The Kraken

Good to finally hear some sense on this issue instead of MLG's constant "I think the the owners have a more accelerated than you think" speculation. It was always going to be a case of getting settled in the Prem for 2 or 3 years before looking to expand, now it seems its confirmed. Europe within 2 years is achievable (not CL unless we go batsh*t mental, but Europa is definitely viable) but it needs a lot of investment, which it seems we may also get.

Not bad young Charles, but I would change the following: Lallana 5; by his own high standards I think he has been consistently below par. Cork 8; a night and day change of fortune since he came in. Rodriguez 5; probably won't be popular but I think his last 4 or 5 games have regressed from the improvement shown initially under MP. Gazzaniga 5; it's a by product that keepers will get judged predominantly on mistakes made that lead to conceded goals. Clyne 9; he has been consistently brilliant.

Agreed. El Tel is a pointless dinosaur but have a look at any such pre-season prediction and there will likely be at least a major gaffe or two. Not worth getting in a huff about, I'd suggest.

Perhaps it tells us that they've listened to previous criticism of prices and payment schemes being announced too late (or not at all) and have decided to be a bit more customer focused in this regard.

It's an entirely fair point but it comes down to supply and demand. Since January time the stadium has seen a majority of home sell-outs. So while demand outstrips supply there is either a case for expanding the stadium, or by maximising revenues with increased ticket prices, clearly a much easier and cheaper option to implement.

Is anybody on one of these said boycotts? More to the point, if anyone is, how are you aware if it being as you only joined this site in April?

Never heard the Spurs link; nor Newcastle, although I remember the Lambert links. The point is; we won't find out what resolve the club now has until they start rejecting offers from the big clubs. And that will come out in the press one way or the other. It'll be an interesting summer; since our L1 days we're now into unchartered waters of having showcased some very good young players and then claiming that we're better placed than ever to keep bigger clubs' hands off them. So we'll see.

Which is why I said this summer could be a benchmark. Up to now almost all offers that have come in from clubs bigger than us have been accepted and the player has left. In our rise through the leagues we didn't have to stave off big clubs showing interest in our players; Lallana to Fulham was the biggest and you'd be hard pushed to argue that Fulham were/are a bigger club than us, even if they were a division above us when the Lallana speculation came about. If we can see off the interest in Shaw, and if we can keep our best players despite overtures from the big boys of the Premier League, then it'll be a sign for me that we've progressed significantly. Until then, the only evidence of our harder stand against losing our best prospects has yet to be proven.

Because we have yet to see much evidence of it. As soon as one of the big boys came calling for Chamberlain he went the way of Bale and Walcott before him. This summer could be a benchmark; if we can resist any overtures from the really big clubs for our key players than that sea of change may start happening.

If its the only way to keep him then yes. If not, no.

Indeed. In this case he has achieved stability for the club; great news all round. As I said in my reply above to Vectis though; I actually think it has been a great event overshadowed by poor PR. We (and the footballing public) should be talking about our new owner, what a great moment of stability it is for us. Instead we came to realise how fragile the club setup is; if the CEO goes, the manager goes, and the player of the season says that many players will likely leave. The new owner has become overshadowed by the story of the CEO. Yes, the end news is great. You'll have to forgive me though, for I see the build up to it as pretty poor PR if I'm honest. The club rightly gets lauded on occasions for doing it business behind closed doors in regard to negotiations, and this incident makes me hope we revert back to that approach.

There's a difference between Cortese playing his cards right, and playing the PR card well. Cortese has done well for himself and for SFC; good news all round, the end goal has been achieved. To say it was handled brilliantly by issuing various leaks to the press and causing instability amongst the fanbase is a different thing entirely. There's many ways to skin a cat and all that; and while the goal must be commended as great news, you don't necessarily have to stand back and marvel at the manner in which it was done, and to wonder if the standard "behind closed doors" approach would have been as prefereable in this case as it seems to have been previously when the club enters into negotiations.

This seems to have gotten lost in the press leaks fun and games, which have kind of overshadowed the main event of the week. We know who our owner is now. And how great it is to hear that she apparently buys into the future that was previously agreed and set out by the previous owner. Aintforever seems on a mission to forbid anyone claiming it was anything but a wonderfully exercised PR routine, but I feel the exact opposite. This is tremendous news for SFC, and while Cortese has indeed played a blinder for the long-term stability of this club, the leaks and veiled threats have largely detracted from the main event of our clarified ownership status.

On the flip side it strikes me as the least credible one I've yet read; that Cortese was misquoted by a rigue interviewer? This wan't just some newbie journo that broke the news. And as CB Fry rightly says, whenever SFC or NC have been misquoted or had significantly impalusible stories written about them in the past they've been none too shy to come forward and set the record straight on the OS or other media. In this case the original story was backed up by the manager and then the player of the season coming out in the press to reinforce the original story. And then it was all wrapped up in a bow with the final end that everything had been resolved and we were ploughing forward with the original plan. Its a great outcome, but I don't see a need to sugar coat it and pretend it was something other than the Chairman playing hardball and looking for some a sign of assurity that previously made committments would be met.

Being as Saints fans like to "borrow" songs from other clubs, maybe we could follow the lead of some other clubs and what they sing about their CEOs? The trouble is, I'm not sure what they are. Anyone? What do Man United fans sing about David Gill? What have Man City previously sung about Garry Cook, and now Ferran Sorriano? What witty ditties do Chelsea have about Ron Gourlay? Or Arsenal about Ivan Gazidis? These are the more successful teams in the Premier League, so I think we should look to them for inspiration. If anyone knows the words to the songs these lot get sung about them, maybe we should post them up here and get learning.

We spent around £30M - £35M last season, and half the players we brought in have been periphery figures. And around £20M of that outlay was spent on players who finished the season either prdominantly on the subs bench or not making the matchday squad at all (Ramirez, Forren, Mayuka, Gazzaniga). If we spend £30M+ (and I think we will) there are some lessons to be learnt from this season's dealings. Some have been a great success (Clyne, Boruc), some have been a good addition all season long (Yoshida, Davis), some have performed in fits and starts (Rodriguez), others have not yet made the impact hoped of them. People bang on about being given players more time to settle; but if the manager has a bountiful transfer kitty at his disposal and can bring in someone to do a better job, then its the only way we'll improve.

I got fracted 2 points for describing the Santa split pants lad as a "fat mess". I'm guessing some of the mods must be uber-chubsters and are a bit sensitive about over-expanded waistlines.

Yes, well pointed out. It would seem we are not red and white stripes this season. And other seasons haven't been either. Very astute and quite correct.

I don't know what questions or idiots you're asking but I've never met a football fan from around the UK who doesn't know we play in red and white stripes. Even the BBC had a feature at the start of this season expressing surprise that we were playing in a Liverpool 1980s design.

The idea that its utterly brilliant that the club do everything behind closed doors and not in public is obviously a bit more selective than first thought.

Ask any non-Saints fan what kit we usually wear and they'll say red and white stripes. You're the one kidding yourself if you think other fans think of us more in the Rank Xerox or Hummel kit, or sash kit that was worn for one year when we were hidden in the obscurity of the third division.

I assume if people think this is good PR, they'll be all up for a new strategy of negotiating new contracts with our players by doing it all publicly, registering concern that the players' wage demands may not match the club's, leeting slip other such unsettling leaks and then patch it all up with one of the nice pictures of MP, player and new watch. Apparently doing it behind closed doors and then making an announcement to the press is not the way to do these sort of things.

Uh, yes; that's kind of why I said get it done and then make a public announcement. So apart from the end result of announcing who our owner is and that they are firmly behind our future plans, what was the point of the exercise? To exert pressure on the owners? To reaffirm the control the CEO has? If its those, I'm still left wondering how it's good PR to do all that in public rather than behind the scenes and then presenting a common goal and strength of partnership with a joint announcement to the public.

Unfortunately its a by-product of having to have moderators such as the moronic St. Chalet and that other dribbling pansy Jimmy D. Hell in a handcart etc....

Christ, I think some people have a strange idea of what "good PR" is. Cortese got his way and got the guarantees he was after, fair play to him for that. But to claim the club looked good off the back of it is daft. Good PR would have been being able to sort this out behind closed doors and then make a public announcement, rather than doing our dirty washing in public and showing a potential fragility to the backbone of the club.