eelpie

Thanks, ticket office

A very good OP, Prof. There are two statements made recently that ring hard. 'Financial difficulties' and ' solutions'. No wonder the whole world thinks we are up for sale. It is time that Mr Chairman makes a positive statement of intent, because the uncertainty is affecting morale.

Pre-season is what matters first

I've had a continuous season for eleven years through all the good and bad times. I've watched Saints since before they were relegated to the old Div 3 South (my bad maths, that's more like 60 years, not 50 years ago) I've seen through three promotions and four relegations - through plenty of good and bad times (including the scary near administration days) and I will always continue to be there. I've watched Adz & co since their early Academy days, and watched Paine and Syddo since they were in Southampton schools teams. I travel 140 miles to every home match and see a lot of away matches. I'm a Saints supporter through thick and thin, and till I die. My post was about whether to buy an inflated ST before we know whether our main players - the core of our team - and Mopo go or stay. I strongly feel that it is underhand of the club to rush through inflated ST deadlines, knowing there will be uncertainty of the make up of our squad for the coming season. A dirty exploitive trick imo. I will have difficulty affording the new ST prices (and I haven't decided whether to buy or not yet) but I can save a lot of money by purchasing individual games home and away. ST's on a cost per match basis become even more expensive when match dates and times are changed to days and times I (and others) can't make due to other commitments, which is another stitch up by the club since SFC offers no recompence. SFC gets the TV money at ST holders' expense. Another example of how the club is exploiting it's supporters (imho). Yes, I know the conditions of sale. So my comments have nothing to do with my support for everything SFC. If we are relegated again to League 1 again, heaven forbid, I will be there as always. It is a simple decision about economics now. ST or pay per match? The club is making their demands. We ST holders are making our own choices - in whichever way suits our needs. Again, my question is about why should I buy an ST when it is cheaper over the season not to? In the end I only get to see around 15 matches with my ST for one reason or another. Does anyone get to see all matches?

Why the heck should I renew and buy an inflated, very expensive and unaffordable season ticket knowing that next season we will be without our best players and probably Pochettino? When we don't field our best players (as experience shows) we lose. Without MoPo the team might disintegrate. I fear that throughout the coming season we will be fighting relegation. Now is the time when we will miss Cortese's bloody-mindedness. He would have had a short answer to the predators who think they can cherry pick our talent. Meanwhile our current owners signal weakness because they are not resolute and can only mumble 'discussions'. I've watched Saints for fifty affordable years. Times are changing, worryingly.

We will probably waist it on two and a half Osvaldo's

Manure have refound their mojo, have strikers on fire again, and they can overtake Tottenham if they win and Spuds lose, so don't underestimate once midtable United. This is no time to field a weak team otherwise our season could end disappointingly, which is not good for renegotiating players contracts -those who receive tempting offers elsewhere.

Hooray

Heaven help us

We have one of the strongest, colourful, liveliest and most identifiable logos in the Premiership. Compare to Fulham (r.i.p) for example. Heaven help us if you want something minimalist and 'modern' The scarfs, the Hampshire connections and all the components uniquely identify the club as much as stripes do. Keep it.

So this thread is not about St Luke in church then...

Paul Watts, you certainly deserve an award. Still puzzled slightly though. Some superb action shots from all angles are published almost immediately during and after games. So surely there must be more than one image taker around the pitch.. Or are there remote cameras scattered around? (I'm too busy watching the game to notice.) Some pics in OS I guess could be digital tv grabs. I've often wondered if there is collaboration between photographers, Saints TV and the different tv companies, or are they in licensed competition with each other? I don't notice lots of press photographers behind the goals at St Mary's as there are in some grounds, and newspapers often seem to use the same shots, so did Cortese win his spat with the press? (I don't have twitter and guess the answers are out there.)

He harasses defenders into making mistakes. Against Everton Alcarez might not have been been panicked into heading into his own goal had Gallagher not been in position to intercept Rickie's deadly accurate pass. His brief is surely to add speed to the attack and create space for Rickie. This he does well. The goals will follow next season. Get off the lad's back, fellers. It is very unfair to infer comparison's with JayRod.

As the season draws to a close I want to applaud the stunning quality of photography every week in the OS. Yet they (he) seem to be anonymous. The OS just credits 'our club photographer'. Does anyone know the name(s) of our photographic maestros? I think they deserve to be recognised.

Well I've gained by not having to travel 140 miles both ways along the M3 when TV demanded that matches were changed to dates and times I could not make. While SFC gained the money I have paid for my ST this year.

That's possibly not definite.

Yep. And the diagonals certainly confused the Everton defence!

The agenda here was to achieve a place higher than 8th, and when we played Sunderland 6th place was achievable had we won the next few matches. So Europe via a cup win was certainly not on the agenda for SFC at that time . I can't see Poch being sacked.

Echoes of Lowe. But they could ask the ever generous ST holders to chip in even more. They only have to name the price.

Re-read the new director's statement on taking on the job regarding his plans for addressing the 'difficult financial situation' he inherited. He didn't go into detail, but soon after ST price rises were announced.

This. Games unable to attend due to dates and times changed for TV are a big factor. For various reasons I had to miss about five games this season, and that increased my cost of ST per match significantly. Add (for me) potentially £20 per game rail travel costs and attending matches regularly becomes even more expensive. .

Yes. Poch's disdain for Saints winning cups is going to haunt us. (I'm sorry, the anger hasn't gone away). We have become the club without ambition for medals. This has to be strongly refuted by him in his future aims, because otherwise top players aren't going to want to be with us, and that includes current players.

So apparently the club sold about 700 ST's less this current year 2013/4 than the previous year. The cost increase must have been a factor. I reckon that decreasing sales for the coming year 2014/5 could be around another 700 ST's less for the same reason. If that is to be the case, could the club still be increasing it's ST revenue with fewer sales? Anyone?

One clue to the rise in ST prices could be here from the Director: "Whilst I perceive that we have inherited a difficult situation financially, there are now clear and structured plans in place to progress the club .....," Hofstetter said in a statement.

The club seem to be having difficulty selling Villa tickets. There has definitely been an end of season anticlimax ever since Poch's poor attitude to winning cups. That has been a financial misjudgement. Not to mention misunderstanding supporters' aspirations. The question is, can we, the players and MP be arsed enough to defend our 8th place?