St Landrew

Away, as in living in Gore, New Zealand and other places, when the World Wide Web was just being planned. Besides, I was newly married, incredibly in love, and getting in touch with my new world that I'd emigarted to. And NZ is a heck of a place, as plenty of Saints fans living there nowasdays will tell you. And so, like you'd expect, everything else took a back seat. My only regret is that I misse the fledgling Matt Le Tissier. But I'm sure he'd forgive me. Well, he's shaken the hand of an awe-struck fan a few times since, and I know a great bloke when I see one.

Rolling the ball out to a defender is very much the Dutch way, i.e. building the attack from the back. Its intention is sound, because there should be very small chance of losing possession if you roll the ball to a teammate instead of punting it upfield, when it could just come back with interest. I've always been a fan of accurately throwing the ball out to a teammate, rather than a punt and hope job.

Chris Nicholl's era was during a time when I was away. Having seen numerous highlights of the football played under him, I can only say that some of it is superb. But that's understandable. Saints were fielding players who had come through the youth training scheme [is that another word for an academy..?] at the time, and had burst through to the first team. If Saints had held onto their super youngsters who, let's not forget, had helped the team finish 7th [that oft favoured end placing of Saints teams in the top division] in 1989-90, then perhaps we could have seen far better results in the 90s, with many more quality players to help out Matty. But Saints sold those players off to illustrious careers, and only Matt Le Tissier stayed. Guy Askham was selling the silverware, even back then. They broke up a team for financial gain, nothing more, IMO. I suspect there's more to Chris Nicholl leaving than just poorer results than expected. Perhaps those who really know could emerge from the woodwork and explain, as this is one Saints related topic that has bugged me like any missed opportunity.

The interview lasted over 27 minutes, even with the adverts edited out. That's 276mb in an uncompressed WAVE file. I've managed to get te thing down to 3.52mb without too much loss of quality. Good ol' low res MP3. Now to get it hosted.

For example, Pearson's sacking due to finance. That has always been dodgy for me, and Mary put clarity to the confusion. Michael Wilde coming into the club. and a couple of other things too. I'll try to get the interview hosted so that all can listen to it if they wish to.

Sorry to hear about the bad cold. I certainly know how you feel as I was down with a sh!tbag of an illness from Xmas Day to Jan 5th. The contagious nature of the bad feeling on this forum is, IMO, understandable. I'm sure the next matches can't come quick enough for the fans so that they can both support the team and protest against the board.

Apparently the text message, sent into the show, was full of expletives. I would imagine the message originated much closer to home. BTW, Leon Crouch has appeared on this show before, just a month or so ago. Radio Hampshire do ask members of the present Board in for interview, just to get the picture from inside. But they keep refusing.

BTW, I thought that was rather good. Clarified a few things. Nice to hear Mary was on the march prior to the Swansea game.

What's the matter matey..?

BTW, I'm recording the whole telephone interview.

Well it isn't Thursday. But she is definitely on now. Well adverts are on at this moment. But she's on again afterwards.

Probably nothing. But what the hell did your question have anything to do with this thread..?

It's no punishment mate. The punishment is carryng on, day after day, with the present lot.

Couple of quick questions peeps, if you don't mind me asking: Gravesend - where in Rainham..? As I lived there for a year. Keniworthy - My older brothers were great fans of Southampton Speedway, and everyone in the team would have been a hero to them. Who was your father..? Cheers

Seeing as I would probably welcome almost anyone with a bit of business clout to replace Lowe, Wilde and Askham, then Mandaric would be an obvious choice. He loves his football, he loves making clubs more successful than they were, and eventually he loves to sell them for more money than it has cost him to buy and run them. I have no problem with that. In fact, as a welcoming gift, I'd present him with a bust of the statue we made for him a few seasons back. Hope some of it is still left.

I think 0 to 4 is a safe bet, as we can only draw and lose, it seems.

As nothing happened during Jan [pun not intended] and the window has closed, so will this thread. Cheers.

I've known bigger companies go to the wall. Saints, as Lowe always tells us, is a business first and foremost. We can go under, don't you believe it.

I hope she asks for a step up in protests and boycotting, in order to send that message. Ther's nothing much else she can be positive about. The rest will be just bleating [sorry Mary, but we've heard enough of the damage this Board are doing]. We're all onside now Mary. Just ask the fans what you want them to do, otherwise they'll take it into their own hands.

I'm just saying it's not impossible, and it has happened before in the city, and in professional football in this country. Sometimes, I wonder if fans don't think that the worst is possible because they just don't want to think that way. But we have to contemplate the worst. To me, I'd rather see a complete end to the club, than one that starts up again in some minor league, as AFC Wimbledon have done. I have enough memories of Saints being top class rather than having the once proud history diluted.

Put it this way. In 1963, Saints were the Premier league champions, and had many of the biggest stars in their team, but the stadium was sold off for redevelopment shortly afterwards. There was no club, and this meant that thousands of Saints fans had nothing to fill the void, that they could follow, that felt the same to them. Believe me, it can happen. Southampton Speedway was every bit as big as Saints football [speedway being much, much more popular back then, than it is now], and they completely disappeared.

And don't forget, budgeting for League 2, as well. That mentality has got us where we are today. We're doing well on it. You reap what you sow..!

They are setup for it.

Nobody. I'll lose interest in football completely. I'll turn into an ordinary person. The kind who may watch the odd international and some matches of the World Cup, but if there's a decent programme on the other side, that'll do for me. As for going to a football stadium again, you can forget it.

I suspect there's start money in the contract of the more expensive players. If you don't play them for 90 minutes you save money, and all they get is an absolute basic.