saintbletch

LOL. The Mirror more your rag or perhaps the Socialist Worker? As a fully paid-up member of the fence sitting liberal brigade myself, I can appreciate the clichéd humour. But I suggest you to take a look at the Guardian's sports coverage - across all mediums (paper, email, web, blog, video and podcast). It really is very very good. Oh and I've found that if you're worried about coming out of the closet in front of the newsagent, Costa Coffee will loan you a paper while you sip your morning coffee. I've even taken a peak at the Daily Fascist once or twice at Costa's. Just remember to wear your dark glasses.

Martin St Qinton?

Any link between Azzurri and Centerprise? (other than they both appear to be one of the 16 members of something called BECTA - which promotes the use of IT in education).

I wonder if he might have a dream of seeing a bunch of peanut chasers running round St. Mary's. Not being a fan of the "other code", are there any rugby clubs "near" us would benefit from access to a 32,500 seater stadium?

Hmm. Gloucestershire. Now you've worried me too.

The clue is in the question. One made a fortune selling IT and office equipment and Marc Jackson according to the interview I saw the other day has spent his career working in these areas. I was simply wondering out loud whether their paths had crossed.

Who is going to be the first to make the link between a man who made his fortune in office equipment and IT and Marc Jackson? Me I guess.

Very true, but as I understand it the repayment on the stadium is made annually immediately following the receipt of the next season's season ticket revenue. So technically Rupert's projection is *probably* still true but we'd only have about £8.50 to spend on the rest of the team/company.

or?

I agree, and in fact phone numbers (presumably business related) are available via WHOIS too. It's a risk you take when registering a domain without contracting a third party to obfuscate your contacts details. That said, I decided not to copy the contact details from pinnacleproperty.net domain entry when I replied to GM's post. I thought about it but I didn't feel comfortable doing it solely because it appears that like many small businesses, The Farmer's business adddress appears to be the same as his home address. Either way my assumption is that The Farmer's web business registered the domain for his client Pinnacle but that he holds no other involvement in the company other than to presumably maintain their web presence for them. The Farmer?

Yep - same WHOIS entry for pinnacleproperty.net too.

If I remember correctly the site also had a makeover too. Same content but a more "professional" appearance. Didn't someone suggest that one of the posters "The Farmer" on here created the web presence for Pinnacle? If so I'd suggest that he simply saw the criticism of his work and tidied it up.

It's possible that you value status on a message board more than LLS/cherrypip. The question I'd ask myself was what did he achieve from his postings on here and on the other place? He was after information and to build relationships. He wanted to see who had access to power and how he could "use" them. I think he did a brilliant job of that. I honestly don't think he cares too much if he's upset a few "overly-dedicated" individuals on a web forum. I remember getting PMs from LLS (now appear in my inbox as CherryPip) where he would "give" me some information and he'd ask me to pass with anything I knew. Obviously the stuff he posted was ****** but I thought at the time it was a pretty smart tactic. He never got anything from me because I never knew anything. Yet I saw others on the forum fall under his spell. The stuff he posted was crazy and he came across as delusional but he's a networker and a bit of a grifter he's looking to turn a quid. I think he used the forum to achieve his ends pretty well. Do I want him involved in the running of the club? No. Not from what I've seen. If he's used his "talent" and network to bring a bid that the Administrator is considering then I'm fine with that. It's not as if we have a say in what Mark Fry does anyway.

Difficult to be sure but I'd tend to agree. Someone like Marc Jackson might have pulled this together but I have to believe, or at least hope, that if it is getting credible attention from the Administrator - there must be something of real substance behind it. And if that's the case then the role Marc Jackson plays in a newly formed club would be to go off into the distance with his 2.5%. So are we talking Green as in Greenback or as a family name?

Interesting observations. I really am struck by the contrast between the dog-eat-dog approach of US commerce and the safety nets that are placed in US sports. Despite these sports being big businesses in their own right. I guess the one "good" thing about our structure is that with cash a lowly team can rise to the top (Wigan, Blackburn, etc.) albeit at the expense of some other poor buggers who suffer relegation. How does American sport accommodate the lower teams' ambitions? Does promotion/relegation play a role or is it a closed shop?

So it looks like tomorrow is bidet. Bidet - geddit? No? Ah well.

The loser has to get an "I Love Lowe" tattoo?

No, true that hasn't been explicitly stated, but surely there isn't enough intrinsic value in the club to justify talk of those figures otherwise. And the value of St. Mary's to Norwich Union outside of being a venue for a football team to rent once a fortnight and Bon Jovi to roll up to once every couple of years, seems minimal to me. Costs and potential planning restrictions limit the opportunity for redevelopment as does of course the current climate. For those reasons I would expect NU to be very realistic in their expectations of recovery.

I'd agree that the other lines of business of the Plc are not inextricably linked but most have been disposed of. In fact I did make the point on another thread that you could make a case that our administration was down to not being able to host enough concerts at St. Mary's rather than the falling revenue from the football club. Not a very strong case though, and if I were Fry making this case in the appeal with the Football League, I'd keep my fingers tightly crossed.

But aren't you comparing apples and oranges here? Surely Winter's £15-£20M includes buying the "club" and owning outright the asset of the stadium, whereas the market cap figures you cite would mean acquiring the Plc which in turn would still have the stadium debt of ~£20M+.

All true and I must admit I hadn't considered that the decision may have come from Smith. But if Wotte really considered him to have "world class" abilities surely he'd rather keep him versus some of our other "stars" so would bust a gut to keep him. Hence I wondered whether Wotte was the man making decisions or whether he didn't really think he was world class. Re renaming the link thing - not sure what you mean. But if you're asking how you can do a link to an external site from a word rather than posting the entire URL, just highlight the text of the word(s) you want to link from before you use the link button (globe with a couple of chain links).

A very good point.

Very interesting that Smith is being released. Wotte described Smith as having "world class" abilities here. So does that mean that a) Wotte was lying/talking up Smith's abilities b) Whoever is making these decisions is not listening to Wotte or c) Wotte is not going to be making these decisions next season?

...struggles to come to terms with our mighty fall. http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-spw-soccer-southampton6-2009may06,0,7562209.story Interesting piece in the Los Angeles Times, although it does read a little bit like Soccer AM's soccer ball sketch. Reading it I couldn't help thinking that it might be fishing for a US buyer. Maybe just wishful thinking. Also a very interesting observation about the contradiction between the overtly capitalistic American society and the socialist mechanisms (salary caps, drafts, etc.) they put in their sports. Perhaps we can learn something from US sports administration.

Because if I'm a middle-man property consultant on a commission and I let it be known that I can pull a deal together and get it blessed by MLT, I might get more potential bidders using my services? Cynic moi?