dubai_phil

11 days of Singha 4 days of Tsing Tao with a couple of Guinness thrown in, then found a mirco brewery in HK which did Aldrich Bay Pale Ale at 12 dirhams a pint.. Not to mention the multiple Bar Beer shorts in Thailand... How the fook can someone buy 16 pairs of shoes and 6 bags on one vacation?..... All I bought were the T Shirts for the rugby 7's this year!

Blimey - you finally paid up! I assume it was you that made sure EK 381 landed 20 mins early this morning - thanks!

And if you're in a country that bans access to any web sites that refer to gambling you can't watch it either! Unless you load a proxy beater which then wipes the band width so Saintstv for me today. These guys are quite good from time to time btw http://www.mopages.co.uk/live_events.html#1

Wow I can watch 4.972 football matches at Mopages.com But not the mysterious Polish one. Ho hum here we go then, back with the Cider after two weeks of hic

Missed most of this travelling. My thoughts Matty - you pratt. All those taking the moral high ground - yeah right, bet none of them have ever tried to fiddle an expense claim, let him who is without sin cast the first stone etc. meanwhile, taking out the morality side for a moment, Gambling in the UK on stuff like this is miniscule in the big picture. When you visit somewhere like Macau and see the thousands of chinese gambling on anything and everything, when you see the Indians, gambling on which ball of an over gets hit for four, you understand that although at the time it was stupid, this act was just an early step in a process that today has millions of dollars being wagered on exactly this type of thing around the world. The idea of players having to place an actual bet to get a return these days has been clearly disporved by Lord Congdon, but the fact is that today in the PL a player could be expected to earn huge sums for the same thing. It isn't gambling - they don't place any bets, it isn't match fixing, it is simply a major global disease that affects all of sport. Cricket got it's act together they are paranoid about Indian bookmakers. What has football done? Matty was a pratt, but what MAY comoe out of this mess is a new look at the bigger problem that exists theses days. Let's face it. We ALL know that the modern player is a total mercenary interested in only their next big contract, IMHO it is the small link into a bigger problem that cricket has cleaned up, but Football seems to think is solved simply by rules on gambling. Matty isn't Hanse Cronje, but somebody will be one day

Phew, thank goodness for that, finally some news that shows that Burley did pass on some good coaching tips to the youngsters :cool: allegedly

How DARE you pop up on here from your self imposed exile and make unsubstantiated ITK claims AGAIN.....

In my noble mission to finish bottom of the prediction league, have this one down as the start of the turning of the corner with a 2-1 Saints win. Seeing as I forecast a win and it is being shown on telly somewhere in the world I think we're doomed. Looks like our first win of the season will follow my historical trend and will have to wait until I get back for the Brizzle game. Can't get back any earlier gosh darn it as have to continue my globe trotting tour for work this time

I'm sorry, on behalf of the cultural advisory committee I wish to point out that you are now officially in breach of regulation 1.42, subsection 8.71. You have mentioned the evil animal in a thread about your new Arab owner. You will be traced, taken to the desert (in your case Hayling mud flats) and staked out covered with fish paste to be eaten by the crabs. The penalty is more severe due to your use of said insult during the Holy month of Ramadan. Your prediction is wrong Benji. The Whacko consortium would only consider football investment with a potential UPSIDE.......... :cool: HTH

Ah ha, so that's why we don't score goals, we DO have that same attitude throughout the side... Lallana, Lambert et al spend all match striving to prove they are the best defender at the club..... Sorry, post vacation good mood, won't last long, I'm, back into Ramadan

Oh trust me.... He walked past, in fact he almost walked through us. I got my phone out my pocket but had the choice of running across the lobby to the elevator to tke a photo of the back of his head or showing small modicum of restraint. Actually I had a c*p phone at the time with no flash and about a half mega pixel so didn't think it worth embarrassing myself:cool:

You're quite right to question allegations and taxi driver comments, BUT. I simply posted what I saw at what time in the lobby of the DeVere on day before the first team were due for training the next morning. In fact I was so surprised I deliberately checked the time on my watch. However, like you say he was a part of the overall disease that has been our lot over the past years, whatever the reasons or motivations for his troubles with us all I know is that he had the keys to our heirloom spent it and failed. IMHO he stayed too long and we were incredibly lucky we received compensation. As for the would we have been relegated argument probably not, but we were going broke with him in charge so would likely have been hit with minus 10 anyway. History is gone, look to the future

I'm firmly in the "It will take time and we must be patient camp". I also did not believe for one minute that we could be serious promotion contenders this season, we were too big a mess, yet it is right that the fans expect and the employees aim for promotion. My only concern remains the same, we may be PL club in FL1, but we were a PL club in the CCC. The priority right now though IMHO is to be a bloody good FL1 club, as we won't ever get out the league with a PL attitude on the pitch... Which is why I am confident the players we have signed are suitable for the job that needs to be done now. Just wish they'd start showing it in the resuts column!

Let's see... A Director approved by the owner to make decisions about Footballing issues who would know and be able to work in a team with the Manager. As opposed to Rupert. Hope it happens, but then it's the Mirror

Lol - popped in there when gt bored watching the cricket in the sports bar last night.. I assume you mean the Beckham hair style one Wish they'd allow smoking though, some of the bars have become a bit fishy.... Cabbages & Condoms tonight and a search for yet ANOTHER emergency suitcase to take all the shopping!

Just popped on, ws going to mention this bloke who I met tonight at Kings Castle reckoned UP still owed a bar fine :-) We are right to be worried, we are right to be worried about the managers comments about "it is getting better and we know the problems". After all we had 5 years of those comments to get us to this point. I am worried. However there is one heck of a difference between being worried and panicking. That does no good to anyone. For reasons of timing and previous stupidity we have an 18 year old kid playing up front. Of course it isn't good enough, there are very few 18 year olds in world football who are mentally mature enough with sufficient skill to be capable of leading a line in professional football (Owen in '98 was an exception). We are suffering a hangover where we have performed miracles in even existing let alone bringing together a complete new team. Even when we spent 7 mil on new players under Burley (and more on their wages) we were told and understood they would take time to gel as a team. The fact they didn't clouds the judgement of many of us today. So, Patto will be a damned fine player when he hits 21. Right now unless we find a loan, he and Saga are what we have. For whatever reason we couldn't find another forward to buy. So, unless somebody has that magical time machine to re-open the window we need a loan or we need to understand we have tow ork with what we have got. So it is really not enough, but panicking now is really no use to anyone. You want to blame someone, blame Pinnacle for taking so long we lost McGoldrought I'm worried, but FFS look at the history books, I've lost track of the number of times in the past 16 years I've come back in September to watch my first game with Saints still waiting for their first win. Anyway, enough of this back to the go-go bars

That's the second funniest bit of fiction I've read on my vacation so far, just after the whole new owner for Potsmuff story..... :cool: And the web link is funny as well

A 6ft tall winger with pace... Holy Carp, that must be the first one we've had since Chicken George.. Let's hope he has at least double the footballing IQ of George.. A signing to excite, wish I had bandwidth for the You Tube clips!

Thx for that. Just one comment to keep in the back of the mind for a story one day on the bank subject. Storrie obviously kept things running, forgetting the strange move of our manager to BT, there could also have been "dark forces" at work which caused our bank's mind "to be changed"... Sounds from the little I can ctch up with that SBT has done some form of factoring deal on future income, probably with an ME based bank, they probably gave up 10 or more % of the TV income in order to get a lump of cash in. History will show if an emergency rescue will do them more harm than good.. We came out of it very fortunately, but if we'd let ourselves go when we should have done things could have been very different. Anyway should be fun watching them lol

I'm on holiday Hooray! I got internet in my room boo so I had to check emails and stuff. I've been reading the new Chris Ryan book Who Dares Wins. I know it ain't no literary genius but it wuz good for sitting on the beach.. But I sprayed my Mai Tai all over page Two penultimate paragraph where an SAS member serving in Iraq says.... "rule of engagement number one: never trust a **********" Just ruined the book as I saw Pompey straight away. (Would love to print it in full but it is non PC and I'm a nice guy, but the asterisks inferred to people from a certain part of the middle of the planet slightly on the eastern side of the UK.)

Well, thankyou AP for telling us as it is. Looks like he must have read the thread about coming clean about the real mess we were in. The Scouting system was a mess, and as others have said, it has taken a long time to get this bad, the coaching was a mess and they are just the tip of what I think must have been a nightmarish iceberg when they all walked in on their first day. Personally I think it is wonderful that the management now trust the fans enough to tell us things like this. More evidence that Rome will not be built in a day, but that we have wsie heads at the helm. Happier now and off on my hols ciao

You truly have no idea how 1) Funny 2) Close to the truth That comment really is.. So Sultan Bin Trump has pulled it off. That could, in all honesty, be the best news Saints fans have heard all year. Beneficial owner boys. That line will come back to haunt you one day. Off on my hols tonight, so will be on the beach not the internet, so hopefully this will all be done and we can have a good larf by the time I find an internet cafe... (Of as I'm following in his footsteps to some extend I promise to pass on any gossip about UP's trip - honest) :cool:

Has anyone else noticed that our fishy friends on here have been very quiet this morning? probably still trying to fight their way through the crowds to get out the stadium Have they had Friday's announcement yet?

lol Meanwhile, in other news, confusion reigns over the plans for Ras Al Khamaih's bid to become the 3rd UAE based airline to fly to the UK. RAK airlines had been hoping to offer a low cost service to the South of England as part of their planned "Global brand Building Programme" linked with their much rumoured take over of struggling EPL team Portsmuff. Apparently, the first scheduled service, aimed at bringing the new owner to last night's match and doubling the attendance, was spotted trying to mistakenly land at Portsmuff Airport Late yesterday afternoon. A spokesman denied there had been a misunderstanding, insisting that they had been given documents by Portsmuff that showed they were a major force in the EPL and that was accompanied by maps clearly showing the location of the airport. Apparently the fact that the photographs were in Black & White had been put down to an error in the IT department. "We were a little concerned however when the photographs showed the crowds wearing flat caps and collars and ties whilst waving rattles, however we were led to believe that this was simply a local cultural habit, we totally deny the unfounded allegations that we did not notice that the documents supporting the bid were over 50 years old" An inquiry is expected. The RAK flight was last spotted circling St James Park in Newcastle

I must say, I'm quite seriously moved by the superhuman efforts of our friends down the road to rally to the cause, to go the extra mile to help their (currently) stricken club to scrape together every extra pound in their bit to strengthen their war chest for the rebuilding of their squad. In fact I'm so moved I fell off my chair laughing