CB Fry

We didn't make a strategic choice to have a 32k seater stadium last season. And we had on many occasions seven/eight/nine thousand seats to try out flexible pricing initiatives with and we didn't. But the intelligent posters think we will start doing it if we spend millions on thousands of new seats. Go figure.

What is this, Bearsy Invetigates? Yes it is petty to delay annoucements, as we have clearly done before and we did with Davis and we have done here. Might not be to pi ss the Echo off (on Clyne the world knew hours and hours earlier) but still pointless control freakery. The clubs twitter feed seems to think we need countless up to the minute updates of free kicks at meaningless preseason friendlies but can't be arsed to tweet/release something like this "Saints delighted to announce signing of x on x.year contract. More soon". Not the biggest deal in the world but there you go.

Because we waited for the photoshoot and interview. That's how.

No.

Quite simple. Announce it when the signing is made. Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

Do you have any idea what the word vendetta means? I don't feel victimised by a football club media strategy. Yes. A two line press release. Yes, I know. It's odd. Annoucing a signing doesn't stop you doing a photoshoot later. Just fu cking announce it.

Well done the club on finally admitting something already definitively reported by every media outlet in Britain hours previously. Clearly our comms strategy is perfect and without fault.

So you admit it is rare but at the same time berate DellDays for, err, saying it is rare. And you slate TDD for not basing his opinion on fact even though the fact is having groups of stars coming through is rare as you admit. But you decide to ignore this fact and base your opinion on simple optimism. Which is fine but not based on any more facts than TDD. Well done there.

You'll be set upon by the paramilitary wing of the Cult of Cortese for even suggesting that. The way we decide to announce things is absolutely perfect and without fault. And normal. And perfect. And is actually the reason we got promoted twice. Or something.

I find it highly unlikely that "slashing prices to desperately fill ground" was in the Arsenal business plan for the Emirates. And they haven't needed to up to now. However, "Spend millions on seating and infrastruture with the express intention to give them away cheap as chips" is a central plank of the "intelligent posters" watertight plan for the 50,000 NewSolentSaintsCorteseDome.

We'll need Olympic style Saints-Lanes to ferry in the 50,000 coming through the turnstiles next season. Southampton City Council pull your finger out.

Well, targets 1 to 3 are just made up theoretical players, so there is no choice to be made, you're just inviting speculation on speculation on speculation. What about target 4 - guarantees 35 goals a season but very likely to nail at least four current players' wives by December. Or target 5 - is free transfer, great prospect, but asks to ring his mum halfway through the final contract negotiation. Or target 6 - great player, highly recommended by his previous four managers, young and hungry, but by accident of birth is Welsh. Which one do you sign?

Nahh. Corny as hell. I think the stands have great names and really centre the stadium in the city. Naming stands after people is for other clubs to do.

It's a pre season friendly of no consequence. If its a sunny day I doubt I'll even watch it on TV. Berating people for not paying money to watch a nothing game is taking Uberfan-ness to the extreme.

Got to love wallies on this forum. They said "someday we'll be playing Man United and Man City", also known as "get promoted". If you can find fans on here that said us getting promoted from the championship would "never happen" then fair play to you. (PS You won't).

I think everyone on this forum (and indeed in the fanbase at large) would think that we are perfectly capable of getting into the Europa League through a cup run or league placing. Perfectly, perfectly possible. You will struggle to find anyone here who doesn't agree with that view. Also possible, but less likely, is doing an Everton (or a nearly-Newcastle) and finishing in the CL places. Yes, we could finish fourth once. But I don't think we should budget to achieve CL football or have it as a working target. That's also not saying people can't dream about it. They are quite free to. I think it us that slight distinction is the battle ground for most of the arguments on here. All you need to know is I am right....

Fine. Which people have assumed means sold. So we may be over egging initial estimations then.

Asking people whether they like something they have just bought is a bit of a pointless exersize, isn't it. We are selling more of everything because we're back in the Prem. Or do you think we are selling more season tickets because of our new kit too? And finally, there are a lot of people that don't like it. That's a fact whether you like it or not. Anyway. Don't want to get into this again.

People are buying the kit because we are back in the Premier League and because there is a group of fans who will buy the kit regardless. It is in no way a ringing endorsement of the design unless you are suggesting a red and white kit lauch would have been greeted with boxes and boxes of shirts gathering dust in empty shops and no one in the store on launch day.

Interesting no one bothered to answer this question. Does the website say those seats are "sold" or just unavailable? Being that people seem to have spent hours on totting things up, surely soneone can answer it?

...in the Star. The Star don't bother with the conventions of the form - ie Clyne is 'set to sign' - they just speak definitively and hope.

In that case you are loopy. The Di-ly Express is the most pitiful title on market, worse than the star which doesn't pretend that it is for anyone other than idiots. There, you reeled me in. But anyway. Clyne. Great. If true.

Exceptional WUMing.

Transfer record smashing Blackburn you mean. For us to do what they did would mean buying Eden Hazard this summer. There's some lines of argument so ridiculous there's almost no point trying. Please, please god save us.

It's entirely possible that the financial fair play rules could get tightened up significantly which on paper sounds good for clubs like us. But in reality if the clubs are told "you can only spend what you earn" then the bigger clubs would start to challenge "what they earn", specifically the TV deal which is split relatively equitably between clubs in the top flight. If Man United can only spend what they earn they will tell the league they have the same right to earn as much as they can, which they can do by selling their own TV rights on the open market. So financial fair play might bring clubs closer in the short term, but is as likely to cleave them further apart soon after.