suewhistle

.. or the fact that some clubs will gamble that shortly the said players will be available for no fee and probably willing to take a lower salary.. Plus, as pointed out, nobody rushes to sign anybody now anyway, even if quiet little promises might be made.

Our joking aside, how can the club survive now? Absolutely no revenue from now on... Southern Electric will demand a security deposit if they haven't already, nobody will extend _any_ credit, the training ground will be even more dependent on cash or pre-payment, any decent apprentices will already have been contacted by Saints. Have I missed a liquidation sweepstake as I'd like to choose one of the earlier time slots....

I presume you are joking? Or ... no, I can't continue as it might be construed as offensive, and as a teacher I have to be supportive of all, whatever their handicaps.

GM - that was nasty, a bit of a below the belt hit (possibly).:-) Incidentally (and I'm using a second-hand quote here..) - was Alpine talking about himself again?: "soppy school-girl blubbery mush."

I've heard a rumour..... Ben Haim is going to buy the club with his last few weeks wages..

pr ick, in case you hadn't worked it out

I've mentioned this on the depressing post-mortem thread, but even you guys must be aware how much pleasure a wet fanny gives; it certainly does me. So how about calling this the "limp *****" thread/ More appropriate on sooo many levels..

Is it safe to read the thread yet? I'm as ****ed off as anyone but I get even more so with the drips who go to pieces when this sort of thing happens. Now I'm getting old and slow, but if someone skins me when I play footie I don't give up, I chase back and try and cover. Plus may I please request anyone who criticises such wimps not to call them "wet fannies" (Delldays for one), those give a lot of pleasure. How about "limp dicks" as a criticism: much more appropriate, I feel.

I don't feel very lady like tonight: my language certainly hasn't been....

f***

It was worse watching on my stream: sound was 30 seconds before visuals...

Bloomin 'eck. Two bottles first half. One for half time.. Even the team look nervous today, I thought. Normally it's just us.... Cazzo!

stream http://www.firstrowsports.eu/watch/120242/3/watch-middlesbrough-vs-southampton-fc.html

Hurrah! got a stream.....

Well, I have plenty of alternatives in the cellar if it's no good, and a few other bottles in the fridge too including Prosecco: anyway it's the thought that counts!

Me too! just been to the suepermercato for some Morettis, Menebrea, Budvar and then saw a local grower who makes a champagne method bubbly which I've never tried before.. I think I'm going to open a Budvar very soon...

But I don't think you can ever be certain in this context: confident maybe, but not certain. The impression I get from the club is one of confidence and of a plan unfolding, even if some of us can suggest improvements to how they operate. They will no doubt have their own criteria for progressing on stadium re-development and I'm sure that a lot of planning has already taken place. I don't think it's a question of a number of years with full crowds: I'd think they'd come to a quicker decision than that given that they have a lot more information at their disposal as well as a firm idea of where they're headed. They might say "go" as soon as we're safe for a second season in the premiership assuming a certain level of sales. They might be looking at the number of people on the database and saying "if we can increase visits by .25 a season" or whatever. We just don't know, but I don't think we should be as dismissive as some of the other posters on this thread. Should be interesting either way. I don't want to jinx our promotion chances but as an overseas fan over on holidays in August I'm already thinking about how to get tickets for the early games next season.. Let's hope it's a less glamorous club, eh?:-)

I really don't its an either/or like that. Investment in infrastructure is ammortised over a longer period whereas players have to be regarded as fairly disposable assets written-off over a pretty short time, even if there is a potential to make a profit on them - like the "profit" 'Arry made wheeling and dealing. Given the investment in infrastructure on the training ground where returns are even more difficult to quantify and predict than ticket revenue I can't see the club sitting on their hands.

Don't worry, we've noticed you're a bit obtuse.

Too right mate! :-) I'm doing the serious celebrating tomorrow (hopefully) as it's my birthday and we've a league match. I sooooo want to play and get a goal so I'm going to be kind to my system. Monday I'm not working...

So just to summarise your theory here, the reason why the club at the beginning of this season didn't seem to put much effort into marketing season tickets was due to their over-arching importance? Season tickets are so important that they'll be left in wills, that is, if the youngsters and less well-off and less committed haven't in the meantime decided to do something else with their money and watch the team on the box. I actually haven't seen anybody here who doesn't acknowledge the importance of season tickets, but you have to maintain the interest of others as well, as pointed out by moonraker. That is far easier to achieve in a bigger ground. I do wonder at your agenda here; some of us may be optimistically hoping for better things, and speculating on what might be possible in true fan fashion. It's part of what keeps us interested. You are just consistently negative and rude with it. So how about I put forward a new theory as to why they didn't push season tickets this last year. They wanted to keep as many people as possible interested in going to maintain the size of the fan base and the potential for future season ticket sales when we expand. OK, I don't actually believe this: it's like one of those uni essays [statement]: Discuss. But we are all speculating on this thread and perhaps it behoves you to be a bit politer about other people's opinions since you don't know any more than we do.

Actually Turkish I've got you on ignore as well, but I took a guess that you were replying to me so I opened this particular post. I think I've mentioned twice that I've got Alpine on ignore and certainly not recently so I'm not sure why the typical dig. Anyway, if you re-read my post carefully I wasn't talking about the buildong cost per seat but the cost for the capital - the nominal cost of any money invested, and that, both for current economic reasons and the resources of the person spending the money I believe would be less than a chancer like Lowe would have had to spend. Lowe was borrowing, the current lot have their own resources, and whilst they will put a price on the capital used it would be less than commercial rates. You've only got to look at what the bank manager wanted to charge Hamster for his narrow boat.;-)

Hopefully in my study on a stream on the 'puter.... a 3 second dash from the fridge and 4 to the loo..

Jeez, the banks do like to take the p***. Mind you, perhaps he's suggeting he doesn't see you as a good risk. [ducks] No family you could borrow from so that both sides could gain and leave out the sodding bank?

Ouir problem in deciding this issue is that we don't have the figures: the likely costs, the cost of capital/interest (almost certainly a lot cheaper than when Lowe was around for a number of reasons.), the likely revenue. But in general terms I disagree with your premise as if it were true nobody else would be investing in infrastructure either. In what way are Saints different? Unless you're saying it would be cheaper to start from scratch on a larger site.:-)