Dig Dig

what about the 46,539 at the Emirates?

For none season ticket holders it's very difficult to see Arsenal play and they have a huge waiting list for season tickets anyway. I think any opportunity to watch Arsenal play, with the demand they see, is going to be taken. Being in London also helps as you get more non Arsenal fans willing to go just to see the stadium or to possibly watch Arsenal overturned by Shrewsbury!

I was one of a few kids in my year at Millbrook school who supported saints. A ****ing minority in the middle of Southampton!

/\ great post

Live and let live FFS.

 

Anyway back to the main subject. I'm disapointed we never got "The Wheels On The Bus" going. That would have been sooooo cool.

Why don't you and the lads give it a go at pompey? It will be even cooler with flares

No one said it did. It just looks great. Although i am sure a lot of the gimps will prefer bloated, fat middle aged blokes in replica shirts clapping like demented seals.

Would prefer that to a load of boozed up pencilled necked ****ants all stood there with their flares and scalves hiding their little spotty gimpy faces. The same type who think they are hard around the masses but would **** themselves if caught alone. Embarrassing.

Yea lighting a flare makes you well hard

IMO allowing the club to bring in these charges without comment just encourages it to increase the fees and the prices going forward - if no one complains why wouldn't you increase them and bring new ones in? When the booking fee is £6 for everyone to buy each ticket will you care then? What about if the ticket prices are £40 next season, will you give a **** then? How about £1000 for a season ticket?

As I have already said, the club makes money from away tickets. Why the **** then are they charging a booking fee to buy them over the phone or on the internet?

The club benefits more the more fans go to away games, both in terms of support and commission. Charging a tax to buy away tickets certainly doesn't encourage me to buy one. Advertising things like free parking can only help to encourage fans to go to games, so why on earth would you try and charge for it?

 

I hear the term `run well' a lot these days. But is annoying fans by charging them to park at the ground whilst they travel to an away game actually running the club well? If those fans slowly disappear, the long term future of the club is being put at risk for relatively short term gains. Instead of looking at how the ticket office can turn a profit perhaps the club should be looking at how it can provide THE best service for its supporters (club members). We won't win games all the time over the next 50 years so maybe it's worth treating current fans with the utmost respect, and if need be cut the wage bill a fraction rather than bleeding every last penny from its supporters.

 

If football clubs in general don't wise up soon that fans are not cash cows, and that they need to feel like they are part of a club, a society, a group, all pulling together, then they are going to lose more of them until we have empty stadiums with no atmosphere. Who wants to be part of that club?

Bit far fetched considering we're talking about a very small fee. Are you seriously suggesting that because fans are paying these "taxes",it will lead to astronomical rise in season tickets? Tickets/season tickets will rise in accordance to where we are in the leagues and is all relative to on field success, supply and demand and external economic factors. It has nothing to do with what the club think they can get away with based on these fee's.

Anyway, none of this bothers me as I'm so stinking rich I'm always looking for an opportunity to offload some small change

You can read what I thought about the following pre-season above.

What's clear is that you don't rate Pardew. That's fine. Don't dress it up as anything else.

Not dressing anything up. Did a good job but a) we should have made the play off's b) didn't believe that his time with us was sustainable as he thought he was better than L1 and didn't buy into the clubs philosophy.

All in my opinion if that's allowed?

93!

You don't think a pre-season is needed then? Just like that, buy a few players in and hey presto you can win football matches.

Feck me, why isn't every team top of the league in August?

I shall have to go back and re-assess my 35 years of following football after that bombshell...

Lol. I was refering to where we were at xmas. I think half a season is a little better than pre-season but hey what do I know? Who am I to argue with your 35 years of football knowledge!? Silly me

On the subject of pre-season, how did his next one go? remind me again...

Pardew turned around a club on its knees and gave us a winning mentality.

 

Adkins took over a club in a promising position and did a superb job motivating a good squad and establishing it playing excellent, attractive football.

 

It is possible to appreciate that both managers are bloody good at what they do.

He had a very good budget and bought in very good players. It's hardly the same as taking the poor squad which got us relegated and turning them around is it? The likes of Lambert, Harding, Hammond, Fonte wouldn't have given a monkeys how **** we were before so it's irrelevant really.

I'm not suggesting that he didn't do a good job but I stand by my opinion that having been so close to the play off's, we could and should have made it.

That's a rather fatuous argument. A season is over a season. At that point we then had something like 7 games from 9 away from home to top half teams...

 

The idea that because a manager did a great job and nearly achieved something incredible he somehow failed is bizarre in the extreme.

 

Before Pardew arrived we were one of the worst teams in English football.

 

How quickly people forget...

No I havn't forgotten anything. Alot of people write off NA's achievements last year due to the fact that the squad is much better than L1 standard so should be expected. The same people credit AP with building the spine of the team (which he did) which is still in place today. So with half a season still to play, 6 points off the play off's and a squad much too good for L1, it's unfair to suggest that this wasn't more than achievable? I wonder if NA would have been afforded the same level of understanding last season had we come short......considering were we were when he came in.

For someone accusing people of overstating, you're overstating Leeds points deduction which was -15. Leeds are still the only club to achieve a play off place with a deduction, and Saints came bloody close.

 

A hell of a lot of fans on here like to bleat on about how important pre season is and Dennis Wise was well establised at Leeds before that season. Pardew had just walked in the door and had to build an entirely new team from scratch. The vast majority of that team he built is currently second place in the Championship.

 

And hindsight is a wonderful thing - there were plenty on here in that first season fully expecting us to be scratching about fighting relegation to the fourth tier.

 

And to your other rather lame point, I also think it is vital for a modern day chairman to keep a good relationship with his football manager. You have no idea whatsoever, no idea at all, of what made up the relationship between Cortese and Pardew, so don't bother preaching about it.

Neither do you but that doesn't stop you. Pardew had us 6 points away from the play off's at xmas and IMO should have got us there. -10 points or not, after getting that close, he should have made it.

I wonder if any of the "administration is no solution" brigade will stick their hands up ???

I thought you didn't like "**** waving" contests?

yea but he's not good enough for us, won't be able to handle the expectations and pressure, never managed in the prem, players won't play for him, underestimates the opposition and is only a physio!

 

have a watch of this and educate yourself.

 

Highbury > Emirates

Ninian > what ever cardiff's new ground is called

Burnden > Reebok

Baseball Ground > Pride Park

Ayrsome Park > Riverside

Filbert St > Walkers

 

English football has lost part of it's history and with it it's soul with the loss of these grounds to be replaced by souless bowls, not football "grounds" many fans of other clubs who visited The Dell loved it because it was DIFFERENT , it had character, football grounds now are like Barratt homes legoland identikit grounds all built the same, a lot of sterile atmospheres, and football going experience is much the worse for it. stuff the comfy seats, who wants to sit down anyway. if i had a time machine i'd never go to modern football, i'd spend my weekends on the Milton Road terrace.

How different do you expect a circle with a pitch in the middle to look from one another?

Adrian, you're right we should be beating the likes of the USA, Algeria etc. The last WC for so disatrous that there are probably a combination of factors which led to that absolute train wreck. But last WC a side, QF's seemed to be where our short comings were exposed and I do believe this is because of the traditional English style of play....get your self fired up, run your heart out, be physical and strong etc. There has never been much emphasis on keeping the ball, being comfortbale in possesion, controlling the game. These attributes seem to be what seperates us from the very best.

Do you geuniunly believe that the current crop of England players have the technical skill to play like Spain for example? I don't.

You use performances in the Prem and Champions League as a way of proving that the English lads do have the necessary skill to win things. As a geniune question, how successful would these players have been at club level had it not been for their foreign counterparts and coaches? Of course it's impossible to say for sure but imo I bet their trophy cabinets would be looking a little emptier.

There are a whole host of reasons why other nations don't perform aside from having technical ability. Argentina as the example you use, do I think they are not technically good enough? They probably are but the managerial round a bout and instability within the FA along with being top heavy on attackers but not so well equiped at the back probably don't help their cause.

I'm not saying that I'm right and there are probably a whole host of other factors which has led to years of dissapointment. But the whole overpaid ego argument just doesn't stack up for me. It's just a default argument which can be either put forward or ignored depending on circumstance.

Was the debate about the youngsters of either team? I must have misunderstood. I thought that it was about the more senior tossers like Terry, Rooney, Lampard, Cole, etc. Somebody suggested that the German team would probably have equivalents and you wondered how Alpine would know whether this was so or not. I'm presuming that the German or Austrian press comprises a similar type of journo who would readily print the sort of lurid stories that they have about the England players over here, so that accepted, Alpine is likely to have been able to hear about it and pass comment on it.

Yes I suggested that all successful nations probably have equivalents to which Alpine replied saying that the German football dynamic is different and that the young players within the German team are level headed and grounded.

My point is that ego's and money don't really have anything to do with it. It's always the thing which people come up with to satisfy their need to whinge. Ultimately, we are not yet technically good enough hence decades of nothing to show for our efforts. If people expected less and if we didn't have a press sniffing for blood then I'm sure everyone would enjoy the England experience a bit more.

If the current England players had actually won the World Cup I wonder if people would still moan about the ego's in the team. My guess is no but they would still be the same people....just better players (which unfortunately they arn't)

Why ever not? As Alpine has lived in Austria for several years as far as I know, I'm assuming that he will have a good grasp of the German language and would therefore read articles in the newspapers and magazines and watch programmes on the box about the German team. As we have based our opinions on what we have read or seen in the media about the England players, why shouldn't Alpine have equal access to that sort of information about German players living in Austria.

There is no way of knowing either way based on what you hear and read. If Alpine can make this assumption about the German youngsters why can't the same logic be applied to the likes of Wiltshire, Walcott, Young, Smalling, Jones etc. Or are they just a bunch of overrated egotistical ******s as well?

MLG will be along shortly to clear all this up

I think you'll find the dynamic in German football is completely different and that yes, the young players are definitely more down-to-earth.

Definitely more down to earth? I know you border the country but there is no way you can know that. The younger players for England certainly come across as more down to earth then the senior pro's but this doesn't last long.

Other successful nations are full of ridiculously paid players who are as cocky and arrogant as the rest. The key difference just simply comes down to technical ability, skill and bottle. We seemed to have only just clicked that the good old English way of pace, power and heart are simply not good enough at this level. Keeping the ball, dictating the pace of the game and staying in control are all key at International stage and we finally look like we are building towards this, it will just take time.

I also honestly don't believe that playing for England is a partculary enjoyable experience and neither is the manager role. We have such a fickle mentality when it comes to England which is driven by the media that eventually, no matter who you are or what you've done previously, you'll be hounded out. If there is one job which could make any manager look like a complete ****, it's the England job.

I don't hate the England team as such, like Alpine I support them in the cricket, but I too would love to see Bale do really well tonight. Why? Because for quite a few years most of the regulars in the England team have been people it'd be really hard to feel any affinity for at all. Spoilt greedy slack-jawed to55ers, who got their ultimate comeupppance in South Africa, watching the Germans run rings round them

 

In fairness things may be changing as the younger players come in. Once the rest of the 'Golden Generation' ar5eholes are out of

the equation maybe I'll feel differently. Until then I'd love to see someone like Bale - brought up well, by SFC, do well. I hate Tottenham - but I loved seeing him skin Inter last season

Why does everyone assume we're any dfferent from other nations when it comes to having big ego's and money driven players? Do you think the German squad is full of lovely down to earth lads or do you think that they also have some big headed tossers amongst them? I think most probably. The reason we lost and why we continue to lose against good sides on the european stage is because we're simply not techically good enough and the players play against an unjustified expectation which they simply can't fulfill

The logical explanation is that there is a ghost, or more probably a poltergeist.

No it isn't. The most logical explaination is that the OP made it up!

I never understand why people WANT to believe the ridiculous theories over the more rational ones.

 

When I was a younger I reckon I saw a ghost once, and heard a ghost once. I then got older and realised that the idea of a ghost is ridiculous.

Yep. I don't doubt that people who say they have seen a ghost actually believe they did. But I think this is driven by the want to believe it's true coupled with the human minds ability to make you see/hear things which are not there. The mind is more powerful than we can comprehend.

The thread on the ugly says that attendees have to sign a confidentiallity agreement (No idea if that is trur or not) and suspect if that is the case the OP is honouring that.

I doubt that is true at all. If the information shared is that sensitive then it wouldn't be shared with fans in the first place.