Guided Missile

The benefit of the recent Bank of England base rate cut will do little to help Southampton Leisure plc. It must have seemed like a good idea when our club negotiated a 25 year fixed rate interest of 8.35% on the stadium loan, at a cost of £560,000 back in 2001. With a base rate of 3% that seems like a pi££ poor deal now. Luckily the £1,000,000 loan we got in 2003 was borrowed at base rate plus 2% which means the recent rate cuts will save the club £20,000 in interest per year compared to a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, the £500,000 a year potential savings on the stadium loan, if we had negotiated a tracker rate, disappeared in the stroke of Lowe's pen, together with the £560K mortgage fee. Suckers.....

I had the misfortune to talk to someone who is reportedly close to a deal that is supposed to underpin this whole "investment". He tells me he is in line for a £7M commission, which involves a land deal in Wales and a £100M in investment in Southampton Leisure plc. The whole thing is apparently being orchestrated by Jonathan Fulthorpe and the money is "in place". I suppressed my initial response, which was to laugh out loud, but instead, simply asked whether he had the chance to read the newspapers over the last few weeks. I then remembered that this guy was recently involved in a large investment in property in Spain, which has resulted in a number of my gullible friends, who invested in the scheme, at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of euros, due to the Spanish developers recently going bust. This Fulthorpe thing is a crock, in my opinion, but I would love to be proved wrong...

I wasn't thinking of her, TBH. Every time you provide your opinion on yet another Saints performance, you failed to attend, I think of a sad ex-pat tossing themselves off in front of a computer monitor, with a soiled photo of Matt Le Tissier in his left hand. If your wife catches you again, it'll be another week of washing dishes, you mark my words....

I was the one that stopped to phone the Samaritans, half way across...

You don't screw Keira Knightley, but I doubt if that would stop you posting about how good she was in bed, on the basis that you toss yourself off, over a poster of her....

Spot on... I am restraining myself from reporting my opinion on Rapid Vienna's performance at the weekend, despite being in Southampton. I just don't have Alpine's imagination....

Very satisfied with the team's performance, overall. Skacel and Llalana looked very dangerous on the left, for pretty much the whole first half and we should have been leading, given the possession and territorial advantage we enjoyed. Less satisfied about the final score and the walk back over the Itchen bridge to the car. It was f***ing freezing...

Colin, can you get a grip? You sound like a drama queen.

Steve Godwin knows all about ineffectual leadership....

To help you "delve into my slur on the good people of Southampton", Steve, let me quote you this part of my original post: You really do have a problem with misrepresenting what people write and then hijacking their basic argument, don't you, Steve?

With the greatest respect, my father was disabled during the war, whilst serving in the Royal Hampshire Regiment in Italy. This was about the same time that the Mayor of Southampton and many of the ARP wardens under his control deserted their posts, while the town of Southampton burned. You obviously believe that the people that were entrusted with the safety of my fathers' family at home, while he was away fighting the enemy, had every right to run away and hide. I don't.

For those that wondered about the origin of the term, it may help to read this: 1995-1996 F.A. Carling Premier League Manchester City 27,941 1996-1997 Nationwide League Division One Manchester City 26,710 1997-1998 Nationwide League Division One Manchester City 28,197 1997-1998 Nationwide League Division Two Manchester City 28,273 Nationwide League Division One 1999-2000 Manchester City 32,088 Carling Premiership 2000-2001 Manchester City 34.058

Well said....

Obviously. Which makes deserting the club, in it's hour of need, even harder to justify

....the tough get going. In the case of many Saints fans, they just stop going. It's probably in their blood, to be honest. When the East End of London was withstanding the Nazi onslaught during the War, the King and Queen decided to stay put, to show solidarity with many of the population of London, who had no way of escape. As the Queen Mother said at the time, "I am glad the Palace has been bombed - it makes me feel that I can look the East End in the face again." What happened during the Southampton blitz? Many of the population "trekked" into the countryside to escape the bombing. I can understand the fear that may have led to this and the sight of tonnes of bombs raining down on our town must have been a terrible experience for the population. The shame we never speak of, though, is that the mayor of Southampton and many of the ARP's, joined this procession, leaving the town without the leadership and emergency services that were so badly needed. They watched from the safety of the New Forest, while the town burnt to the ground. This shame is being revisited on our football club, during it's darkest hour, the blood of those "trekkers", coursing through the veins of the "fans" that seek to justify their desertion. Like the "trekkers", they will, in better times, return. How many will feel shame? Probably the same number that still believe the myth, that the population of Southampton bravely withstood the Nazi threat. The sad truth is that many, including our mayor, did not...

American Football, teaches us exactly why everything in the US is driven by money and success. Failure on the field is not a part of the franchise system that infects US team sports. Relegation battles are not part of the equation. The only way that the fans suffer "relegation" is when the owner decides to move the franchise to a city where he can make more money. Franchises that are fed players by a college system that produces millions in revenue to support their football programs and crowds of 70,000 plus to watch college football. A college system that encourages the belief that being big, dumb and good at bullying others equates to success in life. Little wonder that this produces a country that is big, dumb and good at bullying others... Mind you, I can already see the effects of the Premiership, populated by players who never went to college and are encouraged in the belief that being small, dumb and good at whining at the ref., equates to success in life. Little wonder this produces a country that is small, dumb and good at whining...

Pompey ending up a league below us and we then get a couple thousand of their glory hunters returning to spend money at St Marys would be good news to me.... ....pure guff that will sustain me through our dark days....

....we are in a better position than many think, to survive. The pain we have gone through will be ten times worse for the "bigger" clubs over the coming months. It will happen soon and the pigs who have been at the Sky Sports trough will find that it will soon be empty. The balance sheets of these mercenary armies(or their banks) will soon be found to be nothing more than a mirage of creative accounting, that the Premier League have ignored for too long. Ashley has lost over £300M on HBOS shares, allegedly. A firesale of Newcastle is on the cards and relegation is not out of the question. If we found it hard, how will they cope? Even Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal are not immune to the firestorm engulfing the world's economy. Massive debts built on the assumption that there is an inifinite apetite for overpaid foreigners kicking a ball around at a strange time on the weekend (ie not 3:00pm on a Saturday) are going to be unsustainable and with many of the property assets (£10M for Fratton Park, anyone???) underpinning the balance sheets, a slight nudge that propelled some of the biggest financial institutions into oblivion, will be all it takes. Live with the pain at Southampton Football Club, turn up to as many of the games as possible, because soon, our model of sustainable football covered by income from the pockets of the real fans will be the daily diet of many of the clubs in the Premiership. As they sink, we will rise again, on the back of a vision of the economic reality that so many people are having to face in the financial community, but few inside football can see. Just be glad we are facing up to it now. Those in denial, not a few miles down the M27 will soon be jolted into a world of pain, along with a few others and their journey will go downhill far more rapidly than ours.....

Not according to Ashley: "Ashley issued an emotional defence of his 16-month stewardship, claiming that the club “might not have survived” without his £244 million investment, £110 million of which, he said, was to reduce, if not clear debts." (The Times - September 15th) It was £134 million to buy the club and £110 million to reduce the debt. He wants £481 million for it.....

Is this the same Mike Ashley the ****ney wide boy who, according to the Times "sold the City a pup with the flotation of his company, Sports Direct, one of the most overpriced share issues since the dot-com bubble burst, and remains a hugely divisive presence, frequently dismissing the predictions of experts and calling Philip Dorgan, a critical analyst at Panmure Gordon, a corporate and institutional stockbroker and investment bank, a “moron”? The same Mike Ashley, the diehard Newcastle fan who "has informed the proposed buyers that the club is priced at £481 million. This is in stark contrast to the £130 million he bought the club for back in 2007. Whilst Ashley has since ploughed funds into St James’ Park, thought to be in the region of £100 million, the valuation is certainly an enormous figure and one that may detract any potential investors." I can only imagine the reactions if Lowe did that to Saints....

...was it just me, or has the pitch at St. Mary's been narrowed by a metre or two? Was it all a cunning plan to prevent visiting sides from attacking our flanks and allow our midfielders to cover our attacking full backs. I think we need to be told....

That pretty much sums up how I feel Steve. What I hate is the total bullsh!t people give for not going, trying to justify their stance on a point of principle, when the real reason is far more mundane and pathetic.

....and you seem to have re-integrated very successfully...

Yeah, I'm Sure Pol Pot, Robert Mugabe, Osama Bin Laden, Charlie Manson, and the late Saddam Hussein were wonderfull people Read the above carefully, wipe the dribble from your chin and then read it again. I was taking a wild guess that you were trying to justify hating people you have never met and this thread was about hating Lowe. Then again, it was probably a random set of keystrokes, as you were trying to access the "Re-integration into society for ex-squaddies" self-help website....

I'd not enter into a "better fan than you" competition with Hacienda, if I was you, Prof. He goes to all Saints away games and no home games, despite being a Villa fan.