CB Fry

Yes, but its not that simple, as Pompey still would have cashflow they couldn't hide from administrators - ie no one is going to let them go into admin this season, wipe everything clean and then just let them have two seasons of parachute money to spend. Any creditors would take one look at their projected revenue and say "I'll have some of that". The difference between us and them is our debt was stadium related, and no-one could do anything with a second hand football stadium, and it was never going to be knocked down, meaning a settlement had to be reached and it suited us wonderfully. Pompey just have a mountain of debt, plus some (supposed) valuable land. Admin would rob them of the land and anything of material value and the debts would be paid off as best they could from the money the world knows they will get in the next two years - ie CCC TV revenue and two years of parachute payments. So yeah, a white knight will get a club for nothing, but that's because it will be worthless by then. And the divs are still singing for Peter Storrie to be given the freedom of their sh*thole.

Absolutely - wonder what happened to all those pompous arses at the start of the season patronisingly wagging their finger and starting threads called "Reality Check" about what a fantastic achievement finishing just above the relegation places would be and how dare anyone even think we could possibly do better etc etc blah blah etc Play offs were a realistic aim at the start of the season and they still are now. The arse aching bores suggesting Pardew would need an entire season of absolute dross to "bed in" like Ted Bates did and did you know Lawrie got relegated in his first season and Alex Ferguson took four years and blah blah blah etc blah blah. Horseshi t. Instant results, delivered instantly. Just like people like me and TDD said would happen all along. So much for "reality", eh, reality checkers?

The Torquay game was a technically a draw. It's five league wins in a row which I'm excited about - the cup game doesn't count for me.

Question Time is hardly ever filmed in London. It tours round the country. This is part of the problem - people commenting about Question Time when they clearly have never seen the program ever before last night.

I think the reason the Guardian took it down is because it is not true - ie Fahim didn't give this interview. So for now let's assume that is the case, when I read it it reads like a bit of a hoax, especially the "six months" line which is just silly and even the looniest owner wouldn't say that.

Agree with that - Connolly will probably need a few more weeks as a supersub before he is fully fit. But having options is fantastic - we suddenly have strength and depth of squad.

"Lads your age" did not "go out with phones in their pockets" in the vast majority of nineties! Trust me, I was and I didn't!

I think we'll have to. Connolly is far too good for this division so I doubt Pardew brought him in to sit on the bench. His cameo against Oldham was superb. It's a bit of an England Manager situation - we have a decent crop of players, and we have a system that has worked recently, but we now have a world class* player we have to fit in and the system will have to change. But it will work. The Lambert/Connolly combination is just too good to ignore - they can rip this league apart.

The seventies? Try the nineties.

Well my comment was in response to someone thinking he'd have to live in Middlesborough. He wouldn't have to. The fact that he lived and worked in North Yorkshire suggests he knows the area and there's plenty of nice areas/villages/towns between Leeds and Middlesborough, all of which are in perfectly commutable distances. North York Moors or towards the Dales and Ripon or Richmond etc. Or even York. My point was his six years at Leeds would give him a broader knowledge of northern Yorkshire (where Middlesbrough is) than "everyone eats brown sauce" which was the dumb-ass post I was responding too. And anyway, half the country are driving hour-plus commutes to their workplace. I do it, as do almost everyone I work with, and most people I know in fact. Plus there are such things as laptops and handsfree kits and Blackberries. Have any of you people ever left Southampton? Do you all walk to work to the factory on the corner of your road?

It's the gift that keeps on giving. I'm starting to worry the Riquelme deal is going to fall through in January.

Anyone would be better than Gareth Southgate. You still pining after Marc Wotte, then?

Must be a different Gordon Strachan that played for Leeds for several years, then. He might just know the area a little.

At a tremendous push he could get the Everton job if Moyes had gone to Celtic. Maybe. But no way would he get the Spurs job - he's just not exciting enough. And I can't see Villa fans dancing in the streets at the idea of Gordon pitching up. Strachan's best chance was Allardyce, Martinez, Hodgson, Megson, McLeish or Phil Brown having an absolute nightmare start to the season and being knee-jerk sacked. He would have got one of those. Boro is his best chance outside the Prem, especially if he wants to get on with a job. He must be delighted he didn't have to go to Newcastle. WGS was fantastic for us, but fundementally he is a pretty average manager - get em fit, simple football, motivate the lads, comedy press conference. I love him but he's limited.

What a load of old rubbish. I think appointing Souness instead of Merrington, Ball instead of Branfoot, Strachan instead of Gray show that changing the manager is absolutely the answer. Southgate has had more than a fair crack of the whip and has turned a solid mid-table Prem team into a second tier team. Fantastic. Give him a ten year contract. Changing the manager was the answer for Southampton FC. Or are you one of the "give Marc Wotte three years and he'll turn into Ted Bates" lunatics?

But that scenario is never, ever going to happen. Just like it won't happen to Sheffield Wednesday, or Leicester City or even Yeovil*. Wimbledon had a handful of "fans" who couldn't be arsed to see their beloved team because their current ground was five whole miles further away than their old ground. In London, the city with the best public transport links in the country. They only came out of the woodwork to support AFC Wimbledon when it looked like a fashionable cause celebre and they saw a bandwagon to jump on. Any genuine Wimbledon fans then what happened was a shame for them, but its not like they don't have a new club to support now anyway.

I like them because they have a great stadium, a solid fanbase, a great chairman, a policy of blooding good young managers, they've produced Premier League players already, they've enjoyed success already and their promotion a couple of years ago means they justify their place in the league, one more promotion than Arsenal have ever achieved as I said before. And I like them because so many people froth at the mouth about what an outrage it is, when it is nothing of the sort. The day you lot all volunteer Saints to start at the bottom of the football pyramid and earn their place in the league rather than just be selected to be in it is the day I'll listen to your whinging about MK Dons. I'm not on a wind up, I just think they are an excellent example of a well run club and that is worth highlighting rather than this "Franchise FC" claptrap churned out by the mini-Scargill Anorak uberfans. Get over it.

If he's doing that badly and Davies moves him on in Jan its unlikely to be for a profit so it wouldn't matter if we have a sell on clause or not.

Go on then - what on earth happened to Theo in these "tender years" at Saints that have so wrecked his career just the, errr, three and a half years later then? And he signed for Arsenal when he was SIXTEEN so barely even an adult, meaning plenty of his "tender years" were spent at Arsenal. But of course he didn't have Rupert Lowe kicking him in the shins every morning at London Colney. I can't remember a word said about him playing any more than any other promising youth player, but you obviously know different. Do tell. I've got my foot in my mouth, have I - you're just making stuff up.

My comment about their pitiful fanbase was followed up (in the same sentence) with the line "they would have gone out of business anyway". It's not a personal judgment about how small I think their fanbase is, its economics. So AFC Wimbledon would have had to have been formed anyway. Milton Keynes deserves a mid ranking second-third tier football club and "deserve" to be in the league as much as Everton, Arsenal, Burnley, Southampton and pretty much every other club in the country who never ever got promoted into the football league, just selected by greasing the right palms or slapping the right backs in the smoke filled rooms at the turn of the century. But do I like them because the amount of po-faced holier than thou preaching I read and hear against them. Oh yes, Oh yes I do. 10,000 fans, a great chairman investing in the team and backing his managers, a promotion and a trophy win - one more promotion than Arsenal have ever ever achieved - and a community united behind a football club. Isn't that what football is supposed to be about?

MK Dons don't want any of the history of Wimbledon and make no claim on it, in fact they waived all holding over it a couple of years back. The fans of the original Wimbledon deserted their club in droves and droves and droves even before the Dublin stuff was mooted. They would have gone bust anyway. They spent far too long whining about how far away their home ground was, but it was about five miles away from Plough Lane. It's like Saints losing 15,000 fans because Leibherr builds a new stadium in Totton. Milton Keynes is sustaining a football club and with average gates of 10,000 you could say they deserve a league football club more than, say, Stockport or Hartlepool, neither of which have ever been promoted into the league, they were just let in. Much like the vast majority of English football clubs. This idea that every club have strived through the pyramid is total fallacy, barely any have, Saints included. Almost every pro club in existance has been invited to join the league. Fair play to Winkleman and MK Dons for breaking down the closed shop. More power to them.

I've forgiven them. Wimbledon had a pitiful fanbase for a top flight club and would have gone out of business anyway. It wouldn't ever have happened to Saints so all this "it could be you next" garbage is meaningless. I like MK Dons because they **** off the When Saturday Comes po-faced Chorley-ites of this world. Winkleman has done a superb job building a successful club in the face of a lot of adversity and they have a decent and growing fanbase. I'd love it if they got promoted this season (but not at our expense of course).

What "years"? He played half a season for us and then sat in Arsenal's reserves for half a season.

No it won't, just the usual *****s smugly droning on about Ted Bates. At the end of the day Pardew is delivering instant success, not "he needs three years before anyone can expect anything" claptrap we hear from Sadoldgit and the rest of the pompous farts.

If you read Lawrie's column he was in the frame for every job going. But he didn't get the Man U job, did he? At the end of the day he never managed a big club and was a failure at every other job he did away from Saints. That's why he isn't high up the all time list. Bobby Robson, Venables, Atkinson even Graham Taylor had Lawrie-like success at small clubs on small budgets but they all moved on and achieved bigger things at bigger clubs or internationally. Still our best ever manager and acheived a hell of a lot but just not that high up the all-time list for me.