FloridaMarlin

Ben Smith. Little more to be said.

Here's a thought - based on absolutely no knowledge whatsoever -that perhaps they haven't given Spurs permission (doubtful, but work with me here). They are aware that he is talking to them, but at this stage are waiting to see how things pan out. If he agrees terms with Spurs, perhaps that would then be the time to issue a statement they will be reporting Spuds to the FA for an illegal approach and will be seeking punishment under the rules and full redress. I can't think of any circumstances where a club would think it advantageous or politic to announce they have agreed to let their manager talk to another club. Can you imagine the uproar on here if they blithely admitted they had let Poch speak to Spuds? "Southampton FC have announced they have given their manager permission to talk to Tottenham. He is currently discussing terms with them, but while we wish to point out that while we don't want Mauricio to go and we really would like him to stay, there is little we can do about it. But we thought you would like to know that." When it comes to issuing a statement, they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. In picking the lesser of two evils, it's probably better to stay schtum at this stage.

Remember Ballie's departure to Manchester City. Citeh asked for permission to talk to him and when Saints said: "Yes" he moaned and said that was a sign the club didn't want to keep him. Had he been denied permission he would have moaned even louder, about being denied the opportunity. It was all smoke up arses, as the deal had already been done, as is the way with all of these things. Those criticising the club for allowing Poch to speak to Spurs are being a little naive. A club asking for permission to talk to a player/manager is just going through the formalities, as everything has effectively been done by then. Does anybody honestly believe that the first time Spurs will sit down to discuss things with Poch is today? Yes, he has been subject of an illegal approach to a manager under contract, no Saints won't rat Spurs out. They should, but they won't. Few, if any, clubs do that, in the knowledge that to get a replacement, they will probably have to do the same thing.

Says who? It's not like a hairdresser leaving a salon, to set up on his own and being banned from poaching customers from the old one. In theory you can try to stop it, but in practice - as we have seen with a manager who still has a year to run on his contract - if somebody wants to go, it's well-nigh impossible to stop them.

I suppose he needs something to do now he's left Strictly "So much better than last week...." "You get nothing for a pair - not in this game."

Do the Swiss have a navy? Other than steamers on the lakes.

Made as a promo to attract students to the city. Voiced by Chris Stark, who produces Scott Mills' Radio One show and who attended Soton Uni.

I had an interesting conversation last week with a hugely-respected and highly-acclaimed BBC journalist. I think it's fair to say Ben Smith is not universally liked by his colleagues in general, but in particular for his modus operandi in obtaining stories (an ethical issue the BBC sets great store by). Words like "utter c*ck" and "complete knob-end" were used. And not by me.

Oh dear. And we're worried about losing some of our players? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27484318 Would the mainstay of the Premier League champions seriously consider leaving because they didn't give him a pressie or a big kiss on his birthday? The clue is in the phrase: "His agent says he may leave over City's lack of respect." For that read; "I'm going to stir things up so that they either agree to a big, fat contract extension, or alert Real Madrid/Barcelona/Some Kazakhstan oligarch-funded no-mark club that he is amenable to a move.

Love it. Such an apposite word. You've made me want to dig out and re-read my copy of Down and Out in Paris and London.

It's always assumed agents get paid only when a player/manager moves and that it is therefore in their interests to agitate people and prompt a move. While that is true in some cases, agents are paid by their clients on a percentage of their contract. If MoPo agrees to a big new contract at Saints, Barnett will get a percentage of that. The agent's role should be to always negotiate the best deal for his client, no matter where that might be. Barnett is supposed to be MoPo's agent, not Spurs. Spurs might approach his agent, but they shouldn't - in practice - cough up any money to him as he is not their agent.

The town they fly over is Nordlingen in Germany. Went there a couple of years ago. Fantastic place.

So is Alex Crook, but people don't appear to trust him. A training ground presence isn't necessarily a good barometer of a journalist's inside knowledge. In fact these days, it means diddly. Journos are 'Often at the training ground' as often as the club permits, which equates to one day a week, on media day which are as stage managed as old-style Soviet Union May Day parades. Media are brought in, manager and player are plonked on stage, questions are asked, media day is over, thanks very much. What the media gets at media day is what the club wants them to get. It's tightly controlled, and there is no opportunity for furtive revelatory little chats in a corner or behind a bike shed. You can be at the training ground/stadium as often as you are allowed, but in practice, doing so provides a journalist with no more information than anybody else would get. So to an extent, media day is counter productive and while it is no great hardship for local media guys to slip down to Marchwood, it's a commitment to a whole day for somebody from a London-based national paper/media outlet. Journalists don't need to know where Staplewood or St Marys is to get stories. They need to have contacts, and journos live or die by their contacts, most of whom have telephones/emails and don't go near training grounds. And that brings me back to the point that success in journalism is hard to quantify. Journos are like gamblers who will always tell you about the big winners they've had, but in reality haven't got two pennies to scratch their arses with. Journos are always quick to herald the story that comes to fruition, but never remind you about the majority that don't pan out. That's not necessarily their fault. They are given information - usually in good faith - and must use their judgement to decide whether it is correct. And even if it correct at the time it was provided, events may conspire very quickly to turn that genuine piece of information into nonsense. Of course, it's your prerogative to trust some journalists more than others. Trust is a basic tenet on which all journalism is predicated, especially the BBC. But it doesn't follow that the journo you trust will be 100% right, all the time.

On what basis? Is he any more or less reliable than other journalists? Do you know if his contacts and sources are likely to be more or less reliable than others journalists? One of the big problems with sports journalism (or any form of journalism, for that matter) is that success is very hard to quantify.

Let's see how open for business Liverpool are when Real Madrid come a-calling for Suarez. No doubt, any offer for Suarez will be an insult to their status as a top four PL club, who love nothing more than to wave their willies around and almost claim it as a divine right that they can prise any player they want away from a lesser club. Let's see how they view it if Real have worked on Suarez's agent (and the player) and he is determined to go. Since Jean-Marc Bosman won his case, it's pretty much impossible for clubs to now keep hold of players who want to go. When faced with a player who is determined to go, all a club can really do is make sure they get as much money as possible for him.

I don't think clubs insist these days that their players/managers live within a low-digit mile radius of ground/training ground. It's not like Ballie insisting years ago that the p****y players live on the Septic Isle among the bestest. When your earnings are in the seven-figure a year range, you don't have to sell your house. Strachan still has a house in Hampshire, Pardew still has his house in Surrey, Redknapp has always lived on Sandbanks. Poch could still live in Chilworth and be at Spurs training ground in less than two hours. It's amazing what you can do with a fast powerful car and a motorway (even if it is the M25).

It's called newspaper style and is designed to get consistency throughout a publication. And it's a practice throughout the media. At the first mention of a person's name, you give them their full name, subsequent mentions are surname only. Have a look at all your other newspapers and also outlets like the BBC. Addressing somebody continually by their forename appears to be journalism as practiced in the country of Ars Likhan. American publications do it all the time and it looks really creepy. Surname only says: 'Objectivity' and 'We're not crawling up his backside.'

He would want to run the train set, like he did at Chelsea.

In that case, he probably won't be starting. Clubs like to play a little game with the media, and in the process think they are pulling the wool over the opposition's eyes. In most instances (not all, but most) the player put up for interview on media day, does not appear in the starting line-up.

Ask Mark Clattenburg.

Please, be serious. What do you think? It will be balls-out to storm League Two next season. No doubt, Admiral Awford will be provided with a sizeable, Nelson-sized war chest, and the money will be found from somewhere. You can see charity collecting boxes on newsagents' counters on the Septic Isle being chained down, giant cardboard cheques being dishonoured, and even more 'charity' bike rides which aren't for charity. You can also see the HNWs coughing up even more money and the share percentage owned by the bestest, biggest fan-owned trust in the world being diluted more than botox.

True, it can. But another viewpoint might be to see it as providing stability, as an essential element to the development of a long-term strategy. That might be more in line with a Swiss business mentality. Just saying, is all.

A friend's wife is a primary school teacher and she's been regaling us with horror stories like this for a while. In her experience, it's nothing to do with busy parents, both out working with little time to train their kids, but more of bad parenting borne of ignorance and deprivation. She has alerted social services on numerous occasions and found the parents are already on some sort of watch list or known to them. They tend to be the sort of parent who drop their kids off at the school gates with a can of lager in one hand, and really can't be bothered to engage with any part of parenting duties. Potty training kids takes the sort of patience and attention they can't be bothered to devote, and it's just easier to stick the kids in a disposable nappy and pack them off. You'd be surprised at the number of kids who turn up at primary school with no idea of how to use cutlery. Their diet at home consists of the sort of stuff the parents can chuck in a bowl for the kids to eat with their hands, Then there are the really disturbing cases of kids who have no idea how to interreact with others, and can only relate to a television. Again, it reflects their home life where the parents simply stick the TV on, plonk them in front of it and leave them to it while they get on with their drinking or drug consumption. It's truly frightening the way some kids are brought up, and the lives they are forced to lead.

How bad were Newcastle tonight? Their performance at Arsenal puts our season into perspective. Contrast and compare two clubs, their season was apparently dead, with nothing to play for and facing a club chasing a Champions League place. The difference was one club were fully motivated by a good manager who the players clearly love and want to play for. The other rolled over and died. Both clubs shipped out a big name player in January. One was patently missed more than the other. No doubt Saints might have done some things differently and possibly done even better but when you consider Newcastle are viewed as a big club, their season has been poor.