Turkish

not at all embarassing either. FFS.

Just as well we only need him for the championship, where has been prolific over his career.

Plus the areas around Southampton are not as densely populated, Southampton really only has Winchester, Eastleigh and parts of Fareham as other towns in our catchment area of any note, none of them are particularly big. Newcastle, although being only slightly larger than Southampton as a city itself has Gateshead, South Shields etc which are large densley populated areas. Leeds is a large city and has Wakefield next door which is a very large town and a Leeds strong hold. In fact most northern and midlands clubs have large towns near them to draw support from, although it terms of size might be quite a big area, in terms of population it's probably not that great, plus the area isn't exactly renowned for its passion in football.

Fris-Hansen whoo whoo He doesn't come from Italy we've no first hand factual evidence he f'cking hates Pompey

You cant just base it on the size of the ground. As mentioned Spurs only get 36k because that is all their capacity will allow, that is also Arsenal got whilst at Highbury, they now get 60k a week. Chelsea would sell that many as well. Newcastle are one of the biggest clubs in the country but you could argue that about any club in the top 10, if Everton, Leeds or Aston Villa had recieved the investment chelsea had would they now be bigger? Chelsea have a massive fan base, particularly in the home counties and are now a worldwide brand. They have always, apart from a period in the early 80's where they struggled, been seen as a very big club. They were always considered Londons glamour club and also attract a very wealthy fanbase, i think a recent survery showed Chelsea have more fans earning over £50k a year than any other club. Also for the record Chelseas record attendance is over 80,000 whereas Newcastles is just over 60k. They are not miles apart but I dont think there can be any arguement over which club is bigger, potentially or otherwise.

Would Joey Barton, Nile Ranger etc consider it a step up career wise to join Chelsea?

That'll be the A-Z thread about Anders Svenson A - Arguement, what Anders Svenson might have with his girlfriend if she came home from the shops with full fat milk when he had asked for semi skimmed B - Beach, where Anders Svenson might spend quite a bit of time if he was to go on a caribean all inclusive holiday C - Christmas - what Anders Svenson would celebrate on the 25th of December along with most of the western world... and so it goes on....

/\ Proximity wise it should be Millwall, but they are more interested in West Ham and other London clubs with more of a reputation. Charlton and Palace hate each other though. Brighton and Palace goes back to the mid 70's when they started hating each other, something to do with an FA Cup game IIRC.

100% this. Exactly in the same boat as you, just going to enjoy playing in the championship. IMO the best league there is. Much more of an even playing field and so many good, proper football clubs in it.

It's a shame Darren Ferguson is such a bellend, Posh has some good players and play some great football.

what happened to Joe Lewis? LEft at half time 1-0 up come back and Posh are 3-1, Lewis off with some joker in goal.

Dont forget there are a few on here who have probably taken Saints to the champions league on FM11, so it is possible.

And Ajax are the biggest club in Holland a country renowned for producing great footballers, they have the pick of the best young dutch players. Lyon are a regular champions league knock out stage team and one of Frances biggest clubs. Both of them end up selling their players on to the bigger clubs in Europe after a couple of seasons. I agree with you, i can see us being an established mid table club who can maybe push for a Euro league slot or a cup win if we are lucky but anyone who thinks we are going to be a regular champions league side is seriously deluded. People like MLG keep saying why cant we, Well can someone please explain why we can and give examples of others who have consitantly been top 4 without spending big. Not half arsed facts like Arsenal haven't spent hundreds of millions and Chelsea had smaller attendances than us 20 years ago. How does a club like Southampton become a champions league side and if it's as easy as getting a few decent young players together, why isn't everyone doing it?

A good academy you say? To be a consistant top 4 club you are talking about a team of some of the worlds best players coming through the academy, all coming through at the same time, like they did at Barcelona, one of the biggest clubs in the world. Like they did at Man United in the 90's with Beckham, Scholes, Giggs etc. To a lesser extent what Arsenal have done now but without the honours. How likely do you think it is for a club like Saints to have the best young players in the world, all coming through the ranks at the same time? All staying and wanting to play for SFC and no one else when only two of the worlds biggest clubs have managed this with success in terms on honours in the last 20 years? You are talking about developing a team of the standard of Beckham, Scholes, Bale etc all coming through the ranks at the same time. There are no room for David McGoldricks in a champions league club academy. You use the example of Everton, Everton had one great season and have done little since. They've had some good young players, but what happened when the best one came through their ranks? Oh thats right, he couldn't wait to join Man United, despite being an Everton fan. A good manager you say. Although it pains me to say it, look what happened when the current best English manager around realised he had done all he could down the road, he couldn't wait to get to Tottenham. Aston Villa, doing well, looking at a regular top 6 finish, Milner and Barry couldn't get to Man City quick enough when they got the call. O'Neill quits because of it. If you really think being a champions league club is as simple as getting a decent academy and bringing a load of young players in and decent manager, paying them all a relatively moderate wage and they'll all be up for it to fullfill the chairmans vision then why isn't every club doing it?

I am all for aiming high but this has to be tempered with realism. This week people are talking about signing current England internationals and players that 3 or 4 years ago were one of the best strikers in the world, champions league football and expanding the stadium. Just over a week ago we were a league one club with 10,000 empty seats every week. Talk of the champions league and signing the likes of Micheal Owen is utter, utter madness, fans of other clubs would think we were mental if they came on here and read some of these posts. It's cost Man City, who were an established PL club before they has major money, £300m to get there and to win their first trophy in 30 years. We are a long way away from being an establish PL club and a million miles away from a champions league club. People need to stop getting themselves at it and be a bit more realistic.

Yeah i agree, always rated him. I cant see him staying down there next season, well, lets hope not anyway.

Lets hope so, they've still got decent players like Liam Lawrence an Dave kitson though. I'd like to see those two offloaded as well.

/\ Spot on, i think he is the man to get us into the PL. Now what i'd like to see is him back in the transfer market to bring in the 4 or 5 quality championship players to improve on what we already have.

Come Dr Who, you've been on here long enough to know by now that on here for every silver lining there is a cloud.

As a private company they are entitled to do what they want, however football is a customer drive business and for people using or relying on the installment plan, to suddenly remove it without notice was a shocking piece of PR. From a fans point of view why would they suddenly think after 10 years of having an installment plan there now wouldn't be one? especially as no one was told there wouldn't be. It would be fair assumption to expect there would be one. I suppose at least this season people aren't expect there to be one, but that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do, considering most other clubs have one and it makes season tickets more accessable to people who cant afford it in one hit.

But you had clubs like Saints, Ipswich, Watford who finished in the top 2 of the First Division, since then only Blackburn in the mid ninties are a smaller club who have challenged the big clubs for honours and even they were back by a wealthy owner.

They'll probably chose the newly extended 100,000 capacity St Marys Stadium mate played in by the English Barcelona, so we wont have far to travel.

Unfortunately football isn't like that any longer. Unfortunately i did miss that era, my earliest saints memories at the 03/04 season. Football will have to change dramatically even for a repeat of what Blackburn did in the mid ninties. Sad, but true.

Who was it on here who said we would get crowds of 45k if we were in the premier league because Liverpool do and they aren't very good at the moment? I am sure it was Le God Third Coming.

You are confusing being a misery guts with a realist. We've had talk this week of signing players like Micheal Owen, current England internationals and top 4 PL players, expanding the stadium, champions league football, copying Barcelona etc yet we have on average at St Marys we had 10,000 empty seats on average last season and we've yet to kick a ball in the championship. Lets take one step at a time shall we rather than getting ourselves at it with dreams of hosting champions league semi finals against the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona at a sold out 55k capacity SMS. FFS.