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Saints dinner last night - anyone go?


EBS1980
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@jordansibley: RT @johumphrey69: Dinner at St Mary's with Mr Cortese & @jordansibley! Amazing evening, Mr Cortese talks a lot of sense, the future looks bright!

 

Yet to come across a single person who has met Cortese 1st hand and failed to acknowledge the positivity around the man.

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Dellboy, you ever away from this place? Lol

 

Jaidi would be a good shout, he comes across as a decent positive character and that can only be a good thing.

I'm off work for easter at the mo..nothing else to day whilst laid on the sofa with the golf on..haha..

gym later mind

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Yet to come across a single person who has met Cortese 1st hand and failed to acknowledge the positivity around the man.

 

He just comes across as a man totally in control, chilled out and taking all of the pressures of running a club in his stride.

 

When people put their issues to him he quickly makes you realise that it's all in hand and leaves you feeling it's nowhere near as big a concern as you first thought.

 

In Cortese I trust.

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Really hope we're promoted in time for Jaidi to play final day, or at least come on.

 

Why? He maybe a nice fella but he's contributed zero amount of playing time this season. What about Dan Seaborne? Why should sentiment apply to him and him come on? What about Tanadari Lee? He could come on in his crutches for a 30 second cameo, what about Connolly?

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Summary from a friend who was at the dinner last night (via facebook):

 

just thought i'd post a quick summary for anyone that was interested here from last night mate. cortese was a legend and has more ambition and has more goals for the football club than even the most optimistic saints fan would!! he wants us to become a force in the premier league and was talking about the club getting into the champions league and becoming more of a global brand. he wants to exten...d the capacity of the ground asap and is really happy with how the training ground development is going. he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow. he said that they are planning big changes for the councourses to make them more of a desirable place for fans to come to before and after the game instead of frequenting the ground for 90 mins then going to other watering holes in town. i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year and he was very quiet about naming any prices and said he wouldn't set any price schemes until he knew what league we were in, i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees just because we go up when most current season ticket holders would renew regardless of which league we were in. i also stated the dramatic price increase at qpr last season and how ridiculous and worrying that was as a supporter and he said he was disgusted that they did that to their supporters and that it would not happen here... he also said that they are going to give out a sort of credit card thing for next season which would open up the direct debit option again and would also keep a record of everything you purchase on that card (beer, replica shirts, tickets etc...) and there would be a rewards scheme operating around this information. he was asked about selling the club and the rumours around it and he categorically said we were not going to sell! he did say that there is a sufficient amount of funds reserved for us to buy new players when we get promoted and if we did that this season we would be ahead of schedule so would have more funds for this. all in all i left the stadium incredibly proud to be a saints supporter and with full confidence that the club is going in the right direction! up the saints

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Summary from a friend who was at the dinner last night (via facebook):

 

just thought i'd post a quick summary for anyone that was interested here from last night mate.

 

cortese was a legend and has more ambition and has more goals for the football club than even the most optimistic saints fan would!! he wants us to become a force in the premier league and was talking about the club getting into the champions league and becoming more of a global brand. he wants to exten...d the capacity of the ground asap and is really happy with how the training ground development is going.

 

he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow.

 

he said that they are planning big changes for the councourses to make them more of a desirable place for fans to come to before and after the game instead of frequenting the ground for 90 mins then going to other watering holes in town.

 

i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year and he was very quiet about naming any prices and said he wouldn't set any price schemes until he knew what league we were in, i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees just because we go up when most current season ticket holders would renew regardless of which league we were in. i also stated the dramatic price increase at qpr last season and how ridiculous and worrying that was as a supporter and he said he was disgusted that they did that to their supporters and that it would not happen here...

 

he also said that they are going to give out a sort of credit card thing for next season which would open up the direct debit option again and would also keep a record of everything you purchase on that card (beer, replica shirts, tickets etc...) and there would be a rewards scheme operating around this information. he was asked about selling the club and the rumours around it and he categorically said we were not going to sell!

 

he did say that there is a sufficient amount of funds reserved for us to buy new players when we get promoted and if we did that this season we would be ahead of schedule so would have more funds for this. all in all i left the stadium incredibly proud to be a saints supporter and with full confidence that the club is going in the right direction! up the saints

 

Cheers for that :)

 

(I so happy I even split it up into paragraphs) :-)

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i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year... i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees

Nice, your mate must be a delight to spend an evening with. If I were NC I would be looking for a nice horse's head to return the compliment...

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Summary from a friend who was at the dinner last night (via facebook):

 

just thought i'd post a quick summary for anyone that was interested here from last night mate. cortese was a legend and has more ambition and has more goals for the football club than even the most optimistic saints fan would!! he wants us to become a force in the premier league and was talking about the club getting into the champions league and becoming more of a global brand. he wants to exten...d the capacity of the ground asap and is really happy with how the training ground development is going. he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow. he said that they are planning big changes for the councourses to make them more of a desirable place for fans to come to before and after the game instead of frequenting the ground for 90 mins then going to other watering holes in town. i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year and he was very quiet about naming any prices and said he wouldn't set any price schemes until he knew what league we were in, i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees just because we go up when most current season ticket holders would renew regardless of which league we were in. i also stated the dramatic price increase at qpr last season and how ridiculous and worrying that was as a supporter and he said he was disgusted that they did that to their supporters and that it would not happen here... he also said that they are going to give out a sort of credit card thing for next season which would open up the direct debit option again and would also keep a record of everything you purchase on that card (beer, replica shirts, tickets etc...) and there would be a rewards scheme operating around this information. he was asked about selling the club and the rumours around it and he categorically said we were not going to sell! he did say that there is a sufficient amount of funds reserved for us to buy new players when we get promoted and if we did that this season we would be ahead of schedule so would have more funds for this. all in all i left the stadium incredibly proud to be a saints supporter and with full confidence that the club is going in the right direction! up the saints

Didn't you post the same after a previous dinner with Cortese?
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Kinda got that impression myself,not about the content,couldn't remember that but the poster seems familiar on this subject.

 

He's familiar because myself and my friend are part of a group of supporters who regularly go together to games and were both fortunate enough to have been to both dinners and Neil is one of our group. I wasn't expecting that post to end up here as I posted it on my brothers facebook wall and it was intended only to be read by my friends so I guess as it's made it's way to a public forum with diehard fans, I had better elaborate on the evening a bit more!

 

First thing, Nicola was incredibly approachable when he came and individually welcomed us all to the Boardroom at St Mary's, as also was Jordan Sibley who also attended the dinner. Nicola was very open and honest about answering basically any question that any supporter put forward and encouraged discussion about all goings on in the club. As said in the other post, he was incredibly inspirational and ambitious about the direction that the club is headed and in where he wants the club to go, I think basically there is no limits to what he would like to achieve and he is setting about putting the entire systems and workings of the club in a position where we are capable and able to be one of the biggest clubs around. I really cannot state enough just how enthusiastic he was about the direction the club is going and how much he seemed to enjoy the challenge of turning the club from the pits of league one, where we were a couple of seasons ago, into a dominant force in English football.

 

The ticketing pricing thing is just something that I personally wanted to get a clear message about as after following saints up and down the country through the demise and climbing of the football league, it would suck to be priced out of the glory years. I raised many points about this which Nicola was interested in discussing. I went there not really knowing whether I would be able to afford to go to a decent number of games during a premiership campaign but after the discussion I left in full confidence that Nicola would not take advantage of loyal supporters and that he would consider the entire fanbase when making decisions about pricing policy's. This made me happy.

 

He spoke in great detail about the Saints Foundation too and the aims of this set up, if people haven't read about or found out about what this organisation is doing around our city they really should. It will make you even more proud to be red and white!!

 

I can't really add any more at the moment as am just off out, but I hope this information is of interest to people. I want to add again that after having an active role in the organisation of the Rupert Lowe protest a few seasons ago, having a chairman of Cortese's nature is a breath of fresh air and I believe pretty much every football supporter in the country would give their right arm to have him in charge of their football club.

 

Up the saints

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Didn't you post the same after a previous dinner with Cortese?

 

No, that was his friend Saint Garrett who posted about the meal in November in the same "a friend from facebook" vein. SaintNeil90 simply backed up Saint Garrett on that particular thread.

 

(My research is free to members of this messageboard)

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Just thought I had better add because I know people will jump on that straight away and it is misleading. I haven't been to both dinners myself, my friend went to the first one and I went to the second.

 

Cheers for posting your feedback Tomobz - appreciated

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he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow.

 

There was an article in the Independent today about the Premier League wanting to set up an under-21 league so that their young players get regular games.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/green-light-for-u21s-league-to-replace-reserves-7622226.html

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Because I like him. Have you had preferred players over the years? Maybe I just like fat slow centre backs? I don't care about Seaborne, not seen him play as much, no reason to be that fond of him. Lee i've seen play twice, so again. Plus, Lee isn't leaving. Jaidi is retiring, and usually it's nice to see a player you like turn out one last time. I'm not the biggest Connolly fan, but again if he's leaving/retiring and the game is won, it would be nice to see him get a few minutes too.

 

I'd have thought it was self explanatory to be honest.

 

FWIW I agree, jaidi is a character and I like him a lot, good player to have at the club as well with his experience and attitude.

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There was an article in the Independent today about the Premier League wanting to set up an under-21 league so that their young players get regular games.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/green-light-for-u21s-league-to-replace-reserves-7622226.html

 

Blimey, football in sensible suggestion shock. Houllier is right about the number of players with potential who we lose because of lack of opportunities after their scholarships.

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Summary from a friend who was at the dinner last night (via facebook):

 

just thought i'd post a quick summary for anyone that was interested here from last night mate. cortese was a legend and has more ambition and has more goals for the football club than even the most optimistic saints fan would!! he wants us to become a force in the premier league and was talking about the club getting into the champions league and becoming more of a global brand. he wants to exten...d the capacity of the ground asap and is really happy with how the training ground development is going. he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow. he said that they are planning big changes for the councourses to make them more of a desirable place for fans to come to before and after the game instead of frequenting the ground for 90 mins then going to other watering holes in town. i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year and he was very quiet about naming any prices and said he wouldn't set any price schemes until he knew what league we were in, i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees just because we go up when most current season ticket holders would renew regardless of which league we were in. i also stated the dramatic price increase at qpr last season and how ridiculous and worrying that was as a supporter and he said he was disgusted that they did that to their supporters and that it would not happen here... he also said that they are going to give out a sort of credit card thing for next season which would open up the direct debit option again and would also keep a record of everything you purchase on that card (beer, replica shirts, tickets etc...) and there would be a rewards scheme operating around this information. he was asked about selling the club and the rumours around it and he categorically said we were not going to sell! he did say that there is a sufficient amount of funds reserved for us to buy new players when we get promoted and if we did that this season we would be ahead of schedule so would have more funds for this. all in all i left the stadium incredibly proud to be a saints supporter and with full confidence that the club is going in the right direction! up the saints

 

Thank you for that mate.

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Sounds amazing!

 

Housemate of mine is a big everton fan, and keeps an eye on all thing Saints. He is forever telling me he would personally kill Bill Kenright in the centre circle of Goodison at HT with his bare hands, whilst naked, if it meant Cortese would take over.

 

Cannot for the life of me understand the mindset of the Cortese 'bashers'.

 

In Nicola we Trust!

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Summary from a friend who was at the dinner last night (via facebook):

 

just thought i'd post a quick summary for anyone that was interested here from last night mate. cortese was a legend and has more ambition and has more goals for the football club than even the most optimistic saints fan would!! he wants us to become a force in the premier league and was talking about the club getting into the champions league and becoming more of a global brand. he wants to exten...d the capacity of the ground asap and is really happy with how the training ground development is going. he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow. he said that they are planning big changes for the councourses to make them more of a desirable place for fans to come to before and after the game instead of frequenting the ground for 90 mins then going to other watering holes in town. i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year and he was very quiet about naming any prices and said he wouldn't set any price schemes until he knew what league we were in, i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees just because we go up when most current season ticket holders would renew regardless of which league we were in. i also stated the dramatic price increase at qpr last season and how ridiculous and worrying that was as a supporter and he said he was disgusted that they did that to their supporters and that it would not happen here... he also said that they are going to give out a sort of credit card thing for next season which would open up the direct debit option again and would also keep a record of everything you purchase on that card (beer, replica shirts, tickets etc...) and there would be a rewards scheme operating around this information. he was asked about selling the club and the rumours around it and he categorically said we were not going to sell! he did say that there is a sufficient amount of funds reserved for us to buy new players when we get promoted and if we did that this season we would be ahead of schedule so would have more funds for this. all in all i left the stadium incredibly proud to be a saints supporter and with full confidence that the club is going in the right direction! up the saints

Wow!! That is one long paragraph!
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Summary from a friend who was at the dinner last night (via facebook):

 

just thought i'd post a quick summary for anyone that was interested here from last night mate. cortese was a legend and has more ambition and has more goals for the football club than even the most optimistic saints fan would!! he wants us to become a force in the premier league and was talking about the club getting into the champions league and becoming more of a global brand. he wants to exten...d the capacity of the ground asap and is really happy with how the training ground development is going. he said that he is constantly approached by premier league representatives and club chairmen saying how much they want saints in that league. he said that there is a plan to make a sort of segregated specialist developmental league in this country and we were the first ones to be approached about joining and they want us to set a benchmark for all the other clubs to follow. he said that they are planning big changes for the councourses to make them more of a desirable place for fans to come to before and after the game instead of frequenting the ground for 90 mins then going to other watering holes in town. i absolutely went to town on him about ticket prices next year and he was very quiet about naming any prices and said he wouldn't set any price schemes until he knew what league we were in, i attacked him about that saying it's unfair and unjustified to rape us on fees just because we go up when most current season ticket holders would renew regardless of which league we were in. i also stated the dramatic price increase at qpr last season and how ridiculous and worrying that was as a supporter and he said he was disgusted that they did that to their supporters and that it would not happen here... he also said that they are going to give out a sort of credit card thing for next season which would open up the direct debit option again and would also keep a record of everything you purchase on that card (beer, replica shirts, tickets etc...) and there would be a rewards scheme operating around this information. he was asked about selling the club and the rumours around it and he categorically said we were not going to sell! he did say that there is a sufficient amount of funds reserved for us to buy new players when we get promoted and if we did that this season we would be ahead of schedule so would have more funds for this. all in all i left the stadium incredibly proud to be a saints supporter and with full confidence that the club is going in the right direction! up the saints

 

Be interesting to see what they've got planned. Personally i'd like to see provision made for smokers even if it's just a certain part of the ground that let's people out for a smoke.

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Be interesting to see what they've got planned. Personally i'd like to see provision made for smokers even if it's just a certain part of the ground that let's people out for a smoke.

 

Probably a couple of Cortese worshiping area's, just as you'd like. ;)

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Be interesting to see what they've got planned. Personally i'd like to see provision made for smokers even if it's just a certain part of the ground that let's people out for a smoke.

 

I think this is easy to achieve. All the club need to do is fence off an area at a door in each concourse. This could be paid for by offering smokers season tickets at say a +£50 per season surcharge. This way the sad ******s who can't live for 105minutes without a cigarette can find yet another way to waste their money.

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