suewhistle

Hmm, so from crowds of 20k plus (and a few more at Wembley..) to crowds of 3-5,000... Ambitious, eh?

No. 2: Yesterday came up with an interest , in truth already rather dated, by Torino for DP. The Brazilian plays happily for Southampton but must resolve some bureaucratic problems (in practice his wife's permit to stay), [if not] he'll change his team. With his agent they've given until the 20th January to resolve the question or else he'll return to Cessena. Torino, however, haven't thought about him since last summer: and negotiating for a trequartista* [creative MF who plays in the hole] DP can't be the priority for Petrachi. Not sure about UK regs over accompanying spouses: could it be she has to apply from outide the country?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/jan/06/fifa-transfer-matching-system Bad news not just for City, I'd imagine; although I think P****y's days of international transfers are probably over for a bit.

Jeez, are you sure?? It's certainly the case that they'll never make it into a film: how could they pack it all in and avoid criticisms of an improbable plot. They might get an "entertaining" or two and maybe The Echo would give it a 5 star rating...

Would PL clubs really be interested in someone, as pointed out here, playing Wessex League not so long ago: would they be going for a player to slot in to their line-ups or one for the future? If the latter I could see Saints being in with a (small) chance in that we would offer him Championship football for next season and the prospect of being part of a team that might earn Premiership status, plus bigger crowds than the opposition.;-) Oh well, we'll hear about transfers when we hear about them..

Not long back after driving back across France, but I'll see if I can find time tomorrow. At least I won't be out skiing as I picked up a nasty cold over in the UK. At least I saw two wins though, which is one better than the whole of the previous 4 and a half years I've been away! From what I saw Guly is getting increasingly comfortable in English (L1) football.

More than Preston can afford, but then I'm going to guess, even without checking, that our gates are bigger than theirs..

I was wondering about that after the 4-1 win and a decent atmosphere with 24k. It would be good to see towards 30k like last year though I assume it will be less. Still, 24k is good for the third division.

At last! 4 and a half years abroad so only seeing games at Christmas and early season and I've seen one win in that time (Exeter last Christmas). So a real pleasure, although conceding first brought on a "oh dear here we go feeling". But by 3-1 I was only feeling a little nervous - being a long terms Saints fan - and said "I'd feel happier with 4" and 10 seconds later Chaplow duly obliged. Even better was that I got to miss Alpine on the match day thread - from the references here he seems to have been "on form"! Lambert's goal was in front of me and like many I thought he'd hit the side netting. Great timing for the turn and the shot was vicious. Lallana is a sheer pleasure to watch with his control and touch as is Ox. The guy next to me made a joke about Guly being substituted just before he missed another one, but although he was frustrating he covered a lot of ground, was always available, passed well but showed he needs to hone his striking instincts: lacks a bit of confidence in those situations. Jaidi did the simple things well and Fonte covered for his lack of pace. We need to cut out gifting goals like we did and tweak our finishing skills and we are going to punish someone far more than we did today. I told my friend to line up a ticket for the last home match of the season as I'm seriously considering coming over for the weekend to celebrate, even if I'm only a poor English teacher!

Don't get obsessed by 16" Deppo... Actually on the roof of my car I had 41cm but I can't be bothered to do an accurate conversion.

I'd have to agree. From the Echo article "we moved the blower".. What? Just the one? Why not hire in one from machine mart or summat? Mind you, it's very frustrating. Me with my Italian footie team drove 3 hours for an away match for the same thing to happen. Being mountain lasses we wanted to play (thin snow over mud) but no go. We tried to help an away team coming to us the week after we'd had about 16" of snow by telling them not to come (as we couldn't get in contact with the league officials), and the poor b*****s lost 3 points; which really wasn't our intention. Hope the next two home games are on as I'm over and fully equipped with me thermal underwear...

A reasonable point. In the first game against Thun, which I saw, we didn't look in the races and anybody who has played footie at any level knows that if you are chasing the game often it all falls apart. The losses were hardly surprising as they had already started competitive games and their league started the following week, but we never seemed to properly get it together after that.

Fortunately, although I live there I have had no recourse to the Italian legal system. I can say however, that "action" is the last word that I would associate with it. So no monies will be changing hands between the clubs for years. Wouldn't like to comment on the legal fees though......

You're just jealous Windmill got in first!

Sod it. Back to the flute..

It's Pompey money-laundering... (You didn't come here for genuine help, tea and sympathy, did you?) ;-)

I've been told that the coaching staff's figures for the same age show otherwise...

Thanks to all those who reported: very interesting.. particularly in the light of discussions here at the beginning of the season about instalment plans (400 cheats!) and more recently regarding Saints' potential crowds. Both are issues which are resolvable. Good to see a sensible attitude to The Sun snippet. For the benefit of Dubai-Phil: I'll take on board the cheese issue myself as I live on the Italian/Swiss border. Driving across for Christmas this year so no weight restrictions...

Perhaps they should wait until after next year's court case??

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/05/fa-harry-redknapp-england-manager or even http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/9258302.stm Bloomin' 'eck.. Is there really any hope for the FA?

Apart from also playing on Sundays women's football is so different! Even here in Italy it's spot the straight.:-)) I get the impression some straight male footballers aren't so relaxed or accepting about things...

That's because most of us rely on people posting stuff here, so thanks! Obviously they won't reveal names: they don't want to prejudice forthcoming trials... In the comments I noticed this: What are the possible implications, is the whole CVA unravelling, can creditors now start further action now that the club are out of administration and if the promised payments are delayed?

at interest rates which will make the Irish and Portuguese bond rates look like chicken feed...

Yep, I have snow tyres (and chains in the boot I've never used). Going tomorrow as well.:-) Mind you, training tonight was cancelled and nobody thought to tell me... I suspect xxiv is right, and a dozy weekend by the fire seems like a decent alternative, or a decent pub with an open fire...

..or manure, that tends to be warmer. Anyway, hope you don't travel and have the game called off, which is what happened to my ladies team on Sunday. We drove 115 miles having tried to check with the Federation in the morning as there had been general overnight snow. No news so we had to go. Us hardy mountain girls would have played on the thin snow but we couldn't persuade the other side or the ref. It nearly all kicked off with them so when we actually play there are going to be some snappy tackles.:-)) Fresh snow today which made skiing this morning interesting, and so will training tonight!..