Sergei Gotsmanov

I recall in the mid nineties being lost on our way to the Anfield. Asked a random scouser who told us he was going - we parked up and he then drove us to the ground in his van which I know made him late because I watched him turn round. I admired that.

There is ambition and then there is realism. We are a medium to small premier league club and are aspirations based on our resources should be to punch above our weight. I think that means competing on the fringes of mid table with a decent cup run.

I would settle for a good cup run and premiership stability.

Proud to be a Southampton supporter

Can you write to them. These idiots have devalued the greatest cup competition in the world. How I miss the old days.

That is very true. Had not thought about that. The BBC recruit bland punditd.

We used to always do quite well on the TV until we went down.

If you noted the price of corn and meat at the moment then you will actually see that it is very much worth farming every inch at the moment. Once again you are using outdated thinking to garnish your argument Pap. Set Aside is now redundant.

I apologise Buctotim for the way our debate degenerated into petty point scoring. We will have to agree to disagree. We are after all Saints fans.

Yes I thought that about yours when you insisted that Heineken wasn't imported and that it was common practice to release pheasants out of the back of a lorry on the day of a shoot! Anyway good luck with your land reforms and reducing the size of farms to make them more efficient!!

It is a recruitment advertisement because they are trying to increase their subs. CLA members in the main wear mustard cords and tweed jackets.

Very clever phrase Buctotim but you fail to contest what I have said. Why would paintballers, sawmills and Equestrian centres be in the CLA? they are businesses who normally rent out their buildings not lanmdowners wanting to be represneted on issues like footpaths.

Sorry just analysing the data you sent me. The CLA is generally a lobby group for toffs so all the people you are trying to bash are incorporated in those numbers - the other 50% of non members would on the whole have smaller farms. Your feudal model is almost completely balls.

Sorry I was working around the 6000 people owning two thirds of the land that was being used on this thread. 36000 owning 50% equates to 686 acres each on average (hardly an estate) - about what you would need to make a decent living out of farming - 5 years ago you would have just made a living out of that. Is this too large a farm or will you still be having a handout to make them smaller (and of course more efficient!!!!)

I have not the time to dig around for statistics; as you have proved they can be very deceptive. I have merely pointed out that the really big estates you keep going on about are in the main mountainous highland estates that distort your figures about the percentage of the UK that is owned by a few people. If you looked at the English figures they would be very different. Yes you have a few Aristocratic landowners but your argument about land reform would perhaps be relevant pre first world war but actually today it is pretty irrelevent because land ownership has evolved dramatically since the 40's. With regard to Heineken, I politely pointed out to you that it was in fact imported. You then went to the Heineken UK website and in a very condescendingly manner threw a load of numbers at me that referred to the company and not the brand. I merely explained that it was in fact imported, which it is. (Ring them up or read the label if you still do not believe me.

Well you seem to be arguing that a few people own all the land - I pointed out that if you discount Scotland where finacially it is often not worth having the land then your percentages change significantly. Your numbers are distorted as is your argument. I mention Heineken because the last time you were wrong you were pretty patronising and then failed to admit you were wrong.

So how is pointing out that if you discount Scotland your figures look very different not answering your question?

Yes really. You still think Heineken tastes awful because it is brewed over here?

So what does happen to your numbers if you take Scotland out of your sums? Read my rep[ly to Pap? Actually efficiency comes from bigger sheds but most importantly from having the resources to buy bigger machinery. Takling headgerows out is not easily allowed today so bigger fields is a redundant argument.

Inevitably you will have a throwback to the past with a few big Aristocratic families still having big estates but most of the large estates have been split up and sold off after the war. Many of the tenant farmers bought their farms and made good. Today the mega rich like to buy land and that is why the price of land does not reflect the profitability of the land - they will then contract out the land because tenant farmers have powerful rights. Where your analysis is once again shallow is that the really big estates are found in Scotland where people own vast tracts of low production highland estates made up of mountains and if you take out Scotland from the equation then your percentages change significantly. In Scotland it generally costs money to have an estate and these rich landowners actually put much needed money into areas that need the money.

What do you want me to refer to the collective farms in communism or how inefficient the framing is in France because of the way land is handed down?

You are arguing your case in a pre war scenario - of course there are still some tenant farmers but most of them bought their farms after the war when death duties split up the big estates. You really do not understand how ownership of the countryside has evolved since the war. Oh and efficiency comes from bigger farms not smaller farms.

If we had beaten Arsenal at Highbury that day it may have been a different story.........

Yes it worked so well for Mugabe. Take the land of people and sell it to other people - and then what? Take it off they new people when they get too big? You live in a sort of mythical world. The land you talk about is already a finely tuned business producing food. British farming is as competitive as anybody in the World.

303 on saturdays