FloridaMarlin

Saints won't get a penny for Stern John. He's out of contract next summer and unless Saints offer him a new one by January 1(which they obviously won't) he can punt himself around and sign a pre-contract agreement with another club. It would be an interesting and probably soul-destroying exercise in cataloguing the players who have been allowed to leave this club for nothing in recent years.

Funny how it worked and was successful when Lawrie did it wth Ballie, but in every other instance it was doomed to failure, according to the Big Man. Ballie signed Peter Whiston when Lawrie's back was turned, and there was hell to pay when the Big Man returned. Don't recall Ballie being given use of the club cheque book without adult supervision after that. Ask the question - while being happy to work as a DoF himself, would Lawrie have tolerated the imposition of one to work with him?

Hardly surprising, given the circumstances. Generally, organisations only try to impose a strict control on information if they feel that info will cause embarrassment or be detrimental to them if it gets into the public domain. Lowe has always tried to control the information output from the club and influence the media, even in the better days. Any guesses as to how long it will be before Jimmy Case's press accreditation is 'reviewed'?

Sorry, you're right, no Lowe, but certainly Wilde and Trant passed up the opportunity to put their chequebooks where their mouths were. The execs exploding the 'myth' came after this meeting, at which time they were quite right in saying that Crouch wasn't going to put his hands in his pocket. Having failed to see the gauntlet he threw down, picked up, he wasn't likely to make the offer again. Ah yes, the execs, Dullieu, Oldknow etc, fine upstanding characters who you would always trust to be totally honest and tell the truth. Wouldn't you?

Crouch called the other directors out in a Texas hold 'em style. At a board meeting, he said he would put a million quid in if everyone else would. He wrote a cheque there and then for the amount, put it in the middle of the table, and waited in embarrassed silence while Lowe, Wilde, Patrick Trant etc shuffled awkwardly around, gulped nervoulsy as beads of sweat broke out on their brows, and kept their hands firmly in their pockets. When it was obvious nobody was going to match his contribution, Crouch picked up his cheque and put it back in his pocket. This comes from somebody who was actually at that meeting (not Leon Crouch).

Why is there an assumption he was a junior employee? It depends on how far up or down the scale of things you reach the cut-off point of 'Junior'. I think you could fairly describe him as quite senior in his field.

I know this tale, the employee who was fired and the reasons he was fired. It doesn't perhaps reflect so badly on Wilde as on previous encumbents of executive roles, no longer with the club. It came from a drinking session at an away game in the north-east, when lots of people from both inside and outside the club were present. The ale-fulled conversation was supposed to be on the lines of "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas," but word got back to one of the execs about some of the things that were said (supposedly through Wilde, but never actually confirmed) and as a result this employee was called in on Monday and fired.

This is where I leap in to defend Bob. The likes of him and all the afforementioned (Graham Hiley, John May, Peter East, etc) will never be seen on local provincial papers again. We're talking of a time when the local paper had a special, almost symbiotic relationship with its football club. They both needed each other to sell their respective product. Bob's generation included the likes of John Vinncombe at the Brighton Argus, David Meek at the Manchester Evening News, Peter White who covered Blackburn for the Lancashire Evening Post, Alan Oliver at the Newcastle Chronicle (the only one still working for a paper) and the indomitable Mike Neasom at The News (and before you kiss him off as working for a Skate paper, he covered Saints for years, including when we won the FA Cup). All were guys who earned enormous respect from their readers and the club they covered for being proper journalists of the old school. Because the club had a relationship with its local media and access to players was much more relaxed (most players were hapy to give out their home number, and then mobiles when they came along) reporters like Bob had good contacts, and consequently got all the important stories first. Back then, people bought their local paper because they knew that's where they would get their news first. But when it came to criticising, reporters of that generation wrote unfettered and fearlessly, while providing support for the club (the local paper's relationship with the club was seen as that of a critical friend). The club might not like it, but they respected the paper's right to be an independent voice in their relationshp. Alas and alack, all that has gone. Now, clubs do not need their local paper so much as they have their own media outlet in the form of their website. Because they can sell lucrative advertising on their website based on the hit count, it makes sense fo them to make sure they control the output and news agenda. Papers and the media are only given access to players on a strictly limited basis and reporters are now longer able to build up the sort of rapport with players and personnel in the club they had in days gone by (a stark contrast to the States where sports still consider their relationship with the media as vital, and in most sports doors of the locker rooms are opened to the media 15 minutes after the end of the game). Because clubs control access and agenda, news emanating from football clubs these days is generally peurile and homogenized. By controlling access and keeping news on a drip-feed, clubs ensure that everyone has the same story. The result of this is 'lazy' journalism. That's not to say that individual journalists do not work hard, but is a reflection that because clubs have control and can easily withdraw access papers are not minded to upset them and risk losing that access. Provincial papers used to be vibrant, due in no small part to reporters like Bob, but are now bland and anodyne (notwithstanding the claims that the Echo and Saints have 'done a deal'). Bob is too nice a bloke to sue, but he would have every reason to resort to law for what is a libellous remark. I seem to recall a previous Brighton chairman (possibly **** Knight in his previous incarnation, but I could be wrong) got a fan's website closed down as a result of comments made on it.

Harry a "second hand car dealer"? What a disgraceful slur. When he was at Bournemouth, to allow him to make a bit of extra bunce (even back then, he had perfected the art of spitting his dummy and threatening to walk if the chairman didn't give him what he wanted) the board siad he could sell off the old club cars and he could keep any profit. Ads were duly stuck in the 'Cars' colum of the local paper, and when interested parties came round, they were pointed in Harry's direction. Harry was mystified by one caller who came to enquire about the "Toyota out the front" as Harry couldn't recall putting an ad in the paper for that. He took the caller round to see the car, didn't recognise it as one he had placed an ad for, but his bulls**tometer immediately kicked into gear, and he started to give it the ****ernee wide boy: "Yeah, lovely little runner, one careful lady owner, she sells the clubs lottery tickets and only uses it to go and fetch the Sunday papers....." The punter produced a thick wedge of readies, Harry started to dribble and drool and before you could say "brown paper bag" the punter was driving off up the Bournemouth Spur road. Harry went off to count his loot, when there came a knock at the door. It was the old club physio John 'Captain' Kirk, enquiring if anyone had moved his car as it wasn't where he had parked it out the front.... Oh, and I have relatives in Israel, where the word is that old man Gaydamak is skint and selling everything he can. Not only have his businesses taken a huge hit, but his legal bills as he battles to stay in Israel are crippling him. Gaydamak senior is such nice man that despite the Israeli constitution declaring that anyone of Jewish blood is entitled to settle there, they want to kick him out. He and other Russian-Jewish oligarchs who have settled there have such dreadful reputations that the Israeli government want them out as they fear it deters investors from investing in the country. But, of course, he doesn't have anything to do with P***ey. As bad as things are for Saints, I don't quite think we've reached the stage of passing round the collecting tins at home games and in the city centre as they did during the days of John Deacon and SOS Pompey. Never mind Agent Redknapp. John Deacon was a Southampton man who did a proper job on Pompey, almost taking them into oblivion in the old Fourth Division. And his son David did a bang-up job in getting them a new stadium at Farlington, didn't he? Just don't mention geese to him.

Which young player worth his salt would not be prepared to walk on broken glass in his bare feet for the chance to be coached by Hockaday and Henderson?

Of course the chairman can say 'no' to hm. At which point he picks up the phone (or gets his media advisor Phil Hall to make the call) to his poodles in the national media and with a knowing nudge and a wink gets himself linked to a job, thereby placing pressure on the chairman who knows what fan reaction would be like if HR were to up sticks. You can almost time it like clockwork. Every summer when Harry wants a fairly large amount of spends, he is suddenly linked elsewhere, like, when the January transfer window opens, there's always a bleat in the national media from him about his squad "being down to the bare bones". A couple of summers ago it was England, then Newcastle, then a return to West Ham was touted. If there is one thing HR does well, it is to play the media game, and poor old Gaydamak is left bewildered and at the starting stalls when it comes to that. HR outfoxes him every time.

Also hints at a glaring inability to hit the ground running at the start of a season on a consistent basis. Surely it doesn't come as a surprise to anyone involved in football when the season starts. But it appears that for whatever reason, whether it's managerial upheaval, player changes, our close season is consistently a complete and utter shambles, which means that we never begin at full throttle, and by time the 10th game comes round when the league table really first starts to take a realistic shape, we are playing catch-up. Once, just once, I'd like us to have the sort of close-season preparation that sees us off to a flying start. Not too much to ask, is it?

Sorry for the tardy reply. I can only relate what his own staff tell me. The fact that you say he has been in other people's company hints to me he has been a guest of hospitality boxes, but I'm not sure he has ever been in the press box, which is the normal working environment of a journalist.

Care to enlarge? That would be a hugely retrograde and dangerous step for any media outlet to take as it would compromise their integrity, objectivity and independent ability to inform the public of issues they need to know. That would lead to accusations of the Echo being in the club's pocket, and that's something no self-respecting journal would ever want. When The News were banned by p****y a few years back they had the cojones to take them on. They told their readers that they were banned, and the issue over which the club had banned them. This was in the days before the CJD stand was built, and The News used to hire a cherry-picker, park it on the waste ground behind the goal raise it up just before kick-off so their reporter and photographer could watch the game. The News were banned last season for something they had written, so they bought a couple of season tickets and watched the game from the stands. On any occasion when The News have been banned by the club, fans have taken the paper's side and let the club know of their feelings. If any paper did 'do a deal' with their club, it would be The Echo. They are owned by Gannett (one of the US's biggest media companies) and their owners expect them to make money first and foremost, even at the risk of compromising their editorial values and standards. If there was any threat to advertising revenues, the Echo would examine its relationship with the club as a matter of course, but I am intrigued as to what sort of deal they have done with Rupert. If you are accusing the Echo of doing a deal, you need to explain how, what and why. You can't just make a throwaway statement like that.

Whatever happened to those fellows, eh? Brian died, must be 10-12 years ago. A Sports Editor of the old school, who ran his desk like a benevolent tyrant, had brilliant contacts, and knew Ted and the players intimately, even travelling on the same trains and team bus, in the days when clubs and their local paper had that sort of relationship. Bob Brunskell retired, but still does pieces for the programme (well, did until Graham left the club). You say he was idle, but a highly respected journalist among his peers and the public. John May, went to work for BBC Sport in London, but now back on the south coast and teaching the next generation of sports hacks, running a sports journalism degree at Solent uni. Graham Hiley, after editing the OS, now doing something similar at the Premier League's website. The club's loss is the PL's gain there. Started looking for the exit door as soon as Rupert returned. Knew his card was marked after the parting shot he fired at Rupert on the OS when Rupert left the first time.

It's the tit of a sports editor, Simon Carter. Been at the paper six years, and still not been to a Saints match!! (He has been pictured making presentations at St Mary's on matchdays but always makes an excuse that he has to be back at the office and leaves). Exeter City fan, loves to write what he considers to be insightful, hard-hitting columns, but turn out to be turgid, poorly-researched and ill-thought out nonsense.

With a world league not far behind that. The Premier League know they are in competition for the hearts, minds, souls and wallets of global audiences with sports like Baseball (which now opens its season in Japan) and NFL, which plays in the Prem's own backyard. I've waffled on about this before but I can see a day not far enough when two or more major major satellite tv providers join forces to try and crack the Chinese and Far Eastern markets. As others have stated, this audience is not interested in Bolton v Wigan, or even Newcastle v Sunderland. They want Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and while a European League appears to be the next step, it's not exactly a quantum leap from that, to the point where you take the top European sides, four from South America, two from Australasia, two ffrom the Middle East/Africa and you can flog it all over the world. Fifa and Uefa will be told to get lost if they try and interfere, in the same way the cricket authorities were by Kerry Packer, whose attitude was: "Try and outlaw and blackball us if you want, but I've got the best players and people will watch my tournaments." A world league would spell the death fo the World Cup, something Murdoch would certainly not mourn as he hates organisations like Fifa who refuse to sell the rights of the World Cup finals to satellite/cable TV in preference for taking their game to the masses via terrestiral tv. Murdoch would love to stuff Fifa out of sight. Pie in the sky? Not really. Whispers about a world league have already been circulating enough to get execs at the Beeb concerned about the prospect.

Don't think he would have any say in it. Has anybody given any thought that the services of an agent might have been employed to plant the story in a national newspaper in order to whip up some interest for a player the club wants to sell to bring in some income? Not that that sort of thing ever happens, of course.

Don't blame the BBC. Their information comes from the Press Association The UK's 'national' news agency), who in turn get it from the club or from local stringers who are supposed to have their finger on the pulse. Most team news you read about is piffle as clubs deliberately spread false so as not to give the opposition any clues. I can almost hear you saying 'the BBC should check their facts.' Not even the BBCc, with its wealth of resources, can devote time and man-hours to checking team news from every club. If they did devote such resources, you licence payers would be whingeing that it is a waste of your money. They pay PA vast amounts of money every year to provide information, and the BBC have to place trust in the PA's reputation that it is going to be correct. HTH

BBC Television Centre is being sold off within a couple of years. A huge, massive site, and just across Wood Lane one of Europe's biggest shopping malls is nearing completion. That, in itself, would make QPR an attractive proposition, access to a large plot of land in W London on which to build not only a new stadium but also with room to develop all around it. (Forget about a slow property market. They're rich enough to ride that out, an besides, the sort of development they would plan would be for the sort of buyer who doesn't have to worry about paying the mortgage. I don't think Social Housing is on their agenda). And don't think the BBC landing F1 for £50m is a mere coincidence. A pal at the Beeb tells me there are all sorts of wheels within wheels, and Bernie Ecclestone has his sights firmly set on the Television Centre site. That's what made QPR an attractive proposition to a group of rich and powerful businessmen, because it has the potential to make them even more money. And Southampton and the area around St Mary's has what? They didn't buy into QPR because Rodney Marsh and Gerry Francis used to play there.

Friends in the media are trying to substantiate rumours that daddy Gaydamak's bank accounts have been frozen in Israel and other countries.

P***ey don't seem to have done too badly of late from a similar position. Gaydamak's (senio, as he is the one who really runs the show) prime concern on initially taking over was development of all the land around Krap Nottarf.

Believe it or not, that's just how it worked out. The people he has gone to work for, being football related, not surprisingly gear their recruitment to coincide with the start of the football season.

Not quite. Lowe told GH that what was gone, stayed in the past, they started with a fresh sheet, no grudges, etc. He just got a better job offer.

GH has moved on to a new post. His choice.