St Marco

I wrote in as Riquelme saying "Goodluck lads. I will be joining you guys next week! I look forward to playing in your new stadium! Can't wait to hear the roar of 44,000 bestest fans in the world! Yeah it didn't get shown....

So basically SOG What you want is a guy in charge to come out every 5 mins to say what is true and what isn't? You mention the CEO thing and your wrong. I bet if you read most fans forums for the other clubs very few will have a front page of threads attacking their chairman. We are so used to attacking ours for stuff they have done over the years that we can't just stop doing it. Even when the guy in charge has done pretty much everything right. As someone mentioned above, the vast majority of Saints fans see NC as a guy trying to do his best for this club. It seems to me some are just unhappy that people think like that. The people who think like that are not making threads praising NC, they are not Lowe luvies. They appreciate what the guy has done but are concentrating on the football side, getting excited for the new season. I have been a Saints fan a longtime and right now this is only one of a handful pre-seasons i can remember where people are not excited about the following year. We had a good season last year, won a cup. We are bookies favourites to go up this time, our first season without the shadow of our past hanging over us. Only 4 days to go! But people would rather talk about the chairman. And not just any talk, malicious rumour talk. Of which as far as we can see has zero evidence that it actually happened. People need to stop creating these stories and start getting behind the team and the club. There is no reason to be all down and stuff, no reason to try and look for negatives. For the first time in a long long time we have a team,board,manager all pushing in the right direction. It is time the fans did the same thing. People need to get over their obsessions of creating drama for the sake of creating drama and just enjoy the football. Let the politics go, your be more happy for it trust me.

I see David James has been by to drop off his kit then...

The problem is all the bashing is based off of rumour which in most cases has turned out to be false. If NC has done something wrong and it is fact then people will judge him on those things. As far as we know he is a very secrative guy. The odds that he will talk to someone who will betray him and run to tell someone who will spread it is very low. The reality is these are not football rumours, they are not xyz is about to sign xyz. They are malicious attacks aimed at portraying someone in a certain light. This is actually ilegal. Society frowns upon people who go around making allegations at people without any evidence at all. The difference is because people are sitting behind a computer they have the anonymity that goes with that. Now i don't know about you but i was brought up thinking if i am going to acuse someone of something bad then you should have something to support that acusation. The past few months nearly every report has had nothing to support it. So it isn't about he could do no wrong, it is about there actually being some truth in what he is being acused of. We have an old saying that goes "innocent until proven guilty". Just with a few of you on here it seems yours is "guilty until proven innocent".

Another day, another NC bashing thread with zero evidence to support it. What makes me laugh is that some of you actually believe it. So there was a secret FL meeting but yet nobody from any of the 72 clubs or however many there are mention it? Not one single thing. If there was to be a meeting and one chairman didn't turn up, we all know who this forum would report who that chairman was most likely to be. Good work mods, bravo.

Bit harsh isn't it? I am a football fan, hence why i am here. I am a games fan, hence why i am in the games forum. Mix football and games together and you get Fifa. If your refering to my preferal over Fifa to PES then i think that is pretty sad mate. Because everyone knows PES has been **** this generation. Even Konami themselves have admited it is ****. I used to love PES. I still maintain PES5 was the greatest football game of all time. If you think the PES of today is anywhere near that level then you are ****ing deluded. That piece above i didn't write. I took it from Gamespot. You know game writers? People who play the games etc.. Eurogamer sum up PES this gen perfect "Change is easy to promise, but much harder to deliver. The pleading husband, as his long-suffering wife threatens to walk out, insists he'll change; things will be different this time if only she'll stay. Why should she believe him? So it is with PES. The fanatical devotion Konami's football series has inspired in fans has been a virtual love affair of breast-beating intensity. But the gnawing sense of late that it has let itself go has tried the patience and passion of even its most ardent devotees. As they remorsefully turn away and into the arms of a pouting rival, PES promises to change. Why should we believe them?"

S4E the good old day's. I remember when Keith would get invited along with the team to pre-season and stuff and he would have a daily article saying what he thought. Those were some good times. The difference between now and then was you were encouraged not to insult each other. It is a bit like the wild west now. Nobody has been dealt with and so it is a free for all. And cheers TDD, i found the thing on paypal.

Yeah going to be awesome as they have changed a lot of things with it. Like now every players stats actually mean something. If someone is crap at ball control they won't have the ball stick to their feet so easily. If they are quick and weak they won't push over a solid defender. The physics of it have changed too. Pass skill and movement skill have a huge impact on your ability to actually pull off passes now. There is a lot higher level of error in getting the ball from your keeper and through the team and into their goal. Just as there is in real football it is not so predictable. Add to that you now have a whole loads of new custom things to do such as create your own club! You can design the players, the kits, the ground, loads of things. I know some will be happy about that. There is also a new mode called "Pub Team" or something like that. Where you can take a pub team who play on a pub pitch and see how far you can get them. And the best change of all is manager mode = dead This is what they have said about it Having received lots of feedback about Manager Mode in FIFA 10 the development team have been hard at work to bring to life the experience that users requested. Based on this feedback and the many suggestions from fans across the world Manager Mode is now changing to become Career Mode and has been built from scratch for FIFA 11. Play through a footballer's career as a player, player-manager and then a manager. A brand new transfer system brings the ups and downs of the transfer window to life while the new calendar system means it is easier to plan your career, manage your squad or experience the thrill of breaking your way into the first team. Players created using the new Creation Centre will be available to download into Career Mode so if you want you and your mates to all be a part of your favourite team and then manage them to ultimate glory, now you can. There is also now a friend's leaderboard so you can see how you stack up against them in terms of stats and earnings throughout your career. So the big question is; Player, Player-Manager or Manager? The choice is yours. Career Mode in a bit more detail Here in the office I've been fortunate enough to get access to an early build of Career Mode (playing as a Player-Manager) and so far it is a big change from FIFA 10. Things seem a lot slicker and refinements in a number of areas are definitely noticeable. So far I've taken Man Utd to Community Shield victory against Chelsea, signed Chiellini and Thiago Silva to replace the ageing Ferdinand and had a bid accepted for Benzema although I'm still to confirm personal terms with the player. Yes, you did read that right, "confirm personal terms with the player". The transfer system is now a two-stage negotiation where you agree a fee with the club in question and then have to agree terms with the player themselves. I've already had the experience of the club saying yes and the player saying no (Higuain) as he didn't want to move country. There are now a few more search options in the transfer market with you being able to search for a primary attribute and a secondary attribute and respective ratings for them. The main interface has changed dramatically and now has the look of an online "news portal", a bit like http://www.premierleague.com. You have a couple of news stories on display working in rotation, league ladder and top scorers lists on the right, career rating on the bottom left and then your menu options top left. The associated screenshot highlights this layout and as you progress through Career Mode you will become more familiar with it. When changing days between matches the calendar now has a daily view and will stop progressing if there is an important action happening such as an email from a team interested in buying your player or something from the Board. You can easily see when the cup matches are, friendlies, international matches and your standard league matches. When you do get to a match and opt to Sim it there are a few new elements here as well. On the left of the screen you get both line-ups including substitutes and on the right you get a ticker updating you with important events from the match and a summary of key events from other matches happening at the same time. When you score, your players collect cards or get injured the left side of the screen updates with the appropriate symbol so you can easily see who has done what and who has been subbed. On the side of injuries they are still there and have been tweaked as well. I got two injuries during the first match I simmed both of which were of different lengths; one 82 days and one 27 days. I got a news item on the main screen after the match telling me so and an email from the Coach drilling it in that these players would be unavailable and that I'd need to change my team selection accordingly. Injuries can also happen after matches, I played the Community Shield against Chelsea and got an email notification after winning that Rooney would be unavailable for a period having picked up a knock. Overall there are three types of injury; those that happen but aren't severe enough to sideline a player (stats reduced but can still play), those that sideline the player for a short period as they are unfit to play and those major injuries that can put a player out of action for months. I'm still getting to grips with all the ins and outs but so far the changes that I have noticed are great and I'm enjoying playing it in the office. Look out for another article in the near future once I've guided Man Utd to victory and started a career as just a Player.

Yeah i agree. Every thread is the same. You got about 4 people who can't actually hold an argument because normally what they are saying is just made up. They just want to be controversial. Then it turns into a slagging contest with everyone reminding each other what they did years ago. The forum was never like that before. You could have decent chats about Saints stuff. Look at the front page, where are the "where do we need to strengthen, are you excited for the new season, what do you think about the new signings...etc..." threads. Very few actual football posts. Most just attacks on the club or people in the club or posters who have a different view to them. So like many i won't be renewing. If i want to read rubbish or watch people fighting i will go to The Sun forum.... How do you cancel your renewal?

Another fine example of the quality of this forum.... "The echo have been banned" "How do you know that?" "because of the pictures in the paper were not from pre-season games" ...............

This forum really has become a joke over the summer. Just look at the first page of threads. If i was somone who had feck loads of money, came in and saved the club from near death, pumped money into the playing side, brought in a good manager, took the fans to Wembley and won them their 1st cup since 1976 in my 1st season in charge etc and came on here and saw the garbage being spouted i would think "you know what? **** em" and leave. Because basically that is what your doing. Your talking like this stuff is real, like it actually happened. If someone say's something then it must be true as they posted it on the saints forum! So much rubbish in the past few months and next to none of it has come true. NOBODY has a clue what is going on behind closed doors. And those that do have a bit more proffesionalism about them to not just go and tell dave the burger seller what is going on. The problem is before NC we were used to multiple muppets spouting off about anything and everything. We were used to stuff being leaked from the club because it was run by a bunch of clowns. People are so ****ed off by the fact they are no longer in the loop at St Mary's they are just making stuff up. I mean think about it....If NC was going to sack AP why would he wait 6 months to do it? Have you not learnt that NC is a succesful buisnessman? Does he strike you as a guy who would rather have a winning team promoted out of the league? Or someone who would rather sack someone he doesn't like the look of in 6 months time and see his company fail? I mean seriously? Some of it is just stupid and the mods need to start getting a grip on this stuff as it makes us all look like tits. If your going to post **** about people have evidence. Don't go "my mate bob who knows this guy called jim who knows daisy the cleaner who over heard frank at his office talking to steve on the phone who said AP was going to get sacked at xmas!!" It's pathetic.

I notice on their megastore website they have a sale on to end sales. Items under £1! Maybe Utaka is in there?

Maybe he means "secure them" as in secure new signings?

You should become a psychologist Steve as you seem to know what we all really mean I did indeed mean Simon, i knew it began with an S.... But either way that is how he communicates to them, do you deny that then? I won't get into an argument with you about Lowe,Bournemouth or even away games (although i went to all but 3 last year, and missed only 1 the year before that) as it is silly. My opinion is as Mark said we don't know the facts. People who know Nick or his history will know he likes his position. He uses it in various way's, some of those way's for self profit. You can't deny that. As mentioned he is a bit of a wanabe politician. Did he even say he wanted to be on the board? Point being with him it is neither black or white. And i don't think this is any different. He used his position to speak to the media to criticise the club. While not a direct attack on Cortese it was still an attack. If you have an opinion on something is it best to speak to those people direct or through the media? Especially when you know the person your trying to deal with is pretty nasty when it comes to being talked about in the media? The payment plan option while a pain was not a huge concern for Saints fans. As mentioned ticket sales are up, that was with an increase in price and lack of payment plans. That shows people found way's to get around it. Did it really need the whole media coverage thing? Personally i don't think so. Being banned from getting a ticket is of course excessive. Especially for someone who pay's to get a ticket for as long as he has. In that respect i feel sorry for him. If it is true that Cortese banned him then he deserves an explanation as to why. He is owed that. But until that happens none of us know the real facts. We are just assuming things are as they are. Who knows maybe his credit card rejected his payments or something. If it turns out it was just an error of some kind then a lot of people including Nick will look very silly won't they. Has he tried ringing the admin team to find out why? But if it turns out he was banned for going to media to express his views on the payment options/crest etc.. then sorry but i have no sympathy for him. But as others have mentioned. Once this dies down there will be another one about Cortese, then another one. Once the dye has been cast it is hard to escape that image. A lot of people have now got this image of Cortese as some sort of bad guy, some even comparing to Lowe. As far as i can tell he simply hasen't spoken to the media about anything. Most of what has been said has been total ********. Until we know the facts on this one you can't say anything.

Yes he phones them. Want to know how i know that? Because i asked Steve Straker if you know who he is? As for the he wanted to keep it quiet thing.....Yeah he kept it real quiet didn't he. So he wanted to keep it quiet but yet told lot's of people? What a load of rubbish. And i dunno, maybe people would tell him if he went to some away games? Think i saw him there twice last year? And it was not doomed to fail because of Lowe returning, it was doomed because of the decisions he made. Plenty of clubs have done ok with limited resources, look at Bournemouth. If we had someone in charge who could get the players playing we would of been alright, whatever happened to that Pearson fella? But you keep supporting him mate

Spot on Mark Sfc At the end of the day Nick acts like a politician. He uses his name to generate money, Silverspoons,un-official merchandise outside stadium etc etc. He has made money from his position. On away trips people you speak to do not stick up for him like some here do. Maybe that is why the trust has so little support as some generally just don't like this guy? He was all for the Lowe return and said it was for the best of the club. Then when it went wrong again he didn't say a bad thing about it. If i remember right he even spoke to the media to say those people protesting were wrong and we should all "support the club". Then when the numbers grew he did the whole "be a peaceful protest" thing. And that is what grates me. Anytime there is anything Saints related happening he is straight on the phone to Sky,BBC,Echo and 9/10 he doesn't even know what is happening, just an opportunity to be on tv or in the paper. You type in his name to google and your see what i mean. Total nothing stories with nothing remarks. Right now all we have to go on is what he has said. We don't know the facts, we only know one side of the story if indeed it is even a story at all. Until we do have those facts this is just another Cortese bashing thread. One that is about a guy who talks to The Echo all the time. Coincidence? At least The Echo have not been stupid enough to run with the story. Which makes me think there is no truth in it as they would be the first to bash Cortese any chance they get.

Very true. But maybe he should of gone to NC and wait for a reply rather then issue a statement to the media? What did he hope to achive by that? There are right way's to canvas opinion and wrong ones. His way of doing it in my view is wrong. It sucks that we could not do a payment plan but there are so many way's of getting around it. Maybe he should of done a news piece talking about how you can get a ticket by doing payment plans with other companies? That would of been better no? We all support this club, in comparison to other clubs our season tickets are not too bad. He already said he had a season ticket so why talk about payment plans if you already have one? The trust has under 1000 members right? This forum did a detailed post on how to get types of credit like instalment plans to get a ticket. Maybe they should of been shown that post. It is not the end of the world. If you walk into a shop and try to buy something and they don't have your payment type you don't write a letter to the manager do you.....you just accept it. His whole angle was to suggest we as fans were being treated badly, we aren't.

Exactly. As long as we win, play well. Are not being ripped off, can get a decent pie/beer at half time, go to Wembley now and then who gives a **** what the chairmans personality is like?

NC has made some mistakes but ultimatly they are just personality ones. Nobody is perfect. But in terms of football he has done a great job. I pay my cash to watch football. I don't go there in the hope of seeing drama. We live in the 24hr news age where something has to be happening constantly, if it isn't we will just make some up! I am just a football fan, can only judge him on how the football side of things is going. Just as with Lowe. We won a cup in the guy's first year. Don't think we won feck all under Lowe right? Keep winning = happy. Could not care less about politics.

So let me get this straight.... He actually wrote to NC basically saying "I am the saints fans spokesman, we demandz payment plans, and we want to remove your crest you just designed! And went to The Echo to print it?!" and he wonders why he got burnt?! No offence to the guy but this is the 21st century. Football is a business. It is not like we are being forced down the mines with no pay! What was he supposed to do bow down to you and grant your requests? You had a choice, buy a season ticket and come and watch the team play. You seem to have decided to go to the media with your opinions and claim it is a bad deal for all. Not quite true is it? Season tickets are actually up which shows the payment plan thing is nowhere near as bad as you claim. And for the crest thing....i won't even go there. Now i don't know the facts but it just sounds like the guy went to media to try and create a fuss as he has done before and it backfired. Only have yourself to blame.

I think also Ryan smith plays for Kansas

After reading that news piece about Pompey allowed to sign players you have got to laugh at it. The FL guy did not say they can sign players at all. He just said they were working to reduce the wage costs and would look at potentially bringing in players to get to 20 in the squad on a case by case basis. How have The News from that got to the conclusion that they have basically been told to not worry about the embargo as you can still sign people?! If anything it is a negative comment as the guy says they are having to help to get wages down. If they add more people that means the wages go up! If they release some youth guy and bring in a PL player then that is obviously a wage increase unless his wages are paid by his parrent club. Which makes me think somehow it doesn't seem right. Also still no date on the court case.....can we believe anything that comes out of Pompey? I don't think so.

Ask this question when the transfer window shuts. History shows most transfers are done in august. The squad we have now is good enough to get promoted. We need a few cover players. Were not going to be signing Ronaldo as cover are we.... Seriously if this forum continues to be this negative then what's the point being here. We are supposed to be supporters. All i see is whiners looking for their daily moan. Enough is enough for christ sake.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jul/15/portsmouth-hmrc-administration Interesting Andronikou's own conduct in the administration has become the subject of a separate contention. HMRC has complained to the courts that he, as chairman of the meeting of creditors, was in breach of insolvency rules. The statement added: "HMRC can further confirm that it has also appealed to the court under Rule 1.17 of the Insolvency Rules against the chairman's decision to refuse to allow HMRC to vote in accordance with claims totalling £13,293,651.72 submitted at the meeting." So they are going after him as well?

I wonder if the court case is november/december time would Cotteril resign. As he is on a hiding to nothing. He will not keep Poortsmouth up with the squad they have and potential points deduction. And even being relegated to league one there is no gurantee things will get better. We were lucky a billionaire wanted us for £30m odd. Can't see someone paying that kind of money for the club this time around. If i was Cotteril i would leave and say i was just another chump the skates lied to. better that then have the next potential 12-24 months of bad press coming your way! How long until the Downfall parody video?