stevegrant

**** all in the grand scheme of things. Probably around £20-30k.

If we get to the group stage of the Europa League, we'll have 6 of our first 7 away games rearranged, and three home games. Newcastle (A) Watford (A) Norwich (H) Man United (H) Chelsea (A) Liverpool (A) Sunderland (A) Man City (A) Aston Villa (H) The only away game between August and the start of December that would still be on a Saturday (unless, of course, it's picked for TV) would be West Brom. The next would be Palace on 12th December In terms of fixture oddity, Everton have been at home to Liverpool before the game at Anfield in 13 of the last 14 seasons. Now that is a weird statistical quirk!

Nope, guaranteed to be Sunday or Monday.

It's come from another website, which has presumably posted them at 9am GMT rather than BST.

Sort of. It was never particularly wanted, but it's become a useful filter for stuff that's completely unrelated to the main point of the site. Not sure which Saintsweb you're reading. There has literally been one single user banned on here in the last 12 months for something other than spamming (a load slipped through the net a few months ago when Tapatalk introduced the ability to register for the forum through the app and didn't automatically set it so the user had to be verified first) and having multiple logins.

My perspective is that this is a football forum first and foremost. Bearsy was amusing but his "sphere of influence" (for want of a less ****y description) only really extended as far as the Muppet Show, which quite frankly we've only kept because it's easier to do so rather than particularly wanting a part of the forum for the weird stuff that goes on there. He's not been banned, so as far as I'm concerned he's welcome back if he feels he wants to. On the flipside, I'm not going to lose any sleep if he decides not to. It's an internet forum, FFS. It's worth noting, by the way, that despite the fact the season ended three weeks ago, this site has had more visitors in the month since pap's ban than the month prior to it. Stats Websites and forums evolve over time, I'm sure there are some who still hark back to the old Network54 days of Saints Forever as some sort of utopia for Saints-based message boards, but times change, people's attitudes and approaches change. They've gone, I fully expect there will be a new mildly amusing recluse and a new lunatic crackpot with a copy of Photoshop who wind up here at some point down the line. No big deal.

Friday night football >>>>>>>> Monday night football

I think Bates is actually just the poster boy for the shambolic way our recruitment has been run over the last few years, rather than him being the biggest victim. As you rightly say, his batting wasn't good enough, and no other county has signed him even as a second-choice keeper (you'd think Somerset might be looking for a backup keeper now Kieswetter's been forced to retire). We had a load of young players in the side a few years ago, ably led by a handful of wily old pros (the likes of Cork, Mascarenhas and Pothas), whereas now we've got a load of old pros and only a handful of youngsters, the majority of whom were in that same side years ago anyway. Nobody's really forced their way through since then, Chris Wood's bowling isn't fast enough for the four-day game, Briggs has been messed about a hell of a lot, and other youngsters who have played a few games and seemingly done alright have been let go while we bring in older players on presumably big wages. Is there anyone coming through the academy who is likely to be good enough, or is the whole system just going through the motions in order to get the ECB funding attached to it?

148/3 in the morning session with a lunchtime lead of 13, I think that can probably be regarded as one of our more successful sessions this season Wheater and Berg showing that there perhaps aren't quite as many demons in the pitch as the last couple of games at Hove have suggested.

New Football League insolvency event rules have been agreed at their AGM. Headlines: 12-point deduction instead of the current 10 Administrator obliged to market the club for at least 21 days (to lessen the risk of pre-pack admin), and must engage with the supporters trust if one exists CVA not required, as they take ages to agree and cost a fortune in fees Upon exiting administration, the club is required to pay creditors at least 35p in the pound for three years, or face a further 15-point deduction.

Intrigued as to why Owais Shah is only with us for the T20 - is that his choice or ours? Still looks a class player, albeit getting on a bit.

QPR is terrible on pretty much every criteria. At least at Palace you usually get a half-decent atmosphere, even if the prices are pretty steep.

I can only assume Sunderland scored so highly because a load of Villa and Palace fans rated them really highly on the back of sticking 4 past them up there. I'd put Sunderland right down near the bottom, the away section is among the worst in the country.

Even ****ing Leicestershire have won a game, their first since September 2012

As if Pompey are going to get through two rounds in either competition

I've not seen any of our 4-day games, but purely on the figures Berg looks like he's been pretty good. Wonder if there's an argument to throw him into the T20 side instead of Edwards, or are we banking on Bird eventually being fit enough to play? As you say, our recruitment has been bizarre. Whatever went on with Matt Coles was obviously serious enough for him to be told to sling his hook, but his performances for Kent so far this year (admittedly in D2) have been excellent, and with Edwards tossing it all over the place, we lack that bit of genuine hostility in our bowling. While Berg and Smith have been good signings, they're both very much the wrong side of 30 - that's going to catch up with us sooner rather than later, we don't have that much youth and energy in the side anymore. 6 of the 11 playing in this game are comfortably over 30, 4 now into their mid-20s and only Wheal bringing the average age down, this must be the oldest Hampshire team in living memory, and yet we're trying to get by in what is now a pretty competitive top flight. If we've not got players coming through from the academy and seconds, we should be recruiting young players with potential and something to prove rather than loads of old-timers coming here for one last payday.

It seems to me that Worcestershire made the most of the bowler-friendly conditions when they bowled, but we've bowled some absolute ****e and let them pile on the runs. We should have a bowling attack capable of beating Worcestershire, but we've had a bad day. Looks like the signing of Fidel Edwards isn't working out, not taking wickets and haemorrhaging runs isn't a good combination, and being dropped in order to keep a rookie in the side is a bad sign.

No, but that'll be because we never had a CVA to pay off in the first place.

Apologies, I'd forgotten to run the points update after the City game. All done now, a remarkably close finish in the end, with only 2 points separating the top 3. Congratulations to the winner, Weston Saint, who pipped cadesupfront by a point, with Saint Johnno a further point back in third.

Not sure it really makes any difference to the sponsors. They're not paying for association with FIFA, per se, they're paying for association with the World Cup. It just so happens that the deal covers the intervening years, but hardly anyone takes any notice during those times. Their stance will be that if they didn't continue their sponsorship, their direct rivals would happily take their place and get the exposure that entails. I don't think anyone would really notice if their headline sponsors were Mastercard, Burger King and Pepsi instead of Visa, McDonalds and Coca-Cola, to be honest.

It seems to be a commonly-held belief, but I'm not entirely sure it's that accurate. He's got no real need to go to the US, he doesn't need to bribe them with development cash. And anyway, the US has a pretty strong extradition agreement, hence the individuals arrested this morning could be extradited within days.

Well United had to give Falcao something to do this season...

I imagine it's a combination of factors. Firstly, Liverpool have regressed significantly from last season when they were obviously genuine title contenders, which gives the impression that last season was the anomaly rather than this season's subsequent slump. For a player who was described by his manager earlier in the season as "one of the best young talents in Europe", that's not good enough and he should be playing for a team who will challenge on a regular basis. Secondly, he's on a salary you or I would be more than happy with, but given his status as "one of the best young talents in Europe" and seeing the likes of Glen Johnson pocketing nearly four times more money than him to warm the bench for most of the season, no wonder he's been a bit put out by the relatively late interest in tying him down to a new extended deal. Why didn't they offer him this new contract last season when they were riding the crest of the wave and he'd have almost certainly signed? So for me, it's about both success and money. He wants to win things, and he wants to be paid a fair rate in a squad of highly-paid players, of which he's arguably not one at the moment. £35k a week at Liverpool is peanuts.

Glorious. :lol: :lol:

He is still under contract for 2 years, but if they keep him to that contract and fail to strengthen the team sufficiently so as to make a genuine attempt at getting back into the top 4 on a regular basis (rather than the one season in six they're currently going at), or they keep him to that contract and let him "rot in the reserves", his value diminishes significantly, even between two transfer windows.