CB Fry

Would be a reasonable start. Not sure it would excite our gigantic catchment area though.

Lets just be clear. You said forty million, in january, to get promoted.

So no debts meaning more entirely free money from the Leibherrs. And assuming no youth teamer is a pretty accurate assumption as since Oxo a grand total of zero new players have broken through in the Cortese era and this is in L1 and the NPC. Another Bale or Theo can only be seen as a bonus not planned as a given.

Yep. My mistake. Hence deletion. Toss one off for me.

....

Glad you agree with me then. No need to expand. Thanks for clarifying. Any chance you'll stop pis s ing on about mobile phone companies and selling thousands of away tickets to Man U fans living in Chichester once a frigging year?

We had demand then. We have no such demand now. We also don't have a 14,000 capacity now, just to clarify.

My fairly obvious point that i will keep on making is all three clubs would command Saints sized attendances in the Prem. Their closeness to each other is irrelevent. Saints have had this mythical catchment since dinosaurs ruled the earth but have never been any bigger than those three clubs. If Saints can be a 50k team so can Derby Forest and Leicester. Easily. The Saints catchment is a myth and you are utterly wrong. PS Saints can't be a 50k club. Just to clarify.

Nottingham is a far bigger city than Southampton and has towns of significant size close to it. If Forest were challenging for top four or even just in the Prem they would activate their sizable catchment even if County were in the championship and Derby in the Prem. If Forest went up next year they'd get sell outs at 30Kplus like we will. If Derby went up too they'd get the same. And if Leicester went up too....guess what? Maxed out gates of 30k. And lets put Notts County in the championship. They'd max out too. And all of them would have potential to grow if they maintained progress. All of them. All at the same time. All of them. There are more clubs in the East Mids because their are more people and more interest. W anking off about greater Hamble is irrelevent. If there was that much interest in football in Solent City then Saints would have had far more interest in them long before now but we haven't. Guess what. Saints have always been as big as Forest and Derby. Even though the clubs in the EM have had this mythical "competition between clubs in the same area". I know this is too easy but f u ck me you are dumb.

It won't for me until we move up on teletext. And when we get the full two pages in the FourFourTwo season preview (buy that magazine once a year every year and have done for about fifteen years). Then, and only then, do I get excited.

Anyone mentioned our gigantic catchment area yet? Granted half of it is seawater and another third is a forest but the rest of it is the biggyest most massivest catchment area in the whole wide world and everything. And yes, I am including Shepton Mallett.

...

Whatever. Saints' catchment area is no bigger than Nottingham Forest, Leicester City or Derby County. I'm talking about ACTUAL PEOPLE in actual towns and cities. Not crayoning red lines across the south of England like a spasticated chimp. Simple enough for you?

Why are people from Chichester or Wells or Weymouth or Hastings going to support us. South-ness? And I thought we were talking about us being top four hence the Forest example. So you're saying this mega catchment is applicable now? Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

My geography is better than your grasp on reality. I live in the East Mids so well aware who is near who and it is utterly irrelevent. If it was Forest in the top four their potential base of fans - actual PEOPLE not swathes of forest - would be easily as big as Saints. Regardless of Derby or Notts County, or Notts Cricket Club or Nottingham Panthers Ice Hockey team. Won't matter a jot. This super mega sized catchment that Saints have is a complete work of fiction perpetuated by spanners like you. Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

Well Nottingham is bigger than Southampton and has just as much as a catchment area and fanbase potential as Saints. People from Melton or Mansfield supporting Forest is just as likely as people from Weymouth supporting Saints. If Forest were in the Champions League the existence of Notts County is entirely irrelevent. Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

Well my learning is higher than yours if you are still spouting guff about "other clubs have more nearby competition". Simple nonsense. You tell me the boundaries of this Saints mega catchment and I will happily tell where and why Forest, Leicester and Derby's are equally as big if not bigger. Laughable.

The point is the Man U catchment area is the entire world. Our "catchment area" is meaningless because we have no geographic hold over any casual fans in Sussex or Devon or wherever. Which clubs of a similar size do we have a bigger catchment area than, and can you specify exactly where you are drawing the line on our area. Your line which you spout like some higher learning "You do realize that" the vast majority of people in our large catchment area don't support Man U, and aren't that committed to any club, don't you? is a line that could be applied to Villa, Leicester, Derby, Forest, both Sheffield Clubs, Newcastle, Leeds, Bristol City, Plymouth, MK Dons and in fact any club in Britain outside of the NorthWest of England.

I'd say recommending building several million pounds worth of new seating to house people "who simply want to watch a game of football" to be possibly the most soul crushing vison for the future I think I have ever heard. Do you seriously think the plans on the table for Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool (currently off the table), Everton and the rest have this kind idea at the heart of it? Or maybe, just maybe, their plans cover actual demand from their own actual fans? I'd far rather have a packed St Mary's of real Saints fans than a 40,000 death-drome full of away fans and random day trippers. It does, I grant you, sound like precisely the kind of idea that would eminate from Dubai.

Thats your vision for the club. Expand the ground for home counties Man U fans to come. Not as converted Saints fans. Oh no. As Man U fans. Some vision. Some vision.

This is, I'm afraid, simply bol loc ks. You do realise that, say, Guildford, is chock full of Man United fans, none of which give two sh i ts about their team being hundreds of miles away. Our catchment area is no better than any other club.

Yep. Fine. Continuous improvement like Everton Fulham or Stoke. None of which have followed the path some on here have in their tiny minds of 16th, 12th, 8th, 6th, 4th in five seasons hitch free no problem. Bumping around in the middle for the next half decade will be fine and will show continuous improvement even if we finish 10th one season and 14th the next.

Is it me or aren't you the one getting most upset by all this?

I am not looking it up, I can't be bothered, but that quote about not only going up but going up as champions was early in the season, not halfway. Pretty sure it was in September, which is not halfway through. But you're still saying that being champions this season was an unrealistic expectation and we were one point off doing it. So that's one portion of "dare to dream" cake followed up by a full consumption of "you people don't know you're born" cake as well. Quite, quite masterful. Either we are going to go for fourth - which involves winning lots and not accepting second best - or we see how we go and we go for a realistic birth in the top flight. I know where I am. On planet earth. I know where you are. Desperately trying to have it all ways, cosying up to the champions league because gosh doesn't it sound all exciting but desperate to get all pompous the minute anyone complains about a defeat, which is the kind of thing we would need to minimise to finish fourth and achieve that dream. Double helpings of cake anyone?