The Kraken

This is Unite you're talking about though, an organisation to whom the terms "clever" and "imaginative" are completely alien. I think SRS had it right when he termed them as scum, because this new round of unjustified and thoroughly excessive strikes are designed only to cause chaos to the general public. I'd be more than happy to see any one of them on the picket line lose their jobs, it would be completely deserved for their flagrant disregard of their customers.

From BBC... "The British Airways cabin crew union, Unite, has announced fresh strike dates in its long-running dispute with the airline. Cabin crew will walk out for four separate five-day strikes in May and June. The first strike will begin on 18 May, ending on 22 May, with the three further strikes beginning on 24 May, 30 May and 5 June. Unite members rejected a fresh deal for cabin crew earlier this month. The union said 81% of the cabin crew it represents voted against BA's offer last week, which sought to resolve the dispute over pay and working conditions. Details of that deal were not given, but Unite said BA had failed to restore the travel perks it withdrew from staff involved in the previous strikes in March. Those stoppages grounded hundreds of flights and cost BA an estimated £45m. The newly-announced strikes will see staff walk out for a total of 20 days, covering spring bank holiday and school half-term holidays. In a statement, Unite's joint general secretaries Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley blamed BA for forcing cabin crew to again resort to industrial action. "There can be no industrial peace without meaningful negotiations and while management victimises trade unionists and uses disciplinary procedures in a witch-hunt," they said, claiming that a Unite approach made over the weekend had been rejected. "The seven days' notice period is sufficient time for BA management to do the sensible thing and reopen meaningful negotiations," they added. The sooner BA kick Unite into touch, the better. Totally and utterly out of touch with reality.

Charlton probably still have the supporter base to command some transfer funds and therefore be more of a potential threat, so I'd go for them.

Sad Old Git responds to a thread about tactics, and calls Alpine negative. Alpine calls Sad Old Git obsessed. Complete tedium ensues.

It's the paradox of supporting a mid-size club like Saints. This season has, for me in terms of attending matches, been more enjoyable than most others in recent memory. Being a big fish in admittedly a small pond brings its own benefits and, after 27 years of being the underdog in a higher league, its nice to be the team to be feared for a change. That said, it's also a natural ambition to want to leave all this behind and sit alongside the big boys again in the top division, where we'll be fantastically happy with avoiding defeat in certain games and 0-0 scorelines against the top sides will be considered a great result. Football for me is a little bit more than just looking at the league table. It's about the enjoyment of going to matches and the atmosphere inside the ground, which this year has been enormously improved from previous seasons. Ultimately I of course want to see us playing at the highest level, but that's not to detract at all from what has been a thoroughly entertaining campaign.

Yep, it's threads like these that make me so glad of this site. Brilliant stuff.

The FA also have the power to deduct points, as well as the PL and FL. "The Hatters had already been deducted 10 points by the Football Association after being found guilty of misconduct for paying agents via a third party. And the company which will take over the club has now been told it must accept a further 20-point deduction in order to be allowed in the Football League. The penalty came after Luton failed to satisfy the League's insolvency rules."

Still constantly trolling for an argument... Since your last post, where has anyone said he has not done well? I said twice that he has done a very good job; but that I believe there are a small number of other managers who I believe have done a better job with the resources given this season. Pompey blinkers have nothing to do with it; it can't be that hard to understand, surely? As for the Pardew comment, I'm not sure I understand. Are you suggesting he should be given the manager of year award next year if we finish 4th?

Indeed; he has done a good job, no doubt about that, but there is a tiny bit more to it than that for him to be given "manager of the year". Spurs have had the Premier League's 2nd highest net transfer spend in the past 3 years. Only Man City have outspent them. When 'Arry took over Spurs were massively, massively under-achieving. They had a decent squad and had added to it with one of the form strikers from Euro 2008 (Pavluchenko) within over £100M of spending in 18 months. This year, Spurs have finished 4th; they've not won the league, or even qualified for the Champions League yet, just the prelim round. Carlo Ancelotti may well this season win the league and cup double, signing only a reserve left back (Zhirkhov) and reserve striker (Sturridge) this summer. Is he really less deserving of the award than 'Arry? Redknapp has done a very good job at Spirs, there's no doubt about that. But to win a manager of the year award for 4th place in the league, despite huge transfer spending for the past 3 years? Nope, not for me. He would perhaps make top 4 or 5 (Ancelotti & Woy definitely ahead, Slur Alex and maybe Arsenal Wenger).

Spurs had played 8 league games when Redknapp was appointed. Even by your own negative and inane standards, to imply they were "near relegation" is utterly ridiculous. They had had a ridiculously under-par start to the season considering he money they had spent and the squad they had. Even still, 30 games away from the season and "near relegation"? Have another go. And we can only hope that you and some of your even less enlightened acquaintances will have to acknowledge a job well done when this does happen, yes.

More to the point, what BA cabin crew staff will actually want to leave and take lesser terms and salary for effectively doing the same job? May as well stay until you're pushed (whilst on better, cushier conditions) and drive the company into the ground with unsustainable costs.

Agreed. While I agree with the sentiments about FF having lost his job, there's no getting away from the fact that his miltant union beliefs and stubborn refusal to face facts have paid their part. On a similar dicussion on this board around Xmas, he mad the following direct quotes: "This dispute is nothing whatsoever to do with money." "it is a fallacy that we are overpaid." and, perhaps the worst... "in an anwer to us being paid twice as much as our counterparts it depends who you define as our counterparts. Yes we earn more than Easyjet crew but if you compare our salaries with other national airlines in Europe like KLM, IBERIA etc we are very much on a par." That's the same KLM/Air France partnership who have, according to Reuters, lost 500 million euros between January and March 2010. In addition to 235 million euros for the previous quarter. And the same Iberia who posted a 147 million euro first-quarter loss (again, according to Reuters) in May 2009, prior to their merger deal with BA. Real bastions of profitability and sustainability there. Too much militant tendency and not enough realisation of the real world. I appluad FF for standing by his principles, but its just my opinion that those principles are vastly flawed and extremely one-dimensional. And I also applaud BA for standing up to it.

"The accolade was voted by the Barclays awards panel, which is made up of football's governing bodies, the media and fans." In other words, 'Arry's lunch buddies and some clueless Spuds fans. Meaningless award.

If Ancelotti wins his next 2 games he'll have won the double. So that makes its own argument too. I'd like to see Woy get it, but if winning the double doesn't get the gig then it's a bit of a redundant award.

With a 13,000+ post count on just one internet forum I'm guessing that a lack of time off isn't his major problem, to be honest.

The fact that they've been allowed to get this far into debt in the first place is a total disgrace. Remember just back to January when Storrie-teller insisted they needed no firesale of players as their financial troubles weren't that bad. Any non-corrupt administrator would have wound them up immediately as they are simply continuing to spend incredible sums of money that they clearly do not have. The whole scenario stinks, and I've heard inside stories from people very itk (that I just can't print on here for libel purposes) but which, if true in the slightest extreme, make it all a thousand times worse. I used to have a bit of sympathy to their fans for the plight they're in, but their blissful apportionment of blame to everyone bar themselves, and how they're being horribly victimised by the Premier League, just show them up for the clueless joke they really are.

Or maybe he got called up by a journalist and offered his opinion. Shock horror. LM has no official attachment to the club so, quite frankly, is under no obligation whatsoever to do the "best thing" and "say nothing". And it's not as if his opinion is massively out of left field; most (sane) people would actually agree with what he's saying.

That's fair enough, and I agree that there's little doubt that IF we get rid of AP then he will be replaced with another high quality manager. However, to replace him would be an indictment that our form since October has been sub-standard; despite that level of form being otherwise good enough over a whole season to gain automatic promotion or even win this league. It took AP 3 weeks of pre-season then 10 league games to hit any sort of form, and that was generally considered to be a very quick turnaround of out fortunes. Its therefore a huge gamble to expect us to be able to replicate that in the off-season and I think its a risk that, at this stage, is not necessary to take. AP has shown he is up to the task of automatic promotion type form, so why change? I think its a moot point anyway as this is just a national newspaper raking up an old local story without any new substance, quotes or information.

Three restaurants that I've been to recently and would recommend; I'm sure you can google them to find menus etc.... Zen: Japanese, below bar. La Regata: Spanish, opposite Town Quay. Thai Cafe: Thai, Oxford Street.

I'm not sure that he's found his level, but I'm not surprised he hasn't had instant success there. I said when he was appointed that I didn't think he was the right type of manager for them with the players they had; their team under Southgate had a few too many flair players and were a long way away from the type of hard working grafters that WGS seems to predominantly go for. Perhaps with a full pre-season and a significant change of personnel he might get it right, but I still don't get the impression that he'll achieve success at that club.

The balti pies are the shining light of a selection of otherwise low-grade rubbish.

Admittedly Carlsberg in a bottle is not the best; but its infinitely better than the stuff that comes out of the taps at SMS. That barely qualifies as lager, and having to wait 15 minutes for the "pleasure" of drinking it just adds to the insult.

A few years back they used to have a separate bottle bar; it only sold half litre bottles of Carlsberg for £3 or £3.50, can't quite remember. Cash only. It was a great idea and meant you didn't have to queue for ages for a very poor pint. They should give it another go.

Stupid question. He's not even as good as Paul Wotton, and Wotton can't get in the first team. Would be a poor signing.

Highly unlikely given Pompey's shambolic mismanagement and total disregard for financial discretion when offering contracts.