Matthew Le God

Well the guy from Pompey city council would have been talking to the FA very recently yet still thinks Southampton have a chance and so do SEEDA(South East England Development Agency).

According to the Portsmouth Council leader it may not be too late.

Well it is weighted very heavily towards the north and has no venue the large conurbations in the South East. A good spread of 12 stadiums would be... 6 stadiums in the South Plymouth, Bristol, Southampton and London (Wembley, Spurs, Arsenal) and 6 stadiums in the North Manchester (Old Trafford and CoM's), Liverpool, Nottingham, Birmingham, Newcastle

This shows why a bid from Portsmouth or Southampton could be import to the FA as FIFA may look kindly to a good spread around the nation for venues. With no Portsmouth that is a big gap in the map!

Who'd have thought it...Portsmouth council supporting Southampton for a World Cup bid. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/4764104.Potential_Southampton_cup_bid_backed_by_Portsmouth_leader/

Saints have averaged over 30k in seasons when in the Premiership before so we could get close to 40k for alot of games if doing well.

Not a 40k stadium they wouldn't even if in the Premiership. Population of the two cities may be similar but the surrounding area is thinly populated compared to the Southampton conurbation.

John B said it had nothing to do with him, I was just saying it has.

Lord Mawhinney is on the executive board in charge of the World Cup 2018 bid.

Dan's story made the front page today yet has nothing from the club that backs it up. Deadline has past it seems and Dan offers nothing to substantiate that it is anything but that for any Southampton bid. No dates are given when the councillor made those quotes and as it is deadline day today it seems this is just the Echo trying to sell papers on a pointless article with no evidence of any substance. Of course I'd like to be wrong as I'd love the World Cup to come to the city.

The second part didn't stop them with Terry Venables.

Would be good to hear from the club what is happening if anything.

If Torquay paid a loan fee it is impossible for a loan to be recalled.

If it is a direct quote from Andrew Cowan why use the word "apparently", you were in the room so he either said it or didn't so quote him on it if he did? As the Echo has had a number of stories about a World Cup bid over the last few months and it is on the Front Page of the paper today why not contact the architects and council to find out what the club had it plan from the original designs. I did a university research project on the stadium and its impacts and I know exactly what the architects had in mind for future development of the stadium as I contacted them and asked them. It was very quick and easy to do and may provide the Echo with some information to write an article on "The future expansion of St Mary's".

FIFA dictates that all World Cup stadia have to be of a size upwards of 40k (45k to allow for press and segregation)

John Denham (Southampton Itchen MP and communities minister) scuppers Everton's chance of a World Cup stadium. Could this be part of a bigger plan? Probably not as Saints are likely to have missed out due to not being signed up for the initial process. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/8379839.stm

The use of the word apparently is beside the point. Journalists shouldn't be getting information from Wikipedia. He could quite easily find out what the ground can be expanded to by contacting the club or council. He is paid to be a journalist, not a 15 year old using Wikipedia for his GCSE coursework.

Here is what Royston Smith said on October 2nd 2009 http://www.insidethegames.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7301:late-world-cup-bid-from-southampton-ruled-out&catid=1:latest-news

Was he speaking on Radio Solent today? Bristol, Plymouth and London are the Southern bids

Hartlepool website says they will be on Pools player from 9:30pm tonight I'd guess similar for Saints player (and maybe BBC website tonight or tomorrow)

Bale £10m? Walcott £12m? Bridge £7m? Crouch £7m? Jones £6m? etc etc

What makes you think that? http://www.england2018bid.com/

I'm sure we all knew this anyway but... Are they not aware that Wikipedia can be written by anyone and to use them in an article is incredibly poor journalism? You may as well link to anything as a source or pluck facts out of the air. Which I guess they do. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/district/southampton/4629545.Could_it_be_coming_home_to_St_Mary_s_/ The paragraph in question is 7th on the page They link in this paragraph where they got the information from and it is an uncited Wikipedia page. Anyone in the world could have written or edited that! If they get that piece of information from wikipedia where are they getting the rest of their "facts" from? Why trust anything they say? (I'm sure you don't) I know it is a minor issue but surely professional journalists shouldn't be doing this and researching with legitimate sources rather than Wikipedia. I'm sure this practice isn't confined to this article either and is widespread. I don't know why I expect more from journalists as we are all aware of lazy journalism, but at least they should take some pride in their job. Many would love to be paid to cover Saints for the local paper. Dan Keirns shame on you!

Did you not read what I said?

People don't become billionaires with an attitude to money like that. What would there be to stop Lallana accepting the £5m and then leaving soon afterwards? (don't say his contract because no club in recent history has been able to keep an unhappy player for long)