Ken Tone

It's an awkward game for Saints at this stage in the season. We desperately need wins to gain confidence and momentum, yet as 'the Kraken' says ,the league is far more important than this , and otherwise surely we too would be fielding a weakened side to give a game to a few fringe players etc. Worse case scenario is us putting out a full side and losing, especially to a weak Bolton side, and especially if we get a few injuries in the process. K.

Have a horrible suspicion that Pardew must be lining up another full back. After all, we only have 2 first team right backs whilst we have 3 LBs, so he needs to redress the balance ;-) K.

I would never boo one of our players and I didn't hear booing yesterday , apart from the howls of frustration at his appalling hoof over the stand from a good shooting position. However he did not play well and should have gone off rather than the excellent Barnard. Part of the problem it seems to me is Pardew's insistence on playing him on the right and Adam on the left. This can be good for part of a game, enabling them to cut in and shoot, but to play this way pretty much all the time is a mistake IMO. (They do swap occasionaly for a few minutes at a time). The problem is that whilst AL has the skill to also to cross with his 'wrong' foot , Puncheon is completely one-footed, and can only cut in. This means that often he is in a good position to give a quick cross, but wastes the opportunity as he fiddles about bringing the ball on to his other foot. K.

Errm. Most public sector pensions are based on 80ths, not 60ths, already. And the retirement age has already risen in many schemes, for new entrants at least. Public sector pensions may be the latest whipping boy for the Tory press, but not all are underfunded. K.

Fair point. Presumably that will be the gist of their legal argument. >>"But the claimants now face a battle to recover that money from the club because it is in administration. They are now set to take on a lawyer to launch a legal process to get the money" But also presumably they will have to decide whether to take the risk of their court case not being successful and thus losing even more money in legal costs. Can't see AA just rolling over and paying up, and he'll have far more money to pay for lawyers than out of work staff. K.

The appalling thing is these poor sods are almost certainly not going to get their money but footballers, and even agents, on vast sums will get theirs. How football can continue with the football creditors rule whilst court judgements like these are worth pretty much nothing is beyond belief. K.

We signed him when we were still in the CCC I think didn't we? As long ago as 2006, the average wage in the CCC was reportedly just under £200,000 p.a., never mind when we signed him a couple of years after that. Do you actually know his wage? I don't, but it doesn't seem unreasonable to guess it must be somewhere around that £200k per year mark without appearance/win bonuses, given the wage inflation in football. £45k is under the average wage in L2, never mind CCCor L1 -- in 2006 ! K.

Correction ... I believe he has just turned 26. Still time, eh? K.

Under what aspect of contract or employment law would that fall then? We can't just cancel a valid legal contract because he's not good enough, unless he agrees voluntarily to have it cancelled after a negotiation for compensation - cf my earlier post about buying him out of his contract. If he feels he'll never get another club, why would he agree to be bought out for anything less than full wages? And why would we buy him out for that much? Result -- stalemate, which is what we've had with him for 2 years. If he was any good at all, he'd either be playing for us, or for someone else by now. I'd be delighted to be proved wrong and see him suddenly develop (at 25) into the midfield powerhouse of our dreams. K.

Quite. I've never seen him play, but clearly no Saints manager, nor any other club's manager, except his Dad, has rated him, so he can't be a wronged superstar can he? Surely Saints must by now have tried to buy him out of his contract ...eg half your remaining years' wages upfront in a lump sum to go now? Most players not getting a game would take that then hope to get another club straight away, even if at lower wages, because the pay-off would still give them a good deal overall...and they'd get to actually play football. The only reason not to accept and sit at a cluib doing virtually nothing with no sniff of a first team appearance, would be if there was no realistic chance of getting another club, ie if the player really were crap and was only on the original contract for dodgy reasons. K.

That's a bad sign for us. I'd had a quick look at the Reading web site but couldn't see him mentioned. But what you've found shows he was taken ontheir pre-season tour to Slovenia and is therefore presumably considered part of their plans for this season, so it's unlikely that he will somehow still sign for us after all, as some seem to expect. He's a real loss to us IMO.... a real shame we didn't get him permanently. K.

Plenty of time for which of these? Or did you mean all of them? K.

Well there's easily enough material in that BBC article to start the rumours going again. "Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has said he will commit the majority of his estimated $13.5bn (£8.8bn) fortune to philanthropy...." After all if buying Saints isn't philanthropy, what is? Anyone seen any good yachts lately? K.

Well Alpine did say 'disappointed' in the thread title,and I have to say I am disappointed we haven't signed Antonio, especially since Pardew said as the season ended that we were talking to Reading, which I at least took to mean we were signing him. Beyond that, the main thing was to keep our star players which we've done. Not quite sure why we signed a LB when we already have such a good one and am relieved we finally signed a RB. Overall nothing exciting, which I suppose is disapppointing in itself, but one new genuine first team attacking player signed in the near future would change that. K.

Surely the 28 days applies to any creditor who wishes to appeal, so even if HMRC had decided to appeal earlier nothing material could have happened until the 28 days were up in case someone else chose to appeal on similar grounds. Therefore it made bugger all difference whether HMRC appealed after 1 day or 27 days. These comments are just another example of AA talking drivel to try to cover up his inadequacy or inappropriate behaviour in the role. K.

Was Jaberwocky signed on big wages by Redknapp as well? ;-) K.

All that is needed now to make me a very happy man is for Redknapp and Storrie to go to jail for allegedly doing what the tax man allegedly says they allegedly did, allegedly. Btw was I the only person gobsmacked at media suggestions that Redknapp might become England manager with the court case hanging over him? K.

Well I'd never heard of Zucillini before I read this thread and I have absolutely no idea whether he will sign or not. I felt the public had a right to know that. My source is "direct from the horse's mouth" before anyone asks. K.

Bit harsh. There was one season (was it our last in the CCC?) when he looked to be one of our best players, as a battling ball-winning centre midfielder. Then he was left out under a new manager ,and then I agree, on the few occasions when he did play for us he seemed to have lost form. The fact that he did well for Donnie in the championship on loan, well enough for them to be upset when he returned to us and well enough for them to re-sign him, surely implies he is pretty good, at least by Champ /L1 standards? We failed to make the best of him IMO K.

Got ours in the post yesterday too. Of course I still can't park though. ;-) K.

Haven't even had a reply! It's not so much the price rise that irritates, especially if it is just to meet costs, it is the complete lack of communication. We're having to make repeated efforts to find out about this, and have yet to succeed. If this were a business with normal customers instead of addicted fans like us, they'd have lost custom by now. As it is, even I'm getting pretty ****ed off. Doubt I'll go to many cup games next season for example if my parking ticket doesn't cover those games as people on here are saying...especially evening games. It's a real rush for me to get to evening games after work and if I have to mess about with parking as well as getting cup tickets, chances are I won't bother. Apathy will win. So that's a minimum of 2 tickets' worth of income they'll have lost per cup game. k.

Well I sent this email (below in italics) to the club over the weekend . No reply as yet. In fact the carparking@ email address as stated on the last communication we had from them bounced, so unless David Luker replies no one will. Not good customer service is it? I've had a parking season ticket for quite a few years and am seeking information about renewal. When we paid for our match season tickets 4 weeks ago we asked about parking but were told that information would be given out in about 3 weeks time, ie about a week ago. Over the past few days I've heard rumours about parking tickets being available albeit with a big price rise and also rumours about the car park we use (B) being closed. My wife rang the main club number yesterday. The person she spoke to had no information, but supposedly went to find out. There was then overheard a conversation in the background to the effect that 'it was another b***** parking enquiry', and then the phone was simply put down on her. Please could you clarify what *is* happening about parking? My customer number is ..... K

It's certainly good news that we haven't sold anyone ..in spite of the Lambert and Lallana rumours etc. However we have lost/let go our first choice right back, plus Antonio and Waigo, so there are some gaps to fill. I was really surprised and disappointed we didn't sign Antonio btw. He could well develop like Kenwynne Jones did ..young ,with lots of raw talent that just needs developing the right way. Maybe there's still time, but there's been no gossip about a deal with Reading. Anyway the first team is going away on the 8th according to the OS, so surely we'll want any major signings that are likely to be first team regulars to be with them by then ..and that's only days away. K.

Am beginning to gt a bit concerned. Yes we clearly have the core of a good team, but also we obviously do need a few signings ...especially a right back for god's sake. My concern is based on the fact that Pardew said last season, with justification, that he'd had no proper pre-season to work with the team, and that was why we had such a poor start to the season. Well I woud have thought we'd want the new right back and any other new regular first choice player signed pretty soon, or we will have another incomplete pre-season, with presumably another poor start. Any free agent for example will even be missing out on pre-season fitness training now. K.

Lol But seriously it's tough on poorly paid shop and catering staff to have to pay to park to come to work. Presumably the players will have pay twice, since all those porsche cayennes, bmw x5's etc, take up two spaces. K.