The Kraken

We'll see. I'm expecting nothing more than a slap on the wrists for Serbia, and a relatively small fine (I consider anything less than Bendtner's £80K fine for his Paddy Power stunt as completely risible, so you understand my benchmarks). I wouldn't be surprised also if the fact that it was a U21 game rather than a full international is used in mitigation. England will also see a fine; and I truly wouldn't be surprised if its more than the £16K that Serbia were fined for racially abusing Nedum Onouha back in 2007.

There's already a thread on this. http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?40659-Your-chance-to-tell-the-club-what-you-think-of-them

I didn't even get one; maybe they thought they wouldn't like what I would have to say? (Entirely understandable; I can barely live with my own abject opinions at times).

Thought he played well against Fulham. This is new and intersting topic of thread, by the way.

Secured against Fratton Park, perchance? What delicious irony that could turn out to be......

It really, really isn't that black and white, and I'm pretty sure you know it isn't.

Well I'm fairly sure they didn't expect it to be such poor value for money. But I can ask them if there was an ulterior motive for doing so; I admit I'm struggling to guess at one off hand. They "splashed out" on the Club Lounge membership option; £1170 for a season ticket, with access to the Channon suite before and after the game. So essentially they paid nearly £400 extra than the next highest value of season ticket. I imagine that, beforehand, they thought the extra cost would have been worth paying. They've clearly since decided it isn't, by a long way.

Where did I say it wasn't as advertised? What a strange thing to suggest.

I'm surprised we seem to be dumbing down and commonising the whole corporate and service experience. Don't need to say any more about the Channon Suite; its turned into a low quality bar rather than a pretty decent dining and entertainment experience. The Terry Paine Ambassadors Suite is no more; that provided the best experience I've ever had at St. Mary's corporate or otherwise. Not cheap at all but was always packed to the rafters. The boxes not even a third full; unsurprising really given that prices have skyrocketed by now don't include any booze in the price other than an intriductory beer and glass of wine (for a day that starts at 12.30 and runs through to 6pm for a regular kick off). The Dell Sports Club seems to have suffered a similar fate too; most tables and chairs suddenly removed to create a "bar or pub experience". I'm not sure which bars and pubs they're basing it on, but most that I tend to frequent have tables and chairs for most people to, you know, sit at and enjoy a pint. Whoever is in charge of hospitality and corporate enteratinment is clearly working to a pre-defined brief, and one that simply doesn't work. Customers have left in their droves and continue to do so; yet the club don't seem to want to listen and are providing a service that they think the customer should have, rather than listening to what they actually want.

This is entirely true. I've spoken to a couple of sets of friends who have used the Micky Channon suite this season and they say it's utterly pathetic for the money. Just a few days ago I had a beer with 2 friends who work for a company that have 4 season tickets for the Channon for "entertaining" guests; they've said its so bad that they're sure the company won't be renewing next year. The Channon suite is staffed by very young, seemingly incapable staff. Service is atrocious, on two separate match occasions they said it took forever to get served at the bar (and we all know that the draught beer at St. Mary's is pretty abject, is the same swill they serve in the concourses). Food, well you'd just as well eat somewhere else; the options are croque monsieurs, hot dogs and chicken wraps. And that's it. Hardly somewhere you'd expect to woo a client. The interaction from ex-players and staff has also diminished to a huge extent, which used to be a major selling point to the day. In common with what Turkish said; the people that I know that have decided for taking out clients they'll got to a restaurant in town and just get to the suite for a beer before the game; then next year give the season ticket up. They are far from alone in this, as the empty seats in corporate testify to every single game. Sadly, this was all predicted last year; it was shouted down and we were told that corporate would be sold out this year, it was only being in the Championship that meant we weren't selling out. I'm sure now that the financial crisis will be held entirely to blame; anything but blaming super businessman Nicola.

F*ck me there's some desperate people on here. "SOUUUURCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or it isn't true!!!!".

I'd put my tick in her box.

The problem is that he's done rather well against SFC so far this season.

Jay Rodriguez. What, too soon............??

Depends on your interpretation; right now, the club's IMO. The Echo didn't cover themselves in glory but they published information that was already in the public domain and was being reported by other news sources. SFC have since acted like children in reaction to that, it was an issue that should have been put to bed soon after it happened.

Comfortably German.

Yep. Well done to the bid team for getting in a position where they can see the finish line; getting over it could yet be an insurmountable hurdle, for many reasons. First, the Trust have to turn the pledges into fully funded applications. Next, Chainrai has to accept the Trust's offer of £2.75M for the charge of Krap Nottarf. When he refuses to accept that figure, then its off to court. The Trust have to demonstrate that, financially, they are able to meet the player deferrals for the previous high earners; those bills stand at £8.5M and aren't going away anytime soon, and with Chinny (plus other parties) still in the background there's surely little chance of them getting negotiated downwards. The Trust also have to demonstrate that their business plan hold up (a business plan which when previously submitted could only afford to pay £2M of the £8.5M player deferral payments). Lots of hurdles to go yet, and Chainrai will of course play his part to the max. Good luck to them though; if the PST do miraculously take charge it will make a change to see them living within their means and not ripping off schools, hospitals and local charities just so that they can gain a competitve advantage on the football pitch.

Will certainly be interesting to see if the hordes come running back to pack the park now that the Trust are in pole position to takeover.

There's a couple of big pictures of MLT and Cortese, just in case their readers don't know who they are. Not much to add in the narrative we've already seen from the PA piece, other than a slight rehashing of other minor spats MLT and Cortese have had in the past. Rather suprisingly, the club decided not to get back to the Echo with a formal comment.....

In other words; "let's go to court".

They'll ask for more. One of the PST has already admitted on radio that they'll go back to the fanbase if they need supplemental funding; this was hastily backtracked upon when they realised the cat was out of the bag. Their business model simply cannot be sustainable without ongoing funding and with PKF using up the parachute payments which had been earmarked as cash reserves for an operating budget.

They won't get relegated this season; Tricky Trev has done well with his playing budget to ensure that they're "competitive" (i.e. have players that almost all other teams in the division cannot afford). Takeover will take at least another 3 or 4 months apparently, that gets us to February before reality kicks in. By then, even with the -10 they should be more than safe of staying up. Gotta hand it to Trev in that regard, he's played a blinder. It'll just be a wonder where the cash comes from following takeover, and just how much more PKF can trouser between now and then.

PES thinks it's one of the lowest in the division already, so its a bit pointless putting that particular question to him, you'll only get a deluded response.