SaintBobby

Recent national newspaper coverage of Keegan and Saints. All of this is from yesterday. excpet the top Times article and the Express article. Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6532100.ece http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/football_league/article6527277.ece Express http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/108572/Saints-eye-return-of-Keegan Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/18/southampton-matt-le-tissier-kevin-keegan Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/leagueone/southampton/5567078/Kevin-Keegan-linked-with-Southampton-return.html Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/keegan-linked-with-southampton-takeover-1708327.html Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1193883/Keegan-tipped-shock-return-Le-Tissier-crisis-club-Southampton.html Mirror http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2009/06/18/kevin-keegan-to-return-to-football-as-southampton-manager-115875-21451087/

I hope he is the new manager, but would say it's only about 50-50 ish. Maybe slightly more likely than not. I'd have imagined that Keegan and/or Pinnacle would have issued a denial by now if there wasn't some truth in it. My optimistic side says you're totally right that this shows serious finance and ambition by the new ownership, even if KK isn't appointed. My pessimistic side says that if this all turns up to be horsesh*t then we have a total farce on our hands (again).

I don't think we really need membership anymore - at least not for this season. 1. Virtually no home games (if any) will sell out, so just buy on general sale if you want a ticket. 2. Away allocations are so incredibly restrictive for most games that ST holders will snap them all up ahead of members anyway, with the exception of Leeds, Norwich and Charlton (in which cases you will be able to buy on general sale). 3. Any special preferential treatment can be based on loyalty (measured by purchases of tickets on the database) or through the various Saints regional fans groups.

You may be right. Given your certainty, I'm guessing you've put every penny you've got on him not coming. http://bettingnews.skybet.com/2009/06/keegan-118-to-join-southampton.html A good return (of more than 150% of your stake) in 24 hours....

I think that's a good bet. I'd say he's probably better than 50-50 to be manager now, so anything longer than evens is a sensible wager.

Maybe they will announce everything tomorrow (takeover, new owner, new manager etc), but the full press conference and Q&A will be next week. I also imagien that some of our new signings, such as Lionel Messi, will find it hard to attend a press conference at such short notice :-)

I have nothing against Tisdale, and wouldn't be too disappointed if he became manager, but I would prefer a big name appointment. Although he has done well at Exeter, he isn't the sort of manager who could yet be expected to recruit or retain (relatively) big name players. I'm sure he'd be more than adequate for a reasonable L1 campaign, but if the new board wants to show real ambition, they should aim for a more established manager.

I'm not sure it's true, but I'm pretty sure that Sky Sports News would not run the story merely based on rumours on this forum. If they covered every internet based football rumour, they'd need to be on air more than 24/7

http://bettingnews.skybet.com/2009/06/keegan-118-to-join-southampton.html

Sorry, if already been posted.... SSN says Keegan was at St. Mary's yesterday, so we're no longer reliant on a grainy photo of him outside Matty's house to establish a connection.

Does anyone actually have any links to any odds on the KK-Saints connection?

Cool, how do I get a season ticket to get my two quid discount?

There's every reason to believe the deal coudl be completed by tomorrow - early next week at the latest. If they need the weekend to tie up some loose ends, so be it. I think the Keegan thing is about 50-50, but Pinnacle completing the takeover is about a 95% shot now. Not quite in the bag, but every reason to be supremely confident.

Looking at your previous posts, I'd hardly say you've been upbeat about the Pinnacle takeover....

Yes, I did. They will basically tell random people phoning up, have done so a few times before. Sometimes I say, "I want to write somethign about it on a Saints website". The usual protocol is that a calling notice or operational note is sent out, usually about 24 hours in advance. Sometimes later in uncertain and fast-moving situations (like this one), but if you're trying to get e.g. live coverage on SSN, you don't want to give too short notice. No such notice has been issued (at least yet).

Press conference at 12.30pm? Not according to the Saints press office. Assume, if it turns out to be false, we can block the muppet who posted this from the list, mods? Even if true, it will just have been a good guess.

Basically, SKY bet think he's about 40% to be the next manager. It's not particularly about being "in the know", those odds will shift enormnously if someone put some money down (and I think you'll find the maximum bet they will take is probably quite samll)

I can't believe there is anyone who is negative about the Keegan possibility. The worst that can be said is that he has occasionally been temperamental. But - look - he is a manager of great quality, and has probably only been omitted from the "who do you want?" polls because it was considered impossible to get him.

I'm frustrated, but not panicking. As others has said, even if 90% of everything was agreed within the first hour, all available time is likely to be used up to sort out the last 10%, 5%, 1%, 0.001% etc. If they only get to 99.999% agreement with minutes to go (because...e.g....they are in dispute about whether the new owners have to honour the £2,000 per annum photocopying contract with Rank Xerox), then I'd imagine they'd just split the difference right at the end rather than call off the whole deal.

I sent this email to David Luker a few weeks ago. I got a pleasant and swift reply, saying he'd raise the issue with the new owners at the appropriate time. Dear David, I wanted to drop you a short note about next season’s ticket prices. I know the whole future of the club remains very uncertain and my thanks go to you and our other staff for continuing to do such an excellent job in such trying circumstances. My thinking for League One, runs something like this: There’s a loyal base of maybe 10,000 fans and if the prices are relatively high, they will be rattling around in a largely empty stadium. Cutting ticket prices to, say, £10 a game might mean high attendances but would mean the “hard core” are spending much LESS on tickets than they are otherwise willing to (I’m probably willing to pay £500 for a season ticket even in League One – but obviously wouldn’t just hand over extra money for the sake of it if the listed price is, say, £250) Because of the club’s diminished league status and the wider prevailing economic environment, the corporate suites are likely to have considerable spare capacity next season. My solution would be to issue “gold season tickets” in addition to standard season tickets. These would retail at about twice the price – say c.£500 rather than c. £250. The principal benefit of “gold membership” would be that for a certain number of games per-season (say, four or five), you could upgrade to the Mike Channon - or one of the other - hospitality suites. The marginal cost to the club of using this spare capacity must be pretty minimal (I’m assuming an average spare capacity of about 200 seats in corporate per game). If, say, 1,000 fans were willing to take out gold membership, this would increase revenues by £250,000 next season. There could be other possible benefits of gold membership too – for example: Advance booking of away tickets (this might be very valuable in League One, given the very limited capacity of many of the stadia – but again costs the club nothing). List of gold members printed in the first programme of the season Special access to other benefits – a “meet the players evening”, chances to win a signed ball/shirt etc. I know you have more immediate worries to concentrate on, but would appreciate any thoughts you may have.

The SMS staff have been - in my experience - absolutely fantastic, from management (like David Luker) through to semi-volunteers. After some bad news for them all, yesterday, I'm totally chuffed for them. We ain't out of the woods, but there's some degree of hope now. I love this club, but the first thing to get right is treating our employees well. Truth is - in very specific terms - I'm presently £400 better off in virtue of not renewing my ST. Much respect to the staff who have had to worry about not paying their mortgages. I think this will turn out well now. But when/if it does, let's pay tribute to the people working at St. Mary's who have shown a loyalty and professionalism under fire that is well beyond the call of duty. Unsung heroes of my beloved club....I salute you.

In these difficult economic times, I'm not sure there are many of our squad who can earn measurably more money elsewhere. I'm intrigued by the idea that if SFC offers new contracts and these are signed and accepted by the League then this is proof that the League accepts the club isn't in administration. I'm no QC - but that strikes me as a potentially strong part of our appeal.

On the Leon Crouch thing. I have been one of his fiercest critics. But if he has bought us soem time, I will actually write him a letter of thanks. Top job.

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/league-one/coca-cola-league-1/next-season This seems like ungeneours odds - we're the fourth favourites behind Leeds, Charlton and Norwich.

The 91K. The buckets. The fish and chip shop thing. Leon Crouch's bleeting in corporate hospitality. Laughable. Truly laughable. If it wasn't so pathetically sad...