FloridaMarlin

Don't you just love the way the Phew continue to blame the 'FA' and their FPP test (none of them apparently able to differentiate between the FA and the FL). None of the Phew have given a tinker's cuss about any of these chancers' history whe they wade in, provided they make the right noises about pumping money in. It's only later when it turns out their fortunes are in Monopoly money only, and that the club is entering administration for the umpteenth time as a result of the lack of funding, that they blame the 'FA FPP test' for not checking that they are the bona fide squillionaires the bestest deserve, when the test is only to establish if they have been convicted of fraud, or barred from holding office at any other club or business. Unbelievable Jeff.

Would these be players from the same youth team hammered 7-0 by Saints? Did not see any you would want to gamble your Football League future on, to be honest. Even the much-vaunted (from that end of the M27) Whatmough was undressed and owned. Look at the proof. 00:45; Gallagher outstrips Whatmough to cross for the first 1:45; Whatmough loses the player he is supposed to be marking, who is subsequenlty left with a tap-in. 2:50; Jake Hesketh takes the mickey as he clips the ball over him, runs round him and slots home 4:30; Gallagher get a lucky break off his knee, but again he is ahead of Whatmough to get to the cross. Not bad for a central defender to have a culpable role in four out of seven goals.

Will part of his brief be to write a new theme for the team to enter the pitch to? He's come up with some crackers in the past

It does make you wonder what the weasel on the left has got in that carrier bag/scrotum dangling from his waist. It looks as though it could be clothes, so are they a clean (that description can be stretched) change of clothes, or some fetid, rank set that he's taken off. I wouldn't want to be around when that bag is opened.

Boruc discovered that 'coming for the cross' suddenly had a new meaning.

I'm not sure I was trying to make a point. I was just throwing this out to spark debate and you've obliged with some valid observations.

We know very little about Katharina Liebherr, but from what we do know, we can make some suppositions. We know she does not court publicity and she craves anonymity. We can conclude that she hasn't taken over as chairman of a Premier League football club - a high profile role, whether she likes it or not - for vanity or egotistical purposes. If she wanted to do that, she could have done it at any time since Markus died. So we can suppose that something pretty drastic forced her hand into taking on something she clearly doesn't want to do. We don't know what this is, and it could be down to her demands or Cortese's. What we do know, is that - through the trust - she owns the club, so whatever she does, is her prerogative. People are concerned that she knows nothing about football, Until he was appointed by Markus, neither did Cortese and I seem to recall there was similar criticism at the time that he was just a Swiss banker imposed on the club. No, Katharina Liebherr does not know how to run a football club. I doubt whether she knows how to drive a crane or big piece of plant machinery, or how to run a foundry or any of the hands-on, shop-floor tasks that the vast Liebherr empire covers. But you don't get to be a vastly wealthy head of a huge multinational business concern by being a dummy. You employ the best people and since Marcus's death, I've seen nothing (but am willing to be proved wrong) to indicate that MALI or other arms of the Liebherr empire in which he was involved, have gone into metldown as a direct result of his death. You can be sure the advisors to the Liebherr clan are top-notch. After all, Cortese was one. From the little I know of Swiss business practice, it is built on caution, dependability, reliability and discretion. There is no reason to suppose that KL does not possess all of these attributes. Our initial doubts over Cortese's suitability to run a football club were dispelled by the Swiss business acumen he brought to the club. Again, we have no reason to suppose that KL will not have these same qualities. Again, assuming KL has the Swiss business attributes mentioned above, you can bet this has not caught her on the hop. She probably has not made a single move - for either good or ill, in our eyes - without taking advice We do not know her plans for the club, but I think we can assume her business acumen or her advisors will inform her of the asset she has, and I would think it unlikely she will do anything to harm that asset. It's just not in Swiss business genes. The Liebherr family's lawyers, Allen & Overy, are one of the UK's top five Magic Circle law firms, and among the most powerful in the world. This is the calibre of advisors the Liebherrs use. I would assume contact has already been made between her and MoPo. Am I glad to see Cortese go? No. He was a great asset to the club. Am I a happy-clappy, glass half-full person who thinks KL has done the right thing for the club and let's all get behind her and teach her how to love the club? Nope. I don't know enough about her. But I am willing to assume that she has enough about her to ensure the club doesn't implode. And that she has the right people around her to ensure not just an adequate, but better replacement for Cortese is found. Who knows, the replacement might - like Cortese - be found among her own ranks of advisors.

So City feel they can just go and chuck another £30m on another player without thinking about the application of the Financial Fair Play rule? Er, probably yes. Looks like Nasri could be out for the rest of the season with a knee injury, so presumably they will want to replace him. By all means let's debate the merits or otherwise of whether we should accept £30m for Shaw, but the real issue is - even allowing for the venal nature of football in general and the Premier League in particular - is that they are allowed to spend that sum of money without impugnity.

No they don't. They are all in the UK with him.

The devil is in the detail tucked away in that Wallace story. His contract is up in the summer. They are obviously carpping themselves at the real possibility that he will just sit there for the rest of the campaign, and walk away at the end of the season, leaving them with little more than the training compensation. The whole thing is a desperate, stage-managed 'For Sale' advert. He is about their only asset, and they need the money. Yes, they would love him to sign a new contract, but only as a means to keep his price relatively high. For Catlin's quote; ‘Someone could come in with an offer we can’t turn down and is of great long-term benefit to the club," read; "We are desperately hoping that somebody, somewhere ill make us a half decent offer in the transfer window, otherwise we're stuffed."

A myth perpetrated by pundits, most of whom are ex-players who speak from the comfort of TV studios of the need to get in former players who know the game from the inside. I haven't seen Robbie Savage, Roy Keane, Jamie Redknapp et all at the head of the queue to be referees. Can anybody see too many Premier League players jostling for a job that pays around £70,000 pa, or twice the average weekly wage of most PL players? Most players don't know the basic rules anyway. Ask a player to exactly define when a player is active or inactive under the offside rule, or what constitutes a foul throw. It might attract players from the lower leagues but there is a lot of opposition to fast tracking from referees and you can understand why. A guy who has had to start doing Sunday League games on the local rec and then work his way up might not take too kindly to somebody who is fast-tracked simply because he is a former player. And there's no guarantee that a former player will be any better at interpreting and applying rules.

There were not 15,000 people in that stadium. Top whack, 12,500. Cobblers' fans only occupied a couple of blocks of seating and the rest of that end was empty. Thee were swathes of empty seats elsewhere in the ground.

Here's a thought. From the obsessive nutjobs' point of view it might be better and produce more lols if they didn't slip into the Conference but stayed in League Two? How so? If they go into the Conference, the myth-making hype machine will slip into overdrive. They will enjoy - certainly initially - the increased publicity of being the biggest club in history to play in the Conference. They will invariably gain some unwarranted sympathy but knowing the Septic Isle's ability to spin a myth, could ride the momentum and stage a heroic campaign to climb back into the Football League and the legend of the plucky but biggest fan-owned club in the world will continue. If they stay up and undergo another anaemic season in League Two, they will quickly be forgotten and meld into the likes of other bottom tier teams like Torquay, Hartlepoool, York etc, doomed to just scuff around and be largely forgotten non-entities. Discuss.

Still they can take some consolation from the fact that the much-maligned villain Whittingham will never amount to much at Crawley. Oh, wait.. It looks as though Crawley are enjoying something of a new manager bounce. Either that, or the players are happy to be rid of Barker. Still, p****y are just waiting until the January transfer window opens so Barker and Catlin - armed with a wedge of parachute money to spend - can mount a raid and beef up the squad with some Bury players. Oh, wait...

Where did they manage to get on Astroturf? The Astroturf pitches around them would probably be owned by the Navy at HMS Temeraire, or local schools, all of whom would have wanted money for the hire of their pitch. Hopefully all these providers of facilities are now wise enough of the necessity to ask for cash up front first. As it is, they risk being cast into 'villian' status by merely having the front to ask the People's Club for money when they should be prepared to provide it all for nothing. In fact, they should pay the club for the honour of having them deign to train on their facilities.

Or to take one from one of his drummer pals. Is that a closet behind him that he has just stepped out of?

Cyclists who cycle on the road when there is an empty cycle lane alongside the road. These are usually the tossbags who think they are Bradley Wiggins and because they have paid a couple of thousand for a hand-crafted Italian bike, all the figure-hugging spandex gear, they think they are too cool to use cycle paths which have been constructed at great expense specifically to stop them getting knocked of their bikes. They have also started wearing Go-Pro head cams now to provide proof if they are the victims of bad driving. I hope the Go-Pros keep whirring when the cyclists pedal through red lights, which never seem to apply to them. Food packaging. There's too much of it, and it's too tough. I expect nature to provide it's own packaging, ranging from bananas - easy to peel - to nuts, which are hard to break into. But there's no f**ing need for supermarkets to make it as hard to get into a pack of meat/cheese/fruit/vegetables than it is to get the drawers off Anne Widdicombe. On occasions, I have given up in frustration (at trying to open the packaging, not getting the virginal anne's knicks off) and just thrown the ravaged but defiantly unopened pack into the bin. Bus drivers/taxi drivers; Yes, you might earn you living from the road, but you don't actually own it. Not unless you can produce a certificate of purchase that shows me you have bought the stretch of road you are being an arsehole on. Tesco petrol stations; Your petrol might be cheap and tempting, but your pumps have actually got to work to allow motorists to put it into the their cars and buy it. And if you offer a 'Pay at pump' option make sure the bloody card readers work. Especially if you are trying to pay with a bloody Tesco credit card!! There's no bloody point in offering a 'Pay at Pump' facility if you still have to go into the kiosk. And in the kiosk, please try and ensure there is more than one till working. Middle-lane hoggers; Yes, I despise them as much as other people. My understanding was that legislation has been brought in to make this an offence. Why haven't I seen the Feds cracking down on this on our motorways.? I'm just getting warmed up now....

Had a lot of time for him. He had no airs and graces, was aware of his limitations and did not try and do anything he was not capable of doing, at the same time, he recognised the qualities he did have and worked hard at his game. A prime example of a good, solid if unspectacular professional footballer who enjoyed a good career in the game through his willingness to work hard and apply himself. Critics may say it doesn't speak much for the standard of our game that somebody not overly-blessed with silky ball skills like Rory can make a well-paid career from it. But not everyone who picks up a paint brush aspires to be Picasso or van Gogh, and everybody needs somebody who can decorate a house well. He did a good job for every club he played for, from Derby to Burton, and I think it says something about him that even when he realised he could no longer play at the top level, he enjoyed playing enough to go and ply his trade at the lower level. He did it for the right reason, and not to extend his career and squeeze the last few quid out of a lower-league club. Similarly, he has taken the decision to knock it on the head, and thus not milked Burton for money until the end of the season or his contract. My memory of Delap is that wherever he played his mum and dad would drive from their home in Carlisle to watch him. I think his dad was a headmaster, if my memory serves me correctly, but they rarely missed a game throughout his career. I'd certainly like to wish Rory Delap all the very best in whatever he decides to do in the future.

Has Guy got a bit confused? Whittingham said: ‘I’m delighted to be here working at such an ambitious and progressive football club." Surely that statement only applies to his former employer, who will probably be suing him for breach of copyright in using their fatuous quotes template.

Poor old Awfs in that video. You have to feel a little sorry for him. It's like taking a kid from a sink estate on a tour of Buckingham Palace and telling him; "Have a good look, but know that you will never have any of this." In fairness to him, when his side got dicked, it brought home to him the difference between the two academies, one being Eton College and the other an Ofsted failure comprehensive. Was it just me or did the Saints youngsters on the goals video seem stronger and faster? At that age you probably would not expect there to be much in the way of physical difference but all the Saints youngster appeared to have, and be able to do things, at pace. And another comparison. Compare Whatmough, who is an academy product in their first-team squad, with the academy products who are in Saints first-team squad - and Whatmough used to be on Saints books. Saints youngsters clearly benefit from training at excellent, state-of-the-art facilities - which are due to get better in the new year - and being nurtured under experts in diet, nutrition, conditioning, etc, compared to the lads from football's Dotheboys Hall, who have to scrape the dog crap off their pitch before being able to use it, and are fed on gruel. Still, they only have themselves to blame and 'Arry to thank for that. When they were in the top flight and in the position where they could have invested in the long-term future of the playing staff by funding the academy, 'Arry took his customary short-term view and spunked it all on the likes of Sol Campbell et al. "They invest a lot of money in their academy here," said Awfs. Yes, Andy, we do. And you, your poor sod, have just felt the difference.

Accrington Stanley 2-1 West Ham? What's happened to the fabled football academy that Redknapp always trumpeted, as in; "I brought Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand, etc, etc blah, blah through."

Translation, Dear Mug punter, It is a real privilege for me to have the opportunity to ask you what the hell I am doing here. I was at a close-knit, well-run club with realistic aims and ambitions until my old mucker Mark Catlin set up this job for me. Obviously, I'm grateful to Mark who in no way whatsoever tapped me up and encouraged me to manufacture my departure from Crawley, to come here on the sort of salary I would never have dreamt I could pull in at any other club in the lower two tiers. But having got here, I can see there is no glass ceiling on this club. Or any sort of weatherproof ceiling on most of the buildings. Or any sort of walls at the training ground. Hold on a moment - "Mark, do we have a training ground?" As you can see from the pictures from yesterday's press conference when my surprise appointment was announced to a shocked football world I look really enthralled by the prospect of being here, which is why I sat as far away from Mark on the table as I could. Can you please turn up on Saturday, and for the rest of the season. My wages have got to be paid somehow, and those of my buddy Steve, when he eventually and reluctantly decides to take one. Also, I'd like to bring in some ex-Bury players I had with me at Crawley, so if you can stump up the cash for that, it would be really good. Otherwise, if I lose four games in a row, the fans who run the bestest fan-owned club in the world ever, might decide it's time to get somebody else in. Yours in hope Ronnie Barker

Fonte's grasp of vernacular English and idioms shows signs of improvement as he attempts to grapple with the origins of the phrase; "Up at the crack of Dawn."

There would have been a few journos there. The Snooze would have gone mob-handed, two or three of them. BBC South, Meridian and Sky Sports, who would turn up at the opening of an envelope, as long as it's got the word 'Football' printed on it. Then there would have been BBC Radio Solent, and the local radio stations. The locals all have around three or four 'journos' who are little more than fans with mics. The event would not register sufficiently on the radar of national newspapers for them to send staffers, so a local agency would cover it for them. Add in the curious, and the fans off the street who wander in and you have the appearance of a packed press conference, befitting a big club. If I was the guy sat on the left of that picture I would be a bit worried, along with the one third on the left. That shaft of light thing looks spookily like those photographer Keith Jennings find on prints in The Omen. The guy on the left will probably be speared by a rotting flagpole, falling from the roof of Krap Nottarf while the guy sitting next to him will lose both legs mid-thigh from a sheet of light metal fabric flying through the air having been ripped from one of the stands recently given a dodgy safety certificate, by little more than a light breeze. And is that Steve McClaren on the extreme right, sipping a cup of tea?

It's ironic that Savage's suggestion that Saints academy is a breeding ground for players to do well at bigger clubs when his journey took him in exactly the opposite direction.