trousers

I think what some posters are alluding to is that there are varying degrees of 'need'. I'm pretty sure that if you took away cars for one week and football matches another the country would suffer more with the car embargo than with the football match embargo. Ultimately we only 'need' food, water and shelter but I don't think that's the level that the 'essential vs non-essential' contributers are pitching their argument at.

Stu - genuine question....if all rational explanations for Cortese's actions have been explored and exhausted, what would your hunch be for why he did it? Do you not agree that he must have had a rational reason even if (a) you don't know what that reason is and (b) you don't agree with it? What's your hunch on why he's done what he has? (As I say, not a wind-up question, genuinely interested)

Whoops - that was me! You can get back to 'non-threaded' mode by going to another (shorter) thread in the same section and changing back to 'normal' mode, then when you go back in the longer (Pompey) thread it will be back to normal.

Well said Sir

Jesus was born in July not December so technically Christmas is during the World Cup. That said, I would tend to agree that the first World Cup goal will be in June rather than July.

Genuine question: Does anyone know the stats for what percentage of teams in mainland Europe provide season ticket installment schemes, Italy and Switzerland in particular? Perhaps Cortese seems like he's out on a limb with this because we're just comparing it with other UK teams? We may find it's par for the course in other territories to not offer such schemes and that is where Cortese is getting his inspiration from? Once again, I'm not making a judgement on whether he's right or wrong, just trying to explore other avenues that might help to explain his rationale.

This is true. Whilst it's understandable that Cortese's season ticket/installments policy (and the not so customer friendly announcement thereof) has upset and incovenienced some people, there must be a perfectly rational business reason for him doing it in the first place. Of course, it could/should have been communicated better but that doesn't mean the underlying rationale was wrong from a business perspective. What type of successful businessman would want to intentionally damage his revenue streams and profit margins?

NPC (N-Power Championship), surely? ;-)

Fair dos, but the point of my reply was addressing the query as to why there wasn't a pre-emptive announcement in March/April. For whatever reason, maybe (just maybe) there was still an intention to run a scheme at that point in time. Yes, the reasons for dropping it late in the day may well turn out to be spurious but that doesn't rule out the possibility/probablilty that intent was there in March/April. Who knows.

Yeah....nutters! LoL

Can I be first to say that I worship Uranus?

Maybe in March/April they were still intending running an installment scheme, thus no call for a pre-emptive announcement, but the arrangements they were making fell through at the last minute? (the reasons for which aren't clear other than the 'cost' factor which, as we know, is up for debate)

As in.....re-arrange these words into a well known phrase? told so you I

Source? (other than post #136 above)

Clutching at straws..... could this be the reason for the delay of the kit announcement....? Cortese arranges photoshoot such that new player(s) is/are photographed wearing new kit (e.g. Calderon) and then gets whiff of the fact that Calderon/Poyet are on the verge of a u-turn, thus the need to put back the kit launch.... Dunno

Try changing the 'display mode' setting (top right of screen) to 'threaded mode' and you get:

I tend to agree with your 'luxuries vs essentials' sentiment, but also accept the criticism of others in that telling people how they should spend their money, no matter how well meaning, can be seen as 'lecturing'

It's a fair analogy and no, I couldn't afford to pay a year's education up front. You'd be surprised how many parents that send their kids to private school aren't hugely well off - we've had to make many sacrifices to send her to the private school (like not going to Saints as often as I'd like - true story that, not just me stirring things up!). I fully expected to find a school full of kids whose parents lived in mansions, drove posh cars and had several villas in the Med but they are actually few and far between (much to my annoyance as I was looking forward to my daughter making friends with all these millionaires so that I could have free holidays for years to come!) But back to your question.....if the school said to me this summer that they wanted all of the next year school fees up front before the start of the Autumn term I would first explore the 0% credit card option (indeed, this was one of our funding options a couple of years ago when myself and Mrs Trousers were first discussing our financing options). If that didn't work then I'd look at as low as possible interest bank loan and if that failed I would have to look at relocating her into a state school. Either way, I don't think I'd be kicking up a huge fuss about it as the school is a private company and they can ultimately do what they please. I guess where the analogy breaks down is that I don't have an emotional tie to my daughter's school in the same way one does to a Football Club.

"Credit" isn't a problem per se. The problem comes when it is abused. Tarring everyone with the same brush isn't an accurate assessment of credit facilities. Some of us use credit facilities wisely.

Matchday programmes at the last game of the season

Us mongs can't help but be silly. It's genetic.

You and c.98% of Saints fans....

What happens if Cortese's reaction to growing fan "un-rest" is: "Sod this for a game of soldiers. I'm out"....?

I've started putting aside £30 per month in preparation for paying for next year's season ticket

I'm not aware of a widespread, vehement protest about the announcement. Link anyone?