Football Banter Archive March 07 2013

07 Mar 2013 21:31:21
I find it quite sad that so called Don's fans are calling for Winkleman's head. If you were a real fan you would know why he hasn't ploughed a ton of money into the playing staff.
As part of the agreement to get the ground built, it was agreed that the stadium would be completed within 5 years of the first game being played at stadium:mk and that was 6 years ago. Currently the club is incurring financial penalties for failure to complete on time; this is why Winkleman is currently pulling out all the stops to get the ground completed.
Also given the fate of clubs like Portsmouth and Rangers, Winkleman is not prepared to send the club into a downward financial spiral. yes it is disappointing that the club is currently stalling in the promotion bid but at least, unlike about 80% of clubs in the English leagues, we are a club in credit! No point throwing money at the club to get promoted just to go into administartion!
If you read this Pete, keep up the good work. The stadium is brilliant and we will get promoted soon COYD's!

Financial stability is great, I would agree with that, and he is right to want it, but it's very disheartening when the chairman, manager and media keep talking up our prospects and saying we are "promotion candidates" blah blah when the reality is there is no money for the squad and all we are fed is endless excuses why things don't go well on the pitch. If the people in charge of the club just came out and said, in no uncertain terms, that a promotion bid was unlikely because of financial constraints and that it would be several years before those constraints might be gone, I think a lot more fans would be happy with the honesty shown to them and accept the state of affairs far more readily. Honesty is the best policy, so Pete, if you are in fact reading this, come out and say that it's unlikely we'll see success on the pitch for several years instead of allowing us to get our hopes up almost every season.

I think we deserve that. And I've been a Don for 22 years before you make some remark about me being a bandwagon sunshine fan, I cried that day in May 2000 after the Southampton game.

The original post of this is mine and I agree with what you say. I think most fans would appreciate an honest open answer instead of having to glean bits and pieces of facts from here and there. I'm just getting fed up of people saying Pete hasn't got a clue what he is doing and that he should leave, but I think he's doing a great job, just like you say, they would be a bit more open of where we stand.
I'm just hoping that this season's cup run will have put a few more coffers in the pot and that if we don't make the play offs this season we'll have a decent kitty for players next season.
I was at the Dell the day we went down to Saints : ( though the game v Bradford where we were cheated dramatically was the end for us.
I still believe COYD's

Thanks for responding. Yeah, a lot of people moan about Winkelman, myself included, but mainly because they don't seem to tell it like it really is. If there's no money for players, say it. No point in hiding it or pretending all is well in the transfer kitty department. I'm sick of hearing all the hype about us every August and then ending up with nothing every May. I need to know what to expect from the coming season, not hear that we're going places and then end up staying stuck in the third tier! It's agonising and frankly insulting. The truth never hurt anyone. So they need to just tell us that. And MacKenzie edged closer to that much wished for permanent move with his winner today, thanks for the memories Gary. I bet Pete was thrilled too :- (

I think Gleeson is a banker to go too, and possibly Potter and Martin. Williams is highly rated aswell and is another, as Pete would say, "asset". Expect many departures circa June/July.

I also think the FA Cup money will go towards completing the stadium, not the squad :-|

07 Mar 2013 20:44:51
MK Dons are likely to see the majority of their best players offloaded in the summer so as to appease the chairman's desire to save money. Pete Winkelman has already given a statement of intent by saying that sending Gary MacKenzie to Blackpool is good for the club as he will get more attention in order to be sold. It looks likely that Gleeson, Potter, Martin, Lewington, Bowditch and Williams will all be touted around after the season ends. It's now becoming clear that the chairman has given up on the idea of promotion and would prefer to become an accountant like Arsene Wenger. Balanced books but no on-field success. Looks like we'll be stuck on the 3rd tier merry-go-round for many, many years to come.

Anybody agree?

I think Deano, Bowds and Martin will still be at the club next season. Potter and Gleeson I believe have 2 year contracts so if they leave we should get a little bit of cash for them the only one I'm not sure about is Williams but I think he'll also stay.

07 Mar 2013 19:33:50
portsmouth currently have someone on trial

they played in our 5-2 lose at fulham in a friendley
pompey fulham


akinde[36] petric [40]
harris 90+3 rodellaga 50
manolev 55
manolev[again60]
emmanuelson 82

akinde scored and harris is staying. maloney has joined from academy but who is this mystery trialist?

I've heard its one of two - either Ena Sharples or Elsie Tanner COYRs

I heard it was Dirty Den and Roly the poodle

Romsey Saint

07 Mar 2013 18:07:06
Club captain Kelvin Davis has signed a contract extension till 2016. That shows loyalty, especially after almost joining West Ham when Saints were in administration, but decided to stay at Saints as soon as he was told of the Leibherr take over.

07 Mar 2013 03:24:21
As a very proud Celtic fan can I just say to Ray Wilkins, Celtic (On a net spend of less than £4m) got further than big spending Manchester City and Chelsea and matched the achievements of Manchester United and probably Arsenal despite having to qualify out of a harder group than either after playing in 2 qualifying rounds, Ray I know you are hurting at the plight of your old club, but give Celtic credit, we have done exceptionally well in the Champions League this season and your attitude does the perception of the English pundits no favours. Drewzybhoy.

Yep I would be proud of getting hammered 5-0. well done M8.

maximus {Ed034's Note - what a pathetic comment. they have done fantastic and your trying to have a dig by saying they shouldnt be proud, due to losing 5-0....sound a tad jealous to me

Maximus we got a lot further than expected so why shouldn't we be proud get a grip

A blackpool fan knocking celtic lol.