dubai_phil

Great, that's it official, I got a HCDAJFU right on the old TSF. Whoopee Next HCDAJFU Kaka Which I think is Spanglish for cr*p so I'll go with a loan full back signed by 2nd week of September Good to see though after all that work and no doubt pain, getting back is true legend status. I also think there was a hint about the deal with the release of the Killer T-Shirts. One year deal and an option. If he stays fit I'm sure we'll have that tied up pretty quick before the end of the season as I'm sure a half fit Killer will be worth a fortune and in demand. And maybe, just for once what a lovely happy ending it would be if that (lol) in the OS article about leading us back to the PL actually came true.... hmm but you gotta dream

lol post of the week, luckily wasn't drinking coffee, only water sprayed on the keyboard this time

Well another Friday comes and goes, what a surprise. Just a reality check for those hoping to get money out a US dollar linked economy such as the Middle East.... Pound has dropped to around 1.857. Article below shows it could drop to 1.55 so that somebody putting in 30mil quid in dollars in the next two weeks or so will lose about 20% just in value over the first 12 to 18 months of their investment. Gonna be a real wise businessman that thinks he can burn that sort of currency loss right now with the problems that SLH have with finances. Mind you the GOOD news is that IF we can survive for the season we can become a MUCH better investment for a Middle East based consortium next summer. Doesn't bode well for your cheap shopping trips to the Big Apple though So any new ITK's pop up about investment if it ain't in pounds this could be a problem http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/08/15/bcnpound215.xml

Sorry guys, baloney. The old TSF was FULL of posts about Lazy Rasiak, uninterested Rasiak. Not fit to wear the shirt Rasiak. I LIKED him, he was the opposite of SJ when I saw him - GR was about little flicks and layoffs, most never worked as nobody around him seemed to be playing on the same wavelength. But the tone of some on here it's almost as if we'd just lost Le Tiss in his prime.. The fans on here weren't 100% behind him in virtually ANY of the seasons he played so to say the sky is falling isn't right. It is bad news, but too many IF ONLY's. He didnt play well with SJ, him and Saga never hit it off for us and right now we can't afford to keep players based on a HOPE that our coaches can turn them around for this season. He is a good CCC player, but when we sold Kenwyn and got SJ we had the problem. KJ & GR were good together SJ & GR were the same type of player. The balance of the strike force was wrong. Oh and BTW, this money issue is not just Saints.... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/2559990/Credit-crunch-makes-Premier-League-clubs-feel-the-squeeze---Football.html

VERY bad idea. BUT, one good piece to deduce from the article 1) It is a rumour mill 2) Davies stated clearly in an interview when he signed for us that the main reason he left Boro was that they used him at full back and he doesn't like playing there and Saints said he'd be a centre back. And I don't think he moved here to improve for half a season with a view to a long term career aiming at one of the top 5 clubs to blow it all for one season in a struggling side where he would be made to look bad every week. Chill.

Sorry read the figure in an interview with AS on the OS....

Sports Science, Man Management and Finances. At the top end of competitive sport it is essential to obtain 100 or 110% effort, we've done those threads to death. Getting to the top requires talent, coaching and extremely hard work. Staying there also requires hard work and motivation. In the case of Saints, Alps's point about the perceived quality of Saga and his preference of keeping him is valid from sitting in front of a computer. What we of course DON'T know is in a highly competitive world, just how much damage was done to the players mentally as well as physically over the past two years. Saga hasn't performed for us for almost two years. Maybe, just maybe during the shenanigams of the past two years the observations made by many on here about fitness levels and motivation were correct. Once a player allows himself to "lose that edge or that half yard" it becomes difficult in their current environment to actually recover that motivation to be the best and to work that extra hour a day. I know that once you lose morale and motivation in a work based team, the biting and sniping begins and you have a downwards spiral from a "group that can outperform the sum of it's parts" to one who "does what is needed" before becoming "career politicians". In a work environment, when that happens there is only one way to get back - you have to let the un-motivated move on and try and find a new incentive in a new environment. Saga made that extra impact when he was here on loan, looking to get out of France was it? Once he came, yes he may have been mismanaged, but he also wasn't AS motivated as he had been, so that 110% became simply 98% and bingo. Sitting and hoping that yesterdays players can turn it around is a long term passion for football fans. Not many can actually do it. Meanwhile I still hold with the concept that the instruction to JP at the start of the year was something like "We need to cut xxxx from the wage bill and bring in yyy in fees or we are dead" We all know who we prefer to go but at the end of the day survival is dependent on hitting the numbers first then adjusting the team to fit what we have left. So a valid argument from Alp's but just his timing is wrong, it should have been done once the transfer window shuts and we see what we are left with and how much we have for loans to fill any glaring gaps

Wave at my lad who'll be in the Chapel - lucky b*std I'm dead jealous. Although I may have to be a bit of an old devil Saturday and may have to miss the commentary, gotta check out some Polish connections so to speak, someone invited me out to dinner bless:-) Wonder if she'll like the Seaview Band???

Yes they are. The PROBLEM is I haven't seen an alternative. We are broke, the expenditure vs income is horrific for last year. The alternative "boards" appear to have made the mess Lowe left us with worse. Nobody has bought us or given us 10mil and I and many on here are struggling to find an alternative which is why although we are REALLY p*ssed that Lowe came back we have a grudging acceptance that there isn't really any choice. If we don't stem the losses we bleed to death. We undergo nasty radical surgery and we may survive. The only alternatives we have seen so far have been "should have kept NP", "shouldn't sell players" or simple "abuse" at Lowe for only wanting to protect his investment. Nothing actually creative that gets us out the sh*t. I like you hate it, but I see it as the only hope as I honestly do not believe that we would ever recover from administration. Getting out of it is NOT easy as others have found out. Other than backing Platini or lobbying for changes to the way TV money is allocated I just don't see an alternative..

It may be a bzarre assumption, but equally it may be that we can breathe a sigh of relief. With the JP formation (which most of the PL play these days) we had 4 players for one position of "lone striker". Now two have gone and it APPEARS to be SJ with DMG to fight for the one place. The trick will still be to keep both of them high on confidence and in form and fit. Playing both in the same side if DMG suddenly becomes a "winger" as in the second half at Exeter may mess up those plans though. I don't LIKE it but I still expect that we need to reduce the costs and sell Skacel and hopefully Euell but if we can't then Thomas and KD would likely HAVE to be sold to keep us in business, and if THEY can't be sold that leaves us losing Surman, Davies and basically ANY hope for the future. Saturday will be a better marker for how bad things could be without the old pros. If we get blown away by Brum then panic buttons time. If we give them a good game then this whole thing could work. Surman is a kid but he has played over 100 games for us, and Gillett & Lallana should have played 20+ games for us last year.

It does. Thanks for the concern though:-)

lol but unfortunately I was the one who saw Burley at 11:14pm being only just capable of walking across the lobby of the De Vere. Alps is RIGHT to be worried, but he is wrong to be negative at the moment, we don't have much choice and we can probably only afford to keep one of SJ & GR. Maybe he was wrong not to see the writing on the wall when GR & Saga went on loan last season. We don't like it but have little choice, it' a p*sser but as a mate once said. Life is a s*it sandwich. How good it is depends on how thick the bread is. And that's it after too many Bullfrogs no more sense from here either

Come on Alp's we do, it's plan broke

Actually you are right. The problem is when your house is on fire you don't have much say about where the water comes from to put it out. I'm totally with you on the I want to keep them all line and I also have said it is a hell of a gamble that we are taking. I also like you worry IF we'll earn enough to stay afloat until January and I also worry that we may have to release more cash in January. But right now, if I had to choose, then it is SJ over GR, AS over RS & Ad over JE. And if we are putting the fire out with our only hope then what does it really matter. If the fire isn't put out we don't need our only hope. If we do put it out then maybe we'll find new hope. Whatever, the minute Crouch didn't cut costs we were storing up trouble and the minute the Ex Execs allowed themselves to be walked over on the purchases last season we were in trouble and the minute Lowe walked in and didn't take us to the next level we were in trouble. So trouble's our middle name. ho hum

Oi! Stop it - someone from Watford may be reading this and the deal may not go through so we'll end up having to sell SJ & Davies instead. :-)

ah ha so you told him as it was rumoured on a thread on here and he posted it as you are an impeccable source and then you posted his posting of your posting Wonder if he posted the first post of the post chain of posts :-) arrghhh head explodes, but tbh seems pretty sensible and likely

It was a bloke in a pub at lunchtime who'd just flown in from Cern in Switzerland wasn't it :-)

It is a long time until the end of September when the loan window shuts. We cannot afford anyone now and to be honest is ANYONE on here qualified to say which of the youngsters is NOT going to stay in the team until then or who we will be left with? You know often threads start because we've been used to GB or others NOT seeing the bleeding obvious. With JP at the moment we haven't seen any signs at all that he is thick. Inexperienced of course, but nothing to say he is so thick he needs us to state the obvious. The youngsters play, they learn, WE learn, the management learn, THEN when we have freed up some places in the squad and hopefully BEFORE the end of September we can get in players that we NEED and ADD to the squad. If we learn we need a bricksh*thouse we can get one. If we need a hold-up forward we can get one, if we need more FB's we can get one or two. But right now we have no idea as we don't know two critical FACTS 1) Which kids will hack it 2) Which players in the squad that we want to go will actually be bought When you have no money you don't risk everything on the divided opnions of the fanbase ie we'd be boody stupid to get in a leftback and Rudi stays....

Amusingly on a related note, WAY back in the "early years" of Dubai there was actually a bar/restaurant here called... T G I T = as in Thursday was our Friday... Even today now that American Franchise mob are here, these guys soldier manfully on:-)

But pretty sure that the maths is At least ONE of Skacel, Euell & anyone else. So if we DON'T move those two out we start to have to find the money elsewhere. We have to choose, think we should all be out there trying to sell JE & RS tbh

You see that's why Scoobs is so useful. A bs thread turns into discussions about psychiatry, the mental health of a businessman who opts to spend a vacation fishing and the more obscure realms of the English Language. Quality

To be fair though Wes, many on here and a cuple of other articles point out that we showed some old failings of only playing in one half of the game. If you read what is quoted in the article he does quote the JP line that he "spoke to the players at half time" which is I expect new Dutch speak for "gave them a roasting and tweaked things". Certainly they appeared to play better in the second half and even the Vital Football Exeter guy said we showed something a bit more and he was impressed with DMG. JP was also the one who brought on SJ and moved DMG and we did become more convincing after that. Swallows and summers I know, but none of us are saying he is better than NP could have been - yet. Each game at the moment it seems we are learning and talking about what we are learning or need to improve, rather than the "we were unlucky" platitudes of the GB era. Not the finished article, more a work in progress.

I thought about posting this when i read it this morning. A sensible article. (Hence why I didn't bother - couldn't spoil SW with something sensible AGAIN, too much of that of late:-) ) I think what I would say is that JP is the right man now. He has got us up and running into a season, not saying he is the only one who could have done it, just that he HAS done it. We all know it needs tweaks, but at the MOMENT we like what we see and we think we could build on it. & a bit like NickG wish I was going to be there Saturday, we might put on something worth watching for a change even if we don't get a result

I agree, apart from Scabby there aren't many others on here who bleed one group or the other. I don't see many Hone & Dulltan fans ranting on here. The Crouch months are being re-written as well at least he was a fan and there is a grudging consensus now that sans realistic takeover we have the only viable option open to us. There is a much smaller group of anti-ranters now, but as none have yet come up with an alternative idea that isn't wishful thinking and so are on most people's ignore lists. It's a funny sort of political stalemate at the moment. Watching and waiting, knowing we want something better, worrying about the FB slots but sort of a begrudgng limobo land. Bit like Parliament at the mo...

Just one other point about the "high earners" We had bad season ticket sales. We are early in the season for earning money from home games (ie cash flow) and we kno we are pretty well broke. MOST players have a basic wage, then bonuses including appearance money. So a high earner will have a high appearance fee. So there COULD be an ulterior motive - the kids are playing ok and we don't yet have an injury crisis, so maybe keeping them on the fringes is a "sensible" short term measure...