Weston Saint

It is set at £52m wages this season but restrictions only apply to the income from TV money — so any income from sponsorship deals or tickets sale can still be spent on wages.

Barcelona do not need him. They are 6-0 up against Lavente at half time!! He only scored 2 of them

One stand named after Ingleby-MacKenzie, probably our greatest captain in the present era. Within that stand is a large dining suite called the Shaun Udal suite. The members bar is called the Derek Shackleton suite, one of our greatest bowlers. The nursery pavilion is called the Arthur Holt Pavilion. Arthur was a player for Hampshire & Saints but is remembers most for his behind the scenes coaching at Hampshire. Then there is the Robin Smith suite. All prominent areas of the club. Then there are the Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge suites at the rear of the pavilion. Warne originally had the restaurant named after him but our sponsors, Ageas, wanted that so in recognition of the fantastic years of Warne as captain the stand bore his name instead. He still comes to the Ageas bowl. He has been at least twice this season. I spoke to him after the Lancaster game. Bransgrove is not obsessed with overseas players. He is obsessed with bringing in the best. He is very respectful of our history. Walk around the pavilion and Robin Smith suite. As for his being interested in the four day game, I speak to him regularly. He is very pained by our present 4 day showing.

First to call our performance abject is unfair. Yes they were disappointing but with about three overs to go we were still in the game. Our record in this competition is second to none. However it is a short game and difficult to pull back. We are the Manchester United of the T20 without expensive stars. even MU slip up at times. I agree we need a top class bowler and the club have been trying but there is dearth of talent available. Tanvir, who I agree was disappointing in parts was the best available! Even he has left now to join the Pakistan squad. Wheater is not in the same class as Bates but he is a decent wicket keeper. He is in for his ability to bat but so far has failed to impress. I would prefer Bates back in. As for the comment of not playing the Academy players I think to poster needs to look at our side of late. Dawson, Vince, Woods & Briggs play regularly. Bates should make 5 out of 11! Without Bransgrove we would not have a team able to compete in first class cricket at any form of the game and he is passionate about us competing in 4 day cricket. Money has to play a part, of course, but he still sees winning Div 1 of the Championship, his main ambition as Chairman. The comment regarding Portsmouth was unfortunate and taken out of context. He is very good friends with Le Tissier, Benali and McMenemy. He is also friends with Mike Richards a former Director of Saints. He still loves Saints and has asked me to point out his band, Strapped For Cash has the initials SFC. He admires the idea of a football club being owned by the fans and as they are in the Hampshire catchment area he has always strived to be inclusive with them but that proved difficult in the past. He is uncomfortable with Cortese's way of doing things. He is delighted at Saints success to date.

I will have a word with Terry when I see him next, hopefully on Thursday. The guy is still a massive Pompey supporter By the way, he has a son who he tells me is a pretty good footballer and looking for an Academy. Won't look at Portsmouth but hoping Southampton will have look!!

I see Lowe is getting the blame again and I can see why but remember this club could only hope to survive at that time on young players on low wages and Forecast fitted that bill. Lowe was badly advised despite goalkeeping coach severe reservations. In the same summer Lowe was made aware of a young midfield Frenchman called Morgan Schneiderlin but it would cost us €1m, money we did not have. Lowe went to the bank and they agreed to fund on his recommendation and reports. We all know that the bank did next!! Luckily we held on to Morgan as his skills had not developed enough to sell to recover the money. How do I know? Let's just say I had a friend in the board room at that time.

Dimi will be going home to Aussie at the end of the season and likely to seek some form of non playing cricket appointment out there.

Good win today. Club are looking to bring in a loan to cover for Carberry, Vince & Briggs for Lancs game. Watch this space as I am not permitted to say who but he is an experienced Englishman with a good 40 over record who is playing for a county who will not be qualifying for CB40 semi's. Early days yet and it may not happen!

Is it possible that the premium promised to Aviva when we reached the premier was funded by the reported loan charged against the assets and that the share capital transfer to the profit and loss account was to pay that off?

No one on the horizon. Very worrying as our present lot, other than Tomlinson, are struggling in the championship.

Tomlinson was rested as his wife is due to have a baby any day

I upgraded to BT Infinity with a new BT hub. Engineer did it all for me and I found out yesterday that I had the same Sky message. Went to my connection and found the filter not connected. That is definitely your problem. You should have a white filter with a wire that Sky put in. that filter fits into your telephone socket on the wall and your telephone is plugged into the filter You must have been using it before!

http://www.ageasbowl.com/news/The-Ageas-Bowl-Family-Festival-Returns Last year was free and "sold out" in 48 hours but then 3,000 who had tickets did not turn up so they are trying for just £5. s at Friday they had sold 2,000 in addition to members.

Let me say straight away that Adam has been saying these things privately since Pochettino arrived so not news to me.

Agree completely. On T20 front, Hampshire have not only qualified for QF with 2 games to go but are also guaranteed a home draw. The lowest they can finish is 2nd in the group. Top of each group plus best second get home draw against one of the other two seconds and best 2 3rds. Lowest we can finish is best 2nd.

When Keegan made that comment it was probably correct but times and money have changed in football. OK, Sky money is given to all Premier clubs so not too much of an imbalance there. The big issue now is money invested by billionaire owners (not much of that around in Kegan’s era), vast sums from European cup runs (nowhere near the same scale in Keegan’s era) and corporate exposure worldwide (much more now than in Keegan’s era) Can Southampton win the league (or even compete for the top 4) in the next few years? The answer is sadly no. We have a good investment stream but we cannot yet compete with clubs willing to pay £30m plus on players that will make a difference. We cannot yet compete with clubs willing to pay their top stars £80,000 to £120,000 per week. We do not have the income from European ventures. We are still finding our way around corporate exposure in the world. We are looking to buy better players but we appear to be having difficulty persuading them to sign. We have yet to earn the right to do so. We must earn respect. That takes time and money. It may come so to say never is unadvisable. But for now we should concentrate on making steady progress year on year.

Shame, I want to beat their best team, not give them excuses when they lose.

You do not really know him do you! At Hampshire game a member went to the Steward to say his son and his friend wanted Warne's signature as they were great fans of his bowling. The steward asked Warne who said he had to do something first to do with the team but would come back. 15 minutes later Warne was sat between the two kids chatting and it absolutely made their day. This is one of many stories I can tell about Warne and other players and officials Warne was one of the greatest players of all time.

I did not go into detail with him, first because I was called into a discussion with someone else part way through and secondly at dinner we had other thinks to discuss. However. I do not think he was meaning kit. He loved the away kit but was reserving judgement on the home one. He did not think there would be a mass change in players, just few good additions but a big season for many of the first team squad. I think it was more our profile, playing style (we started that last season) and "overall set up". I have no more knowledge on SMS developments but we all know Cortese's views on that. We know how Staplewood is developing. I think the changes will be driven by these sorts of thing as well as the massive ambition which again has been widely reported.

The whole set up, he said.

Everyone at the club very excited and positive about the new season. Working very hard in training which is exhausting them but getting them ready. Plenty of ball work. They cannot wait to get started. Still no info on players coming in. If a player does not buy into the tactics, training and vision he will not be signed or if he is already part of the squad he will find himself having to move on. My contact says Southampton Football club will be unrecognisable at all levels in the next 3 years. There is a real excitement and ambition within the club.

Latest is that there is no knowledge of any player coming in at present. There has been no strange or interesting appearances at SMS or Staplewood. Trust me, on the evidence I have heard today the players are unaware of any potential signings at present.

I should also add that a highly motivated, focussed and talented team should not need a captain on the pitch for the 90 minutes.

It is not just being a captain on the pitch. Adam does an lot behind the scenes that most of you would not believe and I am not going to breach confidences by saying any more!

Forget the "cover for players"....we will only buy players that are good enough to compete in the first team. We are looking for players that will make those who are regulars have strong reason to up their game. All players have been told not to expect automatic selection....ALL PLAYERS. We are looking upwards, not sidewards or cover!!