saint1977

That's what worries me, any of the young players who do well up to Jan will be sold for a pittance with no chance of replacing them.

Totally agree, don't want rubbish on the wage bill. There are probably players in L1 that could step up and take the opportunity.

Nail, Head. Hit. If you want to know why were are in this mess, knock on Guy Askham's door. If I were Rupert, I would keep him well out of sight of the fans after his and his cronies' activities. Guy Askham is no more a fan of Saints than Milan Mandaric or Kevin Phillips and has creamed off a lot of money at our expense. Don't forget, Lowe and Secure Retirement cleared a £3m overdraft Guy's poor Chairmanship had accrued. After all, we are talking about the man who awarded Branfoot a 3 year deal and then squandered millions paying off all the rejects - Dixon, Speedie, Hurlock, Lee. Lowe pales into insignificance compared to Mr Burns who still pulls a lot more strings than most people realise, despite being about a million years old. Askham, Richards and Wiseman should never show their faces at SFC again and if they do, they should get the fans ire, not our young players who are trying to repair the tangled mess of shares Askham left.

Trouble is, our fans have been brought up on some fantastic players and that is the benchmark, however unrealistic. Personally, I prefer not to barrack any mistakes and like to encourage the young players by creating a positive atmosphere but come guys, we've been supporting Saints long enough to know that every club has it's moaners. Brum will also finish top this year IMO so that has to be borne in mind - I hate Phillips but he isn't a bad sub for the CCC! If fans want to moan at failure - look at the boardroom: Lowe, Wilde, and those recently departed like Crouch. They are all failures and not good enough to be involved with our great club. Wilde has even managed to fail badly in two different set-ups! Askham is the worst of all though - the club will be better off when that bloke moves into his nursing home and cannot bleed us dry any longer.

Lowe hasn't got much choice on the sales - we all know the bank run the show now, but we do need 4 loans this week if that's the case to have any hope of getting any more than 30 points this season. If we go the big 4, we might be able to limit our wage contributions. If we do not bring in loans to replace Surman and Davies - WE WILL GO DOWN AND FINISH BOTTOM. WE WILL THEN GO INTO ADMINISTRATION ON -17 IN LEAGUE ONE. I don't agree with those that say "go into administration now" but I can see where they are coming from. Investment now has to be the board's top priority just to keep the academy and survive.

The interview panels have probably being falling asleep!

Come on Delia, let's be having you!

Davies' performance on Soccer Saturday was one of the most mind-numbing and boring pundit performances I've seen. I thought he'd be a good manager for us but not on the evidence of Saturday - "they're back into the game" - no Billy, they were never out of it, your game is 0-0! That said, it was still a great achievement to get that team of heffalumps into the Prem. I was on a train after the play-off first leg with a fair few Derby fans on it and the team they hate is Notts Forest and having been to Notts a few times for work since, the feeling is certainly mutual!

Megson is a mug to pay £700k for someone that is a CCC loanee and that he didn't even play. Football really is walking towards a very large cliff face when you see madness like that!

Don't think they'll go down but I think they will struggle to finish top-half and the excuses and whining are already out in force from Harry - the Pompey fans I know reckon he's being unrealistic. They might struggle in the UEFA Cup too as you need a decent size squad for the number of games. Still, I'd rather be in their position than ours - we won't be able to keep the academy going unless we get investment, let alone buy first team players.

Good result, many CCC teams going out tonight. Could do with a couple a favourable home draws now so we can pull some revenue in.

LOL - Classic Alpine! The last sentence is definately one for the pub. In fact, it's the second cracker I've seen on TSF this week - who came up with the brilliant "Administration for Saints as a solution would be like using a revolver to relieve a headache"? Also last summer I saw someone on here describe LM's face on a particular occasion as like a "bulldog licking **** off of a nettle". I know it's off topic but I creased up when I saw this.

One thing that hasn't changed - Strauss still doesn't know where his off-stump is! Time Denly came in for India I think from Kent.

Went to GBBF last evening after having meetings in London yesterday and it was excellent. I was also told that Triple FFF Moondance had won - good to see a Hants winner. If anyone on here is going, I would recommend the following beers: - Elland 1872 Porter - Nethergate Umbel Magna (flavoured with coriander seeds) - RCH East Street Cream - Timothy Taylor Dark Mild - Cains' Dark Mild Kelham Island Pale Rider was there I noticed, always worth a half at least. Great choice and the international and bottle conditioned stands were full of great beers and I took quite a few home!

I went to the South Western Arms just after Greene King (I think it was 2003 ish) had been awarded and a poster had been defaced and "********" and "fix" had been scrawled all over it! Don't mention Greene King in Nottingham - not popular as they decimated Hardy's & Hanson's and moved the brewery to Suffolk.

Well said Camb Saint, Sidebottom is a control bowler with an old ball to tie an end up but I always think Anderson is a more likely wicket-taker if it swings and KP sees this too. Great to see Harmy back, he did deserve to be dropped after his rubbish in Hamilton but how many tall 90mph venom bowlers are there in world crickert, let alone England? Mahmood is much-improved since he played in Australia so I'd take him to India as he can reverse-swing the ball at 90mph and hope Simon Jones stays fit. Let's hope we can get rid of Moores though - counties boy although I was sad to see Vaughan go - fine captain but his knees have had it.

Seeing as the investment question has been covered already, I would ask: "Are we planning to use the loan system to bring in competition in the full-back areas?" We are OKish at CB, CM we're well sorted for and CFs as it stands too. Not doing too badly for width with Dyer's new contract but full-backs worry me. Lloyd James was excellent V WHU but what if he has a dip in form or gets tired - does happen with young players - or gets injured? Moreover, I'm still not convinced at Surman at LB.

If you want good real ale, head for the Maltings. Norvik museum is fascinating if you are having a long weekend.

Truth is Adrian I don't think Burley put his heart into the job either, any more than Redknapp did. Both Pearson and JP are more positive characters but as I've said to many people on the forum let's not put JP on too much of a pedestal early on as the season isn't underway yet and he's got a very tough job on his hands. That said, he has impressed me with his attitude and discipline - I think players at SFC are prone to thinking "provincial club, a backwater, let's mess around, not train properly and not take it seriously". So a mix of coaching, mentoring, and discipline against some strong benchmarks of what is expected should stop this from happening.

Correct, there was a TV documentary covering the academy at the time and it covered the weekly saga of whether "Shev" was going to get a work permit or not. As well as Jay Lucas, remember Tim Sparv as well, a midfielder that we allegedly beat Man Utd and Liverpool to? He's now currently in the lower leagues of Scandinavian football.

Right GM, I'll go for: 1. George Burley - some of his selections couldn't have been more bizarre if George had run with the teamsheet and a bottle of JD and created crop circles on the SMS pitch. We could have had Micah Richards in the squad and Burley STILL would have picked Jermaine Wright at RB. To think I defended Burley on TSF as well - cheers George! 2. Jim Hone - the pre-match Charlton statement sent us into freefall when we had built up some form. Prize idiot appointed by Wilde. The fact Hone recruited John Barnes as Celtic manager says it all. 3. Leon Best - awful own goal and awful penalty. Has been a complete tosser for Coventry as well 4. Michael Wilde - Football First - COYR! 5. Leon Crouch - the man who paid Euell £15k p/wk 6. Pele - for that shocking display in play-off first leg 7. Redknapp - partly to blame for a wasted 05/06 by being so negative and not bringing in better players 8. Lowe - sorry GM - for tinkering with the whole SCW experiment when we should have been putting the first parachute season to better use! He talked Harry into staying and then made him report to SCW - I don't like Harry but that wasn't smart from Rupert. Also cleared the appointment of Simon Clifford... 9. Simon Clifford - helped to destroy morale in the key part of 05/06 and wound up the first teamers and staff with his attitude as much as anything else. I know an academy player from that time and Clifford was not popular with the younger age groups either! 10. Askham - is at the root of SFC's problems in the last 20 years. Continues to glue together one share proxy that along with Wilde in the middle blowing to the prevailing wind, rivals the Crouch camp and all three share groups ensure that SFC is unattractive for investment and that the boardroom has been an utter mess long before Rupert even rode in on that motorcycle! No blame for Mrs M though, I'm sure she's sweetness and light!

Green Flag are who my insurer uses and a few years ago they had a bad reputation so I wasn't sure what to expect but I broke down last summer in the middle of nowhere in Devon and they were brilliant. Then I had a further problem and they were excellent again.

I was too young to go into the Rising Sun but my old man and his colleagues used to go there in the 70s so I've heard that it could get a little lively! Sun Inn and Seaweed at Weston are two other pubs gone into the history books as well, remember going past the Seaweed boarded up 10 years ago or more and there was a huge fire. Ice House at Shirley Warren and Tramways at the top of Shirley High St always had a reputation for trouble and of course the infamous Windsor Castle!

The Alex is a genuinely decent boozer, and not ruined by an IKEA-style refit as yet either. Good Timothy Taylor Landlord served and nice garden if it's a good weather day as well. Popular with Saints fans but also friendly away fans as well.

Rudi moving on would have been good for the wage bill but Holmes and Surman are not shoe-ins but do have possession of the left-sided positions at present. If Drew disappears up his own arse like he did for parts of last season, Skacel - and I still believe he'll be gone by the end of August - would probably come in to replace him. Competition for places would be healthy. Safri and John would probably be the best departures for us in terms of positions (well-stocked for CMs and as it stands for CFs) and wages. Would love to see Euell go but cannot see anyone wanting to take him, especially at the nonsensical wage we are paying him.