St Landrew

I can honestly say I will walk away from SFC if Rupert Lowe is so much as within sniffing distance of this club after it is sold. I can do it. I've put things ahead of Saints before, and I reckon I can totally eliminate it from my life if push comes to a shove. I have an advantage in that I'm the only one I know who supports a local football club, while my close friends wonder at my sanity. F*** off Rupert. YOU ARE NOT WANTED. How plain do we have to make it..?

OK, it went Santana, but to keep with the 1980's AOR theme, I went for a track off the album Inner Secrets, called Open Invitation. Bit dangerous that track. Don't select it as part of a mixCD and play it in the car, and DEFINITELY NOT while riding a motorcycle, because the throttle will be let loose, guaranteed. It's a bit like BTO's Roll On Down The Highway in the sense that it suggests... yeah, go kill yourself with speed..!

Ah, knew that Deppo lad had potential. You've noticed that aura... Or is it aroma..? I can never determine which. Don't follow this though. On an extremely rare mini 80's AOR moment courtesy of Spotify. With the dismal efforts from the boys in Red & White, trying to keep the leather thing away from the Claret and Blue men for around 90 minutes, I'd thought I'd call in the music from when Saints were riding rather higher. Frankly, I never liked 90% of this stuff, preferring to go skiing and latterly discovering sailing during that time. But I've had a go at More Than A feeling - Boston, which has that terrific chorus interspersed by crap verses. Tried Van Halen - Jump, and David Lee Roth - California Girls and they were abysmal. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd was pretty good though, and now I'm thnking of Santana, or maybe I should really go off the wall with Bachman, Turner Overdrive. As I said, don't follow. It's certainly safer not to.

Yes I have downloaded it. Yes it is slightly better than IE7 Depends whether you like the good features of Firefox or not. Personally, I find Firefox too uneven. It's excellent at some things, and doesn't do other things easily enough. I did like Apple's Safari very much until it started slowing my PC down to a crawl every time I clicked its icon. Still use it occasionally though. Google Chrome is OK.

A very fine choice. I was only listening to that myself the other week.

Back to two wheels this weekend with the usual suspects taking all the attention. However, will Hayden crack the mighty Ducati..? Will the little flea, sorry Pedrosa, be competitive on his Honda after injury..? Will James Toseland remember that he's riding a Yamaha MotoGP machine and not a Superbike anymore..? Will Kawasaki come anywhere..? All these minor questions may or may not be answered come around breakfast time on Sunday 25th. But the major question is... who will win..? Rossi or Stoner. Heart says Rossi, head says Stoner. With Lorenzo in 3rd. Or Dovizioso. Could be good. Please MLT, no more rain.

Same here, but tbh, I've been building up myself for this news, and frankly Saints deserve nothing less.

They've just signed Roy Keane. Excellent move IMO. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/i/ipswich_town/8013572.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/i/ipswich_town/8013572.stm Now there's a bloke I'd really loved managing Saints. Too late now.

Yeah, and how about the mortgage to go with it..? Why not have Halibut, and really put yourself in debt..? Bloody nice though.

I didn't know he was 30..?!!? I thought he was mid 20's. Around 8 years with Saints, and 11 league appearances. Then suddenly at Swansea City - from nowhere to excellent. What a turnaround. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garry_Monk

SS, if you mean Carp, just say so.

That's a good call. Also any naturally oily fish is great on the barbeque. Mackeral for example; alsoran fish here, but loved on the continent. Superb eating. Try Milkfish from the Phillipines, but watch out for the tiny bones. Great flesh though. Tilapia is also excellent. Red Snapper too. And there's always Lobster if you really want to push the boat out. Just try something different from sausages and burgers. EDIT: BTW, I've eaten Crocodile steak. It tasted fishy - honest..! Fresh water..? Carp, but wash it well first overnight, otherwise it'll taste of the riverbed.

Such are the changes of fortune... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/swansea_city/8007012.stm Ignore the content if you like, but just look at the picture.

Wow..!

Yes, there's an old chestnut I thought we'd cracked. I thought we'd found out that Pearson was willing to accept a massive drop in salary in order to stay on, but never got the chance to say No thanks, because he was swiftly shown the door, by the incoming Board.

Yes indeed. In the Saint Web's independent survey, aproximately [can't remember the exact figure] 95% wanted Pearson to stay. In Radio Hampshire's independent survey, started several days after TSW's one, 96% wanted Pearson to stay. Could it have been possible that we saw something in Pearson that the previous incumbent Board couldn't..? No. Us 95/96% were the lunatic fringe. ;-)

Deary me, I don't know whether to laugh or be appalled with some of your attitudes. On one hand you bemoan your lot, and then the other to refer to people who may see an eye for a bargain as pikey's and polish. There's no shame in this. There's a industry of this all around in every field of buying and selling. For example, it's the reason why you can buy a second hand car. And antique and furniture dealers are always on the look out. And btw no, I haven't been to a car boot sale, but if I wanted to, I would.

I know we both want what's best for SFC, and it's obvious we wanted it done slightly differently in recent seasons. Let's just agree to disagree on this one.

I think you're managing to find the downside of every little detail you've pointed to. For starters, Pearson wasn't plucked from obscurity. He had quite a good track record of experience at many levels, including assisting in the England setup, at one point. Whatever your take on Crouch's thorough process, you could be a little more charitable, and give him the benefit of the doubt. I was unhappy with the Dutch experiment from the word go. However, as a supporter, I did the supporter thing and gave it my support until it became obvious the Board had made an unnecessary policy/personnel change. As for Lee Hoos, I have exchanged correspondance with the guy, while working for GITR, and my colleagues have met him through GITR. Their opinion, which I respect, was that he was a thoroughly approachable and helpful bloke, who very much opened the doors for us to SFC. Now, I'm not insulting or bickering. Just providing a little balance to your post.

Blimey, you're a tad late with your tribute. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Dibnah Always remember that tag line he had when felling a chimney, at the beginning of his 1980's TV series. It went something like... Et's gawen.. HONK HONK... Ded yer laak that..? [it's going.. Squeeze Horn sound.. Did you like that..?] Followed by the quick puff from an ever present roll-up.

OK, no references to the past... Saints can start next season with a clean slate. There could well be no baggage [oops, nearly a reference there..?], and real hope. Let's get this season over, a new ambitious owner, and into a new era. The stadium will be the best in the league [although Huddersfield Town's Galpharm Stadium is supposed to be pretty tasty too] and Saints can expect to make progress. Dare I say we could emulate Leicester City..? That took effort.

Congratulations to Nigel Pearson and Leicester City. Bloody marvellous. I can only hope Saints can emulate them in the future, if they have one. Next season, Saints may start with a clean slate. For MLT's sake, let them finally learn the lessons that have been so pointedly obvious to the fans for several seasons. EDIT: And credit to Mandaric for being shrewd enough to appoint Pearson.

Since 2003 there have been a catalogue of errors in the decline, some major, some minor. The major mistake for this season was not retaining the services of Nigel Pearson. Whether his statistics were impressive or not, he was the approved manager, by the fans and the previous Chairman. It was extreme arrogance to sweep him aside, and then to adopt the playing of inexperienced youngsters. Setting aside when Wotte started playing a few more experienced players, this season was killed by club policy. Inexperienced players may exhibit great skill on the training pitch, and in reserve games, but it is only within a team of more experienced players can they learn how to fight. So not only has the club been set back, but the individual players have been set back. Previous Board members had no confidence in this club policy, the fans had no confidence in it, though did what fans do and supported it; and clearly, Barclays had little confidence too. At this moment, I wish they'd pulled the plug much earlier. I think I first mentioned the phrase managed decline during the Premiership relegation season, and it has been Lowe's policy ever since. Because he engineered the club into being such a poor advert for investment, once the big money dried up there has been little direction to go but down. If Saints were under the continual undisputed manangement of Lowe, I've no doubt they would break even or even make a tiny profit each season. But they'd end up as a non-league club. He basically has little idea where the order of priorities are when it comes to running a football club.

Quite interesting race. Most interesting because the established front runners from the year dot were still fighting for the minor places. Wet once again, and BrawnGP were finally caught out with their lack of wet testing experience. I heard that Brawn settled for a conservative setup. That might seem rather odd, but Button is still 6 points ahead in the WC. But I wonder if they'll regret having only half points last time out when the final race is run. Well done Red Bull and Vettel and Webber. No double diffuser and great downforce. So 3 races in, and I think we can comment on the Beeb's performance. Tbh, they've taken up the reins quite professionally. The Jonathan Ledgard/Martin Brundle combo is better than the James Allen/Brundle combo, but Ledgard needs to remember sometimes that he's now commentating on TV and not the Radio. WE CAN SEE..!