The Kraken

Sadly not; even if he is found guilty it's massively unlikely that he'll do jail time. Much more likely that he'll pay a hefty fine and pay back the tax owed plus interest. Though it would scupper his England manager intentions, which can only be a good thing.

Mike Gosney, 2-0.

Totton penalty!

"Nicola Cortese The Benevolent". The chairman who just keeps on giving, distributing extra tickets where none were needed. What a generous/clumsy club we have.

I *think* it's only £1.50 booking fee, though I may be wrong. But yes, you're correct.

When we're playing Brighton, instead of the uber-predicatble "we can see you holding hands", can we please just do this instead?

I'm prepared to be proved wrong, but I'm absolutely sure that excuse is complete and utter b*llocks. There is no reason, none whatsoever, why that couldn't be done. The only reason I can possibly think of, that of needing to prove your identity, could easily be solved by having to show photographic ID before getting the bus. A very poor decision by the club.

I'm fairly sure you wouldn't have any problem convincing any Saints fan that greater fan representation would be a good thing. We should have that, and the fans forum was the last bastion of the club truly looking like it made some form of effort of engaging with the fans. It's just the "fan on the board" aspect where things tend to get a bit silly and argumentative, as if that's the only viable alternative. What's really needed, IMO anyway, is a club that is receptive to fans opinion and a meaningful way for the club and fans' opinions to be heard. I absolutely disagree that a fan on the board is the way to do it, but completely support the notion of some kind of forum that doesn't get hijacked by the usual brand of SISA and other nutters that think they should stand up and represent the whole fan base for the sake of their own interests. There are clearly better ways to do it than we are doing, and have done in the past. Sadly I'm not sure there is a realistic option in the future under our current stewardship

I'm a critic, not a creator. It's an easier life, but with much less glory, I accept that. In any case, trying to teach anything to the underclass morons that w*nk themsleves off shouting "PORK PORK" or "STEEEEEEEEEEVE" just seems like a meaningless waste of time of time to me. For as much creativity as you're trying to bring to the table, there's only so much you can do with the remedial audience you're throwing it out to.

A truly great chant. A shame that we have to rip everything off from other clubs of course, but it is a good one.

The "mistake" with Saints was that the owners backed down from calling it the "Friends Provident Stadium" and, amongst massive fan backlash, relented and called it the "Friends Provident St. Mary's Stadium". Which, rather obviously, just became St. Mary's Stadium. The BBC and even Sky Sports tending to drop the sponsor's name clearly was massively detrimental to the effect of the sponsorship. But in any case, there was a huge feeling amongst the city that the club was moving back to it's St. Mary's roots, which is where of course our nickname was derived from, so the ground was always going to be referred to as it currently is. But in answer to your question; the Reebok is still going strong; helped by the fact it's obviously the original name, but also that Reebok are integral to Bolton in that their HQ is based there. Andon other stadiums with a name; maybe I'm a bit slow but my first thought of Huddersfield's is to call it the Mc Alpine. It's only new days, but Wigan's for quite some time will be, to me at least, the JJB. But I think the point has been made; new stadiums that are first only named by a sponsor can quite easily move to another sponsor name later on, without massive fan backlash. But trying to deny 120 years of a ground being called St. James Park by suddenly renaming it with a chavvy sports brand name just won't work. Especially with a hugely reactive support base as the geordies are. Everyone inside and outside of Newcastle will forever refer to it as SJP, and rightly so.

"Southampton FC" doesn't roll off the tongue like "Sally Cinnamon" does. And in any case, Sally Cinnamon is far, far too good a song to be ruined by the Northam mongtastic brigade. Turkish, you're better than this.

It's perhaps worth your while reading the article on Bournemouth's official site. The quote from Bournemouth's manager stating that Beattie has " just gone there to get fit and for us to look at him" does seem to suggest a certain scenario though.

With that we're in total agreement, an absolutely inexcusable disgrace from SFC.

I guess you're not off to Pompey then?!

Well, from that, I guess I should be grateful enough that your sh*t was shiny enough to elucidate such a reasoned response. Although it's somewhat ironic that, despite, the outburst, you kind of agree with me. I stand by it though; there are many more loyal fans who follow SFC than me, and I guess you too. But the whole "I'm a better fan than you" business just based on games attended is an avenue that I find truly embarrassing, with the whole season ticket waving episodes we're still seeing. I will always maintain that anyone who regularly goes to games has a much, much better opinion of the state of the team, and I'm much more inclined to listen to their opinions on here than someone who hasn't been. I think that's pretty obvious though, and I hope you understand that's not the point I was making in the first place. I guess I just have a natural disposition against the standard "my support is better than yours" argument.

I'm really not sure where you're going with this tirade, other than a bit of spouting off against the trends of human nature. As I said earlier, and stiil stand by: I don't see a revolution rising up to moan about how terrible the Leeds support is for only numbering up for the bigger games; so I personally don't see a problme with us. I'm intrigued; do you feel this way for all games to do with Saints? Like why we only got seven thousand odd for League cup games? It's kind of the same principle.

I've read it 4 or 5 times and I still haven't got a clue what it means.

Even more so when a number of their players are on wages rumoured to be ten times in excess of that. Fair play to giving a young coach a go; time will tell if he's any good or not, but I think it'll either be a complete masterstroke or an utter catastrophe.

Clearly. But you're talking about a scenario that happens with pretty much every other club in the country. Take Leeds for example, a club much bigger than us. Last season their home league games saw crowds of anywhere between low 20 thousands to just above 30 thousand. Arsenal went to Elland Road in the FA Cup and the attendance was 38,000, more than 5 thousand higher than any other home game that season. It's just human instinct that a lot of people will be attracted by the standard of opposition. Not saying I agree with it; I've been to far more games in the Championship and League 1 than I ever managed in the Premier League. But for most non die-hard fans it's just a fact that the games against the top sides will be much more appealing.

Do you think this is an condition that applies only to Saints fans, and not to fans of other clubs?

Yep, and Blackpool also just seemed to be a "get me out of Glasgow" effort, 9 league appearances and zero goals scored. Apparently was offered the opportunity to train there and get fit / earn a contract but turned it down, it would seem he did the same with Sheffield United. Perhaps his over-riding ambition is just to come "home" to the south coast, and any extension to his football career with a local club would just be a bonus. Which, at just 33 years old and with his obvious ability, would be a shame.

It's difficult not to question this to be honest; OK, he's not going to be as good to get a game in the PL these days, but it's perhaps no coincidence that he's without a club right now, even on a pay as you play deal. Back in September Sheffield United enquired about him but he told their manager that "he's not fit and he didn't know when he would be".