Wes Tender

Where they are the prettiest girls, but with scrupulous morality, you mean?

So this would be comparable to another team chasing Le Tissier at the time that he wasn't deemed good enough to play for England then. He must really have been a sh*te player. And where did anybody throw down any gauntlet?

I had a look for recent stories on News Now from Fulham and QPR, but could find nothing about their interest in him. So the stories have either gone cold regarding them, or else it is all a lot of hot air.

Anybody would think that this passing possession football was something new and revolutionary, but the all conquering Liverpool used to play like that once. And apparently the "hoof it to the big man upfront" is updated. But I seem to recall Italy using that tactic to devastating effect against Germany. No reason why a mixture of tactics between the two could not be the ultimate way to keep the opposition guessing as to what you'll do next. When a team become too predictable, rival managers suss out ways to outplay you tactically.

The story is in the Echo, so it must be true. I'll await the actual signing itself before putting any credence in the story, but otherwise I applaud the vision that the club has for our future and can believe that they are capable of putting that vision across pursuasively to prospective new players.

Trouble is, TCWTB was born in Liss and works at Petersfield, where the gene pool is not quite as restricted. But looking at the moronic idiot, it was an understandable conclusion that you reached.

It must be encouraging to the Skates that Appy will still be managing them in the Blue Square South in five or six years time.

He's like a stuck record, isn't he? But he doesn't annoy the more optimistic fans; most just feel sorry for him.

I wonder whether it could have had anything to do with the fact that Oxlade-Chamberlain was a Southampton youngster and therefore sprung more readily to mind? Also perhaps that his transfer was more far more high profile. Has Connor Wickham played for England yet? Perhaps I missed it.

Well, count me amongst the moral minority then, Nick. It might well have been a fantastic experience going to Wembley 6 times or whatever it was in total, but those visits are fading memories for them now. They have only a bleak future to look forward to now and the probability that they might not get back to that level in most Skates' lifetimes. At least we went to an FA Cup final living within our means and had the other visit to Wembley, albeit just for the Johnstones Paint Trophy. But it has been great fun working our way back to the promised land and there is every chance that we might well experience another 27 span there. So they had their day in the sun, and now they face the derision of all us Saints fans and others who have the bragging rights for the foreseeable future, if not the distant future. Let them try and put some sort of gloss on Crawleys' fans chanting "you used to be a big club". That is they are lucky enough to be playing at that level. So they would rather be a lion for a day than a lamb for a lifetime, except that they weren't lions, but cheetahs (cheaters).

Skate moron:- This is precisely why they deserve everything they get, even if that includes liquidation and a new start at the very bottom strata of the football pyramid. Not one single ounce of remorse or regret and still that hankering to gamble everything to get back to the Premiership, without one single thought for the businesses, charities and the taxman who they raped along the way. A well written post from the point of view of grammar pointing to a decent education, but the content pointing to a total lack of morality and intelligence. He is fairly typical of the Skates I encounter in business.

And if the new kit varies in any way from the traditional Saints stripes, Docker-P will come up with an avatar of somebody in a traditional saints shirt p*ssing on it and will then start one of the aforementioned threads expressing the opinion that civilisation as we know it is about to end and how dare Cortese ignore the history of our club.

Blimey! You can also use it as a phone? I didn't realise that. What ever will these people think of next?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragosto A shame to go then if the missus likes shopping, because half the shops put up a sign "closed for ferragosto". Mind you, that will probably cheapen the holiday if half the shoes and handbag shops are closed.

When you're near Naples, then you have probably more places to see than almost anywhere else on Earth. Do the Amalfi drive. Positano and Amalfi are particularly lovely. Naples, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Capri, Vesuvius are all good trips. You can do the Naples, Herclaneum and Pompeii trip by the local train cheaply. If you do Capri on the hydrofoil, do take the chair lift to the highest point for the most spectacular view of the Bay of Naples. Via Michelin is very good to plan the route and offers alternative routes for economy, sightseeing, avoiding tolls, etc. A good feature is that you can assess where you will be by a certain time, aiding your planning for the night stop pff. Also, there is the button for showing the hotels and restaurants on the way and links to book them too. We're going into Northern Italy in August too and stopping off just across the border into Italy, between Como and Maggiore. We found this hotel at Varese for about £65 a double room per night. http://www.palacevarese.com/index.php/en Via Michelin is generous with the timing, but possibly because it tells you stop after two hours driving and makes allowance for the break.

That's certainly how I read it too.

This is one of the more intelligent Skates, who accepts that lack of investment in their infrastructure, with the money ploughed instead into players they couldn't afford as an alternative strategy, is the cause of their current parlous situation. On the other hand, there are still Skates posting in response to that News article who plainly don't get it:- This is obviously the moronic tendency, who think that the only punishment that they should have for the third administration in a decade is only the mandatory points deduction for entering administration. A bit like the judiciary giving a repeat offender the same sentence for each offence, with no additional punishment for doing it again and again and not learning anything from it. These idiots think that the last small points penalty is sufficient punishment and that any additional deductions would not be justified by them failing yet to pay one penny to the unsecured creditors of CVA1, downgrading that CVA award to 2p in the £ instead of the originally agreed 20p in the £, not to mention the millions of debt that have been written off that they owed to the taxman. The imbeciles moan that it isn't so much punishing the club, as punishing them, the bestest fans, who are blameless. Well, they should have bleated a few years back about the dodgey owners and the lack of investment in a new stadium and training facilities instead of gloating to us about the FA Cup and Premiership league success that was bought with money they didn't have. They blame the FL about their fit and proper persons rules, yet all I recall at the time was them crowing about how they were owned by rich Arabs or Russian oligarchs, putting them into the same bracket as clubs like Chelski or Citeh. I think that a little more pressure needs to be put on the FL to ensure that they definitely do get considerable extra penalties, or better still, their golden share is withdrawn. Otherwise, we will have to put up with OldNick telling us that they have got away with it again. Of course they haven't, as it remains to be seen whether they can even make it to the first match of the new season, let alone making it to the end of the season.

The difference being that those were league matches, even in the third division, where support helped the team to get meaningful results. This on the other hand is a friendly match with nothing more riding it on it than bragging rights over Arsenal reserves, and whatever turns up from a liquidated Rangers. The match costs substantially more for arguably lesser teams than we played last season. That I was happy to have a ST to watch us in the third division and yet I won't go to this match at these prices says enough, if there is a broad tranche of others with the same opinion.

Can we go on that site and cast a vote for the statue? I propose that it ought to be of the most recognisable Skate football fan, John Anthony PFC Westwood. Arguably he is also the most recognisable fan in British football, so what more apposite subject for this statue could there be than him?

I haven't forgiven him either. It was one of the most spectacular goals I have ever seen at St Mary's. What a pity it was scored against us and not Derby. All of our current strike force are better than him, so where would he fit in here?

Well, I went last year and enjoyed seeing us play two decent European teams. But I'm not going this year at those prices to see Rangers remaining administration rump and Arsenal reserves.

Watching the match last night, there was the usual dreadful inevitability about it. As time went by and it became ever more likely when Italy spurned chance after chance and we hardly threatened their goal at all, that we would suffer the torment of penalties. Even when they had their first miss, I just knew that one of our players would also miss. I even anticipated that it would be Ashley Cole when he stepped up for it. And I also knew in my bones that Ashley Cole would also miss. The result wasn't overly disappointing for me, because I expected that we would lose before we even kicked off. But as Lineker said, the bright side was that we hadn't progressed further only to lose to the Germans once more. Also on the bright side, with luck, when the World Cup comes around, Hodgson will have got rid of the old guard and their egos and brought through some of the promising youngsters. In reply to the thread, Club over Country every time.

I agree. Carroll is just a brute and doesn't have as much to offer in his all round game as Lambert. Lambert will be fine in the Premiership, as was Holt. And Lambert is the better striker between those two. Yesterday I don't think that we got it right. Rooney shouldn't have stayed on the pitch, as he was obviously short of a yard or two and didn't threaten all night. Personally I would have had Defoe on instead. Also in future, nobody called Ashley should be allowed to take a penalty.

See you do get it. Make it a few hundred/a few thousand in all of those categories you mentioned and all of a sudden, that translates into several thousand. What you have also sussed via your super-brain, is that the whole thing is supposition and conjecture. Well done. The only part that you appear to have got wrong (I can only assume that it must be a typo), is that it is only about five people on here who do not believe that we would fill an enlarged stadium. It does worry me however that one of those five is the super-intellectual CB Fry. But they say that there is a small dividing line between madness and genius and I can only assume that you have suffered a temporary aberration.

Fair points. Although some grow bored with the debate, you have asked for a response with civility, (unlike some) so I'll respond. If anybody is bored, then they are not forced to view this thread. As I said, there would be a number of factors governing why we might pick up fans from Portsmouth, but in my opinion it would not involve the hardcore Skate fans to any great degree. 500 is a small percentage of the City's population, so to raise that quantity would not take up many additions from various sources. For example, the University has students from all over the country, so there is not necessarily the Skate allegiance there. It has quite a high percentage of Asian students, so there might be several Koreans & Japanese who might be attracted if Lee shines. Then there are many families who have split loyalties between the two clubs, where our success and the Skate's demise could swing things our way. Otherwise, as already argued by others, there has to be potential for many who would come to see us playing the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal, both Manchester Clubs, Chelsea, Newcastle, Spurs, etc. Also, the possibility that you mention is also viable; lapsed Saints fans living in the City who weren't that bothered when we were in the lower divisions. Taking all of those factors into consideration, I don't see why 500 or so additional attendees from within the actual City boundaries should not be achievable. But as I said, much higher numbers should be possible from the PO postcodes between them and us I'd even go as far as to say to the North and East of Portsmouth too. And just to answer the forum's elite intellect, it doesn't p iss on my argument at all, as I've explained that apart from within our actual rival city itself, and only then their hardcore, there is plenty of scope for picking up extra fans from the PO postcode area. And apart from that, I don't believe that the Derby/Nottingham rivalry is anywhere near as fierce as that between Hampshire's two main cities and it remains to be seen what the situation would be if one or other of them were to fall several divisions while the other gained Premiership status.