VectisSaint

He was at Hull a bit less than 12 months if we are being pedantic. September to June would probably count as 10, seem to recall he was actually back with us before the end of last season.

Really was a complete knob. That said Ronald does not hide his contempt for these knobs very well. He is a bit *****ly at times.

Of course it doesn't, income wouldn't affect budgets at all, how silly.

Unfortunately that is exactly what will happen if our academy players do not make it through to the PL, and it is clearly already happening. Thankfully the Club seem to have cottoned on to the idea that they do after all have to go further afield to pick up the youngsters to do what they (the Club) believed would happen anyway a couple of years back and that our Academy has actually not been very good relative speaking in the last 2 years or so. Sadly we no longer have a man in charge with the vision of Georges Prost and our coaches (at u18/u21) seem to be at best very average. You seem to have the view that we carry on doing what we did before and all will be well, but its not like that, the Academy has to progress and change hugely just to maintain the reputation and to keep the top talent joining us rather than our competitors (and here I mean Clubs like Boro, rather than Chelsea or Man City).

A habit they broke in their last game. Now have a new coach. But tend to agree it will be Villa and Sunderland and either Swansea or Norwich.

Exactly, and the next 7 places are also held by PL Clubs. Therefore this does not really gain us anything in terms of PL status. It is only meaningful if you look at it in a European perspective, where only the top 8 or 9 European Clubs (Real, Barca, Bayern, PSG, Dortmund, Roma, Juve & Inter) are above us. We should be a force in Europe, but that won't happen unless we qualify regularly - which means being top 6 or 7.

Think there is a point being missed here. Comparing what is happening now with 1998-2011 is misleading. Since the Elite Player Performance Plan was introduced the access our Academy has to players (because we are category A) is far greater than it ever was before (when we were limited to taking on players who lived within 90 minutes of Southampton, or in our case also of Bath). Now we have the [possibility of scouting young players anywhere, and the funding available is far, far greater than ever before. Yet there is little tangible evidence that our Academy has improved in any way, in fact the opposite appears to be true. If we are truly one of the best academies in the country then we should be competing to compete in the UEFA Youth competitions (yes, there is access outside of the Champs League teams, Middlesbro are competing in the U18s this season as a result of winning the U18s title last season). Playing u18/u21 football is no substitute for playing 1st team football, but experience in top competitions is a major step in the right direction. Yet our Academy u18/u21 teams seem to be going backwards in terms of performance in the leagues. This means we are less and less likely to attract the best young talent in the future even if we do maintain our Category A Status and they will go elsewhere (even good local kids). Its the difference between the perception of our Academy as put forward by Ralph and Les and the reality. Hopefully the club are now starting to address this by signing new young players to bring our academy teams up to a higher standard, the way we used to a few years ago (with Blackstock, Best etc). Unless we have a higher standard of player in our academy the less likely it is for players to break through into the first team.

Give the hassle to a personal assistant. Its not like you or me buying a house with sll the estate agent and solicitor arseholes, let alone dealing with a chain.

Sounds like the actions of someone on their way, good bit of capital investment with the opportunity to rent it out to every Tom, Di ck and footballer.

There are Portsmouth journalists?

I should have added Walcott as well cos we got him from Swindon (though he was only 11 at the time, I recall Rupert paying Swindon about £9k when we sold him to Arsenal, Swindon didn't even realise they were entitled to it).

Charming as always...

What makes anyone think we are going to sell Ramirez? He is out of contract in June, he is free to talk to other clubs now, if someone is willing to sign him then he will probably go with no fee, and no paying up his contract.

I think we do and have for a long time. Dexter Blackstock, Leon Best, David McGoldrick and Kenwyne Jones, even Chris Baird we picked up from Ballymena. Jack Stephens from Plymouth. More recently the young keeper from Shrewsbury, but we seem to have slowed down with this intake from elsewhere over the last couple of seasons or so, and this aligns with the downturn in the overall standard of our academy teams. Seems like we are finally addressing this again.

It was the Sun, but it may have been an old item rehashed.

Probably. Just be aware it is looking decidedly possible that it will happen sooner rather than later. There are rumours it will happen today, but that might be complete tosh AFAIK. Maybe made up by A Crook.

When I was an employee, we were always being told that we were the company's greatest assets. Usually this was shortly before they made us redundant of course Of course a player would bring this up when negotiating a new contract as any employee might do whether or not an agent is involved, but nevertheless it is hardly throwing their toys out to do so. Trouble with so many companies these days they keep salary levels private so its difficult to know if you are being paid badly compared to your co-workers or not, whereas footballers' salaries seem often to be common knowledge.

Sounds like there is a chance that Mourinho might be in charge rather than van Gaal. Would be fun if we could get one over the "special needs one" in his first game.

Its hardly throwing their toys out to expect to get paid a similar amount for doing similar job with same employer. Its a very reasonable attitude.

Would be odd if it was 12 for the season given he has 10 already in all comps.

Well if Danny Murphy thinks that then the games up. He really is right up there with Garth Crooks and the Slug Balancer in the thick as **** stakes.

He should have previous. Somehow they could never make it stick though.

He's playing oop north, what do you expect. Its bloody cold up there.

Hungerford.

London weighting. 20% higher salaries needed to live in London