Alain Perrin

£600K is not a lot of money for a banker; trust me, I work in Zurich a lot. And, as people have mentioned, getting irate about a football chairman's salary when players are paid a multiple of that is akin to worrying about global warming when your house is on fire.

He ish my colleague, but also my life partner...

Although it might be romantic to see the club as being run for the people, it isn't. It is being run for a profit. Whilst there might have been some 'fun' in Markus' original investment, if the club bleeds without prospect of return I fully expect the Liebherrs to exit stage right. We can't want more, better (and QED better paid) players and expect all that for free. Outside of Hacker Murdoch's millions, the most significant source of funds is the fanbase. The days of the community club are long gone. There's no point *****ing about it.

Ah I see the classic "worst player to pull on a shirt" has made an appearance, how often that comes to bite the arse that speaks it?! Kenwyne Jones is the highest profile recipient I remember but there are others too. Look, Ryan Smith might be crap (I've mentally blocked that period when the whole team was ropey), but my point stands, given a different time, place or circumstance, players can be better than they appear. But if you don't think that the majority of Saintsweb forum members are reactionary jihadists, then I guess you're part of the problem.

Ryan Smith - one of many players that the great minds of Saintsweb have written off, yet given a different time, place, age, manager, formation, position, morale, fitness, application etc. can turn out to be half decent. Yes, Pulis may be crap, but this doesn't prove the rule. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. But I suppose it's far easier to be smart ass keyboard warrior than play professional football.

Chants should be simple. No complex, multiplicative inflected stanzas or complicated words. For example: To the tune of "He's got the whole world in his hands"... "You've got a co-ork up yer arse, You've got a co-o-ork up yer arse, You've got a co-ork up yer arse. You've got Jack Cork up yer arse." Ideally sung at at opposition attacker as JC steams into the back of him.

4 weeks one day and 91 minutes until we have the : - the first "Atkins" out post of 2011. - the first post decrying XXXX XXXXX as the "worse player ever to pull on a Southampton shirt" - the first post linking low attendance with the "season ticket pricing fiasco" (forgetting the fact the world and his wife are on holiday) Probably on 7 weeks until some knobber declares they "our season is over" or "I can't see us finishing anywhere other than champions / playoffs / mid table / relegation".... because they never learn.

Meh. Underwhelmed tbh. He's no Messi.

24 pages says the magical mystery tour is working.

Try this and it'll explain why you're wrong: http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=how+do+you+calculate+an+average

Most don't have several million pound players on hefty wages playing for them. You pays your money you makes your choice.

I wish Chamberlain would move. At least then some of the griping would stop. Best bet is to ring up on 14th July and buy your ticket. If the seat you want is free, great - you get a ticket. If not you can move you and your mates to some available seats (@10pound per seat I think). If they let people reserve, all chaos would break out. People would reserve and not follow through etc. It would be an admin nightmare. Thankfully you'll be fine. There will be so many gaps due to the 'not yet legally an OAP' revolt (you know the one where they were getting a bargain which has now been taken away), you'll not have a problem.

We won't conclude any player deals until July 1st. New financial year, big slug of income from Alex Ox - any trading before this date cannot be offset against that. It's a tax play. So sit on your hands for a couple of weeks.

It's not us lankies fault you're a short ass, get over it. Should we not let the blacks play with the whites next because they've got denser muscle tissue? The fact that people spend their time being paid to debat such matters disturbs me to be honest.

You're living on cloud cuckoo-land if you think that. The only stat that they'll take notice of is the number of bums on seats (and it matters not whether these are season tickets or pay on the days). Financially it is better for the club if people buy single tickets, although having a based of season tickets is a risk free form of income and provides operating expenses over fallow months (the summer) or for dips in form. At the end of the day the club have wages to pay, heating bills to pay etc. - it cannot be magic'd out of thin air and one of the areas it comes from is the fans. Get over it.

"The deal won't be announced until after July 1 for some reason." I think this snippet gives it more credance than any other. Saint's financial year starts on July 1st. Shifting the income into the next financial year (along you'll note with shirt sales and season ticket receipts) probably makes sense on a a tax avoidance basis (once a banker, always a banker) AND to build up future revenues if the Football League put in place some financial fairplay criteria. So for that reason I think he's off.

From another thread.... Hmmmm

That is correct but as more and more baby boomers retire, so Southampton's fan base becomes skewed to retirees (and gate receipts are affected). As a result it seems sensible to move to reflect the state retirement age, not some number from the last century - especially as some of those getting a discount are on very healthy incomes (either because they are still working, or because they've accrued pension funds in periods of high growth that enable them to retire earlier). Genuinely, many (granted, not all) of this era of pensioners will enjoy a quality of life better than any before or likely after. Feel sorry for those in their 40's now.... as the number of those in employment drops in proportion, times will become tough. Anyway I've got to go to bed - I've a busy day tomorrow, earning money/paying taxes to keep you oldies doctored, fed and watered etc.

I really think mountains are being made here. Whilst there are increases, we will see more games of a higher standard. QED it's going to cost more. Some have been more disadvantaged than others because of age band changes, partly because of where things are going legally, partly because the club have probably redone their sums based on demographics. With the wages we're paying and the ambition of the club it is not being run at a profit, they're looking to get as much of a contribution towards the overspend as possible. If people stay away in their droves (which by the way they won't, everyone loves a winner), then next year the prices will be adjusted. No amount of posts will make this happen any sooner. It won't happen though. I can confidently predict that average crowds for the league this season will be >10% up on last season. So don't buy a season ticket if you feel so strongly, but please avoid moaning when you can't get a ticket to a glamour fixture. I will be sitting there in my full priced seat in the centre stand, wiping the remains of steak pie from my mouth with a £20 note. But when I do I will think of those suffering because they didn't get as much discount as they used to. It's a damn shame I tells you.

Dodgy argument. It's not as if your taxes only contributed to your pension, or if you'd been run over by a state subsidised train, you'd turn down been picked up by an ambulance, and driven to the hospital on state maintained roads - all also funded by your taxes. Even your private pension (assuming it was accrued in the UK) would have been subject to tax relief at source, so everyone contributed to that too. This generation of new pensioners have milked the economy, the environment and left the future taxpayers with a burden. You've got it good and it is unlikely that future generations will be as cash rich as oldies today. Come to think about it you should be subsidising me!

There are lots of reasons. Logistical as you suggest, but the biggest has got to be financial. Every season ticket they don't sell is a seat that they can sell for a third more as a matchday ticket (and as the booking fee covers the cost of that sale, logistics don't play a part). That's a third more in ticket receipts that can be spent on players, wages, nibbles for the boardroom etc. What I don't get is how people can be 'shocked and stunned' by (a) having to buy a season ticket in July / August ("Honestly I thought they were going to give them away free this year so I didn't bother saving") or (b) that they've increased ("we've gone up a division, we've got higher salaried players than most and general cost of living expenses have risen"). If you needed to (income, circumstances etc.) and didn't budget for a Season Ticket, then I'd save your money, you're clearly too stupid to tell the time so would probably miss most games. As it stands there's an installment plan of sorts which helps take the sting out of it, so you're at least 45% better off on the required commitment than you were last year.

Rubbish. It was administration that led to the -10 points and the blame for that can be pinned to a number of people. - relegation from the Premiership (Dalek, help me out here, what was the reason?) - the failed promotion push when "Saints went Wilde" - crazy contracts (with no reduction clauses in them) - declining attendances (Lowe, and results related) The dutch duo / play youth was Lowe's attempt to stave off administration, not create it. Unless someone is arguing we could recruit senior players and Pearson for less than the Dutch Duo plus the youth team then I really think you don't understand the finanical hole we were in. PS. I'm not sure who made the point that Pearson gave good interviews but, recruiting someone on the basis of their post match interview style is about the same as selecting a plumber because he 'has nice hair'.

Deliberately, because you're always good for a debate and you have strong opinions on this. I agree he has an ego and a firm belief in the Ajax model of home grown over bought in players. That strategy could have worked in a Premiership scenario where you could ease in the blend. However cash was the driver for the acceleration - we were going broke and had no choice but to rely on youth and Wotton. As was proved by the fact we went into admin before the end of the season, even the uber-low cost / cheapo option wasn't cheap enough - so any change to the mix of players to bring in experienced heads would have been more expensive, driven us into admin earlier (and hence not in Lowe's interest). I think he made a judgement that Pearson was a worse option than Poortvliet when it came to managing youth. Personally, as someone who travelled many miles to see some of the capitulations under Pearson, I think his god like capabilities were over egged by people motivated by knocking Lowe. I still remain to be convinced by him. I doubted at first but there was a point where I genuinely believed that Jan P might be able to do it (around the time we played Birmingham off the park I think), but after a few knocks the confidence went and we were doomed thereafter (whether someone with more experience of the English game could have mitigated this I don't know).

One of the disadvantages of a three post strategy is that perhaps silence is misinterpreted as agreement.... As it is the various useful contributions from Um Pahars et al still leave me feeling glad they don't manage my money. FWIW, Wes Tender, I agree with you - I'd much rather be in our position now than with Lowe. But I did agree (or perhaps understand is better) what motivated him. He had an investment in Saints and therefore had zero interest in the club going into admin (and by the way it's fine for people to say "he should have gone into admin before the points deduction deadline"; a wonderfully altruistic view until it's your money...!). I don't know Lowe (although I did stand next to him and a pre-Saints Woodward at a buffet once - does that count as insight?), but I do understand that to avoid admininstration you have to have more money coming in than going out. The position Saints got themselves post Wilde playoff push meant that drastic action was required, couple that with Lowe's belief in youth over experience and he was always going to go with Jan P and youth vs. Pearson and 'experienced heads'. Why? Because they were obviously cheaper. Schoolyard economics like Lighthouses, where you should "buy players like Lambert and Fonte" - I know they are just examples but both of whom cost us fees in excess of £1m, plus the wages of players who are mature and wanted by 'bigger' clubs. They're bound to cost more (in the short term) vs. an unknown Dutch manager and an unknown French teenager (Schneiderlin played for relative pocket money compared to some of our sick notes / older players). I recognise that being relegated costs more, but by then RL and his cronies investment would be worthless anyway so it's kind of irrelevant to their decision making. So Lowe pursued a suicide strategy, but - in my opinion - it was the only game in town from his perspective. Any other play would have resulted in certain administration and wiped out his investment. Our current position, where we can afford to blend youth and experience is obviously preferable to youth and Wotton - but our finances were so tight I don't believe there was any other option.

Disagree. We needed a central midfielder in the Oakley mould, and Morgan was thought to be it. It also was in line with the give youth a chance strategy which was partly forced on Lowe due to lack of funds, but also lined up with his philosophy. No way did we pay anything like 1.2m, just like we didn't get the 'could rise to' fees for Bale / Walcot etc. I guess the admin papers might tell if we owed Strasbourg (?) anything. It suited the club (Lowe) for the fee to be thought of as big because it pacifies the mob. I'm not saying we didn't have a pot to **** in, just that hiring Pearson and pursuing a mature/mixed player approach would have been more expensive than the Dutch experiment.