Guided Missile

He was really switched on about the club. I was so impressed with this old thread of his, that I filed it under "Clueless Fat Fan", with a few of Alpine's old posts: What a w@ nkfest...

[video=youtube;doN4t5NKW-k] Inspiring stuff...

Colin is the ultimate uninformed and clueless spokesman. A dangerous mix, as we have discovered. Colin is welcome to use this quote inspired by our equally clueless Fans Trust spokesman, Dave Ford. Always raises a smile with me: It is very rare I am lost for words but I saw the prospectus last week and it is awesome - a tremendous tribute to great fans. These fans have waited a long time for this and it is going to be fantastic. I really believe it will be the best football prospectus anywhere both in size and the amount of detail

This...

The outcome of hiring or firing a manager is not a certainty. It's a punt. I think you get the point. No businessman ever deals in certainties, not even when it comes to paying taxes...

I'm a businessman in the R&D sector and I can tell you, every new product is a punt. You just make your choice based on the best information to hand. Like judging a manager on the results of his team, not on the opinion of a crowd of clueless football fans, whose business and money is not on the line...

I'll stick with the three reasons you quoted. As far as I know, Adkins wasn't sh@ gging Fonte's wife...

One of Adkins more successful signings. When placed at left back, it stayed closer to any forward than Fox did...

I'll make it easy. Adkins was sacked because he was given the 7th largest transfer fund in Europe and still managed to be one of the least successful Southampton Premiership managers in history and Cortese has taken a punt with a promising young manager who played a decent level of football and probably has a better grasp of tactics and developing young players than an ex-Bangor City goalkeeper. This before the transfer window shuts and we still have an opportunity to push forward...

Adkins was responsible for the make-up and selection of the first team. End of... I am guessing you work in the public sector....

Actually, I wanted him to play a traffic cone, rather than Danny Fox...

Adkins is responsible for the players we signed. As far as I can see, he was as responsible as Mark Hughes at QPR for a very average return for a shed load of money. Unless you're suggesting that Cortese should have taken the responsibility for the way he spent the money.

...and Danny Fox is? The problem that Adkins had, was that he was supported by Cortese to the tune of £30million in the summer transfer window. That made Southampton FC the SEVENTH biggest spenders in Europe, ahead of Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Juventus. That has worked out at nearly £1.5M a point, so far. I'm sorry, but if I had given £7M to Adkins for a player and he came back with Jay Rodrigues, I'd have slapped him round the face, then sacked him. Sadly, he's proved he's a championship standard manager that has a degree in physcho-babble, not football tactics and recognising a premiership standard player...

...and a reminder. It's a results driven business: Appalling...

Nigel Agkins deserved the sack for playing Danny Fox for about 6 games too long. He was keeping Shaw out of the team, which must have cost us a decent start to the season. Sh !t, he was keeping a traffic cone out of the team, which would have saved us a couple of points on its own.

If you were going to get a new manager in, it had to be before the transfer window closes. Adkins has gone as far as his talent will take us. Cortese is simply more ambitious than our fan base. Either it will turn out to be an inspired decision or a bad one. We will find out soon enough, but I am all for it. I certainly wasn't one of the "One Nigel Adkins" brigade. Underachievement on nearly a QPR scale, to be 15th.

[TABLE] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD=class: text, colspan: 2]Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers. syn- socialism.[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

From what I heard, it was very much against Antony Fanshawe's advice...

Exactly what I said, but he was insistant that there was a period and set of conditions when it was available. I think that once they had a bulsh !tting property developer involved, offering better terms than the Council, they hitched their wagon to that particular horse, with the Council disappearing over the hill...

I had another chat with my contact at Begbies Traynor who are advising the Pompey Trust, yesterday. Interestingly, he said that there was "pots of money" coming in from the fans, which is being deposited in escrow. Begbies Traynor are disappointed that the Trust did not take advantage of the Councils funding offer they managed to negotiate on their behalf and they said that it was now too late to receive that loan. He agreed with my theory that Stuart Robinson could not raise the funds to buy Fratton. The Trust is just not a good bet for a landlord, particularly to one that is relying heavily on bank financing. The picture painted was very much one of the Trust members all being more interested in being on the board, than facing the business challanges of a football club and they just don't have the knowledge or experience required. The parting comment on what was the most likely outcome was the same as last time we talked. Liquidation...

I'm taking a wilde guess that you weren't a creditor, but just another disenfranchised and detached fan with a class based prejudice. Go to the ground we play our home games in, look around, remember the Dell and thank Lowe. It was Barclays and Wilde, not him, nor his background for which he had no choice in that fu cKed us. Still, if you think forcing a football based business into administration is a plan, feel free. I think we got lucky, unlike Glasgow Rangers, Luton, et al...

This is what you meant to post, Duncan....

May I add that the damage the Saints Fans Trust did to our club was highlighted in this blast from the past: The main problem was that the Saints Trust was only representing a few hundred, out of touch, impressionable Lowe haters who believed that every Saints' fan thought like them. Easily manipulated by Wilde and quickly betrayed by him, many of them now congratulate Barclays for pulling the plug, when, if it was destroying the club they wanted, they should be thanking Wilde and his wasteful spending spree. Why does the Trust now issue a rallying cry, when a year ago, with their messiah Wilde returning as chairman, it may have made a difference and avoided the inevitable relegation we now face? Simple, really. Following a class inspired agenda that included a deliberate destruction of 94% of the club, to get rid of the 6% they hated, the majority of Saints fans realised what the Trust stood for. Now the damage has been done, all that is left is a battle to save face, while a few dreamers fight over the corpse....

To be fair, it took me 5 minutes at a cost of £2 on Companies House. Mind you, I have had experience of seeing through bullsh!t: Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 3:36 pm Thank Mike for the information and I am glad to hear that the plc he controls is growing from strength to strength. A couple points of clarification, if possible, as I am sure you want to get away from the computer to enjoy the sun in Jersey. 1. Do you intend to run Southampton Leisure plc with similar borrowing and thus interest coverage as you do Merlion plc and also a similar dividend policy? 2. £1,008,378 in dividends was taken out of Merlion plc in the financial year ending December 31st, 2003. Taxable profits before taxation were £569,069. Did you get the 50% round the wrong way that year?

Because they're just fans with no money and no clue. If they were smart, they'd all be rich...