clawsfour

Oh F............

Just close your eyes and listen. The script almost completely reflects my view of the half time scores in Championship today. Let's home for better in the next 45 minutes.

Just keep the faith

It's no joke at Southampton

The fact that Alan Shearer has taken over as boss of Newcastle has slightly detracted from the main story of the day - the fact that his former club, Southampton, are on the brink of administration.

Actually it's likely to be the parent company, Southampton Leisure Holdings, where the shares have already been suspended which goes into administration. And thanks to a large loophole in the League rules, also exploited by Derby County, the team will miss out on having a 10 point deduction.

So, the wish of many of the stay away fans may come to pass. But as I have been arguing on other forums, their Nemesis, Chairman Rupert Lowe, may not be deposed that easily.

Should administration come to the parent company, the administrator won't be phoning a saints fan to ask what to do next. Whoever he or she is, they will have little duty of care to shareholders, the creditors or the staff. And no duty of care at all to the fans, supporters, people who once saw a game in 1976, protesters, true supporters, won't set foot inside the ground til Lowe goes fans, people who have a warm feeling about having a football club in the city even if they never go.

So I think the likely scenario is:

Administration; followed by Rupert Lowe buys the company back for a fiver; no points deduction; club unencumbered by debt; sometime next year inward investment; bye bye Lowe; promotion play offs; premiership; cup winners; quarter finals of EUFA Cup; top two finish; win Champions League.

OK OK some of that may be wishful thinking.

Pointless demonstration number 1

Mostly harmless.

Just under 400 people turned up in the centre of Southampton to the bewilderment of shoppers from all over the south of England to demand that Rupert Lowe resign as Chairman of Southern Leisure Holdings - the company which controls Southampton Football Club. Or I presume that was what they were doing since they had a big banner saying Lowe Out and I don't imagine it referred to any of the other companies of which he is a director.

Unfortunately, the protesters are unable to say what should happen instead, nor do they really care. A completely 'Anti' protest with no thought of the consequences.

But no-one got hurt, and people who feel strongly - wrong-headedly in my view - about the issues had their day in the sun. And at the match afterwards where 50 times as many people who hadn't been on the protest, the mood was good, the support loud and match hugely entertaining.

Banks may force player sale

Well now Labour has solved the world recession, back to the important story of the day.

Southampton 0 v 0 Plymouth Argyle.

Not the greatest game, but another point in the bank. Which is more than can be said for cash in the bank. News that Southampton managed to lose £4.9m last year despite selling nearly £14m worth of player contracts reveals the shambles that Leon Crouch and Michael Wilde created in their short term in charge of the shop. It has taken the return of the most hated man at the club, Rupert Lowe, to get a grip of the finances and have sufficient courage to say we can't afford high wage prima donnas and we'll have to make do with players coming out of the academy.

On the pitch it is beginning to work. Jan Portvliet, the coach, is slowly getting the players to play with confidence all over the pitch. If only he could get them to shoot straight, or shoot at all (only two shots on target tonight) we would begin to be a force to be reckoned with.

Off the pitch the finances still loom worryingly and the banks will want to see a sharp reduction in their exposure come the January transfer window. We will probably have to raise £5m at a minimum, which suggests three of the high earning loan players going for what ever we can get - maybe £750,000 for John, Raziak and Sagernowski between them. Maybe a £1.5 for Lallana going to Spurs (although that seems an unlikely buy for Harry Redknap) and £2m for Schneiderlin to Arsenal would just about do it, although there may be sell on clause in the Schneiderlin deal which will reduce our income. So we may have to top it up by offloading Surman for £1m (if we are very lucky).

That will weaken the squad and we will have to hope that one or two loan players are available to come our way to bridge ta gap.

In the meantime - Charlton on Saturday and three points there would be just what the doctor ordered. And the banks.

Time to eat humble pie

I'm sat at home tinkering with design rather than content of my blog, listening to Saints v Reading on the radio.

Bradley Wright-Phillips has just scored his second and we are two nil up with 5 minutes gone in the second half. I am not BWPs greatest fan, but today he's the man.

C'mon you reds.

Still need a crowd to support the team.

Well, it's nice to see the the Northam Road end (so called loyal supporters) turn out in force.

Not.

Still us old fogies keep the faith. 5 minutes to kick off. Come on you reds.

I can't get no....

...satisfaction. Which is the half time music. And about sums it up.

Saints playing really well but still 0-0. AND THEN AT FULL-TIME 1-1.

It could easily have been 4-1 or 5-1. Sometime soon the Saints are going to batter someone, I just hope they can retain some confidence until that happens. Still at least the fans who did turn up were behind the team - no nonsense about protests against the manager or the Board.

Exciting game. Unlucky result.

Where were you on the night the music died

Well here I am at St Mary Stadium. There must be at least 5 or 6 thousand here.

Where are the other 20k so called supporters?

I've never wanted us to win so much.

Busby Babes show the way

It's only four games into the season and I'm already fed up.

Not with the team, the manager, or, heaven help me, the board. But with the fans.

In the first three games our young side played some dazzling football and were unlucky to lose two of those games. Yesterday we played less well but were unlucky to be losing at half-time and could easily have been two or three goals to the good. But this time the so-called fans started to boo the misplaced pass as early as midway through the first half.

I am heartily sick of people who want to exact their desire for revenge against the Chairman (for who knows what) against the young players in the new look Saints team.

Let me just remind these petulant boo boys (and I bet they're mostly blokes) of just one thing...

The team Matt Busby had built from the club's successful youth policy seemed destined to dominate football for many years. Such was the power of the Babes that they seemed invincible. The average age of the side which won the Championship in 1955-56 was just 22, the youngest ever to achieve such a feat. A year when they were Champions again, nothing, it seemed, would prevent the young braves of Manchester United from reigning for the next decade.

thebusbybabes.com