Highfield Saint

I bet she loves cricket

This article says that 17 Saints academy graduates have played 5 or more times for the club in the Premier League? SOUTHAMPTON GRADUATE XI GK: N/A Calum Chambers (12- ) Martin Crainie (04-07) Wayne Bridge (98-03) Luke Shaw (12- ) James Ward-Prowse (11- ) Matthew Oakley (94-06) Nathan Dyer (05-09) Theo Walcott (05-06) Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (10-11) Steve Basham (96-99) No of seasons in the top-flight: 15 No of English graduates to appear five or more times in the Premier League: 17 SOUTHAMPTON GRADUATE XI GK: N/A Calum Chambers (12- ) Martin Crainie (04-07) Wayne Bridge (98-03) Luke Shaw (12- ) James Ward-Prowse (11- ) Matthew Oakley (94-06) Nathan Dyer (05-09) Theo Walcott (05-06) Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (10-11) Steve Basham (96-99) No of seasons in the top-flight: 15 No of English graduates to appear five or more times in the Premier League: 17 Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldcup2014/article-2671578/Has-Premier-Leagues-love-foreign-stars-ruined-England-After-dismal-World-Cup-just-English-academy-graduates-YOUR-club-brought-through.html#ixzz35qxyX2C9

Gotta be "Hey Jude"

Fitness coach

OK. add to these Chambers (arsenal and therefore CL bound?), Boruc and wanyama (both played CL), Osvaldo (was Italy's #9), Clyne (should be at the WC according to some on here) and you have a CL team. Dont get me wrong - I am not saying that we should have been top 4 as we lacked depth and injury cover but just asking if we should have finished better than 8th and if so did MP underachieve with the players at his disposal? Just a thought..

If so many of our players are in demand at CL clubs does that mean we (or they + MP as a group) underachieved last season by finishing 8th?

I cant see us putting out a team with only 1 academy graduate. There will be at least 2 or 3 graduates a year which is great as it allows for fewer incoming players of hopefully better quality.

Thanks for everything Rickie. Love you to death. 1st England goalscorer in Brazil - nailed on!

Not the SWF jury. That has told the judge to put on her black cap

Do you think it makes any difference? The shareholders would have been a few institutional investors who didnt care about the fans opinion. It isnt as if the share price would fluctuate as a result of dissent. They are in for the exit determined by the delivery of the "business plan". Same as KL but it is her business plan and her money. If it goes wrong then it is her money at risk.The benefit we have in this case is that she is a named and known investor and as such it is hard to be as thick skinned as a few faceless money men - although some do manage it. IMO I dont think that is her way. We still have the right to protest and ait is her money at risk you could argue that she would be more sensitive to customer protest and opinion.

Just a "head of department" anyone? Sometime when you're feeling important; Sometime when your ego 's in bloom; Sometime when you take it for granted, You're the best qualified in the room: Sometime when you feel that your going, Would leave an unfillable hole, Just follow these simple instructions, And see how they humble your soul. Take a bucket and fill it with water, Put your hand in it up to the wrist, Pull it out and the hole that's remaining, Is a measure of how much you'll be missed. You can splash all you wish when you enter, You may stir up the water galore, But stop, and you'll find that in no time, It looks quite the same as before. The moral of this quaint example, Is to do just the best that you can, Be proud of yourself but remember, There's no indispensable man.

This

I would think that the issue with NC's remuneration for the owners (who sanction it) is the return on or growth of capital. The business was acquired for £15m ish had a further £30m invested and now has a net worth of ? or a sale value of ? £100m?. The numbers may be wrong but the principle holds. This is more hedge fund or investment banking returns and if anything his payments were probably below the market average.

And if Sunderland dont win tonight then 7th April is the mathematically impossible to be relegated day

That would leave a team of Boruc Yoshida Fonte Hoiveld Clyne Ramirez Davis Cork Isgrove Lambert Guly plus £150m in the bank

Didnt he say pretty much the same in the interview?

It worked when we sold Shearer and bought Dixon/Speedie

Broach is ex RBS and mya property is a subsidiary of Roxan Developments

This ...

This thread seems to have agreement that the "fans" have either been disrespected or that the club has lost its connection with its "fan base" and I began to speculate on the validity of both these lines of thought and the apparent dichotomy of building a successful club which still has local "fans" at its heart. If you look at the two ends of the spectrum then at one end you have the global brands of Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea etc who have a fan base (and their financial foundations secured in this) in the many millions the majority of whom live abroad and never have a hope of attending a game. They support their club, they pay their money when they can whether that be via sky, shirt purchases or otherwise simply support and carry the flag. Are they less of a fan because they are not the traditional fans that we purport to be? We have less of these than the large global brands but I am sure we aspire for more of them. I am sure that many of us think that on signing a Japanese/Korean/Kenyan/Croatian that perhaps we will attract some of the players home country supporters which will add to our momentum of support and drive additional revenues. Is it not hypocritical then to ignore or disenfranchise these supporters in this way? At the other end of the spectrum we have the laughing stock which is that misleading fan owned piece of ***t down the road whose fan and supporter base is locked within a two mile radius of a fish market. We may all prefer for things to be the way we remember them - football in the decade you caught the love - but the world is racing towards a different place and if the choices are as currently set out between us and them then I know which I would prefer. The revenues the club needs to deliver a sound footing at a level of football where it and we aspire for it to be will not come from our gate revenues. The market the club is seeking is Premier League driven. Watanabe san in Osaka doesnt really understand the FA Cup but will support and watch a top premier league team. You can argue that this is a "business" rather than a club being run for the fans but that is, in my view, disrespectful of the fans that subscribe through Sky and other methods of interaction. I go to less games than I used to and am lucky because I can watch on Sky, Bt, internet streaming - just like the guy in Osaka.

It's all a bit of an overreaction isnt it? We dont know the strategy or the goals currently in place but we do know that the owners and management who are being derided for not winning a game in the FA Cup have a team playing what was claimed (on here) to be playing the best ever football by a Saints team and have implemented an academy policy which garnishes widespread praise including being lauded as the model to save the English game. This has including a multimillion £ investment to improve the facility and a stated aim to have a minimum number of academy players in the first team. If the FA Cup is such a wonderful ambition then why were there only 17k at the game? Has there been a full attendance for any FA Cup game this season? It may be that the club's strategy is to finish as high as possible in order to create a platform to attract better players and therefore push on from there? It may be that the owners want the highest position to enable an optimal sale? One thing seems to be clear though in that the only people putting their money in is the owners and for the life of me I cannot see why their interests would not be aligned with that of their client base? Bull***t walks as they say and these guys have a significant amount at risk so how about having a little tolerance and trust - I think their efforts over the last five years have earned at least this/

The stat that jumps out for me is that the best goalscorers have the lowest % of their goals from "big chances" and therefore score more from half chances. We probably create more than our fair share of these but do not convert enough of them.

But actually our players are not getting their "experience through the leagues" but rather they are playing in the same league as Spurs so his comment "that is the market they are in" isnt true. If they are good enough they are old enough

The song is "there's only one Markus Liebherr" not "walking in a Cortese wonderland".