The9

Oh come on, they've only had 12 months to find one... I have to say if this means we're a "Premium World" type website this is a sad day for the OS, but it's got to be a costcutting measure so mustn't grumble really. At least they haven't already charged me for it... ...though most other clubs' online stores are terrible using their current template.

NONE, thanks.

Any kind of takeover, ta. Or we could try and shoot for a million members if you like... after all, everyone's proved THAT would work in the last couple of weeks with their unwavering commitment to attending the various planned events, etc... or not.

Yes, stop just being harmlessly xenophobic, racists. ;-)

There's a bit here, though I suspect the "fantastic club" bit is Skate PR http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/strachan-ruled-out-of-portsmouth-post-696590.html For giggles you might want to link this to unsuspecting friends, dated 2005 : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-343697/Portsmouth-unveil-Strachan-boss.html Impressive confidence by the Daily Mail there. In other news, still waiting for Skacel to sign...

I'm assuming it's the "this looks like a fixer-upper" thing ? Who's going to buy a house with a wonky chimney when you can buy a crap heap and mould it to your every need ? Does prove that even billionaire businessmen are lazy feckers though, spend an extra few hundred million and get the global status ready made, rather than working on a project to build something up.

I was kinda hoping they'd be the same; debt, relegation worries, poxy ground...

That would depend on whether the news bulletin was 25 minutes long and contained an intensive grammar lesson on the use of "I" and "me", surely ?

Stockport aren't pulling up many trees...

You should pay a tenner then, cos you clearly got very well served.

Not Saints related but... Uh-oh... http://www.arabianbusiness.com/556956-uae-tycoon-takes-over-portsmouth-fc

Leicester seemed to do ok this season, as have a lot of the teams relegated into the CCC from the Prem..? I think the early games will be vital, especially in deciding how our young players react - promising early games and wins should bolster confidence, and there's nothing like confident, fearless young players to sustain a promotion push - but if we lose a few some might start to worry they're just not good enough players. Our final position may depend on points deductions as much as performance though !

Never doubt me !

Woo-hoo, we found one ! [-X

Impressed, cos that's the first time I've seen it, and I hang around here like a bad smell. Goal 0 : Start the season Goal 1 : Start the season in League One Goal 2 : On 0 points Goal 3 : No further points deductions Goal 4 : Don't get relegated Goal 5 : Win more games than we lose Goal 6 : Playoffs Goal 7 : Automatic Promotion Goal 8 : Champions Goal 9 : We will walk this League. I think failing to achieve Goal 2 will prevent us getting past Goal 5, and Goal 6 is absolutely the best we can hope for next season. At the moment I'd take Goal 1 and everything after that is a bonus, with getting to Goal 5 a definite preference. It might even be possible to achieve Goal 5 and not Goals 2,3 and 4 though. Following next season (09/10), which I hope will be consolidation (unless we get bought by a billionaire in which case promotion...), push on to challenge for promotion the following season (2010/11), hope to be back in the CCC/Prem 2/whatever by 2012/13.

"Dear potential customer, thank you for ringing up to buy tickets. Tickets for what exactly ? Please leave a message after the t- CLICK!!!! BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR".

A MASSIVE amount of sarcasm. Now we've slid down the Football League, having an attractive setup with experienced coaches is even more important to getting talented kids. Someone had to recruit the likes of Bale, Walcott and Baird and they had to decide Saints was where to be in the first place (within the boundaries of the FA's restrictive rules on youngster recruitment). The Skates train at Welly, which, having used it at Uni a few years back literally IS basically just a few fields and some changing rooms (I'm not sure if they have use of the astropitch). Their youth set up is barely recovering from being a joke in preparation for them moving to new facilities and few if any of their players have come through the setup. You need the raw talent, the coaches, the equipment, the nous AND the status to get the best players into the Academy and out the other end. We've done well, and flogging that off to make money in the short term is patently a false economy, as it severely impacts on the ability to make millions from the, erm, "convey about" a few years later.

Saves money.

I should think in a million years £20m won't be worth much, even with current interest rates. *Please please someone work this out*

That's because he now spends all day building up his trapezius muscles instead of bending the ball around plastic dummy walls. He is the Chimpy Fridge.

I'm pretty sure that as their second biggest club for the last 60-odd years the FAW are more than aware of the existence of Swansea City. I don't really think the decision is the FAW or the clubs' to make, as if the FL required all clubs to be full members of the FA the "welsh" clubs wouldn't have a leg to stand on. It would change the historically localised structure of footballing disciplinary procedures - but then why should professional football's disciplinary procedures be the same as grass roots/amateur ones anyway ? Might also have an impact on the whole 2012 Olympic debate and the Home nations, but only in a politically-loaded debate. Annoyingly the pro/am split mentioned doesn't tally with my beliefs on refereeing, that all levels should play using the same laws of the game and specifically keeping technology out of decision-making, but that's yet another layer of random tangents probably best suited to a completely different thread. Have we been taken over yet ?

Two completely different points, but this has become an issue recently. Although its hardly "virtually every" there is a decided tendency for lenience. Just for the record, it's mainly in Cardiff City's favour too (Darren Purse red card overturned allowing hm to play in FA Cup Final and no fine or caution for coin-throwing when an official was injured, when Newport got a £3000 fine for the same offence). I can't think of a decision that's favoured Swansea either.

Absolutely, our state of the art training faciliites clearly have had little or no effect on our ability to bring through talented youngsters and flog them at a massive profit to Prem clubs, let's get rid of the whole shebang.

That would be because they all existed for over 80 years (in Wrexham's case over 100 years) before there was a national league in Wales. As pedants rule this thread, I should point out that Wrexham now play in English "non-League", along with Newport County AFC, Colwyn Bay and, depending on their financial status this week, Merthyr Tydfil. As for MK Dons, best not open ourselves up to relocation, especially when we are nearer to having a ground and no team than a team and no ground.

Quite, sending Saga out on loan to Aalborg was definitely the right thing to do based on his half-assed efforts pre-season at Salisbury, and Rasiak wasn't much better (though he wasn't given much chance to do anything). Stern John at least looked like he was trying. IF... (etc), it'll be interesting to see who looks like giving a crap preseason this year, IF... (etc).