ericb

Don't be stupid, we're going to build a 50,000 stadium and win the champions league. In fact in three years players like Messi will be begging at our feet to come here due to our massive catchment area and incredible potential that clubs like Norwich, Everton and Chelsea can only dream of.

I'm just going to stick to what i know and boo our own players. I'm a bit bored of booing puncheon and guly so i'm thinking i might start on a new player next season, and given that morgan is a bit foreign sounding and doesn't run around like a headless chicken i think i'll give him some grief. Also i heard he wore jeans once which must make him a cu.nt, oh and with him in the team we'll never build a 800,000 seater stadium and challenge for the intergalactic league BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I was talking to a friend who's a liverpool fan and they've got their hearts set on Pepe somewhat madly. I mentioned Martinez (didn't even bother with Adkins) and he had the standard big club response of he's not good enough for us. When pressed his only reason was that he'd managed wigan and "it's not the same as liverpool". So with that kind of attitude if they do go for a relative unknown, and Martinez is anything but an unknown, he'll be absolutely slaughtered if he's not winning from the off. Fuc.king weird attitude these big clubs have, despite the terrible record of "big name" managers they always clamor for them.

Because you'd still be here littering the thread like the forum equivalent of herpes. Annoying, embarrassing, turning up all the time and ruining the fun. Besides if you get banned you might actually find there's more to life than spreadsheets masquerading as computer games and statistics about football.

Nah' to stop every single thread descending into some pointless debate about attendances, it's fu.cking ruining this place and he really adds nothing else to it, when was the last time you actually saw him post anything about football rather than ground sizes?

random thought but can we ban MLG? He ruins 90% of the threads he posts in and is a boring tired cliche of himself. This place would be seriously better without him.

what incredibly arrogant fans, thinking they're a bigger club than us and banging on about potential attendances. Don't they realise we're bigger than Everton and could potentially fill a 50,000 stadium.......

Wow, just wow! I mean i might've pulled up charming man on his fuc.ked up ideas about celtic before but that is beyond stupid. You might not agree with what he says but he has the right to say it (and you have the right to rip him for it) otherwise we're on really fu.cking dangerous ground. Anyway back to the point now they're champions league and the only team that looks like winning the league maybe Celtic should build a 100,000 stadium since by this place's logic they have the catchment are of the whole of Scotland and England down to Manchester right?

Is no one else more than a little worried by the spectre of what happened to the skates? I mean i know we have rich owners now but if we spank the kind of money people want us to to get within a shot of the champions league (and **** me that'll be a lot, close to a billion i'd guess and that's not including the stadium) then the owners pull out we're in the sh.it big style. Now aside from all the fantasy etc. i'd much rather see the club build slowly and within our means. And within that i count not thinking about expansion until we have proven that we have sold out/stayed up and have a waiting list on season tickets. If we know we can afford long term it's worth it, if it could leave us with potential debts that could cripple the club again then - in my view - we shouldn't build it. I shall now await quoted stats that don't really prove anything and talk about how we currently have a rich owner so should do it, missing the point completely. Oh and as an aside did anyone else hear the Man City fan on the channel four news last night? He said he loved winning the league & beating united to it in the way they have, but then called for questions to be asked about the money and the future of the club. Perhaps not all football fans are so blinded and dumb after all.

No, no, no you just don't get it do you!? We have ambition now which we've never head before. We've never had top 2 finishes, european tours, cup finals and wins and long periods in the top flight. We've also never had the chance to mop up fans from all over the south coast of england and possibly France. Jesus you're so stuck in the small dell attitude aren't you? Don't you realise that 99% of the time statistics can make me completely insufferable?

i thought it was accepted wisdom that anything north of winchester was up north?

Yup for the people that have to make the decisions they're exactly that, for a normal bloke that goes to the football and has a laugh with their mates it's verging on the insane to be so obsessed by them. You're strangling the fun out of supporting saints with you're bizarre attitude nipper, you seriously need to take a long look at your life if you ask me.

Yeah jesus i mean you can't cherry pick the games or seasons can you? It's not like MLG would do that in his mentally unhinged obsession of all things statistical. Oh hang on a minute..... there was that one game where we got a higher attendance than Everton..... I've gotta say it's incredible really MLG sounds more and more like my heavily autistic uncle by the minute, he too does the whole "what if" hypothetical questions based in absurd realities. The idea that comparing a 25,000 stadium (as in stoneham) that was actually known to not be big enough at the time but suited our cost and profit structure better - i'm fairly sure Lowe said somewhere that ancillary extras like the hotel etc would earn us more money as was the trend at the time - at hypothetically sold out levels, to the much more realistic comparison of having never maxed out our season tickets sales at SMS - which by anyone's means is a far more logical and intelligent comparison since it's actually quantifiable. As for the idea that Wolves would ever sell out a 50,000 stadium....... Utterly, utterly insane! Anyway for what it's worth i think Dubai Phil's post a while back should really have ended this thread as it made a lot of sense and rang true, in the same way that Turkish/Charming Man etc saying we should actually see if things are financially viable before doing them makes a lot of sense. Btw i'm impressed how MLG has managed to completely derail this and turn into into his favourite thing, an unprovable debate on attendances, neatly side stepping the point about aiming for champions league in the next five years that even he must clearly see is just not feasible Now whilst i'd never put anyone on an internet forum on ignore i do seriously think i might just skip over MLG's posts from now onwards, god knows what's going on in his head but he lives in a totally bizarre fantasy world and is fairly extremist in that position too. For your own personal well being though MLG i really do think you need to get a little more in your life than football since your obsession is quite simply not healthy, and your statistical zealot stance is really a good inkling of autism. Go out and get yourself laid mush, or maybe discover going on the **** with your mates (assuming you have them) since you really need to drop this attendance thing lest people start to think you're a touch..... odd.

Well you get the odd reprobate like Patrick Bateman mush

Hold on i thought that didn't count and it was because we didn't have ambition then? I mean it's not like we spent the best part of two decades trying to find a new ground, and it's not like we actually thought we had the Pirelli site set up in the 80's (at our peak), and it's not like we finished in our best league position ever signing the European player of the year on the way. Jesus MLG you're just so stuck in that small time Dell attitude aren't you? If we're both in the premier league they're a much bigger club than us, as has been proven in the past. Nope it's based on their historical support in the top flight and the fact that they were a huge club in many people's youth. I'd be interested to know if you're old enough to remember the Sheffield Wednesday that used to be one of the top English clubs and were expected to compete for most things (including league title) and would sell out Hillsborough (terraced, huge and a standard as an FA cup semi final place most years) as well as away ends all over the country. The same could be said of Leeds, Forest and to a lesser extent Derby (but only lesser cause they were dipping as i was growing up). All these claims of sides being bigger aren't really crazy they're just based on a longer memory/knowledge of football than a few on here and a realisation that nine times out of ten the really big clubs do dominate, it's just that there are more of them than people realise. As an example Sheffield Wednesday drop off and Newcastle pick up, both (in my opinion) are similar sized clubs, just look at the geordies support in the 80s and both have tremendous potential. We're just lucky at the moment that so many of these really big clubs aren't in the top flight, since it actually gives us the chance to achieve something above what we otherwise may have the chance of. Sorry for the epic post btw but it's my last one for the day!

i'll do the london ones as i live here now, but aside from them top three are Newcastle - cracking night out, probably make a weekend of it. Liverpool - done most prem ground but never anfield for some reason and united/city because i've got mates in manchester and ****ing love the night out there, even if both grounds are a bit **** really (maine road on the other hand was a different story). One i'm definitely giving a miss is Villa Park, sick to fu.cking death of going there and watching us lose! This is going to be a really expensive season for me i think, last season i managed about 16 & with premiership prices, plus travel down to southampton for every home game i doubt i'll be able to do anywhere near that many now.

Bit harsh on Will, i've known him and my family all my life and he's a massive saints fan & has been going when he can during all our time outside of the top flight

Why do people bother arguing with MLG? The guy is clearly utterly insanely blinded by something, kind of like Stalin's lapdogs who still claim he did good for Russia. Don't get me wrong it's not that i think he supports a murderous regime (or that cortesee is even that) but his obsession with stats and attendances borders on the autistic and he seems to live in an alternate reality of football spreadsheets and utterly baffling conclusions drawn from nothing. Anyway on to what i thought was a pretty good post a few pages back that i couldn't answer due to the stupid three post rule. I'd agree with most of that and think it's a fair summing up. Though whilst you can never write things off, and should always aim as high as you can, i just cannot see - due to all the historical evidence during the time of the premier league - that we'll ever break that glass ceiling (and again i'd love to be proved wrong). For what it's worth i think we're well outside the top 7 clubs in terms of size in the premier league and arguably smaller than a few outside of it too - Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday, Derby, Forest all spring to mind as clubs that have massive, massive potential where they ever to establish themselves in the top flight again.

Pah' Sapient one of my rivals Very good agency btw and have been no.1 in the European top 100 agencies for the last few years, expect them to do something very good if they are given the right amount of time to achieve it.

I'd be amazed if AAP designed or built the site, especially given that the websites of Manchester City and Chelsea (amongst others) as well as the premier league have been designed by some of the top design agencies in the country, ranking in the top 10 in Europe. People massively under estimate the price of a well designed site and to achieve the kind of level that Saints would be looking for with a bespoke ticketing system, design etc you'd be looking at something close to around the £500,000 mark and probably about 6-8months for it to be done (at the top end). In fact 99% of football club's websites are absolutely appalling and there's no doubt they're losing a massive amount of revenue from having such poorly built sites. Manchester City's on the other hand is an incredibly brave and well thought through piece of design and user experience and i believe it's won a few awards in the industry http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

If i'm not wrong Airplane came off the back of police squad, then Naked Gun followed. All had the same writers and delivery so the jokes were very similar

That reminds i've not watched police squad in ages

I take it no one actually watched the video posted about the strettford end then? And to think we're now asking for something the United fans see as part of the death knell of their fan culture.... God i hate modern football.

Why the fu,ck is anyone comparing us to Everton? In my lifetime they've won leagues, cups, played in Europe regularly and had some of the best players around. Even now they're one of the bigger non top five sides consistently, with spurs top then maybe villa (who are having a bad season) and Newcastle. We are a parochial team, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that but the days of clubs like ours being genuinely successful is over. The last ones to do it where Derby, Forest, Blackburn and maybe Ipswich/Sheffield Wednesday. There's a reason when a big buyout happens it happens in London, Manchester or Liverpool, and MLG i mean really big not a clever businessman like Markus big, it's because these cities are known internationally and have a kudos attached to them that most football clubs don't. And it's not just here either, Germany aside (the perfect football model if you ask me), all other major footballing nations are the same. Spain, Italy, France etc. Now there's no doubting that after a few seasons of consolidation we could push on for a cup run or maybe an outside chance of Europe via the league but let's be sensible about this first of all we have to stay in the top flight and that's not going to be easy. Then once we've done that we have to hold onto our better players who are suddenly in the limelight big style, and then, only then can we look at the next step. Cue MLG's aspergers style rant about stadium capacity and many other of the pleasantly deranged spreadsheet players telling me that i'm in someway wrong for not believing The Dream. Oh and one last aside i'd love to know the age differences between those talking about champions league etc (MLAutism aside) and those talking about consolidation and cup runs. I'd hazard a guess it's the older heads that know how these things work and have seen it before that are going for the more realistic later, and those that are a bit over excited about promotion and success in the lower leagues that are going for the former.

Going by saints web logic the only realistic aim is to declare southampton a sovereign state and win the world cup with in 5 years. Oh and by the way did anyone mention most of you football manager geek types on here are FU.CKING MENTAL!?