Brussels Saint

Heres a point which may be valid to this thread. For those of us who are signed up to Saints Player there was an interview with a guy called David Bick (or something like that), who works for a company that advises clubs on PR and communicating with the fans. This guy works for a company that also works for several PL clubs and now advises us. Maybe the approach is coming from him rather than Cortese exactly. Maybe we are just replicating what happens in the prem?

You might be right, but it just does not seem rational that anyone with top level business experience would get so involved in that level of detail. I'm certain he has more important things to deal with. Employees at the club will probably come up with most ideas and yes he will have ultimate say over them, but I just can't imagine any CEO waking into a functional area of their business and telling people how to do stuff. NC is not an idiot. People like Markus Liehberr dont trust idiots and clearly the 2 have a very strong relationship. Also Dune, btw, I think we should both be proud at being able to have a sensible debate on this without it decending to farce. With the previous threads on this subject going to utter ****e, maybe there's hope for the forum yet.

I take your point, but I question how much we really know about some of those decisions. Some are just rumours, opinion & heresay. You can find 1 poster who will swear its true and another who tells you the opposite. For me the only thing I felt was unfair and a poor decision was the late withdrawl of the installment scheme, fans should have been given more notice. All the other stuff seems really minor in the big scheme of running a football club and would be unlikely a chairman gets that involved in. He might sanction the decision but I doubt he's making everyone himself.

I might be wrong, but I doubt it......time will tell. Remember Cortese employ's a respected PR company to advise SFC on all external relationship matters. I'm pretty sure this company also advises PL clubs too, so will be well versed in the right way to get our message out. Success on the pitch will impress the media and football writers as thats ultimately what gets noted. You might disagree in how that company advise Cortese or ultimately what he chooses to accept or ignore (which we will never know), but my bet is they'll get it right. Time will tell as I mentioned.

Seriously, the vast majority on this forum still think NC is doing a good job and I'll bet 99% of those who don't read a forum but just go to games think he's doing great. Theres maybe 20 posters on here who dont like him, or what he does and thats fair enough, your opinion's valid, but its not representative. Liebherr as well, I'm sure gets regular updates on the business and if he's not happy will make it known to Cortese. Plus he probably gets his news from the official site, so will be certain everything is going great ;-) Its a non issue to the vast majority, so lets just focus on the football which is an issue to 100% of us who are all Saints fans.

But that was my point, they thought she was from the press and wanted to know if her paper had paid for the rights. (they did not see a security pass on her, which was why she was challenged) Apologies if my OP was not clear.

This is not new and has been in place since the time of Lowe. Amazing how anything can be turned into Anti Cortese. I know this as years ago my girlfriend took a long lense camera into the hospitality area and I sent her outside to take some photos of the pitch. She was immediately jumped on by security as they wanted to know which paper she works for and whether they had paid for the rights to take photos. I think seriously we need to get a grip re. the Cortese stuff. Nothing wrong with genuine constructive critiscm, but this is nuts.

This. Very few non obsessive supporters care about anything other than the football. We are just the obsessives, who dissect everything in it's minutiae.

Yup I saw that and thought it was a bit over the top, but in honesty most seemed pretty happy to mention Cortese. Did not seem "under duress". In this instance though you are wrong about Alps as generally he is pretty pro Cortese.

Think it was an accident, but that BP were taking short cuts. The rest is just politics, Obama needs to make these noises for his home audience. What it is however, is a golden chance for anyone to make a stack of cash. BP is still a hugely profitable company and in a year we will have all forgotton about this. The fact that its share price has halved, is nuts and anyone with any spare cash should buy BP. Its assets and ability to make money did not disappear because of this spill. Yes the clean up costs and compensation bill could be huge, but BP makes $19 billion a quarter. 19 billion!!!!!!!!!!! Its suspends its dividend a few times cuts a few costs and it can easily pay the bill. In a year, it'll still be the huge money making machine it already is and its share price will reflect that again.

Tricky one this Alps. Most people would agree the 1st 11 is pretty much set and good enough to win the league. Davis Richardson, Fonte, Jaidi, Dickson Puncheon, Hammond, Schneiderlin, Lallana Barnard, Lambert With real quality backup in Connelly & Harding. I think AP does think AOC is ready to step up and probably sees him as the pace from the bench option. We have good enough cover at centre defence and hopefully Murty could prove his fitness. Where we really need an addition is in CM, where if the two top guys are out we are stuffed. Obviously Wotton is not up to it and Punch or Lallana IMO don't give us what we need. Also I think we do need someone who is similar to RL as a backup. I'll be happy if we sign those 2 positions before the transfer window shuts (I dont think we need them by the beginning of the season, because as I said the first 11 is good enough). Will be a bit disappointed though if we don't do anything though.

Can we please have the poll, then we can all vote, the results of that can then be declared as the Forum opinion and all Cortese threads locked for a couple of months. This way we can get back to football.................or at least that one about who's had a dump at St. Mary's............

Thing is I don't think its a case of Cortese shafting us. One thing that should be clear to everyone, (especially Southampton) is that a football club needs to live within its means. By maximising every potential revenue stream (which is what Cortese is doing), through the additional charges (and I suspect every contact we have with the club), ultimately its safeguarding our future for when Markus & Nicola move on. When they leave, I think they will leave a club that is not relying on Markus' money or various loans to keep us going. The next owners will inherit a sound/successful business and for that I feel thankful rather than shafted. If other clubs approached its finances the way Cortese does, I think many would be better positioned. Yes, we will at times think we are on an Easyjet flight, but its one going to a brilliant destination.

I don't think we should expect lots of signings and the club have given no indication that they are planning this anyway. I think AP only mentioned they will strengthen. Obviously everyone agrees we need a right back, but apart from that we pretty much have last years starting 11 still at the club and have added a potentially better LB to an already strong area. Losing Papa & Antonio has weakened us from the bench and I expect that will be addressed, so I think we will add another 2 max 3 and that’s it. If we do that before season starts in Aug, I wont be unhappy, and with a weaker L1 lineup & a proper preseason we should win the league. Bookies and the majority I guess tend to agree with that. Alps, you got a bit of grief for this thread, but at least its a proper football one, instead of all the Instalment/parking/is Cortese the devil rubbish recently being discussed.

I had no idea there was still this much polarisation on Thatcher, certainly no middle ground here. Reminds me of the good old days of politics when there was a real left and right and they were passionately committed to their beliefs and genuinely could not understand how the other side could hold such views. Now everything is spun to please us all roughly somewhere in the middle. Dull. At least Prescott and Goldsmith had a good go at it this morning on the Today programme. For me, I think what Thatcher’s governments did on the whole has made the UK stronger and wealthier today than ever we would have been without her. Unfortunately certain communities in the UK paid an unacceptably high price for what was needed. I'm glad she did it, but feel slightly guilty as I was not one of those who suffered.

I'm impressed this thread has 12 replies from 13 views. Clearly an important topic which we all feel passionate about.

I have, but it was in the hospitality area and as I remember the lavatory was very clean too. Followed it up with some sheperds pie and about 4 pints. In fact I quite enjoy having a dump away from home as often as possible. I always save one up for when I need to take a plane. .........as someone mentioned............a new low..........

This. Any actual comments made by NC were pretty mild and overhyped hugely by the press (read - Mail & Echo, 2 papers who seem to have previous issues with the club). I'm sure NC is disappointed we did not make the playoffs and thats a good thing. AP would have wanted more too, it does not mean however the relationship and trust between the 2 has broken down.

I noticed lots of people were complaining that Punch & AL were hogging the ball too much, but if you listen to AP's post match comments, these were essentially his instructions. Basically along the lines of he told them both to try to dribble past and beat a man with a piece individual skill, as he felt it would bring us a goal. He added that usually it won't come off, but he only needs it to work once. Anyone else hear that?

76 finish 7, 4pts behind Huddersfield in 6th Not going to get there I'm afraid.

Blimey: 1, Cons 2, UKIP 3, Lab 4, Lib 5, BNP 6, Green Conservative is accurate as I will vote for them, but surprised at the UKIP score as I'm a foreign lifestyle lover (shows I must still quite enjoy annoying the johnnies though) and surprised at the Green score, as I'm also a tree hugging environmentalist. Thank god for the low BNP score..........I'm an immigrant to Brussels and refuse to integrate (well except for the beer, pubs never closing, 36 days holiday each year, brilliant health service & low cost of living!)

Personally, I think Alps is right that we may lose AL, MS or even RL in the summer if we are not promoted, but we wont be back to square one and I don't think its that critical. Our club now understands how to buy/attract decent players, so if those move on, I think we would only struggle to replace RL. My guess is that Morgan will move on, Lallana & Lambert will stay, we will purchase 1 Fonte class player and 2 or 3 L1 stars and promotion will follow.

I think its too soon for us to judge Seabourne. AP stated when he signed that he may be the one that surprises most with his quality and his signings so far have been pretty decent. I agree Jaidi has one more season in him. Thomas would also be a good squad player (3rd choice RB & 4th CB) if he will take a big wage reduction. Sign Semi, Papa & Antonio. Its over for Wotton, Perry & Murty and Gillet & Holmes are not favoured. Pulis, Lancashire, Molyneux & Forecast are not at the right level. If AP is serious therefore about building next seasons team as one that could compete in the Championship, we will need a class RB, CB and cover at CM & LM. Surman is an interesting one if he could be tempted back. Anyone think he and Morgan could play together in CM? He would also provide competition/cover for AL on the left.

A friend of mine who watched on sky said he could hear no boos, just cheers when the camera went on ML and silence when it went to NC. The commentators highlighted the difference in the 2 reactions as opposed to saying we were booing. From my block in 543 I heard no boos and just a few muted cheers. Looks like this one was overplayed.

Some great performances, but I gave it to Harding. Thought he was exceptional, playing on the wrong side and Carlisle clearly had a plan to attack him. Not a foot wrong.