Rocker268

I'm proud to call Southampton home and will always feel that way, it is a much more attractive city than Portsmouth and although there are rough areas to Southampton it is not as bad as Portsmouth. The only thing that attracts people to Portsmouth is Gunwharf and the Spinaker tower, neither are really worth visiting more than once. I always get the feeling that Southampton has wasted potential. The city needs something to draw people in and I seriously doubt maritime museums or the Spitfire proposed for the waterfront would do that. If the city does recreate a tram line then I feel there needs to be a retail area on the waterfront with family resturants and a cinema connected to the city centre, this coupled with other ideas would draw in crowds. As for the club issue I can feel jealousy but we are a prime example of how fortunes change and I would rather support my local life long team no matter what than a stupidly rich club which is just a play thing for some billionaire Also I know some people knock Southampton's nightlife, but I think its great there are loads of places to go with such variety, especially if you are willing to go up to Bevois valley. People get drawn to Oceana but it is overpriced and over rated, when there are much better clubs IMO. I would feel not nearly half as safe on a night out in Portsmouth and from what I know of Portsmouth's nightlife it isn't nearly as broad

What are the odds that if Lowe did take over another club they would somehow rise to greatness and praise him as their saviour? It would seem to fit with our recent luck

I would hope Pinnacle, they seem the most promising, but then again I don't care who buys us as long as someone does, although I think this is another false alarm of something happeneing, IMHO I can see Fry saying tomorrow that a deadline of 24 hours has been set to make a bid and we will still be in the same situation next week with no new news

This may be completely wrong but I'm sure I heard somewhere we didn't sign Drogba because £1.5 million was too much for him

It would be great if he did, I saw the rumour on the BBC a few days ago that he would quit but it was a link to the Sun or something so didn't pay any attention. I reckon it would be a great appointment, although I doubt he would come, with Le Tis on any perspective board and Strachan as manager with a fresh start I reckon we would get a good following at home and have a good feel good factor allowing us to quickly shake off the -10 points and start playing well.... if only

No chance and I wouldn't want him he has done a poor job at Newcastle, although I believe managers should always start in the lower leagues I'd rather he didnt do so with us

I agree it is very odd that Pinnacle haven't moved forward if the Echo is correct and the creditors were happy, it could of course be that their wealth is locked up in assets and getting the £14m to present to Fry is a problem but I don't think that is it. Could it be that the overseas group is such a good proposition that Fry is trying to bring them forward so that they put a bid forward by freezing out the rest of the competition?

I wouldn't imagine the figure to drop to far below the lowest attendance of the past season, (~12k - 14k) as I would say that is our core support. If we are doing well hovering about the playoffs all season then >18k and if towards the end of the season we have managed to get into the top 3 then I would expect >20 possibly even near a full house if we look likely for automatic promotion/win the league (obviously that is a very slim chance)

My exams don't start till tuesday so I still have all this to stop me working, although I only need 40% to pass my first year, so I have plenty of time to check for updates!

I tried looking through but didnt see this anywhere else: at the bottom of the Echo's article it claims Pinnacle had a bid deemed acceptable by all the creditors and that they had a plan that was agreed to be in the best long term interests of the club, so unless I am missing something what is stopping them from entering a period of exclusivity? http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/4384529.New_bid_to_save_Saints/

Its a shame, especially when you look at the billions pumped into the banks to keep them afloat due to over spending and they can then effectively destroy a key aspect of thousands of peoples lives and not shed a tear as long as their chief execs keep living the good life they dont care about us one little bit

Yep same, there is no reason why we shouldn't come out of this, it may be that its not a take over in the sense we are all hoping in terms of wealth, but as long as there is a club next year I will be more than happy, and I hope this is the lowest I will ever see the club sink!

I've heard rumours of this as well, its either rich US businessmen or a rich Middle Eastern Consortium and a deal wll go through at the start of July now they have guranteed survival, I have also heard that if Newcastle stay up they will get a new owner with shed loads of cash Although I probably heard both of these rumours on here so I wouldnt trust their validity =p

This may be a little naive but I believe that by the mid part of next season the majority of arguments will have gone, they may well be replaced by others but I can't see people turning everything to Lowe or another ex board members fault once we have new owners a new manager and a new season all under way

I don't think its a Loweite comment at all. Crouch is responsible for the mess as well, so is doing his best (and more) to rectify that. Lowe and Wilde are doing nothing to help (especially Lowe as he took £2mill from the club) and are bigger factors for the demise of our club, but Crouch isnt a knight in shining armour, he is just doing the right thing (if only the other ex board members would do the same). I don't want it to appear that I'm knocking Crouch because I have massive amounts respect for him and think he has done more than anyone could have asked him to, I just don't think he deserves to dodge the blame from the problems we are in

Same it would be usefull. I'm annoyed Fry gave an ultimatum and never did anything about it apart from saying a deal is unlikely

The OS can't really post what has mostly been speculation fueled by the Echo in an attempt to sell papers. I think the club is probably just ticking over until something is more certain. So if and when you see something on the OS I would start paying attention!

In the Solent City story on the saints web site, it laid out a good idea of this happeneing, to challenge in the PL we would need a couple of hundred million and I would suggest that SMS is used until a bigger middle ground could be built, would solve a lot of Pompeys problems, as for the rivalry I have always felt Pompey hate us more than we hate them. I wouldn't oppose it as an idea. As I have said before a lot of my best friends are Pompey fans as I have always lived slightly closer to Portsmouth than Southampton, so it would be good to see games with them

Unless someone else got there first: one or two others were potentialy involved but pulled out when they realised the cost to build for a future Its either those same people or others are tying up legal matters before they can advance Lynham is still very confident otherwise he would have pulled out by now Still efforts and lots of legal meetings going on Fry and Lynham still talking (midnight last night) Unofficial bid made which Fry knows about and is talking about it to one of the clients directly

I don't think its a case of Fry admitting well thats it I'll turn the lights off at 5pm it may just be that the pinnacle lot fall through and someone waiting in the wings comes in and takes us forward. I still don't think Fry would have extended his deadline to today unless Pinnacle had a good offer behind them as many have said it may well be Fry trying to force Pinnacles hand I won't accept there are no bids until the very end, even then it may take a few days, although I wish they would hurry up so I stop procrastinating

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/southampton/8055407.stm I had a quick look but couldn't see the link anywhere else, not much more than was on the radio really

You just beat me to it, would it be a good move if they merged with the pinnacle bid?

I agree at the end of the season I would have taken him to the airport but he has done well in the circumstances and done what needed doing. unless someone new is appointed he could resort back to being in charge of the aademy/reserves

Our debts aren't 30mil though they are about 8/9mil, so 10% was being generous. Last I heard Pompey's debts were about 100mil, but this may have been exagerated. As for the mortgage its not that bad. You have to admit, if you had the option by a club for 9 mil with a good ground training facilities and a top youth academy, or pay around 60mil (as Pompey's owner is accepting a 30mil loss, plus the bank accepting they wont see some of their money) and still have the developing to do which would you choose? I wouldn't want Pompey to fold as a lot of my best friends are pompey fans so its great when either side is doing better for the banter, but it was best when we were the same level. But I do miss Saints being top =p