Nineteen Canteen

Connected to a greenhouse, and a big supporter of education? Maybe dabbled in one or two North London clubs? Would not surprise me in the least if he at least know's Lowe hence the interest/tip off? Provided I am not barking up the wrong tree a very well connected and experienced individual from education and sports development, FC shareholder and financial whizzkid. Interesting hope I'm right.

Probably scouting for next season!

Barry, I think you made a genuine observation and it's worthy of discussion. What do you expect 30 subsequent posts after your's, saying +1?

Is your brother not use to critics? An opinion Scally nothing more nothing less and this sham could have been avoided had the playing staff had their wages cut. We are not talking about supporting a childrens charity and we forget a lot of what gets raised will pay the wages of some overpaid undeserving mercenaries. The writing was on the wall back in September. Back then where were all these august and connected individuals/fans with their offers to rally the troops? Supporting the cause, doing nothing or undermining? If Mike Osman was as visible at the start of the season as he is now along with McMenemy then maybe I would be a bit more supportive of their efforts but they were less visible than a decent dead ball delivery from Surman.

People were bemoaning the fact that we had second rate loan players in all season who couldn't encourage fans to attend league matches. Bit rich to listen to some zzz-list comedian/celebrity dish out veiled challenges that us fans are not that fantastic for not supporting some sad spectacle of a game witnessing how far some once great players have fallen. Prefer the memories and certainly prefer not to have my eardrums assaulted by the tiresome Osman. Should have organised a celebrity poker night so the fans could have mingled with ex-players and they could have donated more than just their time.

All a bit chicken and egg though Barry, don't you think?

Is that the sound of opportunity knocks

I don't like to guess Marc, send me a pm, I'll be discreet.

Don't put yourself down

Is it green money then S77?

Stanley, you are not as clever as you thought plus about 12 months behind the times

Hello Marc

Barry, Wes is going because he is feeling guilty having avoided going to games this season because of some bloke he didn't like in the boardroom. To think we use to complain about a players contribution. Wes you need to go but let's hope for you and others like you it's not to late.

Correct and the implication from Osman is that Saints fans aren't so fanstastic when of course the hardcore who have attended every season since the relegation from the Premiership have been staunchly loyal regardless of who has been in the boardroom which is more than can be said for some 'celebrities' and I use that phrase in the loosest of terms. Ticket sales are probably very slow (not unsurprisingly) and Osman IMO is sounding a bit desperate and emotional blackmail from this joker is not going to get me anywhere near SMS a week Sunday. Like Deanovski has said I to have spent well over £1,000 at the club this season. Meanwhile, not one of our many overpaid players volunteered a paycut neither did the club insist on one, concerned about player's morale? What about the morale of the fans? I would suggest that McMenemy's time may have been better served giving some fatherly advice and coercion to our current professionals than some mutual back slapping with a few old faces. Must have been very tiring. As usual 'fund raising' has not been well managed and badly targeted at those with lease to give. I said a few weeks ago that this game could struggle to cover its costs and why I was keen to establish the costs of the Q&A night. Pointless holding events if the majority of the gate receipts cover the costs of holding the game just as well organise a raffle. We can only hope the new owners kick these people into touch with the possible exception of MLT. Their inflated sense of self-importance deserves to back fire on them and holding this game 2 weeks after when most of us are trying to forget what has happened is pure folly. I suspect the forum match tonight will be more entertaining and raise more money and without the nauseating and backhanded suggestions that unless we go we may not be so great afterall. Seems Mike Osman is willing to go to the end of the world for his 'beloved' Saints. Question is, will he be willing to stay there? We can but hope. To save money Mike, close the stands and open a corner and give the game a plug on your Sunday 'show' on Solent. You never know you may fill it.

Obviously not Foxy McGoldrick then?

3 blokes from Norway and their dogs

I think Nick is having those at 1pm

Morning BS, firstly my humble apologies for not replying last night but I had a date with Eva Longoria, she pops in most Wednesday's at 10pm. Firstly, my stance is that this club was all but finished financially at the start of the season IMO and so in that scenario any decisions were going to be high risk but do nothing or limit change was the riskiest of them all. Pearson's record from the previous season was not screaming out hire me. OK to be wise after the event but assuming Lowe doesn't have your crystal ball seems a reasonable decision to have made based on the facts. When you cannot compete with nearly all of the other clubs in the league because of money and have to sell/loan your highest earners that effectively resulted in a youth policy and I believe it was right to try and be creative in an attempt to maximise their potential. Bringing in the Dutch duo from a country considered a blueprint by many for youth development and a manager willing to take it on for £60k pa then that to me seems a reasonable gamble given the circumstances. Again lets not forget how many (not just me) were excited by the youth policy and the promise we showed in those early games it was far better than watching an overpaid bunch of expensive journeyman that had helped precipitate our fall although of couse one or two remained. The whole season was led by finances and we sent out better players and brought in inferior ones because of the economics of the situation. No different to a man who has lost his job and has to sell his nearly new car for a much older less reliable model so he can make efforts to keep a roof over his family's head whilst still being able to get about. Not a false economy a necessity and necessities I think shaped the decisions. The issue with Pearson is simple had he done better at Saints as I've said before with say a 50% win ration we may have been able to retain him but if he was so important to the club why didn't Crouch put him on a 3 year contract in line with their plans as queried I think by NickH recently. Also, you cannot compare how players perform in League 1 with that of the CCC and just because they did well at Leicester we cannot assume they would have had the same success in the CCC and I guess it will be interesting to see how many players Pearson retains for next season. IMO Pearson has proved nothing and it is somewhat altruistic to look at his success and blame Lowe and the Dutch for our failure this season. There was of course some hype about the new Dutch regime and the signing of some players such as Smith but Lowe can hardly be criticised for that when the previous 6 months we had the master of hype, false promises and rhetoric at the helm. For every Vincent Pericard we can point to a Jack Cork who admitted he would have stayed at Saints if anyone other than his academy mentor hadn't come knocking. Boothroyd has a lot to answer for. You cannot have a false economy when there is barely any cloth left to make yourself a new pocket. In that environment there were some baffling decisions but my point all along has been whether Rupert Lowe, Sir Alan Sugar or Theo Paphities , Leon Crouch etc etc was in charge, many decisions would appear to be odd to those of us on the outside We are not privvy the drivers of some decisions except maybe people like Um Pahars who act like they are afforded inside information but IMO simply feed off little titbits probably fed to them on purpose and hence at times we have this rabid imbalance on the forum courtesy of some of the more condescending, school teacher types and self important 'in the knowers'. So yes Lowe made some baffling decisions and had they been made during a period of financial stability they would be hard to explain but you cannot take the decisions out of context. I'm surprised you don't pick up on the purchase of Pulis but my understanding is from a lifelong Stoke City S/T holder is that Stole would not buy Davies if we didn't take Pulis and there wouldn't be a Stoke fan in the land who was glad to see the back of him. However, if Stoke were the only buyers in for Davies and we got Pulis on cheap wages it wasn't a false economy but I suspect a necessary one. The failure to offload Skacel was a disaster but the player was not going to go to move for a 50% pay cut so Lowe was saddled with him and an alleged wage bill for him alone of £500k. Good value for money? JP was kept on in his position for too long and IMO the away result at Reading saved his bacon for a few weeks after a run of poor results save the Preston fightback and selection decisions and subs as bizarre as Burley's finest. Gobern probably his most notable who after his first game IMO needed more time to develop in the reserves. At that time I was advocating some help for JP from an out of work CCC manager but agan i was not privvy to the financial state of the club and perhaps moves were already in place to install Wotte but clearly they were too late. That said I respect JP for making the effort and giving his time on a salary not commensurate with his role and responsibilities and not many would have done it that cheap. It's easy to forget in this sea of negativity some of the good things and lets hope we can retain Saejis with Perry as they will be effective in L1 and a defensive foundation on which to build. We were unlucky with injury to Lee Holmes who IMO has looked like our best wide player by far and McLaggon showed promise. Gillett and James have come on really well expecially second half of the season and even if we can't retain them a couple of lumps of coal are beginning to at least look like rough diamonds. So, IMO we can blame Lowe for relegation from the Premiership and Wilde and Crouch for the intervening years but this season the writing was on the wall from day 1 and there are a few more culpable indiviudals and issues other than Lowe that bought about the collapse of this club but you didn't ask about them and anyway my views on that subject are well known.

I've heard its to formally annouce the re-appointment of Woggy

Mike there are elements I would agree with you on but this season we started up to our necks in quicksand and I personally am convinced the greatest business brains and football brains (we could have afforded) would not have saved us. Pin the first relegation on Lowe and I agree but the way some people are pinning this season's failures on him are ridiculous and had Crouch remained in charge it just would have happened a bit quicker IMO and likewise anyone else. In hindsight perhaps they should have stopped trying to service the debt from last August. I think to move forward sensibly we need a reality check on the past 3 years and obviously before that there are poor, debatable and correct decisions that will never be amicably resolved. One thing for sure is Wilde should join the armed services as he seems to be able to slip off any radar.

If thats the case then Um Pahars is Norris;)

Agreed Wes there are two schools of reasonable opinion but a third opinion seems to suggest that last season was the sole reason for administration and that is pure lunacy IMO. As far as a working budget went from the start of this season all you can say it's impossible to keep your shoes on if the shoestrings have been taken away. This past season and administration was undisputably a result of went before not a result of impossible decisions made in an impossible situation whilst trying to mainain an impossible positive vibe for the fans.

I think he has sensitive armpits

I'm very patient and enjoying the sideshows before the main event.

All very quiet on the pledge front has Derry decided to become Mr Sheen?