stevegrant

The XL shirts really aren't actually that big - I'm not a complete fat bastard (yet), and the XL still gives me a bit of room to breathe in it.

It certainly won't be that late - all of the money will need to have been paid to the club by then, I'd have thought. When we have filled every space, which will hopefully be within a few days, we'll set a deadline from that point - probably 7-10 days in advance, which should be plenty. Hadn't thought about it, to be honest. Could do...

The kit, DVD production and distribution are not included in the £4000

Yes, but not at all costs with no thought given as to who is coming in to replace him. I've stated my position many times - I want all of the "major players" from the last 5 years or so to have nothing further to do with the running of SFC. That includes Lowe, that includes Wilde, that includes Crouch, that also includes Corbett, McMenemy, Wiseman, Askham, Withers, Windsor-Clive, Cowen and I expect a few others that I've forgotten.

Many people only have internet access when they're at work. Strangely, I wasn't aware of your travel plans. Look, we've not set the time to be deliberately awkward. We've set it for a time when we would expect a reasonable number of people to be online - we can't do sod all about people going away for the weekend, etc. Regardless of what time we set, someone would moan. We can't win. Sorry, but the time is set now, we won't be changing it. I really can't see all of the places being snapped up within a few hours - not everyone who's interested will be online at that time for a start, and of course I'm sure there will be a few people who put their name down and then end up not paying and therefore forfeiting their place. After all, it's very easy to send an e-mail, it's a hell of a lot harder to part with more than £200 to play a game of football.

Have you asked all of them? No, you haven't, and nor have I. Therefore, neither you or I know that. It may be representative, it may not. I don't know the opinion of every single Saints fan, so I have nothing to compare the figures to. Neither, until evidence categorically leads the club down one path or the other. Unfortunately, there are far too many people who made up their minds on things without stopping to actually think about things. After all, we went down an "anyone but Lowe" path three years ago and look where that's got us - Lowe's back and in a much stronger position because of the complete shambles his replacements made of things. I haven't spoken to Wilde for ages, nor do I feel the need to, to be honest. A friend of mine has asked me to stand for it, but I certainly won't be nominating myself, that's for sure.

Please see the sticky at the top of the page for details: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=11320

Right, we've finally got everything sorted for the game at St Mary's. SaintsWeb Forum Challenge Match @ St Mary's Stadium Date: Thursday 7th May. Kick-Off: 6:30pm. Players to arrive between 5:00pm and 5:30pm. Within each squad of 16, there are the following positions available: 1 goalkeeper (90 minutes) 2 defenders (90 minutes) 4 defenders (45 minutes) 2 midfielders (90 minutes) 4 midfielders (45 minutes) 1 striker (90 minutes) 2 strikers (45 minutes) The 90 minute slots will cost £230 The 45 minute slots will cost £115 There is also a "manager" slot available for each team for someone who perhaps doesn't feel fit/able enough to play in the game, but would like to be pitchside for the game. This will cost £50. We have struck a deal with the club to provide shirts for the game, with name and number printed on the back. Please note that this will include the SHIRT ONLY (last season's home shirt [without sponsor logo], this season's away shirt - all in size XL, the biggest still available). You will need to provide your own shorts and socks - when you have been put into either the "home" or "away" team, we will let you know which colours you will need. The reason we haven't been able to include these in the overall price is because the megastore is very low on stock of shorts and socks. Also included in the price is the filming, production and distribution of a souvenir DVD of the game. This will be filmed by one main camera and two secondary cameras, one behind each goal. The DVD will then be produced, and we will also package it up in a professional case etc. Additional discs will be available to those who want them, after the original batch have been delivered, for £5 each. Due to the massive demand - mostly from paid subscribers, it should be added - we will be restricting applications initially to paid subscribers only. However, entries will not be accepted until Friday 20th March at 11am, so anybody who is only a "Registered User" can still upgrade their account to make themselves eligible. The e-mail address to send entries to will be posted at 11am on Friday to ensure nobody has an unfair advantage - it is a different address to the botched first attempt . We will ask people to give us three preferred positions in priority order so if one particular position is oversubscribed, we can still fit in those who applied first. It would also be useful if everyone can give us a reasonable indication as to the "standard" you play at, so we can attempt to make the two teams as balanced as possible. This event is intended for everyone to enjoy - there won't be much enjoyment for a team getting beaten 10-0 because the opposition has all the better players. In the e-mail, you will need to state the following: Your forum username Your real name The name you want printed on the back of your shirt (within reason) Contact phone number #1 choice position (please also state 45 or 90 mins) #2 choice position (as above) #3 choice position (as above) Playing standard Please ensure that the e-mail address you send the application from is checked regularly. All applicants should receive an automated confirmation that their e-mail has been received (similar to an out-of-office message), and then a further message later with confirmation of whether you have been successful or not. This e-mail will include payment details. A deadline will be set for all payments to be received, anybody failing to meet the deadline will forfeit their place, which will be given to the next unsuccessful person on the waiting list. You may only register yourself in your e-mail. We will ignore any e-mails that attempt to add mates to the list. We will also ignore any e-mails that don't include all of the information we've asked for. Sorry to sound a bit draconian, but we want to make running this as easy as possible for ourselves. To answer a previous question, minimum age is 16. We would like to use this event to raise some money for charity as well, so we are proposing that all adult spectators pay £3 and kids pay £1. 50% of this money will go to Saints in the Community, the remainder to a charity to be nominated and voted on by forum members. Any questions?

Hmmm Now, while the whole "genetically fat" thing does have its merits occasionally, on this occasion I think the above quote is why they're fat.

Full details will be available some time between now and when I get home from work this evening... stay tuned, folks

The polls on this forum reflect the opinion of those who vote - as far as any election is concerned, that means that it reflects the overall opinion of all those registered (in the same way that the winner of the general election is the party with the overall highest number of seats won from those who actually bother to vote). It doesn't necessarily represent the opinion of the fanbase as a whole. There are many thousands of Saints fans who go to games (and indeed those who DON'T go to games) who are not registered on this forum, and their opinions may differ wildly from the forum members' overall views. To use the general election analogy again, that would be like taking the results of the election in Romsey and assuming that those results were representative of the whole country. I'm a "usual suspect", aren't I?

So essentially you'd only allow those on there who share the same opinion as you, despite being very much a part of the "usual suspects"?

But if they're silent, isn't trying to listen to them a bit of a waste of time?

Every single person who has been mentioned in this thread so far would, in my eyes, come under the rather irritating "usual suspects" banner.

Ultimately, it will all boil down to whether people can be bothered nominating someone of their choosing. If nobody from one side of the "divide" can be bothered to nominate someone representing their own opinions, then the whole thing will be comprised of people from the other side. If people genuinely believe that this "Parliament" has a chance to actually do something constructive and want somebody to represent your views, make sure you nominate somebody. If you don't, and like-minded fans do the same, you won't be represented. It's clear that the club, having formed this, will be taking opinions from this group ahead of other supporters organisations.

Yep.

If that happened, I'd expect the whole concept to suddenly go very quiet...

So they want people to be nominated to a panel who in turn will then ask for people to be nominated for the actual "parliament"? Sounds a bit long-winded to me. I'm not sure why they're so keen to listen to fan views now all of a sudden, given that they've hung the Trust out to dry in the last 3 years (although the Trust itself should take its fair share of the blame for that situation as well). Realistically, I would imagine many of those nominated will be the "usual suspects", so they're going to end up with the same old problems of the cynics whinging that those involved are only doing it for their own egos etc etc

His usual pathetic protest against those who supposedly rig the fixture list in favour of his opponents. Liverpool had an extra day to prepare. Big deal. All of which, of course, will explain why United's fixtures ensured they play the other big 4 on home soil in the second half of the season rather than away... I thought it was a great game - United didn't actually play that badly, it was just a couple of individual errors. As mentioned above, Vidic is a serious contender for player of the year, but he had a nightmare on Saturday. Credit where it's due to Alan Wiley as well - I don't think he got a major decision wrong all game. Both penalty decisions were spot-on, as was the red card.

The main board is visible to registered and full members only until this evening. The SaintsWeb Twitter feed will feature the major incidents, but for more in-depth updates, follow the match threads or the OS. Keep pre-match discussion in here, please I'm off to the pub, play nicely

The only weekend slots that are available are on Sunday 3rd May. I for one will be somewhere rather more important that day!

It will be a weekday evening - not 100% sure of which evenings are still available, I will sort that on Monday. Basically, rather than take ages to come to a decision by having a poll of when people would prefer it, I'm going to take an executive decision and pick a date where there's nothing of any note going on (e.g. I think the Champions League final is on during the window available, so I'll avoid that, etc). I see no reason why under-18s won't be able to play, but I'll also confirm that on Monday. Unless we seriously get absolutely loads of people with firm interest registering, it'll be one game only.

From what I gather, the Echo knew about the story before the police did.

On the forum, on Monday or Tuesday at some point!

I guess the key bit of information will be the price - this hasn't been *totally* sorted yet, as we're awaiting a total for an extra that they offer which is the filming and production of a DVD of the game. However, I think I'm fairly safe in saying that it will be somewhere in the region of £200 for the full 90 minutes and £100 for 45.