VectisSaint

You mean the WAGs are playing?

So you think Ralf is involved as well

Your understanding of how football works is totally laughable. Every team will name 7 subs, even if they register the manager. This is not new except in the FL. Scotland did it last season. I don't believe any team will name less than 7 subs on a regular basis. It is a fact that overall in this country there will be more professional players not getting a game on a weekend than before because of this stupid rule (2*72=144 players per weekend for the FL). How can you dispute this? There are already players sitting on the bench in the PL that should be getting a game every week in the CCC or even in the PL. Its the same situation as having a sub keeper on the bench. There are approx 92 keepers in the FL who do not get a proper game from week to week, so some top class keepers hardly ever play, madness.

Because instead of 2 people sitting on the bench doing nothing there will be 4. Simple really. Sitting on a bench is not the same thing as getting a game. Totally stupid rule which requires smaller clubs to inflate their playing squad for no good reason.

You seriously think we would sell 10k season tickets, when no-one knows what is going on, whether we will have a team, etc. I really can't believe there would be 10k people willing to part with £300 at this stage (not sure we would shift 10k season tickets for L1 even if we were not in turmoil). They probably also can't even say which seats will be available, because I would almost guarantee that certain parts of the ground will be closed, just hope not the Itchen corner this time.

Especially with the new rule of 7 subs on the bench (which is patently ridiculous and means even more players not getting a game each week).

John I usually agree with you but this contradicts Lowe's statement. he stated that the overdraft had initially been reduced but that it increased due to some payments we had to make which took us back over our agreed overdraft limit. I don't recall ever hearing that Barclays reduced our O/D limit.

Actually now that players have been sold off the club is ironically worth more. Previously these players (at least Surman) had no book value, they were intangible assets. Now their wages are off the books, and the club now has cash (although it is still a moot pioint whether that cash has actually found its way to the Club or is held by the FL/FA as is normal with all transfers).

Anyone any idea what happened to Dean Gorre (sp)? Never mentioned these days, has he legged it?

Morally those that put the club in this position should be punished. Unfortunately the FL rules do not do this. They punish those who are left to pick up the pieces, the supporters, the staff, the players, while those who are culpible walk away without even a ban from future footballing activities. That is what is morally unjust. We (we being the supportersm the players, the staff) did not cheat. Those in charge of the finances attempted to cheat (although we were in a somewhat different position to some others because we were hit hard by the unexpected loss of income when we were relegated from the PL). Whether you think that it is Lowe, Wilde, Hone, Crouch or a combination of them that cheated, is irrelevant. With the exception of Leon none of them are greatly impacted, other than a paper loss on their shares. To "punish" a club that has already been punished (by relegation for instance) is morally unjust, and to kick a man (in this case a football club) when it is down is moreally unjust. But the FL are a morally bankrupt bunch of individuals headed up by a former minister in a morally bankrupt Tory administration so what do you expect.

Stu, sadly I think you are deluded. The BSP will not have us this season, it is too late (unless possibly we replace Farsley Celtic in the BS Northern)

No, it is much much too late. At least for 2009/10 season. Sorry but I really do feel that it is all over bar the shouting.

There is no way we will be in the BSP. You need to face up to the fact that we will be in L1 or nowhere next season. The BSP will not have us at this stage. We could possibly get in the Wessex League, but suspect its too late even for that.

Stu, sorry but this is just bull****. Have you actually checked out why Luton were given a 30 point deduction. Well the facts are: (1) 10 points were initially deducted by the Football Association (not the FL) as a result of 15 charges for improper use of agents. Nothing to do with Admin or even the Football League (2) Independently of this the FL then docked them 20 points, and justified the huge penalty because this was the 3rd time that Luton had been into and come out of administration. Thats right the 3RD TIME. Luton's final CVA incidentally was based on a payment to creditors of 18 pence in the £, whereas I suspect that we had been planning 100% payment (at least to Barclays). I know the FL can do whatever they want (as I ahve espoused many times on here), but if Luton is a precedent, then anything more than another 10 points (20 in total) would be pushing even the FL credibility beyond the realsm of reasonableness. Most likely is another 7 points, as with Bournemouth and Rotherham.

Lest we forget: Sir Clive Woodward (though I still think that might have worked, just the wrong time) Simon Clifford The Eye coach

+1 and he got a decent statue of Ted, who must be turning in his grave. I'm not yet convinced that TL is the bad guy some would like to believe either, try listening to MLT's interview on the Beeb

You cannot be tied to an NDA with a company that no longer exists. Period. Its not the Official Secrets Act (and even that doesn't stop people spilling the beans). There is no contractual agreement between SLH and MLT.

I think those who are dissing Tony Lynam would do well to listen to the MLT interview on BBC. Matt does not agree that TL is deserving of the flak he is getting, and quite honestly I can see very little that would convince me that TL is the chancer that some are portraying him as. If TL was duped then so was Matt. The interview is on the following BBC page, about halfway down: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8126822.stm It is really beyond the realms of belief that a chancer would have got through due diligence with a professional administrator. Therefore if we are going to blame anyone, then Fry looks more culpible than Lynam. In the end though we would not be in this mess if it were not for 2 people, Lowe and Wilde. We must never forget that. We can blame Barclays, Mawhinney, Lynham, Fry, but it was Lowe and Wilde who forced us into Administration, either directly or indirectly.

Not really. Luton got 30 point deduction. 10 points were due 15 charges of misconduct over breaches on FA regulations over payments to agents. The further penalty of 20 points was due to Luton having gone into administration 3 times. On that basis anything even approaching 20 points total would be grossly unfair, but then again we are talking the Football League, so when dealing with a founder member of the breakaway FA Premier League they could do anything. My suspicion is that 17 would be the most the FL would actually consider they could get away with. Even so, at worst we would still be in the FL next season (2010-11) whereas Luton are now in the Conference. Link to article regarding the Luton penalty: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/luton-town-hit-with-points-penalty-864607.html

Of course it did. Barclays called in the administrators because Lowe pushed us over the agreed overdraft limit, as he stated at the time. Even he must have foreseen that, being the ultra sccusseful business man that he believes he is. Its not rocket science, agreed overdraft limit is exceeded bankers call in the debt. Simples.

This is the issue for me, everyone is throwing insults at TL now, but I simply do not believe that Fry did not have convincing evidence of funds at the time Pinnacle entered into exclusivity. What I can believe is that the backer or backers whoever they are or were have refused to move forward. Why they have done that is a mystery, but there is at least a chance that it is related to the abuse that is being thrown at them. While I agree that abuse on a message board should not have caused this, the issue is with the Press, and once this stuff starts getting printed in tabloids/ Echo etc then it can be very very damaging. It is a very sad state of affairs that these days it is the gutter press who do no investigation themselves but DO read message boards and the like and hence the venom and lies and half-truths on such boards ends up in the broader spectrum of the press. To read some of the comments on the Echo site, and to an extent on here almost makes me embarrassed to be a Saints supporter. Some people need to realise that we are not playing some game here, this is the real world of people jobs and years of football supporting that is basically being killed off. I'm sure some of you will not agree, but thats what opinions are about.

No, but the problem is that the gutter press, aka the Echo, do trawl this and other forums, and also look at the feedback they get on their own website, and these comments become public knowledge. Quite frankly I am not surprised that Pinnacle have withdrawn given the sniping and downright disgusting comments put about by some people on here and elsewhere. It comes to something when people forget that the real reason for us being in this situation left 3 months back taking his lap dog with him and got way scott free, all Pinnacle did was give us some hope that there was an alternative to liquidation. They also (allegedly) have stumped up £1m plus to get u to this stage, so accusing them of not being serious is absolutely pathetic. Well thats it, the club I have supported for 43 years is now dead. Anyone who seriously thinks there is hope still is seriously deluded. Pinnacle were our last hope, and some people have made it as difficult as possible for that to happen. Hope these people who know who they are feel proud of their achievement.

Hoddle also never managed Swindon in Division 3. he rescued them when they were in Division 2. In addition Hoddle is crap unless he has Gorman as assistant, as proven at Wolves. So even if I believe that Hoddle is MLT's choice I hope to goodness that if it is that Gorman will be back as well (unless of course Hoddle could bring Snodin back instead, possibly the best assistant manager in the game, even made Burley look good for a while)

Would that be so that he can get his hip done? Strachan will get back into football as soon as he gets a decent offer.

The money will initially go the Football League as happens with ALL transfers. They will hang on to it until the mess is sorted out, so in truth neither the creditors nor the club can benefit as yet. The FL will use it to pay players wages once their contracts are in default (in just over a weeks time I believe) if they have not been paid by then. Sadly this does not help the non-playing staff at SMS.