Patrick Bateman

I think that's fair enough!

It doesn't matter what the attendance was really - but it's obvious football is overpriced. How much was last night? I bet it was at least £20 (I didn't even bother looking) - had it been (say) £12.50 or even £15, I bet FAR more people would have attended after work? Football is too expensive.

*cough* *cough* I know it's not versus Everton, but ...

I very much doubt Boruc will be match fit though? I would say it would be harsh to drop Gazza. KD has a larger role to play at the club - Club Captain, coaching the younger goalies (Gazza and Cropper etc.) and generally being a good influence around the place. He'll be a fine back-up still. I would say Gazza to start, KD on the bench again - Boruc will get an U21 match or 2 under his belt and get some match sharpness first. Just my gut feeling.

Lovely lady. Typical middle-aged potty mouth drama queen. I can't be bothered to reply!

Isn't Corp seating around the 1000 mark, maybe 1200 - seems to ring a bell. I do think that there isn't demand for a bigger stadium in the current economic climate - but Frank's post makes perfect sense as a business model. There is a cut-off point between expanding the stadium by x amount and reducing the prices by y amount where is makes no sense. But I'd argue that selling season tickets for (say) £250 would shift lots more and making the normal matchday price a similar amount (minus, say, £2 per ticket) would work. The ROI over 5 years would (probably) outweigh the expansion cost and leaving a little more income for wages/transfers etc. But no, in the current climate, it would be insane - the fanbase IS there, but the fans who are willing to spend are NOT there. As shown by not selling out our home matches in the Prem, by the poor cup turnout and by the p*ss poor friendly attendances. Is there a stadium that's sold out week-in, week-out? Other than say Man Utd and Chelsea, probably Spurs (their ground IS too small for them!! Are we really saying we need a bigger ground than Spurs? hahaha!!!!)

Ahhh, I'm glad you highlighted that. I had no idea/clue what it was all about either and neither did anyone else around me! Weird.

Great minds!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabio_Grosso or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianluca_Zambrotta Please. I asked for Boruc and he was delivered, now one of them will do nicely for a season - both great players for Shaw to learn from as well.

No, don't be so boring, it's better to not understand that the player wants to make alliances and get the fans on-side at his new club where he wasn't liked.

Southampton used to be pretty terrible for a decent night out - Mcluskey's, New York New York, Dog & Duck, Thursday etc etc etc., remember them all well! Then it became okay, now it seems terrible again - or am I just old?

The thread may not make sense to some, but I understand the sentiments. The last three years have been fantastic - trips to small grounds (some with terracing), winning a lot, being a "bigger fish in a small pond" and being seen as arrogant. The promotions and did I say, winning a LOT? The Premiership was always going to be a come down. Less wins for certain, more sterile - but, we should see some fantastic football and if that's more your bag, then great! We've got more coverage, more money and we're back to where we were for 27 years and (I hope) financially secure now. So yes, the last three years have been great fun, but hopefully in the past now!

I had forgotten I asked for an MP3 ... it's disappeared from that link now, damn it!

I honestly think Adkins will be going nowhere for the next few matches - I think he'll have until mid/end October personally. It's FAR too early to be discussing this considering the teams we've faced - the top 3 teams in the country AND they are three of the top teams in Europe!!!! Had we opened with Norwich, Reading, Villa, Fulham (for example) and we had 0 points from those then yes, it *might* be a different story. But I don't see Reading with their mighty 1 point panicking, or, are they?? Football is weird. Let's enjoy the ride - if we go down, we go down - we'll come up again soon enough. That's football - someone has to go down. Personally I still don't think we will, especially once the new guys have adapted, but I suppose the real test is this weekend. A whole week of the whole team training together, a week of decent tactical analysis, a week of the new guys bedding in, a week for injuries/aches to repair, a week of confidence building. So we'll see.

Scarily, I didn't realise it was only 4 years older than me - I thought it'd been part of the landscape long before I arrived in the Waterside!! Shame about the workforce obviously, but also, the chimney is a bit of an icon. Can see it for miles - I hope they keep it. It's one of those "so ugly but you'd miss it" structures.

Agreed - he'd be my choice for at least a year's contract. KD as back-up and Gazza learning the trade. I don't think his temperament is questionable, I just think he's passionate - from memory, I don't recall him doing anything wrong other than a slight wind-up of rival fans?? Gordon is great, but are the old injuries too much? Am sure we'll be surprised, but would like one of them to come in, Boruc first choice for me.

Prefer Sashimi to Sushi - especially Tuna and Razor Clam, but maybe I'm boring? I can't stand the horrible bland "Sushi" you get from the supermarkets, it's rubbish - you have to smoother it in pickled ginger for it to taste of anything - not how it should be. I could eat loads of it, but then to be full up, I would need to eat loads of it - I really love it. The best I've had in this country is a little place near Westminster - http://www.atami-restaurant.com/ - I haven't been for a while, but it was still great when I last went. Nobu is very good too, but you pay for the name there! Atami's Marble Beef is absolutely stunning too, getting REALLY hungry now!!

There are no words.

Have done many sports - played American Football properly for a couple of years (was a running back), played tennis, did Taekwondo for about 6 years (Hi Pilchards!), did Judo, did some boxing and I really enjoyed cycling! Love watching Rugby (Union and League) as well as football and with what little time I have now, have just regained my passion weights and for combat sports as well again! The "sport" I love watching most on TV is, bizarrely, Snooker - absolutely love it. I grew up with a snooker table, was never brilliant at it and I just love watching people who are actually very bloody good at it!

I didn't say "good" ... I said there is one, you plum I don't understand why anyone would want to be a veggie personally, but hey ho! It's a nice little place to eat, peaceful, in the New Forest and they do a veggie menu with "vegan" (which is even more odd - sorry Pilchards!) options - so it fulfils the criteria!

Sample veggie/vegan menu; mains Potato and onion galette with ‘Mrs T’s wild mushroom cream, wilted spinach and roasted courgette Stir-fry of vegetables with noodles and an oriental Thai sauce Local free range eggs with spinach, sundried tomato, goats cheese and red onion confit served 14.95 with dressed salad vegan Stack of Provencal vegetables served with herb cous cous and a tomato reduction All our main courses are served with vegetables supplied by Sunnyfields organic farm

One of my fav places; http://www.themillatgordleton.co.uk/restaurant.htm They do a Vegetarian/Vegan menu too.

I said that too - there are simply TOO many names this year! I would like to see Ellie Simmonds get it though, she has a HUGE personality, comes across as really nice and is the best in her class. Followed by Wiggins and Ainslie. Wiggins as the "best British Olympian" of all time and Ainslie for being the "best Olympic sailor" of all time. I enjoyed everyone else's win, but those 3 for me, stood out!

Like it or not mate, football is now "business", big business. You can blame the Americans (for what they did to their sports and the knock-on to us), you can blame Murdoch and Sky, but unfortunately, to pay the players and to even run a football club is now a lot different to even the 90s. I mean yes, if we were still in the Dell, there's no doubt we'd be a floating League 1/Championship club size, watching more wins than loses and being ignored by the media. A lot of football fans would love that, granted. But if you took over the club for example, you'd want to do as well as you could - that would mean upgrading the ground, getting better players and spending more money. To aid the income from Sky and sponsorship you need a fanbase, but in order to maximise fanbase potential, you need to become a global brand. It's a spiral. It is unfortunate, but it really would need clubs to stop asking for silly money for players and for players stop commanding such ridiculous wages for it to stop. So whilst a lot of football fans would love for football to be a non-commoditised business, a large portion of the same group would want the best for their club if they were in charge and would therefore succumb to same spiral

I'm not bothered, but, I would have swapped the two kits around - white as home and the red one as an away kit with a 3rd kit of the normal yellow.