Chez

to win the league we need a central midfielder that is better than Wotton to come in should Hammond and Schneiderlin be out, or if I am really gready to go in ahead of them.

jesus what a nightmare, but the signing of Dickson and the strong link with Calderon tells you the calibre of player we are looking at. Getting that quality without spending over the odds will take time. We have enough to make a decent start, or at worst keep in touch, and then we have until the end of August to gets those key loans that will make the difference. Pardew knows players are needed, he isn't sat on his thums, you can count on that.

you've got a point there, but just because we have only signed the best left back available and no one else so far doesn't mean we won't strengthen before the window closes. The side is not good enough to win the league iMO, but Pardew's kneck is on the line so you can bet your bottom dollar he will beg steal and borrow the class, power and pace we need to keep him in a job and take us up. Don't worry yourself. Enjoy the excitement of a squad being assembled and then the title challenged for.

Alpine doesn't have a point. We are not losing ground. Charlton have lost two of their best players in Bailey and Shelby. Leyton Orient just lost their best player Tamika Mkandawire to Millwall. Brentford have signed McCracken, but lost their best player...to us. Also Wojciech Szczesny, Kim Balstein and several other starting 11 loans ended. Swindon have lost 29 goal Billy Paynter, not to mention their star youth team player. Colchester have lost David Fox to Norwich. Rochdale have lost their PFA team of the year (2 years running) left back Thomas Kennedy to Leicester and 20 goal Chris Dagnell to Scunny. Carlise have lost Tom Aldred to Watford That is losing ground.

Theirs were £399 for existing renewels by end of june, ours were £328. Their new tickets are £449, ours are £391. They have an intermediate level - erraly bird but even that is £425, so still not cheaper than ous. Not a big difference in pricing, but not cheaper as such.

yet more evidence that we are being active in th etransfer market perhaps. Singing nthe quality we need to win the league is not as easy as it looks especially if the wages we are offering are not over the top.

well as we are not privy to any of the club's finaces we can't question his annual wage - but I bet he is earningt more than Lowe did in the CCC. Speculation on my part of course, but the removal of a shirt sponsor makes little sense if you can't afford to do without it. So there's my alternative to some of these wonderful new revenue streams Cortsese keeps dreaming up. Does anyone actually give a **** that we have or don't have one on the shirt?

I've wondered that. What makes you so sure that income covers the expenditure already? If true then the talk of Marcus leaving if Cortsese is upset by fans goes out the window.

nor does Harding.

Perhaps he won't be leaving though as the option might be his not the clubs. The fact they have bothered to photograph him in the new kit suggests he is here for another year otherwise why bother?

****. That's another of my suggested transfers that has bitten the dust. Like N'Geussen last year, Adomah is the best attacking free transfer from the lower leagues. I hope we have at least tried to get him here. I have little doubt that Stephen Dawson (another free from League 2 will do well at Leyton Orient. Our failure (or decision not) to sign these players hopefully means we have some even better players up our sleave as both would have been ideal IMO.

I thought the key reason Kelvin did not leave last summer was because he has a very young family that is settled here in the South? A year on I doubt that has changed. I can't see him leaving. He had his money move to the Premiership in the bag. It was his choice to stay. Why would he change his thoughts now? Bart is looking to stay because he is ony 22 and knows his time will come, in the mean time he has been on a very decent wage thank you very much - so if they offer something similar he'll take it.

Are we not agreeing that if you don't have a season ticket you won't be going to anywhere near the 14 games that woudl be required to equal the revenue brought in by a season ticket holder? Therefore I don;t see how having less season ticket holders will bring in more revenue this season. Even if we do really well you still won't see large numbers if fans going to 14 or 15 home games.

agreed. I doubt the average is more than 5 or 6. Speaking as a season ticket holder since 1985, if I didn't renew then I'd probably stop going altogether. So my 0 games would bring the average down. However I could be watcing for another 30 years, but if the club treats me like **** then in the end I'll shrug my shoulders and say enough is enough and they can do without the £350 a year. Actually its not even just treating me like ****. Its treating any Saints fans with total disrespect that ****s me off. I haven't needed to pay using staged payments, but its removal, without any notice, is such a complete stab in the back to loyal fans that have bankrolled this club for 125 years. This has ****ed me off to such a degree that I seriously wonder why I am supporting what is supposed to be a CLUB.

what a load of ********. Fans come to the website and to the stadium so there is plenty of contact with the club. Besides, fans won't pay £575 (23x£25) (not including booking fees) to watch every game. No chance. But even if they did what else have they got to sell? I wonder what the average number of games non season ticket holders go to. 5, 6 maybe? Certainly no where near the 14 that makes it more cost effective to have a season ticket.

the fact we have signed Dickson, and if the rumours are true got to the medical stage with Calderon, makes it quite clear that the club targeted two of the best out of contract players League 1 had to offer. So they have been active in the early market. For all we know the club may have spoken to other decent out of contract players like Albert Adomah and they have yet to decide where they are going. I have little doubt other players have been spoken to. These thigns take time. I'd rather wait for a Jahdi then rush into a Wayne Thomas (and I'm not talking about their respective pace and size).

how many times are you going to respond with a personal snipe rather than argue the specific point he makes?

was a big supporter of Pearson when he was here and was amazed when he wasn't signed up by Lowe. Having lived there for a few years I'm very pleased he has got the 'ull job. Despite the promotion I couldn't stick Brown and feel the fans there have now got a very good man in charge. So far he has done very little wrong in management. I know that can't last forever unless of course he is one of the best around, god knows we certainly need a few top class English managers. Best of luck Mr Pearson.

Fair enough. We'll never know how many have not renewed, or the reasons why people haven't taken up their ticket. With the economy as it is that will have a much more significant affect than the loss of payment plans. But increased prices and inflexible payment structures hardly help that situation do they? I think what has not been taken into account here is that a lost season ticket holder doesn't just cost the club £328, it could cost them thousands of pounds over a lifetime. I know many fans that went every week but lost interest for one reason or another and they have not been back. Once you are out of the habit its amazing how expensive and futile football looks

if less STs are sold than last summer then a `board' would normally ask some serious questions of the CEO. We have better players and the likelyhood of a promotion campaign on the cards. Any other season and you'd expect a significant rise. Maybe that will still happen.

I presume a lot of contracts will officially end today so there could be be a host of signings announced tomorrow?

in your case probably not supporters that use the payment plan then or give a **** about less well off supporters than themselves.

he gave us a new logo for that oh so very important 125 year aniversary.

remove nice from that sentance and you have a fact.

he gave that charity that booked at room at SMS all that extra PR