VectisSaint

New players now have shirt numbers, Aribo (7) and Edozie (23) have kept theirs, so presumably are staying. Jelert 38 Scienza 13 Jander 20 Fellows 18

I remember getting around 28-30k at The Dell regularly. The 15k capacity only came about because of the requirement for all seater stadia. We used to attract as many supporters as we do now.

The current Basic Rate of 20% is the lowest it has been since the War. It was lowered to 20% under the Labour Government of Gordon Brown, and has remained at that level ever since.

Everton have not gone down this route, they now play at some old ground called Goodison Park, I gather the dugouts are to be admired.

I think you are misrepresenting these ex-players. Yes they were quite wealthy in their playing days, but I don't think there is any suggestion that they set out to avoid paying tax. Like most people with capital to spare and the thought of a long retirement ahead they looked to secure their futures, and the way to do this is to invest. Nothing wrong with that, at the time investing in property and in these cases film-making were seen as good ways to grow your investment over the medium and long-term. The problem is that they were mostly together at the same club(s) and sought advice initially from someone they trusted and looked up to (namely their football manager) who it seems was in cahoots with some "shady" business people (financial advisors) who it appears fraudulently invested their money in some extremely dodgy schemes whuich ultimately cost the players rather large fortunes. Not saying the players were all entirely innocent and could perhaps have done more to protect themselves but it is very easy to go along with things that all your mates are doing and that is being promoted by the person you probably trust most professionally, namely your manager, especially when that manager is someone of the stature of Howard Wilkinson.

Nice first goal for Norn Iron tonight.

Perhaps Aribo still being here has meant the new players have not yet been officially given squad numbers.

Bear in mind that most of this happened 20-30 years ago, to players who were wealthy, yes, but not the super-wealthy players of today. They were the victims of fraud. The players were not on the face of it doing anything wrong, but they were badly advised, mostly by the people who were setting up the shady schemes. One of the problems is that they relied on the judgement of their football managers. Howard Wilkinson in particular does not come out of it very well. It is quite sad to see some of these guys really now on their uppers when they should have been made for life. I suppose it hits home hardest knowing one of them is one of our former favourites. There are clearly several/many other players involved who presumably do not want to be publicly recognised.

Definition "An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water where river water mixes with seawater." [Britannica.com] If it's a coastal body of water then by definition it must be "part of the coast". But I tend to agree with you that Southampton is not on what most reasonable people would consider "the coast". If Southampton is not on the coast then there is an argument that neither is Skatesville (Portsmouth Harbour), unless you count Southsea.

Used to be a real on in goal for Chelsea (Bonetti).

or Fraser Forster. Surely we should be all over him.

Airport watch?

Thought Smallbone was injured

wannabe?

But what was the insult? 😉

Stats say otherwise. 2 saves today, just saying. Not saying it makes him good.

Archer on target

We/they did at the Millennium Stadium in 2003.

Perhaps he did, it's not that much of a journey back to Brum.

Iain Dowie and Stuart Armstrong were well qualified Saints. Steve Heighway of Liverpool was successful.

It was Charles not Archer

Do the players have "strengths"?

He looks somewhat better than Lumley, not that that is difficult.

Because it's not true. We replace Ramsdale with Baz, we replaced Lumley with Long. Don't get me wrong Baz is a huge drop from Ramsdale, but this guy appears to be a bit of a step up from Lumley (not difficult).