dubai_phil

Great OP, and I totally agree. I've said before that this season I've been bouncing up to my home office late at night all through the winter and sitting up to listen in to the wobbly internet stream until 2am and loving it. In some ways it reminds me of "The very old days" of getting EXCITED by football. To me the PL this season especially has lost that excitement. Many PL teams start with the hope and aspiration of avoiding a relegation dogfight. Fear seems to be more the emotion for much of the winter rather than anticipation. Of course, that is what you get from supporting a Winning Team, but damn it feels GOOD. The talk of Global Brands IS important. IF we make it to the PL and IF we really want to compete for year on year, then we MUST match our income to the money Markus needs to spend. It's all very well him investing say 20 mil a year, but for 10 years? 20? 30?? There is no reason at all why we cannot be "Southampton FC" and why that spirit that we love cannot be the differentiating factor that MAKES us a global brand. One thing is for sure, Football itself MUST change. It is crooked, corrupt and buried under ludicrous wages for poor foreign imported "Squad Players". (Some story about Villas' 3rd choice left back getting 40k a week or something) Who knows? Maybe by the time we get back to the PL some things will have changed. The debacle of PCFC and Hull may well drive change to happen from the top down. (Cloud Cuckoo or not it NEEDS to happen), but what I do know is that while I still worry about how we are financed, I am sure as heck enjoying the ride

If he was rated to make the grade I would have thought we would see him on the bench inn the last couple of games. But, reading the original OS article about the appointment of Les Read, there were some comments about changing the Academy set up so that the youngsters had better "Personal Life Management skills"... Which indicated to me that some of the youngsters may have attitude issues with regard to their preparation etc - ie maybe party too much. No evidence, and not the exact words, just how the article read to me.

Oh dear oh dear. Have you READ the Creditors list? If you bother you would note that there is a figure of 500k owed to Spuds for the Loan of O'Hara. In other words you re-signed him and never paid for him. So you lied to the PL that you could cover their costs in order to get the embargo lifted. They should NEVER have been there. So no, the manager may well deserve support (How good is his record vs Paul Hart?) But the players? No. The players owe Feck all to you and are only lining their own pockets at the expnse of you suckers. Who had to come up with the scheme to pay the St John's Bill? The FANS, not the players who SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN THERE and yet you still insanely believe you should be supporting. And none of this comes CLOSE to why you idiots thought you could even START this season with SUltan Bin Trump's Billions....... The Players should have been sold in 2009 during the summer transfer window. They don't wear "Your Shirt" They watch their wallets. You watch them come the end of the season, they'll disappear faster than you can say "Need some cash"

Well done - you see what the Winning Can Do mentality does for you! Mind you the standing up after lots of beer training still needs some effort Judging from Ladysaints Facebook thread:smt043

Meanwhile. Was out at a weekly golfing hack around the par 3. The latest Scuttlebutt (oops sorry don't want to confuse you, that was Belgrano conspiracy theory #476 they sank it themselves to get sympathy from the Yanks to try to get them to stop us) says that this is all Chinese Whispers and completely untrue and that Gerrard didn't ram the Belgrano or the 16 year old and it is a web viral that was started by an Everton fan. Hmm maybe it was the Chinese that did it?

Hmmm. So Markus comes to UK for home games. Does that mean he spends more than 1/6th his time in the UK? I have no idea but if he does then I wonder if the UK HMRC tax rules would apply to him and he has to pay tax in the UK as well as Switzerland. Wouldn't want us to be accused of harbouring a tax dodger :-)

TSW Forum match is coming up. Nickh worries about the quality of his side, maybe he could get a half? Hmm on second thoughts, no. Wouldn't want to drop the standard from last year and bore the thousands of fans who'll turn up to donate to charity

Yes Nick, all well and good, but you see that THIS is the World that WINNERS inhabit. This is where that extra eye for the opportunity, that extra competitive edge, those extra miles pounding the streets or in the gym, THIS is where winners get to live. This is why the Away team are killing themselves in their winter training camps around the world, fighting down those extra jugs of Sangria and Chianti, stretching that extra muscle late in the evenings to be at their peak performance. Still, look on the bright side, I may be able to filch your guys a few of the freebie Mars Bars from the Lounge for the showers.

What a rip off. Eight Hundred and Five effing Dirhams. That's about 130 quid. Just for a game of football. These airfares are just totally out of control these days, how on earth can BA charge 130 quid for a return flight in Business Class with a Flat Bed and Champagne all the way. AND the buggers get me to the UK in time to see the Courgettes gig in Salisbury on 22nd, damn I'd been trying SO hard to find an excuse not to go. Oh well, time to find some business meetings to attend that week so I have an excuse to pack my suit, gonna be a tough trip all that time in the Executive Lounge. Still us Global Sporting Legends do get looked after I suppose, and of course it is an Honour for BA to have me flly with them. Volcano permitting

Ah so THAT's why... Look GM has another job http://www.southampton.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=196488 Obviously he comes on here as he only ever has one person viewing his discussion forum

Is it just me or does the OP remind me of Jack Nickolson's speech to the Martian Ambassador in the Whitehouse bunker. Why can't we all just get along, Earth & Mars, Us & the Skates. Followed by the rapid insertion of a large metal object that raises the Saints Flag over his dead body

Sinking an enemy Battleship in a war zone. Sad. Being responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 people so far, and helping to set up the opportunity to ensure that almost every support or logistics contract went to his good friends in the US. And of course many of those 100,000 left behind friends loved ones and relatives who now want nothing more in life than to find a way to drop a nuke into the US or the UK. Oh and Hamster it was not about You-Tube. Terry Waite is an example. Blair - potentially guilty of genocide and feathering the financial nest of "important contacts" Thatcher - guilty of destroying the moral fabric of the Country Brown - guilty of incompetence (Cameron & Clegg - guilty of being vacuums) Whole fecking LOT of them have been corrupted by being in Westminster and losing touch with reality, caring not a jot about YOU but about their careers

Correct. Maggies fecked the financial system and much of the morals of the UK. Blair was complicit in fecking the world. At least with Maggie, her decisions did not lead to innocent people having their heads cut off with a blunt knofe live on the internet. Both equally bad, but Blair did it "allegedly illegally"

Marvellous. 490+ pages summarised in about 700 words. Another way of saying "This Thread told you so" Although they did forget the "Doing business with Unlicenced Agents" which will likely be another 5 or 10 point penalty. (They may not have PAID them but they clearly used their services and SHOULD have paid them)

Just to get technical for Eric Sea-ME-We 4 is the cable that is being repaired next week hence dodgy internet at the moment. 4-5-1 got a result again, lost concetration at the end. Good to hear another youngster getting blooded PROPERLY rather than being thrown in the deep end. Yes we have done far better this season than I expected and it has been great. Annoyed we dropped stupid points but I do think as long as next season we don't drop as many then we will be fine. Hope we can keep Antonio he sounds like he is starting to develop into a handful and is scoring some cracking goals. Off to the kitchen time

Boo

Kendal Town are winning at Worksop

Connoly is tiny, what is he about 4 and a half feet? Bring back big Dave (ie FFS get the feed sorted out)

We bring on Connelly & Barnard, the Carlisle taters "Good God"

Carlisle Taters trying to work out if KD should have got a red card for handling the back pass that was bouncing over his head and going in to the net.... great

Comedy classic momenty here then but nope cuts out again

Oh come on the stream is ridiculous

No, that was the Cricket from Durham. Keep up

Yup a precious bottle of Magners and sod the Ricotta and whoosh we score 3. Damn means we're gonna have to spend all next season planning menus

Hooray