derry

It seems like AA is setting up to keep as much value/potential value in the club so that when Chenrai takes it over he is getting a decent CCC team debt free to add to the stadium which he practically owns. He is then in a position to recoup his outlay and sell it on at a profit.

I have two mates who have never had STs buying and I'd be surprised if because of last seaon and the planned player recruitment there isn't quite a few new takers. We won't really know until the end of the month regarding renewals and until Aug 6th for the total, then we will be able to see the true picture.

It is possible that the club has identified that standing areas are predominately instalment plan season tickets and have decided to thin them out. Alternatively and more likely, there wasn't a significant number of the 14000 STs that were on instalments and that the club decided that as some would pay up front anyway, there would be no significant drop in numbers. If we are going to bring in say seven more first team players the club may consider that we should win the league. Having seen the 50,000 at Wembley, it would be understandable if they considered that there is likely to be large crowds if we are playing attractive winning football at the top of the league.

Now that the Premier league is being sued by HMRC, are they still able to use the parachute payments to pay the football creditors in full, or could they be subject to a temporary injunction freezing payments to clubs in administration pending the result of the case.

It turns out that against Mexico he was instructed by Capello to stay out wide and run the fullback outside. He was picked out by Capello during the DVD post mortem and heavily criticised for consistently coming inside. Against Japan he was given the same instruction, stay wide and run the touchline, again he ignored the instruction and kept coming inside. Unfortunately it is the way Arsenal play but not the way England want him to play. He has been left out because he can't follow team plans. It is now a make or break period for him. It wouldn't be a surprise if he looks for a move away from Arsenal. I think Wenger saw him as a natural successor to Thierry Henry at 16 but it hasn't turned out that way.

It is possible that the 50,000 or so fans at Wembley have alerted the club to the interest in a successful team whatever the level. Bearing in mind the club, probably expecting to win a lot of matches and top the league after further investment, feel that a reduced number of discounted seats is no bad thing, provided the anticipated success increases the gates at non-discounted prices, giving a higher overall income.

He just chose the wrong club and went too early. His last four years have been mostly wasted playing for a team whose style just doesn't suit his pace. Wenger's teams play pattern football, keeping possession and requiring the players to play in the pattern. Walcott even when wide usually gets the ball with his back to goal. Both with England and Arsenal the fullback is looking to overlap which forces him inside and nullifies his pace. A team like MU that plays pace wide would have been a much better option and would have utilised his lightning pace. He needs passes inside the defenders or to play on the break as Utd do. I don't know whether it was an option, I would be surprised if it wasn't, but I think if he had gone to Utd he would probably have been turned into an international regular.

Funny you should say that, I saw 3 police cars westbound flashing lights towards 5 at 0750, as I was going eastbound towards 7, looking in the mirror, one seemed to cut across car in middle/inside lane. Also Police car sitting short of 3 in the police holding point broadside on watching the westbound traffic.

I think what happened re Saints debts was the Stadium mortgage was settled at an agreed price with Aviva, The SLH debts were settled by the Administrator out of the sale of the Assets to Markus Leibherr. SFC Ltd was one of the assets that he purchased and as it was solvent and trading, its debts even if overdue were settled in full, whilst SLH Ltd stripped of it's assets left it's debtors to be paid an agreed proportion in settlement from the money raised from the assets.

Some pretty needless and cynical responses on here. Try dluker@saintsfc.co.uk he is the customers liason manager or similar.

Alternatively the sponsored pilot that led the pilot's strike that nearly broke Aer Lingus. Doesn't anybody wonder why he was brought in. The pilot's have been smart enough to play for time and await the right circumstances. They realise aviation is cyclic and the opportunity will arise to claw back the downcycle concessions. It has been ever thus. On an anecdotal note. On the approach at Lagos and cleared down to an intermediate level Atc went off the air. Call to BA Company who went up to the tower with a wad of cash, who then cleared us to land.

I think we can only sign him on a pre-contract agreement until he is out of contract on 1st July.

I don't think it actually works like that. For example trying to get rid of Ben Haim's £40k/wk salary to West Ham As the players are under contract for a fixed term they will be looking to have that paid up as settlement before agreeing to move. When Kevin Philips came to Saints from Sunderland it was reported that the £3.5m transfer fee went to Philips to get him to leave so that his salary disappeared. It could well be that there won't be much in terms of real income for those under contract, that they have to get off the books, because of the unsustainable salaries.

Where is Akrotiri if it isn't the British base in Cyprus?:confused:

If we were going to pay a midfielder £10k a week I would prefer Brian Howard who is now captain of Reading.

I hope it isn't squad players/cover that he signs. We really need to up the quality, as Pardew has already said he wants a winning year to get in the habit and then move up to the championship and hopefully do the same.

It looks like there will be quite a few coming in as we really only have about 15 first team starters including 2 goalkeepers, 4 centre backs and 3 strikers. I hope that this is now the chance to really raise the bar and bring in 6/7 first class starting quality players to give the squad real quality and depth.

The statement came 24 hours after the guardian/observer article was published.

That's the one. Cortese responded early the next morning with a statement on Solent.

Guardian website 7/2/2010 as far as I recollect.

Or to set up the conditions for the meeting with Pardew, that would lead to Pardew feeling insecure and wanting to keep the job, would agree to Cortese's view for next season. I still think a lot of what went on was based on how ML/NC's expectations, regarding the sort of football, they, with a European background, expected to see. There were a lot of games last season, that contained a lot of hoofball which I wouldn't have thought appealed to them. Which would explain the comments about the sort of football they want to see.

Everybody seems to have forgotten Alan Pardew's unfortunate interview with the Guardian/Observer I think on the Sunday before, that led to Nicola Cortese responding on Radio Solent.

We have already agreed a fee with Fiorentina for Waigo if we decide to keep him.

We do know that there was disagreement/misunderstanding and public statements from them both mid season. I felt that ML and NC both brought up on European football would be unattracted to lump it up front football, which happened in a fair proportion of matches last season. I get the feeling that Alan Pardew's wanting to stay manager, together with a wide reaching discussion leading to Alan Pardew agreeing to co-operate fully has bought him the time to prove he is the man for the job. I know somebody close to NC who say he is a hard taskmaster with everybody, and has treated this person considerately. The person is absolutely discrete and won't comment on anything about the club.

More than anything, I'm looking forward to seeing us play a passing game.