macca155

Great appointment at last an intelligent manager who won't talk nonsense, cause problems and have a better tactic than just hitting the ball long to Lambert. I remember seeing S****horpe play us a few years ago and whilst we won they played the better football by far just a bit inexperienced and lightweight. Let's just hope the fans give him a chance. I suspect that 'put it in the mixer' isn't one of his favourite expressions. He's seriously qualified no problems on that front.

I still think its going to be him,

Solent talking about it now. Howe being strongly touted B'Mouth Chairman pretty much giving the green light Howe being diplomatic. Over 30 WORKING managers have expressed an interest let alone unemployed managers I think we have all forgotten how attractive Saints actually are. Laters

O'Neil would be great but surely that's kite flying we remain a mid table league 1 side at the moment hardly that attractive however ambitious we may be. I don't think it will be a new boy Cortese needs someone proven to apease the fans so maybe he is thinking big and looking to bring in a big name currently off the radar.... maybe Hoddle Bernd Schuster Jürgen Klinsmann Marco Van Basten Michael Laudrup Any of those would do thank you very much Cloud cuckoo land I think... probably end up being Buckle of Torquay

As moon monkey says Dodsy ongoing rant at the officials was the most entertaining part of the evening. He really doesn't give it a rest but good on him. Were you standing next to me Moon? The fourth official was about 16 years old but he had no hesitation in telling Dodsy to calm down. He has a buzzer to alert the ref that a substitution needs to be made... I never knew that, you learn something new every day Saints had about 100 players warming up all with heart monitors .. very professional. Havant had that hard edge of a solid non league side who take no prisoners. The match itself was men against boys. Havant were strong experienced and very organised. Whatever system Saints were playing they didn't get it in the first half. They were always second to the tackle and constantly allowed themselves to be pressed back into their own half. Two soft goals 'down the slope' with Sammy igoe showing a bit of professional experience to undo the defence to slot the ball home for their second. It's difficult in these games because you really know many of the players but I thought Rancine played well and he imposed himself a lot more in the second half. Saints made about seven substitutions (I lost count) in the secondf half and started to play with a bit more purpose and pace. It was pretty much Saints all the the way in the second half and they managed to grap a goal from Spooner who shot low and hard from the edge of the area. I thought they might grab a second but in the end it was a fair result. On this showing I wouldn't be surprised to see the Hawks challenging for the conference this year as they are a tidy side so the score didn't disgrace a very young Saints side but I don't think we'll see many of these lads in the first team any time soon. The only exception in my view would be Racine who is enourmous and has great distribution. Anyway a tenner to get in, 80p for a cup of tie and a great view by the dug out. A thoroughly enjoyable evening I'm looking forward to the season now. Macca

That's rubbish I live in Havant and will be there. They make a point of not having aggro with Saints, they're pleased to see good sides at west leigh. I've been to every friendly there and never seen any trouble. Wearing colours is probably a bit strong as the ground is right in the middle of Leigh Park but should be a good game. Havant are quite strong so the academy will have a game on their hands.

What a privilige to speak to the great man. After Steve Williams he was simply the best What a privilege to speak to the great man. After Steve Williams he was simply the best Saints player ever and I will have a proper fist fight in the car park with anybody who says otherwise Oh ok keep you're jacket on I suppose Le Tissier, Channon, Paine, Davies, Keegan, and now Lambert have a shout at that but Steve is the same age as me so when I watched him play I had more empathy with him as a player. He was a poacher of extraordinary talent and like Lineker he chased everything and never let the goalkeeper relax. He could turn on the skill when needed but most of his goals were from being at the right place at the right time inevitably unmarked. He was a Prices boy as I remember and had some 'trouble' in Portsmouth that did his back in and sadly he was never the same player again. We were very privileged to see a team containing so many great English players I wonder if we are about to repeat that.

Huddersfield were going to buy him but decided not to in the end as they said he wouldn't be worth anything in three years. I think Sir Rickie has a few issues with them about that. Good decision boys

I think we have to be careful about not confusing transfer gossip with reality. Lambert cost a lot but he is already worth double. James, Lallana, Morgan, and Hammond would all bring in decent fees. From what I can see the club is operating a transfer policy that increases the net worth of the company. What is also clear is that some of the deadwood needs to be cleared out. For a league 1 club the squad size is quite big and that obviously needs to change. I guess Cortese views that as baggage from the initial purchase and contracts are being run down. Marcus is a very successful business man and I suspect he wants Saints to bring in as good a return as his other businesses. With no debt the club can easily support itself. Gates of 20,000 three times a month will bring in a million at an average of £17 per ticket, Add TV money sponsorship, catering and merchandise and you have a very viable business. 40 players on an average of £2k per week gives a wage bill of £400000 lets say £600,000 with all employees included. The one thing old Rupes had right was a plan to diversify and grow the business. I don't think we'll ever see massive high earners at St Marys again but I do think the club will be a big player again. I get the distinct impression that there is a cold wind blowing in football. Portmouth will probably be first to fall but Wigan, Hull, and Bolton are all in the same boat. Palace, Watford and Cardiff are already in trouble and I bet there will be others. Coming through are lean well run clubs Leeds, Saints, Forest, and Norwich as well as well run smaller clubs such as Doncaster Rovers. The established order in England is being challanged and thankfully Saints are on the right side for once. I wonder if England can still sustain four professional leagues. League 2 is disintegrating and is on a par with the conference and as we know all too well the lower end of Div 1 is pretty desperate. If Saints make the Premiership in five years I wonder what it will look like. Anyway we've endured more than our fair share of pain in recent years lets enjoy this for a while. Macca

Hey I was sat right behind you , hope I didn't swear She seemed to enjoy the occasion certainly was less troble than my old Dad who was sat next to me ha ha. I took my daughter when she was 3 and that was standing on the Archers... hard work and as I remember I left early too. Anyway she saw a win for her first game and that's important. She'll have to go to every game now. Macca

I rate him Duncan he certainly isn't the finished article yet but he has time and vision and we haven't seen that since Le Tissier strutted his stuff. He's the sort of player who needs direction from the manager otherwise he looks out of place. He's still only young and lets face facts we will need some class if or when we go up. Funny how players divide fans I guess it depends when you watch them. Macca

He was funny seemed to know everyone in the crowd and quite proud of his dented head. He was much the same at Swindon...bit of a character I reckon.

Just back It was too cold raise an atmosphere and with such a small but open stadium there was precious little chance of maintaining any sort of noise. Like the players it was all too easy. 2000 well drilled Premiership standard Saints fans, with an armoury of songs if required, against 30 or so teenagers who have spent their short lives supporting a dull league 2 side. We couldn't be arsed frankly just like the players who took their foot off the pedal when they scored three goals. I have a lot of respect for teams like Northampton and their fans, it can't be easy when success is measured by survival. They could sit on their backsides and watch Sky but they choose to support their local side just as it should be. Rugby is the main game in Northampton any way so the football club will always be second best. I still can't come to terms with the indignity of playing in the 2nd round. The cup has really only just started. It was an easy win but a bit ugly. Typical FA cup game important for them pain the preverbial for us. Saints are in the hat for tomorrow's draw and Staines at home will do for me. Macca

Ha ha apologies but it was 33 years ago and trust me when you are standing in the Fratton end trying to supress a smile Ghandi could have come on and scored and I wouldn't have noticed. Very hairy day indeed but nevertheless enjoyable. Macca

What a great article. Well done to whoever put that lot together Williams was my number one hero. I think you have to see a player's debut to be completely emotionally tied. I missed Le Tissiers and was too young for Channon's (just). I saw Steve's debut at Fratton park whilst standing in the Fratton End with my Pompey supporting mates. Needless to say he scored an excellent goal which sent them down to the third division... er places you don't want to be when that happens. Whilst moran deserves his place and maybe a lower number O'Brien should be there as well as he was a very similar player. I wonder if any of our players now (other than Davis) will make a similar list in a few years. If they take us up and stay this could be the beginning of a new generation. Lallana/Lambert/Connolly have the potential to be true heros but not in this league. Worst 50 will follow and Frank Saul will be top of my list, to think we got him in exchange for Chivers and a bit of dosh....... Shame david Webb didn't stay as he was a great player. Alan

Er yes they were penalties Lambert scored both end of story. Should either penalty been given... not really. Saga's dive was a bit over the top but if you saw Channon in his pomp he did far worse. The defender was late and made contact that's what the ref made the decision on. The fact that Saga made an idiot of himself trying to con the ref actually has nothing to do with it. I'm not a ref but I do know that if contact is made anywhere in the box which is judged as a foul it's a pen. Doesn't matter where it is. Footballers and fans always seem to be more incensed when a player is upended in a goal scoring position than when it's right in the corner of the area. The 2nd was right in front of us and that was embarrassing. Yes the lad made contact technically. He was tracking our player and didn't see the ball as it was played across him. he didn't lift his arm or make the slightest attempt to play the ball and was subsequently gobsmacked (as where we) when the pen was given. I hate those decisions because it will be Saints who suffer next time. When will refs realise that football is a contact sport and that occasionally the ball may inadvertedly strike a player on the arm. The ref had no choice once the lino had flagged as the decision was out of his hands. he did the lino a right old look though so I suspect that will be mentioned in his report. Unfair or no it gave us 3 points ... excellent and put right some outrageous decisions from earlier games.

Check this out http://newsarse.com/2009/09/16/portsmouth-to-be-released-early-from-premiership-on-compassionate-grounds/ ha ha

As I walked up to the ground today with my lad I realised that I had left the tickets in the car. Naturally being a fat lazy b'stard I made my lad run back tot he car to get the tickets. The trade off was that I put a bet on for him. 2 - 0 saints win Lambert to score was his selection. I put £2 on as an accumulator and the lucky devil is now £44 better off. He was in a hell of state for the last ten minutes I couldn't believe the odds 22-1 for what was clearly the favourite bet for Saints fans. No wonder there was a massive queue at the kiosk after the game. The bloke in front of us walked off with a fistful of £20's so a good day all round for a lot of Saints fans. Their special today was Saints win 2 - 0 Pompey lose 2 - 0 win £646 to a £10 bet. Ooohh missus I nearly went for that but bottled it in the end.........

"Al Fahim takeover seems about to collapse. Latest rumour is David Dean to step in with perhaps eventually The Kazakstan guys who currenly owns a chunk of Arsenal." No idiotic abuse here Eyes K8 I remember the pain of our summer all too well to gain any satisfaction from your clubs plight. However I think you may be clutching at straws with this one, Dein has been associated with every takeover going and frankly haven't Pompey had enough of dodgy owners. Marcus may well be looking for a quick profiut but I guarantee he'll leave Saints in better shape than he found them, though couldn't have been much worse really. The answer as it is with all clubs really is to take your medicine cut and slash where necessary. Sell to survive (as a club) and run the club as a going business. Yes that means relegation maybe even 2 but it's the only way the fans will ever feel that they have some control over the club. Macca

Nothing wrong with sensible debate pfc123, I reserve my purile abuse for dirty northern clubs like Leeds etc. I trust you will join me in that. I'll pick up on one point you state 'someone wants a Premiership club on the cheap' but as I tried to point out Pompey are certainly not cheap. Middling debt by Premiership standards but still stop you in your tracks numbers. No stadium, no facilities, and at the moment a tenuous hold on Premiership status. There are precious few people in the world who have 100 of millions to throw about and Pompey like Saints just don't have the draw of clubs in larger cities. Man City have a huge following and outstanding facilities, I know because i had a good look as they were beating us 3 - 1 That attracted arab money because the investment could be made on players for whom there is every likelyhood of some return. 150 million spent on players will generate league success, shirt sales and champions league TV money.... no brainer really. Frankly I can't wait until these clubs go into a Europe league, self implode and leave proper football to proper clubs. Macca

"Relax, we'll be fine" Not a 100% sure about that my Blue friend. Pompey won't go out of business but these money problems have been going on for years and have never really been resolved. In reality the situation with both teams is probably about the same. Similar size cities with similar size crowds and fan base. Marcus bought Saints for 13 million and that got him a modern stadium in good nick, state of the art training academy, building land, hospitatlity/conference set up, League membership desperate as it was, and most importantly of all no debt and sole ownership. All he needed to do is buy a team which in Div 1 is probably 5- 6 million maximum and fund higher wages to enable the club to climb out of this position. Not a bad investment really just a bit oif a long term one. Pompey have the highly prized Premiership status and that is worth millions but they are firmly positioned in the Premiership relegation league which will be perm three from any one of Pompey, Burnley, Stoke, Hull, Wolves, Bolton, Blackburn, and possibly Wigan. They have a debt that seems to vary every week but probably around 60 million. The stadium needs rebuilding and that's an eye watering 100 million before you start thinking about it. That can only be funded by a hotel/casino/shopping development and Portsmouth Council will not allow that as it will hit Gunwarth their own Golden Goose. Even with the transfer of some players the wage bill will eat up the money from Sky and 19K crowds. There aren't any players to sell as Pompey have had a policy of not paying money up front for years so when a player is sold precious little money comes through to the club unless they are home grown. Good young players are coming through but it takes years to see a return on that investment. For an investor who wants a Premiership football club he needs to wave goodbye to 200 million before seeing a return and hoping that the team can survive in the Premiership. If I had that sort of money a team like Forest or Sheffield Wed/Utd would be more attractive. Fratton Park is Pompey's secret weapon in the same way the Dell was for Saints and once they lose that with a ground half full of plastic fans survival will become even more difficult. If you doubt that just ask any Saints / Arsenal / Man City fan. The problem is that the difference between the lower teams and the upper elite is growing and the number of teams where possible points can be taken is shrinking. Unfortunately you have to add City to the top four now which means that's ten games where the best any team can hope for is a couple of points possibly a rare win. Next you have Villa, Spurs, Everton, and probably Brum, West ham, Fulham, Sunderland where points will be hard to come by. Look coldly at those facts and it looks bleak for Pompey but as you say beat Fulham on Saturday and everything will look a little brighter. Personally I want Pompey to stay in the Premiership and Saints to join them as quickly as possible. Obviously then Pompey should lose and frequently be relegated as that is the natural order of things However Fratton Park should be preserved as a national heritage site. Dump it may be but I have some treasured memories from there and some terrible ones as well. It stands as one of the last reminders of when teams played football on equal terms. A dark, cold intimidating environment and the only thing you could buy at half time was a bovril and a wagon wheel.... if you were lucky. I would suggest that Saints fans haven't exactly got a lot to crow about at the moment. Our hearts may be full of hope but the facts show Saints are cast adrift at the bottom of Division 3. Might be best to sdave it for a few weeks. Don't you love football six weeks ago Pompey were Billionaires and Saints were ...... finished. I wonder what things will look like in six weeks. Macca

Well here you are. Only a handful with terraces. We have the 2nd biggest ground let's hope we can fill it. Macca Brentford Griffin Park Capacity: 12,763 (Has terraces) Brighton & Hove Albion Withdean Stadium Capacity: 8,850 (all seated Bristol Rovers Memorial Stadium Capacity: 12,011 (seating 2500) Carlisle United Brunton Park Capacity: 16,981 (Some Terrace) Charlton Athletic The Valley Capacity: 27,111 (all seated) Colchester United Weston Homes Stadium Capacity: 10,000 (all seated) Exeter City St James' Park Capacity: 9,036 (3,806 Seated) Gillingham Priestfield Stadium Capacity: 11,582 (all seated Hartlepool United Victoria Park Capacity: 7,787 (Seats 4,180) Huddersfield Town Galpharm Stadium Capacity: 24,500 (all seated Leeds United Elland Road Capacity: 40,204 (all seated Leyton Orient Brisbane Road. Capacity: 9,271 (all seated) Millwall The Den Capacity: 20,146 (all seated) Milton Keynes Dons stadium:mk Capacity: 22,000 (all seated) Norwich City Carrow Road Capacity: 26,034 (all seated) Oldham Athletic Boundary Park Capacity: 10,900 (all seated) Southampton The St Mary's Stadium Capacity: 32,689 (all seated) Southend United Roots Hall Capacity: 12,392 (all seated) Stockport County Edgeley Park Capacity: 10,650 (all seated) Swindon Town County Ground Capacity: 15,728 (all seated) Tranmere Rovers Prenton Park Capacity: 16,587 (all seated) Walsall Banks's Stadium Capacity: 11,300 (all seated) Wycombe Wanderers Adams Park Capacity: 10,000 (2,100 standing home fans) Yeovil Town Huish Park Capacity: 9,665 (Seating 5,212)

Hi Derry Do you mean Daniel Fiszman? He was or is on the Arsenal board but he's sold a bunch of shares recently I think. Worth over 200 million a serious recluse hates publicity and lives in Switzerland! Ha ha what a coincidence. North London jewish community connection maybe...... Nah couldn't be could it

Same issue I bought the family tickets and when I went back to book some extra ticklets I was told that they had sold our seats twice. It took a while to sort it out but they had to ring the people up who thought they had bought our seats (halfway up on the halfway line)and tell them they didn't have a ticket after all. Interesting phone call Bet when we get to the game a load of seats have been sold twice, I hope the stewards have been warned. I got the feeling that I wasn't the first person this had happened to. Oh dear