dubai_phil

Wow that's quite cool then. Was hitting 47 here yesterday and summer ain't even started yet

Which is why some of us have publicly questioned it, including having the question read out in a radio interview on Solent. The answer from NC was "clear" if you are a skate fan believing all you are told and "concerningly short on detail" if you are sceptical like me. Would appreciate you finding and posting links to where the few, or Solent or The Echo asked the same questions of Sacha or Storrie teller.

Tee hee, so it seems that Dubai isn't the only Middle Eastern city that suffers. The Bahrainis are not happy either. Note the "who owns the hotels where this goes on bit" Oh and it may explain why some people like the idea of travelling to Bahrain for the GP http://business.maktoob.com/20090000482990/Manama_on_alert_for_summer_sex_tourists/Article.htm?utm_campaign=Night-Newsletter&utm_medium=Main-News3&utm_source=Night-Newsletter&utm_content=

Or Italian :vuvu:

A web chat on the subject http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/7843030/World-Cup-webchat-with-Jason-Burt.html

Disagree. Terry was SELECTED to do the interview by Baldini. Nobody in any walk of life puts an "employee" forward for an interview unless they know what they are about to say. I think we could still get knocked out but what I see coming out of this is a sudden building of an "Team Spirit" re-reading that interview, the players themselves asked if they could sit down and have a beer, they sat and discussed themselves what they had been doing wrong and they came up with some ideas. The proof of the pudding now will be whether Cappello LISTENS. the World Cup is a weird time for players, teams that eventually do well have either a relaxed disregard because of their skill and confidence OR they have developed a string team dynamic and a "Siege Mentality" mindset. IF that interview was deliberate and IF the players themselves are finally taking some responsibility for their performances THEN I think the World Cup may just about be ready to become interesting. Whatever else, is there ANYONE in England who did NOT think 1) Cappello had got his team selections/tactics wrong in the first two matches? 2) The players had let themselves down? Anything that sorts that mess out should actually be welcomed, not criticised. Let's see what happens on Wednesday, I think it was all stage managed

Total meltdown and global footballing embarrassment. Perfect. Serves that Nation of arrogant sods right. And then there's the French as my Canadian mate said last night Followed by And you lot aren't much better either

Rule Two Ask Open Ended Questions Apparently WC, English Footballers have been asked to stay away from all forms of football or media for the next week in case they incur severe injuries from laughing at the French

..............James................ Johnson - Dawson - Terry - A Cole ..............Lampard - Barry........... Lennon...........................J Cole ................Gerrard................... ...............Rooney.................... Is what I think will happen. Think the fundamental difference this WC to the last is that we are missing Owen Hargreaves, under rated but a damn good DM who was my MoM in the losing QF 4 years ago. Wouldn't pick anyone else in the squad to replace Lampard, think he will go for the 9-1 type formation with Gerrard dropping behind Rooney. Why did he not take Adam Johnston?

Sounds like they have fallen to pieces quicker than the England squad normally do. Hunts on for The Traitor who told L'Equipe word for word what happened in the dressing room at half time and nobody trusts anybody else. Now if we can only get another 31 teams fighting themselves we may sneak through

Yeah I know, I was there... but that didn't work for the humour part of it :-)

Investment is all about numbers, upsides and risks, but you hit another one As for the numbers. Other factors would be "Cost of maintaining the stadium & meeting legislation would equate to a cost per seat in the stadium." from there come operational efficiencies. Can we make our seats create more profit? So a decrepit stadium will have higher maintenance costs than a new stadium. So lower attendances at a higher cost per seat = a problem. The real question that any investor will ask is What is the return on my investment? If it is for ego or politics - eg Al Fayed or Abramovich - then the cost and amount invested in not significant. It will simply be about ego and "How fast can I become famous?" So what other clubs offer an investment package that could get them to the PL cheapr or quicker? Is it for a return on Investment? Are there incremental revenue or capital return opportunities? - eg Crystal Palace - no so it is a fan based consortium. Saints - yes in theory there are opportunities. So what other clubs offer a better ROI Is it for a Branding Exercise? (eg Abu Dhabi in Man City) This is where the rails have come off as "marketing & brand building budgets have been slashed. A "Sovereign Wealth Fund" buying football clubs made sense, but now the number of funds with the money to spare has been reduced and certainly corporations or Businessmen wanting to promote their corporation are being more careful. Would a Corporate Image be improved by association with TCWTB? lol So it comes down as many have said to an ego (ie a foll and his money..) or a consortium of wealthy fans. We saw how THAT worked out with Salz, Crouch, the alleged Frost/Branson et al, and Nick Owen hasn't made a huge start yet on getting the sleeping giant of Luton back up the Leagues. So the nature of people who could invest SUSTAINABLE funds into a club like the skates has become very small. We were a very good quality investment. Even BEFORE Admin, we were a "Decent risk" of an investment because of the facilities, attendance numbers and image of being "A family club". Poorsmuff are as they keep telling us a "Salt of the Earth CLub, a working man's club, a real old fashioned football club" Well that ain't gonna fill expensive Corporate Hospitality boxes, and FFS their sponsors were aimed at The Unemployed. great level of disposable income in that core market

1) The Unions (Are supposed to) exist to protect the rights of their members 2) The Government does not have any money it is YOU the people who give them YOUR money 3) The Government has been spending money that IT DID NOT HAVE - ie YOUR money that YOU do not yet have) 4) The only solution to debt is inflation - which makes it smaller, paying it back, which hurts because you have less money or bankruptcy, which means you have to live on benefits a council house or on what you have in your pocket Now when a COUNTRY goes bust there ain't no God giving handouts or building homes for you. You can refuse to pay back but then nobody else will ever LEND to you, so if you are STILL spending more money than you have, where does it come from? yep, Inflation. Inflate debt away, simples - 10 quid for a pint of Ringwood and 40 quid for a pack of cigarettes. But guess what, benefits, wages and the like won't go up by the same rate as inflation. So the simple fact is that everyone in teh UK owes around 40 grand. Option 1) Go chase those nasty entrepreneurs and lazy rip off bankers for it. - Good option - guess what - they'll all sod off to Dubai or The Bahamas because they can AFFORD to leaving nobody to take the risk of starting up a busines sto give you a job Option 2) Everybody gets to pay what they can to get out the mess - well you're a democracy and have a voting system, so you are all to blame for voting Labour in 3 times and listening to the lies and believing in La-la land of ever spend Option 3) Riot, have a coup and start all over again Option 4) Hope the damned foreigners in the EU go t1ts up first and nobody is left alive to ask for their loans back The Unions HAVE to stand up and protect the jobs of their members. It is their DUTY. The Government HAVE to sort out the mess of the finances. It is their DUTY. The people will just get screwed over yet again as they have done since the days of Ted Heath and will never learn that all Politicians and all the doctrines and dogmas are only for the benefit of The PEOPLE (no, that's NOT the Population, it means THOSE IN CHARGE) Anarchy ain't the way, understanding and working together is. But taht ain't gonna happen so a summer of disgruntlement and a winter of Public Sector strikes, no rubbish collections, Green Goddesses, charity collections for homeless starving Cabin Crew loom. All so fecking predictable again and again and again. There is a simple answer. All Politicians LIE, so STOP believing them and demand that they run the country within a budget. You have to do it in your household and your manager has to do it at work. Why the hell do people think that Politicians DON'T have to do that and that money grows on trees? If you want better hospitals pay more taxes. Oh I forgot, you already pay about 60% in tax with NI PAYE VAT Death Stamp Petrol Booze Customs Stealth taxes etc etc etc

Hooray, the first question on here in ages I can answer from knowledge rather than analysis. The investor will not be looking at the average attendances in Isolation. They do not tell the whole picture. For example Blackburn have an average attendance last season of around 25k from a population of 100k - so 25% of the Town goes to football on a Saturday? So, for an investor the concept of making a larger stadium for larger crowds - where are they going to come from? What is looked at is the "Hinterland" or Catchment area. If you look at Southampton. To the East we have the Skates so our catchment sort of ends before Fareham (bar the heroic few further east). BUT if you look up the M3 and rail lines you can make a case for fans from the borders of Farnborough(Aldershot) and to the West you have the south & Western Salisbury Plain area at least. Along the West you have Bournemouth. So, the City has 200k (Uberfans) but the "Catchment area" contains getting close to 2 or 3 million. The only potential damage to this catchment area would be if Aldershot or Bournemouth suddenly went and found zillionaires instead of Zimmerframes.. Now the skates then have their connurbation, and the A3 up to about Guildford and east to about Chichester, being blocked by us in the Wesst and a slowly getting their act back together Brighton in the East, with a few die hards from up Salisbury way, giving them a smalelr catchment area of around 1.5 to 2 million. So, a proper investor is looking to see where the actual client base could come from. Before Markus, our area was being eroded by skates, but now they have a problem, kids are going to SMS again, so their collapse couldn't have come at a worse time. I can say that some people would worry about Saint's catchment area. The numbers are high but they are a large Geographical spread. For fans wanting to watch PL, then the concept that NC is using that suggests a 50k stadium in Jackson's farm makes commercial sense. Before we went into Admin, a good comparison when looking for investors was between us and Derby. Derby has 250k population so is about the same size, but their catchment area is much smaller geographically making them on paper the slightly better investment at the time. So is the investor worried about the attendances before he comes in? Yes, because that is the core customer support. If he had looked at our chart of attendances he would have seen a SIGNIFICANT historical decline (caused by relegation and dissatisfaction). So, at the TIME of Admin, our attendance being higher than the skates was actually a PROBLEM, not an advantage. Today of course that picture would be very different, attendances now starting to trend upwards, certainly above the originally planned break-even numbers and in comparison to the skates TODAY position, another difficulty to be overcome. Catchment Areas, Total Available Market, Serviceable Available Market & Population Demogrpahics (ie we have more White Collar fans than they do so ours would have more disposable income, but ours have higher costs of housing etc)... See? Simples

Wayne Rooney? Well, he sure as hell ain't played in this WC

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7840230/World-Cup-2010-HMV-withdraws-racist-anti-England-posters-from-Scottish-stores.html Lol HMV forced to remove racist products from sale in Scotland. The Worm is slowly turning, the Racially Oppressed monority is starting to fight for their rights.... Tee hee

Oscar Meyers American Bacon - Hearty Sliced. Knocks 7 bells of sh1t out of ENglish bacon for flavour, but does tend to get a little Tooooo crispy if cooked properly. The cheapest Bacon here is from Kenya - Farmers Choice. About 2.25 for 200g of Back bacon. It's meh, on the just about acceptable side of OK. Shops sell Walls & iceland Bacon normally it's 5 quid for a pack of Iceland's bargain 1 quid bacon so we stick to the frozen frozen. We don't bring bacon back "home" to here, but I DO bring home cheese. Stilton here is 45 quid a kilo, so if in London I get Harrods potted stuff at about 25 quid (What a bargain!) a kilo or Salisbury Market whole round stiltons at about 7.50 a kilo. Last two times have brought back BOGOFF packs of Extra Mature Cheddar - 600g in UK cost about 6 quid. Here 1 kg costs about 30 quid. Tinned proper Pate from France I bring and also Saucisse de Toulon and Salamis from Borough Market from time to time. Local Farmers Choice Bangers are far better than Walls or anyone else and the shops make nice Cumberland Lincolnshire, Cheese & leek and all that stuff. Mind you I have on more than one occassion snuck some Australian or New Zealand Beef Joints or RibEye Steaks back into Blighty. Now they ARE worth smuggling compared to the British (& Irish) rubbish

At the height of the global Economic Boom, a CCC Football club with Premier League facilities acquired the services of a leading professional organisation in the City of London to seek out a 30million pound takeover with a cash investment in the region of 15/20million. They failed, the club went into Administration and is only now finding it's feet again in League 1 At the height of the global financial meltdown, a CCC Football Club with no facilities, future pending Corporate Compliance Court Cases hanging over them, proven mis-statements to the Authorities (The January Transfer Window Solvency Statement amongst others) is seeking an investment approaching 20 million to rebuild a team to challenge for promotion and who requires an infrastructure investment in Property of around 50 million to achieve the PL standards of facilities. Let's think what may really happen here. There are at least 10 other clubs seeking investment who have different and better levels of facilities and an equal if better historical record. Demographically, many of those clubs have a far larger "Catchment Area" from which to draw potential fans. Chillax as you say

Clearly reading some of the press this morning, I blame Nike. There's nothing wrong with Rooney's fitness, he is just playing like someone who believes that he is moving into a Caravan on Thursday morning after we get knocked out. Fear of failure

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/teams/england/7841279/World-Cup-2010-morale-at-an-all-time-low-as-England-faces-early-exit.html So the pampered luvvies heads are fecked up. I thought that was why they had training camps and hangers on and Psychologists etc.... Interesting that Rooney didn't touch the ball in the Algerian box And that FINALLY Joe Cole's name is getting an airing along with a change of tactics. Hope he watched how Denmark played last night, pace movement and occassionally some accuracy in their passing

We're signing Brian Stock next month? Cool

We watched it at the Seaview, so no commentary and attention distracted by the Band from time to time, but what a good game, even Rosie (for EoA) was playing & watching at the same time. Never thought much of Bentner at the Gooners, but he showed up what England have been lacking - a mobile CF with passing ability, the ability to hold the ball up and bring others into play and most importantly, an eye for goal. Both teams moved the ball at pace and for about 5 minutes in the first half it was cracking end to end stuff, could have had 2 or 3 goals at each end. Just a different level of football from England. Really enjoyed the game And thank fook two of the tourists are going home tomorrow so can put our feet up and NOT have to go out to watch a game

+ 1

Well, having slept off the effects of the Bullfrogs and awoken to the Cold Light of Day, the chance to make a more informed opinion. Utter complete and total garbage. Listless, lightweight and slow Ponderous and predictable I think it is quite clear, the longer that an England Team spend together, the worse they get. They are clearly training every day in set formations and groups and they come out onto the pitch and play like pre-programmed Duracell Bunnies running on cheap Chinese Batteries. There is no invention, and Gerrard apart, no player determined to take the ball and really INTEND to do something with it. Everyone else gets the ball and says "The boss told me to...." Did we really break at pace once in the last two games? How many times in 180 minutes has an England player got to the By-Line and pulled a cross BACK? Lennon isn't using pace and when he does cross it is forwards towards the goal for defenders to easily attack and clear. How many times has he beaten a defender for Pace? (Or SWP for that matter) So WHY take light-weight wingers? Their pace has been negated so that means their passing accuracy and presence is all they are there for. SWP & Lennon couldn't pass the buck let alone a ball. Rooney? nowhere. Although in his defence, the ball is nowhere near him either. This World Cup is seeming to be about playing the 9 - 1 formation and breaking at pace as a unit. We are playing 4-4 fecking 2 and apart from Gerrard (and the ineffective Johnson) everybody else on the team seems terrified to get out of position. Have we not PRACTICED breaking this formation down? FFS every single pundit TOLD us this would be the formation of choice this Word Cup, WE knew, so how come we don't seem to have a clue how to play against it? Everyone ELSE can. Walcott is supposed to have not developed his "Footballing Intelligence" and so has had a bad season. Looks to me that if you were to add up the footballing intelligence IQ's of the England Team it might JUST sneak into double figures without Gerrard. Something is very wrong. They have 4 days to turn it around. I honestly don't see it happening, although nobody could see the last England manager who was pilloried for performances and 4-4-2 pulling it off. Is Fabio the new Mike Bassett? Will it be a movie miracle? Are we about to do an Italy? Hope hasn't completely died but it's getting awfully close to Norwegian Blue territory

Well luckily for us we decided to go to Rock Bottom tonight. After 5,972 Bullfrogs, 8,463 Flaming Lamboughinis and a I have no idea how many Jaeger Bombs & Kava Shots all I can remember was us being Karp again and my fecking Daughter beating me into 2nd place in the Karaoke Competition, but at least I beat Dirty Sanchez into 2nd place. Still not knocked out, still could top the group and still incredibly unlikely. Again, the Al Jazeera signal got hacked and we missed getting on for 1/3rd of the game with only NO SIGNAL to keep us entertained - luckliy I stepped in with my Buggles impression