The Kraken

Again, at odds with what the administrator said at the time, and in an interview with the Echo afterwards. Q. How many parties did you believe could seriously enter into an exclusivity period? MF: There was about three at that time. Q. How many serious parties were left after Pinnacle failed? MF: There were three parties at that time and we were in serious discussion with two of them, but the Swiss were the ones that were ahead.

Where are you getting this from? Seriously? Is it personal opinion? Something you know? From Mark Fry's own words: [Fry declined to extend Pinnacle's period of exclusivity, allowing other suitors to come forward.] "There are two other parties that have expressed an interest in the purchase of the club and I have spent last week in discussions with those parties. "On Thursday I met with the representatives of a bid that is coming from abroad and who have the funds available to complete a takeover. "I am expecting to hear back from them early next week as to whether they would like to push ahead and complete the purchase of the club. "There will not be any further "exclusivity period" available to potential purchasers due to the tight deadlines we are working to. "If towards the end of next week we are in a situation where no bids are forthcoming, I will meet with the directors to discuss options." Again, you seem to only be using assumptions to baseline your opinions and bypassing the facts. "Perhaps". And no-one has said we were never in any danger, simply that it is very unlikely we would have gone out of business. I'm not even sure if fry himself made the statement that club would be wound up, though it was certainly attributed to him. As above his line was "If towards the end of next week we are in a situation where no bids are forthcoming, I will meet with the directors to discuss options."

"Continued to flog a dead horse"? Pinnacle paid for a period of exclusivity. They got that, it was for a fixed term, when that term ended and they hadn't completed the bid moved on to someone else. Are you sure you know what actually happened here? Your opinions on this matter seem either completely contradictory to the facts or entirely based in assumption.

Right. Why did Mark Fry come out with this too then? "It has previously been stated that the Administrators were not prepared to extend the period of exclusivity that had been granted to the Pinnacle Group and that had expired on 19 June 2009." "Immediately following the expiry of the exclusivity period, the Administrators re-engaged in discussions with other parties that had previously expressed serious interest. We remain hopeful that a sale of the Football Club will be completed within a very short period of time." But no, you're probably right and Fry was lying. There was no-one else interested in buying the club. No-one.

Then you clearly have a poor memory. It was revealed in early April that there were half a dozen parties that had put forward expressions of interest. This was reported in the Times, amongst others. To suggest there were no other interested parties is more than slightly dumb. In addition, after the Pinnacle bid fizzled out; "Salvation for a club that played in the Premier League as recently as 2005 is now likely to come from overseas. Fry has hinted that the business could be wound up as early as the end of this week if a buyer cannot be found, but two consortiums from abroad are said to remain interested, and Fry said today that he remains hopeful that a sale "will be completed within a very short period of time."

Fair enough; I'd understood that the sale of Surman, Dyer and McGoldrick (plus Crouch's generosity) had meant that there wasn't any significant delay, though. That and the fans dipping into their own pockets for the numerous bucket collections, of course.

Quite right. The Liebherr bid was there to take over because that's where Mark Fry had positioned them. There had already been a long vetting process of many interested parties; we all know it is madness that the Pinnacle bid came out on top, but there were other bids in behind that. The Liebherr bid was the first one up, and therefore Fry didn't have to search anywhere else for a lifeline, it was right there. Add to the fact that we had already sold a few players to keep the accounts topped up yet still had saleable assets such as Lallana and Schneiderlin on the books. There may have been talk of needing a sale to go through extra quick after all of Fry's catastrophic efforts, no doubt about that, but liquidation was never a realistic proposition, there were just far too many assets and too much public interest for it to have happened. The players were still getting fully paid, there were no wage deferrals, no companies losing millions of unpaid sums. Those lot down the road show just how far into the mire you can go without a football club of any notable size folding.

Depends how much they're smoking. If its 20 a day then its a clear problem. If its 1 or 2 a day then its a negligible problem.

I think that's the point, isn't it? English players are only good enough to make up a very small percentage of the best teams. If the top teams played 6-7 Englishmen in their sides, they simply wouldn't be the top teams any more.

Agreed, I'm not sure if Smalling will make the squad just going as a centre back. Surely the only reason he's been so close to the team is his adaptability at playing right back (and the fact that we're rather bereft of decent options at centre back). Sadly for England, Smalling is nowhere near a proficient international standard playing in either position, he's consistently shown that yet still gets picked. Neither is Phil Jones, though I do think he could develop into a decent centre back if he is given time. Unfortunately, I don't see Clyne getting any sort of opportunity to get on the plane. Especially if he can't force his way in front of Chambers at club level over the second half of the season.

As long as possible. Watching them tailspin is hilarious. Man United fans need some humility and a sense of perspective, their sense of entitlement is overwhelming.

For a lot of people expectations haven't been downsized. They're still the same; try and finish as high as possible, with a Europa Cup place the realistic limit to that expectation. Have an ambition to qualify for the CL but have a healthy realisation that that's extremely unlikely to happen. I expect exactly the same of Saints now than I did a month ago. Take the Liebherr involvement away and that's when I really will look at re-assessing expectations and ambitions.

We all don't.

Miltonroader MkII.

I reckon it won't, the new CEO will know that a very simple way to get fans on side will be to release a stripes kit. Add a tagline to it like "giving the fans their kit back" or some such gubbins and it's a PR dream. I'll be amazed if we don't see stripes or Rank Xerox next term. I don't mind a deviation from the norm at all, I just think our last 2 season's kit have been really poor, I genuinely can't stand this season's home (the away kit is really nice though).

Well we clearly won't do that, being as all kits these days are on a one year cycle.

I'd much prefer it with a collar though, that's what the original design had (a good one too, with red with and black in it).

Our last two home kits have been absolutely horrific, so I'm hoping it's a change to something that looks half decent. I'd prefer stripes over what we've got but some sort of nod to the sash or the Rank Xerox kit would be good. Something distinctive yet still with a nod to Saints. Rank Xerox has always been my preference, just not sure if I trust Adidas to not f*ck it up.

:lol:

It's not irrelevant at all, EPPP doesn't allow other clubs to set up satellite academies, it allows them to recruit kids from all over the country to their own academy. The Bath site allows us recruit kids from that area without them leaving home, a big advantage. Us getting the bath site was very advantageous, there are plenty of other clubs who are disadvantaged like us by being on the coast but who don't have a satellite centre.

I know his brother, Fred.

No surprises, originally thought the prompt sale rumours was Cortese trying to stir things up and destable matters. Good news.

I'm guessing he doesn't read this forum.

Those media reports are Vincent Tan's nonsense. The truth is rather different, and they didn't pull out because of the price.

I don't mind talksport. Alan Brazil is a cretin but some of the pundits they have on with him are ok. H&J are excellent. I don't even mind Durham, you just have to wade through his over the top wumming. It's certainly better than listening to the cr*p they churn out on Radio 1.