CB Fry

Football fans, more than any other purchasing group (outside of of nippers that go into Games Workshop, or pre-teen girl boyband fans) are the biggest mugs in Britain. The Shirt was a clever marketing idea. This is the age of marketing and definitely the age of mug punters.

Jesus christ. The Cortese cult in full effect. Shall we wait and see if any of the current squad or manager go first? 'not aware of any ban' is pretty lame spin you're swallowing there. Just put Rupert Lowe as the person aggressively distancing himself and the club from its own history. How much would you be tossing yourself off in joy then? Le Tiss packed it in a decade ago and could fill the mayflower by himself. Let's see in 2021 who would go to an evening with the greasy spiv you seem to hero worship.

Meh. This Le Tissier chap is nothing more than an ex employee of a local company. Nothing more and definitely not worth discussing here. Xavi needs to know the real Saints legend is our current chairman, as the real passionate Saints fans know.

Lies don't change facts either. I don't think it's condecending to point that out to someone peddling lies that they are, in fact, full of it. And you are. True to form for you of course, as I have seen beofre how jolly skilled you are at fact avoidance. Fabulous stuff on this thread people. The march of the Cortese cult goes on, and Matthew Le Tissier is nothing more than "an ex employee of a company" in the eyes of a select few in our fanbase. "An ex employee of a company". Matthew. Le. Tissier. If Rupert Lowe had said anything even approaching that in his time there would be absolute frigging uproar. But you lot have gone weak at the knees for some Mediterranean accountant like Shirley Valentine getting all wet over Tom Conti. And Le Tissier is forgotten like the abandoned kids of a 39 year old Portswood trollop who's eloped with some Greek waiter. Who needs players and heritage and history when we've got a wonderful chairman with 18 months service to swoon over. "Ex-employees" no longer welcome or needed. Nicola is all that matters now. Nicola is all that matters now.

And it's alllll Company A Alllll company A They're by far the greatest company The world has ever seen. That's why your analogy is possibly the most p is s weak thing you've posted on here. Which is going some.

You lot pick some beady eyed Italian sleaze ball. I pick Matt Le Tiss. See you all in ten years time. I bet my Saints hero is still my hero and still a Saints legend. We'll see if you lot are still knocking one out into a sock over some Chairman we once had. A freaking chairman. Matt Le Tiss will walk proud and tall in St Mary's once again, and shame, shame, shame on you lot lining up behind some swarthy beancounter against him.

Lee and Herring both concede that the Alan Partridge we now know is a creation of Coogan, Ianucci and others, notably Peter Baynham and the playwright Patrick Marber. Lee and Herring basically wrote the "comedy sports reporter" bits on On The Hour, which isn't quite the entire Partridge character. It was the source of a lot of friction between L&H and the rest of the OTH team for a long time with OTH CDs released without anything written by L&H on it. But all resolved now. Stewart Lee's book is superb if you like him and hate Top Gear.

Describing a season ticket as "getting a product at a discount" is stretching reality somewhat. Selling as many of them as possible is a central plank of any football club's business plan. Yes, the price per match is reduced, but there is a significant financial commitment from the fan in the first place. If there was no reduction in cost per match no one, except a tiny % of really loopy fanatics would buy one. Clubs want to sell as many as possible because it ensures financial stability and safe business planning. They're not doing fans a favour by "discounting" it. It's not some knock-down DFS sofa giveaway, it's a year long commitment from a "customer".

Correct. They might go into admin, but they won't disappear. Bet they don't. Just like Blackpool won't get relegated and the newspapers were 100% correct about Alan Pardew's precarious future as Southampton manager. You're wrong so often I feel embarrassed for you.

The vision of developing youth in the Lowe era was patently not done "on the cheap". Nice article in today's paper about that very thing: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/jan/28/southampton-alex-oxlade-chamberlain Spunking money we didn't have on wages to keep us in the Prem was done "on the cheap", of course. But that's a slightly different thing and debate done to death. Once we changed strategy after "we got our club back" and allowed Burley to spiff money left right and centre on the first team we never looked back of course.... Chamberlain will be sold. Just like Bale and Theo. Don't kid yourself.

It's a good article, here's the electronic version. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/jan/28/southampton-alex-oxlade-chamberlain The journo does slightly over-egg it - Middlesborough, West Ham and others could point to a similar production line. Nice couple of lines about Lowe that I am sure will stick in the throats of a few of the more swivel-eyed members of this forum.

I for one think that his vision of a first team made up primarily of players brought through the SFC youth ranks can't possibly fail.

You're wasting your time with our football management game friend. Never has a contributor to this forum had less perspective or general nous. It's pretty staggering the stuff he comes out with. The key point is that Blackpool can offer Premier League football to Austin tomorrow, next week and next month. If he comes in and does well and Blackpool still get relegated (unlikely as you say) he'll likely get a move to an alternative lowly Prem club for the following season. If he doesn't do well and they get relegated, he has still played in the Premier League in 2011. This idea that "Saints might be in the Premier League in two or three years time" has any value whatsoever to a football player with offers from Prem and NPC clubs today is delusional nonsense. Typical from that poster, to be fair.

Well, you're comparing some "ordinary working Saints fan" with the greatest player this club has ever produced. If anyone started the ridiculous comparisons, it was you. Your premise was that everyone should, like, be treated the same and stuff. It didn't take long for me to prove that you don't think everyone should be treated the same after all. Guess what, there's loads of tickets left for your salt of the earth megafans. Loads. Turns out these super fans don't have their noses pressed against the box office window while Matt Le Tissier egged on by his laughing non-football fan mates demands 600 tickets from a weeping receptionist. If they want a ticket they can go and buy one. In other news, Matthew Le Tissier no longer a real fan of Southampton football club. Heaven forbid a club legend should get his finger out and work very hard to try and save the club he gave nearly two decades of service too. I'd say Ted Bates would have approved of that. Shame you see it as only fit to sneer at. So that's the mentality of the ordinary working megafans far more deserving of tickets than Matthew Le Tissier.....Stick your 17 years and 162 goals up your arse and stop bullying our precious chairman. "Stop digging at our chairman" he says. "Stop digging at our chairman". Our chairman. That's who you support now. I remember football was about players and dreams. Now apparently it's all about supporting the, er, chairman. Thanks for clearing that up. Get all pompous about Ted Bates against Matty if you like, but Matthew Le Tissier is worth 10,000 Nicola Corteses in the history of the club I support.

Amen, some sense at last. Great post. Funny, there's a hell of a lot of people on this thread that seem to think there is an army of "honest working men" that have dedicated their lives to supporting Saints who are being frozen out by nine of Matt Le Tissier's mates. These died in the wool megafans seem to be spoilt for choice at every other home game - Matt's nine friends aren't stopping them buying a ticket for all those games. If this was a Rupert Lowe decision I guarantee no-one (except a couple of swivel eyed Luvvies) on here would droning on about "Le Tissier got paid while he was here, he doesn't deserve anything else from the club". There is a frightening and spooky cult growing up around Cortese. It's a hell of a lot more myopic and messanic than anything the "Lowe luvvies" came out with. It's creepy, very creepy when fans decided to stand shoulder to shoulder with the managing director over and above our greatest ever player. Let's all meet up in the year 2021. I'll be still there with Le Tissier and he'll still be a legend. Let's see how your new hero gets on and let's see who gets a statue first.

There was no personal attack in that post. Read it again, it's only two sentences long. There are plenty of footballers now earning more in a year than Le Tissier earned in his career. Ted Bates was paid for his services to Saints and got lots of adulation in his time too. Isn't that reward enough, just like your civil servant? The "ordinary working man" faces plenty of challenges in getting into "Premier League" level (which this game is, in price and stature) football matches without a handful of friends of a Saints legend being held responsible. There will be plenty of non-"ordinary working men" at that Man United game. And guess what, some of them might not be close friends of Matthew Le Tissier.

Some people have been wetting themselves, creaming themselves, wristslitting and excelling themselves with histronics based on zero facts and speculation on the same subject for the last seven years: Keep on creaming, sunshine. Keep on creaming.

So, to recap, Matt Le Tissier is basically the equivalent of a trumped up civil servant who doesn't really deserve any kind of honour or respect because he got paid for doing his job and that's the end of it. Come on, let's see if we can tear down the Ted Bates statue in the morning. I mean, for christ sake, he got paid his wages by us.

I wonder what you'd think if we had another fundraiser for say, Danny Wallace or Ron Davies. If we treated everyone the same why should we raise money for anyone, or maybe the money should be spread around every single player we've ever had. What if Andrei Kanchelskis got ill. He played for Saints so should be treated the same as Danny Wallace. Right? Some players are more equal than others. Matt Le Tissier shouldn't be treated equally as some Joe Schmoe Saints fan from Bitterne. Matt Le Tissier will be in my heart and many other saints fans hearts a hell of a lot longer than the ratfaced foreigner who just happens to be the MD of the holding company that owns my football club.

Let's assume those 9 fans are Nicola Cortese's extended family and mates from his banking days. I applaud your delusion that every single person in that stadium for that game will be a died-in-the-wool Saints fan (or a Man U fan). Except of course, anyone that happens to know Matthew Le Tissier, as they are obviously all c*nts who have never even been to a football match in their lives before. Rupert Lowe used to get slaughtered on here when the likes of Alan Ball's son's wife was refused tickets. "Alan Ball's family should have free tickets for life" was greeted with almost total agreement. If Lowe was in charge now I very much doubt you'd be writing what you have here. This "cult of Cortese" is starting to be a little bit creepy. PS - Matt Le Tissier's contribution to SFC is worth at least ten times more than any thing Rodrigues ever did.

I think we've got one. Might have access to a bit more money than our old friend but some of his working methods are similarly deranged. And it isn't a criticism. A football club could do a lot worse than a Rupert Lowe with lots of money, which is what we have. Lastly, Saints buying their way into the Champions League will still not match the contribution made by MLT. Getting into the CL will be a team effort. Matty was one man. They'll be a statue of him out outside our ground long before there's ever one of some beady eyed Swiss/Italian/whateverthef***heis. LOL at the line "the person who deals with ex-players wasn't available". This wasn't Gerry Forrest ringing up, you'd assume people on the end of a phone line at SFC should know who MLT is.

Arsenal tracksuits have been delivered to Alex's house this evening.

I think he was hoping the six goals we scored at Oldham were spread around at least seven players, just to show we have goals coming from all areas.

Has any club ever bought a young player and then immediately loaned that player back to their original club? This kind of thing is always in press speculation about lower league youngsters and Prem suitors but has it ever happened? I can't think of any.

There is nothing in that article that says he is not for sale. Just that it is apparently all speculation, and that no-one has a price on their head. If we keep him until June we've done well.