Jackie@home

I'd like to see a loyalty bonus for those of us who have had season tickets for many years - for example, a free cup game ticket once you've had a season ticket for 10 years. There is plenty of room in the stadium to try things out. Let's have a big range of prices and see what people go for. There are a big bunch of us who used to sit in the centre of the East Stand at the Dell that transferred to the centre of the Kingsland -we won't want to move from these prime seats, even if they cost an extra £150. Charge us a bit more, because we can afford it and the club will need the money. Offer some good family ticket prices - let's face it, we can't have attracted too many children to start supporting the club in the last few years.

MLT was only pointing out the blindingly obvious. Also, I accept that, whilst I have been prepared to sit and watch the dross we have suffered this season, I perfectly understand that other supporters have had enough. Long term, everyone turning up just for the sheer hell of it is not sustainable, nineteen canteen. There has to be entertainment, we have to attract youngsters to get smitten with the bug the way that we were. It is not the supporters fault that the club has been financially mismanaged; how can it be? There are plenty of clubs in the Championship taking less in gate money than us that are doing substantially better on and off the pitch, as we all know. They haven't wasted millions on paying off loads of executives, coaching staff and managers or buying underperforming rubbish.

As is usually the case when businesses fail, cash flow is the problem which finally finishes them off. It doesn't matter that you have assets that have the potential to be sold, you have to have actually sold them and got the hard cash to keep you going. Players cannot be sold outside the transfer window and property cannot be sold overnight. If you can't keep going until a purchaser comes in, it is a real possibility. We had a supplier who had a huge order with BA. He bought £60,000 worth of packaging to pack the order. They take 3 months to pay, he can't afford the ingredients to make the chocolates for the order because the banks have withdrawn their overdraft facility, he goes into liquidation. A classic mismanagement of resources. The point is Saints have got themselves in the same situation - lots of assets but now cannot sell season tickets because the banks have pulled the plug. If we hadn't been a football club, we would have already gone under, I'm sure. I've sent in a cheque because I'm more concerned about the club keeping going until a buyer is found rather than worrying about whether my particular funds pay the St. John's ambulance, the cleaners or BWP. Most of us can afford a small amount - the thought of us going out of business because thousands of us left it to everybody else to stick in their tenner is truly depressing.

I think we've all managed to work out that changing your manager every few months is not a recipe for success, though.

League One wages are about one third of Championship wages, on average, but Mandaric said he would keep a Championship wage structure to make sure they came straight up. Peterborough have a benefactor who says he's put £8m into the club so far - a huge amount at this level. However, wages aren't everything. I'm sure Donny, Blackpool and Barnsley's wages are much lower than any of the 3 clubs most likely to get relegated this season. Might have something to do with picking a good manager, let HIM choose the players, and letting him get on with the job! QPR have stacks of money but also seem to be making a right lash up of it - obviously, brains and money is the correct combo.

I don't think of it as a money making exercise - it's really a reunion for old time's sake. All those names bring back a lot of good memories; the days when we had a lot of passion and fight in our team. Even if some of them had rather less ability than necessary to play in the top division, mentally they were much stronger than today's bunch. For the players involved, surely it's a case of making an effort for an old friend.

Knowing Matt, he has much more sense. Besides, I can't see what he could do to make things better - he's not that rich.

On Tuesday Saga couldn't even keep on his feet. Many a move broke down when he just fell over with the ball. Yes, we could have certainly done with some of the chances falling to him rather than Surman or Euell, but I think that he could have done more off his own back. Look at last season - how many goals did he get? Stern John was in the same team, remember.

Alain, I exactly see your point of the difficult balancing act. We all knew that we would be in a difficult financial position this year and the wage bill needed cutting dramatically, therefore the obvious things to do would be appoint a manager who has a record of keeping teams up on a shoe-string (like Sean O'Driscoll), with knowledge of the best League One (cheap) players. Send 2 out 3 experienced strikers on loan but not all 3. Cut the size of the squad down - you can only play 11 at once, wages for Pulis, gasmi, Robertson, Pekhardt, etc. are a criminal waste of money. "Squad" players are a luxurious waste of money - surely this is what your academy is for? Incidentally, there was mention in the Independent on Saturday that there was a 50/50 chance we would go into administration in the next 2 weeks. You just feel that the gates would have held up to a break-even level if the club had been managed properly in the first place.

I'm sure he's having a positive influence, but I think the biggest difference is the fact that, apart from Lloyd James, we actually have a very experienced defence -hardly coincidence. I see Lee Molyneux has disappeared off of the scene very quickly - let's hope that he doesn't turn out to be another waste of money that we haven't got.

It's a depressing question. Many of us are torn. We want Lowe out, but do not want him to stop us watching our team. However, it's no longer been fun or exciting at all this season for anyone, if you are interested in the politics or not. Plenty of people sat around me in the Kingsland say they will not renew unless there is some hope, i.e. no Lowe, even though they are only interested in watching a good game of football and nothing else - they just need hope. However, my husband has already got to the point where he is going just to keep me happy. There must be plenty of supporters where the groups are getting smaller, and how many of us want to sit at matches or in the pub beforehand on our own? I haven't made a final decision yet, but if Lowe goes I definitely will renew. Otherwise, I might well withold my cash and then make decisions game by game. The point is that the club needs more than fanatical supporters to be a feasible business; it needs thousands of people who just want to watch a good match - Lowe's business plan is not catering for these "customers" at present.

Jimmy Case for me. Absolutely excellent player as well as captain. Chris Marsden wasn't even our permanent captain when at the club - he was only in when Doddsy was injured, though I did like his attitude. However, we would need someone with more footballing abilility than him. Can someone seriously vote for that prat Prutton?

Exactly, Window Cleaner, if there is no work for employees to do, the company has no choice but to lay them off. It's got nothing to do with the wealth Crouch has accumulated over many years. What are the company supposed to do, let them stand around doing nothing for a couple of years until the whole company goes bust and everyone is out of work?

Can it get any more depressing? It's just one low(e) after another. What does it take for Lowe to actually admit that he might actually not be doing a very good job??

Thanks for that, Bourne Valley Saint. Seems like I made the right decision and I wasn't being a whimp, as some on here seemed to imply!

Isn't the payment for staying in the Championship going up considerably for next season to something like £3m? Perhaps the club have pleaded successfully that it will be more beneficial to the banks if we are at least given a good chance of staying up until the end of the season. If we then don't succeed, the inevitable sales will take place.

I'm 6 miles to the East of Salisbury, and it's been snowing solidly for the last 2 hours, nearly 4 hours on and off - looks like the bad weather is gradually heading Westwards, but too late for me.

Warwick, I know they are not in control of the weather, but with every broadcast telling people to only travel if they have to, why do you think that so many other games were already called off yesterday? It was obviously because of the safety for travelling fans. I'm sure the Emirates has under-soil heating, but they were worried about people travelling to the game.

If it includes people with a ticket who can't go - 14,951 If it includes people actually in the ground - 11,230

Notice all these people who think it should go ahead live in Southampton. The majority of Saints supporters don't live in the city. Had Solent on this morning and it was taking 2 hours for people to drive along the A31 from Ringwood to the M27. The group of people that sit around me in the Kingsland all use this route. What's it going to be like at 10 o' clock tonight? I always use my season ticket, but as my husband is away in Cologne and I would have to drive there and back at night on my own, he, understandably, doesn't want me to go. Just announced another 2 accidents on the M27 and one on the M3. Still, seeing as the club has already got my money, they don't worry if we can actually turn up or not.

They ought to call it off. It's absolutely chucking it down with snow here at the moment and all the reports on the radio are telling us not travel unless absolutely necessary. I read some time ago that only 40% of season ticket holders actually live in Southampton, so many of us have quite a long journey. I don't fancy getting out of the ground and back to car about 10pm and struggling home through a blizzard. I'll be a bit upset if I've paid for a match that I can't go to just because I'm being sensible.

This transfer window just proves that we aren't the only skint club in the Championship. Apart from Wolves move for Berra, there has been no substantial transfers at all. There have been a few players moving on loan to rival clubs (we're obviously not the only ones who have to cut our wage bill), but that's about it. The bids must have been really rubbish for us to turn them down flat in our current situation.

It was an unnecessary comment, and totally patronising. I would have thought that it would be in his own interests to get us onside.

Martinez was whinging that he should have been sent off, and that we were generally too physical - must have been doing something right, then. Still, both of their goals came from runs from midfield, which our extra bite from Wotton and Gillet was supposed to help stamp out. Still, I think he could prove useful in our current predicament, even though he's not much of a footballer.

Most of us realise the financial mess we are in, but Crouch is not alone in believing that someone else could do a better job under the same financial constraints. The amount of money that has been wasted since Lowe returned has been criminal - the usual accumulation of a huge squad of average players not even good enough to get on the bench, coaching staff on "gardening leave" that we are obviously still paying. Whoever has been scouting Gasmi, Pulis, Peckhardt, Smith, Robertson, etc., has cost this club a packet. Whoever he is, we don't even know, but he must be getting a fee or salary. I think the vast majority of us would have swap one wage of either John or Rasiak for 6 other nonenties. We might have actually won a couple more home games that would have kept the crowds from dropping so drastically. The vast majority of Championship clubs are working under very tight financial constraints, but most are better run than us. I'm not suprised Crouch thinks he can do a better job than Lowe - I'm pretty sure that I could too.