Patrick Bateman

Wow, we sold one game out. Helmet.

Anything but Nike. I hate Nike stuff, it looks sh*t. I hate the sports clothing, the trainers, the stupid tick, the tools that normally like/wear Nike and the "Americanness" of it. Horrible brand.

Having lived in Basingstoke for 3.5 years and now just outside Fleet for 3 years, I can honestly say that it's NOT a catchment for Southampton Football Club. In Basingstoke I saw more Chelsea fans than anything else and similar in Fleet with a large portion of Arsenal "fans" and plenty of skates. Growing numbers of Aldershot fans up here in North Hampshire too.

You know it! Seriously, every time I read about expansion, I just want to "facepalm".

Oh dear god. We don't need to expand!! We don't sell out and we won't sell out given current prices, the state of economy, free matches to watch online and diving tosser Premiership footballers. I keep using White Hart Lane as an example, capacity circa 36,000. Spurs ARE a "bigger" club than Saints, that does them fine. Chelsea play in a stadium of about 42,000. That does them fine and they are a massive club - now. It's bad enough having empty seats in a 32,000 seater stadium, expanding is madness. Okay, if we expanded to 36,000 for example, then maybe that might pay off, but any larger would be ridiculous. We'd end up looking like Wigan or Middlesbrough every week with a half empty stadium. There are far more important things to spend the money on - like a defensive back line for a start. Utterly ridiculous at the moment to suggest we need a bigger ground.

Totally agree! Was it Jonny Bognor who posted the political compass a few years ago? I think Boris appeals to a broader range on that compass than (Hello) Dave, (Sheepdog) Nick and (Gromit) Milliband!! I think Boris is actually more, well, normal. I honestly think that. I think being Mayor of London has helped him be far more in tune (although possible London-centric) with people than the other three current "choices".

Again, it is NO surprise. Most grounds around the country have seats available. The only few grounds that are hard to get tickets in the home section are Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal etc. For obvious reasons - much larger catchment areas, bigger support base, more successful teams. Yesterday; our match was on TV, it was a Sunday, it was "only Fulham", we haven't been winning and above all else, it is TOO EXPENSIVE. That is not a hard concept to grasp - most people really are watching the pennies, especially down South where your income doesn't go as far as up North. Until the economy picks up (yeah right) and until prices come down a little (yeah right), we won't be selling out for most matches - we just don't have that big a fanbase! Bigger stadium?? hahaha.

Agreed, covered for Yoshida a few times, crucial interceptions and tackles. He seems to have grown in stature a lot, despite looking horrible last year in the NPC! Fair play to him.

Because that's tangible and a certain income, whether it's Prem money or parachute money. Securing against SMS wouldn't be a wise move - what if it blows up, decreases in value etc etc etc. Next season's income is tangible.

Agreed on both counts.

I would suggest that Cortese knows what he's doing. There must be posters within the corporate finance world here who also know. Debt isn't a bad thing - pretty much every company with a reasonable sized turnover has debt - there are many reasons why - debt over equity means lower tax payments and more security for the owners. I quickly dug out this from the Harvard Business Review which talks at a high-level about it; http://blogs.hbr.org/financial-intelligence/2009/07/when-is-debt-good.html There are many small articles out there; http://kapitall.hubpages.com/hub/Why-Does-a-Company-Use-Debt Stop worrying.

Having not seen the Academy teams for years - what defenders are there in there (apart from Shaw) that look promising?

Toss up between Kompany and Ashely Cole. Given how weak our left side is, I'd go for Cole. Hypothetical I know, but if only we could have him, or both - wow!

That's the thing, you know it'll be for "high" earners over £50k *roll eyes thing*

Agreed - it's a gross abuse of power and he knows full well what he's doing. She's impressionable (as all kids are) and he really can give her the world at the moment. I mean, come on, I was looking at some kids who are going to Uni, they look like children and sound like children and they're 18. (I'm 36) It's not acceptable and it is wrong as it's manipulating a kid.

I think that's fair enough!

It doesn't matter what the attendance was really - but it's obvious football is overpriced. How much was last night? I bet it was at least £20 (I didn't even bother looking) - had it been (say) £12.50 or even £15, I bet FAR more people would have attended after work? Football is too expensive.

*cough* *cough* I know it's not versus Everton, but ...

I very much doubt Boruc will be match fit though? I would say it would be harsh to drop Gazza. KD has a larger role to play at the club - Club Captain, coaching the younger goalies (Gazza and Cropper etc.) and generally being a good influence around the place. He'll be a fine back-up still. I would say Gazza to start, KD on the bench again - Boruc will get an U21 match or 2 under his belt and get some match sharpness first. Just my gut feeling.

Lovely lady. Typical middle-aged potty mouth drama queen. I can't be bothered to reply!

Isn't Corp seating around the 1000 mark, maybe 1200 - seems to ring a bell. I do think that there isn't demand for a bigger stadium in the current economic climate - but Frank's post makes perfect sense as a business model. There is a cut-off point between expanding the stadium by x amount and reducing the prices by y amount where is makes no sense. But I'd argue that selling season tickets for (say) £250 would shift lots more and making the normal matchday price a similar amount (minus, say, £2 per ticket) would work. The ROI over 5 years would (probably) outweigh the expansion cost and leaving a little more income for wages/transfers etc. But no, in the current climate, it would be insane - the fanbase IS there, but the fans who are willing to spend are NOT there. As shown by not selling out our home matches in the Prem, by the poor cup turnout and by the p*ss poor friendly attendances. Is there a stadium that's sold out week-in, week-out? Other than say Man Utd and Chelsea, probably Spurs (their ground IS too small for them!! Are we really saying we need a bigger ground than Spurs? hahaha!!!!)

Ahhh, I'm glad you highlighted that. I had no idea/clue what it was all about either and neither did anyone else around me! Weird.

Great minds!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Grosso or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianluca_Zambrotta Please. I asked for Boruc and he was delivered, now one of them will do nicely for a season - both great players for Shaw to learn from as well.

No, don't be so boring, it's better to not understand that the player wants to make alliances and get the fans on-side at his new club where he wasn't liked.