Capel Saint

No idea as I don;t have access to Mr Cortese to ask him, however, if season ticket sales and attendance levels at games fall this season then we will know the answer. Time will tell!

Did Cortese not say when Lebherr first bought the club that he wanted to ensure that the club is self sufficient and does not keep going to the owner for a wedge of cash each season. Maybe these season ticket changes are part of this process.

Can't see them pushing for a top six place as although they have a few good players, they cannot strengthen significantly due to lack of funds.

The Saints Marching Jazz Band!

Possibly a pre contract agreement! We will find out at the end of June when their contracts with their exisitng clubs run out! In the meantime enjoy the World Cup!

Yep, looking forward to the new season with what I think is a weaker League 1. The three teams that got promoted are certainly better than the teams that came down from the Championship. I can't see any reason why Saints can't grab an automatic spot by the end of the season, as we are club that is continually going forward since last summer. Expect the odd hiccup, that is the unpredictable nature of football but with being able to start on an even keel to the rest of the teams in League 1, Saints should be up there, vying for the title by May 2011. COYR!

Yep, all sounds very uncommittal and therefore I would be very surprised if Adu came to Saints. Still, in the football world anything can happen!

That's along the lines of the questions I asked Alps on page 2 but he decided not to bother answering them.

Alps, you really need to chill out and stop being over-dramatic! Couple of simple questions: 1) How do you know that Saints haven't tied up some players on pre-contracts to then sign them in the first week of July? Such as Calderon and Dickson? 2) How do you know Saints aren't already actively finding very good replacements that have not even been mentioned in the media? In my opinion, there is no point making random criticisms of the club without any basis on facts!!

Thanks to you and Ted for all your hard work helping this great club. RIP Mary.

Amen to that! Yes, ML did put a late offer in after the Pinnacle bid however the Administrator had already given exclusivity to the Pinnacle mob, which as it turned out wasted the summer and made PArdew's job a lot harder when they finally buggered off and ML thankfully bought and saved the club. I feel sorry for MLT as I think he was duped by the Pinnacle lot to friont the bid but as you say, he was only doing what he thought was best at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Exactly! I wonder how much money Pinnacle would have had at their fingertips for new players, building club facilities etc if they had bought the club. Not nearly as much as Mr Liebherr has, that is for sure!! So lets stop over analysing evertyt minute detail to fill the boring days before the World Cup. Not that I am football junkie of course!!

I'll also go Paul Rideout.

Danny Wallace?

I would also look at Notts County as an outside bet. Steve Cotterill has instilled a real winning mentality into his team and they finished on a real high in League 2. If they carry that on into the new season, they may be up near or in the top six. Look at Leicester City this season, promoted from League 1 and got to the play-offs the following season and were only just edged out by Cardiff.

You're welcome!

Exactly. He plays the media brilliantly because he will always give them a quote and the sports journos think he's great hence why they were unbelieavably linking him with the England job last year. Also, he will never admit to being wrong and will never apologise. If they lose it is always the team/ref/conditions/pitch fault and never his fault. As mentioned previously by other posters, he is only successful if he is given a large transfer kitty. At West Ham he nearly sent them into admin when he bought in international flops such as Florin Radiciou, Paulo Futre and Markus Boogers who each only played a handful of games due to having continual injuries and not being able to handle the quickness of the Prem. There is certainly no love lost there with the West Ham fans as they considered him a disaster and showed what can go wrong if you give Redkrapp open purse strings.

It's probably an old business tactic of keeping your manager sharp and on the ball. Maybe he hasn't denied it to make sure AP stays focused for next season and that should the club not be in the top six/two by Christmas, that the axe may fall. A bit of a risk on Cortese's part if true as Pardew may feel unsupported and leave anyway and withit, make the fanbase unhappy with a situation that could be avoided. Mind you, as this is mere speculation, for all we know, they could have an excellent working relationship but decide not to portray this publically. Time will tell.......

Not really. My mind will then switch to the World Cup during June & July and back to the Saints for August and the new season.

Trouble is, even with a good side you are not going to win all your games. That is football. Shopw me one League One this season that did not lose to teams they, on paper, should have won. I can't think of any. It is ok for a Chariman wanting the club to be successful but there are countless examples of Clubs changing Manager when the current encumbent doesn't get instant results. Just see the merry go round at QPR and their current League Position as an example of continaully changing a manager. Pardew isn't the perfect manager and will no doubt make some mistakes however, next season he has the advantage of a stabalised squad, a stabalised coaching team, not having to get rid of a -10 point deficit, a team with a much better winning mentality and most likely some transfer funds to tweak and improve the squad for next season. So I hope that Pardew is left to get on with it and give Saints the best chance of achieving automatic promotion next season.

Agree with the above and definitely release Molyneux. I would consider offering Perry a player/coach role within the club as he has huge experience that can only benefit the players coming through the ranks.

I actually thought that the idea of having two linesmen on the bye-lines which they have trialed in the Europa Cup competition is a good idea and can assist the ref with any off the ball incidences, corners etc. I agree that FIFA/UEFA are extremely corrupt. The amount of allegations regarding World Cup ticket fixing etc against Blatter and his fellow cronie Jack Warner and other senior FIFA officials, all seem to have credence. Whenever there is an official investigation, it all gets hushed up and swept under the carpet. Combined with the continual cop out of FIFA not punishing teams/players for blatant cheating (eg Henry's handball with both France and the player escaping punishment) is tarnishing the modern game and sending out the wrong message. The problem is that FIFA is not answerable to anyone.

Quite agree and a very valid point. I think this stems from weak leadership by the FA not setting a few ground rules where clubs should not spend more than say 60% of their income on players wages. The Prem is littered with what I consider to be average at best foreign players who have been bigged up by their agents and quite frankly are not worth a tenth of the price paid for them or their massive wages. Fortunately I think clubs themselves will slowly get wise to this situation, especially as more and more clubs are going into administration or are on the brink of it (Poopey, Crystal Palace, Hull, Southend etc). That's why I like Cortese. He is a man who will pay a player what he thinks he is worth, but no more. It was rumoured back in January that Elliott Ward at Coventry tried to increase his wage demands at the final hour of negotiation and Cortese said 'no' so we didn't sign him. A good message that will get round other palyers and their agents that Cortese will not be taken for a ride regarding wage negotiations. Going back to the OP. It is great being a Saints fan and seeing a club with strong leadership going forward. Hurrah!

Indeed. It is nice to see Saints contining to improve on and off the field with an owner that generally cares for the club and knows the huge positive effect it has with the fans and the community. I have no doubt that Portsmouth, now that they are relegated to the Championship, could potentially fall further down the league as a new owner is facing a club with an outdated, crumbling ground, a threadbare squad, no training ground assets, probably no scouting network either and would be very surprised if Avram Grant was still managing them next season.

I think the responsibilty lies with the whole Board which had Lowe, Wilde and Crouch on Board so yes, the Board made three colossal errors. I know Crouch helped the club during the Admin period but unfortunately he was as much to blame as anyone, as they constantly argued and undermined each other.