Nineteen Canteen

Brilliant post Wes and echos my thoughts entirely. What constitutes 'a bit of a slap ' is debatable but it surely is not viciously beaten and kicked and stamped repeatedly whilst laying on the ground. Shocking and shows that in places football has only papered over the cracks of the 70 's and 80's.

Stop it, subtle and funny but the target is to easy.

Hamster, do you think you have a chance of making the Olympics. Insult to true sporting greatness including golf in the Olympics. Eventually you may see Sir Steve Redgrave's record being beaten by some geriatric golfer in rupert the bear trousers and hailed as the greatest ever Olympian. There are already some questionable sports in the Olympics and instead of adding to them they should have been kicked out.

Bournemouth is closer

Also they bring in 15,000 every year to cope with Christmas and they are just bringing them in a bit earlier. Doubt it's illegal as any company has the right to prevent itself from collapse. The Union is up in arms of course as they will potentially lose the publicity of the undelivered mail mountain which IMO is what they want to create in the first place. Maximum disruption and for what? The loss of their jobs anyway by making the business uncompetitive The scouts are missing an opportunity here as they do an excellent job around these parts at Christmas for half the price of a stamp without the worry of grannies card being 'felt for contents' and dear old postie helping themsleves to their christmas bonus, allegedly.

The Miners strike in the early 80's killed off striking as it proved no one wins and just leaves neighbourhood's divided and coping with idiots because a 'scab' exercises his right to work. Lets no forget the strikes just about killed off the British Car Industry along with some shoddy products and replace products with service and the RM are on dodgy ground. Listening to radio phone ins and the majority of public opinion is weighted against the postal workers in a very bitter way and the little support I have heard has come from those with connections to the RM. Good luck to them but they seem a stupidly intransigent bunch to me and ridiculous to make demands about technological improvements when just about everyone of us have no doubt had to deal with changes to technology in our own environment and roll with the times.

It would be impossible for me to agree more and I feel much of this is about protecting what has been traditionally viewed as a 'nice little job' and the fear modernisation will bring to the cosy world of the postie.

No doubt you will get the answers on the day and report back to us Tuesday evening and you never know you might beat him as well.

Why? he gave me a lot of joy as a player but with Pinnacle and his betting scam revelation he has tarnished his reputaion IMO and not even deemed it worthy of explanation to his fans. So sell your golf day with MLT by all means but don't try to censor those who may be a little less happy with his recent actions and revelations.

Don't think it will be live on TV and you may not see some fancy footwork just out of bounds.

You can talk as you don't appear to have taken your Immodium today.

Sod the golf ask him when is he going to come clean about the betting scam? If wasn't Wimbledon what game was it and had the CPS considered it to be in the public interests what was the charge? Does he think there will be any civil proceedings? Wish I played golf, on second thoughts I suppose now we know where he will be the media could just shove a microphone in his face as he unloaded his clubs hopefully along with his explanation to his adoring fans.

I'm afraid the joys of a private education passed me by and despite immersing myself in the George McDonald Fraser books about the stories of the caddish bully from Rugby I am not familiar with the term. Are we talking something Boris and David may have experienced. I have not learned anything new today so please enlighten me so I can cross at least one thing off my to do list.

Suggest we move this to the lounge but IMO the logic of the postal workers is as flawed as the miner's strike in the 1980's and more about protecting their cosy world than moving into more modern times with the inevitable loss of jobs that no doubt will be achieved through natural wastage anyway. My understading is that the taxpayer (assume you are one) contributes 90% to every postal workers's final salary scheme pension, is that correct? Happy with that and the the fact they deem it necessary to strike to resist modernisation. I believe that pay should be commensurate with role and responsibilities and for many doing a bit of sorting, finishing an easy round and going home after 4 hours of one shift and refusing to help out elsewhere to fulfill your allotted shift hours is taking le tiss. No doubt they need to start their other afternoon jobs. On second thoughts don't take it to the lounge I have said my piece and it's a national disgrace the Postal Workers are trying to mine an exhausted seam and we all suffer as a result. I have absolutely zero sympathy for them so hope that is clear for you. Mandelson is an irrelevant argument and you could say that about many of the cabinet ministers with the possible exception of Alan Johnson IMO.

Worse conditions for a 'pole man' to be operating in

IMO I would watch very carefully how he places his marker.

A complete prat who gave WGS the opportunity to salvage a very badly damaged managerial reputation following his spell at Coventry. Since his Saints day WGS has managed a club in an annual two horse race with a far bigger budget then the blue noses and the felt the need to leave such easy pickings? I don't think WGS will be troubling the top 100 let alone the top 20 post war British managers. Robbie you could manage Celtic and achieve a similar record of success to Strachan. Ergo, I think we can discount his jaundiced and somewhat ungrateful opinion of Lowe that you have stated.

Very erudite post and sums up most of my personal thoughts about the whole situation. To congratulate Barclays is juvenile in the extreme and I don't believe any sensible fan would have wanted or be willing to run the risk of putting the club into administration at the time, considering the state of the economy, the credit crunch and general apathy towards football club investment. As it transpires administration at this moment in time is the best thing that could have happened to us but at the same time my guess is that a lot of creditors (not just past directors and other shareholders) did lose a lot of money that they could ill afford to lose. We are going places but we need to increase our support to those levels achieved by the likes of Norwich and Derby (in their troubled times) to reward Mr Liebherr and encourage further expenditure on the club. We should never forget that we are now a club that is owned rather than managed and as fans or shareholders have very little direct influence over the whim of a very wealthy owner as Portsmouth have found to their recent costs. Do we gloat over the mistakes of Lowe and lost public ownership and rejoice in being at the mercy of own man who IMO wasn't exactly chomping at the bit to buy us without the obvious influences of his right hand men. Probably a more considered approach is called for and the positives from both public and private ownership understood and that we learn from the pitfalls of the past and those that could present themselves in the future if we become complacent or impatient with the very considered approach of our new board. Excellent post once again Weston.

Nice campaign pity it's 12 months to late. No offence but some of our fans have the logic of postal workers.

No.

Basingstoke would be handy for home games though.

AP is in another league than McMenemy. AP is erudite, self-effacing, balanced, open to new ideas (DoF) and understands the club is bigger than any personalities past or present. IMO McMenemy is none of the above and had far to much 'geordie patter' to fill the gaps and nowadays I find his spoilt and bitter act somewhat derogatory to the club and fans that served him well. Football is all about opinions this is just mine.

What happens if one of these top 2 players get injured? Given our points deduction and delayed start to our pre-season I still think the play-offs is unrealistic if not impossible. There will be a few games along the way like the Bristol game that will trip us up and whilst I can now see us finishing in the top 12 I think we will still fall short of the play-offs for the reason I already mentioned. Personally, I am happy with that because if Pardew can keep the squad together we will have a hell of squad with the benefit of this season under their belt to destroy the league next season and may go unbeaten - who knows? Having said that if your prediction is correct then we will all need to hail our new managerial messiah Alan Pardew as it will be a feat of player and fan management greatness that IMO will exceed any Saints manager classing themselves in the top 20 of post war British Managers.

Feel very poistive about our prospects as I thought Oldham would be more tricky than Southend or Gillingham as we don't travel up North to well. MK Dons will be a different prospect and it will be a game to savour as Docker-P mentioned in a way that we wouldn't have thought possible but IMO its a game that could go ether way and in Ince they have a manager who can prepare his team for a big game in front of big crowd based on his recent experience. I think we are still in the position where we can afford to believe the manner of the performance is as important as the result and if we lose in a thrilling game by the odd goal that will be disappointing but no need for people to start falling on their swords and giving us the 'woe is me act'. (see reactions post Bristol Rovers game) Its going to be a long week waiting for the game that's for sure. I'd take a draw as our draw away against Charlton doesn't look to shabby in hindsight and with Norwich (21/11), Leeds (19/12) and a hideous midweek trip to Hartlepool to come in the run up to Christmas maintaining the performances are key. If we do that the real games for the taking should be won and we get ourselves out of the bottom 4 in time for Christmas. (Orient A 31/10, Brighton H 15/10, Wycombe H 01/12, Walsall A 5/12, Tranmere H 12/12).

Interesting source - The Daily Mail who not only ran a top 50 manager in the British game but felt the need to differentiate top 50 English internationals and have a category for the top 50 black internationals. IMO I would hate to use the Daily Mail and their right wing holier than thou agenda as source for the definitive statement on any subject. Hardly surprising given Lawrie's MBE and military background he should figure so highly despite Southampton being the pinnacle of his career. As an assistant to Taylor for England can anyone remember the footage of that game against Holland. Taylor lost the plot and bent Lawrie's ear and do you remember the sage words of advice Taylor's assistant game him? Any manager who is given the greatest honour in any capacity to manage their country should be above an assistant manager of their country or failed manager of a small footballing nation such as Northern Ireland. Not sure what the Daily Mail's criteria was but is McMenemy better than Graham, Hodgson, Mercer, Saunders and even Venables? I don't think so and to try and justify otherwise is simply thinly disguised prejudiced. Talking of which did the Daily Mail run a top 50 for black goalkeepers? Colour or race should be irrelevant just like their oddly biased and unbalanced polls. Perhaps, Lawrie has a subscription? Might explain his, IMO, spolit I use to be somebody at this club act so why should I pay. A tad self-centred and ignorant to the many Saints fans who have been buying season tickets for decades without the luxury of living off one trophy and the highest finish the club had achieved and then leaving us with the job half done and ruining his own career in the process IMO. A great pity, if only he had emulated Bob Stokoe and won a trophy for Sunderland, he may have made the top 30 and we wouldn't have the need for this thread. Funny old game.