dubai_phil

Or it will introduce Time Travel so we can pop back tell Crouchie to keep the ball down by the corner flag instead of shooting against (was it?) Boro so we get an extra point and stay up.......

And what has been in very short supply of late. How passionate were say Davenport & Bernard????...... etc etc etc etc etc etc :-) TBH I stopped going back in the Branfoot days when it was akin to trying to watch a bloke playing pin-ball machine. Wasn't a protest, just decided that going shopping with the wife was marginally less painful

Did you watch the Rovers game? He (was) a student and so the train fare and the ticket fare were the key denominator. As he said a fiver for the movies where you know you will be entertained or 40 quid inc train fare to watch say the Charlton game (which I saw) Point is he goes now in the hope of entertainment, not because he is a die hard better than us fan:-)

I like the concept of what is being done. I like the "vote of confidence" that this will give to the youngsters. I think it is important to START this season having a level of self confidence and belief instilled in the youngsters. I think they will have good days and they will have bad days. I also STRONGLY believe that once we get past the transfer window and see who has been able to be sold to help the finances and who has been left behind is when we will see JP start to EARN his lowely (sic) salary. At that point our season will really hang on how JP can bring those wiser old heads into the machine that he wants to have on the pitch. I feel certain that by October we will see kids but also a more realistic blend of the youth and experience. Saturday is their big day the youngsters have earnt it, they will learn a lot win lose or draw as will our management team. How they respond to the lesson is for me the most critical issue.

FWIW for every Hacienda (who is entitled to do what he wants) there are others like my son. He's not been to SMS for about 3 years, he went to the Rovers cup game and said never again. He hasn't been to any pre-season games, but he's been watching and reading and has been chasing me almost daily to get him a ticket for the Brum game along with two of his mates who he's dragging along. His motivation - it sounds like they are going to have players out there on the pitch who may actually be trying to play footbal and win a game, I don't care if they're rubbish, only that they make me want to watch them. So the corners won't fill up until everyone comes back but for every one who is negative for politics there is one who may actually be ready to go for the fact they may be entertained or see some passion that they can actually get behind. Who knows who's right?

What is the approximate air speed velocity of a Swallow? Will that be more relevant than the name of a Titanic body double?

Yep Was expecting 3 or 4 nil slappings to be honest and a bunch of lads running around like headless chickens and a manager who didn't know what to do.... Not saying it went well, just better than expected:-) and as Nick mentioned, we BOUGHT some players in who actually look like TCDAJFU

Which would hopefully free up some money for a loan full back or two..... James sounds like he could make the step up, but after him we are a little short of experience. And as others have said, youngsters WILL have a drop in form or get injured/tired as Surman seemed to last season, so for 46 games + (hopefully) some cup matches we need cover

Agree 100%. But somehow I do NOT see that a serious investor begins that activity by leaking snippets to people who post on web forums.... As in how many is this now??

There is still another way. I posted something ages back on TSF that seemed to get a nibble from someone. Now that there are two shareholders working "together", it is more possible to invite a "partner" into the business either by issuing more shares OR as a JV. Now again, MW states carefully that the property assets are "years away" from being realised which is true not just politically but also with the UK downturn in contruction. But there IS an option to bring in a "long term" partner who works on those issues and obtains a "share" of the development profits. Low cost long term but could still bring in a source of "capital" rather than income. We'll know how bad the finances really are by the 30th August, because I am sure that IF we don't get rid of the deadwood SOME part of the family silver will have to go. But that's 3 or 4 games away yet.

The position is that the club needs to be financially stable for ANY new investor to begin to make a return on their investment. They would still have to get rid of "underperforming deadwood" before they bought in Ronaldo, Rooney or whatever. They would then need to instill a new "management style and structure and culture" from the top downwards. Today, despite our reservations, this is being done. As an investor what VALUE can they add to this process, none. Now, this is NOT to say that the changes will be enough for financial security OR that the plan and employees (coaches and players) are the right ones. The point is that the TIMING is wrong. It undermines what SMALL spirit is being re-kindled. Whoever is drip feeding these leaks MUST understand that it is WRONG. Which convinces me it is somebody with an axe to grind - Crouch/Salz/Ex Execs YES we would like investment, yes we would like new owners with money and a plan, but the PROBLEM is that we don't need it before SATURDAY, and also it will not HAPPEN before Saturday. So they need to shut up, stop being amateurs and childish ITK'ers and let the team TRY and see if they are up to it. It will NOT harm the buy price to wait until Monday and it will save them a LOT of work and Money to shut up until Christmas. When the investment will be more beneficial (as in they will not be tempted for that money to be used to pay last season's numpties wages)

Hmm Everything had settled down for a few weeks, pre-season had gone better than many had even dreamt of. Whilst not in a state of euphoria, the fans were slightly less pessimistic about the new season than we had expected. Some of the kids may be up to the task, and we have 11 players on a pitch who actually WANT to wear our shirt. And then a new rumour is just tossed up like a hand grenade very shortly after another alleged leak about Paul Allen. Sorry, smells of one of the old "wounded troupe" trying to keep the divisions amongst everybody bubbling. We hadn't had games and spin since the end of last season and here it is again. TBH - right now - eff off whoever it is, we don't need you THIS week thanks.

If you suffer those issues I am not certain due to our local internet censorship, but I heard of an organisation that gives assistance, think it was something like http://www.allegedlylikemaxmoseley.com. Not sure if they stand corrected or if they are a legal assistance fund. Meanwhile, I know what you are getting at, but compare to Crouch's "push on for the playoffs and in the interests of the club type stuff". At LEAST the PR manager (yes it was a subtle dig) has raised some of the same points about the future of football that we have debated on here in the past year or so rather than just coming out and saying "the spirit of Southampton" or "it's a tough job but together we will see it through ". It isn't going to change our opinions but again at least it is a MORE professional type message that is coming out

It is well constructed, covers all the important and salient points. And I think it will be an important moment in time. As such I think we should file it SAFELY, and reopen it. Firstly on 1st September after the sales window closes, secondly in January and again at the end of the season and just see what changed and how... Personally, it's a bit long but actually looks like it was written by somebody who believed that they were talking to grown ups instead of 6 year old chavs for a change, so for that alone phew, no more Crouchie Churchillian speeches, I thank the new PR manager. And hope that the work can now stay behind the scenes and with the programme. Oh and don't you DARE let the lads get promoted, I'd have to move back, as from what I've heard so far, 11 players wearing our shirt with pride in the PL is just something I would not want to miss. (Luckily just signed a new 3 year deal to stay:-))

Thanks for putting this up Nick. Won't spoil it with a comment

It wasn't IMHO of course. Will be good when Roman's tv series finally comes out

Well, there is some good news. They have a backer who sent them the fiver. The bad news is that he was in Zimbabwe and by the time the money arrived it was only worth 76p

After guessing we'd get results at Sheff Wed and Hull I now refuse point blank to vote or predict anything to do with Saints as even worse than the opposite seems to happen. It seems safest. OR of course The other view is to forecast a bottom two finish whattodo?

It is a bit of a culture shock so far - finding things coming out of SMS, (occassionally) interesting and also entertaining bordering on humourous. It really must be said that I forgot that football is not a life sentence to manic depression but is actually supposed to be an entertainment industry. Now, as UP will say, the time fast approaches when the "experience" of our manager becomes tested. At least so far he does actually seem to have an IQ of more than 15 and also seems to understand that us fans also seem to have an IQ above that as well. One of those "funny wise sayings emails" was in my junk box this morning. It had a really apt one... Good Judgement comes from Experience. Experience comes from Bad Judgements Let us hope.....

Well here's one for the books, season isn't here yet and already total football appears from these comments to be morphing into some abstract version of Championship Manager:-) http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/?page_id=10388 Also, interestingly for the collectors of spin, Tony Pulis comments elsewhere on the SFC site that "we murdered West Ham" What next? Will Smith up front as I Robot? Hampshire Police move in and arrest us all for playing becoming serial killers and murdering teams? But seriously, hope it all works Obviously, you need an MBA to get into the new Saints team if its THAT complex.... but rainy nights in Burnley and brain cells and footballers worry me

Yawn. Yes we KNOW already. As Wes says - the shareholders had to work together or they all had to go. But as SOME people who MAY spend SOME of their life doing something OTHER than searching for new ammunition in the pro-anti debate MAY have NOTICED, the global economy is f*******d Now this is IMPORTANT to us Saints fans because it means that CREDIT is hard to get (not just for us to buy tickets and beer but it means that people and BUSINESS want to find sources of CASH. Anybody who has MADE money needs to have had HALF a brain and luck to succeed. But RIGHT now, if you have money you can make a LOT more money with it, people and companies go bust and whether it's Flog It or Alliance & Leicester you can make MONEY if you have MONEY in a "slump". The ONE thing that people with money will NOT do right now is WASTE it on extremely dubious dodgy deals. Invest 20mil or so to buy the shares in SLH and what - we are LOSING money - so they have to fund that gap OR work their socks off to STOP the losses. Why would anyone with a brain come in right now and invest the money when somebody else has ALREADY started to do the hard and unpopular work? They can earn MORE money elsewhere, wait for the finances to be destroyed OR stabilised (minimising their risk) and THEN still buy the club for the same basic cost as it is today. So it matters not one iota what anyone thinks. Simple economics, simple business sense and pure bloody bad luck mean the shareholders will be around until 1) The "recession" shows sign of easing or 2) The club's finances make an investment a sensible business risk. You guys on both sides are just going to spend another year typing the same boring stuff that we have read, and agreed with 1,000's of times already. They WILL be gone, but not in the next 5 days before the season starts but one thing I can guarantee, it AIN'T gonna happen because you scored a debating point this week If Only is a phrase that if you start to use it will consume your life. Leave it, move on or you get hit by another if only that you didn't see coming

It seems we are suffering from what is an old problem. Going way back into the Jones era, we built up our squad, this carried on into the WGS days. We bought players in and never actually managed to get rid of any. At one time I recall we had a squad of about 40 players. The current crop of overpaid numpties (last season's TSF post match buzz word) show that our OLD policy of bringing in "PL quality players" on big wages was even more wrong than it could have been. (No that is not praising our "new policy" just it SEEMS like we may have budgeted for the spending of transfer funds but didn't ACTUALLY think through how much these would cost in the long run, and whether the actual contracts were wise). When you look at the actual transfer market this season, there have not been a lot of moves, deals are falling through, players are being re-valued (Andy Johnson to Fulham and Hull trying to buy anyone as examples). It SEEMS as if a wave of common sense is drifting into football, people are worried or the banks aren't stumping up cash. Lots of "big talk" moves for players but a lot of others seem to be more careful. I think we (and others) will start to be in trouble IF we can't move out players. But I also expect that as we get closer to deadline day, things will start to move.

You missed out Pele for that shirt pull that gave away the penalty in the first leg at SMS.....

If only I knew how to insert a photo into the new forum I could have shown you his old seat.. oh well pm would work MB

nope see that worked.. cool