saints_is_the_south

Don't think the echo gets delivered to most shops around here til about 10am, so will do then!

Just appeared on the echo: http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4352475.The_Battle_for_Saints/ Looks like the b*stards aren't running the full story online so going to have to go out & get an echo at some point today!

Well done to all that played. Hopefully something similar can be arranged again next year & i'll definatly be up for it, just need to get a bit fitter in the mean time, i think running round on a pitch the size of SMS for 10 minutes let alone 45 or 90 would quite literally kill me at the moment! Any pics from the evening?

+1. After reading the news on the echo earlier I was really upbeat, but reading some of the latter posts it seems things aren't as good as first thought.

What???

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/4349665.Saints_miss_out_on_windfall/

Jan Portvliet & Mark Wotte are nominees i assume?

I'm assuming you have SSN at work then? Either that or your at home or lucky enough to be sat watching in a pub posting on your mobile!

Cheers for the real time updates

Keep us informed!

Good news! Finally something appears to be happening. Whilst having Le Tiss backing a group is great, the 2nd sounds more promising in terms of finance. Anybody know more about the 2nd consortium, any word if Souness is something to do with it?

Won't believe anything until its on OS, there's been far too many false dawns in the past. I'm probably being thick here but when Solent say Fry will announce the preferred bidder today, is that meaning the preferred group from those that have bidded or that the group he'd prefer made a bid. Has a bid actually been made atall yet?

I'd have thought we wouldn't be included. It's for next seasons parachute payment, we won't be in the CCC next season so i doubt we'll receive anything. If we are in line to receive it though lets all hope Reading go up too as they'll be in the same boat as Birmingham with regards to parachute payment.

If he wanted to stay & the new owners could afford him then its a no brainer yes, Rasiak would score goals for fun in league 1 & would easily bag 25 if not 30. However i don't think the former will be likely, its the same case with Saga, can you see a full international who will want to play at the World Cup in 2010 wanting to play in league 1?

Just said on South Today that something could be announced within 24 hours & that things are starting to move very quickly.

Don't know much about him apart from the fact he aint bad on football manager!

lol - i immediately thought of Shirley after reading 1-3

Surely we'd sell stuff in Lymington, Bournemouth, Winchester...etc though?

Agreed, marketing needs to improve. The club really should consider putting a ticket point in the West Quay store. I know they already have one in the Marlands but i think it would be serve the club better if it was actually located in the saints store. I might not be correct but i'd imagine we have to be paying some sort of fee to use the mayflower ticket point in the marlands? The benefits of having it in the saints store in west quay is that it wouldn't cost the club anything (apart from having a ticket kiosk installed) & with people coming into buy tickets they may be tempted into buying other items in the shop whilst passing by. There wouldn't even be the need for any extra staff in there because most of the time whenever I'm in the store there are normally atleast 2 staff stood around doing nothing who could quite easily man the ticket point.

So Skacel, Gasmi & Smith gone whilst youngsters Hatch, Imudia, Hogan, Dolinajec & Stiklakis also leave. Saga also appears to want out & Wotte has indicated on the OS that if Kelvin stays then Forecast & Bart will go out on loan to get first team footy. Any news on Poke? Perhaps he'll be KD's back up next season. Apart from that if what Wotte says is true & everyone else wants to stay then this leaves my original thoughts changed a bit to this: Keep: Kelvin Davis, Michael Poke, Chris Perry, Wayne Thomas, Jan Paul Saeijs, Lloyd James, Olly Lancashire, Joseph Mills, Lee Molyneux, Paul Wotton, Andrew Surman, Lee Holmes, Jason Euell, Simon Gillett, Adam Lallana, Jake Thompson, Oscar Gobern, David McGoldrick, Matthew Paterson, Bradley Wright Philips Offload: Bartosz Bialkowski (loan), Tommy Forecast (loan), Killer (as a player), Rudi Skacel, Romain Gasmi, Anthony Pulis, Morgan Schnerderlin, Grzegorz Rasiak, Stern John. Team: Davis (Poke) James (?) - Saeijs (Lancashire) - Thomas (Perry) - Mills (Molyneux) Lallana (Thomson) - Gillett (Wotton) - Surman (Euell) - Holmes (Gobern) McGoldrick (Paterson) - BWP (White/McLaggon) Just a back up right back needed if we are to go with the 2 players per position which imo is the ideal way for squad competition. With enough midfielders there i think we could sell Schnerderlin to raise some cash, he hasn't done much anyway. If BWP leaves then we should try & go for Ricky Lambert from Bristol Rovers. I think we should have a go at getting Alan Bennett back too then we can shift Perry along to back up right back & have Bennett in the middle.

What getting Alan Bennett back for CB? Possibly cheaper wages than Thomas & started playing really well for us last season after an awful start. Been on loan at Brentford this season who won league 2 & i may be wrong but i believe he's available on a free? Another option would be getting Alex Pearce back from Reading who impressed during his time here this season.

Going to QPR i think.

+1. When he was at Bournemouth on loan he banged in a load for them & virtually kept them up that season. If he can manage almost 15 in a struggling championship team i reckon he can get 25 in League 1, just need another 20/25 goal man to go with him, Ricky Lambert anybody?

Good news that most want to stay. I think Surman & Lallana will improve a lot in League 1 & a year down there will do em both good. Looking at Drew at the end on Sunday though looks like he could do with cancelling any holidays & spending the summer in the gym to beef himself up a bit.

Received the above email from David Luker earlier.