dubai_phil

Agree with this. Won't affect the uberfans of course (Mind you I bet there was a time when the uberfans were JCL's, don't recall seeing some of our yoof under West Stand Terraces waving their standing ST's around) Bloody hard (take my example) to take the mental time and effort to arrange some Business Trips in UK to co-incide with Doncaster Rovers on a Tuesday night. But a Top 6 team at home on a Sunday Lunchtime? Hell not only would I be blagging meetings but FMDP would be taking a sickie and airmiles to come with me. Suddenly (as it used to be 7 years ago) my trips would be based around where Saints were playing. That's an extreme example but I'll bet the number of Weddings, Stag Weekends, Family visits, hell even trips to IKEA etc due to be booked up in our "catchment area" after August will have one eye on the fixture lists for the first time in a long while

TDD. While agreeing the concept of CL in 5 years is not going to happen, a lot of people are making a basic mistake here. The Family will never have to "bung in 20mil"? In the sense many on here use It will not work like that, for a whole bunch of reasons, but primarily... NOBODY buys players for Cash upfront these days 10mil player in the papers? Well apart from Oxo that would mean 2 or 3mil up front after 6 months some at the end of the season, add ons etc etc etc So the family MAY have to put some cash flow support in should costs rise above the budget OR if TV money is paid out of sync with OpEx, but these days it would be VERY rare for someone to go and say I need 20mil cash for some players now. (Sure at the END of the season they may have invested 20 mil but it would be over the 12 months - that's why it is called "A Plan" NOBODY in their right mind takes money out of their bank until it is really needed, and no football club is going to pay up front unless they have a really special asset. The money into Staplewood (In a PRIVATE COMPANY) could be repaid next year IF say Luke Shaw comes on as fast as Oxo did. BUT although they have a budget of whatever million for that it still ain't going to be paid in one hit - staged payments in Projects is the normal way to operate, we ain't gonna be any different. It's all about the PLANNING of that spending, and ways to get it back, rather than a Liverpool spend 190 mil "because we're Liverpool"

Nobody should ever plan to grow. You can never unseat the undisputed Kings of a market. Tell that to Nokia, RIM, hell even Motorola. Samsung & HTC, where did they come from all of a sudden, mobiles have been around for decades it would cost them zillions to break into the new market and earn any return. They can't have planned it. Must have all been luck

MASSIVE support. So committed to the cause. bestest fans in the world, would walk through hell to save their club. WTFILN

Does he have any Criminal Convictions in the area of Finance/Compliance? Answer - No Passed. (See Birmingham City for clarification)

Oooh now there is a whole thread in itself... Mobile Camera really useful for when something unexpected happens and good quality. But (for eg) an outdoor concert at night when you are 100+ yards from stage and need to have control over the auto functions of a camera - no way - that is "point & shoot time" and when it absolutely HAS to be perfect and planned Digital SLR Lost my trusty point & shoot in April and bought the new PowershotSX160IS - it is a superb machine, but the SLR s still going to my daughter's wedding! Anyway back on topic - having a fight here - we need these for work and one of the gang is INSISTING on the Experia - because it comes with loads of free movies and music... He really doesn't understand the concept of WORK! The HTC One X does seem the dogs bananas. Downside - it is a little BIG for the pocket/wallet/car keys/parking meter change scenario. Upside I have big clumsy fingers with two of them bent from too much cricket (almost as bad as Frank's Cousin at typing) So always found Iphone/IPad screens REALLY hard to use So the plus point on the one X is I CAN actually use the screen - so it's main fault seems it's main positive

Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for an expert to tell us that nobody ever invests in Property in the middle of a recession when everything is cheaper because of the risk

Well it's a rectangular shape and green with some white lines on it, But that isn't important right now

Marquee on the pitch according to the OS Oh and FFS what sort of fan are you? Should of have a word told the missus some things in life are just too important to miss And CLENCH

PAH! We are Sooooooooooo on a roll down here. Jeez in the space of just the last 6 games we went from D_P & EoA watching games in the pub to reaching the ASTONISHING total of 24 of us. Since then we've added 5 more, got onto Face Book and EVEN kicked Leeds Official Dubai Mongs Club out of their corner of our local pub. We are on a ROLL We've EVEN got 4 fans in Syria (hiding in their Basements waiting to get out) Can we put you down as our Ambassador for Yemen? Ticket is on the way

Oh yeah, sorry And my Brother occassionally chips in to post on here when he isn't being a rock star or drinking at the Kingsland Tavern Easy mistake to make, every time I see him these days I strangely forget about it the next morning

Daughter!

Yeah it was entirely unforeseen financial limitations called the ECB( (not giving them an Ashes Test)

Correct but there were stipulations about "access" and "transport links" hence the "Station" discussions over the past years (including MANY sensible arguments and facts as to why it may NOT be feasible financially or physically)

Hmm A run down industrial estate owned by a bettered pension Fund. A Gasometer that will shortly come to the end of it's useful life and could be re-used for "temporary" accomodation such as a hotel. A knackered lump of land with prime waterfront access covered in piles of gravel. All within walking distance of the City Centre. No, nothing to develop at SMS. Thank goodness no extremely wealthy people have any interests in that part of town

Patriot Games book was way better than the film. Sum of all Fears was a movie that kept to the general feel of the book, but the TROUBLE with Hollywood is that somebody should have sewn up ALL the books and kept a common Jack Ryan. I mean Harrison Ford in Clear & Present Danger great, but Ryan wasn't getting on for 50 in the book! Now the Film series I WOULD like to see - Jack Reacher - Lee Child. But FFS do it properly, don't put Tom Cruise in the title role!

Dude it is WAY better than excellent. Series 3 planned for filming next year. Watched a damned fine (I expect Beeb mini-series/play) that our local mob turned into a movie the other night. Page Eight. What an excellent INTELLIGENT piece of TV with a great cast (Bill Nighy, Michael Gambon, Rachel Wiess & Ralph Fiennes) sort of a poor mans Smiley. (Yeah I know it isn't Scandinavian Crime but sometimes you want an old fashioned type of take with a modern twist. Really enjoyed that, nothing to complex or convoluted. Oh GoT this week? WHAY HAY! The boobs are back! Bit of Cow Pat slinging, arm wrenching and some old fashioned attempted brutal rape But still Emilia wandering around being naive and having meetings dressed up to the nines, although think it is starting to dawn on her that she may have to drop them to get what she wants. Hour long episode went by in what seemed like 10 minutes and again gagging for next week. The scenery North of the Wall is just stunning (Surely John Snow should wear a hat, he'll catch his death)

I believe that it has been made public that we ARE expanding the Stadium during THIS close season. Well, The Corporate is being "Revamped" so by definition IF they add just one more seat in just one of the boxes, then the capacity has been increased

I'm starting to believe that us regulars on here over the years should now start to get organised. Put a few hundred quid into the kitty and then on the day they finally go pop we should take out a full page ad in the snooze with just 4 words WE TOLD YOU SO If only they had listened, If ONLY they had followed some of our suggestions, they'd have most probably be celebrating promotion from the BSQ this weekend. But oh no. They stuck their fingers in their ears and went shalalalala lala But thing is we even do THAT so much more professionally WTFILN

Well even WHEN they find a bidder, prove funds and make them preferred. Things can STILL go wrong As Rangers have just found out Oh Dear

Oh it will come. And it will come within the next 5 years. Whether it is mid season friendlies in this part of the world (Yes Saints HAVE played mid season down here before and YES we are in Asia) Or it is an invite to one of those tedious pre-season tournaments in Malaysia or Thailand or Japan or even against Anelka's mob in China. The appetite for PL football has ballooned across Asia with every game being shown and with local language programmes. Sponsors want PL teams, there are only 18 of them to go round, eventually by being the only ones available we'll get an invite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premier_League_Asia_Trophy I mean FFS Hull City, portsmouth, Bolton, Fulham, Blackburn have all played there in the last 12 years as well as the so called big names of Wet Sham, Spuds, Citeh, Chelski

Never ONCE have I said that. You are off your head if you think we should not plan for EVERY eventuality (which I mentioned also would include possible relegation) Now. Let's try this again. Do we intend to be sustainable? Are we investing in an Academy to produce more home grown players ? So. On YOUR logic the ONLY reason we could have for settling for PERMANENT mid table mediocrity is that the Academy is there to produce players to pay for our expenses ie Rupert mark 2. But NA and NC have continually said we want to keep improving So, the DECISIONS that get taken NOW, THIS summer, will they be old proven cast offs to ONLY guarantee survival> Or will they match a template that is building for a future? More Jack Corks or a bunch of El Hadj Diouf's? The AIM or VISION of the club is to be Self Sustainable and be the Best that we can be in the PL. So the decisions of who to buy, putting the money into Staplewood are about a Vision. It could take 10 years it could take 20 years but the DECISIONS on the future of the club are being made with something OTHER than paying homage to "The City" Who has said CL in 5 years time on this thread? I haven't.

Nice airbrushing of the PRIMARY reason that football was NOT as popular in the early 80's as it is now. And what crowds was Football IN GENERAL averaging in those years? How many rational adults would have taken their kids to stand ankle deep in urine on a Terrace with the ever present threat of Violence back then Also, you did not have whole new fans understanding the game and it's players due to the extensive Television and media coverage and the oh so British cult of "Celebrity" But of course football has never changed, ever and everybody should assume it will just keep on being the same for ever.

Specsavers may be a good place to help you read posts before replying. Kindly name a poster in this thread who is "recommending building several million pounds worth of new seating". This entire Discussion is about identifying the criteria and roadmap and IDENTIFYING the point in the future where this COULD become necessary. You charge in all you are talking boll cks and then use the SAME arguments we are using. You say Saints should have no criteria to measure demand in a Business Plan and THEN tell us that is what everyone else is doing and responding to? Awesome debating technique that