't believe that he would be stupid enough to bring in Hart.

The club have already denied it several times this evening already (that Hart would be appointed). If Cortese did appoint Hart, then the sh!t would really hit the fan.

The optimist in me is fervently hoping he has someone like O'Neill lined up. The realist in me thinks it's going to be a disappointing managerial appointment - but hopefully not Paul Hart or Iain Dowie or anyone else equally crap. No novices like Shearer or Howe, either.