Fitzhugh Fella

That was some lurk? Good to see you back - you've been missed. D

There is a difference to fans owning the club and the fans running it. I think fan ownership is fine as long as the club is run by professionals on behalf of the fans - it works in Spain and Germany.

and potentially got Birch off the hook as he can blame the FL should Potpin cry foul. I think the whole thing was one big connivance - it all happened far too quickly

I agree but it is all a bit too contrived for me. FL getting Birch out of tight situation and all within a 24 hour time frame. The orchestration stinks of collusion on a massive scale. The trust will have to offer more for Farton because Chinny will point out another party were willing to pay more. This is getting murkier and murkier. If I was the PST I would cut and run to Moneyfields - less sharks.

++++ me, the FL are meeting today to ratify the deal? Someone is moving pretty sharpish. As someone has said I think this is Trevor's way of wriggling off a nasty hook. He has stitched Farmery and his merrie men big time! The PST and HNW must be livid.

On Monday night he held up his hands and said he was wrong over both Pinnacle and the bet fixing, the Pinnacle involvement was done purely out of desperation to find a buyer and then support it while he admits to niaivity re the kicking the ball into touch.

Sorry that's not how this thread works - you gotta to be arsed to get the full pleasure of this unfolding disaster. Now go back to page one and come back when you are full up to speed

Whatever the rights and wrongs of this case I can assure you MLT is not doing this for "the benefit of Sky". There are a helluva load of wild assumptions being made on this thread and that is one of the wildest.

Just nearly ran him over in Compton so he is back

waiting for witness statements apparently. I predict there will be a settlement before it gets to court

Slightly crazy - more barking surely

only a matter of time and Avram Grant would be in the wardrobe

Great start to this article http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/feb/02/qpr-gamble-harry-redknapp?CMP=twt_gu

Yes I thought of him a couple of times yesterday but in all honesty a fox in the box has got to have other basics like touch and pace and our Billy has neither

Having gone yesterday here are some thoughts. Firstly a question, How come you can buy a really decent pint of bitter in a city centre real ale pub for £2:10? Now on to more important matters – to sum up I will use a cross section of quotes heard from home fans by me when leaving the stadium (you will have to imagine the accent). “Bloody hell they truly battered us how did we get any with that”? “they mullered us”, “they were all over us”, “they hammered us in the 2nd half” “that was a blitz” “they played cracking football”. None of these are made up and they were so right, after an indifferent first 45 we were different class to Wigan in the 2nd period and had we (and here is the crunch) a true goalscorer in the team we would have had the game out of sight before slack defending cost us a precious 2 points that were rightfully ours. Lambert (who had a great game I thought) is too often not the man the good chance falls too due to him setting up the chance and yesterday Ramirez, Puncheon and Rodrigues all missed gilt-edged opportunities (particularly Ramirez). How a player similar to Boyer would have had a field day. It is all very well having 21 shots at Old Trafford but the only stat that counts is the nos of goals scored (and conceded) and we just don’t take enough of our chances. And now the elephant in the room. Ramirez. Truly awful. I have been patient but I think it has been a very costly mistake. It is no coincidence in our last two games once he has been hauled off we have improved massively. He was the wrong sort of buy when had we say used the £12 m to fund a Berbatov or proven goal scorer type of player, we surely would be higher up the league. I also think Puncheon has gone off the boil. For me he is a bit of a “flash in the pan” player ie good one moment, average the next and I really do not think he is consistent enough or has enough football intelligence. On the other hand and this cheered me, Rodriguez seems to be getting better every game – he really did well yesterday and the run that led to our second goal was sheer class. There was a rumour in the pub before the game that Norwich had come in for him before the window closed and on yesterday’s showing I am glad we decided to hold on to him. Now where can we find that poacher?

Just back from Wigan and he was truly awful. My patience ran out today

3 points 50/50 to staying up I thought NC would have backed MP with one marquee signing. Ramirez has been a disappointment

I think that is where he started actually. I follow him on Twitter and always enjoy his tweets - the fact that he is a Saints fan too is good enough for me.

Can't quite work this one out. "Best chant"? The boy needs to get out more. What a weird weird thing to publicise - about as funny as toothache.

I think the very fact we have had to rely on De Ridder just recently points to the fact that in this particular position we are vulnerable, especially with a spate of injuries.

Pace

Bit of a one-trick pony imo.

What I find fascinating is that like Lowe before him Cortese has split the fan base into those pro and those anti. I was very much in the anti camp re Lowe but for me the jury is still out re Nicola's stewardship of our club. He certainly knows what he is doing, he is determined, ruthless even and not to be messed with. It is a great shame however that to get to where he wants us to be the club as a whole seems destined to lose its inclusiveness. I am not sure the good people of Southampton are ready for NC's journey, we can be a funny bunch.

That's a fair observation and a question I would like put to Matt.

During the Pinnacle takeover when I posted details of the so-called investors on this forum and exposed the bid to be bogus I later that morning had one helluva row with Matt. He loves the club as much as I do but he wasn't afraid of letting rip. But he is the first bloke to own up, confess, apologise whatever and move on. He's a professional pundit these days and he speaks as he finds. Not everyone agrees with what he says and some think he should stay quiet. People seem to think if you criticise what goes on at SMS then that makes you a traitor a big mouth or whatever. From where I sit I would just like to hear genuinely held views regardless of whether I agreed with them and with Matt you get that. I remember a few months after the Wilde takeover which I very much supported. I met John Sydenham for a coffee - he was over with a young Australian lad who was on a trial. I was staggered at what John told me. The club was a mess he said, in-fighting, chaos on the training side of things, disharmony all around and he was very disillusioned. I really did not want to hear what he was saying but because I knew him to be one of the straightest guys around I sort of believed him but hoped it was just a bad week. History shows how disastrous the Wilde era was and how the wrong people were in the wrong places, as far as the health of Saints were concerned, but so many of us hated Lowe so much that we refused to believe his replacements were doing an even worse job. I am not saying NC is doing a bad job at SMS, in fact far from it, he could very well be doing an amazing job and there is no doubt he has a vision and a determination to carry it off. These are exciting if not confusing times for us fans as we look backwards at Adkins's departure and then almost instantly look forward in expectation at Pochettino's reign. As fans we basically back anyone who gives us success. There's the debate, Matt obviously does not see it quite the same way as a lot on here, so one good reason if you are free and nearby you come along to hear his reasoning.