Legod Third Coming

This is an interesting problem... At what point do we start paying £50-£100k per week? Because if, as he claims, the Chairman wants to challenge for the Champion's League, we will need Champion's League standard players.

We need pace. We like young English players. We like players who share our team ethic. We like players who will fit with our approach and style... Shell out £10m and bring Theo home!

Cortese got all the money in the bank up front for Season Tickets, and then sold the ground out at full price for half the season. I would say that is first class business management rather than a 'mistake'...

Well given that he's the third most successful manager in the UK, I'll take my chances with him over you, if that's alright?

Farrrkin hell. Anyone reading this would think the Premier League is rammed full of Roberto Carloses and Arjen Robbens... I have never been so concerned about these pacy wingers who will rip Fox to pieces... YES. Guess what, we will have to play Gareth Bale - he ripped Milan apart, wth a world class defence. YES. We will have to play Chamberlain and Walcott - they gave the Champion's League finalists' defence a torrid time. YES. We will have to play Wayne Rooney... But guess what?? We'll also have to play Nathan Dyer, who wasn't good enough for us, according to the very same people who claim Fox isn't either. And we'll have to play teams like Norwich, Bolton, QPR, Villa, Liverpool, Reading, West Ham. And guess what? They're not all Champion's League contenders full of world class players. They're clubs like us. Just like us. With fans wondering whether a left back you have never heard of either can cope with Walcott. And some days, you can't. But then, we are allowed to attack too - maybe you didn't know that?

So I'm just looking around the Premier League at left back... Apart from Ashley Cole who is absolutely top class, we have players like Riise, Aruelio, Warnock, Baines, Bennett, Wilson, Taylor, Shorey... Now tell me - which of these does Fox fall so far behind??

Fox is part of a defence (almost ever present) that is the third best in the league. A setlled back five is key to our success - at least if we know anything from football over the past 30 years. But apparently he's not up to it? That pretty much is the argument right?

Yep, just checked. Third best defence in the league. Get rid of the lot.

Interesting. Successful team apparently full of very average players...

How early do you get up to be this thick? It's a genuine talent. You're making my points, arguing against yourself and you can't see it? Or can and are an obtuse, obnoxious little troll.

Actually, most of those I have met personally, yes very much. It's a shame some on here don't understand irony or have the capacity for individual conscience but I suppose after 13 years of socialist government removing personal responsibility and adopting a 'not my fault guv' attitude, it's only to be expected... There is a difference between caring about one's own appearence because it makes you happy or for personal satisfaction, and, as you and so many do these days, believing you care about what others think of your attire when it is, in fact, a cry for social approval, full stop. Perhaps because you didn't get it at home, school, in your work - I've no idea. But that's what it is - however you dress it up - pun intended... "I care what others think about my team's supporters because it reflects on what they think about me." It doesn't. Well, not to anyone with half a brain, anyway. So what you are doing is seeking approval from those people who have no approval to give. Brilliant. Freud could write a book on it. Oh. He did already...

woosh... Christ I knew the working class were struggling with education these days but thank God some of us had the good sense to ship our offspring off to public school...

I have to say having been tied up for a few days, I get it. I used to admire Liverpool of the 70s for their sensational pass and move football. The Dutch team with Cruyff for their total football. Of course, Pele and Jarzinho for the magical way they could control a football and direct it with precision around corners. Of late, I have been mightly impressed with the Barca side for their total possession approach... All of them pantheons of the game - respected and admired the world over... I thought? But perhaps I should be most impressed that Rotherham fans turn up in Ben Sherman, Blakes and Bekcham kecks. What a fecking ridiculous proposition. No-one in their right mind gives a flying f u ck what the fans wear. And anyone who thinks otherwise is sectionable.

It is - if you ever want to get into it... DON'T!!! Just kidding... If you ever fancy a beer let me tell you how a mate of mine sold all the boxes in the South Stand at Twickenham. Best campaign I ever saw...

I think it's unfair to say the majority of sports sponsors are just B-2-C brands if you don't factor in the motivation for the sponsorship. Vodafone sponsored the Derby for years simply because the Chairman enjoyed having lunch with HRH The Queen... The vast majority of sports sponsorships today are bookmakers or brewers - that has everything to do with them often being the preferred betting partner, having the pouring rights and so on. I work with a major company who sponsor a massive event and probably 1/100th of the audience (public) knows why - it doesn't matter, they sponsor it becuase it gives them a dinner at which all of their worldwide buyers will attend... Likewise, aap3 are probably not too fussed that half of the Northam know what they do, unless they're in the market for a new core infrastructure! I know the point you're making, and I agree to an extent it's unusual for a 'smallish' firm to find themselves on the front of a Premiership football team, you just happened to run into someone who sold sports sponsorship for a living* and has some time on his hands tonight... *not for long it was bloody hard work!

Sponsorship's are done for all sorts of reasons aren't they... Venkys? Own the club. Etihad? Own the club. .. Then there's the betting companies who want to build far east audience: Sportingbet 188bet ... The point is they're not just B-2-C brands - and even those that are, you would be amazed why the deals have been done... or you might not, you might be in sponsorship. So fair play to aap3 if they can make Saints work with their marketing strategy... Our company sponsors a racing driver - feck all to do with anything other than a few of us enjoying going around Europe watching him race and taking clients to Silverstone...

Well FXPro I'm assuming are foreign exchange dealers? So that's one... Standard Chartered - you got an account? So that's also for B-2-B reasons (to take clients) Aon - that's mainly a B-2-B brand Aurasma? And Investec sponsored Spurs Europa cup shirts... So pretty much most of those which are not gambling brands or brands for the far east/middle east market or brands owned by the owners I would say... Maybe Samsung is a consumer brand, I'll give you that!

Well done! I used to sell sports rights for a living and it did/does my head in when brands don't utilise their properties. BTW - you should promote the competition to play at SMS on here!! Sadly, I'm not available on 23rd May or my cultured left foot could grace the hallowed turf

I'd forgotten that! What a belter...

Good on 'em. Let's hope it results in oodles more business. You do need to tell them to 'activate' the sponsorship a bit better to leverage the awareness.... let me know if you want some advice in this regard. I know a few people in sponsorship...

You will be when we concede from the long throw he developed the day he left our club...

No-one controls the media but media barons - Murdoch and... er.. Murdoch. The reason you need a positive relationship with the media is this... Mirror journo discovers that wife of famous singer is drug using and having one or more multiple affairs - he prepares to write his story.... Editor rings the PR representative of said singer. Let's, for argument's sake, call him Matthew Frued. "Matthew", says editor, "Tomorrow morning we will break a story on your singer client's wife.. here are the details... Do you have a comment?" The following day an exclusive appears not from a journo breaking a story BUT from said singer in his words explaining his despair with the situation - most likely protecting him, his wife and children in the process, as best he can... A positive relationship with the press means that they trust you. It's funny how few sports writers analyse Harry Redknapp's faults or financial affairs...

Doesn't someone on this forum work for aap3? They should know...

Oh and just for the hard of thinking. Mancs, Scousers and Glasweigans are on the whole skint and unemployed. Otherwise they would be the first in the queue at http://www.wigandjesterhats.com

Normal? I would have thought the one thing that we all now know doesn't exist in 2012 is normal. Define normal? You can't - do you mean a man subgugated to some societal rules dependent on where he lives and perhaps the secular nature of his community? There are over 100,000 self-proclaimed and practising Jedi in this country. More than dress up in red and white shirts and paint their faces. So by rights, it would be totally normal for me to attend the opening game of next season in a robe and carrying a light-sabre. In fact, I might petition this board to do just that.