ericb

I'd say he's trolling every other forum but the care in the community case actually believes what he writes so i'm not sure that's actually trolling

I'd be willing to put a tidy sum on the fact that we'll be sold in the next two years, especially given that i know for a fact Cortese has already met buyers and has told people he won't be here in two years.

Yeah but do you run a database for an computer spreadsheet football game? Cause everyone here knows that the best way to learn anything about football. It's definitely not getting off your fat mess of an arse, playing the game, playing for/running a club and doing your coaching badges. Nope Championship manager means you know all.

That's a bit like saying aids is much better than Ebola

Always said he's absolute class and is now starting to look genuinely world class. I hope to fuc.k we hold on to him (and at the very least get him onto a new contract sooner rather than later) but i can't help but think that he's going to be a very in demand man in the summer.

the energy levels have been amazing first half, Morgan is such a quality player and i hope to god we keep hold of him.

£700 is the cut off for me, and sadly i think that means i won't be going next season. My guess will be that renewals will be around the £720 mark to cover the spending on the team (if we stay up of course). Means i'll have to pick and choose games for the first time since the late 80s, fu.ck me i hate modern football!

"he can't fu.cking read, he can't fu.cking read. That twitcher skate wa.nker, he can't fu.cking read"

For the thumbs up to Milan the crook, and posing with a skate shirt whilst still our manager he deserves every single bit of abuse he can get.

Just to throw a spanner in the works for Frank isn't it very well know that The German Model is more to do with the 51% ownership of the club by the fans, and that it's been often mentioned that the owners would raise prices if they could? As for comparisons with Arsenal, they're in one of the biggest metropolises in the world, a city that has a massive transient community and picks up incredibly large amounts of tourist. They're hugely successful, have marketed themselves well as a middle class club which is acceptable for non footballing people to go and watch (and the club has paid the price for this by losing it's soul and culture). Yet.... Still they advertise heavily on the tubes, in the press and on local radio here. So even with all that going for them expansion has been incredibly difficult. Now try that in a small provincial city with little transient community and little reason for tourists to come. Without utterly selling out the club we'll always have a cap, it's the reality of what we are, why this bothers people i don't know, but delusions of grandeur are laughable. Maybe one day, with much more success and seasons of proven demand we could increase, but our maximum (i think) is probably only 40,000 - not taking into account freak games and big clubs. It's nothing to be ashamed of and nothing worth arguing over, besides it's really a very new phenomenon this obsession with attendances (and to a lesser extent size). I remember growing up we were little old Southampton putting the noses of the big clubs out of joint and having fun, and in the 80s success. Why we can't just enjoy what we are i don't know, but it's a symptom of modern society that everything has to be bigger no matter the cost.

Also added to that i'd say it's the people that "support" their teams on tv, have no real link to the club, and see football as entertainment. The kind of people that live in Reading but support Arsenal, or the Barclays fan of India types. It'd fu.cking kill me to see our ground filled in the way the emirates is, i live close by to it and see the football tourists on the tube to islington on a match day and it's embarrassing. Arsenal in the 80s had one of the best fan cultures around - not that you hear it much these days - and a real soul. Now you have £62 seats taken up by people from the home counties or further who have no link or heritage in north london and would leave at the drop of the hat if they're not successful (i.e premier league). Oh and then there's that worst kind of plastic, the one that has a "second team" and backs it up by saying it's their team for the premier league/champions league/top four side etc. fu.cking joke the lot of them.

Except in this case it's more like your favourite band turning into an opera act, marketing to a quieter crowd, tripling (or more) the cost of entry and diluting the rock and roll in favour of a full orchestra and guest Japanese band leaders

To be honest it's not the success that's the problem - not that we'll see much of that in my opinion - more selling your soul to do it. Personally i look at Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and United (at home) to see the warnings of what has happened to the game. If a fc of southampton was set up i think i'd almost 100% go, mainly cause it'd be cheap and fun, the way i think football should be. Besides i think the option would be taken out of my hands anyway since i'd not be able to afford st mary's. Also i really fu.cking hate plastics, and i doubt i'd be able to keep my mouth shut if we started getting them, especially if they sapped the soul from the club like they have at the clubs i mentioned before. The only thing i would say is that i'd probably still do a few aways, just for the laugh and the day out, since normally they can't sanitise the away support anywhere near as much as the home crowd. Mind you i've been falling out of love with football since we got back to the prem' so maybe i'm different to some of our more happy clappy fans.

Football is cracking at the day to day level i think, obviously the hype is still there on sky and for those that haven't been going for any length of time (or those that watch it on tv). But you can see more and more that we're starting to see the beginnings of a revolt on how fans are treated. Fan culture is being slowly killed, most clubs (ours included) are rotten to the core by money, ticket prices are beyond stupid and the game as a whole is sanitised. I hope to god the change comes personally.

To be fair scummer is definitely a common term for us, even the Australian lad i work with calls me a scummer

The push each other over is probably just cause they've had a few beers and your balance tends to go by match time. Seriously i don't see the problem, bunch of lads out on the **** having a laugh. There really are some miserable old gits on here if you think that's a problem!

Me too, but then given the amount of drugs i was taking around that time i wouldn't be surprised if i had visited a mythical stadium that only existed in my head

I'd go the other way round personally, Fox has a good cross on him and enough experience to play the Marsden role of letting Shaw fly past and do the attacking. Personally as good as he is i'm not convinced Shaw has the maturity yet to play that covering role (but i'm utterly sure it will come with time).

As my Portuguese friend put it "it's Font, and that's yet more proof of why english people shouldn't ever think they're right on any kind of foreign pronunciation"

Not sure i agree with that, Boruc is decent for now but hasn't exactly convinced me and certainly doesn't strike me as one for the future.

I've been saying for a fair few seasons now that he's our most complete player, an absolute star in the making and sadly one who i think will be picked up sooner rather than later. The saddest thing is i think him moving on to a big club, maybe abroad is the best thing for him since he needs to show he can do it at the top level which he won't here.

Personally i still think we're short of a winger, cm cover, cover at right back and a good goal keeper. Be surprised if we didn't sign at least two more before the end of the window but one will just about be enough.

yeah but Mo Po is going to make us waaay better than wet sham or man ure, and we'll take the EPL by storm! GO TEAM SOCCERBALL!

For some reason everytime i read posters going on about champions league etc. I can't help but picture themselves in my head Sisyphus type characters, doomed to the dream they've been sold and not enjoying the reality we have because of it.

Peteborough away is still one of my favourite away days i've ever done, absolutely cracking laugh at a proper football ground, with an old style terrace, we won (in style) and great pubs around. On top of that the Peterborough fans were a really good bunch too, funny and plenty of respect for us and the noise we made.