rallyboy

Cortese makes it quite clear on the fans forum that he was surprised and disappointed at their treatment. While the rest of us are guessing at how Fry performed just looking from the outside, if a key figure inside the deal is still voicing concerns then it's an indicator to me of how the administrator dealt with our club. No award methinks, just congratulations on getting lucky, or is it accepted in business that you want a lucky administrator over a good one?

I'm sure there were no underhand dealings to favour Pinnacle, dodgy practice in high-finance would be as likely as an F1 driver crashing deliberately so I am sure we can discount that as an allegation. As for Mr Fry, did he win the award he was nominated for re our speedy and trouble-free takeover? If so I think we still owe Rupert and Barclays some thanks for their choice of administrator, which is like saying that Fred West wasn't all bad, he was great at converting cellars.

The next time Pompey come which will be sooner than they think, their loyal travelling support can have the away dugout, and the spare seats can be used for the subs.

dim defender sticks leg out and invites striker to fall over it shock. As with Eduardo, who conned not the ref but a rotund keeper with poor timing who missed the ball and left a knee available to anyone shrewd enough to clip it and fall over. Saga didn't dive as such, that is when a player pretends there is contact, he just dramatically highlighted the contact in case the ref was blind, which they often are, (see Robbie Keane chopped down from behind against Chelsea, given nothing.) So Saga looked stupid and made it look a ridiculous penalty but if the defender has missed the ball there will only be one result in those circumstances. It isn't the striker's job to hurdle trailing legs, nor a winger's job to cross avoiding defenders who leave arms sticking out when they know the ball is in the vicinity. I have seen so many dodgy penalties given against us that I cheerfully welcome any for us, and these two both had their merits, so we are still owed some generous ones.

I haven't seen any of those '-10 in Southampton' weather map gags for a few weeks - I guess the updated version is, 'it's always 0 in Pompey' - the ice age cometh... The wheels have properly come off the band wagon now, no points, no fans, no cash, no future, unless the fake Dr wins the lottery - though I will feel more comfortable when they are ten points adrift. Would love more facts on the Al Fahim-Jackson deal, if that was confirmed and made common knowledge it would be hilarious. Meanwhile the blue few cup glory hunters have scuttled off to support Chelsea or Man City. After four years of ludicrous Saturday afternoons where we would lose to a late late joke of a goal and they would beat Man Utd or something equally ridiculous, order is finally being restored. Life is good, the future is red and white.

At last, it sounds like Phil has finally agreed to officially announce everything, in principle.

if only we'd kept Walcott and Shearer.

'I am sure that Al Fahim will look for finance advice from Peter Storrie.' let's hope so! He could then see what Ridsdale and Lowe would do.

So Al Fahim now claims to have organised re-financing....'in principle'. Could be a shrewd move if he has sold half the club he will half own if his backers eventually prove clean enough for the Premier League, (in principle) - so looks like a nailed on done deal, and a rosy future! Though there is one nagging minor issue, I still don't see any actual, how can I put it, money, on the table. Up the Villa.

I saw the official Pompey van on the M3 at Eastleigh last Saturday, I just crawled up alongside and gave him that 'you're getting relegated and going bust and we all know it' look. It can't be fun driving round in that, especially as he must expect the baillifs on the door every morning to take it back.

I think they will be fine, you have to remember that Bolton and Birmingham are very good sides who may well be breaking the top four themselves, and the new striker line up looked very good. Piquione (?) in particular looked ruthless in front of goal, in no way did he make Nugent look like Thierry Henry, and at the back they have players who can trap the ball further than many can kick it. Once the new ground is open and the faithful 50,000 are flowing through the doors they will have Champions League and the future world cup games to savour, all under the stewardship of Maradona etc. No, we are in a far worse state with no sign of hope. All in all it's far too early to consider that they are in a spiral of despair that will end in financial ruin, humiliation and a fall down the league structure that makes our problems look like a blip. We should be able to say that in six weeks if little changes.

I guess BT's swift and incident-free resolution of our little 'issue' deserves something. Months of frustrating and damaging mediocrity and then they pulled the mother of all rabbits out of a hat that they didn't even know they were wearing, give them a prize.

can Coppell play on either wing? He would be ideal for providing service so I see it as a shrewd signing. Though I would worry that two games a week might be too much for his knee, he is fitter than Ledley King so we might be able to sell him to Spurs in January.

current form is all about sticking two fingers up to Mawhinney and showing him that even if he hadn't hit us with the penalty we would still be down there....so the jokes on him.... I think.....

anyone recall the Saints after shave of the late seventies? You didn't want to get it on your clothes, but you could run the mower on it. Though I think the 04/05 dvd takes the biscuit, I remember them advertising it at the time with the slogan, 're-live every moment'..... I'd rather not ta.

you may not have seen the local stuff Phil but Storrie has admitted that the club nearly went under a couple of times recently, he added that he is very grateful to the creditors for being so understanding. Without wanting to drag the debate back to our own inglorious and tiresome recent history, can we assume that Storrie's flexibility and attitude toward, and dealings with the banks, was slightly more realistic than that displayed by our own representative at the crucial time? When you compare the figures, they were very quick to drop us - or is it the fact that if you owe a bank £5M you have a problem, but if you owe them £30M they have a problem?

he's been a dim boy on this one. No legal problem for the publishers, just the guy who has confessed to the offence, and it is an offence. Having said that if they couldn't convict the keeper who blatantly dived over and around three Everton goal attempts in quick succession all those years ago then there is no point in trying any players on lesser charges. Unless it's Eduardo of course - he can be banged up while all the worse offenders are left to dive freely. 'Portly keeper with poor judgement fails to get ball and allows shrewd player to fall over him shock'.

I love a good reality check as much as the next Saints fan but I think we are getting them every Saturday and often midweek as well at the moment so I am all checked up for reality ta.

hopefully post-deadline it will dawn on Saga that no one else wanted him, so if he wants to prove himself as an international quality striker, the job starts now. Decent squad on paper, some just need to get back on track.

time to worry is when Pardew does nothing before the window closes because he believes he has a full squad, I expect him to address some issues. We are getting there, but it's a long haul - and after the Boro/Villa/Everton/Leeds etc etc games of recent years, can anyone say they were genuinely surprised in the last 15 secs yesterday? In the old days we would have lost from that position - things are looking up!

I thought Al Fahim had already secured the final under the roof of the new, FIFA-funded, 180,000 seater harbourfront stadium, hotel and leisure complex? Tickets still available in the Nugent Stand, or go crazy and have hospitality in the Redknapp Suite - seems a good idea at the time but overpriced and leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.

Cascarino claiming to be French now?! If the French want to broker a big money transfer to a glamour club for any of our players that's fine by me, but them muttering in the corner isn't helpful. The player is either in demand or he's staying put and showing what he's made of. As for the Polish coach saying the Saga needs to be playing at a higher level, I think the Poles must have delusions of grandeur, they are one of the footballing pygmies of Europe and should be happy with players from any level of the professional game.

the ice cream seller's jobs for next week - 1. Buy two failed Championship players before the window shuts. 2. Hold awkward meeting with Standard Bank to explain why the debt hasn't been cleared. 3. Hold even more awkward meeting with Barclays to stop them serving a winding up order. 4. Put out press release talking of new stadium, and how the club will be the biggest in the world. 5. Interview the 6,000 hardcore fans individually to gauge opinion. 6. Sack Storrie. 7. Settle with Hydra investors out of court. 8. Secure £100M of investment. 9. Be photographed on a digger holding a scarf. 10. Deal with writs from rival consortium. 11. Get rid of the machine guns left in the board room. 12. Pick up Diego from the airport. 13. Agree terms with the Barcelona and Real Madrid squads. 14. Order pies for the next home game. 15. Order advertising banners to cover empty seating areas. 16. Buy extra cornets for the van, looks like a hot week. 17. Ring Storrie and find out where the rest of the cash went. 18. Buy some lucky heather. 19. Diet. 20. Call Mark Fry.

what is it with Pardew and his new fangled ideas??!! He signed the best goalscorer in the division and now he's trying to bring in a winger proven at this level, what are those two ever likely to achieve between them? We need more Dutch input, it's the only way - JP and MW got us out of the Championship at the first attempt and I'm quite confident they could easily get us out of Lg One.

Storrie's main messages are aimed at the people he fears most, the banks that want their money next week. He keeps telling them that things are nearly in place and he is now talking about funding being available in January. Methinks he is still buying time while hunting investment. If he has this quality takeover up his sleeve, why isn't funding available now? If you were buying a club you would want to halt the slide asap and would draw up a pre-takeover agreement on immediate funding to protect your investment from relegation. It's now getting odder than our takeover fiasco. Next 48 hours, Friday, they can't even come up with original deadlines for activity. Might be worth measuring up Al Fahim for a statue because at the moment it looks like his 'look at me, I own a football club' routine may have caused their business terminal damage.