once_bitterne

I think we all have a pretty good idea of the finacial trouble we were in in the Summer, the published accounts tell you all you need to know. Indeed we are fighting relegation this season but the overall wage bill of the club is a fraction of the one that Crouch had assembled last season.... which was also fighting relegation.

Given our financial situation in the Summer only a moron would have thought we had any chance of promotion this season no matter who the manager/chairman were. There were only two aims for this season, financial survival and survival in the CCC. It looks like the first has been accomplished and we still have a fighting chance of doing the second.

If the deadline passes then fair play to Rupes for sorting the finances out as there aint a doubt in my mind we would be in admin now if Crouch had still been at the helm....

As usual Dunc, you inside source is completely wrong! As someone else has already said Poke signed a year extension to his contract. Also Webster has a very high opinion of Forecast as a keeper and was instrumental in him coming here in the first place. It is Bart who Webster had very little time for at all. Whatever the reason for Webster going on gardening leave it was definately NOT any comments he made re: Forecast.

I can't think of anyone who Saints playing in L1 would affect less than you Stuey. Since when has quality of football got anything at all to do with how much enjoyment you get out of a Saturday afternoon. Your day is all about drinking at some god awful place like the Zeb bar before the match, arriving (late) at the match drunk. Leaving before the end of the first half to get a drink, getting back to your seat for the secnd half after the kick off and then leaving the match before it is over to get back to the pub. What goes on on the pitch is of far less interest to you than the excitement you gain from hearing that some of the yoof have been a bit 'nawty' as your role model Danny Dyer would say.... The rest of us will still be watching Saints play next season come what may. I'm sure you will only be missed in the Zeb bar.....

It's a social networking site that people can use to keep in contact with their friends. I wouldn't worry Alps, I don't think you would have any cause to use it........

I'm surprised you are criticising the Kings Of Leon Tim. You do realise that they are American???? Please go away and return with a post telling us how they are undoubtedly the greatest band in the world. To be honest I thought the change in entrance music was the first salvo in the club implementing your Yank manuscript that you sent to the club for filling in the circular filling cabinet.

I thought it was a thread about a furniture removal company.....

If it wasn't for Um Pahars, CS would be the dullest poster on here....

Simple, he would not have allowed Saga, John and Rasiak to go out on loan for fear of losing his good reputation amongst the fans. He would then given NP more than we could afford to buy new players. and voila, administration.

Very detailed research. And you registered a new user name just to post that. I guess the PR war is very much on. I wonder who was instructing Genghis to post that info?

I would imagine it would have been zero as Crouch would have dragged us into administration by now.

Unfortunately this is Duncan's hallmark and something he does far too often..... the nudge nudge wink wink, I have insider info but can say no more. As I said I wouldn't pay it too much head, the past nudge nudge wink wink posts turned out to be total bo llox so no reason to think this is anything different.

Duncan seems a nice enough bloke but he is the biggest drama Queen on this board. I seem to remember it was just last week he was saying he were a whisker away from admin and that the whole club may disappear as a result! Also, for someone who, as the club historian, we would think might have an inside track on the club, the bits of information he does impart on here almost always turn out to be total ******. However, Duncan has been somewhat foolish as he is one of the few posters on here who everyone knows who he is in the real world. So posting a thread about Lowe incinuating he has been 'physically abusive' to a woman is not the smartest thing to do and certainly leaves himself open to legal trouble. Especially when the person involved has a good track record of taking people to court....

Duncan seems a nice enough bloke but he is the biggest drama Queen on this board. I seem to remember it was just last week he was saying he were a whisker away from admin and that the whole club may disappear as a result! Also, for someone who, as the club historian, we would think might have an inside track on the club, the bits of information he does impart on here almost always turn out to be total ******. However, Duncan has been somewhat foolish as he is one of the few posters on here who everyone knows who he is in the real world. So posting a thread about Lowe incinuating he has been 'physically abusive' to a woman is not the smartest thing to do and certainly leaves himself open to legal trouble. Especially when the person involved has a good track record of taking people to court....

and they replaced Thomas with the far better Clarke Carlisle who cost next to nothing! Burley's worst transfer however was "Pele" - how he had the nerve to call himself that still shocks me.

and they replaced Thomas with the far better Clarke Carlisle who cost next to nothing! Burley's worst transfer however was "Pele" - how he had the nerve to call himself that still shocks me.

But we're nothing like Charlton. No, your're right Steve we are as disimilar as two disimilar things.... in pod. They have Directors who have pumped in some decent wonga into their club. Charlton are a plc just like us who need to balance the books. Yes, their directors may have put in some of their own cash but nothing like the amount that could make a difference in today's football world. They are/were like is a club that relied on the tv revenue to stay afloat and when this was removed they freefalled, just like us. They have a progressive and inclusive vision about the relationship and the importance of their supporters. Sounds like a fans manifesto to me, Maybe we should get one of those....... Their supporters, board and club have a very strong bond, built over a period of sustaining campaigning and protests just to keep their club alive, then to reclaim The Valley and then to rebuild The Valley. True, they have far better fans than us. We might be about to be on that road of rebuilding our Club, so maybe the comparison might be true in 20 years time. The only thing in common with us is that they also found out that by going through 3 managers in a season is probably a sure fire way to get relegated. Well that and the fact that they have in common with usthat any established Prem team that gets relegated faces financial ruin. The difference being they don't have a devil incarnate figure to blame everything on

Look at Charlton Robbie, they are falling just like us. However their situation can be 100% 'blamed' on their chairman and board and yet guess what? Their fans aren't marching and moaning and protesting, they are supporting the team. Their fans had no input in the appointing of Dowie or his sacking or who his successor was. Contrast this with us. There is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that we would have not been relegated if we had appointed Hoddle when WGS left. He may be no Mourinho but I see nothing on his cv to say that him managing the team for the complete season would have been worse than having two incompetent and one disinterested manager in a single season. And even then we had good enough players to mean we were outside of the relegation zone before the final game of the season kicked off! But no, the fact that he had left to manage the team he was a MLT like legend to, for many 'fans' meant we could not take him back so the genius ABH Campaign got us Sturrock and then Wigely and then Harry and then relegation. Good work boys. The lot down the road have the reputation of being far more 'hard core' than us but they swallowed their pride and took Redknapp back and look where that got them, a bloody FA Cup win! And why exactly are we on the verges of admin now? Because the widespread Anti-Lowe feeling amongst some 'fans' after relegation (how moronic does moaning about 'only' spending 90k on Fuller look now that we are bankrupt??) opened the door for the worst thing to ever happen to this club. Chancer Mike Wilde. A very average business man who jumped on the opportunity the fans created to ive him the opportunity of living out his childhood fantasy of 'playing football chairman'. 'Mike' is the reason we stand on the doors of administration. We may have not reached the playoffs if Lowe hadn't been ousted but we sure as hell wouldn't be staring down the barrel of both L1 and administration now!!! So like I said some of our fans are fast getting the club they deserve.

Absolutely spot on John. To all those mental giants who believe Lowe is the sole reason we are where we are now just look at Charlton who are miroring our every move (and may even go one 'better' and get relegated while still receving parachute payments) and yet their fans don't seem to be vilifing their chairman. We were just like them, a medium sized club who were over acheiving with a good manager. But just like them things started to go a bit stale towards the end of WGS's time here as he no doubt lost a bit of drive as he could see that, without a billionaire coming in and taking the club over, top 10 finishes was the best he could hope for. "stupid fans living in cloud cuckoo land always demand more." Sadly this sums up a large number of our fanbase. I'm sure many of those passionatlely prostesting on Saturday were those who were wanting 'Lowe Out' even when we were finishing mid table in the Prem and getting to the Cup Final... Even now the same cloud cuckoo thinking regularly comes out on here, "Why didn't Lowe 'Push on to the next level'" without pausing to think for a second how we would have found the £30m+ needed to do this. And there is the same moronic uttering of 'we should have signed Malbranque and Saha' failing to realise that there wasn't a hope in hell of either ever coming to us even IF we had the money to pay their ages (which we didn't) So to those marching on Saturday, well done lads it'll be League 1 Football next season. You've finally got the club you deserve.

Timmy Mumford does seem to get upset far too easily tho Steve! I fear the awful truth maybe that he is my rather faithfull but dopey pet. He never fails to bite at a single insult to the good old U S of A and sometimes gets so upset if I say something negative that he feels it necessary to send me several hundred word PMs detailing his life and what his ex wife does for a living! More information that I could ever possibly want to know! Fetch Timmy! Fetch!! You too make a good pair. I bet it's a riot when you two hit the town. (f'sure)

Posting on the same board = stalking eh? Maybe if you ego is as large as Mr Godwin's... So FC is you Pet is he? Again more patronising and condesending! From what I've read he more than holds his own against you! So is it true that you changed career from a painfully average accountant to a painfuly average school teacher in order to try and boost the massive Godwin ego by engendering some hero worship amongst the impressional youth of Southampton? Sadly I'm sure the talk around the back of the bike sheds is that Mr Godwin is a complete and utter cu...... Are you sure you and Roops aren't related? I can just imagine him bellowing 'Behave yourself you fool"

There's no doubt that Lowe is an arrogant, conceited individual unable to take any form of criticism, with delusions of granduer and an inflated idea of his own self worth.... I can see why Steve hates him so much, they always say people who are far too similar never get on. I haven't a shadow of doubt that if, instead of telling him to "shut up", Lowe had in fact pandered to Godwin's ego and given him the 'tea boy on the board' position he so desperatly wanted/wants to gain through his ill fated forrays into the 'True Saints' (LOL) and Saints Trust then Mr Godwin would now be such a staunch 'Lowe Luvvie' that even Scooby would pale in comparison. Instead we have what FC correctly identified, a carefully calculated PR war where Um never wastes a single post. If only Lowe had employed PR plants as thorough as you eh Steve? I'll be awaiting my ultra-patronisng and condescending reply and if he doesn't use at least 23 smiley's I will be feeling short changed.

'EPL' another 'great' piece of Yank speak.....

LOL. Reid is one of the few managers I think could do worse than JP and Wotte. If we are going to dig up a footballing dinosaur why not do it properly and go for David Pleat or Howard Wilkinson. We need something a manager a bit more in-tune with modern football. The obvious candidate who also has a promotion from the CCC on his CV and has played for the club (with a bit more success than the human chimp) is who we should have gone for when we got rid of Gorman and Dodd, Iain Dowie. I'm sure he would jump at the chance to get back in the game instead of covering meaningless matches on Soccer Saturday. Sadly, this doesn't look like it will happen.