itchen

I have Alpine on ignore as it makes coming on here more fun but I can see what he's saying because people keep quoting him. But he's right. SMS is overpriced. Unfortunately so is every other Championship ground. And the Premiership is even worse. I see I could have got to watch Pompey today if I'd been willing to shell out £38 (yes £38!). I don't see the answer unless the credit crunch starts hitting footballers in the pocket the same as the rest of us. I'm off to the Mayflower in a couple of weeks. My tickets cost £28 each so that's comparable to St Mary's. There are probably about as many people on the stage and behind the scenes at the theatre as there are on the pitch at SMS. The difference is that the Mayflower seats only 2300 people but the shows do run 6 nights a week. I'm not sure the point I'm making except that I'm fairly sure I will have an excellent couple of hours for my money at the theatre whereas that cannot always be guaranteed at a football match. And that actors, directors, stage hands and the like work a lot harder and more often for a lot less money. Am I making sense - I've had a couple of rather nice glasses of wine? I don't think so but it's about as relevant as comparing our over-inflated Championship with the Austrian cut-price experience

As promised. Bugger. Right, on with cooking the dinner.

If we lose today I will probably swear in an understated manner and then get on with cooking the evening meal. If we win, the scenario will be much the same. Life is just too exciting in the Itchen household.

Agree 100%.

I have no idea what Dyer is/was earning but I find it hard to believe that, if Strachan was interested, Dyer would have signed a new contract wth us. He was a free agent and could have gone for a fairly small compensation amount. The fact that he didn't indicates there were no takers. We signed him so that if there ever were any takers we'd get a fee or on the off chance that he would turn into a decent player.

There, that's more like it.

I've read thread after thread on here of people criticising Dyer for his poor play and worse attitude. Yet now we're apparently thinking of loaning him out this is a bad thing? Honestly, he has been poor for us this season and if going out on loan either makes him a better player when he comes back or gets his wages off our books then I'm all for it. It could allow us to get a more useful player in on loan to strengthen the defence or provide another attacking option. We gave him a new contract so that either he shaped up and played as well for us as he's shown he's capable of or so that we could get a fee for him when he moves on. This is not difficult to understand.

Excellent idea. Could the same director be persuaded to pay my mortgage as well?

Very good - except it would have been "Lalalalalana"

Tommy Jenkins

Can you imagine what it would be like on here if we let in 10 goals in the space of two games? The other funny thing is that Man City, who could put 6 past Pompey, lost to Brighton.

While I agree with you about fickle fans wanting instant success, I don't think you've chosen the best comparison. Fleeing for your life and not wanting to see your team lose a game aren't really in the same scale, are they?

It's interesting that Strachan has been mentioned. I remember the general reaction when he was appointed. "What Strachan?" "He's just got Coventry relegated." "He's useless." "We don't want him." "Typical Lowe cheap appointment." And then he had a bad start and the condemnation got even louder. But Lowe ignored the fans, gave him time and I doubt you'd find a Saints fan with anything but admiration for WGS. I'm not suggesting that JP is necessarily going to be as good but I think it's worth giving him a chance over more than the first few weeks of a season.

I didn't hear Merrington say that but if he did it's a bit rich. If any of our players are called anything more unusual than Smith or Jones you can guarantee that Dave will mispronounce their names. I've found Poortvliet to be perfectly understandable even though his use of idiom is sometimes strange (eg "They made a goal" instead of "they scored a goal"). I think Merrington is clutching at straws and I, for one, am sick of his constant criticism of almost anything at the club. We get the point Dave. You don't like Rupert Lowe. Well, you're supposed to be the figurehead of a consortium that is going to push him out. If that ever happens you'll be free to hire your own manager with perfect English. Until then, how about getting behind the one we have?

What a curious thread. Why should anyone apologise to anyone because they previously took a different position? Anyway, I still have faith that we will get better and that we will climb up the table - probably not very far up but enough to be safe. But, even if I didn't believe that, I still can't see how coming on here and being negative about everything helps the situation any more than coming on and being positive could be seen as harmful. We have different opinions. It's part of the territory of being a fan. The only thing that gets me down about that is the small group of posters who can't see the good in anything the club does. That's a bit wearing but I've found, since I put the worst offender on ignore, my browsing experience has been much improved (except when people quote him when replying).

Club chaplain, I think.

I've always liked Nick Lowe, right back to the Brinsley Schwarz days.

Because if the club didn't there would be people popping up on here and asking "why doesn't the club give us any information, why don't we get reactions from players, don't they care, honestly the management of the club doesn't give a toss about keeping the fans informed, I don't sit at home expecting to be ignored..." You get the picture.

We'll walk this cup

Don't post?

That's quite fluent for Dave

Could he get the team to do that as well?

I think the next few months are going to be interesting for satellite broadcasters as people feel the economic pinch. I remember reading about publicans also scrapping Sky because the huge hike in fees was not being covered by increased bar sales. Couple that with people at home facing increased fuel and food bills as well as, in some cases, uncertain employment prospects and you could see Sky and Setanta's subscriber base falling (as well as even fewer people going to pubs). While it is unlikely (impossible?) that current deals with the Premier League can be downsized I doubt that the next deal will be anything like as big as this one unless there is a sudden global economic upturn. That's when the chickens will come home to roost for heavily leveraged clubs like Man U. Those with billionaire individual owners like Man C or QPR will probably be OK though. I just hope that we have survived long enough for our business model of living within our means (once we have removed the immediate debts) to see us through.

That's two questions ;-)

Do you have a full set of "hilarious" Jim Davidson DVDs?