The9

I can't see him being available, but if his wages were decent he's exactly the kind of top 4 offcast we like, he's also young and has good experience, and relatively suited to our wide attacking position.

We've been doing it since the start of last season, van Gaal only found his style a few months ago - so if anything, Man U are copying us. Which makes sense given Schneiderlin's strengths.

You needed the [/img] tags around the URL instead of the ones. I'm pleased to see where middle-age starts more than anything, I absolutely relate to the issues there for the 25-54s but also significantly more likely than most to buy replica shirts. Re: programmes, I tend to only buy them at away games as a record of where I've been, but if they were £2 and weren't so massive that they're actually impossible to handle during a match (or they sold them on the way out, so there's no concern about ruining it during the match) I'd probably get one as a matter of course, or consider subscribing to get them sent to the house on a Friday. I'm pretty annoyed by the U-24s wanting something to improve the atmosphere, typical entitlement attitude that's become their stereotype - they should spend more time creating their own atmosphere! I don't think they have a frame of reference like older fans for a time when the match was the attraction and not the faffery around it. If I was you I'd be considering if the "local" location of older fans is self-selecting - do people who live further away stop going when they get older because they can't be bothered with the travelling any more, or is it that those who want to keep going move themselves nearer their social activities?

You realise I was posting reams of crap on this kind of nonsense pre-season, right? I assure you it makes a huge difference how many points England's coefficient is worth relative to every other country, probably more than the teams who actually make it. England's coefficient is vital for Saints especially with Saints' lack of recent Euro points, and that base national coefficient figure can move a club up and down tens of places, it's far more likely to impact our ranking and seeding than the numerous individual instances of high or low ranked teams making it into the draw, which will tend to even out across the whole of Europe.

That's because last year's SY was ridiculously small (like every other size), not because this year's are big!

I was surprised they made the group stages, but having done that, their further success is no surprise at all. They're very effective at what they do.

You're right, they haven't signed anyone since the end of August. Sack the board, rabble rabble rabble.

The only difference I've seen so far is that Clasie's forward passing is more impactful and Ward-Prowse takes better corners.

We bought him because we're not short-sighted enough to think you can buy the finished article for what we paid for him and have a history of developing players and selling them at a big profit. As far as I'm concerned he's about as good as I was expecting, with the 2 month setback for injury factored in. Mane hadn't done much after 10 matches either.

I can see them going off a cliff just as West Ham did last year. Last season, 15 games in, 27 points (Leicester have 5 more), finished the season 12th on 47, 5 more than that would have been 10th on 52 points. West Ham probably had more strength in depth than Leicester do as well, even though they dragged Carlton Cole back from the wilderness. FWIW we had 26 from 15 last season and finished on 60, which would see Leicester finish 5th based on last season's points - if you add the 6 more points they have already to that total. Worth noting that both League Cup and FA Cup winners will need to finish in the top 6 for 7th to get a Europa League place.

So far I've seen him showing decent spells on the ball, and probably not enough defensively. Way too soon to suggest "clearly" anything, he's at least as good and suited to the role as Ward-Prowse.

Interesting, came in a different box to mine.

We're going to be literally the only team he plays against twice in a season, every season, until he's 35. He did it last season too, scored in the opener at Anfield and disappeared until we played them again.

He might do if he stopped aiming a yard wide of the post. I assume that's where he's aiming, as all of his free-kicks end up there.

Bit of a tautology that. That was the main thing holding Surman back.

"No other options available to him" apart from Wanyama, Romeu, Clasie, Reed, Tadic, Mane, Davis, Ramirez, Juanmi, Long, Rodriguez (when fit) and a bunch of U21s. I've probably forgotten someone too. Yeah, he's in "by default".

You haven't seen the correlation in his appearances and United's defensive record then? Conceded 3 without him tonight, having only conceded 3 in total in the last 9 matches he's started. They've only lost one match he's played in this season out of 15, and lost 3 of 9 without him. This for a team that wins far more than it loses to begin with.

But as long as we don't appoint Les Reed as manager, right?

Not sure why anyone would want to use Wanyama further forward, the less defending he does the more his weaknesses are exposed. Romeu and Clasie might work, but it'll depend on the opposition to some extent.

I think you're probably right about his application, and I was pretty forgiving about the Euro impact.

Probably too p155ed to remember.

Done the additional survey btw.

For a bit more discussion here. Amused to see the Millennials living up to their reputation.

Look pretty standard and a bit more bespoke than adidas. Training kit probably won't be as nice though.

My dad actually reffed the Sunday team I was running once, and disallowed a perfectly good goal that went through a hole in the net. I got revenge by picking him to play for us two weeks running when he was aged 42 - I didn't realise that actually was revenge until I tried playing in my 40s.