The9

We were second in the league this time last year, that's a much better "first season".

Owned it and therefore had an interest in making it sustainable for the future, hence the search for someone appropriate to take the Wonka ethos forward. There are parallels though, that lift did WAY too much for what it was needed for, it was more like an ego project.

I suppose we *could* judge it on profit made for most players which I'm fairly sure makes Dean Richards the winner ignoring Academy "frees".

Going back to 1980 according to Soccerbase, your options are: (with *denoting if I'm not sure if they were free but no fee is listed) Pretty much anyone from the academy that we didn't pay for (and on that note I'll propose Gareth Bale as the winner with MLT a close second, Shaw, Walcott etc though I'm sure a few of them went for nominal fees somewhere along the line as kids). Steven Davis (arguable as we paid a fee of sorts due to the confused ownership and registration situation at Rangers) Artur Boruc Tadanari Lee Danny Butterfield Jonathan Forte* Richard Chaplow* Dan Harding Radhi Jaidi Dan Seabourne Jon Otsemobor Ryan Dickson Anthony Pulis Lee Molyneux Ryan Smith Jason Euell Lee Holmes Chris Perry Paul Wotton Jermaine Wright Chris Makin Dennis Wise Darren Powell Tomasz Hajto Djamel Belmadi Jim Brennan Jamie Redknapp Leandre Griffit Graeme Le Saux (swap) Kenwyne Jones* Marcus Hall Andrei Kanchelskis Darren Kenton Jacinta Ela Eyene Paul Murray (?!) Paul Williams Paul Telfer Uwe Rosler Jonathon Mills (?!) Bruno Leal Dean Richards - not a bad shout... Paul Hughes Scott Hiley Michael Stensgaard David Howells Russell Watkinson (?!) Bruce Grobbelaar (!) Peter Reid Despite that being only to 1994, Soccerbase doesn't have any frees but plenty of small transfer fees before that - but then that was pre-freedom of contract.

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?55300-We-should-be-fifth-in-the-league-right-now#.ViDQTXpViko A reason to make thread titles as clear as possible - yours much more obviously relates to the content.

Interesting yellow shirts at Luton 2'20"ish.

Hodgson was never going anywhere until the Euros, whether he continues after the summer without at least a QF appearance I seriously doubt. He came in at short notice for the 2012 Euros and at the time plenty of people were saying "write off the 2014 World Cup and build for 2016". He didn't, and persisted with the likes of Gerrard way too long and now there's still a gap at DM because no-one's had time to step up and the opposition hasn't really posed a threat that would test England defensively. So 2014 was a write off anyway, he can't get sacked when he's winning 10 straight in qualifications, and after the Euros he's had 3 major tournaments and there's no hiding any more. Pardew has obviously been on his best behaviour this season on the off-chance.

We've also given it away to 30,000 people at both the Europa League qualifiers, which won't be referenced anywhere. I haven't bought a home one all season (though I picked a few up at the EL games), bought one at every away match I've been to though.

Equally there's nothing in the price that covers the quality - my desperation half time pie at Chelsea was burnt to a crisp in the bottom and half of it was just black inedible crunch - anything more than a quid for that was awful value, I think it was about £4. You're right that the prices only matter if you're going to buy one anyway, but it does ignore the monopoly the clubs have on in-ground food prices when you're a captive audience. At least we're not at the cinema though.

Unfortunately their FL study produced a load of figures which were utter nonsense and I can no longer take any of the BBC's research into football costs seriously. Their methodology is utter garbage - as Steve pointed out at the time, they basically took total revenue and divided it by attendance to get a "average cost per person" ticket price figure, which as a result meant the "average" was about £5 cheaper than any adult ticket I'd ever bought at the normal price in each division (with the exception of the one-off of Fans' Friday in Accrington when my Saints ST meant I got in for £10 instead of £19 - but that was an exception, not the norm which the BBC were claiming). As a result of their recent shoddiness, I can't take this seriously.

I only find it annoying when they use the figures to compare players in different positions, or use non-comparable stats or pure figures where there's proportionality required. For example when they show "Appearances" and they vary greatly yet all the other figures are pure numbers which should cross-reference the number of opportunities to have done that based on the appearances. Basically the kind of thing saying "X scored 10 in 10 and Y scored 6 in 4 but X must be better because he scored 10 and Y scored 6". Unless you're comparing things like injury records or longevity, pure numbers of games played should only be a context in which to consider other stats. I've not seen anyone reference the Whoscored "scores" as opposed to their actual statistics but that introduces an element of pre-calculated subjectivity which also shouldn't be part of an analysis. I find the actual statistics useful on the rare occasions I meander over there to see if there's an evidence to support or contradict certain arguments. Stuff about "shots" and "shots taken per goal" are useful with a little wariness about their criteria, and heatmaps are useful. Not entirely convinced by the text-based commentaries they produce to indicate strengths and weaknesses, though that's probably because you don't get the overall rankings or even the categories considered when compared to others to validate the idea that Pelle is "good in the air" etc.

Have you tried asking the person who tweeted it?

Well THAT'S just wrong. There's loads of research saying skill and mental strength impact on the outcomes. http://www.bases.org.uk/Psychological-Preparation-for-Football-Penalty-Shootouts http://www.sportingintelligence.com/2012/05/21/revealed-the-art-of-winning-a-major-tournament-penalty-shootout-210501/ "Strikers have the best conversion rate (85.52 per cent) with defenders (70.79 per cent) and midfielders (70.67 per cent) virtually the same. A significantly higher success rate for younger players age 18-24 (79 per cent) and older players aged 31-plus (82 per cent) than ‘peak year’ players aged 25-30 (71.5 per cent). A significant drop-off in success as pressure grows, with success rates dropping from 80 per cent for the first kicks per team to a low of 63 per cent for the fourth kicks. A huge difference in success rate in different placements, with 91 per cent of kicks aimed high and right being scored, but as few as 55 cent when hit high and middle." http://footieridiculosity.tumblr.com/post/91540666574/penalties-are-a-lottery-and-other-myths-of "The real mystery is why this “penalties are lotteries” school of thought is so pervasive. My pet theory is that it’s a consolation fairytale English pundits cling to (and evangelise via the global media outlets that hire them) to feel better about England losing six out of seven shoot-outs in World Cup history. I’d love to hear perspectives from other countries. I doubt the Germans spend much time banging on about how full of entropy and injustice shoot-outs are." Lottery it isn't. Equally, having Long as a back up keeper would be better than most as he's got experience in handling a ball in a competitive sporting environment, even if it was as an U-18 gaelic football Munster junior champion for Tipperary.

Just wondering. Well done on keeping your attendance up, I only managed 1 year as an exile before giving up the ST and it took moving down here to get another. Though that was 10 years ago now.

Of course with context, that quid for parking looks even worse.

It would be, if they were, but as I was at Notts County 0-2 Plymouth last weekend I can confirm that they are definitely not top of League Two.

I do wish the direct quoting quoted quotes. Anyway, in response: Portsmouth will not be a bigger draw than Wales playing in a rugby World Cup. Even Newport County won't be. Newport are incapable of parking the bus as they can't really defend. The reason that bloke hates Newport is probably the bus-evacuating bundle I witnessed kick off in Fratton (technically in Milton) last year, for which both sets of yobs were equally culpable. I watched the match last season and Portsmouth kicked lumps out of Newport, rather than the other way around. Clearly the well-informed Skate is expecting more of the same, but Newport have changed manager twice and all but 4 of their squad since then.

Just a surly face photo and ST with a Coronation Street character lookalike will do, as previously mentioned.

Fair enough, there's the target audience then. People who live miles away with no Saints fans near them and no-one interested in taking them (that was me 14 years ago) How have you not got any Saints mates but two STs? And doesn't the "living away" make you less likely to renew the ST and therefore not benefit from the resale?

Because when given the option to couch his answer in those terms and NOT say he was committed to Saints for the duration of his contract he instead, completely unprovoked, chose not to give himself the option of "weasel words" and outright say he will not be leaving. If there was the remotest possibility he might not do that he'd have given himself an "out".

But completely flawed in execution, as no-one is going to make their ST available to the club for a poxy refund they can't even get unless they continue to be an ST holder and someone else sells the ticket on their behalf, when they could just loan it for cash to a person they know and get the money immediately and get more of it, as well as the temporary user having the benefit of probably paying less than the club would charge.

It's what all the top sides do.

The question being asked here is "what does he do" isn't it? I can vouch for his role as a rapid bench-evacuating clapping joyful celebrator, but we don't really see the other stuff do we?

Effort and hassle of what exactly? There's barely a cost to what they're doing even now. There's already an online booking system with a function for reselling, the only thing that changes is that you'd get credited to the card on your online account (a pre-requisite that card details are saved, already able to do that too) and they might need to add something that allows the user to set a price. And if they couldn't do that, just credit the face value of the ticket.

This seems viable given his Gaelic football experience.