Spudders

I still don't really understand why, if god was able to make baby Jesus be born without any need for the baby to be conceived the normal way, why he made Mary go through the whole pain and trauma of child birth? I mean, he could have just made baby Jesus appear from nowhere (like a rabbit in a hat) which would have also been more convincing as well (rather than he is the son of god Joseph, honestly, I've not messed around). God must have really hated that f**king Mary to put her through all that!

It's ok Phil, I just text Mike a picture of my wine glasses.... a bit late I know, but as they say, better late than never! To be honest the picture will be about as useful to Mike as the actual glasses will be to me!

I really struggle to understand what this pathetic waste of space offers that makes tv companies give her the time of day, or makes people want to watch her? She offers nothing what-so-ever, I just want to throw things at the tv when I see adverts with her on!

Maybe they are trying to incentivise a diet for you!

So who got gifts that gave you muchos disappointment when opened? Some friends of mine got me wine glasses as I’ve just moved into my own place. I’m pretty confidant in saying that in the 10 or so years I’ve known them, they will have never seen me drink wine. Thus I can only conclude that (A) they were given to me so that the wife has something to drink out of if I invite them over of an evening, or (B) they received them as a gift but already had loads, so just rewrapped them and passed them on to me.

I'll vote for you on the "poster you'd most like to bum" day Deppo, pm me on that day, just in case it's one that I'm busy, don't wanna let you down, you deserve that one

Spot on sir!

Yeah true, that's a good point. I guess we could also get into the whole discussion of the differences between someone being sacked / dismissed for improper conduct, compared with being let go / paid-off as they are not part of the plan. Ultimately whilst we don’t know all the facts, we can make some common sense assumptions (which some people on here often seem to forget) 1) Nicola would NOT put his plans into jeopardy by making a move that was detrimental to his plans unless he was forced into doing so 2) Nicola is astute enough to know that had he wanted to get rid of pards, the summer would have been the most obvious time to do so giving him time to find a replacement. He did not, therefore we can also assume number 3…….. 3) Nicola had planned on Pards being here for the season 4) Therefore the reason for the changes were forced not planned

ok maybe my bit about employment law was not quite right, but what I was trying to say is that someone in football isn't just going to be sacked for a silly reason. There are processes in place (employment law, football league regulations or whatever) to ensure that if a manager is sacked for a totally stupid reason, they can go to some sort of body and complain they were unfairly treated. My main point is that the reason for the sacking will have HAD to be worthy of a sacking and the fact that it was done discreetly would indicate to me that Pards got what he deserved and scampered off quietly with his tail between his legs. I wish we still had him here, but I have no sympathy for him at all.

Pretty much the same as when you are on the board then I guess.

Chaps just to clarify (as per my very original post) the players being pushed too hard in pre-season was mentioned as being the reason that the start of our season wasn't so good, it certainly wasn’t the reason for any sackings. Training a team too hard (whilst not ideal and maybe worthy of a telling off) isn't going to get a manager the sack. Think about it, being involved in football management (or any aspect of a football club in this country) means you'd be covered by employment law. As in pretty much any job, if you do things slightly wrong, you get guidance, additional training, performance improvement plans, etc. People don't get the sack unless they do something out of line that would mean it was acceptable for an employer to dismiss them. You have to ensure you are totally within the rules and done things by the book before sacking someone, especially when it comes to high profiles roles such as this, you couldn’t just do it on a whim because you dislike someone, or don’t agree with the way they work, etc. I bet there are loads of you on here who manage people, who you would absolutely love to get rid of, but you can’t can you!! Why is that....employment law. Of course other events could influence an employer’s opinion, but other than maybe making things a bit difficult, the employer still can’t really do anything until the employee steps out of line. In my experience, if you give someone enough rope, you only have to bide your time and wait until they hang themselves.

Porn salesman?

My guess is that the email was the one sent out from Saintslist. One of the Saintslist admins contacted myself (and I assume ladysaint) to ask if we’d mind them passing on our accounts from the meeting with Nicola. Our comments were therefore taken, combined and distributed to all its members. Not sure if the original posters colleague has intentionally made out they were his own comments, or facts have just been lost in translation as they’ve been passed on, but there are some additional bits on the original post that I’ve not seen written down before. Everyone slated Nicola on here saying that it was Markus’s project and that they thought Nicola wouldn’t be so interested after Marks’s death. As far as I can see, all he has done is come out and prove that he wants to be here for himself. The fact he’s mentioned that he even has other people he knows of who would invest, just reassures me that he will be here for a long time. If there is one thing Nicola has not got, it’s an overinflated ego, he doesn’t want to be in the limelight at all. In fact at the meal I even asked him if he’d communicate with the fans a bit more often.

Totally agree, as I say Adkins would not have been my choice. Let's hope we do get promotion and this doesn't have to become an issue!

That's the problem though isn't it, as a manager of people you can't just have someone waiting as a replacement for every member of your staff just in case something happens and you need to sack them. This is exactly what I said when Pards was sacked and everyone on here was saying that Nicola had been waiting to get rid of him, if that really were the case, there would have been someone ready, this is exactly why I believe pards job was safe for this season. His sacking was due to his own actions which left his employer with no other choice than to have to sack him.

My impression/understanding was that he meant it was of the current CCC managers Maybe we did? Who knows how many of those that applied were interviewed? Certainly if I were allowed to just take my pick from the managers in that league I wouldn't have picked Adkins. However if I had interviewed several of them and found some of them to come across badly, whereas I liked Adkins and he gave all the right answers than who knows? Certainly I know that I have interviewed people for jobs before (knowing a bit about them already) and have been surprised by the way some people act and the things they say in an interview situation. I'm a bit indifferent about Adkins to be honest, but I have faith in Nicola so for the time being I'm ok to accept that he got the right person for what he wants. Sometimes the best person 'on paper' isn't the person you'd want to work with.

Interesting stuff. I've seen wallets advertised on firebox.com that protect from these scanners.

Can't remember the number (it's a point I forgot from my details) but it was a surprisingly high number. As Colinjb says, I'm sure many of them were people just wanting to have a nose about. It's not really a point that Nicola would gain anything from making up so I have no reason to doubt that it's true.

The first half of those quotes are direct copies taken from my post on the subject.

brilliant

Sorry, bit of a slow response on this as I was busy yesterday. You are quoting me there SOG rather than Nicola. I’m not a reporter, I just went there with an open mind, not a pen & paper, so I’m not typing direct quotes word for word. But besides I’m pretty sure common sense dictates that neither Nicola or myself are going to state ‘we WILL get promoted’, there’s still plenty to play for, so who knows what will happen between now and May? Obviously the aim is to get promoted, why would Nicola talk of pushing for the top two in the championship next season, if the intention isn’t to go up this season!!! Use your head SOG, it’s an easy one to work out if you think about it. We could not push for the top two in the championship without promotion. 1 + 1 = 2. I like that you’ve used the word ’perhaps’ in your post, as it acknowledges that you don’t know yourself do you. Note in my comment on this point in the OP I specifically said “My guess” and I also used the words “We may not see TOO MUCH happen in January” I didn’t say nothing will happen. Then again, perhaps we won’t get players in during the January window, perhaps we will? Perhaps we won’t get promoted with our current squad, perhaps we will? There are no givens are there, seriously SOG you know this all really though don’t you, so I’m not sure why I’m point out the obvious to you? As I mentioned, what Nicola said (and again I’m not quoting word for word) was that they WANT to strengthen the squad in certain areas, but it’s more difficult to get the players they are targeting in the January window as those players are going to be key to the teams they are currently playing. To me this clearly indicates that they are looking at players who stand out within their current teams, that would be unlikely to be allowed to move in January. ‘Perhaps’ they will be allowed to move though, we don’t know? We’ve seen enough ‘ordinary’ players come and go over the years for me to be happy with the fact that our club would rather wait for the ‘right people’ than waste money on players that we then all moan are useless. ???Ummm, why would you think you are P***ing on my chips? There were a couple of other people from this forum there as well, I’ve not seen anything from them that contradicts what I’ve said, so far. There was nothing that seemed odd to me. Of course I am aware of a charm offensive, what else would you expect from Nicola other than to come out and be charming. However I have worked with and managed all sorts of people and I know I am a pretty good judge of character when I meet people in the real world. I have a good idea in my mind of what Nicola is ‘really’ like and if I am right I know exactly why some people don’t like the way he operates. But (and here is the key) despite being a pretty cynical and often grumpy person myself, after meeting Nicola, watching him talk in person, in front of me for several hours, after listening to what he had to say and watching him and the way he acted, I am totally convinced we are in the right hands and we will get to the where Nicola wants us to be. There will be up’s & more importantly there will of course be downs, but we will get there. Do you honestly believe that Nicola would have just come out and told us the reason? Had he done so, he would have lost a great deal of respect within seconds. I still find it amazing that some people think that just because we are football fans, we have some god given right to be told every little snippet of information. If we were told such factual details, people would then be calling him unprofessional. Whilst he obviously did not tell us what went on (and quite rightly none of us there pushed him on the matter), I think most at the meal now have a pretty good idea of a big contributing factor. We were with Nicola for several hours and whilst he was very professional and obviously would not answer some specific questions, there were conversations that offered an interesting insight into a few areas that I have absolutely no intention of sharing on here. I totally understand your skepticism SOG, as I’ve already alluded too, I’m generally of the same nature. I don’t expect each and every fan to suddenly become a fan of Nicola just because a few of us have posted on here that we though he came across well at a meal. Perhaps some different forum members have been selected for next month’s dinner with him? As he’s doing this each month now it will be very interesting to see future feedback as and when Saintsweb members get selected. If you are a season ticket holder maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get the chance to ask Nicola your own questions and make a more informed decision. Perhaps afterwards you'll still retain your curent view, perhaps your view may change (mine certainly has). But please don’t be sorry for P***ing on my chips SOG, you haven’t, far from it. I’ve found this season a little disappointing so far if I’m honest, I’ve been uncertain as to what would happen following Markus’s death. But today I go to St Mary’s with confidence, I am very relaxed about our future and am extremely excited about it.

Yep that was indeed me, good to now be able to put another face to a user name Have you been secretly spying on me!

Was him & his PA taking some notes

At least as these sessions are now going to be held on a monthy basis, we'll hopefully hear more details from other attendees at some point in the future, when the club are in a better position and as everything naturally progresses. It'd be great to know all the details now, but realistically until we actually do move up the leagues nothing is going to happen and even if there were already details drawn up, they'd most likely change by the time we do get there. You only have to look at the new plans for the training ground and facilities to see how they have changed since the original plans were submitted.

Answers added Hopefully with these additional facts now added to the thread, we now have a more complete picture of the future of SFC. :lol: