Weston Saint

OK I can now confirm this is unfounded speculation. Drew is not aware of any approach. It is known that Pardew rates him but that is all at present. I will put this on the other Surman threads as well.

Well done Minty, everyone stays away from posting and you come on and take a wicket. 154-3 Benham gone

He is registered to Hampshire but has a central contract with England who pay his wages. Hampshire pay him nothing. If he plays for us we have to pay a fee to England.

Spring term report for Hampshire Championship players: Adams – started well but has stuttered of late. Still a useful opening bat and with the lack of any alternative he will get a continued run in the team. Carberry – has carried on where he left off last season and no suprise he is in the Lions squad. Our best player at present Dawson – likable and enthusiastic chap but mid to late order batsman at most. He needs to develop his bowling or he will find himself out of the first team. Benham – Should be a good player but regularly loses focus and it is a toss up between him and Dawson to miss out when Lumb returns McKenzie – very disappointing at present. Let’s hope he improves as the season goes on. Vince – This lad will play for England in a few years if he develops the way he is at present. Could be in the Gower or Vaughan class in shot making. Just needs to concentrate when he has 30 or 40 and he will start making some 3 figure scores. Pothas – Good keeper still but his batting is suffering this year from the responsibility of skippering the side. Not really captaining the side with authority. The dressing room is very down at present. Ervine – in great form with the bat and although his bowling has not returned to it’s former effectiveness it is improving. Perhaps time to move ahead of Pothas in the batting line up. Cork – Getting on a bit now but his enthusiasm for the game is still there and his experience is essential at this time. I would have had him as captain whist Dimi is out with injury. Ali – Has shown he can take wickets for us but his knee injury is a worry. He expected to be back this week but on Friday he broke down warming up with the players. Herath – engaging individual and a steady bowler in the Maru mould but not likely to take a great deal of wickets. Shame we did not decide to stick with Briggs. Griffiths – pace and taking wickets. Bit expensive but he is taking wickets regularly Tomlinson - Not as good as last year but more economical than Griffiths and if he can continue todays form he should stay ahead of Griffiths. Balcolme - First outing this season so not fair to comment. Briggs – Started well and unlucky to lose out to a late overseas import. His time will come again. Overall, some good individual performances but when one fires 3 or 4 others do not. We lack penetration and that is a big worry at present. Must do better.

270 all out. Good day so far. Tricky 8 or 9 overs to survive tonight

Read c Pothas b Tomlinson 22 147/6

AD Brown lbw b Ervine 42 107/5

Unlikely. Be nice if he joined us for T20 though

100-4 off 28 overs Looks like we have let them off the hook again.

Hales lbw b Tomlinson 0 6/2 4.5 overs

N Edwards c Pothas b Cork 4 5/1 3.2 overs

Hants won the toss and put Notts in to bat. Umpires: B Dudleston, J F Steele Nottinghamshire: N Edwards, Shafayat, Hales, Adams, Patel, Brown, Read (C/W), Mullaney, Franks, Pattinson, Shreck Hampshire: Dawson, Adams, Benham, McKenzie, Vince, Pothas (C/W), Ervine, Cork, Balcombe, Herath, Tomlinson Carberry with England Lions, Lumb still away with England, Ali still injured and Griffiths has a routine medical check up.

Lord Triesman standing down from FA. So he should.

Unless he produces proof to FIFA they have to be unfounded. At least Spain/Russia will not be able to try anything now if there was some truth to the story

First you have to ask what Lord Triesman is doing talking to this young lady about such matters rather than alert FIFA. I suspect he has no evidence and it was just an opinion to impress her. What was she doing taking a tape recorder to such meeting? What was her motive? Who put her up to this? That said, Lord Triesman has been very indiscreet and should no longer serve as Chairman of FA let alone the bidding committee from which he has resigned. He is now soiled goods. Unless he steps down or is pushed from football administration at the FA we will not gain the support we need to hold the 2018 World Cup. It is easy to blame the media but it is Lord Triesman who needs to take 100% of the blame

Yes until he places them into liquidation he can sell the players and use the money towards the debt. I was talking about when it reaches liquidation

Agree with you on this.

If the CVA is not accepted they are liquidated. Players contracts revert to PFA so no sale value. There is nothing to sell so HMRC get nothing. They will NOT go down that route. They will argue and make sure every penny is squeezed out but they collect for the public purse and will not throw it all away. If they do not sell the club then I agree about the perilous state in August. In that case liquidation might be the only answer

Lloyd James - no pace, no flair, not good enough at this level. Simon Gillett - not rally given the chance despite playing at a higher level. Clearly Pardew does not see him fitting into his style. He will get another club Oliver Lancashire - could have developed and will do well elsewhere. We have enough for that position who are ahead of him. Good luck to him in the future Chris Perry - Good servant of the club and still one of the best defensive football brains. Reads the game well but age is against him if we want to build a long term stable centre back understanding. We have Fonte, Seabourn and Martin with Jaidi's strength as cover Wayne Thomas - Did enough to sugest he was good cover at the back but wages too high and injury prone now. Graeme Murty - We took him on knowling he had an injury history and it caried on. Cannot afford to risk it again next season. If he can recover a little fitness he will do a good job for someone in Div 1 Jamie White - not really had the opportunity and I do not see him breaking into the first team squad so best he looks elsewhere at a lower level. Michael Poke - Not going to break into the squad and at this stage in his career he needs first team football somewhere. He will get it. Jon Otsemobor - signal of intent we are looking to strengthen that area and Calderon looks a signed on certainty when the window opens. Thoght we might have given him another year as cover but not that suprised he is going. Cannot really comment on the others below as I have not seen them but clearly we had too many youngsters under contract who will never break into the first team so not suprised. Kayne McLaggon Tom Dunford Jack Boyle I wonder if this is all. Perhaps some of the others under contract will be put on the transfer list soon.

You are not. He is ok but has not come up to the hype. I would be looking to find someone better in his place at the first opportunity. He is not good enough!

I will tell you what will likely happen Nick.The CVA will happen and Pompey will start the season in the Championship without a points deduction Chainrai or a new buyer will control the club but there will be very little money for investment in players Most of the high earners will go and be replaced by cheap options They will struggle and end up mid lower table Grant will go Within 2 or 3 seasons they will fall into League 1 but I expect that will be the bottoming of their demise If there are financial irregularities all the above bets are off other than Grant going and a points deduction will see them relegated to in Div 1 at the end of next season.

I make no apology for quoting this post as I feel it is a good alternative view and one nearer to the truth, in my opinion. As for McMenemy and the rest making their Pardew views know in the local paper, if they had considered the man they were dealing with could it have been done better? I think it could. They could have written a letter to Cortese praising his handling of the club since he came in, how they have enjoyed Southampton FC's reimergence and how confident they are of the future in safe hands and what an inspired choice Pardew was as Manager. Ego massage from those who have been successful in the football business would have been the way to go.

Squad for tonights matsh at the Rose Bowl - 4:40 start Hampshire Squad: 4 Jimmy Adams 7 Sean Ervine 8 Liam Dawson 9 Nic Pothas 12 Dominic Cork 14 James Vince 15 Michael Carberry 18 David Griffiths 20 Chris Benham 21 James Tomlinson 25 Chris Wood 27 Neil McKenzie 34 Rangana Herath No Kabir Ali yet but I spoke to him yesterday and he is ok but did not want to risk it today. Should be ok for the Notts game next week. Lumb will miss the Notts game as he will not have returned in time following Englands appearance in the T20 final Chris Woods is the new name. Coming on leaps and bounds in the 2nds and although he will not likely get a Championship game this season he will possibly get a limited over game before the season's end. I expect Woods to miss out this time with Griffiths or Tomlinson the other.

Eh! he has scored three centries this season for Hants (one against the universities) and the divisions 4th highest run scorer this season with 425 in 5 matches

The Echo looked it over and could not see anything to cause its withdrawal. Source - Echo Pardew looked through it before it was withdrawn but could not see anything of note. Source - someone who was asked to collect them up from the dressing room. One of the programme contributors thinks it might have been his article which was slightly critical of Cortese. If it was that I am told he is rather embarrassed by the reaction. Source - someone who was with the contributor today. So basically no one knows but it was clearly not important to anyone other that the person who ordered them to be withdrawn.