saint1977

I'm thinking like S Clarke that this is Jemal MkII and has been a non-deal for a few days. Pity, as Fox needs competition and it also offers the option of Lallana moving infield away from home into a 4-5-1. We don't know the facts or what the player's representatives 'asked for' but I'm not expecting to see anything on the OS soon about this.

Shows you that although he'd done a good job in running the club 1997-2003, Lowe had really lost it by this stage and clearly was being advised badly by all sorts of iffy characters. Administration came at the right time, any earlier and we might not have made it to Markus and Cortese but had it not happened we'd be like Bradford struggling with a big stadium in L2 if Lowe and Wilde had stayed any longer. Can't ignore the stupid debt that Wilde and Crouch had built up but at least Crouch put his hand in his pocket when it counted. I was all for bringing in cheaper players and cutting costs at the time but this has been an awful waste of money and it annoys me that the new regime have had to fund the idiocy of bringing Forecast in for the last 3 years with another to go.

One to lock. There was me thinking the Cortese thread was bad enough and this 'gem' comes along. I wish the club would finalise the Clyne and Buttner signings as it might stop yet more drivel being posted.

Exactly - Cortese gets things done for SFC, that's the important sentence. Guy Askham might have been more mild-mannered but he was an awful Chairman and continued the ruin the club behind the scenes even after the so-called 'reverse takeover' until Markus and Cortese rescued us. With Cortese, he might be a robust individual but I get the impression that what you see is what you get and the club needed strong leadership backed up with investment which it now has. Given the grubby dealings with the £1 shares, you could hardly say that about Ashkam and his mates could you?

As awful as this list is, if Pompey fans wrote this thread in seven years time, can you imagine what it would look like!? 'Oh that 7-1 defeat at Crawley was the worst, 'No way, the 6-0 defeat at home to Exeter was worse'. 'Losing those two goals in the last minute at Tamworth was gutting'. 'The worst of all was missing that penalty at Eastleigh and all the scummers gloating'...

I'd say their likely plight is far worse than Plymouth's. Plymouth at least were able to sell the ground back to the local authority and had some assets. Plus their liabilities were much smaller than Pompey's are now and even then it took quite a while for James Brent to beat the Heaney consortium's bid (with seemingly quite a bit of local anger at the administrator). The skates are nailed on to go down next year and Plymouth didn't have to contend with Chainrai either. Even if they found a Markus somehow, they'd have the former owners with their foot on their throat if they ever tried to re-develop the FP site. IF they do manage the start the season, I think they'll be fighting their way back up from the conference within 3 years. Luton aren't that much smaller than them and have been stuck down there for 2 or 3 seasons now. I still hope they survive but League 2 is a fair punishment at least. Was that FA Cup 'win' really worth it?

Totally agree on comparing the last 3 years with the disgrace inflicted on us before it, those results were just blips after we'd been taken over. Actually, 04/05 was the worst of the lot as demonstrated by Claus's recent revelations. Bristol Rovers in the Cup was right down there, several players seen to be heavily overweight on live TV and the poor attitude of staff and players alike. Sheff Wed away X2 although as many have pointed out Kelvin redeemed himself with those wonderful late saves a couple of years ago to earn us a massive 3 points. Hull away as well and Swansea and Plymouth home when Euell was booed off. No-one has mentioned the very worst though, Doncaster home. Widespread fighting I seem to recall amongst our own fans with those supporting the Askham/Lowe regime and those not arguing violently and an awful, awful display. It just reminded me that most of that squad like James and Thomson were going to end up either in L2 or non-league and I was right.

The weird thing is, at the infamous Villa game where we threw away a 2 goal lead so easily with three of the poorest goals you'll ever see Saints concede, I turned to my mate in the Kingsland and said casually "It's almost as if Saints have thrown this away deliberately". Someone in the next row overheard it and had a go at me - to be fair it was a flippant comment made in shock at how Saints hadn't tried at all and rolled over in the second half and even I didn't believe it - but it does make you think back now. I still think it's highly unlikely but it does highlight how rotten SFC had become by that stage and how unprofessional the culture inside the club was. That Man U cup game and Blackburn away also bring a shudder, two of the worst SFC displays ever. Well, Claus has certainly ruined his legend status now. Just hope people now appreciate and realise what we have now all the more - great owners, great manager and a professional and honest set of players that I can honestly never see getting involved in this rubbish.

Up to player then. When will players learn to keep their transfer affairs simple - Gary Neville did not have an agent throughout his career and if players must have someone taking a huge cut of their wages for doing next to nothing then keep it to one party. Rooney had his fingers burnt and also West Ham/Tevez/Mascerano. There must be good sports legal firms that could advise them on the technicalities and I'm sure they know what their peers earn roughly. The issue of player registrations clouds matters I guess as otherwise Saints could insert a clause in his contract stating that any third party payments are purely the liability and risk of the player? I guess it depends too whether the party claiming money are FIFA-registered or not.

A Carlisle friend of mine said that one of their Directors put it forward as a money-saving exercise by reducing travel costs on the longer trips backed by a couple of people from other clubs. Enough stingy lower league versions of Guy Askham voted for it but also a lot of managers and directors were opposed to it because it would inhibit the opportunities of young players (which they were right to fear). So this is why it has reverted back to 7 in the FL. As much as we find the skates unpleasant, I think this is one allegation we can't really pin on them!

Edit - seen the other thread and forgot about Ox-C! Even so, it feels like a generation since we had Saints fans experience the excitement of a good quality express winger taking on a full back and skinning him for pace. I suppose another one with pace was Heaney but sadly most of his end product endangered the streets next to the Dell.

Sounds promising. I think Adkins could get the best out of Zaha and taking him away from the goldfish bowl of South London would probably help the player focus. Apart from cameos by Theo/Dyer and also Marian was very exciting before injuries struck as a striker, we've not had a really express pace wide player that runs at defenders since Danny Wallace. The excitement it generates is immense and also it will help Saints stretch the game more away from home when teams press up.

Best of luck Whitey, I've never had the pleasure of meeting you but you sound like a top fella. You are in superb hands medically-speaking too so you'll have a long time ahead of watching Saints - can't make up my mind if that's a good or a bad thing actually!

What a pity, sounds like it should have been marketed and produced much better. I'll probably still get it at the Wigan game as it's a record of the two seasons and something to watch on a rainy weekend where Saints aren't playing.

I'll probably go that one, the A35 will be much quieter on a Sunday so that should be a nice drive. Glad Man U is on TV, had little interest in going to that one and will save the money for Everton away at the end of September probably.

Keep them for now. If they won't play reasonably then they can't expect you to. Mind you, I'd probably go to ACAS first to force them to cough your notice up because neither side will want the hassle of a tribunal (their HR people and relevant ops managers will have to prepare and the cost of lost output is probably far more than they owe you), plus some recruiters in all sectors can be a bit immature about people having been to an ET, even they won and were fully justified in doing so.

The level of corporate fraud in the UK is really become astonishing. At the moment, I've already got action ongoing to retrieve PPI monies obtained fraudulently from my wife's previous mortgage and I'm just considering some on an energy company helping itself to something it shouldn't have and not putting its house in order. Now it appears I'll have to investigate whether my current mortgage was fraudulently set by my bank too. Just what I want to be doing my spare time. Am I the only person working in a UK organisation that actually cares about the quality of my work and the impact it has on others? The upshot is this - markets need much tighter national, European and global regulation and controls to stay free. Contradiction? Not at all, the market is unable right itself any longer and the taxpayer cannot continue to bail out corrupt private organisations. Only then can markets be free for the people that really count - consumers and business start-ups. Yet at this time, we've got Liam Fox speaking at the Taxpayers Alliance about us leaving the EU. What planet is the man on?

Davis would be a safe bit of business although not sure a £2m signing on fee if true would be absolute best value. He'll do a job and certainly compete with Morgan, Cork and Chaplow, possibly Lallana if Adkins brings him more in the centre of the pitch next season. Michu would be more interesting as he sounds better than what we have but the trail has gone cold. Whittaker is a reasonable player and on paper a good free transfer but Lowe went down that route with signing lots of players like Mickael Nilsson and Kenton and look where that headed so happy to leave that one with Norwich.

Exactly. If the internet had been live in the early 80s, people would have probably moaned about the Air Florida and Rank Xerox kits but instead, they are prized because we had a superb team. Likewise, why is a yellow and blue away kit popular? Because of the FA Cup win of course. Kits, unless they are really vile or notorious (Fiorentina's home kit from the 90s that appeared to have far insignia on it from memory, Arsenal's horrific yellow and green away kit and Chelsea's vile grey and orange number) are defined by the team that wears them and how they fare. The Pony chevron kit was horrible but MLT's heroics saved our pride. Likewise, we could have had an amazing kit in 2004/5 but Davenport, Jakobsson, Van Damme, Nilsson and Bernard would still have been wearing it and we'd still have been deservedly relegated for buying too many poor players.

At last, someone speaks sense. It's not a bad kit, not the most imaginative granted but its not blue and it is a home kit I can wear which is more than can be said for the usual deckchair we have. I liked the sash best. Some football fans are really stuck in a rut and any moaning will soon disperse once we've got half-a-dozen more signings on board and pre-season starts proper.

This place sounds vile - why would anyone want to go there anyway? I doubt if it does quality food or drink and surely Coventry has other decent bars? There's a place in Shrewsbury that from memory (which can be hazy!) used to only serve the over 30s which I thought was ridiculous and legally challengable even though I'm 30+ myself. Again though, best way is to vote with your feet and live and go wherever you want. If you are with the right people, you'll have a great time regardless of venue. I can certainly remember some on visits to Coventry and the old Highfield Road before the Ricoh move. With regard to Coventry itself, granted its not pretty and the postwar town planners shamed themselves but I've always found it a friendly place and the Cov fans have always been sound.

Virgin appearing here again is no surprise. Carphone Warehouse are a company that you really want to avoid on all counts. I've not ever been with 3 but their dreadful reputation goes before them. Having a lot of problems with South West Water at the moment and the train companies are often very poor. I'm certainly not against privatisation per se (some of them like electricity have worked well and increased competition) but whoever decided to privatise those two industries was a buffoon as consumers have no alternatives to switch (apart from driving which is a bit limited if you need to go from Devon to London regularly for work). This is why the Coalition really need to make extending shareholder power to remove poorly performing senior managers a priority. As we've seen with Bob Diamond at Barclays, the fish usually rots from the head. No wonder the heads of large companies were lobbying for Beecroft, they knew the current round of exposure on their screw ups and misdeeds were coming. Good to see investors rather than 1970s style trade unionism finding its voice. Just need governors in educational establishments to start doing the same and ditch the dead sheep routine!

Sounds to me like Brum are saying something just over £6m would do it to try and enduce the top 4 to pay over the odds. Good to see the ambition from Saints though but I don't think it's Butland that we'll buy in the end. As discussed on the other thread, with Bart gone and Forecast probably not even the best keeper on this forum, I'd imagine we'll be buying two keepers anyway, perhaps the 3rd choice one from League 2.

TDD, I saw a 'Using skills from the Armed Forces' seminar in Bristol on 10 July that a private provider - Executive Solutions - were running. http://www.executive-transitions.co.uk/courses/military-trans/ Not relevant for me and I've never used this company so don't know if they are good/bad/etc but saw it my Linkedin alert just now and logged on here over lunch.

Young was poor but based on his displays for Man U I can see why he was picked. Ox-C will be ahead of him soon but Young is a decent squad option rather than firxt XI pick. Milner needs to be told by Hodgson to get a loan move to a club like Villa (where he was before) or Everton because he is going backwards rapidly at City with the lack of games or he'll be frozen out. City won't like it but a player like Milner needs lots of games under his belt to be at his best. Lallana has a decent chance I reckon if he excels, Beattie was picked by Sven when England (on paper at least) had stronger options available. He'll have to continue working on his shooting and be looking to get upwards of 8 league goals next season but the England midfield isn't top drawer with the exception of Gerrard. To be fair to Parker, I think he's done OK and he's certainly more than someone who runs and breaks it up. Anyone who saw his 2 goals for Charlton as SMS would know that. However, his break has come a bit too late in his career and although he'll play in some of the qualifiers, I don't think if we qualify he'll be at WC 2014.