Whitey Grandad

Out of interest, does anybody have this year's calendar? It's usually a guaranteed guide to who is leaving and when.

You must be the RCA Victor!

Were there two of them? Wow.

Would a chalet in Austria count as woodwork?

The Everly Brothers. I never liked them.

When he could have been on the pitch! Thanks for letting us know.

Contractual terms are normally the chairman's remit.

Lowe was part of a previous administration.

That is the fullback's job.

And who might that be? I'm struggling.

And how much have we paid him since he was injured at Blackpool and has not been playing? Not his fault, I grant you, but it comes out of the 'profit'

At the time that the stadium was being built I remember references to a specialist finance company, based in Suffolk I believe, who loaned the money against the security of future season ticket sales. As I recall, there were other stadiums that were being financed in a similar manner. These are likely to be long-term financial arrangements on higher than normal interest rates with expensive get-out terms. Its not like other property loans because the only practical use for the stadium is to hold football matches. This loan is one of the factors that sets us apart from other clubs in the same division who own their own stadiums. The turnover for some of these is around £8m.

Exactly! What do we have to show for it? It can't have gone on capital expenditure or else we could sell that and recover some cash. The interest repayments on the stadium must be somewhere near £4m

That's an extra 12,000 on every home gate, and there's no way that we can achieve that, even if we got to the final of the Carling Cup.

I wouldn't start from here.

Thanks. I would love to see the budgetary projections for this season. I assume that the bulk of the £31m was on players' salaries. If not, then there is something seriously adrift. That sort of figure is comparable to a club at the bottom of the premiership.

From the Times today: "It is a sad state of affairs when, less than two weeks into the season, a manager admits that he is not sure which of his players are staying at the club, who is leaving, where they are going and when the fire sale will stop." and... "Asked how much the club needed to either bring in through sales or cut from the wage bill, he said: “I don’t know exactly, except that maybe it is something like £6 million. I’m not sure if they will shoot me now.” Cue swift intervention from alarmed Southampton PR official." Does anybody know the true figure of our 'losses'? I have seen figures like £15million a year but if it really is that big then we could sell all the players and still be £12million short,

From the Times today: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article4553387.ece It just confirms what we knew already IMO.

And in the meantime the points are bleeding away... They are more likely to be sold if they are playing. They need to be in the shop window, not gathering dust on the shelves.

Thanks for the clarification. The fellow that sits in front of me is usually clued up on these things but I shall give him a few digs in the back at the next home game. Like you, I think that he is a useful and important player

A win would be fantastic. A draw would be a good result. A thrashing would be disastrous and I don't think that we would recover it. None of these is as important as a good win over Blackpool, seeing as there is a two week gap to QPR away followed by Ipswich home. Let's hope that Birmingham play their reserve team in the cup, like we shall.

It's not just you. What I find strange is that anyone found the need to say anything at all. It indicates to me that JP knew nothing about what was going on.

Don't we have videos of the matches?

Then is he the right man for the job?

I saw it. Iam not slagging off the players and I never shall. I was not impressed by Poortvliet's handling of the second half or his choice of players to sit on the bench. I say it as I saw it. The first half was good but I felt that the team was playing above itself and that it would find it hard to continue at that pace through the second half. There was some promising football in the middle of the field and we created some very good chances that with a bit more quality up front or with two forwards on the pitch we might have converted into goals. In a lower division it would have been a creditable performance but I fear that it is not going to be enough in this division. I would dearly love to be proved wrong.