dubai_phil

Holy carp! Where did you find that picture of my Girlfriend.....

Ah actually it is already known as the Legendary Dubai Saints dugout.. Will have to change my Avatar from John Burrige being beaten at karaoke to the photo from the night... If I can find it!

Thanks CS.... And my whole holistic approach hasn't even mentioned Why is WGS at Newcastle and not us? part of the story....

That was the game we couldn't get to, being broke schoolkids we needed the transport. Then we ended up having to do a Geography Field Trip to Wales Dolgellau for the Semi and were told no field trip no A level... We struggled to get reception on a tiny pocket radio all day as we climed up Cader Idris, after we came down the Mud Slide (like THAT would be allowed these days) we finally picked up the legendary words - "and now over to Stamford Bridge where Southampton have gone further ahead" One lad fell off a rocl into the lake. The Geography Teacher then uttered the immortal words "calm down chaps, it's only a football match" We had to do the whole make up bumps in the bunk beds, climb out a second floor window an convince the landlord of a local pub 4 miles away to turn on the TV for match of the day.... We were 5 minutes too late getting there! Never seen those goals

Oh BTW I am willing to bet that before anyone at Pinnacle taked to MLT they asked him to sign a confidentiality agreement. Which is normal in these sorts of transactions once you get past the "have I got a deal for you" stage. Hence the lack of clarity from him

FWIW on the MLT debate. As many know I helped out one of the consortiums When MLT was quoted as supporting Pinnacle it caused obvious concerns to our Pantomime Villain group. As a result a clear statement was madein the Echo that MLT would support anyone that SAVED the club That is still available somewhere on the Echo web site. Knowing a small bit about "corporate PR management" from my previous life, I have no doubt that MLT was used. I also have no doubt that he was sweet talked. One thing I do know and sorry I have absolutely no proof, is that MLT was not kept aware of ALL the details. IF anyone was to ask him today how he feels, I know the answer even though I only ever spoke to him after the last game at The Dell. My guess would be he felt he had been used as someone's PR b*tch. I disagree with 19C's stance on him, but then that is because I've probably been lucky enough to have played in that game and had a lot of training and so can analyse things. He isn't tainted, he isn't to blame, he WAS genuinely worried about the club and did what he felt was right AT THE TIME. How many of us have never made a bad decision? I bet it bugs him to death. How many of us did not want to post anything in case it damaged Pinnacle who, at least at the beginning were very real. Someone should ask him at that golf day thingy.

As your thread was fading away into oblivion TT I have an answer for you Nope HTH

FF, by the time you had your adventure, there had been more than enough other leaks for it to have been shown that any "concerns" you were attempting to vindicate were in the public domain. I posted about "sources in the City" expressing concern and I got villified for it, however I had previously posted who those sources were and decided to withdraw gracefully under fire with everyone believing it was an MJ conspiracy. They were real, then they were not, the ONLY reason that they came back to the table on that Friday was due to a legal issue that arose in a conference call between the financial, legal and consulting team that were using MJ as the fall guy. Again, nobody on here is interested as it is all pantomine villain stuff, and the net result was a WIN for us and we have Markus All of this is simply ONE chapter in the tale. As far as I can make out, the first page of the story all starts with a comment made by WGS after an inept performance at Newcastle about "Dark Forces being at work within the football club". Use that as the base-line of your research and everything else in the whole sorry tale will fall into place, and allow us to start to heal. Pinnacle & your part in their downfall will provide an entertaining chapter towards the end of the story

Oh no you don't YOU'RE fookin BANNED after uddersfield!

The one I remember from that trip was Salt & Pepper. Strange sort of mock cave style. They took huge pride in giving us a "special table" that Lady Di had sat at.... We did one other I can't remember and some place that took pride in servig us Heineken, but as we were able to sit at the "International Buffet" in the hotel with the players each evening we sort of went for the anorak thing. Graham Thorpe & Inzi seemed genuinely interested in the ins and outs of Coombe Bissett Cricket Clubs' annual battles with Bishopstone and my being the first CBCC player to ever play the reverse sweep off dear old Garth at the Cuckoo in Hampworth for some obscure reason There was also a place on a roof when I went for the one dayers about 5 years ago overlooking Lahore Fort. They cooked the food on the side of the street and pulled it up to the table by rope and pulley........ Food was fine, simply because my man only showed me the kitchen on the way OUT.......... I had to give a seminar during the Test for our corporate clients. My mate was in hysterics. Apparently half the England team were so bored they'd come in to listen to my presentation about the design criteria for Efficent Datacentres. They were great and hung around singing autgraphs for the customers and taking the p*ss out of me. The National Rag (Dawn) even put me on their front page God bless them. Last time I went for the one dayers Freddie was going to get the Sports Personality of the Year Award, was invited by the England Physio I'd been yakking with and sat at the back of the conference room grinning while they did the link back to the show. He didn't have a clue........ honest

Peter Storeybook may well have built a consortium. But if Sultan Bin trump stays involved, you'll soon be back on here begging us for Rupert's phone number. good luck to you with the rescue, just don't expect anything other than the concept for a really bad reality tv programme from down this part of the world

Whoa what happened to the Smileys???????

For your comments =D>=D>=D> As a part of the whole picture, another reason it's X Files time. What's Scully up to these days? She go back to that Convent Hospice place?

Hmm don't we have anough players in the wrong positions?

I think the TSW Forum Match Home Team should have the Referees Changing Room named after them

Blimey A Trousers post without a picture of an Ostrich in fact no picture at all But it is right, what the hell is the point of a witch hunt? It serves nothing apart from court papers. Just one person gathering all the facts and telling us how bad things REALLY were, so that we fully understand what sacrifices, pain and side effects the cure will have. Invite Adam Leith or a real author/referee to write a story about it, but get everyone's inputs, not just speculation and snippets. The team was awful last night. However, if the gallant 3,000 had really known what a miracle it was that they were even on the pitch, perhaps the in-fighting would take a back seat. Never underestimate the intelligence of your supporters. After all, they know how to use a Sat Nav, which is more than many other people in life

OK we need width. Let's also get real, a pacey reliable winger who can get to the line and cross the ball as much as we are demanding is a very rare breed. Hell Stewart Downing & Aaron Lennon aren't world beaters very often. Teams can set themselves up tactically to negate that strategy. Even when we had Dyer, our players (and TBF coaches) were tactically naive as they struggled to exploit the gaps that a double team on a winger create. We need midfielders with BRAINS who can use full backs, we don't need another Terry Curran (who in his entire career as measured by the Under West Stand crew managed exactly ONE cross to a Saints player in his career) The balance is wrong, a shortage of intelligence and football brains is as big a problem as the lack of pace. We have pacey wunderkids who can rotate. We need the brains

Exactly my thoughts while watching Sportsline on Sky News tonight A consortium rescue is one thing, but a consortium made up of so many business culture imbalances. Heck would make our old days look like bliss Don't get me wrong, I hope that something happens, it's just that the SBT thing was hysterical from the beginning. Especially when I finally drop my one and only ITK bombshell :cool:

That assumes SBT has actually got any cash. If he hasn't then why would PS and others team up with him?

I did put the word HEAR in rather large letters (risking incurring the wrath of MM again) I would have watched but that bloke who offered the lift never arrived to collect me, damn shame I had bought some lovely Dates stuffed with almonds for the road trip and some nicotine patches. Weather was lovely in Saudi for the ride apparently! But it helps to emphasise my general concerns about a fear factor or a weught on inexperienced shoulders and general occassional adverse reactions to the medication needed to cure the patient...

22nd August The whole story is just as funny as fook... But why oh why did they not do some really very basic research into his whole approach..?? I've watched naive Brits trying to do business down here for almost 17 years, everytime it ends the same way. insh'allah the funds will be processed when I receive my 100million bonus/new loan against tv income/my friend Thaksin gets his pardon... This emirate has been financially on the rocks since February, anybody with a half a brain would know that all local businesses, banks and Government Agencies are struggling for short term liquidity but are working to pull things around. Nobody, but nobody outside of Abu Dhabi was ever going to pump up a loan to buy a football club, and SBT already blew his sources down there with his look at me approach to the early days of the Man City takeover. It was just a car wreck waiting to happen. FFS MJ had more funding support than SBT

So the argument is again the same one we have had for the past 10 years. Would we rather the Chairman had the authority to approve the requests of the football team management or would we prefer that a Director with experience had that authority. Take care with corporate structure terminology, there is a major difference between Directing and Managing. But his body language could EQUALLY be due to any of the facts that 1) NC hasn't been able to get the players he wants to sign due to inexperience 2) The SD is needed to ease AP's burden and they still haven't found one 3) They found one but he couldn't/wouldn't take the job for some reason 4) He was mad that nobody scouted Swindon for him 5) He like many of us knew that he had a pile of left-overs fit enough to put onto the pitch until the new guys come in 6) Somebody backed out of buying Saga/Rasiak meaning he missed out on another targetted signing OR some last ditch snag hit his second choice CB again 7) he may have had a row with his missus over the shopping bill....

At any point has anyone at the club said that we intend to appoint "A Director of Football"? And another one for the in-tray. Perhaps everybody had agreed on a Sporting Director and had made an offer around which a lot of the burden of managing the back office on the football side was based. And maybe he turned it down for non-footballing reasons? Leaving everybody with an un-expected burden that is causing strain?

Which is why I think Alp's comments about it being the midfield are close to the truth, and I agree that Hammond with Mellis as the "box to box" legs may be the start of the missing "spine" When you are left with no outlet except to hoof, it just keeps coming back at you all the time. So we are left with the concern that if this all works well, the rest of the squad are primarily still more natural CM's. Getting through the entire season with James, MS, Gobern, Thompson and eventually McLaggon out wide doesn't seem to have much chance of working. Something seems to be awry with Holmes and we are left with.... no width Possibly that is an area where we can bring in another higher quality loan Sell a couple of players at the end of the transfer window should allow a club to replace them with the "emergency loan system" http://www.joinmust.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50814 .........Football League clubs can have a maximum of four players under 23 and a further four players over 23 during any season on a standard loan, though no more than two of the latter can be signed from a single club. These standard loans are all done and dusted before the transfer deadline and run from window to window. However, Football League clubs can sign players on an emergency loan for a maximum of 93 days. An emergency loan cannot happen until seven days until after each transfer window has closed and are not allowed after the fourth Thursday in November during the first half of the season until the window reopens and after the fourth Thursday in March until the end of the campaign.......... Personally I think at least one out of the inexperienced wide youngsters will be good enough for this league next season, so a full-time sigining on a long contract may not be the best solution, but to do it the PROPER way and give them gentle increments of game time through the season would work with the cover. Just think again like with GB we have nothing but CM's left in the squad

A young one.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France_national_youth_football_team