sotonswan

If the club can break even trading, why would Fry need to charge more than 1 or 2 days max per week? (Where interested parties may be able to make an acceptable offer, given a longer time-frame to get their **** together.) It would require the creditors consent, but they may feel it is a better option than a sale of (non footballing) assets. Its for them to decide.

I know you're taking this badly, so how about I GIVE you my spare TOTTON ticket, when we get there. I don't even believe Friday is as final as Mr Fry makes out. With player sales, it is quite possible to limp over the starting line of the first fixture, and then it is up to Saints fans to keep the club going week by week via their attendances. Clubs have certainly started seasons in admin. I don't see why Saints can't. I think the FL will let us play (starting at -10 of course). It won't be pleasant. These things never are. But the game is not over yet. Not by a long way.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but nobody gave a **** about Newport and nobody will give a **** about Southampton, apart from Southampton's own fans. Legal battle from whom? Southampton fixtures expunged = a day off for each team. No problem at all. Nobody WANTS this scenario, but the FL and the member clubs are not going to lose any sleep over it. They are all pretty self interested. That's the way it is, unfortunately. :/

Oh for a club bought by the fans and where the directors get paid nothing eh?

Great. Thanks for the answer.

If it is the -15 point exit from CVA that is the issue (and I'd support trying to avoid this), we should have a clue within the next few days. The inability to pay wages satisfies the conditions for SFC to go into admin. (I doubt even the FL would give Saints -10 twice!) Pinnacle can then agree to take over SFC by agreeing a 100p in the £ CVA with the creditors. IANAL but that would seem to dodge the -15. Of course the -10 would stand. If Pinnacle are insistent upon the right to appeal the -10 for SLH entering admin, then one has to wonder if they are willfully refusing to learn from the mistakes of others. I might well insist upon the right to re-arrange the deck-chairs on a sinking ship, but perhaps I should spend my time more profitably launching the lifeboats and radio-ing for help. :/

Can I ask how many tickets are available? I already have mine, but want to assess quite how early I should get there to get a front row view. I think I've been in a crowd of 1,200 or so before. What is the upper limit available? 3k? Thanks

Talking of banana milkshakes, Geordie Threesomes explained here. NB ADULT PROSE. OVER 18 ONLY. VERY FUNNY THOUGH.

I cannot believe that swear filter. The word was S W @ N K Y.

I think you're pretty close there. I have to say I'm very surprised that the FL seems to be denying a right of appeal. This is all looking very Leeds-ish, except worse. IIRC Leeds were docked -15 points for not coming out of admin via a CVA, appealed and all the clubs voted (bar 2) that the penalthy be upheld. But there WAS an appeal. Subsequently Leeds were asked to sign away their legal right to appeal through the courts agains the FL. They did so (under duress, so they claimed) and then set about appealing through the courts, which dragged on all season (and delayed Swansea being crowned L1 Champions). They eventually agreed to have the matter adjudicated by an independent tribunal, which found for the FL, basically saying it's a club of members and the members have voted. End of. There are some differences here. a) Are we REALLY talking about the -10 for going INTO admin or -15 for not coming out via CVA? b) Leeds had a right of appeal through the FL, so why should Southampton not? I am not a lawyer, but all bodies have to abide by their own procedures, including appeals procedures. That's a basis for appeal through the courts which cannot be revoked. c) If Southampton are granted an appeal, and it goes to a vote of all L1 clubs, what level of sympathy do you expect from the rest of the L1 clubs? Arguably Southampton FC (and its owners, and fans) are getting a s****y stadium for a super knockdown price, which would seem to indicate that there HAS been a material benefit for the club as a result of the holding company going into administration. -10 I think would be absorbable and not affect a purchase. -25 (see point (a) above) is another matter. So which is it I wonder?

I'd be very surprised if the FL did anything other than re-iterate that the penalty stands, but if the new owners (when they are owners) wish to appeal, they are welcome to do so through the official process and timescales. Presumeably such a response doesn't really affect the purchase.

If you are with Abbey expect to be ignored. Absolutely dreadful service. Happened twice to me with them. On both occassions the disclaimer they ask you to sign and send back arrived AFTER the seven day time limit they set. Complaints procedure both times. 8 months 1st time (for £250) and 4 weeks second time for £6K. I'd like to say I have moved on, but it seems just about impossible to actually close an Abbey current account. :/ Now with another bank which has a far better record for customer service in a tight spot. Normally you'd hope for no more than 4 weeks btw.

Steady on. You make Swansea sound like Wigan . . . . . or Saints. I doubt it will be Tisdale for manager at Swans. New manager supposed to be announced on Friday. So with Martinez officially resigning tomorrow, the timing of the approach for Speed makes sense. Speed ticks a lot of boxes and is ready now for his chance IMHO. I'm not putting any money on it though. ATB

Wycombe away

Oh look. Shiny shiny. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/default.stm And 10 points restored as well!

It's not cheap, as you might expect. Here are some rough figures for fees paid by my insurance company for a recent arthroscopy & split cartillage clean-up in Southampton: initial consultation - 20 mins @ Spire - £150 MRI scan - 1 hour @ Spire - £470 post scan consultation - 10 mins @ spire - £75 surgeon - 30-60 mins @ nuffield - £700 anaesthetist - 30-60 mins @ nuffield - £340 nuffield hospital 30-60 mins theatre & room for 6 hours - £1800 post op consultation - 10 mins @ Spire - est £75 For that you do get to pretty much choose when you want things done (depending on what days the surgeon is available), you get to see the guy who operates on you from day one, you get to keep your MRI scans and an 8 minute DVD of the highlights of the surgery (from the camera in your knee) with commentary. And everyone is jolly nice. Although at £600-£700 an hour I could probably be most congenial as well. Glad I wasn't paying for it!

He was the Dog's danglies in pre-season but got continually worse. No great surprise. The pressure got to several of the youngsters. They were asked to do the impossible by a board in denial and a couple of Dutch clowns for managers. Schizo central. He'll need some TLC/nurturing before he can be pushed to improve. Billy Davies will ruin him IMHO. Not that any transfers will happen until the club has been sold (or ceased to be). You will be aware that precicely zero transfers in/out have occurred so far at Southampton. I'm prepared to be wrong. But I don't think I will be. ATB

Some technical details about the Liberty Stadium here. Although voted best in CCC this year I don't think there's much if anything between it and St Mary's, but it does host Ospreys rugby as well as Swansea FC. This bit surprised me when I first read about it: "Desso GrassMaster Reinforcement Approximately 20 million artificial grass fibres are sewn into the pitch, 20mm apart and looped to a depth of 200mm. The Desso is sewn in order for the plant roots to entwine and develop around the fibre, guaranteeing maximum stability." It became a bit of a topic of discussion earlier in the season when three SCFC players received bad cruciate ligament injuries in a month! Martinez decided it was not the pitch just very very bad luck. I think we can assume, as Dicko says above, that the actual day-to-day care of the pitch is also an extremely technical job as well. The old vetch field of course always was inclined to be either rock hard after a frost or waterlogged in the rain, and a desert by May, because it was just a cabbage field with some grass on it.

. . . in Southampton. See what I did there? I've seen clubs bought within an hour of dissolution during winding up. I've seen clubs bought for a pound. I've seen creditors accept 5p in the pound. Three separate events that didn't happen in Southampton. And I hope it never does. I expect the Spitfire had its critics. HAND

Phil Sumbler is the Chairman of the Swansea City Supporters Trust who have two directors on the board of SCFC, so he really has no excuse to not be in-the-know. (That is an extremely popular site BTW although I stopped posting there about 6 months ago.) You're right he does show little understanding of why SFC loaned out Nathan. A whinge from Mr Sumbler there. It's a pointless article in all honestly. I don't personally believe Mr Wotte has any say whatsoever in who comes or goes other than to say goodbye to those out of contract. His articles on the OS are no more than his online CV. He makes doing nothing seem a very important job. Good for him. I hope the job hunting goes well on his trips back to Holland. I'm sure he'll do some excellent scouting (NOT) watching games on TV while he's out there as well. When the new owners of SFC finally get their feet under the table, they will of course also want to look tough in transfer negotiations, and waste more time. Martinez will have looked elsewhere by then. Dyer is NOT staying in Swansea so Mr Sumbler should save his breath.

Can I just ask an incredibly dumb question? When does the transfer window actually open/close? I've searched on the Football League site, the Fa site, FIFA site and am ****ed off at no straightforward answer. Wikipedia said July 1st. Now stable clubs can do a gentlemens' agreement beforehand and sort out the paperwork on the due date. But this is not where Saints are. If we can pay wages in May and June, will we then see some sales? For real bankable money. It does seem to be complete outward transfer inertia ATM.

You will enjoy next season a lot more if you cancel your Sky subscriptions and leave all thoughts of Premiership football in the past (for now). Defences tend to be slower and have less forsight. But they know that, and will sit back and be prepared to be dazzled by pretty Saints passing in midfield. If no changes to squad or manager are made, I predict by start of December Saints will still be in the relegation zone having not scored many and having leaked goals badly at corners, set pieces and long ball punts forward.

Minor Dyer update. I know I'm one dimensional, but I'm happy with that I think it is odds-on he will return to Southampton. Swans are attempting to sign Anderson from Liverpool (on loan at Forest) and are in the process of signing another out of contract winger from the Scottish leagues (a happy hunting ground for the Swans . . . . .) Apparently SCFC have received 'mixed messages' from SFC regarding ND's availability. Well I'm hardly surprised TBH. Who the hell can decide anything ATM? Putting all this together with the fact that Martinez likes to get ALL his signings done within about a month of the final game of the season, and you can see my reasoning. On the bright side, I'm sure Saints CAN get far better than the 200K currently on offer (although it beggers belief that the 500K in Jan was never taken). I reckon Forest would pay 500K. They have a stupidly high budget for next year. It could be a WIN-WIN-WIN. And in the unlikely event that ND does come back to actually play for Saints next season, cut the guy some slack. Plenty of lower league legends have done far worse than rifle through a handbag (we're talking manslaughter and 'allegedly' rape here). He will be awesome in League 1. Signing off.

I thought Nathan Dyer still had two years on his contract. He's not on the OS either under team. Odd. Under offer from Swansea ITRO £200k (down from £500k in Jan). Offer considered derisory.

I'm thrilled for Exeter, since they were destroyed by a guy - Mike Lewis - who nearly destroyed Swansea City a year earlier. As fate would have it, either Exeter or Swansea would be relegated from the Football League exactly 6 years ago today - 3 May 2003. The days leading up to both teams' final games, and the games themselves, were covered by a Dutch TV crew. I keep a copy of the program here. It is non-partisan, and the music really makes it. About 50 minutes long. Don't worry that the first 1 1/2 minutes is in Dutch. It is all English afterwards. I watch it twice a year, just to keep me grounded. So I can appreciate the good times for what they are.