dubai_phil

Panda makes a really valid point We need Lowe to go in order to re-unite the fan base. We need investment to stave off the despair of watching our bright hopes sold off We have a global bank crisis where EVERYBODY with debt is under pressure from the banks to reduce it. Even simply re-structuring the club so that we live within our means becomes harder when the banks want to cut back their lending to you. Any one of us who invests our money into ANYTHING demand a return. Some invest in season tickets and are unhappy with the "return" they are getting - ie results (but some are happy with entertainment) We invest in new cars or telly's we expect them to work. We save money in the bank or for a pension - we expect to get interest. We work in a company and we need them to make a profit so that we can have a job next year So why oh why would anybody invest in a football club to be called a blood-sucking leech when they expect to receive interest on their investment by the way of a dividend? Sure there is a case to cry out against those who have shares without the cash investment taking a dividend, but how on earth we can expect our club ALONE to become some socio-economic charity. Will those ranting at the bloodsuckers still rant if a new owner appeared? If so many fans are against "ownership" of our club, why not petition the local council to take it over as some overblown "community asset" and fill it with disgruntled supporter stress councillors.... The ONLY current course of action is to survive and THEN to pray we can be taken over when conditions improve. If that means waiting one week or one year or one decade then circumstances being what they are we have to accept that. But when somebody else comes in, how long before our armchair Dacha owners re-commence their campaign to rail against the capitalist system that is currently English Football. Lowe has to go, but unless anyone on here has Gordon Brown's private number to privatise football, the club will have to BORROW money to do that - if not from the banks then from new investors or owners. They will want interest and their money back one day. Too many on here don't put their money into the club for whatever reasons, yet demand something must be done. Where will they be come the revolution?

lol what do I know eh! No sooner does WC ask, I give a mate a call and they put on a big press release of their numbers. Maybe I should tap them up for a new car loan after all... (ironic winking thingy) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/dubai/3510908/Dubai-reveals-debt-levels-to-dispel-fears-over-growth.html Doesn't mean to say that commerce hasn't been walloped. First signs of IT companies going bust this week, that is always a sign things are tough if it is hitting the back end of all the project work here. Construction activity is slowing

hmmmmmmm. Decide Prop up your overheating economy and defend plummeting asset values owned mainly by your citizens or buy Christiano Ronaldo. Gordon Brown would of course put together 25 different committees to assess the possible outcomes, check the arrival time of the bandwagon and jump aboard proclaiming that it was all his work to get Scabby Dabby on board in the first place

Oh alright then. Meet me at the end of the Hythe Pier facing the sea at 6:15 am. Make sure you're wearing only a string vest and Y-fronts. I won't be in the country of course but you stand out there wearing that outfit at rush hour in the dark I'm sure you'll get royally f*cked

Earlobes 1-2 to Plymouth because we're Saints

Oh BTW, Kylie was GREAT. Not my favourite music but great night out and no she had a real concert the following night for us plebs!

Favourite comment of the week - they can blow 20 mil on fireworks but haven't enough money to build a sewage plant.... But in fact to be fair, the money was spent by a Sarf Arikaan geezer, not the gov. Have to say though, mate of mine stayed there couple of weeks back, the rooms are Travelodge standard, the hotel finishings are cheap and tacky and the "water park" has 6 rides and already the ultra cheap cubicle doors and locker doors are breaking off the hinges. Lots on marketing nothing on the substance.. Meanwhile, yes they just noticed there is a credit crunch - oops

Careful, the medication isn't THAT strong..... But there is a really interesting phenomenonanonanon (sic) that you have picked up on in the last line.. I think we are actually getting a TEAM now out on the pitch, not a collection of make do almost big names doing their thing. Early days, this is Saints so we know what will happen tomorrow but BOY a win tomorrow could be REALLY important (as usual) For some of us it is always thus

Maybe they were busy. Or maybe the demand for tickets was so great they passed theirs on to "uber-fans"

So here's a good one. How much will it cost the club to send back 51 pence to every season ticket holder for every game that there is a VAT reduction for...... I assume we will see the Stanley's of this word demanding the money back, but the cost of writing 7,000 ish cheques and then posting them for a couple of quid is scary. And then there will be riots in the street because the money comes back as a discount on the early bird discount.... and nobody wants to renew..... and it will have all gone into Lowe's pockets. As the contract to buy the season ticket was made before the VAT reduction, are fans even entitled to the cash back? Or has the club truly received a 50k ish windfall. Glad I am not working in admin in the club trying to sort the actual logistics and legal niceties of that one out. Actually glad I'm not working in retail having to print all those new price stickers in all the shops..... Oh you mean nobody will pass the savings on? Oh silly me how naive!

Possible, however the tv commentary team here last night and the studio crew were discussing the "reports this week" that "Arry will not have any money to spend in January. The one hope to cling to there is whether in that situation and where Spuds are at the moment in the table they need another "promising youngster" or whether they need a typical ready made foreign lump that "Arry was so fond of down the road. Small hope to cling to but who knows what may happen in January, ALL the banks could have gone bust by then.....

So all we have to do now is hope and pray that Saga, SJ, Rasiak, Thomas & Euell become world beating superstar goalscoring machines so we can get a combined total of 5mil for them in January. (Keeping Rudi and of course KD on at the moment) Then we can keep the kids... Hope, the final frontier........ Would mention flying pigs, but they aren't so popular down here

Yes. Survive at all costs then something might happen, especially with the UK economy still nowhere near Ground Zero on it's plunge. HTH

Been away from Blighty too long. I saw the Verve at Glastonbury but not heard of flummoxed. They an Indie band or what? Comparing us to the Verve - tempermental front man likely to walk at any minute - that works

Loved to watch Dennis play, but often he got us into trouble or conceded unnecessary fouls. I'd go for Mr consistent - David Peach

What? Are you saying this violence was orchestrated from the US? I thought it came from us? Is this some new CIA conspiracy to undermine the efficiency of the overworked NHS. Post facts if you must make ITK statements like this, EoA's wife could be in therapy for months after what happened yesterday. this is just plain WRONG

1) Anyone who stops learning is an arrogant fool, because that makes them believe that they know everything. Surely you've met plenty of them in your time! There is always something new, if we all knew everything we'd be richer than Bill Gates! we'd have taken our cash out of pension/savings plans/dodgy banks in the weeks before the crash! Most people like to learn. Taking on something new, even if just learning how to cook something different for dinner helps to keep you fresh at home and at work. (Although I would exclude the current global leadership and bankers - they certainly don't seem to want, or even be capable of learning) and I hate to say this - but we have one small piece of evidence that even Rupert has learnt. He's kept his mouth shut all season. That never happened before......! 2) JP has had what 5 months day to day experience of English football? if he considers himself an expert then we should be scared! But as many pointed out it is VERY different from what he had done before, so of course I REALLY hope he's learning. From what we have seen and heard of him in interviews, he doesn't come across as a know-it-all and I think that is a good pointer that IF he learns fast enough things could pick up on the playings side I agree on one thing though - I've posted before that I would prefer a "Director who oversees football" - it happens in many clubs.

Ah that's a goodie... Lowe brings in investment. How would that sit with the politicaliens (sic) on here? We pretty much all agree that we should have invested after the cup final, much of the hatred of Lowe stems back to that. We also don't like him because of his public utterances, and depending on our shade of political colour we believe he will never sell up, never dilute his power and only wants to rape the club of it's assets and eat babies for breakfast. What gave me the "cold sweat" moment was a chain of events (UNLIKELY I KNOW) Lowe has shut up. He has gone for a radical left field strategy that MAY (one day) work He's got rid of the journeymen then taking a quantum leap of what if... He brings in the investment. Then where do our opinions go and our long held beliefs? Personally, as you asked, I'd have to say he still needs to find a way to unite the fans, because the bitterness is too ingrained now to simply go away even if he delivered. I think I will duck out and hide behind the "well it most likely won't happen so I don't have to worry about it yet" answer. But scary to think it through.... Would make many heads on here explode just trying to get around the concept. ouch,

It's alright for you lot, you have the NHS to take care of these horrific injuries. EricofArabia & myself are stuck out here with ludicrous limited cover medical insurance which simply does not cover these types of injury. It's just taken me 30 minutes of begging to my bank to allow me to put the cost of corrective surgery onto my credit card, (which of course took it over the limit) At least now I didn't have to walk in through my front door sideways because of the insane grin, but I am worried about EoA, I believe he sustained severe damage to his lap and and lower back in the ensuing melee after the game. Not sure about the prognosis for Mrs EoA though, sounds bad. Dangerous times indeed to be a Saints fan in a foreign land without the back up of the NHS.

It was one of those little "throw away"quotes at the beginning of the season that worried me at the time and what we are seeing now. An academy team plays about 25-30 games a year. Suddenly we are playing 2 games a week. We accept the concept of the kids learning with their brains, but at the same time their bodies need to learn to cope with faster pace, harder action and stress as well as simply more games. Part of the chopping and changing is I agree because the kids themselves aren't up to the weekly grind. But I also feel that part of it was down to experimenting, who to replace Holmes? Who to play wide right. It clicked yesterday, maybe because BWP & Robertson made the formation work better? I have no idea. The big issue now is who is actually recovered in time for Tuesday. Robertson sounded like he had a good game, but obviously wasn't match fit not having played a while (comments about fading in the second half seem to back that up). But it will be interesting to see 1) If they all recover for Tuesday and 2) if JP changes it around. Personally being from the Mike Bassett school, I'd not change anything. But we did that after Preston.....

Football person - by your definition that would make me one and Rupert almost one:smt021 So no, I meant people who played at the top level, so have been in the game since they were kids, taken coaching or media qualifications and who have managed at PL & International level or appear regularly on TV as "analysts". JP is not an enigma, he is just learning. He like the team is not the finished article and from where I sit is as inconsistent as his young team at the moment. But IF we survive, then he will have learnt, I think we are slowly seeing that. One thing I have learnt in life is that nobody is born into being an expert, it comes with hard work, good listening skills and having good people around you to learn from - so with JP, as I said my jury is still out, BUT he had the core attributes that the guys I was dining with felt that a club like ours would need to move forwards again. I have an interesting what if? scenario for you though. What IF Lowe finds some money and "pumps it in"? What happens then to the politics on here, I had that thought a couple of weeks back and it makes an interesting scenario........... should keep this place busy for months!

If I was being *****y I'd say that was probably because you spend too much time with politician types and not experienced football people...:smt048 I was lucky enough to attend a real fun dinner with the local satellite provider's ex Sky crew back in February and we talked in depth about Southampton, and NP being appointed. The football types felt it was "a left field appointment" as we all did on here at the time. They discussed the options we could have chosen, but also the type of qualities that make a "newbie" successful. One critical element is that drive, energy and ability to earn respect - as Pearson did eventually to win us over, but the other was the legth of time spent actually coaching and the strength of character to have a core strategy and stck with it until it worked. It is still way too early for me to pass a judgement as I still think we made one gamble too many in the summer, but JP may make it. The kids were used to only playing 30 games a year, and he still chops and changes too much. But this is Southampton, every ray of hope will have a dark cloud or a silly mistake in the next game!

lol at this thread and lol at the turning the corner brigade. This season is a struggle on and off the pitch for all of us to cope with and we get good days and we get bad days. Today's a good day, enjoy it for a change, business as usual will be around soon, this is football you know and we stll have politics.

Oh let's all feel sorry for those who wanted us to lose today NOT

oh this is a little tense