once_bitterne

Can we adapt the old Viera song for him? Are Senegal in the African Cup of Nations next year? If so he will be gone for most of January....

Their billionaire likes to actually spend money?

Anyone who would take our position over Pompey's really does need Sectioning.... They are in the Prem, the only division of football in this country that actually means anything and we are languishing on -ve points at the foot of the third tier. Yes, we have a new owner but he is hardly splashing the cash. Thus far we have only paide a transfer fee for one player. There are a load of poor teams in the Prem this season so even before their new owner started bringing in new players (and the likes of Shorey and O'Hara are decent Prem level signings) they had a decent shout of finishing above Burnley, Wolves, Hull and Birmingham.

reckon we will draw 1-1....

Premier League team score late goals against lower league opposition shocker....

Sounds like another Portvliet special.

Gillet in and Morgan talking to another team?

He seems to like the word 'disfunctional' when describing us, he opened his Talk Sport interview with Boozil and Irani with that a few weeks back. At least Pards seems to have some integrity, I'm sure if Redknapp was in the same position he would be telling Sky Sports News that our poor start to the season was due to the players not being good enough and him not being supported enough by the board as he has only been given the funds to bring in one non-free/loan transfer since he has been here. Hopefully Pardew isn't thinking the same in private!

Delap, then Wright and now Wotton. We love a whipping boy....

Wasn't there the rumour that Holmes was going to be sold to Brizzel Rovers this week?

Cheap?

Wonder if he has been sold a pup? I cannot imagine he has happy that Liebherr has only let him bring in one paid transfer.

Is Holmes still injured?

Gillet not even on the bench! Wasted sponsorship money?

As far as modern players go I don't think them being on a contract or on loan makes even the slightest difference as to how 'committed' they are to the club.

I think Pards feels that we are too lightweight if we go with Schniederlin and Gillet in the middle.

Like Calne? Are the locals still wondering what to do since the pig factory shut down?

It could very well be argued that although we got relegated under Lowe's Chairmanship, if it hadn't been for him we would have been relegated about a decade earlier. From the heady days of the early 80s the club had been on a downward spiral and by the mid 90s we were a team that had no business being in the Prem League if it hadn't been for one man, MLT. We had a run down ground unable to sustain top flight football and a youth set-up that had dried up when Mr and Mrs Wallace stopped procreating. Take a look at the players that surrounded MLT in the Branfoot days, they were utter garbage, Dixon, Reid, Groves, etc. I can't see any sane person saying that if it wasn't for MLT we would have been relegated long before Lowe ever rode into town. The late 90s/early 2000s when SLH came into existance co-incided with the tail end of MLT's career, but guess what, instead of us getting relegated as his playing abilities diminished, we actually got better as a team. As well as the oft mentioned new stadium and decent youth set-up, on the field we went from relegation fodder to a decent mid-table (and better on occasions) Prem team who were looking at UEFA qualification more than relegation under Hoddle and WGS and reached the Cup final. Yes we ended up getting relegated, but with each passing season more and more teams of the like of Wigan and Portsmouth were becoming established in the Prem under financing from a rich a sugar daddy which made avoiding relegation for a self-financing club like us more and more difficult. Yes Lowe was a pompus and arrogant individual with an appaling grasp of PR and a crass idea of the worth of the fans who came through the turnstiles (clouded no doubt by his belief that Sky money was more important than ticket sales) but to say he knew nothing about running a football club is laughable. Keeping SFC in the Prem for as long as we were is no mean feat and without Lowe we wouldn't have had the Hoddle and WGS eras which were by far the most successful we have had since the early 80s and tbh seasons I quite enjoyed. Maybe history will view Lowe's achievements a bit more objectively than many fans seem to be doing now on the back of us winning the new owner lottery.

Can't believe that if this was true that it wouldn't have even made the local news. As we have all seen from transfer rumours, 'my mate's mate said' is never the most accurate of sources.

Anyone but Lancashire.....

He certainly did more than football genius Nigel Pearson.....

All those hordes of 'I must stand to watch football' chavs invading the peace and tranquility of the Northam! It doesn't bear thinking about!

We do seem to be looking after the pennies!

The Trophy is a cup comp for the lower two leagues, the ZDS was for the top two leagues when we were banned from Eurp.

If Cortese is giving up a high ranking job with a major bank then that is a good indication that Liebherr isn't going to be running the club on a shoe string. On takeover day the official o/s article from Begbies said the takeover had been completed by.... and then had some company name that I can't remember now. Does anyone know if this ltd company is registered in the UK or Switzerland?