Ken Tone

Why on earth hasn't the OS got some sort of explanation to stop all this speculation? They're even still advertising the programme for sale! http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2046028,00.html K.

I know , but the point is that also never do we have no programmes! All I knew all game was that ww were playing a team in yellow with Paterson and a huge freak centre half in it. K.

Everyone would surely have been more prepared to accept the 'production issue' explanation if a) they'd said something about it over the loudspeakers at the game b) the OS said something about it now c) there is no truth in the rumour that some were sold in the club shop before 10.30 ... a rumour which Solent repeated. And btw why the hell didn't the announcer tell us the southend team at the kick off? K.

Redknapp has done well (for a while) at clubs where he has had a (very) free hand financially. Lowe would not have given him the scope to do the sort of "interesting" deals he did at Portsmouth for example ..and thank God for that. For all his faults I can't see Lowe having many plain brown envelopes in the club's finance office. K.

Transfer fee, whether £1million (as if!) or 1p isn't the point with potential signings like this. Wages are the big issue.... and indeed are the reason why very few Pompey players will generate much in transfer fees, since they are mostly overpaid. K.

>>>PS. Respect to those fnas who paid off the charity stuff - whatever else happens, it shows decency and integrity and I for one just feel sad that they have had to do this - but respect anyway. Ditto I was really impressed to see that last night. Good for them. K.

I've never seen him play but it is obvious from his record/age that he is never going to make it in full-time pro football. However I find it hard to feel sorry for him. What sort of wage is he on? From google, The Independent as long ago as 2006 said: >>> So it quite lilkey that in 2010 Pulis, signed when we were in the championship and after 4 years' wage inflation, is earning £150k to £200k basic salary for doing sod-all except play a few practice games. Even though he is unlikely to earn any bonuses above the basic wage, this seems a pretty good deal to me, and certainly beats job seekers allowance Where else would he earn that sort of money? I presume he has no useful qualifications? So, no I don't feel sorry for him. He's had a lot better deal out of life than many many others. K.

Because of his age in effect Reading get first go at offering him a contract as long as they do so as his current one runs out. IF they offer a contract and IF he refuses and signs for us, they are entitled to compensation. If they don't offer they don't get compensation. So in the circumstances Reading would be nuts not to offer a contract even if they don't really want him. The 2 clubs can then agree on the amount or it can go to tribunal where there are fairly well set guidelines for the compensation. Or maybe the clubs are talking about agreeing an amount now to circumvent the offering a contract farce, since both lots know the rules. K.

I really hope there won't be. Most fans want to applaud the team (and management) after the season, not just watch a few hundred knobheads running up and down inanely. However in my experience knobheads usually do manage to spoil things for the majority, so I'm not wildly optimistic. K.

".... nor fans that have been ‘cheating’ or being incompetant. " There's something just so poetically right about this Pompey fan spelling 'incompetent' incompetently ;-) K.

Anybody else notice this? "The unsecured creditors list includes £38m owed to the club's former owners - £30m of which is owed to investment companies for former owner Sacha Gaydamak and his father Arcadi" quoted on the portsmouth evenkng news site. I thought the FA or the premiership had supposedly checked that Arcadi had no invovement with the club -- Sacha has somehow miraculously got all that money by himself. So in fact a convicted, 'unfit', person did pay for the club? K.

Boos were absolutely definitely at the ref, not at the team. Not sure there were 3 certain penalites .. more like 1 and 2 halves, but I was genuinely shocked at the second, very clear, handball in the second half that wasn't given. Have never seen a side come to play such a negative game. Their keeper was time-wasting from the kick off. The ref actually spoke to their captain about it after only the first 15 minutes. a shame to have our dreams die with a whimper, but it's been a cracking season. If we can keep the momentum over the summer, next year wil be great. K.

you say " It's a big ask to hope they lose 4 of this lot and we win all of ours." It is of course extremely unlikely that we'll make the play-offs but surely we don't need huddersfield to do as badly as you say? They have 65 points. We have 57. We can get 78 if we win all 7 games we have left. That leaves them able to get 13 more points to match us. eg 4 wins, a draw and 2 defeats from the 7 games. Or even 3 wins and 4 draws.. no defeats. Our goal difference is worth an extra point in effect. K.

62 ?! Blimey! Even Stanley Matthews stopped playing when he was about 50. ;-) K.

But the point is now that we aren't skint we don't have to let him go for £ 2 or 3million. Fans can never tell for sure what is going on inside a club, but it appears that AL would only go if we get offered silly money, such as £5 million. If no one offers silly money, then great, he won't go. K.

It's 8 points in *7* games. Not very likely, but still possible. Huddersfield v Oldham tonight puts us a game in hand again. Huddersfield ought to walk it, but its a local derby ...who knows? I'm dreaming til the numbers mean we definitely can't do it K.

Well since you ask, I'll explain......... The 'bizarre' comments are because you might as well tell us what The Beano says as take what The Sun says seriously. Looking at the link on the other thread on this I see it says 'a dream move to Celtic' for example. How would a move to Celtic be a dream move for a promising young English player? If he has dreams about playing in a higher league I bet it is in the English PL. Don't you think so? That link is of course to the Scottish edition of the Sun. Hence 'dream move' to Celtic. The Sun just writes what it thinks its readers want to read. Anyone who takes it seriously cannot expect to be taken seriously themselves. K.

Personally I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the crowd. c 21,500 is one of our better 'ordinary' league game gates, as opposed to games against big name opposition. What's more, it appears that many people have apparently given up on this season already ... as in that damn silly thread aftyer thursday of last week about what else people might be doing instead of watching saints on monday. In that light, without the part-time supporters, 21.5 k was a good gate IMO. Pity about the game. There was some poor sod of a Celtic fan sitting near me that was down for an interview today. Can't see him coming to watch us regularly even if he does get the job! K.

Well yes anything would have better than *liquidation*. That is far worse than administration. If the club had actually been liquidated, St Mary's would have been sold, we'd have no football league membership because Southampton FC wouldn't exist as such, and the best we could have hoped for was a re-formed AFC Southampton 2009 plc, playing in the Southern Premier, ground-sharing with Havant or somewhere similar. We weren't all that far from that scenario. We were very very lucky to come out of things as we did. For me personally at least, that was really what Wembley was really about .. a celebration of our continued existence. This year has SO far exceeded expectations. K.

Surely most goalies are over 6' 2" anyway? ;-) k.

Exactly, we were so LUCKY, and it was luck. Cortese saw us as an opportunity, which was lucky in itself, but also we only *just* avoided Pinnacle and others like them. Remember, Cortese and Liebherr hung back because of MLT's involvement. We came so close to that Walter Mitty lot taking us into years more financial chaos. Imagine if we were now close to the bottom of L1 with just the remnants of last year's youth team and no funds. That could so easily have happened. K.

No. As far as I can tell, the lyrics always are "the saints are coming " about 4 times , followed by ".....something ,something, something else," far too quick to hear with the human ear. But it's a good song for us to adopt whatever the lyrics. ;-) K.

Nothing like as good as the atmosphere at Cardiff in my view. As to transport, the signs at waterloo saying the jubilee line was shut from west hampstead were simply wrong. Apparently they'd been left on from the day before. We travelled in from clapham south via northern line and jubilee line in some comfort ..half empty carriage because of the people who got off because of the signs. Bit different on the way home! By eck it got warm in that carriage. k.

Sorry mate but that isn't the case. Yes there were the clear and loud boos over the mexican wave, but completely separate to that, when Markus face appeared on screen there was a loud cheer. His face was followed by Nicola's and then I, in block 125, could clearly hear some of then cheers turn to boos coming from somewhere to my left, ie from the saints end somewhere. This happened at least twice and was *not* at the same time as the Mexican waves, nor in any way connected to Mawhinney for that matter as some others have suggested. K.

It appears the aritcle was written following NC's interview with Solent... second hand journalism again. I presume we've all heard that in full? Is the article a fair reflection of the interview ? No IMO Do care I what the Mail says anyway? No. K.