Matthew Le God

- The club has little control over its image if this charity messes up. - Those connected to the charity publicly continue to slag Cortese off in public. - The club has its own foundation for charitable work, along with numerous other charities (all of which don't slag Cortese off in public and then expect Cortese to be nice back to them). docker-p is on an agenda filled hate campaign against the man that has orchestrated Saints rising from 68th in England to 21st in England in a little over two years.

I think it is for the best, could get quite messy otherwise.

Yes, this "charity" is living off the back of the club, which could potentially harm the club if the charity messes up in some way and is using the clubs name/image. Plus those connected to Ex-Saints continue to it slag Cortese off in public. I don't see why he or the club should aid them. The club has its own foundation and interests in charity work.

You need to inform the second hand and first hand that it is impossible to swallow your tongue.

Who said they know exactly where the pirated games are? In any case it is pirated in the hundred's of thousands, you can't prosecute them all, only a tiny %. Your suggestion also doesn't stop the game being pirated in the future. What "ridiculous restrictions" have they imposed? Making everyone activate the game on Steam has no real impact on the gaming experience and gives the user benefits of auto updates. The only people that won't be able to play the game are those without an internet connection to activate it (you can put it in offline mode thereafter). Which in 2011 is a tiny % of the gaming market. Maybe the game will still be pirated, maybe it won't. We don't know yet so can't really comment. You can't blame them for trying to protect their intellectual property and business from basically what are thieves.

And what was wrong with it? Works perfectly fine for me. At least give the free demo a try.

Lots of improvements to international management. From Miles Jacobson's blog...

Who said that? I do wonder about you hypochondriac (such an apt username btw)

I doubt Saints have spent £1.8m as a Championship club on Fox for him not to be first choice.

You have misquoted me. There is a significant difference between what I actually said and what you claim I said.

On the pitch Le Tissier did little wrong for Saints (I like him as much as the next Saints fan, hence my username on this forum), off the pitch he isn't the sharpest tool in the box. On the pitch Cortese of course never played for Saints, off the pitch he has done little wrong in overseeing under his watch a rise from 68th in England to 21st in England in a little over two years. Both should be held in high regard, but for very different reasons.

Did I say otherwise?

He was at Swindon Town's Centre of Excellence for 18 months and Saints got him for £2,000. http://www.swindonweb.com/?m=2&s=625&ss=629&c=3932&t=Ironic+words+from+Byrne

Luke Shaw, along with Jake Sinclair, James Ward-Prowse etc signed a 3 year pro deal in December 2010. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2228492,00.html Six others signed pro deals in April 2010... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2342370,00.html If Shaw were to go it would be for a very large fee.

If people with a past connection to the club can get treatment that the general public doesn't get, where do you draw the line? If Richard Dryden phones up and wants 8 tickets for his mates, do you let him or tell him he isn't as worthy as Le Tissier? A better policy is just to make everyone with a previous connection to the club pay their way and have the same access to tickets as the general public.

Why does that matter? Not many clubs can steal the top youth players from larger clubs than themselves. Luke Shaw has been at Saints since he was 8 years old. I doubt his parents were going to take him to Arsenal for training on school nights, when a perfectly good academy at Southampton offers him a place.

For a start... Theo Walcott came from Swindon Town Adam Lallana came from AFC Bournemouth Saints are just as bad for doing it as others.

There is a screenshot of them in post #31

Here is Miles Jacobson (Sports Interactive's managing director) take on it...

Correct, SEGA made it. And they have been making huge losses, so makes perfect business sense to at least try and prevent piracy. FM is one of their few success stories, and trying to prevent pirate copies seems a sensible business plan (if they have found a method they are confident in).

SI/SEGA do apologise for this in the statements they have made, however the number of people in your situation is relatively tiny compared to those stealing the game and as a business decision this makes sense going forward imo. Not ideal of course, but blame the thieves.

Does it? Runs absolutely fine for me, with a lot of nations running. Steam makes no real difference at all. Blame the pirates, not the developers and publishers. Yes, its not great that developers have to do this, but it really does have very little impact on the gaming experience. Plus you do get automatic updates. Why do you think people steal FM then? I think the "I want stuff for free brigade" as you called it, is pretty much the only reason.

How many people in 2011 that can afford a computer good enough to run FM, don't have access to the internet? You only need the internet very briefly to activate it on Steam, after that you can put Steam into offline mode and run the game without the internet. If you are going to blame anyone, blame the criminals that get the game from Torrents and download it illegally.

How exactly would you collect on that bet? You say "never", but the bet ends really when you die. Thus you never collect. It may take a long time, but it is very likely that Saints will one day (even if it takes 100 years) pay a player 200k p/w. Even if you look at today's Premier League clubs like QPR are apparently paying Joey Barton £80k p/w, when 20 years ago he would have been on a mere fraction of that. To rule out inflation etc not leading to Saints ever paying £200k p/w is foolish.

They still achieved 4th place in 2005 on a much smaller budget than a number of other clubs and average crowds of just 36,834.