benjii

It's nonsense to say that you can't compare the two because Lowe didn't have the same money as Cortese has at his disposal. Lowe might indeed not have had the backing of a billionaire but what he did have (before he helped get us relegated) was 20+ years of top flight football, a 30,000+ crowd, no decent local competition and large scope to become easily the biggest football club south of Birmingham and outside London. The reason it all went downhill was that, in this position, he decided to appoint: Gray, Wigley, Sturrock, Redknapp (decent manager but never going to be able to work with Lowe) and made a host of other poor footballing decisions. Now, do people think the wage Pardew is on is a wage that we couldn't have afforded in the Premier League? And yet we have recruited a manager far better than the list above (other than Redknapp). Lowe fundamentally did an awful job because of his appointments of Sturrock, Wigley and Redknapp. That season was a disaster and it was a completely avoidable disaster caused solely by the actions of the executive management. (And just to head-off the Hoddle lunatic - yes, fans were against Hoddle but other managers were also available). None of the decisions made that season were ones where Lowe's hand was forced by a lack of money. He then came back and tipped us right over the edge after Pearson had shown signs of being able to sort us out. When Cortese starts making decisions as bad as these then there might be a valid comparison between the two but at the moment there is none.

Charlton will be gash. Play-offs at best.

You don't think the private sector is criticised much? Banks? BP? McDonald's? Microsoft? CocaCola? What planet are you on. Typical defensive resort-to-stereotype nonsense. And posting purely to get a reaction.... wtf? Ok then. Hitler, he was a nice bloke.

Sack the Rumour Control Police.... too slow!

I think that was a specific reference to the car parking operation. This post was brought to you by the Rumour Control Police.

Loads of people will. Like you are now. What's your point?

Isn't the point of the match that is a prestige game which befits Ted's memory? There is no point in us playing against prestige opposition so I can understand the decision. When we are in the PL, or maybe Championship, we can bring it back. I'm not sure why the club haven't made an announcement though. I imagine there is still an awful lot of flux and transition going on behind the scenes; this is the first opportunity the new management has had to use the close-season break to get things done. They seem to have overlooked their PR slightly but I reckon that will probably settle down as the club continues its progress towards one that looks the way they want it to look from top to bottom.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/Membership/0,,10280,00.html It says anyone who has held a ST or membership since 2001 should be able to use the online system. EDIT: that is aimed at last season though so maybe the drawbridge has been pulled up a bit. On which point... there should be an announcement about this year's membership pdq given that tickets are now on sale for the matches.

You do wonder what the selection criteria is at the BBC. Mark Bright FFS (or is he ITV?).

Which is what 90% of us do. Unfortunately there is a very annoying minority on here who don't have this basic discipline/patience/intelligence.

If Lowe and Poortvliet were in charge of signings I would be dismayed. As it's Pardew and Cortese, a team that has proved itself capable of signing the best available players at our level, I am not remotely concerned.

Truly tragic. Look, if you're a business with a finite resource of something and demand is outstripping what you are able to supply you would be mad not to charge for it.

Sometimes this place reminds me of the worst excesses of the Spanish Inquisition.

FWIW my teachers were a mixed bag.

It would be nice to know the reasoning but, as Hopkins implies, playing a warm-up against Ajax or Lazio or someone similar is quite ridiculous as a footballing exercise when you are a third division team. We could call the Reading friendly the trophy match but, frankly, it's Reading FFS. No problem with the decision but, as with a few things, perhaps a bit more info would be welcome.

I think if we don't make signings in time there can be justified criticism. As pre-season hasn't started yet any criticism is premature and completely irrational. And lol@ your last line.

No, I'm saying that the target market for people who buy corporate hospitality for top end sports events (which we aspire to host) have no idea who Terry Paine is and couldn't give a **** and would rather sit in something called The Executive Handjob Lounge than the Terry Paine suite which sounds like something out of Phoenix Nights.

Yes, definitely. Rubbish world cup but some decent reffing. My tuppence worth on England red cards: Becks v Argentina - harsh, was not violent conduct. Just a tap. Rooney v Portugal - stamp, definite red.

Yeah, this too!

This has probably been done as a corporate branding exercise. When we are in the top flight we will be looking to attract the sort of prawn sandwich brigade to whom the words "Terry Paine" etc are meaningless. "The Executive Club" etc. has more of a shoulder pad and champers feel to it, and that's what the clientele may be after. It's really no big deal IMO. If our "legends" were the likes of Maradonna, Best, Cruyff etc then there would be some cache to suites named after them... but Paine, Stokes and in a few years MLT - to anyone other than old Saints fans? Don't think so.

Spot on. I think this could be copied and pasted as a stock response to just about any of his posts/threads.

Have to admit Boateng is looking more like a £5m player than a £2m player at the moment. Mind you, only goes to show what a rubbish job all their managers actually did last season.

Indeed!

Let's say you're right. If that it is the case it is clearly the result of a conscious decision based on analysis. It has clearly been decided that it is in the best long term interests of the club. We do not need to sell STs to people who will come to a fair few matches anyway. Quite a good business rule is not to sell something at a discount if you don't need to. You obviously know that as you are expert in business. So what's your problem?

Yes, this is certainly not the first time this has been done for a tin-pot cup tie. I'm pretty sure we did some unreserved pay on the gate cup matches at The Dell.