spyinthesky

I remember this very well Christmas game which we won 5-3 I think Only discussing this with neighbour I take to St Mary's. Spookily he was on same (Shamrock & Rambler?) coach and had a mate who had been hit by an iron bar on the way out of the and was laid out on the coach coming home in a bit of a state. Coach had little or no heating and it was freezing coming back over Salisbury Plain. I was wearing a brand new reefer jacket (Xmas present) and we were all stood behind one of the goals mixed in with the Cardiff mob I suppose it was fortunate that the missile that hit me was only a hot meat pie but could never get the smell of the contents out of the jacket despite dry cleaning Dodgy times then. Where you stood next to us at Plymouth when a bloke got bottled?

With Forren and Mayuka bringing up the rear

With apologies if this has been mentioned before but presumably we will be without Bertrand for the two Chelsea games and Hull will be unable to play Gaston in their fixtures v us? Wonder if Ronald would risk Matt Targett or get Clyne to play LB?

Not Feesh and Chipps I know but 'Porkies' BBQ is recommended Lots of foody choice in Camden. Enjoy!!

Ironically we employ some lads from Newport. Decent chaps and hard workers but you wouldn't want to cross them. They used to be paid in cash but this was changed to direct debit, for a number of reasons, one of which was that their wives/girlfriends used to demand house keeping money every Friday evening and these outwardly tough lads were genuinely concerned about getting into trouble with their partners. Apparently some of the Newport ladies were more frightening than their male counterparts. Similar in many respects to the 'Valley People' who flock into Cardiff on a Saturday night

Hopefully a decent crowd to see one or two new debutants

I am a season ticket holder and occasional away day fan and looking to go to Arsenal However I agree with your suggestion Regular away supporters should have first dibs

I am sure there must be many on here disturbed about the way football has evolved over the years. Too much money and rivalry. With £70+ million of TV revenue plus over £90m income from transfer fees. Throw a well heeled owner into the mix and surely some thought should be given to using the £160m or so to help pay part of the outstanding debts run up by the only other League side in Hampshire. After all their city used to be in the County of Southampton so there is some historical reason, and perhaps a moral reason, for helping one of Hampshire's junior clubs disadvantaged by having a stream of ne'er do wells in the Boardroom. Wouldn't it be nice if a decent financial gesture would help to move our near neighbours towards their dream of mid table obscurity in the Championship, rather than wallowing in Division 4, and a stadium suitable for their friendly and unfortunate fans.

I know it is early days but it does make you think if spending £21m plus say £90k a week on wages for two average players would have been better invested in one reliable goal scorer.

Supposedly 80,000 tickets sold at £50 a pop = £4m revenue plus a good earn from the catering etc. My family enjoyed it but it was quite cold sat in the open!!

Anyone go/going?

Think Steve Grant made an informed comment on the matter a while back If my memory serves me correct, I think we sold somewhere in the region of 20-22,000 season tickets last year and the suggestion is that the number has dropped to around the 16,000 mark this year. Assuming an average of around £500 per ticket (net of Vat) this would mean a reduced income of between £2m - £3m. A reasonable amount but, to put in context, probably less than we will pay players agents this year It seems the club is struggling to sell tickets for the WBA game as they have been sending out emails to all registered fans imploring them to buy tickets. I can see a crowd of around 27 -28k for the game reminiscent of the Wigan game in our first year back in the top division. We lost that 2-0!!

Are they open to the general public these days?

Are they open to the general public these days?

I suspect most of all would be feeling fairly positive now if we had been able to keep our squad together and quite optimistic of challenging for honours if the squad had been improved. As it is, I guess quite a few of us feel we will be looking over our collective shoulders (or even worse looking to close the gap on the teams above us to get out of the bottom 3 this season. However perhaps the expectation level had cranked up a gear or two last year and a season of relative mediocrity but avoiding the drop will be seen as a good result. btw thanks for the optimistic posters on here. They always help the poor old timers amongst us who tend to only remember the seasons of struggle and forget there have been a good number of 'Happy Days'!!

I suspect most of all would be feeling fairly positive now if we had been able to keep our squad together and quite optimistic of challenging for honours if the squad had been improved. As it is, I guess quite a few of us feel we will be looking over our collective shoulders (or even worse looking to close the gap on the teams above us to get out of the bottom 3 this season. However perhaps the expectation level had cranked up a gear or two last year and a season of relative mediocrity but avoiding the drop will be seen as a good result. btw thanks for the optimistic posters on here. They always help the poor old timers amongst us who tend to only remember the seasons of struggle and forget there have been a good number of 'Happy Days'!!

If we work on the assumption that there was a £27m 'hole' to fill when Cortese was moved on. We will reportedly receive upwards of £88m if the fees for Lallana, Shaw, Chambers, SRL and Lovren are maximised. Assume £30m spent on Tadic, Pelle, Foster and a loan fee for Bertrand plus an expected £18m or so on a striker and defender. Also assume that the 'fee' we received for our ex Manager will go towards extra wages So £48m + £27m = £75m, so theoretically there is £13m available for a right back and perhaps a winger and the books are balanced unless Schneiderlin goes and part/all of his £10-£20m will be available for re-investment. Thing is the finances look OK but the playing strength, at the moment, looks less than last year

It didn't !!

In the process of doing some research on another matter i came across this piece attributed to Alan Pardew in April this year. Apologies if it has been reported before but thought it was interesting .................'Southampton had Walcott, Bale, Shaw, Lallana and it makes a huge difference. I know we will get players through here but will we get an exceptional player? Southampton has a different type of catchment area. There is a big working class community but there are a lot of middle class kids who have a good education. The players who come out of Southampton are quite intelligent and there might be something in that. We need to put more intelligence into our players here. it is very important to not just look after the football side of it but to also bring the right personalities through. We want them to be level headed.'......... Interesting insight and reinforces our clubs on going philosophy to develop and educate players both on and off the field.

Possibility of a certain Toy Salesman liquidating all his stock??

Quite a few Pompey fans raving about Jack Whatmough. Wasnt he the blonde haired central defender who was destroyed by Sam Gallagher in last tears 7-0 Youth Cup game? Either League 2/Div 4 is less quality than Youth football, Whatmough has made great strides in 6 months or Sam Gallagher is an awesome striker!!

Actually a wrong spelling It is in fact David Brent and they missed out his experience working for a major paper supplier in Slough!!

Well spotted sir He was on my original hand written list but forgot to include him when transferring over Reinforces the fact that we appear to be OK in certain areas and woefully short in others

Sir Your post is most comforting. However I fear your trust in the youth/experience mix is possibly misplaced within the competiveness of the EPL. Most happy to be proved wrong