dubai_phil

yes, I get the impression that rather like Badger Beer, things aren't too crisp or clear around SMS at the moment.

Guys Some good replies back on here, shame we went off tangent onto chain smoking olympics, but maybe if we keep that going we can find something else to do at the stadium. Meanwhile, at the end of the day, Football for all it's big business surroundings is actually a TEAM game/(ok sport for WC man!). Right now IMHO I think it is time for everyone to step back and to start to build a team once again, the football side, the business side and the fans have got to come back together and quickly, that needs a lot of work on all sides. (and is probably wishful thinking) Oh and EoA - think we need to try and burn some airmiles up over Big Eid, to heck with the discounted tickets though, when paying the damned fuel surcharges, the 26 quid is about the cheapest part of the whole trip:-) Mind you, a complimentary barrel of Wadsworth's 6X or REAL Old Speckled Hen might just help! hmmmm The Saints Real Ale festival.... there's another one

It's an interesting problem. You can't change your club, football is tribal. You only go or don't go Some non-committeds would go for something to do on a Saturday but these days to watch what??? Re the forum, this is one of many so it does have competitors. We like it, some others don't, but in a market with competition , then unless you offer the "customers" a truly premium service, they may choose to take their custom elsewhere. The PROBLEM with both though is simple - Football and Forums become a habit. If you allow people to break their habits, it is damned difficult to get them back

ah ha currently 3 users on-line. At that rate, should overtake the Coombe Bissett & Homington Cricket Club fans forum by what? November??

Fri Sailing & Parties Sat Golf on telly Sun BBQ & golf on telly Would rate 6/10 except for the third party afters in a string of Friday parties in which case it is now officially a 20 out of 10

hmm In that case my Friday night was definitely a bit of Sport - I only smoked afterwards smug satisfied winky smiley thingy

OK Lowe and co are the only option we have at the moment. I support their work to make the club self-financing with the income levels the CCC provide I am not 'slagging off'. I identify problems, try and analyse them and try and come up with solutions. From where I sit. the lack of fans seems to fall into three distinct areas - don't want to watch a "reserve" team, have something better to do with their time or money, or have issues with the political situation at the club Identify the problems and then see what viable solutions can be discussed or sent to the Board. TSW - this site is a big part of our daytime existance. TSF was damaged by the bile and bitterness of the ITK crew spreading to the general population. The new forum needs posters - they like the fans aren't coming. I offer some ideas as SOULTIONS to increase the number of active posters on here, not critiques. That benefits US as we get more debate and also the Admin as they secure the LONG TERM viability of the site.

I've had enough of just moaning or arguing about the cause. Time for some ideas and solutions. HTH And some answers to other questions raised in reply yep - seems like on Friday I discovered to my surprise that it appears I did write the book of love, (WOOT) and no, I don't have faith in anyone's God to get us out of here. I am not knocking TSW either - BUT, it is clear it has an issue and the point that I made is numbers are down and heading south, so like the club something NEEDS to be done and quickly. And yes the Itchen Corner HAS to be re-opened, but I decided to cut the post down to 170,000 words from the 250,000 it would have needed to include that - also the corner issue has "historically" been done to death on here and is not a "new creative idea" because it is already clear no-one at the club has noticed or has listened. Oh and FWIW nobody is likely to pay even 15p a share at the moment so - sorry that won't work either Have a nice day - off to practice some of that fag smoking sport this afternoon - how DID that Yank hole that ludicrous 40ft Putt? Still - I never have to hole them - I'm always closer to the pin!)

Bye bye Miss American Pie etc etc. So, was this the weekend that truly saw the cows come home to roost? TSW match day thread had about one post a minute, SMS has the lowest ever crowd. Now, on Monday morning we have only 50 people on line, and even the Asturius Sports thread has simply become a vehicle for Sundance to abuse a couple of posters and vice versa. Apathy seems to rule. The "not putting any money in Lowe's pockets, corners closing, total football, paying 26 quid to watch reserve team football and paying a fiver to use a web forum" brigade have finally made their point. We all know the answers, trouble is we have no real idea what the questions should be. The forum has died, not simply because of the subscription fee, but also because of the fear of losing your fiver IF you post that spark that upsets someone and you get infracted or banned. The club is extremely close to dying, 14,000 fans, a team that seems not able to follow the simplest of positional instructions, and a squad which is now stretched so thin at the back that our scouts are parked outside Mothercare in case they spot a spare Centre Half stepping out of his push-chair for the first time and we can get him into a shirt for Tuesday. BWP & DMG did not do the business and the coach is disappointed. Doh, I think we could have told you that JP. Surman didn't shine in CM role, sorry pal, we spotted that one last season. The magical return of SJ as our experienced saviour up front turned out to be as up to the pace of CCC football as I would have been approaching my 50th and on my 20 fags a day. We're screwed, the answer is not coming in to rescue the club in the form of a zillionaire - they are all too busy buying Banks for 50 pence that have assets of billions they can sell at the car boot for a million. The investors with money are making more money stripping assets faster than a PL club can strip us of our best youngsters, they ain't going to be paying Rupe's et al 8mil quid for the privilege of losing even more money. When you hit rock bottom, you think it cannot possibly get worse. It will, but then it seems like even TSW won't be around long enough to see it. Time to start turning this sh*t around people. Admin - time to realise you got the concept right but the forum isn't going to fly in this format, you're taking longer to add our "valuable features" than our youngsters are taking to adapt to the CCC. Time for you to open the forum up to all again, but restrict access to the new features to paid ups only and for us paid up members - give us a 50% discount next year WHEN you are back up and running properly and the concept has been proven to work and the value add can be shown.If you need donations to help, then ask. For the Club - Rupert/Mike/Andrew - you are in the sh*t. It may not last until Christmas. Your hands are tied, so it is time to drastic action. Some simple ideas of which I am sure we have MANY others 1) Any season ticket holder adult can bring up to 3 kids for a quid, they can apply for a temporary seat swap in their area (subject to availability) for each game to allow the kids to sit with the grown ups. 2) Friends for a Fiver - any season ticket holder can bring a student for a fiver (same deal on seating) 3) Mates for a Tenner - any season ticket holder can bring a friend for a tenner. All new tickets sold only to ST holders and all new buyers must complete the membership application on-line so we can bombard them with junk mail marketing. Cup Games - all ST holders for a tenner. With the current waves of apathy amongst the fan base you MIGHT just get up to the 13,000 mark for the next home game IF you do this. And finally, I know it's tough, but it is also time for you 3 to publicly state that until the club is financially stable, there will be 1) No Dividends and 2) You will draw no salary for your work at the club. Not easy I know as you are all "highly valued in the business world" but you HAVE to start the fight back to get even the few "ain't putting money back into Lowe's pockets" back to support this club. IF you succeed in stabilising the club through this recession then saving your investments will be benefit enough and Andrew can be granted an employee stock option. If you FAIL, then you will only be remembered in business by the blinkered few for taking money we couldn't afford and being the cause of our demise. We're screwed, we need drastic actions

Weren't they supposed to be expecting their money from the Middle East? If so I could have been of great assistance in their endeavours with all my years of experience in these matters. .................. I could have sold them a magic lantern to rub. Would have been a much more likely outcome

Alf Garnett .......... 'til Saints Death do us Part

oh good, she may have been stretched enough to accomodate me then. I have such problems finding chicks that can fit me in to their schedules so to speak.... Meanwhile as I never heard of her she Russkie? if so woof woot certainly would

Think you should be enjoying mate Way things are unless things turn around soon It could be a long time before we're back in it

Well I think the most important piece of information on this post match thread is the MoM poll ONLY 72 people have voted I would say apathy rules but can't be tossed

What a wonderful weekend the Ryder Cup is. Just lovin it! 10 hours a day of sitting at the tv, nothing REALLY happens, maybe a couple of bits of magic in each 3 hour stint, but BOY is it compelling. Even trying to cook something is fraught as the cheers come up on the telly and the omlette gets burnt (again) Overall after the first days, it just seemed we didn't get the putters working as well as we could and we didn't have enough with Ian Poulters' focus & buzz out there. Hats off though to Rose & McDowell for playing really well as rookies, hope Sergio is feeling better on his anti-biotics, Karlsson has started but keeps going and Ollie Wilson gets his game going again today. Got a fresh case of Tsing Tao beer in (love it) and plenty of kettle chips for this evening, probably left ourselves too much to do in the singles but bring it on!

No defenders left

40 something posts about personal views and opinions, but the one post that SHOULD have been questioned was missed in the rush to state the same case we state every week. Dear bmthred, could you kindly let us know whether this is something you have visualised or if it is rumour. At the end of the day, it matters not one iota whether we WANT Skacel to play. It only matters 1) Does Skacel WANT to play? 2) HOW do we motivate him to WANT to play IF he doesn't. Not ONE of us has a clue what is happening here, we would be better served trying to use the links/contacts/ITK's we have to find out if it is really a waste of breath because he has given up or some Crazy Rupert conspiracy theory. For the record, my own opinion is that Skacel hasn't done the business for us before, COULD do the business for us now IF and only if HE wants to be bothered. If he WANTS to be bothered then WTF is he doing NOT playing. If he's given up then just let him rot

There is a simple solution, it is clear, it is obvious to all on here and yet it isn't mentioned. 1) JP is HEAD COACH I care not if he is the world's best or the world's worst. I personally think he has it in him to be a good coach and possibly a very good coach. BUT The "Continental System" to which we aspire has ONE other critical component which I believe at this moment in time we lack. An experienced Director of Football. Now, in our current situation I believe that the appointment of a real DoF - an old hand on the tiller as a DIRECTOR - ie establishing DIRECTION through STRATEGY and acting as a LEADER in helping the Management to arrive at the right decisions, is key. IMHO it should be an EXERIENCED and WISE old head, somebody who has been there before, knows the ropes, knows the game and who has the ability to work as a guide to our playing side. This is NOT the role of "The Director of Football" (that covers more of the business side/stadium etc) which Wilde currently has and does NOT interefere with the VISION that Rupert has instilled or the Financial limitations and budgets in place. It is about being a Mentor to guide the "newbies" I tried to think of the right type of person - they should have been successful, probably semi-retired and with financial independence. A Sir Bobby Robson figure is too old. A Terry Venables/George Graham are the right experience models but completely wrong personal natures. Maybe even a Dario Gradi type. (Oh and we can afford the right person)

Ye Gods We've sat at our computers for the past 3 or 4 years reading line after line of armchair experts telling us that the reason we are at the bottom of the CCC and have no money is because of the way we have kept chopping and changing managers. JP was nowhere near the best choice for the job, and he is nowhere near the finished product as a manager, but he IS our manager and he has had 3 months experience of working with the ONLY squad we will have for this season. The squad is limited, was weakened yesterday by lack of availalbility and if you read his comments, a lack of listening skills and possibly even motivation. On Wednesday night, JP was interviewed on Radio Hampshire. he sounded REALLY down. I am happy to criticise him over THAT, becasue that interview and his "down-ness" was straight after he came out of the changing room. But to be calling for his head after SEVEN games with a squad we have is just insane. It is the exact same "Got to have it NOW" culture that has got the entire planet into trouble and well over half the UK into debt that they can't pay off. We are NOT in a position to change, we are stuck UNLESS we find some money to bring in loans in the next 5 days. Even Arsene Wenger or Fergie would STRUGGLE to get these kids to play CONSISTENT football NOW. It needs time We don't have it We can't afford experience We can't borrow money Nobody wants to GIVE US any money We are in this together and get out together Rupert came back because Wilde, Crouch, their "Money tomorrow crowd of Keith Harris/Salz etc and their "wonder team of Fulham's rejects" not only failed but made things FAR worse Get the picture?

Oh dear, somebody should send these match threads to Rupert. never seen so much apathy on a match day. It can'y just be the fiver and the golf surely

Excellent, my thanks to EoA who called me up to tell me how to get into saints tv. Who's Larrner? He play for Saints? or is that Mark man in da pub's pronounciation... Meanwhile to help the game along, 34C here was very hot and steamy last night :-)

great, can't even connect to the OS today let alone saints tv. Better go back and watch the golf then as nobody seems to be posting anything on here

Friday Birthday party for a mate on a fook off big Catamaran Sailing boat for the day can't believe it's the only time the chicks on the boat have ever gone topless..... and I had my two sons with me arrghh Saturday get home from party for lunch find I forgot to post my weekend on here and feel very sunburnt and hungover - watch golf later Sunday - watch golf Monday moan about the golf

Tough call, sit downstairs and watch the Ryder Cup on telly or sit upstairs and read the match-day threads and listen to Casey telling us the bleedin obvious... hmmmm

Meanwhile... How come when the world of mortgages is crashing around the ears of the banking world we have to keep paying ours. Damn you Rupe's why couldn't you have got us a sub-prime one with a bank that would go bust..........