Nineteen Canteen

No but you could be a member of the WI and a member of the cooking and face cream police.

LOL - I tried but couldn't bother queuing behind the others buying their Express.

Certainly did, but not much else and if I remember the landlady was not exactly Bet Lynch more Germaine Greer but less welcoming and more opinionated. Probably spent to long in there, thinking back.

Sincerely, hope so but I doubt we will get the absolute clean sheet so many of us need for unity to be a reality. Even then it won't take long for the seeds of dissatisfaction to be sown as we have witnessed so many times in our recent history.

Excellent, in the mean time shall we organise a legends match to raise funds and promote unity? It won't only need hope to be ushered into it's place.

19 is it, the other day it was Andrew Cowen as you informed the forum of this fact that you knew so admantantly. Egg on your plate this morning?

Taken out of context again Robbie, your good at twisting the post of others to suit your agenda. IF SAINTS FOLDED WAS THE DISCUSSION and in that scenario I could easily go and support Andover and leave the rest of you to support an endless diet of Champions and Europa League games with no real allegiances. Football is eating itself like some bloated tape worm. How many teams have gone into administration the last 2 seasons? 6 is it? Is that usual? It doesn't appear to worry anyone in the game but it may start to worry Saints and Darlington fans for starters as the golden goose is officially a fairy tale.

The Walled Meadow, the Portway just isn't the same. What was it after the game a quick crawl round the pubs in and around the high street, Globe, George, Foresters, Southampton Arms or a bit of head banging in the Borough followed by a drink in the Adelaide but only cravate wearers allowed! Rounded off by some disco inferno in NW Hants Premier Night Spot the Country Bumpkin. I could easily go back to watching Andover and still occassionally watch them if I'm around. Something about watching football where you genuinely feel you could run on and make a difference, come on you Lions!

Says the unaddressed envelope.

Do you mean pass books?

When you buy the Guardian Duncan or pay your paper bill do you go in disguise? Must admit you haven't struck me as a fence sitting liberal.

All depends what your definition is of TRUE and IMO you have missed out people like Nick Holmes, Terry Paine, Franny Benali and god love her Mary Corbett to name but 3. I don't think you tried very hard or dazzled by the limelight.

Not surprised what was his name?

20? I think you'll find that would be a real mare.

And B*llocks to the club for not forcing the issue. Post administration motivation of the players was impossible IMO so why mention that as a concern in cutting salaries. I wonder if Honda, BMW, Nissan, Hualage Industry and just about most other manufacturing/engineering industries were concerned about their employees 'motivation' when they were put on short time, pay cuts or redundancies. Football is in danger of eating itself and whats more outrageous, a load of MP's taking the p1ss out of the taxpayers to fix their Tennis Courts and Moats or a few mercenary football 'stars' allowing the generous average working man, pensioner, student or even child donating their diminishing dispoable incomes to pay their wages? If I was the new owner I would send them all to market and buy a more committed breed. (This is not levelled at those younger players who are probably on much lower contracts but IMO any player earning above the higher rate tax threshold could have been told to take at least a 5% reduction. Afterall do they want a future for their employers or not?)

This is the problem with this forum. You cannot post an opinion or ask a valid question without someone assuming you have some hidden agenda or you are some individual connected to those you are perceived as supporting. We need to accept as fans that we all have different ideas about who should run the club and who shouldn't just as much as we have opinions on should be in the starting 11 and who should not. Players and managers come in for some serious stick at times based on opinions, perception and interpretation so why not directors past and present? We all support the United Kingdom but presumably don't all vote Labour? If I came on here and challenged Gordon Brown am i going to be accused of being George Osborne? I am just a fan who is very unhappy about the situation and the fact that there are many people culpable for this club's administration and reliance on handouts from beleagured fans who frankly deserved better. The fact I have an opinion and cannot post it without being accused of being Rupert's fag, Lord Marland and now Andrew Cowen is a reflection on why we are in this mess as too many fans have simply refused they have to a degree bought this upon themselves. Either that or they have lived in a fantasy land for 3 years in which I am flattered to be referred to as Andrew Cowen although I suspect he will consider it quite insulting. Still, Holbury knows I am Cowen....what else do you know Holbury? All flights from Japan fly west because they are near the RHD edge of the board?

LOL - Also look back over every director exec and non exec who has presumably had some influence on the club since the formation of the plc and pick out the one person who has actually delivered success and tried to realistically tackle the club's difficulties when they arose? There is only one answer and it's not Crouch or Wilde. Lowe has not, and IMO to the club's disadvantage been challenged by a colleague worthy to take on the chairman role. Lowe may have been clever by surrounding himself with either loyal subordinates or poor challengers to his crown but maybe he actually left himself exposed without other sources of expert advice and guidance when it was needed. I have met many successful people and they usually site that a lot of their success was to employ or network with people much more intelligent than themselves. Apart from Cowen has that happened at Saints? Crouch and Wilde were no better if not a lot worse than Lowe IMO.

Not bad but compared to what has been alleged on this forum in the past regards McMenemy's take for what IMO was nothing more than a few handshakes on matchdays Lowe was probably seriously underpaid. Doubt Lowe will be considered suitable as as UKIP MP - remember it was Wilde who wanted a British Manager and Crouch who wanted to sack the Dutch. Still who really cares anymore? Lowe, Wilde, Crouch, McMenemy, Jones and the other usual suspects, Wiseman ,Trant and Corbett can all disappear and never darken our doors again. I've seen kids at our local nursery behave in a more restrained manner and its disappointing Lowe is allowing himself to get brought into the fight by the petulant Crouch. Still you take a look at that list and ask yourself who in the past 12 years (when the football map has changed beyond recognition) has actually delivered success and than actually tried to do something positive and realistic to turn things around since Hone's statement about investment or bust? As Elvis Costello infamously once wrote in a song about Maggie Thatcher - one day a fitting memorial for me will be to 'tramp the dirt down'. With the possible exception of Lowe and Cowen if any of the above squirm their way back into the club in any capacity whatsoever then the new consortium will be actually creating their own problems before a ball is kicked. Just my opinion based on observations especially those most recent.

'My £2m would have saved us from administration'........for about 6 months IMO Mr Crouch. Your fan friendly rhetoric and reliance on out of touch characters like McMenemy would have paved the way for further disaster. In my less than expert opinion you are not strong enough to manage this football club or make the necessary decisions that will require you on occassion to do something less than popular and if you do you will try and kid the fans as well as yourself that it is best for the club and we are heading for the playoffs.

Hopefully the final nail in Crouch's coffin with regards to any future role in the club. Seriously, nobody would have accepted those terms and Crouch could have offered £200m or 20p for the difference it made. A gesture solely to try and make himself look good to the fans IMO and one Crouch has a good track record in. Makes you wonder if he actually had the £2m in the 100million to 1 chance his bluff was called.

OK so what is this £400,000? Been asked by others but no comment. Are we donating money to repay some bloke with £400k change to throw about? Is that right or should this not be part of the debt the new owners should take on? It is absolutely laughable that McMenemy and Osman thought they would get a crowd of 30,000 to watch a joke friendly with some old players that will destroy the memories we had of them when they played as professionals. £20 to watch a bunch of aged amateurs? Lets get this right we have only ever achieved a crowd in excess of 30k when playing premiership opposition or in a critical game. The most we even achieved for friendly (correct me if I'm wrong) was for the first match at SMS against a Spanish team whose name I forget, Espanyol, maybe? WTF does 30,000 come from? We've been going bust since last May and even post administration how many went to the oh so critical Charlton game? 27,228. Since his managment days what has McMenemy done for the fans? McMenemy forever known on this forum as that awesome description given him by Crab Lungs. Hopefully, not coming to a club near you soon - 'THE SHAPESHIFTER' - be prepared to act shocked.

Ambitious? Under statement of the year. With all due respect if someone was willing to underwrite this match to the tune of £400,000 they are not ambitious they are badly in need of an astute accountant. Correction an A-Level accountancy student. I may be mising the point and as I read through this thread from my last posts this may already be answered. But is £400,000 the cost of putting this match on and the figure that needs to be made before any profit is made? If so IMO it is the dumbest use of a £20 where it looks like 99% or more will be used to cover costs. Couldn't make it up and proves McMenemy's usefulness and vision ended when he made his money from his plc shares. What exactly is this £400k underwriting?

:smt041 Never has a nail been hit more squarely on it's head. You respect someone who stands by their set of principles/methods as oppose to the Downing Street spin doctors types who rather than stand by their own message abd argue on that basis seek to rubbish and undermine others.

You can draw your own conclusions where I stand on this issue. Lawrie seems to be having a lot of shocks recently. Shocked that the club was in crisis yet great friends with Crouch and allegedly travel to away games together - don't they talk about the club? Shocked his charity game has only raised 4,000 sales but I assume he has been monitoring sales as part of his tireless work on this? Perhaps his ultimate shock is yet to come? The removal of his cash cow?

Agree 100%