Wurzel

Interview with Lou Macari about the programme here (includes a few spoilers if you intend watching it) . Always thought of him as a bit of a **** but he came across as a really nice guy in the film.

Excellent. One of the best tv programmes (although seemed to be classed as a film in listings) I've seen for a long long time. Defy anyone not to enjoy it. Deserves to win multiple BAFTAs .

Go to go with that one. Was singing exactly that to myself last night, couldn't remember what the original was for the life of me.

There's one thing none of us know except those in possession of club's data, how many different casual fans attend and how often. Keeping figures simple let's say for arguments sake a 30k crowd consists of 20k ST holders 5k regulars who attend all games but for whatever reason won't/can't buy an ST and 5K "casuals". How many games do those casuals attend per season?. If it was just one game each per season then that's 95k different casual fans over the season. If it's (more realistically) 5 games per season on average that's 19k casual fans. Those casuals are the ones the club should be aiming at if they want to increase attendances. Increase the casual fans average attendance from 5 games to just 8 per season and suddenly the stadium isn't big enough.

Trying to get my head round how we have approx 15% more accurate passes whilst having around 10% less possession. Must have spent a lot of time last season with defenders aimlessly wandering about the edge of our own area with the ball at their feet. Or a lot of Lallana dribbles running into dead ends.

Masturbation for 30 years ?!? That deserves some kind of medal not locking up.

8th again. With one more CB signing which looks almost done and assuming one more striker I don't think we are much worse (if at all) than last year as a squad and don't see anyone that finished below us strengthening sufficiently to think they'll do any better.

I can only remember a first half post hitting as well. Although standing under West Stand Archers corner spent most of the second half watching Doc Martens coming through our brand new security fence so may have missed one near the end. Guess we'll never know if it was a genuine fix but definitely neither side seemed interested in winning. If memory serves me right even if we had won Brighton still had to win 5-0 to go up .

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 2m Meanwhile, @danistone25 moves in the opposite direction, joining @Inter on loan for the 2014/15 campaign. #saintsfc

The UEFA FFP rules include that a club must have the following (amongst other things) in place I would assume that if a club has to have all those then their wages would be included in the overall total. http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/

Maybe (note my maybes mean I'm speculating not stating a theory ) there wasn't a "need" for player sales at the time whilst other options were being explored. Those options could have included explaining the situation to players that promised wage rises and/or bonuses couldn't be paid under new rules (would contracts have been drawn up before FFP rules were drawn up? If so a legal minefield in itself I would have thought) and asking if they'd be willing for them to be deferred. Certain or all players may have refused to continue on that basis, especially after hearing of wages available elsewhere during international duty, hence the "mass exodous" as the media like to refer to it. Keeping the squad together but within the rules would obviously have been the first option. That wasn't possible so onto plan B

Good blog on a complicated subject written so that even I can understand it. I'd like to think it's true, certainly puts the loan deals into perspective if it is and the chain of events from NC onwards fits the scenario. Maybe the intention was to let Morgan go (which he hints had been promised) and keep Lovren but DL put a spanner in the works by forcing his unplanned move whilst MS was still away. Once he went there was no need to let Morgan go. Having said that an "all the best" type tweet from MS to DL would indicate no ill feeling between them (although Guly seemed ****ed off with him on twitter) but maybe MS was/is not aware that's why his sale was stopped. Chambers , agree that's the one that doesn't seem to make any sense unless RK has put all his faith on Clyne and saw him as surplus to requirements. If that's the case can only assume he has - or had - a big name central defender lined up. Will be adding this blog to my GReader don't miss list for hopefully further insights.

A size can NOT be out as there is NO industry standard for what a size needs to be. A Medium or Large is simply where it lies in that manufacturers range of sizes, and they vary from make to make. The size in inches (which is at least 2" smaller per size than many makes) is clearly stated on the website, far more relevant than M or L. The variations between a slim fit style and a loose baggy fit exaggerates the difference even more. I own a men's clothes shop and know full well that there are certain brands I always need to tell customers to try a size smaller or bigger than they expect. Doesn't mean their sizes are out, it's just how their traditional ranges fit. If you wear a Medium Ben Sherman shirt you'll be wanting a Large, (probably an XL unless you still want it to look a slim fit) to be comfortable in a Lambretta for example. Personally even in the long distant past as a teenager I always had to by a size bigger in Umbro polo shirts than brands to be comfortable aand needed XXL in tha sash shirt when L or XL was my normal size. With trainers I know I always need a half or full size bigger in adidas than other makes. I bet there's very few on here that if you check your wardrobe will find every top that fits you has the same size in the label (unless you are dedicated to one particular brand).

A bit out of the box this one. The clubs are nothing without a league to play in, so how about the players be contracted to the league not to a club. The league can then lease a player out to a club for a fixed period. Club plays the wages, they pay the league to lease the player. If more than one club require a player when he becomes available then it goes to auction. Clubs with good academies could be protected with no player being allowed to move clubs until a certain age - say 21 . After that the original club could receive a percentage of the lease fee for the rest of that players career. To try and create a level playing field the league could restrict the number of new signings per season and/or squad size for each club. If a club desperately wants to replace a player mid lease with someone better they still have to pay the remainder of the lease. Cap the wages as a percentage of matchday turnover (i.e not sponsorship etc) per squad, as this still rewards the likes of ManUre who have built themselves up with bigger stadium etc over the years whilst Not sure how to deal with promoted teams, I guess their players registrations would have to transfer to the league, but automatically revert to a lease for the corresponding period of their original contracts. Relegated players would have to see out the period of their lease with their club with some sort of salary allowance replacing parachute payments. The lease money the league receives (minus the percentage to the original academy) could then be pumped back into grass roots football, used as prize money, made available as grants/loans to clubs for long term capital projects like new stadiums etc. I'm sure there's loads of employment issues that this could bring up but I've always argued that the EPL or any other league is a competition, clubs can "employ" whoever/however they want but the league can make up any rules they like for entering their competition. This would probably isolate us internationally, with the best players ending up abroad - unless ALL countries adopted the same structure - but would make for a much more equal league for the paying punter to enjoy. Whilst it would still be unlikely that everyone starts the season hoping to win the league, it should take it back to the stage where nobody started a season considering 17th place as a success.

As I said on another thread Glad to see I'm wasn't the only one then, even though it may be just the two of us.

Surely if Cork thought the Club was going nowhere or up **** creek without a paddle he'd be warning a good friend not to touch us with a barge pole. Under those circumstances a very reassuring signing.

This from a Dutch journalist I've never heard of yet I strangely find it the most reassuring thing I've heard in the last week or so.

"Come and sign for us if you think you're good enough"

New "theory" for me but, with hindsight, it does seem to make sense. Am I getting this right? Promise the players the earth for success only for them to realise if they achieve it they won't get what's promised because we wouldn't be allowed to pay them it. No wonder they started looking elsewhere. Sounds like contracts included a lot of performance related pay, so the higher we go the more we pay them. FFP based on commercial income so there would be a need to increase that to pay more wages. Puts the comments from the new post NC board about concentrating on commercial income into perspective. Also our meek "surrender" of the FA Cup last season, perhaps, as Pompey found to their cost, we couldn't afford to win it.

Think he is naturally stocky built but re the 2nd point was I the only one asking myself so where's Shaw?" at many of the goals we conceded last season, only to see him on the replay reaching our 18 yard line as the ball went in.

Hurry up Lungs I need to go for a dump

So which players, apart from Bale, Walcott and Ox who all went for tidy sums, have been good enough to interest the big clubs playing at CL level before the season just ended. Can't really think of anyone myself.

Did we ever discover who this was?

And England Lose because ....... ? Guess that's one of the shorter chapters.

1977 was a long time ago but I have a vague recollection of a couple of things about Jacqueline Bisset in The Deep that aroused my interest Not a good thread to get involved with the day Mrs Wurzel goes off to spend a week at her sisters - it's going to be a hard 7 days at this rate