JRM

You are right, it could even be a working capital facility where we can drawdown funds as and when we need them for cash flow and can repay as we go, as money is released by premier league it would go to a trust account held by Macquarie and any excess they would pay on to us if loan balance was lower than funds received, just allows us to tap into the cash when we need it in advance.

I think it’s pretty clear to us that Gao didn’t have any money in the first place so it’s no surprise that we’ll be paying back his loan. To assign the debt the bank must have wanted the security of the guaranteed receivables to lend the money, will be very interesting to know the total loan value.

This is fantastic news, hopefully once we’ve booed the players off after the final whistle against Man City we can have Ralph , Les, Kat and GAO on the pitch for a lap of honour to recognise our greatest ever profit , instead of holding saints scarves above our heads we can hold £20 notes On a serious note their finances have taken a further boost with another unexpected Wembley appearance this year plus VVD sale, I’ll be very disappointed if ticket prices go up next season, in fact would like to see a decrease to recognise the importance of the fans in a world where we are increasingly taken for granted with short notice inconvenient fixture changes.

There’s a whole knock on effect of rearranging games,Arsenal v West Ham was going to be Monday night of cup semi final weekend, that’s now back on the Sunday! So they’ll be around in London same day as us, the time has come for fan groups to say enough is enough, worked well for away ticket price campaign I’d like to see something done about fixture changes as well. Making us play at Leicester on a Thursday night before a semi final final just ‘to be fair to Chelsea ‘ is an absolute joke!

They really couldn’t care less about the fans could they, Saints spend a fortune on social media team promoting the clubs image but in truth the likes of you and I who invest a lot of time and money following the club away are just an inconvenience for them. I’m still plssed off about this one, we’re basically helping Arsenal out so they can plan their journey to Moscow, I’m stuck with a load of arrangements I made for the Monday just so I could be in London. They’ve also not explained reasons for change in reducing ticket allocation. Not surprised more and more are becoming disillusioned with Premier League football.

No way is it that high, more like 19000 this season, membership numbers also down, I know they’ve re-opened membership sales giving the club another cash boost like last season but I’m convinced this will make it to non members with a purchase history, tickets aren’t cheap and it doesn’t have the same appeal as a cup final plus I’ve seen plenty of fans say they already have other commitments (ones that I’m sure they’d get out of if it was a cup final) We’ll only just sell out I think.

Thanks that’s good to know, I thought they’d avoid a clash so pleased to see later on a Sunday is still likely.

I think in terms of killing off any remaining life in the cup squeezing in a semi final as an early midday kick off on a Sunday before West Brom v Liverpool would be the final nail in the coffin but looking at sky games already set I think it’s quite probable

Perhaps they enjoyed taking the plss out of the fans delaying details of our 1/4 final for weeks they are enjoying doing it again, There really is no excuse, they must already know the two tv slots so just got to pick which match, perhaps have police sign off, should have been done and announced yesterday afternoon. They just don’t care about the match going fans it’s all about tv companies. I don’t think they’ll want any clash with Premier league games as that would damage viewing figures and advertising revenue.

Does anyone have a summary of which of our players have been called up for international duty? Lemina? Gabbiadini? Hughes should still have the core of the team to work with over next two weeks, especially if usual international players Davis and Yoshida are starting to rejoin training. Would also be interesting to see how many West Ham players have been called up. I think this gives Hughes a good chance to look at what he’s got and build on the feel good factor of reaching a semi final

Very strange sequence of events for this one, all of which seems to be us bending over and agreeing to whatever Arsenal want. The initial announcement said Monday 8pm with no suggestion of it being moved, I pulled a few favours at work to arrange a meeting in London Monday lunchtime allowing perfect timing for the game what a waste of time that was, also there was no suggestion of our 3000 allocation being reduced down to 2400, we’ve always taken good numbers there including twice midweek in league cup so why on earth have we returned tickets 3 weeks before the game when we’ve sold out? I know our ticket office is useless but this just seems incompetent, perhaps Pellegrino has been put in charge of ticket sales

If our game is on the Sunday I reckon it will still be possible to do London marathon and the game, you’ll just need to run a bit faster, as for the Southampton marathon /half / 10k they will be praying our game isn’t Sunday for two reasons 1) there will be a drop in participants as I for one would no longer do it, shame for the city as the atmosphere has been great last couple of years for it and 2) logistics will be a nightmare as the course goes around st Mary’s with lots of road closures not sure how they’ll manage that if we’ve got 50 coaches going to Wembley picking up at the ground again.

Are you offering to give it away to another fan?

I was going to get that one but decided to get train up day before, just seen the weather weirdly snow forecast just around south coast Saturday night / Sunday morning, as long as it’s not too heavy should be fine , could be interesting for everyone getting the coach trying to get down to St Mary’s in the early hours. 201 tickets left so doesn’t look like we’ll sell out completely.

Would be good news if Powell is out as he’s impressed me the few times I’ve seen them. Massive win for Wigan last night in stoppage time, they really should get promoted even win the title with their games in hand on Blackburn, they should enjoy that and don’t be greedy wanting a cup semi final instead, do the honourable thing and step aside to allow us a small moment of enjoyment in a desperate season. Thanks for the reminders of the trouble last time by the canal, I’ll be prepared this time might wear a buoyancy aid .

Don’t know why I’m even bothering to reply to this but we’ve got 4500 fans setting off in the dark at 5.30 am on a 460 mile round trip on a Sunday morning to Wigan, I guess if you don’t get it then you never will. As for this appointment got to get 100% behind him, just need a small new manager bounce and it might give us enough to stay up. If we see more half hearted performances like Newcastle I think the fans anger will start to turn on the players.

I’d write a lovely statement to if I’d had a multi million pound pay off.

As of 20 mins ago latest is; 1 - 173 2 - 11 6 - 10 7 - 172 Total left = 366 Should be able to shift most of those next couple of days unless people are put off by posts on here of snow and Obafemi up front Just play our strongest team and win the cup FFS Looking forward to this but still fear caretaker management of Kelv and Jaidi perfectly re-enacting our Bristol Rovers defeat under Dodd and Williams.

I still can’t work out why we signed his mate Carrillo in the January transfer window? He was keen to tell us he’d played his best football with Pellegrino and looked forward to playing with him again , we broke our transfer record and here we are now with a change. Strange one. If Austin is available for last 8 games that will give us a decent option

The 0-4 home defeat to Augsburg in pre season started alarm bells, the Wolves cup debacle confirmed it, someone I know put £25 on us to go down then and stands to do very well if we do.

Not sure about it being his last but this definitely has potential to be just like the Bristol Rovers defeat, also like Sheffield United in the league cup under Koeman. Might have to check out the odds on a 1-0 Wigan win. Ticket sales picking up again a bit for this now they are on sale to members will be interesting to see how many are left once general sale begins tomorrow.

It would be good, or at the very least ask our West Ham pals to give out a few slaps to our board members as well when they storm the directors box . I’d like to see our fans make things much more uncomfortable at home games for Reed / Pellegrino etc

There have been some protests, not quite extent of West Ham fans but couple ran on after Brighton at home and throw their season tickets at Pellegrino, unrest is rising can see full on demos by the time we play Chelsea , waiting for Pellegrino car pre match he’ll have to walk through a crowd of abuse just to get into the stadium, likewise Reed if he shows his face. If we sneak a win at 3rd division Wigan the club will try to distract fans with talk of Wembley but I don’t think that will work.

HE’S GOT TO GO . Protest at Wigan next week.

We’ve hardly sold a seat in blocks 1,2,6,7 so you’ll get one easily on general sale. I’ve seen a few posts on social media by people reluctant to book travel in case they don’t get a ticket, ridiculous that the draw was weeks ago and general sale starts just 6 days before the game.