clawsfour

Can Saints learn to love the Sinners?

The current plight of Portsmouth Football club is not something that any football fan would be happy about. Although it is tempting for Saints fans given the lack of sympathy from Pompey when we were days from liquidation in the summer of 2009.

I'm not a great fan of the hatred that some football fans exhibit toward each other. I want to see Pompey survive so that the mighty Saints can thrash them on the football pitch. I have always refused to sing the crude anthem about "shooting the Pompey scum" because football should be about entertainment rather than murder. And anyhow we have perfectly acceptable, family friendly song about sparrows with cow sized arses which can shit on the Pompey bastards below. Below.

However, the situation is there. Pompey may be going bust. And we Saints fans have to accept that in a mature and responsible way. Fortunately the very source of the doom of Portsmouth FC may be the saviour of the Saints fan's morale compass.

The Revenue. Her Majesty's Inspector of Taxes. They have served the winding up order on Portsmouth FC. And there is the solution. For Portsmouth. And more importantly for Saints fans everywhere.

When you can't pay your taxes, there is occasionally the opportunity to gift your possessions in lieu of the tax. We often here of works or art being gifted to the nation as payment of taxes. So why not the whole club in this case?

Portsmouth FC could become the first nationalised football club. The whole of its assets - ground, players, the whole lot - could be gifted to the nation to pay its tax bill. And who better to manage the club for the nation but the National Trust.

And this is where it gets better and better for Saints fans. Fratton Park would have to be preserved as it now is. Obviously opening once a week during the season. There could be tours - coaches by arrangement, and let's face it, Pompey having a coach would need some arranging.

Of course, there would be some benefit for Pompey fans too. No National Trust property would be without a decent cafe, so that would be a nice change. 

But there is a serious side to this too. Football is in a complete financial mess and it will probably need a big club to go out out of business to make people really take notice  of what is going on. Whether Pompey is big enough - if they do go bust - to make people care time will tell. Personally I hope they survive.

On the other hand, I hope that Harry Redknap, who has ruined every club he has been involved with, gets everything he deserves.

It's not over 'til the referee has played six minutes of injury time...

Once again everyone writes us off prematurely.

Obviously we have the age and experience. The opposition are youthful and energetic.

We have a little bit of guile. They are brash and in your face.

We shouldn't be the underdogs, but we find ourselves behind. A long way behind.

But then we get our act together. Our leader plays a blinder. We begin to draw level.

And finally we beat Torquay 5-3 on penalties in the Johnson's Paint Trophy.

Next May/June the stakes will be a little higher, but the Tories have already given us - and more importantly the public - enough ammunition to start eroding their temporary lead in the polls. And Tory lead councils up and down the land are doing their best to help, showing that when Tories say "we're all in this together" it really means that we bear the brunt of their cuts in services they never use.

The philosophy was set out by the Tory Leader of Southampton Council, Alec Samuels:

We do not in principle favour ‘free this and free that’, such as swimming or transport, school meals or computers or whatever it is.

Southern Daily Echo, 17 Oct 2008

Cllr Eddie Lister, Tory Leader of Wandsworth, says local councils should hike up the prices of local services as far as they can go:

We will look to increase charges as far as possible beyond inflation so that consumers of the services are bearing the full cost without any hidden subsidy from the taxpayer. 

It is worth taking a trial and error approach to see just what the market [I presume he means residents like you and me] will bear.”

Big Ideas, Building on Conservative Fundamentals, Localis 2008

So when George Osborne says, "we're all in it together" just think carefully about who the 'we' are. Are you part of the 'we' made up of nurses, and police and teachers and other public service workers on £18k a year or more who face a Tory pay freeze? Or are you part of the 'we' made up of the 3,000 most wealthy people in this country who will have their inheritance tax cut paid for by the pay freeze for public service workers?

And when you've thought about that for a bit, think about how many people you know who are thinking about voting Tory this time. You have around six months to make sure they know who 'we' are.

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.