The Kraken

Today's Echo thinks it would be £6M that would get him. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/9196639.Burnley_holding_out_for___6m_for_Rodriguez/

Yes, nicely done. The news is there is no new news.

I don't mind NI being on the radio per se; he seems to love the publicity but I have no major issue with that at all. It was when he was peddling the myth of still being "Chairman of the Saints Trust" when that organisation had pretty much imploded that I took issue with his actions; declaring that previous members did not need to re-new their annual memberships, that had now changed so that they were "life-members", just to keep up appearances of having enough numbers to still be considered a worthwhile organisiation. It's exactly the same reason I take issue with SISA when they are labelled as a "Fans Chief" or whatever in the Echo, trying to dictate their own version of fans opinions. The Solent interview with NI was clearly stated as being with "Nick Illingsworth, editor of the Ugly Inside web fanzine", so I have no bother with that.

No they won't. A big football club in this country will never go out of business in the current footballing climate. They damn well should, and lots of people predict it will happen but it just won't, for a number of reasons. The Premier League is far too awash with potentially enormous revenues to put off investors looking for a short to medium term investment opportunity, no matter how bad the starting point seems to be. Get to the Premier League, sell the club, you've made a fortune. It's why you'll consistently see the likes of Leicester, West Ham and in previous years Pompey, Cardiff etc etc all completely ignore good business practise and gamble on promotion by paying wages and fees they simply can't afford in the short term. The penalties for clubs incurring massive amounts of debt and then falling into administration are just a joke, an absolute joke. They are no deterrent to owners in the slightest. Pompey completely abused the system and ripped off the Revenue and local companies to tens of millions of pounds, we even got away with it to some extent. And if it all goes t*ts up for one set of owners there are absolutely plenty out there williing to take a shot at lining up for a chance on English football's gravy train. Clubs will make deals like Pompey's 4% payback per annum (a scandal in itself) yet all the while go and spend millions on transfers fees. It is no deterrent at all, and while deals like Pompey's in particular will be accepted by creditors (and they always will), then no club will see itself go completely out of business. It is a sh*t system of ownership we have here. But while the rewards are so great and the punishments so ineffective, no big football club will go to the wall.

Potentially it does, but if you have a look back at a few of the sqauds from last season, we rarely had more than 1 or 2 of the youth teamers on the bench. Often we had none and it was full with squad members. Pompey massively struggled last year, and still are for squad numbers, yet Clotterill still has empty spaces in the bench rather than name youth team players. Football is (supposedly) trying to get its house in order and get costs under control. We're looking at this from a Saints perspective alone, where we're more financially secure perhaps than ever before. And we have the type of squad where we could quite easily name 11 subs without hitting into the youth team, so the youth team argument doesn't quite work for us. Personally I don't believe this rule will make any difference at all in the long run, aside from perhaps giving managers more of a headache as to who to leave out from a matchday squad. However, it could have the effect that it (ever so slightly) marginalises the impact that the richer clubs can have by naming a hugely strong squad's bench, which could enrich competition in the league, in theory. But as I said, I don't really think it will cause much significant difference at all.

The logo needs updating.

No, you are not. This is a law for alll football-supporters official travel, so not just a Saints thing. A ridiculous law, at that.

Is that the type of player he is? From what (limited info) I've seen, he doesn't seem to be an out and out striker. Given that he'd likely cost close to a couple of million, and thus would be assumed to be a first choice, where exactly would we be looking for him to fit in? I'm struggling to see what role he would play.

I didn't say it did, but it is a newspaper report on a supposed bid from us for a player. You asked why he had come to the impression he did in the OP.; s it's not exactly a shock that someone might read that article and form a conclusion about it.

a and b can probably be covered by the Lancashire Telegraph article. http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/9194043.Burnley_reject_Southampton___s___4_5m_bid_for_Rodriguez/

He certainly had a fine moustache.

Baird did well for us, but I never thought he was the real deal at CB. His comparitive lack of height meant he wasn't dominant in the air, and while his positional sense was very good I thought on occasions he could get bullied by a larger centre forward. Fonte isn't hugely tall, but is IMO stronger than Baird and much less likely to get dominated by a big striker. Also the combination of playing alongside someone like Jaidi, who is a complete rock and will win almost everything in the air, is the way I'd prefer us to go.

Of course he's a better player, he's still playing in the Premier League for a start. Not a hope in hell we could get him this year, or any other Championship club for that matter.

“I don’t particularly like that,” said Connolly, who gestured at fans to stop the song at Oakwell.

Burnley are singing Danny Ings http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/9195608.We_need_boost_of_Ings_signing__says_Burnley_boss/ So it would tie in with the previously suggested idea that they would sell J-Rod when they have a replacement lined up.

Any club. The ruling in itself is a good one, but doesn't go far enough IMO. Just 4 out of matchday squad of 16 have to be homegrown; nowhere near enough to make any difference at all.

Tres bete. Your thread was a moment of idiocy when you started it. You were called up on the idiocy at the time by many, many people (I didn't have to wait two months to contradict your nonsense, neither did half of this message board, so it would seem). With hindsight your original thread is ten times more stupid than it started out; which is an achievement in itself. And it's telling that pretty much the only clown you could find to fit your originally quite preposterous notion was an Austrian based calamitous individual who has a huge catalogue of being proven wrong with various doom-laden predictions. Well done for grouping yourself amongst such illustrious company. Ca marche?

I'm not sure what's worse. The fact you thought it was funny in the first place. Or the fact that you thought it was so funny that 2 forums would get up and go from it.

MLG has already stated that we should be re-developing St Mary's right now so that when/if we get to the Premier League we have a ready built bigger stadium that will fit in all of our regular 40K+ crowds, and so fit our obvious potential for being one of the biggest clubs on the planet. It's close to being a flawless plan. I fail to see a downside.

At the rate we're (allegedly) looking to spend it'll need to be a 9 month plan.

I'm fully expecting 2; a striker and a centre back. Any more would be a complete bonus. Can't believe the 5 year plan will still apply after all this though. Significant investment and I'm sure pressure will be on NA to deliver. The future is bright, the future is red and white.

Totti de Carvalho is the shiniest man I've ever seen.

Ours? Maybe; but then we were second in away attendances, only behind Sheffield Wednesday. Couldn't say off hand what the Championship was like, but there is a definite north-west skew for professional clubs. Take a map, find Huddersfield, draw an 80 mile radius circle with it at the centre and see how many football clubs are inside it.

Its not quite that simple though; yes they're smallish towns but look at their geographical location and just how many potential away games they have within a hundred miles. London games for us are seen as almost local, and that's 80 miles or so.

A Bournemouth fans forum quoting a twitter rumour. Hardly cast iron. But if we do bring in a CB it looks like Seaborne would most likely be the one out of the door. Martin is one for the future, Jaidi will likely be number 3 if a new man comes in, if not he'll play his fair share of games with Fonte.