dubai_phil

I take it you're having a bad day at the office then and are unhappy

TBH, unless we get that White Witch back to exorcise the curse of Sky, don't think it matters who we play, how much we spent or what league we are in, we know we'll be kr*p and embarrassed 90+% of the games. Which, considering that nowadays EVERY PL game is shown on live tv around the world (if not in UK) means we'll be screwed if we did go up. :-)

Enough already these bad puns are making me as Madras a March hare

I think he went off to become a senior bod at FA or PL in Youth Development. Can't recall the link though

Away from the "political" discussions. we've missed one interesting point. No comment from Lallana. None of the disgruntled that the club blocked a move to the promised land of the PL, nothing about how much money he personally has missed out on because of those eveil management types not letting him have his dream move. No KJ theatrics or Berbatov dramatics. That says a lot more than the assumptions about what Lowe may or may not wish to do for money. The lad is HAPPY here at the moment, enjoying his football (in the first team) and playing with his mates. It won't last forever but we should have noticed it.

According to some Saints fans there are two names missing from the list.... Tippy & Tappy Coat get my, oh b*gger can't - I'm in Dubai we don't do coats

Perhaps the main issue in the PL is that there really isn't much else to play for. Perhaps they should take a leaf out of the egg chasers book. Champions are the champions but then the top 8 go into play-offs for big bucks tv money and the prize of the 4th Champions League qualifying slot. If the play-offs are won by one of the top 3 the place goes to the 4th in the league. While most times it would be won by the big guns, it would at least give MORE tv revenue (to share 30% qualifiers, 30% rest of PL, 30% rest of FL, 10% "grass roots") It would also give more meaning to the top half of the PL. I know, silly idea that just gives the top guys more money but..

George Busy in the bar of course

What? you mean he's signing for the Sk8tes? And uh oh, Trousers appears on a player thread - that means it's a conspiracy and we're being taken over by some Pisceans in disguise?

Bit sluggish tonight, just back from the pub. Is this the new HCDAJFU list for January already?

Hmm Wonder if I'd be able to get him back here in my cabin baggage???...... Would be a good companion for my highly trained killer attack tortoises in my back garden - no rush they're still doing their reverse hibernation/sleeping when it's hot thingy

Raita you lot, I've had enough of this you can Kulfi stupid puns for another day I lycheed this when it started but it's time to show this thread the (tan)door(i)

Is she sitting on a spin dryer?

I hate to say this, but trying to pronounce his first name and having just seen the Lowe Vindalood thread would this not have been a more appropriate morning after ending to that. Of course, this story may not be full of ***t but it seems a bit sort short on substance - kind of a bit runny to me

In the same way that all the Abu Dhabi stuff at Man City was finished on Sunday - last working day before Ramadan....... Only the PR happened on Monday:-) But that also means we won't see any money from Astruius if they were expecting it out of Dubai/Kuwait/Bahrain until after Eid (around 2nd October)

OK that's enough of this romantic dreaming krap The LAST thing we actually want is our "leadership" at SMS reading these threads and deciding to pander to the fans wishes and giving us mundaneness and keeping going like we are with no money. Rupert - get on the phone to Dubai (try google) - you KNOW you can get them to try it the "bottom up way" because that is how this city was born - that's your competitive begging letter advantage. Get them in, get the job as Chairman with your "total football from the bottom up" and with THEIR money and invest their zillions in bringing through hundreds of local kids every year. You know it makes sense:-)

Wouldn't want to be just a Crewe. Life HAS to be about HOPE, and so must football. What would be a BETTER option is to dream that we could produce OUR team that could from time to time upset the applecart and rub a few wealthy noses in the sh*t. To accept only mundane survival al la Crewe would not be it and we would very quickly fade to obscurity with crowds of around 10-12,000

An interesting snippet of allegations from a passing pundit with links back to City..... Chelsea had a plane waiting for Robinho and were somewhat shocked to see him arrive in Manchester. City have been loosely advised that they have $900million in the war chest with which to become a global brand to help drive the recognition of Abu Dhabi. (but it would be nice if they were already qualified for the CL by January :-) Abramovich only has 12 billion, Abu Dhabi have a trillion, lol at the Chelsea paupers To be honest, as many on here have posted, it would be nice to simply get to a self funding state now because not even in our wildest dreams are we going to do it by getting a mere billionaire in as owner. (Oh and the other snippet - Keegan gave Wise a list of the players he wanted, and Wise gave him players he'd never heard of - sound familiar?) No idea how much is already urban legend but...

As far as WE'RE concerned, you lot up there are ALL northern monkeys :-) Don't you love "isms" there is always another way of looking at them. Long live compassism

Looking at the "strengths" of the squad as it now stands, I wonder if it may not be an idea to tweak the formation slightly to better fit the players we have. Cork as a Sweeper rather than as DM in front of the back two - he has the quality by the sounds of it. That allows Surman and James to become more wing backs which taps in better to their skills as midfielders. I ain't no expert, but long ago, Lawrie built his system around the players we had (Agboola as sweeper) and we did alright.

alpine_saint;36656]So what's the answer ???? 42 Think that is the problem, we didn't really know what the question was. We talk on here about investment and consortium. I have long felt that was NOt what is needed. I have felt that an investor should be an EGOTIST or a foreign entity wishing to create a global brand. The article is clear, it is very difficult to invest in football and make a profit. Taksin has and the Yanks at Liverpool could have (if they'd let DIC buy them), but for the rest of the ladder below them.... I still feel (depsite the jokes) that there IS an opportunity for a "global brand" of Southampton FC. But I also think we lost that spirit. PERHAPS the new way is something a global entity could buy into = Dubai grew from nothing so they should buy us and build from nothing with the kids. (I wish) rather than any old millionaire, because in the grand scheme of things - anyone else won't have enough money. Considering the mega-rich owners coming into football over the last few years, it seems to me Lowe chose the absolutely worst moment to get c.ocky and take his eye off the ball, leading to our relegation. Ah the IF ONLY line. I of course agree with you, but again none of us expected it to happen when WGS left, and hindsight is a wonderous thing. The point is also of course we all KNOW that Rupert didn't try and find investment, but the Abramovich to Chelsea issue changed the whole ball game, even IF Rupert had been looking, we would never have got one of those, we may have got a Majedski, but even he couldn't cope with the demands of the PL If it had happened 5 yrs earlier, we wouldn't feel so wretched. If Le Tissier had trained harder, drank more water, stayed fitter longer etc (If only again). Funnily enough that old chestnut Pride goeth before a Fall, seemed to be back to front for us - we fell but only really last season did our pride catch up and take a dive to make us feeling so wretched now If it hadnt happened, we probably be one of the rich big-boys under new owners too. Or we could have had a Taksin or a Gaydamark. Man City only survived by the skin of their teeth. What price Sk8tes before long? No matter what WE think, we are not a big enough global brand, and to be honest I have no idea why people think City are either. Wigan, Bolton Middlesborough have rich owners but it isn't enough and HOW MANY seats are empty every week at the Riverside? But BY CRIKEY it would have been nice to have ONLY been a Bolton or Wigan these past 3 years:-)

:-) Easy - 1) white haired bloke in the Da Vinci code... 2) what happens to people who KNOWINGLY break the rules in places like Saudi (allegedly) Another one - sitting in the front row behind the goal at Sunderland away, 30 mile an hour wind into your face, temperature of zero and intermittent snow in face while we lose 2-0 and have no shots at goal that's self flagellation - we could have stayed in the pub as we sort of knew what was coming..... By contrast, externally inflicted flagellation - Opening day of the season at home to Palace last year, that wasn't self abuse as we all had high hopes of walking the league. HTH

LSC starts this thread yesterday, today the Telegraph weighs in with it's own take http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/09/03/do0304.xml We aren't the only ones thinking about all this

OK, I have some REALLY fantastic new about a potential takeover. There has now been no news or leaks about potential investors (other than our own regurgitated stuff on this thread) for almost 9 weeks. As we have ALL seen with the Man City takeover, it was only known about AFTER the deal had been signed. The silence was kept locked tight for 6 months. So the really GOOD news is that we have heard nothing new for 9 weeks therefore there is now ONLY 17 more weeks until 6 months of silence is complete and we are taken over. There, simple wsasn't it.

The psychology of being a Saints fan is interesting. In our PL years no matter what anyone says, we were always in trouble with such small crowds and income at the Dell, (much though we loved it) As a result for many of our latter PL years we had what the Americans would call "a losing season" where defeat was expected and a draw often greeted as if it were a victory. Sure we had some flashes and moments (03 of course) and we had MLT to provide the hope and magic, but overall as I recall from other threads, we lost more than we ever won. Survival was the key. We stayed up but year on year WE WERE LOSERS. When we dropped into the CCC we had an arrogance, we did not deserve to be there, we would be straight back up, and of course in that first year we only just about hung on. Then we had the play-off year. We actually had a winning season, but it never felt like it as it was only a run at the end of the season that got us there. All of that "success" was about how much we spent or how big the name of the players we were signing was. Fuller was 90k so he was cr*p, even though he had a good season last year and is now playing in the PL and scored the goal of the week. Now though we seem to have grown up. Nobody is happy at the financial mess we are in, and we have started to become enthused by the quality of a performance and the commitment of the players. We are STARTING to discover Football again. I really do not believe that this is a "happy clappy" thing, I also don't think we have lost our marbles and are suddenly thinking this is the best thing ever, I think it is a sudden realisation that despite the money and the names, we have been watching dross. We have forgotten that going to football was supposed to be ENTERTAINMENT. It had become a sort of self-flagellation. The reaction to the early games this season is one of SHOCK and a slow awakening of what football used to be as a Saints fan. A key reason we see so few kids in Saints shirts is that all they would remember is being cr*p. The kids have no legends as we all did when we first started, no magic moments, only doom, gloom and politics. One thing that stands out for me in many of the reports is that we seem to have lost many fans but the number of people who go simply to have their weekly fill of more depression seems to have increased. The moaners had taken over the asylum, they were programmed to always complain. If the football was sh*t then maybe they felt a little better about their own lot in life. But now suddenly we have entertainment again, and as a collective of fans we are in a state of mental shock. It is not right, we should be rubbish, we should have JW, and all his predecessors to blame for all that is wrong in the world. Now we cannot blame an 18 year old French kid and even if we don't win we actually ENJOYED what we saw on the pitch. It is freaking us out, it is putting a slow smile back on the face, we're happy that it went pear shaped Saturday as that put us back into our comfort zone of being abused and giving it. We are British dammit, we are programmed from birth by the media to be unhappy, if it isn't BAD news it isn't NEWS, We can't go to footbal and ENJOY it! But again, slowly I detect that the fans just maybe coming out of their slumber and realising that if the team play with commitment and a smile and no little skill, we as fans may just remember how to smile ourselves. After all these years, just imagine what it would actually feel like to have a "Winning Season" and not to be pereninal losers. (Probably be another year before it happens though)