The9

I don't think we have a pie chart that covers all of the groups quite yet - maybe my "Saints Politics" questionnaire idea from a few weeks back still has legs ?

Plenty of fans have had to deal with administration, and at every club there are those who have done something about it, and those who haven't. We have a big steaming pile of people who have chosen to walk away and treat it like someone else's problem. I'm not blaming the fans who went to matches, and I'm not blaming the fans who tried, nor criticising their methods (which others seem keen to do).

I think a lot of people have, and they're beyond reproach. It's only the ones who haven't that are going to get upset by it. And you're right, when we get fantastic turnouts I know how many people care - what was that drop in attendance last season again ? How many did we get to see Man U ? And all that again...

If we can pay him we should pick him. I don't think he's much of a footballer but he's a proven goalscorer even in the league above, and if we're stuck with the contract and can't get rid anyway, well hell, see if we can get the best out of him. And if he doesn't want to play, yeah, sack him, mid-transfer window he'd probably agree to a mutual termination to get a big signing on fee from a desperate club anyway.

Formerly, or do you mean only at dinner parties and PFA dos ?

I'm not slagging anyone who attended or those who went to the trouble of organising. We have, however, shown ourselves as a whole to be a bunch of ingrates who don't know a good thing when they have it, and in a large number of cases aren't prepared to do anything to support it even when there's a chance it might not exist. We should be grateful that SOME people are prepared to put in the effort on behalf of others, rather than just assuming someone else will sort it. I appreciate their efforts at trying to make it work and they should be commended for it - it's as ever far too easy for anonymous people to criticise the people who have actually made an effort whilst doing nothing themselves. Speaking as someone who has already seen a club I supported go bust, maybe I'm a little more aware of the consequences than others.

Why don't you all just stick each other on ignore and save the rest of us having to wade through it..? Saves a few hundred of us having to do the same...

I am glad I went, I'm also glad I'm not obliged to go to loads of local gigs when I'm skint, as I've got enough going on otherwise that I can't afford already, and it looks like I'll be getting another season ticket at some point now too, hopefully.

It was an opportunity to do a bit of both in my eyes, good set of local bands, interesting venue, chuck a few more quid into the abyss and hopefully help pay some of the day-to-day staff... the worrying thing to me was there were SO many people that just said "f'ck it" and tried to make out that it couldn't possibly achieve anything.

Speak for yourself, I got to see a load of local bands in one event, saved me loads on checking out who was decent at various pubs over the course of the next few months...

Given the lack of support from our wonderful fans I hope they managed to cover costs. Lucky a lot of people volunteered really.

Another thing of course, is the best way to be in touch with fans' perceptions is to be at all matches home and away, but the second the club offers any kind of benefit to the role there's an accusation of "favours" and selling out. The lack of anything resembling a workable democracy doesn't help either, there are far too many self-interested groups claiming to be representative, which allied to general apathy makes for a really messy "get all your mates to vote" student union type mess. What is actually needed is something linked to season ticket ownership and away attendance which allows people to attend and vote, kind of like the shareholders' meeting but without the PLC undertones. Then again even workable democracy is hardly a shining example nowadays. Sod it, self-appointed narcissist, you say ? I'll do it. :smt117

I'd want a fans' rep to be doing the rounds and arranging something like an MP's surgery, in order to get people's opinions, a bit like like a politician - and the politicking to end there... ...of course, focus groups and workshops and such like, which would actually produce the kind of results that would be of use and be representative, are also the kind of new-fangled lefty nonsense (or something) that yer self appointed man on the street scoffs at. I should think it's a pretty thankless job, done properly you'd spend 95% of your time gathering opinions and 5% representing them, when in reality it would probably be 10% gathering opinions, 5% representing them and 85% defending yourself again people slagging you off for some perceived bias.

My favourite bit so far is that the Online store link to the main site is still linking back to the old (index) home page. That and once you get to the useless Coming Soon holding "home" page the only way out is to foce a 404 error with an incorrect URL in order to get a link to a page with some navigation on it !

He obviously does, anyone with a legitimate belief in their argument would be trying to defend their position.

Is he ? I forgot to notice.

All that proves is that the crap standard of football on show was evident the previous season as well, and the decision to *ahem* "boycott Lowe" was made on the on-pitch failures of 2007/8 not 2008/9 - which can be seen in the ST figures alone. The most misleading stat that doubtless will get trotted out in years to come will be the big spike in the attendance the match AFTER Lowe left, which of course was due to £5 tickets.

I'd take their collective arms off. We should be paying them. Though I suppose he's scored a few in League One already, maybe he's found his level. Let him scuff 30 (15 penalties) this season and then sell the lazy get.

Any private business wanting feedback from its fans can do worse than get one in an advisory capacity... of course it depends who they are and who they're actually representing.

This will be my second "rule 1" in 4 days...

If only... Shinawatra hardly had his hands clean when he took over Man City before he sold to the sheikh. Speaking of sheikhs... Portsmouth's one seems to be getting a rough ride, though less fit and proper have snuck through prior to the new, stringent (ha!) tests... http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/may/31/sulaiman-al-fahim-portsmouth-takeover

The first one, cos I'll know we've still got a team.

Well to be fair, Hoddle bailed when we still had almost all our difficult fixtures left with Saints, sneakily, overnight with no notice. Strachan would have completed his contract had he not been forced out early when news that he was leaving broke. He also achieved a lot more at Saints than Hoddle by getting us into Europe and to a Cup Final. The two are hardly comparable. Having said that, stuff all chance of him coming back while we're scuffling around the third division.

Well, no. Not ironic at all. Now it WOULD be ironic if we ended up staying up as a result of Leyton Orient going into administration and having points deducted, but let's not get into all that "you don't understand irony" thing, eh?