Matthew Le God

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.

Because Lowe didn't have the resources behind him to back up any ambition, Cortese does.

So you are happy for MLT and LM to go to the press but not Cortese? Why do you think Cortese hasn't done much for the club? He has helped put the things in place for Saints to climb from 68th to 21st in England in a little over two years, developing the training ground, spending on players and saved it from financial ruin by bringing Liebherr to the table in the summer of 2009.

It is on Soccer Saturday on SSN. Will be on soon after the programme starts at 12.

What do you have against Steam? At least give the free demo a try.

Okay what would you like to say? I still think that final paragraph is very relevant as it highlights what he has already achieved and isn't just empty promises, thus any future ambitions do have a lot more substance to them than for example from numerous Pompey owners in recent history.

I'll ask again, how does that not count as "ambition"? "See it", see what exactly? It is ambition, do you not know what that means? Have you noticed Cortese has led Southampton from 68th in England to 21st in England in little over 2 years? Have you noticed the training ground granted planning permission that wouldn't look out of place at a top Premier League club? Are these not signs of intent backed with resources? This interview shows his ambitions for what he wants to happen next.

This interview has taken place nearly 5 months after the event. That is quite some pre-planning you are accusing him of!

How is the excerpt I quoted not ambition? It is an ambition of Cortese's until it happens.

Now this is ambition... "I don't just expect to be promoted this year, I want us to be champions. When we are promoted to the Premier League I don't want people to think of us as immediate candidates for relegation. I see Southampton as a top-six Premier League club. Would I pay a player £100,000 or even £200,000 a week? Not if we were in the Premier League with a 32,000 capacity stadium. But if we were in the Champions League and had re-developed the ground to 50,000 then I might consider it."

A topic we agree on!

Sorry

Not really... Lee Barnard - 18th July 1984 Craig Mackail-Smith - 25th February 1984