Football Special

He'll be assessed when back at the club, not necessarily out but has withdrawn from the Israel squad so 50/50 at the moment Ramsdale has been training throughout international break so we do have him and clearly should use him if we need to

I think we all need to prepare ourselves for a 0-1 home defeat to Wanderers in a couple of weeks with Baz masterclass keeping a clean sheet

Last year Southampton Central Station was closed all weekend for engineering works. Seems to be open this time

Much worse than Pompey who stole from charities? Isn't Man City the opposite of stealing? They wanted to spend more of their cash that they would never see back Modern football is fucked anyway unfortunately, hard to get that worked up about this

Isn't it why FFP was introduced to prevent over spending ? Or was it to deter new owners from spending to compete with established elite who already had high turnover thanks to global fanbase, corporate sponsors and Champions league money?

I get why clubs shouldn't be able to run up massive debts and end up like Leeds United a few years ago, but if an owner just wants to invest their own cash on their own team why shouldn't they be allowed?

But if it wasn't for FFP and we just went back to how it used to be they'd have just been allowed to spend their own money , still dont know why they couldn't invest millions in Etihad airways and use their marketing budget to sponsor Man City

I agree, surely what Pompey did was loads worse, spending other people's money they had no intention of repaying (stealing) Man City have broken ACCOUNTING rules to enable them to spend more of their OWNERS money , the whole FFP is a charade anyway

I fully acknowledge that I lack the intelligence to understand most of this, but if the crime is money was paid by the owners instead of the sponsors , then why didnt the owners funnel the cash through the sponsor anyway, they owned Etihad as well as Man City didnt they, all their money regardless , just pay the money from a Etihad account ?

As Ireland play Israel again end of this week I assume this will rumble on, whats the latest? Has Gav updated his Facebook profile picture to a Palestinian flag?

Yeah go back to the early 90s, Jack Walker sold his steel business and was able to bankroll Blackburn buying players for British record fees / wages that the club as a business could never afford based on turnover but he supplied the cash rather than debt, won the league and lived the dream. Other clubs (like us who had similar turnover) couldn't compete as we didn't have a benefactor.

I remember Real Madrid in the late 90s doing dodgy deals with local government selling their training ground for inflated price to clear debts , its a mafia business

Yep, they'll be happy. Champions league away days costing a fortune now , they've seen it all , now back to the late 90s away days at Stoke and Stockport

Who knows, I'll believe it when I see it. Top level football is so corrupt nothing surprises me anymore. How come HMRC arent involved if player salaries were understated if that resulted in less tax paid? Ultimately these rules are designed to protect the established teams like the Man Utds and Liverpool who had the resources, when you look at Man City its crazy really their owners wanted to spend spend spend (their own money) but couldn't as ratio to turnover prevented them (so had to inflate commercial deals) , bet there are other owners that have used commercial deals to funnel money into clubs, wouldn't surprise me if Gao was trying that with the mythical LD Sports shirt sponsorship 🤣

They'll do a Chelsea, argue financial punishment for financial irregularities and not a sporting sanction

Yes and they're not planning to stay in the Championship long enough to reconfigure

And not only that, in the championship you only need to give 2000 or less if 10% of capacity so they actually give us more than they have to (like we do as well)

Surely we just prepare for south coast derby as we would , missing players for international duty more of a hindrance

Top PR agency pulling some strings , like Henry Winter saying need to be careful punishment of City doesn't damage their women's team, makes you laugh but you know they are getting paid to say it

Saints u21s v Juventus u21s, Tuesday 20th October 7pm at St Mary's Good chance to see the u21s at St Mary's against top quality opposition, I went last year when we played Real Madrid, was an excellent game with 10k crowd , a young Tonda Ekhert was coaching them at the time. Unfortunately doesn't quite coordinate with half term this year but still taking the kids , worth giving it a look Ticket Details: https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/southampton-u21-vs-juventus-u21-2627

Yeah could be worse but still a pain in the arse for those of us on West Side of the city

I think so. One of the ITKs like @MB will probably hear whispers and give us a heads up when something is happening

Anyone else going to this? Surely it will be Will Salt, at the training ground, with an iPhone Clue - coffee purchased on his debit card near crime scene

Just checked. They have a massive 31 man squad for these games so makes sense not all would be included. Today's game had starting 11 and 15 on the bench so 5 players missed out