Matthew Le God

The person that provided the information for the opening post says that the long term plan is for St Mary's to be expanded to 52,000 and would be done all in one go as it would work out cheaper.

Highlights of Pompey being thrashed 5-1 by Brighton last night... http://www.seagulls.co.uk/articles/20120725/video-albion-5-portsmouth-1_2264458_2860480/0,,10433~2860480~1,00.html Lots of arguing amongst themselves.

I said top 8, rather than top 2 or top 4 because Staplewood is to a very high spec that goes over and above many of the aspects of other top Premier League training grounds, but some are bigger. It is hard to rank the top 7/8 clubs. Man City are planning to spend an absolute fortune improving theirs, so they will soon be no.1 but the rest of the top training grounds could be argued which order they fall into. What I would say is that Staplewood will better than what Villa, Everton, Newcastle, West Ham, Sunderland, West Brom, Wigan, Norwich, Reading, Swansea, QPR, Stoke and Fulham have. Well if we go by those plans (and at the moment we just have 3 pictures so not alot to go on and Buttner saying their are plans for 50k) then only Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and maybe Newcastle would have a better stadium in England. But it is obviously hard to tell seeing as all we have is those three pictures and no internal shots or spec of the expansion and changes.

"Top 8", means anywhere from 1st to 8th. It is hard to compare Staplewood to for example man Utd's. Staplewood is going to be brand new and high spec, where as Man Utd's training ground is now largely constructed 12 years ago (they have added and improved but still is largely the same). Man Utd's is larger than Staplewood, but Staplewood is more modern. At no point did I say Saints would be one of a tiny elite few with category 1 status. A number of people have confused what I said last summer. I said "as things stand with current plans only Man City, Chelsea and Saints would get category 1 status".

Staplewood (when finished) I think will be in the top 8 in the Premier League.

Shame isn't it. Turkish accuses me of lots of things, yet hijacks every thread I start. If anyone else on this forum had posted the opening post, the thread wouldn't turn out like this with Turkish jumping on them.

In terms of the main Pavillion building, academy facilities, landscaping they are pretty similar in what they offer. Spurs won't have a spectator stand that matches Staplewood's (not that it matters at all )...

The Staplewood site is smaller and so this isn't an option, so emphasise is on the club.

If some of the Spurs pitches are for community use, what does it matter if they have them or not?

Saints have little need to spread their teams out over a huge number of pitches, they have enough for what they need. Plus some of Spurs extra pitches are for community use.

Next stop, 18,000 more seats!

The Spurs price includes the cost the land. Saints already owned the land at Staplewood, plus kept the existing training dome (and are regenerating it) so a new one wasn't needed. There isn't really much (if anything) Spurs have that Staplewood won't have, apart from more pitches which doesn't really matter that much.

Someone working at St Mary's today has taken some photos and provided a few snippets of information (I'll let you decide if they are interesting or not)... - The red felt that runs around the pitch will be given a makeover. - Red cladding will go on the sides of the dug-outs. - The electronic advertising boards around the pitch at SMS for the Memorial Cup are temporary. Permanent ones will go where the static ones are. - Only 3 sides will have the electronic boards as that's where the cameras are focused. - Revenue could reach £7 million p/a from the electronic boards. Extended home dugout will have new seats installed tomorrow... One of the two new HD Screens replacing the old ones which were there for the last 11 years since the stadium opened...

Name your child... Ben David Kanu Zebadee-Rust in honour of the day.

It's like you can read their minds!

I predict Birch will do his best politician impression, avoid that question about what Gordon Taylor said by going off on a tangent and he won't be pressed for a proper answer.

Been watching this...?

What would be the best killer question? Something about what Gordon Taylor said today? How would you word it?

As I said, base it on his performance not the teams. You aren't grasping the concept. Absolute nonsense.

A Sky Sports journalist. https://twitter.com/SkyGraemeBailey

If they are liquidated their fans will create a new club in non league for 2013/14. They will be our new rivals. In any case if they survive the summer or start a new club in non league, Saints are unlikely to play them again for a very long time. Certainly not in the League and the chance of a cup meeting will be very slim. They'd have to reach the 3rd round for a start and then the chances of us drawing them are low.

It was Turkish. You can never be sure with him, so I had to check!

I hope you don't think that is real! His name is West Oftym, try saying that out loud Turkish with a Nigerian accent. "Waste of Time".

It is a little more concrete than before, as it has gone from "2 or 3 weeks" to a specific date of 10th August.

If he is still performing well on the pitch, why would his judgement of choosing a club matter to Saints?