dubai_phil

marking from the corner makes it sound like we're playing for a replay so we can earn extra money......

Like we ever got the ball to him that often before? Probably had more shots so far tonight than in most of last season

SJ looking sharp, seems to have taken on board the shoot on sight advice

alright already. I was just researching to see if we could use their Rift machine thingy to go back and tell Crouchie to keep the ball in the corner against Everton........ And opening a nice South African Shiraz. And funny that about the lashes, the dodgy satellite channel had that movie on earlier - allegedly. Meanwhile nice bucks for Rasiak if we can get it and we may even keep Rudi if he gets his head straight...nice ITK work there guys good save Bart

Captain Jack hubba hubba woof woof Said the misses meanwhile we seem to be playing well Holmes should have scored earlier SJ could have

SJ on for Thomson

hello, had dinner watched an episode of Torchwood & forgot the game Scneiderlin & Wotton swapped back around according to Cope at half time, MS back in midfield

Looks to me like Svennson played his first game in 3 years how is he reacting? Perry is playing tonight and Thomas is our only other experienced cover at CB. Don't see ANY reason to go into tonights game with our ONLY two fit CB's and risk a potential disaster on Saturday in case MS isn't fully happy. Looks wise to me at the mo

I agree cbf, I wasn't saying there should be any Arsenil link, simply we'd see it posted IF just let's see where our loanees come from (IF as I expect we offload some high earners first of course) then watch the conspiracy threads:-) Personally I'm all for finding a few more of these JW gave his all and was almost acceptable as a full back but the choice between him and say another MS in midfield......

Conspiracy theorists should expect to see a loan or two coming down from Arsenil, if the you buy Spiderman and develop him for us and we'll give you a nice profit story has any mileage Meanwhile for a club that's flat broke developing youngsters each year and using the cream to gradually improve the overall squad and finances is not actually a bad idea, in fact it's probably the ONLY idea. Unfortunately most people in or watching football want results now. It's a delicate balancing act this season and if it works and we stay up we'll keep developing gently and sustainably until PA or similar sails in if it doesn't work then we'll find out if the "we want admin" brigade were right or wrong (Oh and if I'd found a way to con some geezer out of enough money to buy the club, it's what I would do this year at least)

That HAS to be an "infarction" point... You actually paid ATTENTION to what the sk&tes were doing at the weekend???!!!!!!! At least you could have included an "allegedly" but oh no - way too much information. (but funny tho')

Ah yes but did the Darkness exist? Or were they simply a conspiracy hatched in a garage by an ageing fat bloke. I blame RoswellSaint.. Meanwhile FWIW 9/11 was just another bit of WW3 which has been happily going on for about 40 years and GWB unfortunately invaded Iraq when everyone knows it was the Saudis who did it egged on by British Aerospace to stop the investigations into dodgy middlemen that started as a deal LLS was trying to put together

What is the world coming to. 10 min slot about us on Arabic tv yesterday (inc Illingsworth) (Think it was from the International version of "the Championship show) as it had the highlights of all the games at the weekend as well) and now something on SSN. Did we suddenly become interesting or is everyone getting their stories in now for the "told you so" stuff when it all goes wrong?

Oh no you don't.... Takeovers and big bucks are not ALWAYS the answer...... First Sven now???? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/mancity/2544315/Mark-Hughes-future-at-Manchester-City-uncertain---Football.html

A wise investor makes good money in a recession. So with the crash at the moment you have to buy things that are a real bargain, not pay top dollar. IF the owners of much of the land around SMS have money problems then now is the time to buy. If they don't then they themselves will want to hold on for a while for a better price. Likewise with the shares in the club, although the market price may be around 27p, those with shares to sell may believe that they have embarked on a plan that will return the price to a higher level in 6 months to a year, so they would not necessarily sell at the market price. So to do a deal in today's market, all the indicators point to the fact that property and business values have quite a long way left to fall, so the skill then becomes buying in the period BEFORE the fall has ended but also BEFORE other people think there is signs of "bottoming out". A BIG money player (like the Property Companies in Dubai - Emaar, Nakheel etc) will look long term and plan a 3-4 year development, but they are looking at making a 50-100% profit on the cost of the investment in that time. It isn't easy to make that level of profit if you start by losing 10% of what you invested in the first 6 months... In terms of "big deals" I just struggle to see where the investor value is right now as opposed to maybe after Christmas, both with Saints and with the idea of major urban renewal projects.

I would like to say I was there But then I'd be admitting I was an old fart as well Nick But yes, it was a precious moment in footballing history and the old fart is actually proud to admit it.

Try a different thought. We have a bunch of talented but inexperienced kids. They have done ok in pre-season. A primary issue with kids is self confidence - belief in their own ability. Then add in that we don't yet know who out of the "old guard" we will not be able to loan or sell. So. The first game you give them the CHANCE. They LEARN and they improve. What have you lost? Would we really have expected to WIN at Cardiff? But we NEARLY got a point. OR the kids do well in pre-season and - you leave them out again, some get on the bench what a slap to their confidence - we've left Lallana & Gillet out for way to long. Sorry, I think the benefit of the result for them in the longer term is so much better. We STILL have 45 games left where we can re-introduce the balance of the wiser older heads, and surprisingly, we aren't the only team in the CCC who didn't win their first match AND we all can see how tough the opening fixtures are. Same again Saturday, they are learning and we have time to tinker when we know better who will be here for the long run

Yawn Well here's an INTERESTING update for you Went down the pub (The Boston Bar) for fish & chips with holidying daughter & her boyfriend. They have about 10 tv's all tuned to sports channels. Low and behold on the ARABIC sports channel is none other than Nick Illingsworth spouting on about the JP revolution. WTF?? Now Nick is a fan and all but being translated into Arabic and broadcast across the world..... Jeez what IS this crummy town coming to? Meanwhile - if anyone bothers to drop Andrew Cowen or (probably) the old Mayor a line you will find that the concept of the Club as a hub of a major (US$750million) redeveopment of the St Mary's area has been talked about as a concept. It has also appeared (allegedly) in some older takeover business plans. It has come up in conversation and on here a number of times in the past 18 months, it is not rocket science. The club as a hub getting "free" investment becomes a small change of a larger profit in return for the political support needed to drive through a complex planning process. Point is again credibility on the timing. The global crunch has at least another year to run and the concept of embarking on a $750mil planned redevelopment whilst a market still has potentially 10% to fall.................

Which is why to me it all sounds like it smells a funny colour The only people I see who have anything to gain from "rumours that undermine" what is going on at SMS at the moment are one or other of the "old boards". The ex execs stirring the pot for some revenge motive or the crew who were getting investment in 6 months back in November. Hope I'm wrong but....

This bugs me as well. The fans on here go into meltdown every time there is a comment or suggestion about Rupert having paid dividends, or hopes to become profitable so he can pay dividends. So what do they THINK a new investor will want? The consortium don't have any money so THEY have to BORROW it. Sure they bring in a "person with money" but why would that guy/gal NEED the consortium members. Just PM anyone on here and we could easily give them the phone # for SMS so they could talk to Rupes or MW direct, without the hangers on. Doesn't stack up. The investors need to put in 12mil to buy us, PLUS security to placate Norwich Union and Barclays,something like 30mil, if they kept it and put that in the bank they would make 4% a year - they'd LOSE around 1.2million in interest. We are moaning AND we know we are struggling to make enough savings to become at least ALMOST financially stable so where on EARTH are we going to find the EXTRA savings we need to give a return on this "borrowed" or "leveraged" money. I'm sorry the consortium stuff still doesn't stack up, it works IF the local guys are acting as a (behind the scenes) tommac/lls - ie a facilitator for a deal, but the maths are just wrong and the finances are still wrong and the odds on adding ENOUGH players to our squad in 2 weeks to turn us into a promotion chaser just aren't worth a gamble. One guy, with money with an ego and a medium term plan I can accept that as being possible, and plausible. Borrowed money or one money man in a consortium of other guys who add what value exactly??? Nope can't see it, too many hands in the trough

Couple of thoughts Arsenal aren't a very big side either Davies to come back James won't make the same mistake again Still think we'll bring in a loan FB once we sell or giveaway some of the high earners, who and what quality would likely depend on how much we get in. Expected to lose, history and the fact so many debuts - the emotional drain on their stamina as much as anything else. SJ probably needs to come in and help out, but needs to be done carefully so as not to dent DMG's confidence So bit of a downer losing in the last minute, but at least not the utter horror and feeling of despair after the inept Palace performance of last year when all the high hopes sort of came crashing down. Looking forward to trying to juggle things around and get a few games in this season now, after Charlton home last year sort of lost the motivation.

:-) Well all that Cern stuff was sort of Saints related something about Halo's on or was it Halon It doesn't matter To many anti's on here When they go round and round do they overtake or takeover

The game thread page came up fairly quickly yesterday, but then seemed to take time to load pictures/avatars and the reply screen wasn't around. Had to log off and back on twice, seemed to be more prevalent when opening a new page on a thread

same old same old

bugger