um pahars

An if and a but here Lord Duckhunter. But I don't think it has to be that way, in that I think a Club should always celebrate, honour and even exploit its past. Its a part of what makes football clubs so special to their supporters and cornerstone of the community they serve. And I think Cortese has recognised the importance of the Club on a number of occasions (St Marco above has highlighted some of them). It just seems to be that he has a real problem with 2 or 3 individuals and then anything they put their names to!!!!!

And the fact that you describe the situation as being so desperate and Fry had no idea that other buyers were willing to jump in, would, in my mind, somewhat justify Matt's decision to back what was looking like the only game in town (hell, I was even considering Wacko Jacko's bid, if the alternative was the disappearance of Saints!!!). Therefore, in the context you suggest, I think it would be well over the top to suggest that Matty came close to destroying the Club as you did earlier!!

It might be the old fogey in me and I need to get up to sorts with player inflation, but I just struggle to think that a Championship striker should command a £5M fee. Against that I accept that it might be a fair reflection of the worth of a player to a team, particularly given the financial rewards of promotion to the top flight. WouldI be happy for Ricky or Adam to be sold for £5m?? I very much doubt it for Ricky and no way for Adam, so maybe £5m might be the going rate for a top rate player in this league. Then was Rodrigues the man for us, who knows?? Adkins certainly seemed to think so given how far down the line we went with him and I would agree that we need something else up front.

I think he's done a fair bit more positive than merely appoingting NA and I'm also not convinced that NA was the one on everyones lips (and Cortese merely followed the crowd!!).

I've mentioned elsewhere that Stelling had a pair of size 12's and that his intervention is as unnecessary & unwarranted as everyone elses in the history of this sorry saga (from Benali ***** on the sofa of Soccer AM, Cortese's cutting piece about Matty on the OS through to Matty and Lawrie in their Daily Mail pieces). Cortese's bit in The Sun was simply unnecessary and unwarranted given our current position and he has either been poorly advised or guilty of poor judgement himself.

But Wes he just didn't even have to mention them and give this whole sorry saga a new lease of life. With all the positives we have to focus on at the moment he shouldn't have given the interviewer the time of day on this area if he was being prompted about it, and he certainly shouldn't have volunteered it himself (if the interviewer didn't prompt him). Poor judgement, IMHO, and not necessary.

Thought it was outside the box

Would settle for a draw here, but if those injuries Cardiff picked up yesterday are still niggling their players then might upgrade to a win!!!! Think it will be a tough terst regardless and could see Adkins playing a more defensive minded line up (e.g. Guly out and Spiderman or Chaplow starting).

It's weird in exactly the same way as when the Ex Saints Charity got dragged in to the Matty v Cortese ego battle a few months back, all of a sudden posters on here were denegrating the Ex Saints. The Ex Saints were questioned about their charitable status, with people questioning whether they really were a charity, others started having a pop about admin costs, others attacked their fund raising record, others claimed they were unfairly trading off the back of the club's name (well isn't that the whole point) whilst others said they were in competition with the Club. For years (and again yesterday) they have done a sterling job working with past players, the Club and charities, but because they might be "involved" in this spat all of a suddent they're fair game to have a pop at. "Once Matty stopped playing that was that" and "he's no different to a check out girl at Tescos" - Unbelievable has never been more apt.

No idea (without cheating), don't watch new tricks so don't know what it's about

I'm presuming 2 is when he starred in that film (yesterdays man or yesterdays hero) where he played some washed up born agaion player (a George Best type) and the match was used as the backdrop with him playing in a saints kit (Twas Yesterdays Hero)

At the risk of repeating myself, before Stelling put his size 12's in, there was already 2 threads running about the story within hours of it first appearing on the Sun's website. One of the threads was already close to 200 posts a few hours after people had woken up, so I wouldn't describe that as "very little was being said". I don't agree with anyone washing their dirty linen in public like this, and that includes Stelling, Benali, Lawrie and Matty, but on this occasion Cortese has stoked up the siimmering feud with his unnecessary piece in The Sun. In recent weeks both Matty and Lawrie had been overwhelmingly positive about the Club in the press (particularly in The Echo) and I had thought that maybe we had gotten over their personal clash of egos with Cortese, but that was all opened up again the minute Cortese gave this ill advised interview.

Probably the same posters who go mental when a player leaves and shows a distinct lack of the loyalty they desperately crave and believe players must show us.

I can understand why he doesn't accept he came close to destroying the Club!!!!! He may not have succeeded in rescuing it with "his" Pinnacle bid, but that's a totally different thing from saying he was close to destroying it.

I thought he was only about half that, and at that half price thought he was a good buy for Brighton. I certainly would have been interested and would have him in front of Barnard, but in two minds about playing in front of Connoly who has started this season where he left off last season. Would he have been prepared to be third choice and battle for a start, would it have upset the balance, would he have fitted in with the squad, would he have got his chance with injuries suspensions, who knows??? Adkins was obviously looking for a striker, so would be interesting to know if he was ever considered.

But surely Lowe was last in charge, so he must have been complicit in this "complete shambles", the "time wasting staff" and "freeloading legends". I very much doubt Mark Fry introduced this profligate way of running the Club at a time when he was cutting things to the bone, so either it was there before he came in or it's been somewhat over exaggerated since then. So which one is it Manji?? Has it been somewhat overegged by some in recent arguments, or was it presided over by Lowe on his watch???

Much higher, but management may be a generational thing in that 20 years ago there were less black players in the game. I think it will take it's time to work through, but I would hate to think we would be having the same discussion in 10/20 years time!!

He did indeed have a few digs about Le Tissier's involvement and I've never really been sure what it was all about. I think NC intimated that it had cost them time regarding their involvement, but I couldn't really see the issue. As David says below your comment, MLT was certainly conned in to "fronting" the Pinnacle bid, but I'll afford him his naivety as I think he was only acting with the Club's best interests at heart (as in I saw him as willing to do anything to keep the Club going, as opposed to making a buck out of his involvement). Le Tissier's involvement may have put the Liebherr bid back a bit, but it wasn't terminal and should surely be seen in its context.

This spat already had two threads going on it a few hours following Cortese's interview in The Sun, one well in to its fourth page, before Stelling waded in with his size 12's. And this spat has had many threads, posts & debate in the past as each one of them (Cortese, MLT, Benali & Lawrie) has taken it in turns to have a little dig! Cortese, not Stelling, has given this sorry spat its legs this time I'm afraid.

And I may well be wrong, but I wouldn't say he was a rival in the sense of the term meaning he was in an opposing consortium vying to win, beat Marcus and being upset that he was outflanked (then again anyone could have outflanked Micky F!!!). He was merely doing anything in his power to try and save the Club from folding.

That's quite a damning indictment of Lowe's last season in charge.

You're more than welcome to that opinion, but I think subsequent events and comments would suggest that Cortese and Pardew had issues stemming from the back end of their first season which got worse over the close season and in to the start of the new one. Throw in Liebherrs untimely passing and it gets even more complicated. Those commenting on the situation were the symptons, certainly not the root cause of the underlying problems, so whilst some might not have liked the gossip and opinions, I think that's not the same as engineering the situation by their comments. I simply don't believe that either Cortese would sack Pardew because of third party's comments in the press, or Pardew would be unsettled by others tittle tattle. Both of them are too professional and hard nosed for that.

Interesting. Might not be enough in it given the sample size, but then again there might be something there to try and work on - travel arrangements, hotels, training facilities, psychological issues. In the current game where the magrin for error is so smal it might be worth trying to eek out those extra %s. What is the comparison with say, London games, or Southern away games (you'd imagine they would be stronger)?

You also forgot that the 1% are dark forces with an agenda.

I was thinking more of Rob Bransgrove, or a local businessman who still puts money in the Club, someone in the media who ahs links on both sides??