angelman

Often disagree with you, and will do so again here. 1.6/10? Really?? 0/10 for the patheticness that it is.

As I am 6'3ish (ie half way between the two) maybe my opinion on the difference is a little clouded. He has and is doing very well. There is no point trying to say that Spurs have made a mistake, because after the first season bedding in, doing well on the back of many late goals/lucky results, he is doing just fine this season and I think that they are more likely to win the league than Leicester. He has also been "fortunate" (as we all have to some degree) in that Chelsea are completely out of it, as are Man U. Man C could also be included to a lesser extent as well. TBH, while I dislike Spurs more than most clubs, it would be good if Leicester felll at the last few that they won the league rather than one of the big spenders. Look at Spurs and their transfer business and it is quite impressive, of course helped by Bale of which that was spunked away pretty quickly. They must have a good scout!

Poch is a good manager and probably better than Koeman - of course that is subjective, and you could point to our finish higher last season showing Koeman is better than Poch. Different tools at hand for each, so hard to really judge. Having said that I prefer Koeman as he is more approachable and affable. And this thing with Alderweireld - do people think that we would have done any better with him rather than Virgil? Personally, and of course it is again opinion, I don't and think VVD is an awesome player and physically even more imposing than TA. Actually I find that strange...TA is 187cm (6'1 and a bit) while VVD is 193cm (6'4)..so not really a huge difference on paper.

Not sure I was pushing anything on to anyone, but just stating personal opinion. If people can't make their own minds up and are swayed by pseudonyms on a football forum, then maybe they shouldn't vote. But.....in terms of football, whether the PL is stronger or not, is a complete irrelevance to the rather more pressing question. Bill Shankly was wrong when he said "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Not really. You see the whole argument for staying in seems to be financial. I am voting to leave to regain self determination which is to me more important. Simple question really if you have your priorities straight.

Yes, it would make it better. English players might play for English clubs, and the national team might prosper. Those teams in the Champions League will whinge, but really, who cares about them? Since the creation of the PL, only 4 CL spots have gone to non Big 6 clubs - Everton, Newcastle x2 and Blackburn. Leicester seem to make it 5, but really, CL is an irrelevance to most of us. Whether the lack of foreign players will lower the standard of the PL is immaterial. So long as there is an adequate standard (which I can't see why there shouldn't), then I cannot see why the competition should be devalued. One often turns to the Championship and says that that is the most exciting league, so why not the PL dominated by English players? Also, regardless of the hype pumped out, football wasn't worse pre Sky and the Premier League. There are lots of people who either didn't go to it or have forgotten it, but it existed, and was fun. But, PL is actually quite important to the Chancellor, with the tax raised. During the 2013/14 season, PL clubs and players paid £2.4 billion in tax. No doubt this will be ever rising and not something that Nº11 will want to jeopardise, so I am sure that there will be dispensation. It's a scare story that the common man might understand more easily than some economic one. Pretty base and cynical if you ask me. Wasn't it put out by, ahem, Baroness Peschisolido?

Surprised so many say scrap replays. This might benefit the few clubs at the top of the football pyramid, but not the rest. PL and its desire for a few clubs to do well in CL has become far too consuming and what's worse is that the FA bow down to them. FA decides who gets CL places, and I would love it if the four (presuming we keep 4) went to winners of PL, runner up, FA cup & League Cup winners. PL would be better off rather than having a clique year in year out occupying the rich table of CL (of course, this year is a bit different but not the norm).

The question no one has answered is who else with PL experience met the black box standard and valuation. We bid less than £12m and it was rejected. We seemingly wanted him badly so were happy to pay a premium at that time. But saying that, with the new PL deal being well known, it was surely inevitable that transfer fees would rocket thus with hindsight, that premium isn't such a big thing, it's just that we were one of the first to pay the inflated prices. I like him. Always have. Frustrating but tries and runs until he drops, which is all you can ask for.

Must it be legit? They claim to be "the world's first stock market" - they also appear not to be regulated by FCA,FSA or anyone else. I wouldn't be surprised to see that either they drop the stock market bit, or become regulated.

Ah well, I went and had a look at the site and see that it is run by BetIndex Ltd who are registered off shore Saying that you can't see how you lose money is somewhat incongruous when dealing with betting companies, as if they didn't make money, they wouldn't be in business. Still, my view on life is that you generally have to pay something to enjoy yourself, so if you lose a bit, so be it. If you are lucky, you'll win. Having said that, I wonder whether the claim of earning of dividends and trading might possibly fall foul of FSA regulations, but then I'm sure they know what they are doing, even if the company was incorporated in July 2015 and seems to be very popular with the Daily Mirror, who you would hope would do soem simple checks. At least they are registered with the Gambling Commission.

There's no such thing as free money. If it's free for you, it means someone else has lost out (ie a pyramid scheme)

^ Sounds like it.

What? You mean that there are some good parts in Southampton?

Weak owners. He is 7 months through a 5 year contract, and they have bottled it as soon as his agent started making a noise. Thought he was fairly average against us, but good luck to him for having mugged off West Ham.

Because the board would turn it around on to them and say that they could lower prices but it would mean lowering wages. They don't appreciate the fans that much!!

I posted this on another thread when it should possibly be here. It was in relation to the £30 cap for away supporters and the cost of season tickets at SMS new sales/renewals for adults (ie the most expensive category) Family @ £584/541 = £30.73/£28.47 per game Wings @ £648/£599 = £34.11/£31.53 per game Goals @ £678/£628 = £35.68/£33.05 per game Central @ £737/682 = £38.79/£35.89 per game Kingsland premium = £825/737 = £43.42/£38.79 per game Itchen Premium = £853/759 = £44.89/£39.95 per game For atmosphere, the goals should be made the same price as the Family at the least. That is where the noisiest should be. I am also an advocate of (safe) standing. We all went for years without too much trouble, but of course Hillsborough happened, but that was down more to very poor crowd management. As a lot of people, especially the away supporters, stand this is actually more dangerous than the alternatives, but that's by the by. I think capacity can easily and safely be increased by something like 40% (I stand to be corrected), and if this is the case, and if a club didn't want to profiteer, then they could presumably lower tickets by 40% and still take the same revenue. This would be behind the goals and taking the current renewed adult price of £33.05 a game, this could be reduced to about £23.60, which I think most would find acceptable. I believe that there is a guide that says that safe standing could actually be in the ratio of 1:1.8 - if that was the case, although maybe a little extreme, to get the same revenue you could drop Goal tickets from £33.05 to £18.36, with the added bonus of a better atmosphere. So ticket prices - to offer decent value without lowering current revenue (which the clubs seem unwilling to do even though billions are arriving) the answer is increase the capacity and that can only be done in the stadium's current form by bringing in standing. Everyone wins unless attendance stays the same, and people move from the more expensive seats to the cheaper standing. I was very disheartened when I asked my 9yo whether given the choice, he would prefer to stand or sit. He said sit, but then he has never experienced the terraces.

I do actually agree with you, and if there is 5 minutes of ET, I will get a bit retentive and set my stopwatch on my phone. I left my seat at the back after 4 mins 20!! Missed the last 5-10 seconds as I got to the concourse when the final whistle went. I said to someone coming down, that if WHU scored I didn't want to see it!! But you "complain" about those leaving. I might "complain" about the lot in front of me who leave on 40 minutes EVERY game to presumably get to the front of the queue for beer or something. They then tend to dribble back into their seats 2-5 minutes after the 2nd half starts. I'm up and down like a jack in the box. Well actually as there is no one behind me, I'll generally stand until they are all in. But anyway, they miss say 7 minutes of the game, although I guess the result isn't so in doubt around half time, but I can't get my head around that. Why come to the game to then miss so much of it to go and buy an over priced and not very nice beer? But as an aside, you say that you doubt people who can't make it to games would turn the radio off before the end. Well, I find it much easier sitting through to the end at SMS as at home with the TV or radio for away games, if it gets too nervy, I just can't sit still and have to get out.

To put this into perspective, season ticket prices...new sales/renewals for adults (ie the most expensive category) Family @ £584/541 = £30.73/£28.47 per game Wings @ £648/£599 = £34.11/£31.53 per game Goals @ £678/£628 = £35.68/£33.05 per game Central @ £737/682 = £38.79/£35.89 per game Kingsland premium = £825/737 = £43.42/£38.79 per game Itchen Premium = £853/759 = £44.89/£39.95 per game So all this talk about capping at £30 a game for away supporters (why just them?), in reality isn't that much different from most renewed adult STs in the ground. It's quite easy to get carried away with a rant about prices and that £30 cap is good, but I suspect those in the Family section and Wings and maybe Goals aren't going to be complaining too much, even if Goals is 10% more than that.

Maybe. But then there were the 3k missing at WBA and 4k missing at Watford. I'm sure they had good excuses for that as well.

I leave with 30 seconds to go in ET so that I can get from the top to the exit on the final whistle. If I was one that ****ed you off then I really couldn't give a flying ****. Nor could I give a monkey's whether the likes of you two think we might be football let alone Saints fans. You see, my concern is more with my father who has Alzheimer's and can hardly walk down the stairs unaided and who get's easily confused when walking in crowds. So I aim to beat the worst of it. Rather than criticise others with your haughty tripe, why not ask where the missing 3000 people were who couldn't be arsed to turn up in the first place? I had 3 empty seats in front of me, and 3 more to the side and plenty of empties all over the stadium.

and what happens if we aren't at home in the cup games?

Interesting. Very very very pathetic responses from most clubs, including Saints. They brush off the Guardian as if it is some 6th Form kid asking for a school project.

I suspect it might be frozen. Dropping by 1 or 2% is tacit acknowledgement that we are being fleeced and not worth doing. A 5-10% would be worthwhile but I cannot see it happening. I would agree that I don't need a laminated box and pin. Just put them in an envelope and post them.

Nah. Don't buy that. He signed the 5 year contract 7 months ago when everyone knew what was coming next year (as deal was signed Jan?Feb 2015). No, what's happened is he has done better than he thought he would, or rather, attracted attention that was not anticipated and is no longer content with the contract that he agreed to and that has 4½ years to run.