stevegrant

The weekend's games are now there. Sorry about tonight's FA Cup game, didn't realise there was a replay being played so soon!

I think I still have the signed VfB Stuttgart shirt I bought at that auction about 9 years ago

Computer components are so inconsistent that it's hard to pin a timeframe on their life span. That said, unless you've been absolutely hammering the hell out of it for the last year, it should last longer than that...

Didn't realise it was tonight. What time does it start and are there tickets available on the night?

It won't even be up to Lowe. Barclays will be aware of offers made and will apply pressure accordingly.

They do have creativity in the form of a) Rory Delap's throw-ins and b) Liam Lawrence who, in my opinion, is a physically stronger version of Surman who also happens to score more goals. Stoke's style of play is very much geared towards strength, size and set-pieces, and so far it's not doing them too much harm in the Premier League. If/when someone figures out a decent way to defend those throw-ins (there must be a way, surely?), then they might have to look at other avenues, but while that tactic is working - and it's worked against some good teams (e.g. Arsenal, Villa, Everton, Pompey, etc) - they won't change it. It's tried and tested at Championship level and it's tried and currently working pretty well at Premier League level.

He's not really a Stoke sort of player, and there's no way they'll modify their style of play just to suit one signing. I can't see any mileage in that rumour, to be honest.

I think Lee would have got in the squad anyway. It was Darren Anderton who took what should have been Le Tissier's place, despite having played the grand total of 15 times that season thanks to various injuries (surprise, surprise).

I would have thought you'll be able to get the £9 difference per ticket back from the ticket office.

The revenue the likes of United and Arsenal bring in directly through the turnstile is actually about the same (if not higher) than the broadcasting revenue. Liverpool and Chelsea are probably a bit behind on that front, simply due to the number of people they can fit into their grounds.

Is that figure just the one in Peter Kenyon's deluded head? I could conceivably accept that there may be that many Liverpool or ManYoo fans worldwide, but Chelsea?! They've only been a big club for 5 minutes.

No we won't. The massively significant difference between us and clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United are that they can call on millions of fans across the world to put money into the club's coffers in exchange for whatever crap merchandise product is available at the time. For every 3000 ManYoo fans who decide they don't want anything more to do with the Glazer idea and go away and support FC United of Manchester, there will easily be another 3000 waiting to buy their season tickets, even if the prices have just gone up 25% on the previous season.

Everything looked to be going ok until the 89th minute of his first game against Middlesbrough... 2-0 up, looking comfortable. Two minutes later, 2-2 draw. The following week was simply awful, a 5-1 defeat at Tottenham. Interestingly, we didn't actually lose a home league game under Redknapp until April (against Chelsea). Unfortunately while we beat Liverpool and Spurs in that time, we also failed to beat Middlesbrough, Charlton, Fulham, Everton and Arsenal, all of whom (Arsenal excepted) were very much winnable games. As the Churchill dog would say... oh yes!

It's only one game that they're running this offer for, so the overall cost per game is still massively discounted with a season ticket.

He's admitted himself that he doesn't know what he's done to change their fortunes. Spurs have one of the best squads in the Premier League (and one of the most expensive). They bloody well should be collecting 10 points from 12 on regular occasions during the season. There really must have been something seriously wrong in that dressing room under Juande Ramos for them to be as utterly hopeless as they were. That said, they do seem to be getting the rub of the green a little bit more. Against Hull, they lost to a 25-yard free-kick that found the top corner, having played well and done everything but score at the other end. They were the better side for most of the game against Stoke, even with 10 men. Against Arsenal they were decent for half an hour, utterly rubbish for the next hour and then took advantage of Arsenal's bizarre loss of composure and concentration in injury time to get a draw, and Liverpool should have been out of sight before they turned it round. The one thing I've really noticed in the media whenever anyone's asked to comment on "what Harry's done", they've all said that he talks the players up all the time which gives them confidence, etc. They've had comments along those lines from former Bournemouth players, former West Ham players, former Pompey players and people close to the current Spurs players. Strangely, they've not had any similar comments from former Saints players...

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/?page_id=10884

No idea - would have thought I'd have hosted it on my domain if I did though!

Looks like some sort of prediction league for a cricket test series.

From memory, he said no such thing. I don't know. Nor do I know the reason(s) why every single one of those 3000 people didn't renew, and nor does anybody, probably not even the ticket office. I merely highlighted what "could" have been a key factor in their decision given what was going on on the pitch at the time (which, for most people at least, is the most important part...). Until someone polls every single one of them, these arguments will just go round and round in circles. You want to believe that Lowe is the single reason why every single Saints fan who is no longer attending has made that decision, fine. Just don't be surprised when attendances fail to recover when he leaves, just like two years ago.

Nor did I attempt to... :confused:

I think you'll find "March Madness" will have ended, er, at the end of March.

But this "feelgood factor" is such an intangible "asset" that you cannot rely on it as the basis for making a decision (i.e. Lowe in/out). There may well be an influx of "missing" fans, but to say I'm unconvinced is an understatement. In 2006, countless people on SaintsForever were claiming there were "thousands" of Saints fans staying away from St Mary's solely because of Lowe's presence. That summer, he left. The next season, despite making the play-off semi-final, our average attendance FELL by 1000 or so. I don't think the "credit crunch" has accounted for 10000 fans either. I also don't think Rupert Lowe has accounted for 10000 fans. People have to start accepting that there is no single reason why every supporter who is no longer attending games has chosen to stay away. Lowe is undoubtedly a factor in a number of peoples' decisions, but so is a lack of money for some, so is not wanting to watch Championship football anymore, so is being disillusioned with football as a whole, so is having other things to do on Saturday afternoons/Tuesday evenings, etc.

We are about 3,000 season ticket holders down on last season. It's a fact that the majority (70-80%, I believe) of STHs renew in March/April as it's the cheapest time to do so. At that point, there was very little indication that Lowe was returning. The decision by those 3000 would have been more based on the current team's performance (up until the end of March, we had gone on a run of one win in 14 games) and the perceived lack of value in a season ticket to watch that sort of crap for another full season than anything to do with Lowe, IMO. That seems the most logical explanation...

As have those who are not attending for the countless other possible reasons.

Slight correction, Pompey don't have planning permission for the new stadium. They've not even submitted any plans to the council yet, as far as I'm aware. They've just found a site that is, in principle, acceptable, after their hilarious idea of building it in the sea and moving HMS Warrior 100 yards up the harbour was eventually shelved. Put simply, the difference is exposure and revenue likelihood. In the Championship, pretty much the only revenue available is through gate receipts. You might get the occasional bit of TV money, but in this division games on TV tend to result in lower attendances anyway, so it seems to even out somewhat. Revenue will probably be somewhere in the region of £15m in a good year. In the Premier League, as long as you stay in the division, you can expect to pull in somewhere in the region of £45m from tickets and the various sums of money payable from the broadcasting rights. Finishing higher up the table also = increasing sums of money which, to the untrained eyes of the likes of Gaydamak, equals more profit, but in actual fact ends up costing more due to bonus payments, salary increases when the players think they deserve better than just £35k a week, etc.