CHAPEL END CHARLIE

Last weekend Manchester City's notched up their seventh successive league draw , equalling the top flight record, last set by Southampton from December 1994 to February 1995. Now while this is probably not something we should be particularly proud of I'll still be hoping a winner emerges from Man City v Chelsea on Saturday nevertheless .

Leaving aside the tired old vigilante argument how the hell do you prove something like this 'beyond a reasonable doubt' decades after the alleged crime took place ? I'm assuming there's no physical evidence available anymore and if a independent witness exists then why wasn't a prosecution brought at the time ? Short of a confession being extracted does it all boil down to 'he said /she said' - which seems a rather dubious basis to secure any conviction however odious the allegation .

It's at least 7 years late entering service and so enormously over budget that each example is going to cost you and me £400m :mad: , welcome to the latest addition to the RAF's fleet - the Nimrod MRA4 . You can rest assured the MOD civil servants , politicians and RAF top brass that conceived this disastrous project will escape any consequence , indeed some of them are probably holding down lucrative non executive directorships at BAE as we speak - coincidentally the company that builds this gray elephant . We were going to buy over 20 of them to fulfill the maritime patrol mission , now as a result of their incredible cost and in order to protect BAE's profits we're going to get an entirely inadequate 9 to patrol all the worlds oceans and support the Army in Afghanistan . 9 aircraft ! The tax payers suffer - just consider all the social good that could have been done with this money , the Royal Navy will go without adequate air support in future with unknowable consequences and good men have died in the dangerously worn out older versions of this aircraft that have crashed while the RAF waits for this monstrosity to finally enter service . Meanwhile the US Navy is about to field a new Boeing 737 based patrol aircraft just as capable as the MRA4 but at a fraction of the cost . Shame on those responsible for this , if I had my way you'd be facing charges in court .

As far as I can see you've done absolutely nothing to reproach yourself for my friend . The day we allow Kipling's 'Knaves' on this forum to dictate to us what we are allowed to say or think will be the day we should resign from it , frankly should that day ever come it really wouldn't be much of a loss .

If you'd told me a 3 or 4 years ago that this forum would one day be overrun with fans becoming ludicrously overexcited by lists of our recent League One results (aka the old 3rd Division) then I'd hardly have believed you . It's a good and welcome development that our team is performing so well at the moment after years of struggle but it's also profoundly depressing to read these distasteful threads and have to face just how far our standards have fallen in such a relatively short time . It was not that long ago need I remind you lot that this grand old club was matching and on occasion even beating wealthy Premier League teams - the aristocracy of British football - now many on here are reduced to bragging about a one goal home win over little Wycombe Wanderers or a draw against impoverished Torquay Utd . A little of Kipling's 'If' might be in order methinks : If we get promoted this season against all the odds , if we have our day at Wembley again in a cup final then I'll happily join in all the fun , but until will do actually achieve something a little more significant than climbing one place above the 3rd Division relegation zone than I'll keep the champagne on ice for the moment if you all don't mind too much .

But placing people into neat little pigeon holes is a favorite pastime (or should I say 'hobby') of the feeble minded , it saves a lot of effort such as having to think .

To answer your question I'm pretty sure supporting SFC could possibly get just a tad better than beating mighty Wycombe at home by one goal but a welcome result nevertheless .

Oh I know exactly what 'Hubris' means and you Sir are guilty as charged . Thanks by the way for all the free advice you're handing out tonight , I feel genuinely privileged you should bother to enlighten me so . First you advise me to get a new 'hobby' (telling that you regard supporting this great club as a mere hobby) and now you instructing me on what this forum is for . When exactly did your promotion come through ? I'll return the favour and give you some free advice - you would be better of concentrating on putting your own opinion across rather than telling others how they should support their club and engaging in tiresome little mind games on here . You are aware I hope that most of us on here do take a interest in SFC (some of us even go to matches you know) and thus are well informed of it results even without your massively obvious contribution ? Now I'm more than happy to continue this as long as you like but please be aware I might have to break off every now and then as I have rather more pressing matters on my plate at the moment than you .

The fact that your life is obviously so empty that you need to play silly games on the Internet to amuse yourself is really rather sad . Play somewhere else little man .

Operation Sealion was never a serious option because a major naval operation on that scale would have required a major navy to undertake it . During the critical months in the summer of 1940 when the invasion could feasibly have been undertaken (August - September) due to heavy losses sustained in the Norwegian campaign the German navy was reduced to about 10 destroyers and a few torpedo boats - by comparison the RN (in home waters alone) had around 70 destroyers available backed by significant numbers of cruisers and battleships . The Luftwaffe would have doubtless been a formidable opponent to our navy but aircraft of this era were largely ineffective at night - exactly when the RN would have intervened in all likelihood . Had the improvised and virtually undefended invasion convoys of river barges and tugs ever set sail they would have been slaughtered frankly .

With the exception of repeating that I find this thread rather too hubristic for my tastes I don't think I'll take the bait thanks all the same .

I was having quite a jolly day actually until I logged on here and read this pile of utter gash . :mad: I sick to death of the sheer arrogance of people coming on here and instructing others on how they should think and what they should say as if their view was the only one now acceptable - I'll post what I like when I like and believe it or not I'm not very likely to seek your permission to do so beforehand . Don't pretend you know me and don't tell me what I think .

Some may say he'd be well advised to get out of it frankly , consider these 2008 stats for Premier League clubs finances : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/2968287/Credit-crunch-How-Premier-League-teams-will-be-affected--Football.html Even with the benefit of the vast Sky TV income you'll see that most of the division are still making a loss (or very modest profit at best) and are generating massive debt levels in the process . Until the game sorts out the problem of unsupportable play wage/transfer fee inflation then it not really a sensible business to get into .

If we say £2m on players and add that to the rumoured £12.5m buying SFC cost ML then I guess (with various other costs/fees incurred ) he's probably spent well over £16m on this club already . Bare this in mind before calling for further expensive signings during the January transfer window . We might well be relatively 'big spenders' in this division but in absolute terms the spend on players has been modest enough compared to what could lay ahead , it will be interesting to see just how deep our new owner will delve into his pockets if and when we start to climb the leagues and the stakes (and costs) rise even further .

I've just found a DVD of one of my guilty pleasures ' The Car ' - a 1977 James Brolin movie seldom broadcast now telling the tale of a utterly satanic (driver-less) motor than terrorises the residents and Police Dept of a small desert town in the US of A for no obvious reason . Think of a inferior version of 'Christine' - trash but I enjoyed it . 6/10 .

Well we played more or less our 1st team which might well suggest a lucrative match against a EPL club in a later round is important for our budget . Just because Markus Liebherr is rather 'well healed' as they say that doesn't mean he's guaranteed to plough unlimited amounts of cash into SFC from now until kingdom come , indeed it's my experience that rich people become rich precisely because they are careful with their money . It's my view that the club should be run as a sustainable business in the medium/long term - if you could structure SFC so that it's income more than matched it's operating costs then that would leave the owner free to step in every now and again with some cash to invest in signing quality players . Whether you can have and entirely self financing debt free club in this era of vastly inflated player wages is another question .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubris

I loved it , genuinely scary at times even to a old cynic such as myself - think of an indoors version of Blair Witch and you'll get the idea . Cost about £2.50 to make by the looks of it but worth more than any number of the tedious 'Gorenography' films so prevalent in today's cinema . I would have barricaded that bedroom door myself and taken a sleeping tablet .

Nothing working - sod this I'll watch 'The Empire Strikes Back' on ITV instead .

Season ticket renewals for £125 next season , I say this out of love for this grand old club's history and without even the merest hint of self-interest

I'm sure we all wish the best of British/Polish luck to Bart but he does seem to suffer from a rather fragile belief in his own ability - he'll have to find the cure for that if he wants to make a successful career in professional football .

Poke happy to stay where he is apparently : http://www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/sport/s-relief/article-1557854-detail/article.html Reading the full article I don't really blame him .

Adam Lallana and David Connolly expected to sit this one out due to injury . http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/4765707.Saints_plans_hit_by_injury/

Saganowski to Swansea rumour resurfaces : http://fansonline.net/southampton/article.php?id=831