CB Fry

Well, no. If a club can ask for more money up front, so can an agent and a player. Front load the contract with a hefty signing on fee. And fundementally, the rules would be the same for all clubs and the behaviour of the agents and players (and clubs) will adapt. But what they won't be is more circumspect, just more cavalier in a different way. Player A is offered £80k a week for four years from Fulham, and £40k a week from Birmingham City. Which is the most important question for the agent and the player at this point. Is it a) Which one of those two is more likely to be going into administration in two years time. or is it b) Which club is offering me the most money. How many players and agents go into negotiations thinking about the club they are signing for failing, and then going bust? 99.9% of players in the situation above are going to the £80k club. And guess what, the clubs, now released from the football creditors rule, can now offer even more knowing they have a nice little get out even if it does go tits up. This world of "circumspect" football players and agents you people are conjuring up is total pie in the sky.

Funny how foreign clubs weren't more circumspect in those exact circumstances though. Taking away the creditors rule would allow more speculation, not less, as the contracts offered can be even more pie in the sky. Pretty simple, but then you are pretty simple, aren't you.

What kind of nut job sits through that drivel? I know you live in your little computer game world, but here on planet earth the rest of us are far better served by journalists with a little knowledge, insight and perspective reporting on our club and team. I don't want to spend my life being spoon fed inanity on the glorified corporate brochure that is the official site.

Interesting, I didn't realise that. Also gives the lie to the b o llocks theory that has been knocking around on here that getting rid of the football creditors rule would somehow make clubs and football agents more circumspect and cautious in their dealings and their demands. This little fact proves it definitely wouldn't. Getting rid of the football creditors rule would makes things even more cavalier because it just allows clubs to aimlessly speculate more than they do already.

Quite right. Kind of makes the wallies whose tiresome and immature "who should we sign then who WHO WHO WHO WHO WHO answer me answer me answer me" routine on here look even more pathetic, doesn't it...... As Madruss says - Who knows, maybe Pardew might find players who are better, they might even be players no-one has ever heard of!

If it was £20 per month for both of them I'd have considered it mainly for the Christmas Ashes and the hope that a top of L1 Saints would be on TV a fair bit. But £23 for just SS1 is just silly money.

Nice try, but I'm not barracking you. You admitted yourself asking Alpine the same question three times on this thread, I've given you a reason why he isn't obliged to answer and why you might need to get over it. I'm not stopping you debating anything. But it hasn't stopped you deciding what I think and then challenging it. I missed the part where I was advocating signings for the sake of signings, or in fact, signing anyone. If anything I agree with you to be honest - Pardew is there to do the job. My opinions tend to come from the wider context. He has to deliver promotion this season or he's out of a job. He knows it, Cortese knows it, the players know it, the fans know it (except the delusional "managers must have five years before anyone can judge them" stuck-in-the-80s lunatics). This coming season is a promotion season or Pardew has failed. Much like you I leave it to him on who he picks, who he buys, who he sell, or where he plays them. His squad, his choices. But he has a target to deliver this season and he will be evaluated against it and quite rightly so. But at the end of the day people are allowed to say "I think we need a winger" without being tiresomely hounded by you to name names with your "who who WHO" routine.

Why should Alpine answer that question - especially from you who has said over and over again that you let the manager make the decisions. It's perfectly acceptable to say "I think we need someone creative" or "we need a wide man/attacker to replace Papa/Antonio" without being barracked by the likes of you to name names. Some of us, funnily enough, aren't scouting the leagues or the globe for footballers. We're just commenting on a forum. Get off your high horse and accept this is a football forum where we're allowed to debate the make up of the squad. Not "the manager decides, lock thread" like you seem to want.

Classy. Maybe you should have spent less time starting pant wettingly hilarious posts about how huge numbers of Saints fans were campaigning for Tommy to be made manager, or that he was about to take over at Middlesbrough or all the other gagtastic stuff you've posted on the man. Fair play for keeping it going and as I said, it has actually been amusing in a message board kind of way.

I'm in on the gag, I know it's your thing to go on about Widderington-for-Manager-honest-he's-dead-good-loads-of-people-want-him-he's-off-to-manage-Middlesboro-honest-oh-my-aching-sides, but at least get the skeleton facts right surrounding your hilarious wheeze. That said, it is a funny running gag. Keep it up.

ootball clubs become available for new ownership on a regular basis and with our expertise and contact base throughout the industry, we can act decisively on your behalf from enquiry to completion. Whether it is a Premiership club or a Conference team, we have the experience to provide a succesful outcome. We have particular expertise in the area of Clubs falling into administration. Currently Available 3 x Premiership Clubs (full information is available upon enquiry) 4 x Championship Clubs (full iformation is available upon enquiry) 12 x Div 1 clubs and below. Many of these opportunities have development and incremental value adds , we have investigated all of the additional opportunities and can supply information in full upon engagement. For further information please email mark@ibaseuk.com Exceptional, exceptional stuff. The man is a legend.

Brilliant post. Bought the paper today. Not one quote from any manager from any team in any division about their plans for the season. Not one. But, hey, don't let that put the nut jobs off their rantings. Sheesh.

Is it me, or have Saints not had a match for, like, weeks? A while ago we seemed to be playing games once, if not twice a week. What the hell is going on?

What has that list got to do with "Stupid PR" then? That is the point I am debating. How about a "fans charter" launched with great fanfare mid last season and then axed months later. Is that not "stupid PR"? What about the teeth aching teaser campaign for the new kit - harmless, but tedious and the dictionary definition of "stupid PR". As usual on this forum one can never debate a single point, because you just get sledgehammered by lists of irrelevance. I've not said a thing about the signings we've made or the support Pardew has had. I've picked up your point about "stupid PR". I am happy with the Cortese regime in the whole, but unlike you I don't think they can do nothing wrong. And their obsession with PR is at least as much, if not more, than any other regime we've had. By the way, I don't ever remember any previous regime signing a player to cheer us up after a disappointing England showing at a tournament. Or anything even resembling that. I wonder what you were thinking of.

Promotion from League One with the richest club in the division that season. And a play off finish in the CCC. Breathtaking. Move over Sir Alex, there's a new king in town..... Nige is a perfectly fine manager but he has achieved absolutely nothing to have any kind of reputation as "one of the best managers in English football" to "cement". Calm Down.

Stupid PR exercises, you say Arizona? What, like releasing key club news at quarter to midnight? For all the good they've done i'd say this regime leads the way on 'stupid PR exercises'.

Not entirely sure why you quoted me in your reply, but happy to make it clear I 100% agree with you. The club is being run in what seems like a rather petulant way at the moment, and this episode is a pretty stark example of that. The divs writing "diddums" are in the wrong, as are the people rolling out the "we should all stick together" stuff, unless that sticking together is firmly and aggressively against this pointless, childish and arrogant action.

So are you saying we should all be united in saying the club is wrong in taking this action, or united in saying the club is right in taking this action? You post doesn't make this clear, just vague "we should stick together" platitudes. You have to pick one side of the argument if you want everyone to stick together, or just accept that there are two sides to a debate, and people are allowed to have differing views.

Hodgson to be England boss by August. The only sensible option if this pans out the way it looks like it is going to, with an ignominious early exit.

They have had a points deduction. You're getting so carried away with your tiresome "they've got away with it" schtick that you are now making up them escaping punishments they have actually had.

The hysteric on that thread would be you, because no one was calling for Pardew to be sacked in that thread, but it didn't stop you spending the entire season bleating on about it. And this time last year it was you hysterically sneering and mocking anyone that predicted success for Pardew and the team, calling us immature and unrealistic. You forecast failure for Pardew last season and you were proved wrong, wrong, wrong. Pardew delivered sweet, sweet instant success and your hysterics last year were proved to be the garbage I said it was at the time.

Tell us again about how you have less debt than almost any other club in the Prem. That was just brilliant. And how right you were.

Being that everything you have ever written on this forum about the Echo (which is a hell of a lot) is uninformed, uneducated but at the same time teeth achingly pedantic drivel, I think it would help a lot. Go on, tell us about the time you didn't get through a job interview at the Echo. Everything you post about it screams of a failed and frustrated journalist.

Indeed. I think it was said some time ago that Pompey have sacrificed at least the first two years of parachute payments - the PL is distributing them to football creditors. No creditor on earth, and certainly not the taxman, is going to take a pittance only to watch Pompey spunk parachute payments up the wall on wages and transfer fees.