trousers

Hmmm.....Interesting....I wonder how much the two clubs have talked about this recently, if at all? Playing career Lallana was born in St Albans but moved to the Iford area of Bournemouth[1] when he was five years old. He was a member of the Bournemouth Centre of Excellence, where his rich potential was eventually spotted by a talent scout from Southampton, with Lallana snapped up by the then-Premier League club, joining the Saints Academy as a 12–year old in 2000. Southampton paid £3,000 compensation to Bournemouth with further payments of £5,000 and £10,000 when he signed scholarship and professional contracts respectively. The contract with Southampton provides for Bournemouth to receive 25% of any transfer fee, in addition to the payments already made.[1]

The choice of short sleeves in his latest disguise blows Tommac's cover

I'll be going to a Halley's Comet spotting party that night so will raise a glass there.

Appreciate you don't want to turn this into a regime discussion but I don't think you can divorce the two as my answer to your question is different depending on who is at the helm. If the £200 had the effect of retaining the current regime (and I refer to all 3 of the main players in the boardroom merry-go-round here so no politics on that front) then I would not participate. If, however, the £200 helped pave the way for a clean sweep in the boardroom and a completely new owner then I would be interested.

Depends if someone 'inadvertently overhears' a conversation without telling anyone....? Ok, I know I'm alluding to illegal practices (and obviously don't intend to infer that is happening here) but, knowing how 'clever' people that 'play the markets' profess to be (in spite of recent global events) I would be surprised if there weren't loop holes to be exploited somewhere along the line....

Market cap now below £5m (@£4.92m) Significant psychological threshold perhaps?

Or someone in that grey area between the 'inside' and 'outside'....?

A logical hypothesis IMHO

Great thread title...

Alas, one of many loose ends

..

Unlike the Summer 2007 takeover rumours?

Or maybe their 11 match unbeaten run (or however long it is) sort of compensates for an off day every now and then? (now, where did I put that picture of apples and oranges...) Are you suggesting that people on here would moan as much if we slipped up once every 11 games rather than once every game (on average)? Actually, scratch that question....!

Looking fitter than in his playing days, Le Tissier contemplates comeback

Bargain conditions apply Definition A term used by the London Stock Exchange to denote that certain conditions were agreed between the two participants at the time of trading. http://www.finance-glossary.com/terms/bargain-conditions-apply.htm?id=1978&ginPtrCode=00000&PopupMode= "Certain Conditions".....now there's a phrase to whet the appetite of your average conspiracy theorist....

Conclusive proof that official SMS attendance figures aren't all they seem

We're getting quite good at this, aren't we?

Leon: "Rupert, Michael. Top of the morning to you both. Please can I buy £2m worth of your shares at 16p a throw?" Rupert/Mike: "No"

Not necessarily (I won't bore people with my usual hypothesis on this)

I see the 'market' has now knocked the share price down to 17.50p to fall more in line with the price at which today's +100k tranche of shares has swapped hands at.

At a 0.4% burn rate, it would only take another 9 similar 'hoovering events' to reach the 4% mark....and there have been plenty of similar 'round 5 figure' trading patterns over recent times....IMHO of course

+2.

Aye, but was just a semi-educated hunch (before anyone gets the impression that I know anything about anything!)

Interesting read. Am sitting in a hotel room in Guernsey doing something I never in my worst nightmare expected to have to do. I am writing a public statement about my involvement in Southampton Football Club because I fear for its future, and my fears have largely arisen as the result of the actions of people I have considered my friends for many years. Not that many people will know who I am, or what my involvement in Southampton Football Club has been over the last 16 years, and I have been very content with that. My involvement has never been driven by ego or a need for recognition but rather out of gratitude for the opportunity to be involved in the Club and to help in whatever way I can. The recent public statements of my erstwhile colleagues, principally Messrs Wiseman and Thompson, have however been too much and I have to try to communicate to the fans and the shareholders the reality of the current position of our Club. The Southern Daily Echo felt it necessary to describe me as "the one in the red and white scarf" when reporting on the away game at Brighton last season so I feel obliged to give you a little of my personal history, particularly bearing in mind Keith Wiseman's comment that last Thursday was 'a sad day for Southampton supporters'. I am a supporter of Southampton Football Club. After many years of paying on the gate, along with many other Saints fans I first bought season tickets for myself and my father when we signed Kevin Keegan, the only way we could be sure of getting in! Through the kind offices of Brian Truscott we eventually progressed to the lofty heights of the Centre West benches, immediately below my wife and her father, Charlie Knott, who occupied the front row Centre West stand seats which had been in their family for many years. I was then fortunate enough to be invited to join the board of Southampton Football Club in February 1990 when Guy Askham was appointed Chairman and they needed a finance director (unpaid) to replace him. This overlong introduction is necessary following the recent publicity suggesting that the only "real" supporters are the dissenting directors rather than the majority of the board who remain behind the existing strategy to take us back to the Premier League where we belong. There is a myth around that football has only recently become a business. I can assure you that it has always been so and that the advent of the Premier League simply added noughts to the problem that was always there - how to compete with the "big clubs" and those with rich owners. Once I joined the board, away trips became a thing of the past as I caught up with the 'day job' at weekends, compensating for the time I spent at the club during the week paying bills, preparing accounts and budgets and carrying out the executive role part-time, a post which is now in the very capable hands of Dave Jones. In 1997 I became Finance Director and subsequently Chief Executive of a plc based in Guernsey, but I remain resident in Southampton and a 'reverse tax exile' earning my money in Guernsey but paying UK tax. Hence my location when writing this statement. Guy Askham has been involved as a Director of the Club for over 35 years, the first 25 years as finance director and then Chairman in very demanding executive roles. In the last ten years he has provided very valuable support and advice to the full time executive which we now have. I would ask you to consider why it is that Guy and I, who have both had considerable experience of the executive roles in Southampton Football Club are on the opposing side to the four other non-executive directors in the current dispute. Is it possible that we have a better understanding of what is required to run a major football club in the modern era? The exception is of course Paul Thompson, a past Chairman of West Bromwich Albion. The circumstances in which he left West Bromwich Albion have been widely reported and suffice it to say that their boardroom was far from united. Is this a coincidence? Paul has only been on our board for a little over two years and he and his family have had several investments in football clubs. I am not going to join with my erstwhile colleagues in disclosing the happenings in the boardroom except to say that the day will live long in my memory when, following his family's sale of 10% of Southampton Football Club, Paul stated in a board meeting "Chairman, I have not sold any shares in SLH". My only interest over the last 16 years has been the best interests of Southampton Football Club. The phrase "the best interests of Southampton Football Club" has been much devalued over the past couple of months as my colleagues, who paid as little for their shares as I did, have pocketed £250,000 each "in the best interests of the Football Club". Mr Thompson, who admittedly paid more, or sorry his family, have pocketed £1.25 million or thereabouts. I spent a lot of time with Ian Gordon and Brian Hunt trying to persuade them not to sell their shares, as they could pledge them to Michael Wilde if that was what they felt was best for the Club. I actually said to them that the only reason for selling was if they wanted the money. They sold. Keith Wiseman told me not to 'even try to embarrass him' over the sale of shares, so I didn't. You will remember that Keith was the only member of the 'old board' to have previously sold any shares - during his ill fated term as Chairman of the FA when he sold shares to - Rupert Lowe! No doubt in the best interests of the Football Club. I believe I hold my shares on trust for the supporters and the City of Southampton. My shares are not for sale until they relieve me of that trust. I make the decisions I feel are right for the Club regardless of how popular that might be. This coming season is probably the most important in the Club's history with the final year of the parachute payment and now with the even greater rewards of Premiership status from 2007/8 onwards. I have spent a lot of time with Michael Wilde and Rupert trying to persuade them to work together during this very important year for the Club but thus far to no avail. Rupert would genuinely, I believe, step down if he believed it was in the best interests of the Club, as would all of us who have been involved as both executives and non executives over the years. We have all experienced the tough decisions in deciding we could not afford the team strengthening we would like to see as fans. Our own demise would be a much easier decision. I have got to know Michael Wilde over the past couple of months and I like him, (although he is a very expensive lunch date!). I don't know Patrick Trant but Mick Channon speaks well of him and my wife's family and his have a long association through sport. Lee Hoos is a very likeable man, but I do not know Jim Hone or Ken Dulieu. The proposed "new board" might prove to be very successful given time but we do not have that time. The success of Southampton Football Club over this past many years has been through evolution not revolution. It may be that changes are needed but we should not 'chop the head off' the club and replace it with unknown quantities in this vital year. My belief is that the club could not be better positioned to regain its place in the Premier League. Andrew Cowen and his team are continuing to achieve magnificent results off the pitch to help finance our activities on it. The stadium, training ground and academy speak for themselves. Most importantly in George Burley we have an exceptional football professional who, together with Clive Woodward and Rupert Lowe, form a management team which is, in my view, by far the best equipped to give us the success on the pitch which we all crave. I have always said to my dissenting directors that I would support a better alternative to the current management. To date nobody, including Michael Wilde, has shown me a better alternative. The campaign against Rupert Lowe is about personality. Running a football club is about character and your current board have character in abundance. I will not, therefore, take my thirty pieces of silver and will go to the EGM where the shareholders can tell me if they disagree with my view. If I have to go I can think of worse ways to be remembered than as "the man in the red and white scarf". Mike Richards 5 June 2006

If pushed for a guess, which two would you recommend I put my money on?