The9

I would imagine the lack of nationally widespread MP violence involving large groups of people, causing civil disturbances in numerous town centres over a 15 year period, would be the reason for the different punishments.

The moral issue is continuing to overspend beyond their means and making no effort to cut costs whatsoever whilst the fans make out that they're victims. It's got a lot less to do with how takeovers in football happen. There's certainly a problem if they don't attempt to pay off the old CVA, but that's a side-effect of the unsustainable spending without having rich owners to support, not an issue in its own right.

If their games were expunged, it would be down to us finishing top or second over a 44 match season. Nothing to do with them.

Which they would play on the weekend we weren't playing Portsmouth. It's all academic now anyway, looks like the £200k a month payments to Championship clubs MIGHT bail them out until May.

If they're anything like me, they're too busy working (not now, I'm done for the day) or posting on different threads before attempting to read and reply to this little epic. It's also possible that the vast majority are locals with nothing particularly different to add, so haven't bothered.

Expect to see George McCartney joining a side we still have to play very soon...

In tonight, pub tomorrow morning, corporate hospitality at St Mary's tomorrow, might be going to the in-laws' Sunday for free food.

He may get his money back by selling the land to the council, of course...

Well, the Football League showed with the Wimbledon/MK Dons situation that they're prepared to sanction some pretty unseemly things, so I guess it wouldn't be entirely implausible, though it would be a first. With the MK/Wimbledon situation the League has set the precedent that the company is the club wherever it is in England - it hasn't set a precedent that a club with a share can be replaced by another on grounds of geography alone. If that was the case the likes of Moneyfields, H&W and Gosport would have a claim on the golden share as well, surely ? Moving on to the Fratton purchase by the council, the most important thing is that they're not suggesting buying out Chainrai and will only come into play AFTER liquidation. Therefore their considerations for the land and/or stadium could just as likely be to knock it down to develop a new community facility for football, shopping, hotels etc on the site of the unused Fratton now they've got the chance to develop it without the inconvenience of 15k people pitching up every two weeks in the winter, than they are to build a shopping centre or housing on it. Again with the Newport; County owned their stadium in the early 80s, sold it to the Council when in financial trouble and found the gates locked when they missed rent payments. Portsmouth City Council are not going to want to have that blame, so they're staying out of it until after the club goes. When Newport re-formed, they initially had a lot of problems getting goodwill and the council wouldn't let the new club play in Newport to begin with, but after 4-5 years the club moved back to the town to play in a council-built facility, the old ground being built on for council housing.

I managed to go from "that holiday together was awesome, let's plan the wedding" with a fiancee I'd been really, really happy with for 2 years to "oh FFS, this is a nightmare" and both of us sitting next to each other on the sofa just glaring. That happened within 2 months with no single incident as a catalyst. We glared on for another 3 months to see if we could get the way it was for the first 2 years back but it had just... gone. Couldn't explain it, it just stopped being enjoyable and we began resenting each other for wasting each other's time. Then spent another year or so sodding about whilst considering getting back together but never did, and I can't say I made the wrong decision overall. That was still a bed of roses compared to the last break-up, the general disgust, being forced to live with her for another year and the hassle and cost of all of that from buying in a buoyant market and selling in a credit crunch after another year renting somewhere else and paying the mortgage too, then having to find a huge deposit to get back on the ladder, etc. At least I've never had kids messed about by it. Like I said, I have nothing to gain from going through all that stuff again.

Lolz. Takes a certain kind of mind to even think of it like that. She was 14... years younger than me.

I seem to recall the khazi at the pub up the road from Blackburn's ground had that picture of Hasselhoff and Gary Coleman on the wall with some variation on the Mark Hughes and Shaun Wright-Phillips joke as the caption. Best away toilet ever. As for Brentford, there was a queue for the (tiny) loo which went out of the door, up the stairs and along the back of the stand. It was still bigger than the one at Fratton though. Moving it on to wee-wees for a minute, Newport County had a urinal which was literally some breeze blocks cemented up against the back of a grass terrace with the floor and trough painted black. I once p155ed on my scarf when leaning out of a similar breeze-block terrace back urinal at Merthyr Tydfil's Penydarren Park when Newport got a penalty half way through a p155 I was having. Oh yeah, and the Stade Gerland in Lyon has a row of open-air p1ssoirs outside the ground through some aesthetically pleasing arches right next to the entrance. They like a public piddle, the Frenchies. Just remembered when the Ricoh Arena opened and Saints were one of the first to play there they hadn't quite finished it, and you could see people taking their seats from the urinals through the gap next to the steps up into the seating area.

Interesting to see the clash of eras, the commentator being an old school broadcaster more concerned that the referee will have to mention it in his report, with a mention of Leeds fans getting their club banned from home FA Cup games due to trying to get matches abandoned, the stewards looking basically just like the pitch invaders but with bibs - and fluorescent ones at that, a novelty for the time - and the general chaos of a rammed lower league crumbling open terrace, when yer yobs wore colours, and a quagmire of a pitch to top it off. Oh, and "young" Tony Pulis with hair.

Unfortunately, not to Woodward or Lowe. Lowe actually wanted him in charge but Woodward wanted to build up some experience first, according to some quotes from my 50p biography from the dodgy book shop in Eastleigh, anyway. Can't remember the timeline exactly but I think it may have been before we got Sturrock in (March 04) or more likely given how incongruous it looks, Wigley's second go in August-December 2004 - because that CAN'T have been the original plan. Then Redknapp came along and it clearly wasn't going to work on any level, especially with the spiv claiming he "didn't know how to work a Prozone" and "ohhhhhhhhhh my Sandra and the chairman does all that f'sure, you'll 'ave to speak to them - I'm surprised I even remember 'ow tah breathe", etc.

Which was of course an attempt to apply world cup winning sports science preparation techniques from a different team sport to the academy. It wasn't that concept that was flawed, it was attempting to sustain the cost after relegation, and the intended goal of having Woodward as team manager that were the problem there.

A bit harsh on Gray, given that he predated Strachan - but yes, there's a reason some coaches stay as coaches.

Agreed, though the basic model is as old as the hills with the exception of the "investment in infrastructure and academy" part, that only became possible with the kind of sums tv money brought to the Premier League. Though of course some clubs chose to spend it on player wages. Will be interesting if we get up there to see what our approach is, and if it changes much. I'd be surprised if it was anything other than the continued gradual investment in an under 28 playing squad and ongoing expenditure on the Academy, given Nigel's history of picking younger players without egos and Cortese's stated goal of a "Southampton style" and players coming through. Whether that brings the desired results, we shall see.

39, born in Newport, Monmouthshire, supported Newport County in my youth until they went pop in 1989 (take note Skates). Started following the re-formed Newport AFC in the Hellenic League (below tier 8, take note Skates) before I went to Southampton Uni from 1991 and started watching Saints occasionally 91-94. Started watching under Branfoot so even though Saints were Div 1 my decision to come to Southampton wasn't exactly glory-hunting. First Saints game I can remember was against Liverpool in 1991/2 as my dad was a plastic Scouser who'd taken me to Wembley and Anfield loads, got him in the Milton and I supported Saints, he was so surprised he gave up following Liverpool and stuck with Newport instead, he's a 15-year ST holder with them. Despite not going to a Saints match until I was 18, I'd already seen Portsmouth lose live a few times by then in Div 4 and Div 3 at Somerton Park in the early 80s. I watched my first live match aged 1 week. It was a 0-0 between Newport and Darlington in Division 4. The first match I can actually remember being at is Newport beating West Ham in the 1978/9 FA Cup. Moved back to Newport after Uni in '94 and started playing Saturdays, so I only went to the Dell rarely from 94-98. Started seeing a girl who lived in Gosport which got me down here a lot more in 98/99 and then when that ended went to lots more aways than homes in 99-2001 due to not getting in at the Dell often and still playing Saturdays. 2001/2 injured, so had an ST at St Mary's. 2002/3 playing football again, won the Gwent Amateur Cup and retired from football for the first time. Went to most matches in 2003/4, inc Fratton and Bucharest away, then played in the Saints Forever v Pompey Online matches, started coming down most weekends rather than just for the matches, staying with "new football mates" and then with a girl I met, and moved down in 2005/6, perfect timing, Saints relegated. Kept my ST since 2005/6, moved house 5 times in the past 5 years, finally settled with an ST-holding wife and new mortgage - next season I might even get to have a Saints ST in the Prem again for the first time in 10 years.

Or everyone else is wrong. I think time has proven Lowe did a LOT of things before his time, but the failure to concentrate on improving the team meant none of it was sustainable.

Good grief, the scene in the background at 2:12 when Bobby Gould goes to take the throw then passes it to Tony Pulis is something to behold. Seventies footy, glad I was too young to get involved. Never went to Eastville even though it was only 20 miles from my home.

How exactly would we have been able to tell if there was any benefit anyway ? A bunch of Chinese players in the reserves ? Chinese language adverts all around the ground (which happened with some Prem games nevertheless)? If we hadn't got relegated, could have been useful. And definitely the kind of thing we'll need to do to expand the club...

Says the man posting on another club's forum.

I think (at 39) I've probably pre-empted any mid-life crises by lurching from one situation to another for the best part of the previous 13 years already. So I'm well aware the grass isn't greener, have already done the "dating a teenager" thing (mid 00s but it wasn't a deliberate plan), done the "not committing" thing and sodded a few people about, and only properly settled down a couple of years ago. Before that it was two engagements and moving to Southampton to live with someone I quite quickly started to dislike (and the feeling was mutual). Mid-30s I was looking to settle down - wrong person. Still didn't lose it though. Not quite. So I'm good now, with my house and wife, working on the 2.4 children, safe in the knowledge that I'm not interested in anything else other than new football kits.

The Reading manager is clearly going to win it with 7 straight wins - I'd be happier if Nigel wins March and April and Manager of the Year. Typical quirk of the results that he hasn't won one yet. Also, as Reading are about to hit a run of tricky matches, it'll give more credence to the myth of the MoM curse. As for the player awards, they're a load of crap based on 10 seconds of highlights usually, and I couldn't care less.

I think I've already made it pretty clear the percentage of current Skate fans I'd expect to follow a non-League team, they won't average more than 3500 if they're in level 8, no-one ever does. If they somehow wangled their way directly into the Conference I'd expect maybe 5000, and a massive stink from every other reformed club ever as they've all had to work through the leagues.