Alright all, not sure how our board got so agitated yesterday, it wasn't even a good wind up... The Dell - unfortunately at 15,000 capacity it was impossible to stay if we wanted to compete in the Premiership. A modern build is not to everyone's taste and that's fair enough, we visited some great grounds in League 1. As it turns out the move couldn't have gone much better, Brighton's new stadium is similar, has 10,000 less seats and cost twice as much to build. Also the new site is far better and leaves room for expansion (which is being spoken about according to some). And I'm sure the stadium helped attract the new ownership which has brought us where we are today. But you do win here every time and I remember the Ray Jones goal clearly. Dexter Blackstock scored the other one and I'm not sure which goal was more depressing. Shaw and academy - absolutely loads of money is going into the academy now. It's being rebuilt and the plans look fantastic. I'm not sure how true the Chelsea reports are and I'm sure that most of the Premiership has a file on our youth team somewhere, but as far as I have heard he is a completely down to earth guy. I'd be pretty shocked if something came of this, partly because Chelsea would have to spend a lot of money (yes they have it, but a youth player is probably not high on their priority). If he works hard then he'll become a top player and get his big move anyway, so there's no pressure there. Shaw is probably not the closest player to our first team now, James Ward-Prowse is a centre mid who I expect to get game time. Last bit, depending on the number of cup games you play, Southampton at Loftus Road might be Barton's first game back. Any chance of him lining up??
Comprehensive response, good on you. I hope you get to keep your young talent for a bit, it makes it worthwhile putting the investment in. To answer your last question, if we sign another midfielder by the end of the window and everyone, including Faurlin, stays fit, I don't think there is a place for Barton - he wouldn't make it into our best 4/5 midfielders. But there is still some way to go in this story yet, and it may be he is somewhere else by then.......as many of us hope.
There is and it might be with you, you are 4th favs to land him and anyway, we dont do cups, we just have our players break legs in them. We all know why Saints had to leave the Dell but its no excuse to go to a flatpack stadium exactly the same as about a half a dozen others. Also virtually all teams who have a crappy 1 tier bowl are stuck in the NPC. Only Swansea have improved their position after building one.
In with the season tickets for this season, there was a dvd . That showed that we may in the not to distant future redeveloped St Marys. Have to say it looked amazing. With all the surrounding area developed as well. St Marys was done on the cheap at the time, that's why it's so common.
Theres not much you can do with it, the front row will still be 10 yards away from the touchline, it will still be a single tier for at least 3 stands. I do like the toilets on the outside though as I have a 2-3 hour journey to LR and it kills me when I have to pee when I get there but have to wait.
Have you seen the plans?, it shows two tiers for all but one of the stands. Our stadium can increase to 50k if i remember rightly.
Our chairman has big plans and so far they have been within our grasp. Now he is looking to move us on even further as hopefully our improvements continue in all departments. Most of our players are new to this league and will find it a heck of a lot harder. You yourselves found that out last season. Our youngsters are now being trained in a class 1 academy and that will help us bring more young talent to the club. As for the stadium, it took us a long time to adjust once we moved to it and even now the atmosphere is not the same as it was in the Dell. Like has been said by some of yours we are a long way from the pitch and added to that the acoustics are not helpful in enhancing the sound either. Though this summer there has been a little bit of tarting up so that the appearance is more welcoming. As for the results in recent times between us we are obviously hoping to redress the balance this season.
There does seem a lot in common between our clubs in terms of ( and I do hate use this word....) ambition. The academy status, good solid financial backing without doing a Chelsea or City, and new stadiums. Hopefully both clubs will remain sustainable for a successful future and become a blueprint for other clubs to follow.
