trousers

Jodrell Bank

The computer company? http://www.dell.com To be honest, I'm surprised the marketing gurus at SMS didn't think about that one before....

Maybe we will when we start playing football again? There's nothing for him to comment on at the moment... p.s. doesn't he still write in the match-day programmes?

Had to do a double-take this morning. I thought for one second Harry was talking about us when I read this quote in today's paper: Redknapp said: ‘People will accept players making mistakes, but giving up and not chasing back? People come to see effort and hard work as well as skill. ‘I told them at half-time that I would find out a lot about them after the break. That’s the first time I really tore into them. We are naive. There is no balance and no strength in depth. We don’t have the experience. This was a badly put together squad from day one.’ :yawinkle:

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A good example of how a Bank's decision making and strategies can differ depending on who is at the helm..... Barclays unlikely to renew Premier League contract as credit crunch bites Last updated at 12:34 AM on 07th January 2009 The Premier League are sounding out Barclays over their appetite to renew their sponsorship, worth nearly £70million over three years, but the omens are not good in the credit crunch. There is still a season-and-a-half to run on the current deal but it already looks highly unlikely that Barclays will sign on again, especially as they are spending a meagre £5m over the length of the contract on promoting their sponsorship. The current deal was signed despite Barclays’ sponsorship team advising against it over concerns about the lack of promotional spend and in-fighting among the various parts of the Barclays operation - such as commercial, retail and capital - some of whom have not been keen on contributing to the football pot. It needed American Bob Diamond, head of Barclays Capital and a Chelsea fan who enjoys being stage centre when the Premier League trophy is being presented, to commit to endorsing the Premier League until 2010. But Diamond’s great enthusiasm for football is not expected to win the day again. This time the talks will involve Barclays’ chief executive John Varley, not known as a sports fan. A decision is expected within the next three months, with the Premier League keen to know where they stand well in advance of the expiry date. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/article-1107294/Barclays-unlikely-renew-Premier-League-contract-credit-crunch-bites.html Obviously not a close like-for-like when compared to our fate being in the hands of some middle-manager in Reading (alledgedy) but the 'human instinct' principle is comparable.

But why was it Cork's decision? As I mention above, surely it should be a matter between the respective club's management staff? (whilst, of course, taking on board any feedback from Cork) Given there's not a lot to choose between both clubs (bottom half of CCC with little cash) then if I was Chelsea it would be more sensible to keep Cork at the same club that he started the season at in the interests of continuity and thus player development. This has got an unpublicised REAL reason written all over it....in the same way we straight away smelled a rat over the Saga "international clearance (LoL)" affair....IMHO of course....

A 4 page Skacel thread and no-one has asked if he's signed yet. It's a sad sign of the time IMHO. No one can even be arsed to be mildly amusing anymore.

Where does Edwina Curry fit into all this?

Belated congrats on the new job at the Echo. Keep up the good work.

Short term pain....long time gain. Just a plausible theory. That's all.

Since when did a loanee get final say on which club they go to / stay at, as appears to be the case with Cork? Ok, I accept one would expect players to have a say in where they go but given Cork was (reportedly) happy at Saints then surely the decision as to whether he stayed or went should have rested between Southampton FC and Chelsea FC on a purely footballing basis??? Fair enough, if he was unhappy at Saints then Chelsea would understandably want to help instigate a move elsewhere but that isn't a factor here. Unless of course I'm taking the reports too much at face value and/or reading between the lines too much... Or perhaps there are some more economies of truth being peddled....just for once....

Saga has been treated as badly as Skacel. Reading Skacel's demotivated comments in the Sky Sports article I'd be amazed if Saga performed to the best of his ability if recalled as the club will have driven him into the same state of mind. Mission accomplished Mr Lowe?

Someone said they knew at the time but said they wouldn't post the details until the dust settled....something to do with the SLH board being duped by it....

Two words: False Economy

Posters that change their style? Hmmmm....Rings a bell....just can't put my finger on it....

I know this has been raised before but I venture that our well groomed pitch didn't help our cause against Man Utd....we've been comparing Saints' Cup performance to that of the other underdogs but the one advantage most of those other clubs have, that we don't, is the dodgy pitch factor. I put it to you that the quality of our pitch helped shoot ourselves in the foot v Man Utd? (not that we were ever going to win but it couldn't have helped is the point I'm waffling on about) Something which might also be a factor in our poor home form in the league too? (Although, that said, I'd have thought the 'pretty passing' approach would benefit from a posh lawn rather than t'other way around?)

The Asturius one is equally static.... http://www.asturius.com

The thing is, we're so low on any Man Utd fan's radar now that there is no need for them to wind us up about it. It would be like us gloating to Bristol Rovers fans last season after we whooped their ar5e....ah, hang on a sec...broken analogy alert....

Depends how hard Man Utd tried. Ferguson has already dropped the somewhat unsubtle hint that they let us off lightly on purpose. Anyway, it's not the result, per se, that people are latching onto - it's the way we appeared not to play like an 'up for it' underdog in the same way that Southend, Notts Forest, Blythe Spartans, Forest Green, etc, etc were.

The Man Utd fan forums that I've read are pretty unanimous in highlighting the gulf in class and some even slated off their own players for not trying harder to exploit our deficiencies.

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Perhaps he meant Pekhart?