spyinthesky

Apparently Cardiff will allow supporters to stand at one of their new ground according to the statement on their web site, relating to their new stadium. A sensible policy but surely will put them in conflict with the licensing authorities

If you look on the Cardiff City Website (or it could have been BBC Wales) Dave Jones makes some favourable comments about the Saints He also mentions a ppre season chat with our esteemed chairman in which Rupert boasted about how his youngsters would take the Championship by storm. Dave Jones indicated that you need a mixture of youth and experience in this Division as any one with any football knowledge would have agreed with I am sure if we had had a big ugly centre half and a big ugly target man from day 1 we would not be in our current parlous position

To be fair Peter Risdale, the Cardiff Chairman, was quoted as saying, in an article on their new stadium, that the club were hoping to attract more family supporters and get rid of the troublesome fans. Unfortunately there are some clubs who continue to be plagued by idiots and it is not difficult to name those clubs who continue to feature Not saying the person(s) involved in this alleged incident were of this persuasion but,if there is a serious casualty or, god forbid a death, then it will not surprise me if some knuckledraggers will be calling for 'revenge'

On the Muppet site someone says their brother witnessed the aftermath of the incident in Anderson Rd, which I believe is behind the Chapel Arms. Obviously don't know the circumstances but this is just shocking if reports are true. Before the game I walked up Anderson Rd behind 4 saints fans and 2 Cardiff fans (obviously mates) and this is how it should be, not people shouting, swearing and battering one another because they wear different colours.

The road behind the Chapel Arms was cordoned after the game and it looked serious with lots of police about. It may well be this is where the 'incident' happened

Hypothetically could a very rich benefactor buy the stadium debt off Aviva and then up to cost of borrowing against the debt to such a level that the club was unable to afford it, shares become virtually worthless, and the rich benefactor could then pick up the club for next to nothing. Didnt something like this happen at Crystal Palace some years ago?

To my mind Maggie did a lot of good things in the early days but then got carried away and seemed to have lose her sense of reason. Certainly the ethos of 'buggar you mate I'm all right' was started on her watch and allowed to continue by dear old Tone and Gordy boy

These circumstances are different to those described to me and could well be a separate incident. Certainly drink did not appear to have been a contributory factor However I guess we will never know the full facts.

I suppose it must be nice to actually have interest shown in purchasing your club but it appears the 'Swiss' bid, by Ramon Vega, was a bit sketchy to say the least. According to media reports Mr Vega was unable to confirm if he actually had the funds to purchase. A tyre kicker in other words. As Corp Ho suggested, it would make sense that any prospective purchaser would await confirmation of the club retaining Prem status before cranking up any interest. For what it is worth I think Pompey will stay up with relative ease this season. Without new investment, next year may be challenging tho. On a completely different tack, I notice that Dallas Cowboys (NFL) will soon move into a brand new state of the art stadium (capacity 85-110,000 dependent on activity) costing £900m I visited their current indoor stadium in 1978 when it was fairly new. V impressive. Before that they had played at the Texas Stadium, a vast bowl with a 80,000+ capacity. So three stadium venues in 40 odd years. Shows what the Yanks can do. However cheap land/cheapish material/cheap labour plus entreprenurial skill All that said some of the NFL franchises are suffering and have had to offer seat prices as low as $2 to attract punters.

Believe Mike Richard's piece in todays Echo may have been offered as a 'balance' to Keith Wiseman's article last week. I also understand that the offer to 'even up' the debate was made before the spat between Mr Lowe and the MD of Newsquest, who own The Echo.

PES You are the acceptable face of the 'Dark Side' of the county and, to my mind, a welcome poster here A little tip from a concerned individual grateful to be living in the sunny side of Hampshire. Please ensure your loved ones don't interbreed with the six fingered, shaven headed, tattoo'd beings who purport to be human and have colonised parts of Portsea and surrounding areas since the Dark Ages. Be especially careful of Corps Ho and his sub group. I believe his type are particularly dangerous as they possess a modicum of intelligence. Fortunately these people can normally be recognised as more intelligent beings and therefore avoided. Their tattoos are generally spelt correctly. Additionally their psychological profile is better balanced. They carry a chip on both shoulders. Corps is currently away spawning but will return shortly. Beware!!

This is a fair point as my general share portfolio has dropped an average 30% and some individual share holdings have approached the 50% reduction mark since 2007. However would be interesting to see how Saints shares compare with other Football clubs on the market. Which clubs still remain listed? Sheff Utd/Millwall/Spurs/Celtic?

City Cruise Terminal would be a great venue for medium size concerts Perhaps this is something John O'Sullivan and the team at SEM could consider

I open myself here up to ribald laughter laced perhaps with a small dollop of pity. I actually bought my tranch of shares in SFH in 1997 (I think) for £1.46. What a wonderful investment!!

Presume it was there to victual the Police Protection team etc who would have had to undertake a 'sweep' of the area and lock down the building for our esteemed PM btw Saints Hospitality have a term agreement with ABP to use the City Cruise Terminal for 'Special Events' The recent Bond film premiere was there too. Good venue.

I must confirm that my posting reflected information provided by a business contact, of good repute who was shocked by the exchange. I was seeking clarification from others through the medium of this forum and, to be fair, this has not been forthcoming. I don't know Mr Lowe, personally, but if he is prone to washing dirty linen in public (which to me would be the case if my contact's assertions are correct) then he is undermining the reputation of the club I have been proud to support for many years. With regard to the Echo's 'Financial Support', I believe this may entail some corporate entertaining and 'Player of the Year Awards' etc. This would not constitute a significant sum but I have learnt, from many years in business, that it is best to have the media onside rather than forward of the penultimate defender. Separately from the earlier photo, was Micheal Wilde in the Directors Box on Saturday?

The gentleman intrigues me. His tenure at Southampton Football Club does seem to have caused a number of issues, to put it mildly. I understand he is only a part time Chairman of the Holding Company and has other interests, amongst which are WH Ireland and Lowe Holdings. Does anyone know if he displays the same business techniques to his non footballing interests as he does to Southampton Leisure Holdings? I also understand that Mr Lowe does a good deal of work for charidee with the Princes Trust which should put him in the frame for a gong at some future date.

The gentleman intrigues me. His tenure at Southampton Football Club does seem to have caused a number of issues, to put it mildly. I understand he is only a part time Chairman of the Holding Company and has other interests, amongst which are WH Ireland and Lowe Holdings. Does anyone know if he displays the same business techniques to his non footballing interests as he does to Southampton Leisure Holdings? I also understand that Mr Lowe does a good deal of work for charidee with the Princes Trust which should put him in the frame for a gong at some future date.

Heard from a contact at Preston that he witnessed a remarkable 'exchange of words' between Mr Rupert Lowe and someone, understood to be a senior member of the local paper, (presumably 'The Echo') in the corporates yesterday Apparently Mr Lowe was ranting on about the newspaper person being either ... 'A two bit country hack' or representing... 'A two bit country rag'. He wasn't exactly sure of the term used It appears this may well have something to do with Mr Wiseman's article in Saturday's 'Echo'. The Echo man seemed to get very upset about the way Mr Lowe conducted himself and there was a definite suggestion made, during the exchange,that the Echo will not be supporting the Football club financially next season. If correct it appears Mr Lowe does have an unfortunate manner which fails to endear him to all but a small coterie of friends Would be interested if anyone can confirm any of the runmoured goings on.

Begs the question what is the record stadium attendance at St Marys? The separation factor will always be there for big games, even for the England v Macedonia game. Was the Le Tizz testimonial a sell out and excluded fan segregation? Incidentally any truth in the rumour that Rupert is due a testimonial, after all Lawrie had one. Would have to big a big segregation between Lowe Luvvies and Loathies!!

Doubt if we could run to the Albion Band these days!!! For older posters do you remember the canvas target that used to get walked round the ground at Half Time? All coins thrown in went to help the band

Can see this 'spin' being put out. Also a statement along the lines of.... 'The Board is confident that the actual number of games expected to be won in Division 1 will exceed the solitary victory achieved in the Championship. Ergo the points per pound spent ratio will decrease' Seriously with the economy likely to get worse, even Prem clubs like Sunderland/P'mouth & Arsenal are either offering deals on Season Tickets or Corporates

FYI The Ex Saints are still going strong Re Len Shackleton, apparently in his autobiography he included a chapter on 'What Football Club Directors know about Football' and left the pages blank. At that time players had to refer to the Directors as 'Sir' Not much change between the 1930's and the current regime at St Marys!!!!

Heard a stong rumour that Peter Storrie has been in contact with Rupert, and his team of advisors, for some advice on picking a new manager. Some suggestion that a certain Mr Portaloo might be in the frame. He comes highly recommended after his successful introduction of Total (Crap) Football. BTW where is Mr Corp Ho at the moment? Normally he keeps us updated on such matters

Cant blame ARETHA. The original version of 'Respect' was by the late, great, Otis Redding