Frank's cousin

You are aware this a football we are talking about? Not some international geopolitical event in which scenarios are war-gamed? Transfers are complex... yet pardoxically simple - players want to come, agree terms with player, agree fees with parent club and assign registrations If they fail, its because one of these simple things does not work out - eg Player/agent playing silly buggers and holding out for better offer or using club A to bring out offer from club B - simple.... but hardly a big drama or damning of our approach.... .... its is football! Full of self important people thinking ist far more important than a game (of two halves)

In deed - and no one was complaining until they heard he was going to Man U - we should not forget its also about how these players fit in with our philosophy - Think Ramierez just ley his enthusiasm get teh better of him believeing teh fees had been agreed, whereas the Buttner deal started going wrong with agents, dads etc with both clubs having agreed fees etc... different scenarios, different attitudes. Actually think its wa srefeshingly honest of Ramirez to say he wa scoming because of how much we were paying!

A trifle...surely 'missing' millions is something they complain about down the road ;-) wonder it the 10mil Euro wages over 4 years is accurate - as thats about 2mil a year so about £40,000 a week - which is not excessive for a top player?

.... is it just me or has this thread slo...w...ed... right don now we are watching football again? Top flight football that is....

Is that Tim Rice in front of that pair ... ' Ric Lambo ...superstar'

Feck its 'Where's Wally'

Nah hes just a scrote - but hes our scrote. Seriously noone worships him, but cant help feel that in the grand scheme of things spome seem TOOO obsessed and place too much emphasis on parking and ticket 'tax' (commonly known throughout the adult world as booking fee) - as painful as it may be to part with the price of an additional pint - surely back to back promotions is a little bit more important?

Good on you Alps - can appreciate that the perspective is different between L1 and NPC and the Pre...with teh latter being teh place we should be (in many an eye) so the expectation in L1 and NPC was such that we SHOULD have been highly competitive all the time... even if that is a tad unrealistic. Dont think Kracken was being too negative - if we put that performance up against expectation for yesterday it was great enjoyable and obviously something excellent to build on. If we put it up against what is needed to bridge that quality gap its a fair distance and I guess if we have such aspirations its good to know where we are. On most occasions we will concede more than 3 if we give that number of opportunities away.. Aso going to enjoy it for what it is this year, but if NC is serious about long term growth, will need to ensure the mind set is about points as well a great attitude and passion.

Nah... for all we know you are in league with the Italian Swiss devil himself and this platform is the the way out outing the miserable naysayers !

I am just interested what the 'axe' is that some still seem to have that needs so much grinding? Yes the ownership and management structure play their cards close to tehir chests which certainly can irritate when you have fans hungrey for information, but is sort of expected given its the swiss way of doing business and as we have seen, how MIS-information and speculation can feck up things - Personnnaly I would hope we ARE difficult to deal with in transfers - negotiation is all about BOTH parties comming to an acceptable agreement and sticking to what we believe a player is worth or having terms that we can live rather rather then bending over and taking a shafting... Also players in effect have the power - if they want to come they will, and agents/chairman haggle over fees .... Yes NC has perhaps not communicated the rational around certian decsions that impact directly on fans and some have been unpopular such the parking fees, ticket tax etc... but really come on I simply can not see any cumulative or single issues that would justify the agendas some still have against NC - no one of these agenda driven types ever details their REAL issue, but prefer to mask in negative gossip, innuendo and blatent bo llox. Seriously I would love to know why but they are all too wet to come out with it - be it their desire to run the club as some cooperative, fan on the board bo llox or some xenophobic shiedt - seriously cant think of anything else... not when we have had two promotions back to back, seen the improvements and aspirations.... ..even if there wa struth in NC having made errors in transfers - so fricken what? He is still learning to, and now back in the prem the pressure and spotlight is more intense - as pointe dout above, anyone who believes the transfer situation is easy has been playing too much FM - and is completely fricken clueless about teh reality of it all. What this arse hole seems to have forgotten is that you can dislike the decisions on the small things, and even dislike the man (based on a blinkered prejudice given that its pretty difficult to judge someone until you meet and get to know them), but have respect for what has been achieved. The club and NC will make mistakes - fact of fricken life, but you can bet they learn from it and wont let it stifle our aspiration.

True - we will always create chances - but yesterday we had 2 and scored 2... we even saw last yaer we can have 17 and score none - way it goes so we need to tighten things up at the back NO downer on the side - they did all that could have been asked of them. Proud yes, pleased with the foundation, yes, but we must not fall into the 'pleased with a defeat' trap - zero points is zero points, whether against bottom half or top half teams.

Sky cameras in the tunnel showed him laughing and joking with Joe Hart et al whilst waiting for Saints - this cosying up with players is often part of the problem... Actually think Webb is one of the better ones, but when you blur the barriers always going to be a challenge to be totally balanced... does not help either that refs reports include manager evaluation - where the likes of the Fergie, Mancini etc reporting negatively on ref performance is likely to have a greater impact than a nige - 'what with tehir experience and status in the game'...

Lost all respect for Appy when he first bleated on about this - and they have such brass balls now, they even ADMIT what they are doing - Jeez, how feckin stupid are the FL? Or more to teh point what hold do the cheats have over them.... Why do none of the Fans down there not feel any shame in this is beyond me. EVERY OTHER CLUB who has been in the admin situation plays kids - look at Coventry lasy season - they were relegated because of it as we had been - but did teh right thing depsite tehir fall from grace, tehir fans can be proud their club played teh kids, did not bleat about being competitive etc and just got on with it. Given that the respsective chairman make up the club - its perhaps even more surprizing none of the others complain - I can only think they say nothing for feal of being in that situation themselves one day and will want the 'flexibility' shown towards the Cheats shown to them.... no feckin integrity, no fricken self respect.

Agree with Kracken to some extent - ultimately its about points as well and I was pleased that NIGE was obviously disspointed - if we are TOO 'happy' with defeat to anyone even the best clubs then we will remain small time/relegation zone candidates. We were outclased in many areas, but passion, graft and our own qualities allowed us to make a game of it.... as a foundation for the season, a good game... it shows how far we have come in teh last 3 yaers, but also how far we have got to go if NC is serious about being a top 6 side in the next 3-5 years. If we rate it on different categories: Confidence - good boost and players will know they can gve anyone a game Passion/committment - 10/10 one reason why we have so much prasie for the lads Quality of play - for our goals and the 10 minutes or so when we were 'equals' has to be 8/10, but given we gave away so much pocession and chance to teh oposition, its clear we still have work to do defensively - 4/10 Enjoyment 8/10 - exciting, relieved and surprized in some respects, but must hope that players did not see this as a 'cup final' and raised their game - need this week in week out if we are to stay up. Also felt many enjoyed the fact that we did not get trounced as many expected which tends to cloud our view, BUT also the fact that its clear that with one or two additions we will have the basis of a side that should compete well and take the next step. Step in teh right direction.

Tomorrows chip paper and all that - pathetic little excuse of a journalist is one that needs to write 'provocative' rubbish because they do not have the intellectual capacity or prose writing talent to attract readers (employers) by writing something interesting...

Trust in 'fail to understand negotiation and selling' shocker - What Fratton is worth commercisally is totally irrelevent - the only relevent thing is what Chinney is willing to sell it for which could be 3 times what its worth - he is better off keeping it and renting it to them for 1 mil a year for 20 years and he gets his money back....

Morning after - not going to take anything away from what was great performance given that it was what 200mil v 14 mil of talent blah blah... and it was the first game at this level for nearly all of our lads...but... what made me most positive was not the performance, but Nigel's attitude towards it - dissapointed we did not get points - that IS afterall what it is all about if we want to compete at this level - accepting we have 'no chance' or being satisfied with a 'plucky' yet ultimately null point is not the mark of a club determined to progress and progress as rapidly as possible. It may sound harsh, and I am as proud of the lads as anyone, and if we are happy being small time/perenial relegation candidates, 'knowing our place' then this is all fine. But we are not..are we? Dont think NC is and certainly any club looking to spend a good part of 20mil euros on one player should not be happy with that. I know its early days, against the champions etc, but when we stood up to them toe to toe at 2-2, we finally had the confidence to play and show what we are capable of - the reality is on any other day, given the pocession and chances City had, they could have been 3 or 4 up by then. Yes many say this year is about survival - Sorry I dont buy that - this year is about progressing as FAR as we can so that we can attract and hold on to the talent we need for a next step - incremental progression. Starting the season being satisfied with survival sends the wrong message - its defeatist and wont help in getting teh quality signings we are after. Great attitude and spirit shown yesterday - but we should be diusspointed we got nothing from that or any away game. Nige is.

This

... shame young Luke shaw still a bit young... but what a gutsy effort all round... at 2-2 it looked very even. Excellent display against the champions and they should feel good about that as really something to build on... thanks saints for showing us what you can do. would it be very wrong to want man sex with Rickie?

Got to get used to officials perhaps giving the benefit of doubt to top 6 teams - dont want nasty right ups in refs report afterall.... - gulf in class is obvious, but showing some spirit and first 15 we held our own - need to make sure we concentrate - and once again Davis beaten at near post - Clyne doing well, and ward-prowse looks the part. would like to see a little bit more ambition when we have teh ball, but never going to be easy... Come on Saints

Think it was to with him having a relagation clause of salary reduction but also a clause or gentlemans agreement with Lowe that he would paid comparably to the top earners - contradiction. As we had several who did not have the relagation clause, meant he wanted to stay on his Prem salary - which was eventually agreed to and fair enough given his monumental contribution to the club to that point.

Dont think we have anything to lose and would like to see a young attacking formation and go for it - sure we might have the confidence issue when they get tonked, but thats about the psychology of it - get them to understand that they are aspiring to be that good and the work and experience that will be necessary - dont want a 10-0-0 formation bus parking nonsense - afterall, would be a bit hypocritical if Adkins went down that route?

Uhm... think the main issue is, that instead of maxing out the cash available for creditors by playing with a younger smaller squad, you have committed to what will amount to £100,000 -£150,000 so as to be more 'competitive' - which most of your fans and Appy seem to believe is a right, when the truth and moral 'right' is that you dont - the club seems unable to recognise that being uncompetitive is the result of the excess spending of the past - please explain why your fans believe you have this right? In addition, some of these players are of sufficient quality to be welcomed in many an L1 team - yet have not been signed up because their demands wage wise are probably too much, which naturaly makes others suspicious just how much you have had to pay them (or defer?) to get them even for a month... which if you look at the bigger picture, suggest once again you are trying to get a competitive advantage that you simply can not justify financially or morally... Seriously, if you think this is just about Saints v Pompey, you are seriously deluded. This is about all that is wrong in the game and the plain fact that the FL and teh FA seem to be treating you far more leniently than many other clubs that have been through lesser financial problems. Its been said on here by many, that most Saints would like to see you start again, no baggage, no history, but with loads of self respect and a new found pride based on integrity - most of us would be supprtive of this and look forward to the Derbies again in the future - but most of your lot seem hell bent on holding on to the past simply to lord it up over wartime titles and an FA cup win funded by 150 mil of other peoples money... irrespective if that is tainted by the last 7 years of financial stupity, mismanagement and cheating. You rightly point out that it looks like we are spending big - and its true we do not know the full exptent of the source of this funding - like most swiss businessmen they keep these things private - but you can bet we are thinking about it and hope that the funding is an equity conversion - we cant be sure, but NC indicated on Markus' death that 'provision' had been made by markus for this progress and if the family decided not to fulfil it, he had other investors lined up. So far it looks like the family are supportive of ML's original plans and have to date invested 30mil in the project with probably another 30-40 mil last and this year - But given the issues with finance, you can bet most of us look at teh published accounts in detail and comment on these - as we did last year. I do not believe ML ever intended to make a profit from the club and this level of investment would certainly suggest a break even point - given that the cubis now potentially worth between 60-70 mil - the main reason being we have a stadium fit for purpose - something that would be upwards of 80 mil now to build... You lot need to get over yourselves and recognise this is about so much more than petty and juvenile rivalry - its about integrity. We lost ours for a few stupid months when some well intentioned, but naive shareholders sanction spending 7mil of cash we HAD, in a promotion push - it failed and we paid the heavy price - we too our punishment and new owners paid the debt and even agreed to pay more on success and have doen so - in effect the only 2 creditors will have received some 75p in teh pound on average - somewhat different to 0.4p and over 120mil + 58 mil of debt.... all we get form down the M27 is a bunch of cretins whinging about being victims and how unfair it all is.... the only victims in all this are the creditors and charities.

I did this this morning - so was told that I would need to make sure I finished the domestic chores first... arse....

Will be interesting to see whether he gets the same sort of 11 match OTT ban that Prutton got... somehow think his profile will mean he gets a 3 match TL ban...