SaintBobby

Those two Saints fans arrested for homophobia should count themselves lucky. My lawyer tells me I face a seven year prison sentence for sexism after chanting "She fell over".

We should have had at least two penalties. But just not the two given.

A few obvious gaps on the corporate section in Itchen too. I'd say a block of about 300 empty seats there.

Did the ticket office really reference membership? It's cool if you got a ticket. But you made the first bit up, right?

I'd swear I've heard this tune sung before....sigh....

Well, tweak the numbers/people to show the problem. If Jos gets a £20k pw deal, what do Chaplow and Guly ask for? They just say "Fair play, guv, I'm happy with my £7K a week...good luck to Jos, must have a great agent!" ???

Amongst the many things I worry about, the OP's question isn't that high up my list...

Sorry, I'll try for a third time. It's unlikely the sticking point will be the transfer fee. A range between 750k and 2m, I guess. Probabaly settle at about 1m. The problem is salary. Let's say he's on £20k a week at Celtic and we are presently paying 50% of his wages. (guesswork...but probably in the ballpark). As of January, he can return to Glasgow on £20K a week or sign for us on maybe £10K? £12K? (e.g. a poss loss to him of £500K a year). Or if he sign him on a c.£20k a week deal, then those star players on c. £10k a week (Lallana? Kelv? Rickie?) may also ask for a pay hike.

Surely, you have to measure net spend...not gross spend. E.g. the sale of AOC should add £12m+ to our balance sheet. Seems to me we have possibly made a net profit on transfers since Liebherr bought the club. If not, then we have certainly spent small. If some schmuck wanted to buy Tony Pulis off us for £100m, I don't think it should count against us if we then spent £80m on transfers ourselves. On the basis of net transfer spend, I think you'd expect Saints to be in the bottom 5 or 6 in the NPC. Wages, however, are a different matter...

I really hope we get him, just feel salary could be a sticking point.

I'm a London based STH. Get to about 18 of the 23 home games per season and maybe 7 or 8 aways. Find midweek games at SMS pretty hard to get to. So I will select games partly based on the opposition - especially in the cups. A 2nd round Carling Cup game v Northampton.....hmmmm....can probably give that a miss. A cup game v Pompey or Man Utd and I'm doing all I can to make sure I get to the match. As far as league games go, the opposition matters too. I'm making a bigger effort to get to top of the table clashes than less glamorous ties. Does this make me plastic? Do I care?

I think the trickier bit could be salary demands rather than price. Aren't Celtic presently paying a good % of his wages?

I don't think the "expanionists" have really tackled CB Fry's key point about the pricing strategy. Look, to take a wild punt, I reckon we could get crowds of perhaps 50K in the premiership if we charged, say, a quid a ticket. But 50k x £1 is less than 32K x £25. Heck, if attendance is all we care about, why not charge "negative prices" (i.e.pay people to attend)? At some point, we could get crowds of 100,000 or more (but would obviously be running at a huge loss!) The point is that even if you're utterly sure that we could get crowds of 40K every week, it is not necessarily profit-maximising behaviour to expand the stadium. You could just put the prices up for the 32K seats available. This might even yield as much income as a 40K sellout depending on how price insensitive the keenest/richest 32K fans are. And, of course, it avoids any financial outlay at all. Even if you can show that expanding to 38K, 40K, 42k etc would "pay for itself" in ten years, it doesn't follow that this is the profit-maximising strategy. Squeezing a hardcore 30K until the pips squeak might be the better option from a pure profit motive. It is also obviously, without question, the safer option.

Genuine question. What is your prediction is for our finishing position now? I'm not trying to prove a point. At the start of the season I said 10th. My Mrs said auto promotion - prob 2nd. She's now saying she was pessimistic!!!

Presumably, like most agents, he makes his £ from turnover. So if Sharpe departs, he gets a cut?

Nothing against Donny, but how many players of premiership quality do they think they can attract?

I'd say an irritation for some people - well, for me, anyway - is that you always respond to side-swipes against you, but often not to substantive points that wholly rebut your original point. Just a thought. Not that this makes you into a Portsmouth supporter, but I'm sure you can appreciate people's frustration.

Ferguson plays really attacking football and I admire that in his Posh side. I hope they consolidate in the Championship as they are a really entertaining team. But Saints should be able to put 3 or 4 past them. I'm going for 4-2.

That's possible, in which case that's a good thing to learn and a most valuable exercise. But, I think he's likely to have reached the opposite conclusion (or rather a more nuanced conclusion) Questions would be: 1. Do we have enough cover at centre back? Answer: prob yes. Martin looks like good cover. Cork like acceptable cover in a pinch. Plus, DS and RJ to return (at some point, I hope). I'm basing this on Hoovield staying, though. 2. Do we have enough cover at full back? Answer: yes at right back (where Cork can fill in); perhaps not at left back. But with the 5 subs rule, there's a limit to how much cover for this position it's worth having. Seaborne has shown he can play in this slot too if nrcessary. 3. Are we deep enough in midfield? Answer: def yes in centre midfield. Slight query over right midfield/right wing (where Guly has typically been playing out of position). But Holmes, de Ridder and Lallana can play both flanks and Chaplow has shown he can play a wide role too. So prob just about fine, but shld keep our eyes peeled for a player who cld fit here. 4. Are we deep enough in terms of strikers. Answer: prob not. Forte is not good enough for us to wish to rely on him for more than a bit part. Questions over Barnard's fitness and criminal proceedings. Connolly can't be expected to play 90 mins week in week out. So, only Guly and Rickie really tick the "def fine" box. Decision is whether to just strengthen squad here or to really splash out on some £3m - £5m speedy player who can naturally partner Lambert. Given the offers made in the Summer, I'd say NA and NC probably lean to the expensive option if the right player and terms can be agreed.

I don't know if you were able to get to the game or watch/listen to it. My own view was that Butterfield got some match fitness, Schneiderlin showed what a good anchor he can be and the two academy boys showed some promise. Barnard was also able to get 30 mins under his belt. Martin showed again he has the composure and skill to play for the first team. Other lessons (more negative ones): Forte is def a reserve player not a top drawer striker. Holmes and de Ridder are both quite good on the wings but leave the backline more open. Cork can cover at centre back but only in extremis. Harding is error prone at times and can get caught out of position too easily. All in all, despite a disappointing result, I'd imagine NA learnt a lot.

I'm sorry to have to break this to you, but your absurd pessimism even took on levels of innumeracy. There was nothing "in hindsight" about it. I (among others) consistently said we'd be automatically promoted. You disagreed and were hopelessly wrong. At one point, to the amusement of all, you even suggested the points total we'd have to get in order to get promoted was higher than the points haul that would mathematically guarantee promotion. Them's are the facts. Sorry if they make you even more miserable! Bless you though. Your rather endearing, but somewhat lunatic, posts always provoke a chuckle.

I don't think I've ever known him to strike an optimistic note - he's always somewhere from downbeat to wrist slashing. He made such a total ar se of himself last season, it's hard to take anything he says with anything other than several buckets of salt.

11...3 wins at home and 2 draws away

Chaplow was my MOTM, by some margin...a 9.8/10 performance But so many other players had great games. Hoovield, for example, was exceptional but probably not even in the top 4 Saints players.

Our best performance of the season. Quality all over the pitch. Chaplow was simply amazing.