dubai_phil

I won't be there. I'd actually really LIKE to be there but I can't. It's the fans chance to pay respects to Marcus, but also, one minor point that many have forgotten, it's also right in the middle of Summer Holiday time and a great number of fans are away on vacation or are just waiting for the credit card bills to arrive, so 30 or 50 quid for a day out actually can be an issue. 25 or 27,000 for an early season game against Orient is, IMHO an amazing turnout compared to what we were getting only two seasons ago in the Championship. And FFS the Exeter game isn't a fair comparison as that was a Bank Holiday Christmas & present time

Mistakes are vital in life, for without them we learn nothing. Failure however and mistakes that will cause failure are disasterous. Losing a Mentor is very very tough, having somebody to bounce ideas off of is a key recipe for success. NC now has to learn to fly on his own and very quickly/ As fans we can actually help as a group. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism will be helpful. Immature sniping and moaning without any alternative proposals or suggestions will not. I don't think we SHOULD cut NC any slack, I don't believe he would in his role. But I do think those strange types who sit at home and keep a count of the points they've scored from spoiling attempts to debate and be constructive should just...............

Good statement and at the right time after the trauma of the past 10/11 days. It says what I and many many others wanted and expected to hear. Game on, the Journey continues and nice that he singled out Winkelman, especially as we now know that Markus's funeral was last Saturday

Oh wow, that's amazing. A thread discussing AP's interview on Saints player has dissolved into a thread where people discuss Trolls. Outstanding

Wow, thanks for finding that Ron. And now for football

Not all of us. Some of us are simply laughing at you. Let's face it, a year ago you were cracking open Bottles of Bubbly to celebrate being brought by.... A dodgy geezer that EVEN Cherrypip/LLS/Whacko turned down during Due Dilligence. Your Corporate stupidity leading up to THAT moment, and ALL the spending and lies that followed are what this is about. Sultan Bin Trump, the fake sheikh and the (allegedly) fake SoA for the EPL. Up until a year ago you could have got away with comparing yourselves to Hull City, Bradford or Barnsley who sprayed their PL money on short term gambles, but oh no you were going to take your 100 million debt, your 14,000 fans and spend even more on a toilet bowl stadium, Maradona & Riquelme. Better at damage limitation? THAT is the funniest line yet to have come out of this sorry saga. Better at LYING more like. (Source Peter Scudamore) (Oh, and the ONLY reason you still have the glimmer of hope that is Chanrai is because you CONNED him into lending you some money). As others of the blue colour are working out, he's only staying to get his cash back)

It's late. I watched The Damned United on DVD, browsed the forum and saw a thread about Haunted Pulis Must get my reading glasses sorted out or cut back on the second bottle of Ramadan Special Wine promo

Just a couple of added magical moments that Saints have given me that popped up while reading many of the others. The chance (at my age) to walk out onto SMS and hit a football into the back of the net (thanks Club & Granty), fulfilled a life long ambition at my age. Connected to that, the look on my son's face when he walked into the Home dressing room and saw a Saints Shirt hanging on a peg with his name on it. I will NEVER forget that moment. Orient Away when we went tumbling to the wall. And of course - one nobody has mentioned yet but we talked about before... The Drive down the M3 in '76 seeing everyone on every fly-over and dancing on the Round-about at the top of the Avenue/start of the A33. And the other '76 memory that came flooding back was the Dell car-park on the Saturday night when Cup Final tickets were going on sale on the Monday morning. Camping out by the entrance to West Stand centre, swapping portions of the massive tin of Heinz Curry I had cooked on a camping stove for beers, Playboys or just cigarettes at 4am. BUT, the one that hit me the most these past few days. I parked up in the Car Park with my lad having just bought fish & chips about 2 hours before the FIRST forum game in May last year, when everything was up in the air. We were just sitting there, looking at the stadium and we both said at the same time.. I can't believe we're going to lose all this...... We walked around the ground, we walked in the reception and the Changing Rooms and onto the pitch and saw everything as if it was for the last time. I will NEVER forget the memory of how hollow I felt looking for what I thought could be the last time. And then a miracle came along. It simply is NOT fair, right or just that he cannot share the Journey he started

You MUST have a confirmation from FlyBe that a "note" has been added to your customer information profile that they use at check-in or you will not fly. IF they say Expedia must do it then that is what you MUST do. I had similar with my last freebie BA ticket - that had to be booked through their call centre and the girl (being Asian) used the Asian pronunciation of my surname (yeah yeah I know the jokes). It took me 2 hours on the phone before they were able to put a message in. I still had a grilling at check-in on each leg of the flight.

It is a wonderful story, but for me it has opened up a whole new set of sadness and questions. I interpret this as Marcus seemed to know deep down. That makes it more poignant, meaningful and so much sadder. And yet it also begs the questions What, how and why? IF he knew, what a way to spend your last hours. Was he alone? I find these more heartbreaking and amazing and the same time. Not one of us posters have filled ourselves with much glory this past week, I don't think any one of us truly grasped what had transpired and what a man he was

Thanks for taking the time to post that out in full.

Wes Thankyou.

Dear oh dear, you Brits are supposed to be totally Politically Correct and hence understand all other races and cultures But clearly only Alps & DiS seem to come close to understanding the Swiss Corporate Business mentality. The only person who may wish to push for a sale will be NC so he can earn his bonus quicker. Swiss business is planned, efficient and methodical and long term. One of the most critical things that the company will have done during ML's tenure is Succession Planning. SFC are not incurring huge losses, we already carried out a "Headcount Reduction" (the "redundant squad players") and we only need a few tweaks on the rudder. The extra cost of a couple of squad players this season would be less than a few weeks of a Corporate Marketing & PR budget. The Liebherr group is getting more positive publicity (see newsnow.co.uk) than any PR agency could. Chill. It's NC & his motivation that we should worry about.

Thanks Pichards put a smile on my face with the memories

Why would they want to do that? They can only have 25 players in their squad. So if they wait to the end of the transfer and loan windows what do they do IF they have 30 players on their books? They can't PLAY them but must still PAY them - I know football economic is daft but what it means is that every PL club with 30 or so players will look to move players out on loan until at least January so they can still bring them back in IF one squad player suffers injury or a loss of form (ie they ditch them). For example any squad player that is above 25 they could get at least SOME fee or wages back from a loan then it makes snese to get them out BEFORE the windows shut, otherwise it is deadwood.

Didn't say HE was ghey per se Art, Just that the performance was sort of that weird Euro Eroticische type thingy they do which to a Brit just seems a bit ghey. Ain't no doubt that it takes a lot of skill and energy and like BTF points out, even if he WAS that way, the GF here would join the queue to help cure him. (I'm allowed to say that at the moment after getting a clout round the ear for comments about the Rihanna vid on MTV)

The club have stated in writing that they have identified Transfer Targets. (Note the plural) Reading Friendly programme amongst others. I am frustrated that we haven't signed the squad strengthening players we all know we need (and, let's face it the CLUB have said we need) I'm frustrated that we dropped points against Plymouth and am concerned that we don't have game changing loans like Papa & Antonio on the bench OR longer term players covering CM. But, Rupert Lowe & The 3 Amigos have been gone well over a year now. I don't like waiting for anything but I believe the new structure have told us what is going on and with this lot I have some faith that they have stopped spinning (lying) and are working on it. And FFS we won't be getting anywhere near Bellamy. As Redkrap said today, Man City paid 12mil for him and he's on massive wages. He'll be loaned to a PL club that are no threat to Man City (eg Fulham) or a Europa League team on the Continent (that's just a negotiating position on their behalf)

A decent dollop of English Mustard in any stew or Casserole (Gino de Campo came up with that one) - it works As others have said - a good helping of Worcestershire Sauce And my favourite - a shake (two or three drops) of Tabasco I add the last two to tinned tomaties when cooking as a side dish and also to Baked beans when making a Brunch - how I was ever able to eat beans without those two I'll never know. But the Mustard trick in a stew oh yes One other little trick we can do here is when Brown the meat in the pan quickly then before adding the rest give the pan a shot of Brandy and reduce it down for a minute or two, adds a nice body to the flavours. I accept you can't necessarily afford to do that over in Blighty, but down here we can buy Indian Brandy for about 1.50 pound a bottle (trust me cooking with it is fine but you'd NEVER want to drink it!)

My kids moved here when they were 4, 6 and 9. They attended an International School (we don't have ANY State system here for Expat Brats) But did NOT take the UK system, they took IGCSE & IB. As for choice of which one they went to - the only one we could get them in, most places here had a 3-5 year waiting list. Oh and BTF my opinions are based on An ex wife who has taught in both systems. Kids who had private education through no choice and what THEY found when they got to Uni. And 17 years of experience in seeing what utter destruction Political Doctrine can do to so many Countries Now IF UK State Schools wanted to improve they should just drop the GCSE & A Levels for turning up nonsense & do IB's. Oh and no BTF I couldn't afford the fees, ex wife had to teach at the same school to get the discounts. The only option was for the family to go back to UK which would have made my life much more fun (yeah really it could have been even better!) but would have led to imbalanced Kids rather than the budding stars they are now in their chosen professions. SO yes I have a grudge AGAINST Private Education - I had no choice, it cost me $10k a year EACH in their latter years leaving me with no pension after the ex took all my savings. I'm not bitter about it at all

Oh and the Rugby thing - I rebelled and walked off the pitch one day when being forced to play. Mind you I had right on my side and won the argument. My best friend had been paralysed by a Scrum collapse. I watch the game but would and could never play again after that. He lived as a strain on his friends and family (who NEVER complained) for another 20 years and was a wonderful human being and is sorely missed

Don't want to totally defend the old system of selection. As many horror stories of being in the wrong school as there were success stories.But you address two areas of debate But Conceptually as I argued above, people ARE different. Some have affinity for Logic and deduction, some have affinity for Art or Music or Sport. My life was ruined because my school played Rugby and I wanted to play football (simplistic joke version ok). I was alright at Football but couldn't do it because THE SYSTEM dictated I had to do what THEY said - Doctrine. Also I was (and am utterly useless at Languages and have no affinity for Great Literature), BUT luckily the selective streaming system I was exposed to looked for that, and streamed those who could paint an Apple into one one "Arts" stream and those of us who could blow things up in the Chem lab into another. At the 3rd form and at the 6th form my skills were tested and I was sent where I had some affinity, whereas under the "Doctrine" of (many) schools, You Will do THIS whether you like it or not. Soi, for every good Grandparent like BTF there are bad ones and for every Good School there are bad ones. The no Private Education argument is wrong BTF - you say it yourself, your Grandson's school TAKE CARE OF him. But what IF you were stuck in an inner city area, with Gang Culture, Drug Culture & Bullying Culture. What is the choice? Sacrifice your personal living standards to give your Kid a chance to mix with Children who are NOT going to drag them down? What if the family are unable to move to a better area? The argument of Poshness is Political. There should be NO Private Education System. The State SHOULD provide the service the People Need. They do it in many areas, so My argument again is why can that not be done everywhere? As for Apprenticeships.... Went the same way as Technical Colleges... Which is why the kids can't get a job and your plumber doesn't speak English - great move to make everyone equal that is Apart from those in POWER of course everyone of us is equal except for them

Still think Montie has to have Casey in the team and the idea of having Langer in there (which I like - the oldies have shown they still have something to offer) leaves one slot spare Rose or Donald or Wilson or Harrington. Alvaro Quiros, Rhys Davies (one of the best putters on the cicuit) Robert Karlsson coming back into form... Hmmm Heck Darren Clarke has remembered how to putt and is getting it back together. What a fighter for the cause he has been and if he's getting it together... No wonder Monty's so screwed up (oops) The American team will have a lot of exciting kids or Rookies in there - I like Watson and think Dustin Johnston will take a lot away from the sand of last night, BUT pressue needs experience

BTF. Are you saying that some 20 year old Comprehensive graduate Coke addict who got lucky and got a job as a Broker in London in the Noughties and earnt obscene amounts of money is POSH? Some bloke who started working on the shop floor at Marks & Spencers 30 years ago is POSH? Just because he worked his way up to the top of the tree? This is where the argument breaks down. You oversimplify/ All State Schools bring bright kids down to the level of the morons is the same as saying only posh kids go to Private Schools is the same as saying only riff raff live in Council Houses.. What you SHOULD be saying is that Windsor & Eton are evil. You won't get anywhere in the UK UNLESS you go to the RIGHT private school A lot of people who DO send their kids private are people who have worked hard and want to do their best for their kids.

Two arguments. 1) Why can't public Schools be as good as private Schools? What stops them employing the best teachers? Why can some Public Schools be better than others? Why must they all aspire to be EQUAL and not aspire to be BETTER? Would it be down to the quality of the staff and management? But surely not, as in this argument all teachers must be of equal mental & emotional intelligence as this argument determines that Children all are. So, why is there not a crusade to remove poor management in poorer schools? Why is there resistance in many schools to implemeting changes and improvements from public schools that are performing better? Answer in most cases - Political Doctrine 2) Why can't Experienced Teachers returing after raising a family get teaching jobs? Answer - because salary levels are so set in stone (due to "Union Agreements") that teachers pay is determined by the length of service/age. So if a returning teacher aged 45+ wishes to return they cannot get a job as the schools are not allowed to pay them the same salary as a kid straight out of college even IF they desperately WANT to take the job at the reduced salary. (Source Wilts CC submission from my ex wife in my Divorce Case) So Unions protect the interest of their people and stop good experienced teachers getting jobs 3) DNA, I'm sorry this whole everyone is born equal argument is rubbish. If we are all equal why am I not a World Class Golfer? Why is St Stevo not playing for Man Utd? Why is TDD sitting in a Submarine and not in Whitehall? Why should a kid with Einstein level intelligence be in a class that is held back by a numpty with no interest in learning that disrupts the class? YES, every child SHOULD have the chance to be the best they can be and SHOULD have access to the best resources. BUT do not mix up the misfortune of "location or class" with the fundamental way that our Brains are all wired differently. Kids SHOULD be given the education level that they can cope with. Kids from "Inner City Areas" can have high levels of intelligence - it isn't class it's Genetics. So if (ok unlikely example I know) a child is born in Skatesmouth with an IQ over 25, why should THEY be held back by the "likes of the fish fiddlers?" Private Education is not JUST about class. It exists because the State system IN GENERAL cannot give every Child the chance to be the best they can be - the State system all too often manages ONLy to bring all the kids in a class down to the lowest level, and that is NOT right. Private Education is a Black Market. If something isn't good enough then you go and buy it elsewhere. Think of the inverse - you don't like the cost of a pack of smokes so you go buy it from a dodgy bloke who imports them from the EU whenever you can. It's the same system but in reverse. Politics should have NO place in Education.

Ah if only I could have put money on it. Wow, what a final few hours of golf. Well done Kaymer. Up yours Yanks