Alanh

He doesn't really need to be put in the shop window - he's played enough in England, Scotland and Germany to be known around Europe - and it's accepted that he's on the transfer list so there is no point in disrupting our plans for the season by playing him ahead of a player like Holmes who has been brought in to play in the first team from day one.

What's the point in a sarcastic response like that? We all know that the big earners in the squad are up for sale as we have to bring in some money and get the wage bill down. I expect at least a couple of the likes of Rasiak, Saga, John, Euell and Saga will leave before the end of August. At least the manager is planning for life without them rather than living in denial by including them in his preparations for the season and hopeing they all stay.

Can't agree with any of that. It would be easy to open up the corners on an ad hoc basis and if even the remotest possibility of more than 26K were needed I'm pretty sure at least a couple of corners could be opened as a contingency from the day the tickets go on sales. I believe that the Itchen corner would be the last to be reopened if they do open them one by one as its the one that costs most to staff. I think that corner will only be reopened in an exceptional circumstance like a guaranteed sell out i.e. Pompey or one of the big 4 in the cup.