The9

See my previous response, allied to the fact that players were being paid at all 24 Championship teams and irrespective of that 3 teams were going to get relegated.

But would you be so keen to help preserve your existing employer if you knew a bunch of other businesses were probably going to offer you a competitive deal (maybe even better) if you were suddenly released from your contract, or that if you stayed you'd feel that you weren't doing the best for your long term career prospects ? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I think the players earn their money in the conventional sense. It's a quirk of capitalism that those in the entertainment industry generally get paid so much when few of them do much to justify it, but at least in football there's an obvious hierarchy of pay and ability and people tend to find their level over time. But as the accepted situation is that they're all "overpaid", people need to stop whining about it and stop supporting the business that's perpetuating it if they're THAT bothered. Maybe some Saints fans have..?

I have a habit of posting in a long-winded enough way that people don't usually bother arguing, as well...

Actually not from the programme, but based on the kind of things he's been saying via the OS and on the Echo website since 2007. To be perfectly honest I thought he was a loudmouth when he clattered onto the scene shouting the odds a couple of years back and as yet I've seen nothing from his public persona since to suggest he's anything other than a blowhard who says the kind of stuff he thinks the more gullible fan might like - yet actions to support it have been a little more difficult to identify. He has some money, he likes to chuck it at Saints, and as a general concept I'm in favour of that - my problem is when it comes strings attached and is all intended to raise some short term PR for his ego (or whatever reason). There is, after all, a big difference between "I love this club and I'll do what I can to save it" and "I like seeing my name in the paper for doing good stuff, but if it goes t1ts up I want money back". I'd prefer Lowe's prudence over Crouch's gambling in some situations, but there has to be a balance and a plan, and neither seem capable of realising success, which is why I don't want either. However, given the crisis, I will now go along with whatever saves us, whether that's Lowe, Crouch, Hoddle, Keegan, Sturrock's Eggy Stain or a juggling transsexual midget.

If you have Bennett down as an example of a good transfer I think we'll have to leave this one. Fair point on the Academy crashing and burning this season though, just as the vast majority assumed would be the case.

That's pretty much what happened from where I'm sitting - actually I still refuse to believe much of the "boycott" drivel (with certain exceptions), so what actually happened was a load of people found a convenient excuse not to go because they couldn't afford it or just plain didn't want to watch us being below average in a league that didn't involve us playing the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Man U occasionally. Once the novelty of the first CCC season had worn off and people had seen the likes of funny little Barnsley beat us they weren't coming anyway. There are no attendance figures to support or destroy the "boycott" theory because when Lowe left we had a cut-price match and then two critical relegation battles and figures were skewed by that, so we'll never know. What I do know is that a load of people I know stopped going and it had nothing to do with Lowe at all - and I also know two who did stop due to Lowe alone, but kept going to away games. But as none of them actually protested about it for the first 6 months, what did it achieve other than costing the club money ?

Marsden, Crouch, Beattie, Niemi, Michael Svensson, Kenwyne Jones... ...not to mention setting up the infrastructure that helped attract and then bring through Walcott, Bale, Baird and to a lesser extent Blackstock, Best and Dyer. I'm no fan but that's a poor attempt at a stick to beat him with. The problem was quantity over quality. By all means complain about the quality of the likes of Mikael Nilsson, Bleidelis, Arias and Jakobsson, but Delap was with us for 5 years and Delgado was a proven international who was just always injured and that we didn't have the ability to support and integrate.

It's just dumb luck, someone with a wad of cash and a reason to care about them. Its more bizarre to me that someone would pay £140m for Newcastle United but no-one can find £8m (plus covering a debt of at most £25m more) for Saints as a going concern at the moment. Even as a "big" League One team, even in a recession, even on a tight timescale you'd still think we'd be worth a punt from someone...

I still think people blaming the players are completely missing the point. It's not THEIR fault some numpty decided to pay them shedloads of cash, and they're entitled to all of it - especially as it's not performance-based. I actually couldn't care less that none of them have paid from their own pockets, few of them have any long-standing affiliation with the club as a result of our recent revolving-door transfer policy (the likes of Skacel were "long-serving"), and the ones who might have an affinity, the kids, are the ones with the least money to spare. To be honest I'm bored of all the threads attacking the players for not "fixing" someone else's mistake. The problem was the decision to give that kind of money to them in the first place, not that they won't give any of it back.

I'm actually quite pleased for Brighton, they've been through a whole lot of poop and its nice to see them coming out of the other side still in one piece.

He clearly has one of those as well. If he's putting his hand in his pocket to pay wages, well great, thanks. If he's loaning it until new owners come in, ummm, yeah, kinda sorta ta-ish, and if he's planning on being on the board, eek, keep the gobsh1te away from control of the club, as far as I'm concerned. No doubt he's a fan, shame he's not got the clout to do something about the situation properly nor the nous to stop spouting transparently fan-pandering guff.

In line with their current ground, the away fans will be sitting in that zigzaggy bit in the bottom right of the picture...

You keep saying it, but we were doing alright when it was full, and it was full cos we were doing alright... the only thing that affects results is the quality and effort of the players. Some, but very few, players can only be highly motivated by a crowd supporting them, far more can improve their peak performance when supported, but generally players are so used to crowds I shouldn't think it makes much difference to them one way or another. There's a ton of evidence in Saints results that a loud supportive crowd doesn't make the blindest bit of difference.

Have to disagree, Blackburn didn't give him much time and at the level we might find ourselves next season* (and with the potential) we'd still be a decent place to rebuild a career and squad for that matter. I also think he might have learnt a little about humility after getting bombed out of Blackburn, I wonder if he went in with a big attitude and found the players didn't really know who he was...?

I just assumed the thread title meant bank manager.

Tell that to Accrington and Notts County.

Sheesh, it's not impossible to be supporting multiple clubs in a plastic-kinda way as a little kid with all your mates trying to get you to change every time your or their team wins or loses, especially if you're living somewhere there's no obvious "big" team to support.

Ah Test Valley Royal Saints...

Personally I'm in favour of an entire thread just consisting of people posting pictures of that statue and variations on "LOL" right now...

Mmm, to be fair the first one was argued in November, circumstances have taken a bit of a downturn since then and people are gradually starting to realise than half a plastic club might be better than none at all.

You ought to leave the country or something ?

I don't think there's much debate about that, the problem is people who claim otherwise coming across as wanting to say "I told you so" more than they seem to want the club to survive, some of them from positions where it will make literally no difference to them either way. As someone who went all season long, as a Saints fan and a football fan, irrespective of the politics, I wouldn't be best pleased in being blamed for our failure to exist as a Club in 2009/10 using the tenuous argument that "boycotting" and forcing the incumbent PLC Chairman out would improve things, when so far the methods used seem to be having the opposite, calamitous effect.

I'd be guessing we don't have representation because we don't have any representatives at the moment - if we DID have a slightly more solid foundation I would think that the prestige of being a World Cup venue might have dragged a few investors in, especially with all the freebies and the possibility of a cheap expansion but we're still a long way from that point, so this is all a bit late in terms of incentives. On the Fratton front, it's the only way they'll get it built - and we all know that St Mary's is the likely fallback position for when they fail to get THAT approved as well... You need min 40k to host World Cup matches (30k for Euros), but there's always a few weird choices for geographical reasons - viz Montpellier in 98, Suwon(?) in 2002 and Leipzig in 2006. You are only allowed one city with two stadia, yes. That'll be London.... and as the Emirates and Old Trafford (alongside Wembley) are the only 2 with the 60k+ to hold a semi-final the City of Manchester stadium didn't get a look-in.

This is actually worth its own thread, unlikely idea though it is... there is an element of the "digging a hole for ourselves for Skates to take the p1ss" if we end up surviving though, be wary... PS I'd say we would look like Dagenham and Redbridge, and may be about the same level...

I suspect we're struggling to pay the legal fees right now...