Saint Fan CaM

Have I missed someting? Adkins recently said on 'Saintsplayer' that no approach has been made for Riise - has something happened to change that position in the last day or so?

Just to bring the thread back to it's roots, I completely agree with the OP. It's close season, there's not much happening Saints-wise and therefore this place will be somewhat quiet, but I cannot for the life of me understand the 'moderation' on this occasion. And yes, it does appear as if a few on here (non-moderators) are intent on spoiling it for many others. The evidence is in the number of really interesting ex-posters who do not bother now because of the insults and infantile thread hijacking. Not sure how much longer I'll bother with the membership to be honest - £5 or not, I come on here to engage with like-minded Saints fans, even if we don't see eye to eye. There are quite a few now who watch but don't post - probably because there's a controlling 'clique' of posters who are just dismissive of others opinions and on many occasions very offensive. I suspect they're known to the moderators here - perhaps mates off-line...who knows. Perhaps sooner or later it will be a case of "who cares"?

Fixed. (;

Nothing to see here people - move along.

Unless the FA start to take stock of the English game and have a root and branch clear-out of all the old book characters, we will see the England football team suffer a similar fate to English tennis - mediocrity at best. Just look at make-up of the England senior 1st team - still loaded with the same players that have lost time and time again. Players that play alongside a mish-mash of foreign players in the Prem - except Spanish players, because by contrast most of the best Spanish players play in the Spanish leagues. So when the England team comes together the overall level of competency drops significantly. Sort it!

Can't believe the narrow-mindedness of some on here. The way I see it is that no-one is suggesting 30k+ average crowds next season or indeed for some time. The simple position is this - Cortese wants to take this club to a place it has NEVER experienced before in terms of success (i.e. top of Prem/CL etc), so comparing what we have achieved in the past with what we potential CAN achieve is nuts. We know for certain that when clubs do well their attendances go up - that's natural - but we cannot tell accurately how much. We can only estimate and one way might be to look at the number of tickets that were readily sold for the JPT final - a 50k sell-out and more could have been sold. That might indicate that the audience is there - Cortese just has to find a way to capture their imagination to come to SMS regularly. Success in the form of winning more games than losing, press coverage, TV exposure, big player names, competing with top class opponents, Saints players making it into the England squad etc. etc. will do that. Nothing is certain in this world, however all the signs from the past since Cortese has been in the building indicate that the future looks very rosy indeed. It's going to take at least another 10 years before we see Saints perform consistently at the top of the Prem and so any thoughts of ground expansion should be aligned with that timescale at least I would suggest. We don't know for sure - but why not contemplate on what might be?

There will be a flood of plastic supporters + new ones when we return to the Prem and start winning significant competitions. That's not being deluded. More chance of it happening than your lottery numbers coming in actually, but that doesn't stop you buying them (or your Mum buying them if you're too young). lol

Wind your neck in - you've got no vision of what COULD be, so does that make you small minded?

Either a decent real ale like Ringwood, IPA, Directors or HSB or bottles of Crabbies Ginger Beer - very nice!

There is a very real potential for us to fill a 45k stadium in about 10 years time. That's the minimum amount of time it will take for us to fulfill Markus' grand plan and be eating at footballs top table regularly. If everything comes together as expected, this club will easily be able to compete in every conceivable way with the top 10 clubs in Europe - a stadium with a capacity of anything less than 45k will not fit in with those plans. Believe me - in ten years there will be waiting lists again too (perhaps not a bad thing) which is why I will never give up my ST.

I really hate how Sky can mess about with fixtures like this - totally screws with my plans for the evening. ):

This would be my choice - include the crest - I like the red and white Markus - change words to simply "Forever Saint Markus"

You may well be right. My trouble is in my mind I still think I'm 25 and able to hack it!

I like that...

http://www.skysports.com/football/championship/

The signs are there that we will strengthen adequately - we did it in L1 and I expect NC to do it again for the NPC. I have to say, it would be a massive boost to the players and the supporters to win the 1st 2-3 games and see us near the top of the table early doors. To do this, I do believe Alps has a good point - there is a need to settle players in early in pre-season otherwise what's the point of pre-season?

Great to see the listing at last. Leeds opener will be tough, but really looking forward to seeing if we're up to the test. There's some real corkers there to look forward to and there's some away games I think I will be able to attend too which is a bonus. We need to strengthen quickly and decisively now to make sure Adkins gets everyone on the bus in time.

I'm lovin' this!

Ticket prices will be £16 adult. You heard it here first.

Killer, Pahars then Jesus (loved his down and dirty commitment).

Thanks for the heads up. While I'm competitive, I'm perhaps not fit enough yet to get too serious! I may look into that though. (:

I don't know why there are so many worrying at this point in close season. The good players hold the cards at the moment - they'll not move early unless there's a massively incentivised deal on the table. Also, here's a little suggestion - look back to our time in L1...think about the strategy employed to support the Manager....(let me help - we bought some of the best players from the division and 2-3 from the division above). Now, do you honestly think that Cortese will not employ a similar strategy for the NPC? Risk relegation or not progressing? Nah, nor do I...we'll be strengthening the 1st team alright - just gotta be patient that's all.

Source?

I'm a musician (guitar/vocals) in primarily two bands, so playing quite a few live gigs is my main other pastime other than my family. I have a 6 month old Grandson who WILL be a Saints supporter and increasingly he is going to take up more of my time I think. I'm also a keen photographer - portraiture and stuff like weddings mainly. Interestingly, I've been wondering recently whether there is a 45+ year old football 'club' to get involved in. I miss having a kick about, but can't keep up with the youngsters nowadays. Anyone know of anything or any like-minded chaps interested in getting something organised - perhaps once or twice a month?