Tamesaint

You keep banging on about 45k a week but that is not the way that expansion of SMS would happen. We can currently hold 32k. There will be several games this coming season when that will not be enough. Not every game but several. When we get promoted again, we will find that the majority of games see more than 30k fans (effectively a sell out once segregation / empty away seats are taken into account). Many games would sell out if we had 35 - 40 k seats.... and that is what will get the expansion plans dusted down and implemented. It will be one stand at a time raising the capacity from 32k to say 38k and once ( I daresay you would say if) 38k is not enough, another stand wiill be extended. It will be a gradual expansion but will seem as natural in the future as the move from The Dekll to SMS seems natural now.

Thank God you weren't around 15 years ago. If Rupert Lowe had had this sort of advice then, he would never have gone ahead with SMS. And by the way Turkish, I may disagree with you but I am not "f u c king mental" and nor am I a clown, Why don't you tone it down a little ??

Torre andre flo???

LOL Anyone who disagreed with you would probably have been called "****i ng mental" by Turkish.

lol

I have no idea why the antis on this thread are so vehement about this idea. The fact that this topic keeps coming up so often shows how real this issue is. Nowadays larger grounds and expansion are the name of the game. Even Wolves are expanding this summer. The feel good factor is coming back to St Marys and I confidently expect crowds to average over 25k next season with a few games selling out completely. We cannot be content to sit back and assume that our 32k stadium is going to be big enough once we get back into the prem. If we do, we will find that in the same way as the Dell held us back in previous decades, SMS will impede our advancement in the future. We will need a stadium holding 40k+ and if SMS cannot be expanded (I was told that it could be enlarged relatively easily to 48k) we will need to find a stadium that will be big enough.

I just can't wait for the season to begin and was wondering when the players report back

How likely is it that our first game will be televised? There are no premiership games that weekend making us much more in the spotlight. In addition to Sky, the Beeb have started to have live games from the Championship. If they are broadcasting one that weekend, I would be anmazed if we were not on either them or on Sky.

Ivan with Marian a very close second.

If you find them tedious, why read a thread entitled "Steve Mclaren has nicked the bus!!"

Although as we all know, Adam Lallana makes Messi look sh i te

The article neatly sums up what is wrong with the media's football reporting these days. You can imagine the scene in the NOTW offices "Quick , write something about the lower divisions. Don't bother doing any research - just write about anyone who is likely to have been heard of by our average Premiership supporter. Try to limit it to players who will be in our transfer rumours round up very week for the next few weeks - Shane Long, Conor Wickham, Alex, CMS. Don't bother with any insightful reseach on any players our readers will not have heard of" Alex may have plenty of potential - but one of the top 10 players outside the Prem ???? Do me a favour!! No Fonte ?? Very strange. No mention of Ricky!! This time of year really is the silly season.

What a fat goalkeeper

What a fat goalkeeper

I do feel for you. At least when we were down and feeling sorry for ourselves we could consle ouselves with the knowledge that we had our world class catering and the leading radio station on the south coast.

Corp may be too embarassed to post on here these days ..... but he still pays us visits. He last logged on yesterday afternoon according to his profile. Clearly there are no decent Skate sites for him to look at.

lol

I bet that we will offer him more money than Burnley. I guess that it depends whetehr he wants to live up norff or down south. Mind you, if Swansea are after him, i bet that is where he will end up.

West Ham will attract loads of money for the bookies as they are the "big" team. They will be expected to bounce back but I cannot see them hanging onto many of their current squad. Large debts and Big Sam do not go hand in hand very easily and I can see their season ending in tears. A lot of Cardiff's team last season were loans who have now returned to their parent clubs. They have released Boothroyd so their squad at the moment is not much bigger than Pompey's . I can see them having a disappointing year. Hopefully the momentum with which we ended last season will carry over to the new season. If that does happen, I feel very confident about next season . A couple of decent signings and I see us finishing second to Brum

In the same way as a club sometimes need a special signing to demonstrate their worth, I think that we need a special player signing on to demostrate to the world that we are serious about being a top team again. We need somehow to demonstrate that we are no longer Lowe's club where any young player with talent was immediately sold. In some ways we got that with Adam's contract extension in January but to so many people outside Southampton, our best player is AOC and according to them we are just about to flog him to the highest bidder. If we could hold onto him, I am sure that our general standing in the football world would improve .... and in turn we would find it easier to attract better players. In this day and age, I appreciate that it is sometimes difficult to hold onto a promising youngster. If they want to go, they normally go. However the wait that both Theo and Bale had between their initial leaving of Saints and their establishment in their new clubs shows that sometimes it is better to learn with Saints than go off to the bright lights.

When Messi improves a little, he may be able to play in Adam's wing position.

The bloke who sits near us and used to slag off Puncheon so loudly has now switched to slagging off Guly. Before JP it was Jermaine Wright who constantly annoyed him. Coincidence???,

I saw the games at Swindon and MK Dons. I saw the game at Rochdale. Trust me. We were awful.

LOL Clearly West Ham and their amazing fans meant more to him than Portsmouth and their "amazing" fans.

But I thought Deppo was Tommy Forecast. I am getting confused now.