I found it interesting anyway...

[CrazyHorse]

I just assumed you were putting a west country accent on for comedic effect.

[ohjimmyjimmy]

i do do that sometimes, but never on a thursday.

[Prufrock]

never got to springfield only DW, great old ground just like Burnden was.... I miss them old grounds, the great lever stand, so much better than owt today

Hard for me to admit CW, but it's the memories that are better than the reality. Our views get clouded by them. Draughty old shithole that it was I loved Burnden Park, but that's how I see it now. It was a wonderful experience, atmosphere and location I'll never forget, but as a ground it's light years behind the Reebok. Mind, if I were twenty I'd happily do it all again, but I'm not, and snow, hail, pxssing rain, pea-souper fogs, sloshing through pxss pudles and getting pnuemonia on the Embankment end no longer appeal like they used to.

Now the Reebok on Manny Road.....yes!

I'm not putting down your opinion mate, but if we were at home against Utd on Saturday, would you sooner be at the Reebok or Burnden? Atmosphere wise btw.

I know it's hypothetical, just thought I'd ask.

If you think there's a chance in hell we'd even be playing United on Saturday had we stayed at Burnden, you want your bumps feeling.

[Andy Waller]

never got to springfield only DW, great old ground just like Burnden was.... I miss them old grounds, the great lever stand, so much better than owt today

Hard for me to admit CW, but it's the memories that are better than the reality. Our views get clouded by them. Draughty old shithole that it was I loved Burnden Park, but that's how I see it now. It was a wonderful experience, atmosphere and location I'll never forget, but as a ground it's light years behind the Reebok. Mind, if I were twenty I'd happily do it all again, but I'm not, and snow, hail, pxssing rain, pea-souper fogs, sloshing through pxss pudles and getting pnuemonia on the Embankment end no longer appeal like they used to.

Now the Reebok on Manny Road.....yes!

I'm not putting down your opinion mate, but if we were at home against Utd on Saturday, would you sooner be at the Reebok or Burnden? Atmosphere wise btw.

I know it's hypothetical, just thought I'd ask.

If you think there's a chance in hell we'd even be playing United on Saturday had we stayed at Burnden, you want your bumps feeling.

Why not? It works for Fulham, Norwich etc.

[thebish]

Why not? It works for Fulham, Norwich etc.

neither of them are playing at Burnden!

[Andy Waller]

Why not? It works for Fulham, Norwich etc.

neither of them are playing at Burnden!

Unless they have teams in the 5 a side league??

Just saying they've developed their old grounds and seem to be doing ok.

[Bruce Rioja]

Fulham only developed their ground because the Egyptian Shopkeeper couldn't get planning permission.

[Andy Waller]

Fulham only developed their ground because the Egyptian Shopkeeper couldn't get planning permission.

Well? It's not done them any harm.

Unlike us, who were completely shafted through buying the Reebok.

The top 4-5 will always benefit from having new stadiums as they can fill them.

If the club's ambitions on the pitch had matched the move to the Reebok, it might have been ok.

[thebish]

Fulham only developed their ground because the Egyptian Shopkeeper couldn't get planning permission.

Well? It's not done them any harm.

Unlike us, who were completely shafted through buying the Reebok.

The top 4-5 will always benefit from having new stadiums as they can fill them.

If the club's ambitions on the pitch had matched the move to the Reebok, it might have been ok.

in concrete terms - what does that actually mean?

[CAPSLOCK]

I suspect, as you do, it means fcuk all

Absolute nonsense

[Lord Kangana]

We've spent all but a couple of seasons at the Reebok in the top flight. If you were expecting wall-to-wall Champions League, perhaps the club hasn't matched your ambitions.

[Turkish Trotter]

I spent 30 odds at Burnden and loved the place ( but at the end it had become a shithole), but if we hadn't moved to the Reebok we would be nowhere near the club that we have.
Got to agree with LK that peoples ambitions outweigh reality. Keeping in the top flight is success, especially if we can manage it this season.
BSA over achieved at the club and expectations rose accordingly, but lets all be realistic.

[Bruce Rioja]

Fulham only developed their ground because the Egyptian Shopkeeper couldn't get planning permission.

Well? It's not done them any harm.

Unlike us, who were completely shafted through buying the Reebok.

The top 4-5 will always benefit from having new stadiums as they can fill them.

If the club's ambitions on the pitch had matched the move to the Reebok, it might have been ok.

I quite seriously don't think I've ever read such bewildering twaddle.

What are you actually attempting to say?

[Andy Waller]

Fulham only developed their ground because the Egyptian Shopkeeper couldn't get planning permission.

Well? It's not done them any harm.

Unlike us, who were completely shafted through buying the Reebok.

The top 4-5 will always benefit from having new stadiums as they can fill them.

If the club's ambitions on the pitch had matched the move to the Reebok, it might have been ok.

I quite seriously don't think I've ever read such bewildering twaddle.

What are you actually attempting to say?

What do you not understand?

How many teams outside the top 5, with new stadiums, fill them every week?

The only one I can think of is Stoke. Possibly Swansea but the novelty of the Premierhip helps.

Why is the club so far in debt then? It's not just pay offs and players wages.

By ambition I'm not talking about winning the bloody Champion's League, I'm saying just have a good Premiership side that isn't fighting relegation every year. BSA wanted that but left because we weren't prepared to invest.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

BSA wanted that but left because we weren't prepared to invest.

Didn't the debt go up under Allardyce? So presumably we did invest, or rather we borrowed more, just like most of the western world. And now 6% of mortgage payments are being made on credit cards. The credit bubble can't last forever.

No doubt that the construction of the Reebok could have been far, far better handled - I'll say no more than that. But like many clubs who are underwater, we face some difficult decisions. Sadly with the weakened, monetarily insignificant secondary European competition there seems to be little middle ground between betting the farm on Champions League qualification and simply bobbling among the also-rans. Even more sadly, we don't seem able to maintain the old Charlton-under-Curbishley act of staying under the glass ceiling while being safe from relegation. For a while last season, it seemed we might - but that was on the salary vapours of an apparently desperate overspend under Megson.

[Andy Waller]

BSA wanted that but left because we weren't prepared to invest.

Didn't the debt go up under Allardyce? So presumably we did invest, or rather we borrowed more, just like most of the western world. And now 6% of mortgage payments are being made on credit cards. The credit bubble can't last forever.

No doubt that the construction of the Reebok could have been far, far better handled - I'll say no more than that. But like many clubs who are underwater, we face some difficult decisions. Sadly with the weakened, monetarily insignificant secondary European competition there seems to be little middle ground between betting the farm on Champions League qualification and simply bobbling among the also-rans. Even more sadly, we don't seem able to maintain the old Charlton-under-Curbishley act of staying under the glass ceiling while being safe from relegation. For a while last season, it seemed we might - but that was on the salary vapours of an apparently desperate overspend under Megson.

I'm not saying Burnden was fine to keep playing there, I've alway's felt it could have been developed.

It did go up under BSA (with the better quality of player etc) but I'm sure every other team's wage bill did too? That's an accepted outgoing for a football club.

But surely adding the cost of paying back the loan on the Reebok compounded the costs?

We'll always be a small town club, but if you're going to build a 25,000 seater, out of town stadium, I'd be thinking of putting players on the pitch people want to pay to see...

[boltonboris]

We'll always be a small town club, but if you're going to build a 25,000 seater, out of town stadium, I'd be thinking of putting players on the pitch people want to pay to see...

Campo, Djorkaeff, Anelka, Candela, Hierro, Okocha, Stelios, to name but a few stellar names

[Andy Waller]

We'll always be a small town club, but if you're going to build a 25,000 seater, out of town stadium, I'd be thinking of putting players on the pitch people want to pay to see...

Campo, Djorkaeff, Anelka, Candela, Hierro, Okocha, Stelios, to name but a few stellar names

Isn't that what I'm saying though??

We didn't invest so BSA buggered off and we've ended up with

Robinson, Eagles, Pratley, Klasnic, Knight to name a horrific few...

[boltonboris]

Klasnic was/is a big name.

Those kinds of players aren't available to us anymore. They go to the States, The Emirates, China, etc for lucrative contracts. Or they go to bigger clubs than us, like Villa, Arsenal etc

[Tombwfc]

Unbelievably harsh on Klasnic to lump him in with that lot. Actually it's pretty harsh on all of them. Nobody is turning up to see Robinson, but then how many packed out the Reebok because they wanted to watch Henrik Pedersen play at left-back?

In any event 'Have better players' is as much a strategy as 'Win football matches'. Yeah it'd be nice, but how are you actually suggesting we should've gone about doing it, without heading the way of Pompey?

Not totally sure what that's got to do with the stadium though, or how much you think we should've thrown at Big Sam, and where it would've gotten us.