MarkSFC

What a fantastic statement by NC!! He certainly holds no prisoners and will not allow anyone to undermine him or the club regardless of previous heroics! Love that! In regard LeTiss and Lawrie they should know better than to listen to idle gossip but Im sure would only be answering approaches by The Echo for thief thoughts!! It's great that NC mentions "alan and me" several times and that they have fun! We truly are very fortunate to have Marcus, Nicola, and Alan at our club and no one should forget that. I know people on here come from the "what if (worst case scenario)" point of view will warn of failure but that word does not even enter Corteses mind. Sit back and enjoy the ride everyone, it's going to be amazing!!!

Ever since ML saved us last summer Nicola Cortese has spoken only of success and building on and off the field for the premiership. Much has been made of the money spent in January and that this must have effected the timescales by which Pardews first main target of getting to the Chsmpionship had to be achieved. Purely on a business level this is very unlikely. From a football business perspective and within the scope of "The five year plan" this move is ridiculous. Within that plan X money would have been talked about and budgeted, certainly with contingency built in. From the position we were in last summer at point of takeover, the money spent will certainly be within budget and is definitely not a huge part of the overall figure required to achieve the goals of The five year plan. Sure, making the play-offs this season would have been great and sure maybe expectation may have increased but that merely demonstrates how good a job Alan Pardew and his fellow coaches have done both in terms of recruitment and organisation. Unless something really untoward has happened behind closed doors I can see no reason why a highly professional person would go back on his decision of 10 months ago and sack AP. Of course, if we do not go up next season then I fully expect a change. If something has happened and AP does go I don't actually get why it's taken so long! Also, the replacement will very definitely fit in with the vision NC has for the club so Cotterill does not fit! Unlike some I am expecting positve news over the coming days and weeks concerning ST prices, plans for SMS, the 125 year plans, a possible Sporting Director (quite possibly Lennie Lawrence, knows AP and Les Read well), and of course a few quality signings!!!

Bale definitely went for his career and the money but fair play to him now....he's been sensational this year. Surman I think (or maybe it's a bit of hope) went mainly for the greater good of "his club" in a time of absolute desperation for money. I'm sure he would have prefered to stay but circumstances prevailed. Money certainly drives the vast majority of players but I sincerely believe Llalana will be with Saints for many years. He will get his financial rewards ad we progress through the five year plan and beyond, and as Pardew pointed out to him last summer, if he stays here he will get promotions on his cv (and the odd cup!) and money cannot buy that!

Atmosphere would not have died....too many people on hear hung up on having the away fans next to the main singers.,...dare I say it, probably everyone under20/25 who know nothing other than St Marys!! FACT....fans will sing wherever the away fans and when a team only brings a couple of hundred they won't make any difference anyway. It is home fans that make the atmosphere NOT the away fans wherever they sit....FACT

This rumour mill is worse than last summer and we are onlytwo days into the close season!! Remember this, speculation and controversy sells media. The totally professional way that NC goes about his business must really wrankle with the local reporters andthe only stories they can generate are hearsay and Chinese whispers! Virtually every it of "news" concerning Saints will bereported first on the official site and therfore "exclusives" are few and far between. This is not something papers in particular like!! There areeven those on here who think that FACTS will be stated on here first! I for one hope that the OS is always the source of thefactsand sites like this will bea source of rumour and banter and that the rumours are treated as such. Supporting Saints has never been straight forward but for once oursummer could be one of excitement, building the team and squad for the promotion challenge next season. Instead, all this negative gossip reminds me of times I hoped would not return for a very long time!!! FWIW I do t belive the rumours about ML or AP and hope Im not proven wrong!!!!!

I find all the talk about AP possibly being replaced indicative of the "want everything yesterday" world we live in! 10 months ago we didn't even have a club for sure and although the appointment was met with an underwhelming excitement (probably partly to do with the rumours of "bigger" names such as Keegan) IMHO he has done fantastic job and more importantly will continue to do so for years to come. Managers just like most people in life get better at what they do over time. His history at other clubs both good and not so good make him what he is. We have WON 83 points, 5th best in the league and only 3 off 2nd. Considering every other club had weeks and weeks of more preparation, the situation he came into at the club then he has done as good if not better than any other manager in the league - Paul Lambert excluded. The years of changing manager for whatever reason eventually cost us dearly and after such an exciting and enjoyable season anyone who thinks we should change now really is short-sighted. Let's reflect on a foundation season that will allow this club to be built back up to a force in thr Premiership....with Alan Pardew in charge!

It would be good to hear from our "saviour"!! Asimple message of how he has enjoyed the season and maybe some comment regarding ambition! Having said that, I love the fact that our wealthy owner is comfortable enough to let someone else run the business so that (from what it seems) he can just sit back and enjoy being a fan as much as the owner ( or custodian as NC once said, which says it all for me!) maybe a comment from Markus will just become an annual event, much like the Queens speech at Christmas, but in this case one I actually look forward too!

even money we finish top 3 is surely one of the most nailed on bets you could ever wish for!!! Put your house on it!

Assuming we do end up winning our remaining games we would have actually won 88 points. Looking back over the last 15 seasons this total would have won the division on 3 occasions and acheived 2nd place on 12 occasions! 78 points would have made the play-offs on 11 occasions. I think this proves just how competitive League 1 has been this year and what a great job Pardew and hid team have done.

He was simply class. The season we finished runners-up was because of his goals but ultimately had he not got injured at Christmas we would definitely have won the league! Who knows what could have happened then! I remember meeting him when I was about 13, it was at Bitterne Bowl when my junior league had a presentation evening and charity event when ALL the squad turned up, Lawrie Mac et all! I was sat with mates waiting for the presentation to start and Steve Moran walked over to our table and asked if he could join us. As a fan and only 13 I was awestruck and hardly said anything! He spent the while evening at our table talking Saints when asked but joined in our celebrations when we picked up out trophies. A top top bloke and a top top player. I wonder if he remembers?!!!

Well said!!

In 5 years time I expect us to be in the Premiership, possibly building on the first season back. I hope that Pardew is still manager and I am convinced totally that Cortese and Leibherr will still be driving the club forward. I expect our training facilities and academy to have gained a reputation for excellence around the country, if not further afield. I hope that St Marys has either been expanded OR plans for a brand new 45-48000 seater state of the art stadium are in full flow! I hope that within 5 years one of the BIG clubs have hit rocky ground, much like the skates, simply to refresh the order of things. Clubs will always need money and big money at that and I hope within the next five years regulation is in place to limit the level of debt a club can rack up and in turn rely on turnover and benefactors. In five years time I hope we are talking about the next five years with as much optimism, excitement as we are today!!

I remember from the Dell (and prefer to the full version) "you reds" with the you extensuated!And it's still a great chant at corners!

If you cant make Saturday games because of work then more then more than likely you work in retail, leisure, or service industry, which won't mean you are any more likely to be free on a Bank Holiday Monday!!

Couldn't agree more, brilliant character who can play football!! Please sign him AP!!!

I was in Block 202 and despite it being mixed and just into the Carlisle section it was mostly Saints and we were singing quite alot! However I did mention to my mate on the day how quiet it seemed from the Saints end. His GF who was with us is a Villa fan and she commented on how surprised she was that we were not louder as we have a good reputation apparently!! By the by, she said Villa fans are crap at singing!! Anyway from where I was sat it seemed a mixture of lack of singing and poor acoustics. A few other mates were in top tier behind the goal and thought it was quite good.

Went to Silverspoons as was meeting people coming from different parts of the country so seemed good option last week. How wrong was I?!!! I wrongly imagined a well run and spacious club feel based on the COYR website advert. For a rennet entry I was paying for the "promised" plenty of bars and extra staff. They had three bars in the main part with only three people serving at each, so they had 9 people to serve potentially two thousand people! You do the math! They did open a cans bar but ran out within an hour!! The music was ok a bit of a mix for all ages but poorly DJ'd. The sound level was too loud because it didn't really get fans singing! They also said in their website that did was available and I didn't see any! And they also said on the tickets that ex-players would be in attendance. Although this wasn't my reason for going in there I didn't see one nor were any introduced, at least between 1030 and 1240 when I was in there! Another very bad illingsworth event!!!! BUT all of the above made no difference to my day, it was a brilliant day to be a Saints fan, had brilliant seats 50 yards from ML and NC, spent the day drinking (slowly!!) with mates and even though my train was delayed for an hour on the way home. seeing Saints fans take over Waterloo was great! Getting off the first train into Waterloo in the morning and everyone singing was a spine tingling moment for me! I was wondering what the staff and police were thinking!! Amazing day, amazing atmoshphere, and hopefully the first of many trips to Wembley!!! just don't go to Silverspoons or any COYR event!!!!

I'm in block 202....seems to be just into Carlisle territory so hope wearing my colours doesn't annoy the stewards!!!

I once saw a tv program about touts and if I remember correctly, you are not creaking the law if you "charge an administration fee on top of the face value". It's then upto the buyer whether they are happy to pay it!! The seller should I believe disclose this admin fe when selling but who has ever heard a tout saying words to the effect of "£100 for this £40 ticket which includes my admin fee"!!! It's interesting! Can't believe anyone in this instance would be too agrieved at your generosity! How much did you raise?

Agree with your remark concerning first point. Maybe it's a conscious effort to publicly leave the past in the past to minimise association with those who do not need to be mentioned!! In regard to costs I would be amazed if the host families suffered any expense, i'm sure they will be suitably compensated!

Using words like "exciting new initiative" to describe what is effectively a re-launch of a well established practice throughout football, but has probably been wholly ignored since the lodge was established is merely marketing speel. I'm notsure where in the article SaintClark you read about saving money. And why does that matter? The important thing is that the club do what is best for the youngsters in supporting and devoping them. You could also put this move in the positive column for "building contact between club and fans" (for want of a better phrase!). A positive move and just the start of NCs plan fir making our academy the best in the country.

Why?? Merely returning to what appeared to be a very successful part of developing our young players and helping their transition from their home to living and working away. I would guess people like LeTiss and Shearer would advocate this?!!

Breaking News on Echo site that HMRC are challenging their administration! Brilliant!

I hope for YOUR sake YOU are NOT a coach or leader of people!! ONLY when its MATHMATICALLY impossible for us to MAKE the play-offs should ANYONE give up. IF Pardew had this attitude then you'd probably slag him off for giving up!!!

Thanks Block5, "conditioning" is absolutely the challenge to overcome for most. Some however are happy in that state! I wonder sometimes whether the perennial "negative/moaners" ever actually go to a game because surely even they can't deny the positivity in the stadium now and the unbelievable high you get when we score! Or do they sit there and critique the move preceding the goal?!