The9

We're also "most liked" as well as "second least hated", fwiw. I think there may have already been a thread.

Indeed, "why does your name have to be Romeo" is the gist of it, because he's a Montague, and, well, y'know, she's a Capulet and they're at war and all that. As opposed to "faaaaaack I can't find him".

Nicely summarised.

Sold Cork and Schneiderlin, we're still a DM down even with Clasie.

I got bored of watching him play safe passes after about 3 minutes of the video, was about to complain that the video didn't show any clips of him marking, pressing or closing down generally, nor winning the ball or intercepting, before I realised just how tedious that would have been to watch. I'll reserve opinion until I've seen him once, and then again on a few more matches, and keep revising it depending on how things change, but I'm totally in favour of us trying to get him.

Having seen Steve's comment - higher or further back, either way. Though they don't own any land behind the alleyway either, do they?

Also, one of the benefits of safe standing is the shallower sight lines allowed - which wouldn't have any benefit at Fratton because the stand is crammed in in front of the lane, they'd probably have to build the stand higher to get the seats in - local residents will love that (though let's face it, they live next to Fratton Park already, they're not picky).

That's what I assumed too, that'll be fun trying to stop it falling into the lane behind the ground - but if they're rebuilding for safe standing that would actually reduce the number of seats, wouldn't it? They take up more room than conventional seats as you have two "terrace" steps (one with a seat space, albeit tipped up and one access/standing step) rather than a seat with little passing room in front all on one level. Rather than: This also gives a nice shot of the floodlight I mentioned.

You get a point guaranteed for a clean sheet and nothing guaranteed for a goal. The point guaranteed for even a 0-0 tips the balance well in favour of defending. Keeping a clean sheet doesn't prevent a team also scoring in a game so they will AT WORST get 1 point, whilst scoring (and conceding) gives you a net gain of nothing. We got 2.7 points on average from the 14 games Saints kept a clean sheet last season, whilst scoring 54 goals got us 60 points, only 1.11 per game. The only modifier here is that in leagues where 0-0s are more common (i.e. where both sides are defensive) the value of that clean sheet reduces. It's only worth about 2.3 points in Italy, for instance.

A quick Google says 40,221 - so I was under 9% out. His guess was nearly 30% out.

It's about 37000 isn't it?

Oh, and judging by the "16500" to "20000" rebuilding of the Milton to Safe Standing, it holds 3500 when completed (which is weird, because the ground is SUPPOSED to hold about 20,000 without the rebuild and is currently all seated anyway). So either that capacity is the all-seated capacity (in which case why mention Safe Standing but not the enhanced standing capacity) or it's now 3500 safe standers compared to 3500 seated, which sort of removes any benefit to putting the standing in. As for the 21000 in Phase 2 becoming 21000 without the lower North stand in Phase 3, I assume the idea would be to build the Milton/North corner extension to up the capacity of that bit before losing the North lower - even so, there are a LOT more seats in the North lower than that new corner piece could accommodate, there's also the question of whether they'd be allowed to use the North stand when there was a new structure in development behind (but a bit above and presumably a bit overhanging). Anyway, they have no money and no reason to do this, there are not 20,000 never mind 32,000 people interested in lower league football in Portsmouth.

That bit actually makes sense - (I know this is all pie-in-the-sky and ridiculous, but..) when the North Stand lower is demolished, the rebuild is a few yards nearer the car park, opening up space for the pitch to move northwards - the existing north end of the Fratton stand is then no longer aligned to the edge of the pitch, and the redeveloped Milton (away) End adds half a section to the already-rebuild Milton End fill the gap and also the curve to meet the new north stand. I'm assuming they will also be removing the massive floodlight which currently sits in that corner, which is probably easiest done by dropping it on the pitch rather than all the nearby terraced house gardens. There are two things about this for me ASIDE from them not being able to afford any of it: 1) All that part-rebuilding is massively expensive, probably over and above the cost of actually building an entirely new stadium. 2) Their "32000" stadium only holds 32000 for League One and League Two (when they will never actually get 32,000 anyway) because it incorporates safe standing in the Milton End which wouldn't be allowed in the Championship or Premier League and they'd have to convert those to seats, losing approximately 1/3 to 1/2 of the capacity of that stand. Ooh, and for the record, I'm a 42-year old bloke who lives with his wife, though quite what Corp's problem is with people wanting to look after their elderly parents, or even just wanting to live on their own, who knows?

44 goals in 144 games for Skonto Riga at his peak, plus a loan when he rarely played, which may have been in Derby's worst season ever.

There are also a fair few people who are eligible and either can't afford another match in the same month, or can't get more time off, etc. The "ID on collection" thing has certainly meant a few people I know who couldn't make it are now not buying tickets at all, rather than buying to shift on to a friend. I've seen a fair few Arnhem travellers who go to a lot of matches saying they can't make/afford it already. Still not convinced it'll get below 11, never mind 9.

They'll definitely make it past today or they wouldn't have been able to confirm that all of today's eligible ticket holders were guaranteed a ticket. I'm hoping they'll also make it past tomorrow, though I am already covered off in any event.

Or maybe people who want a fair system, with the people who've actually qualified being the people who get to go to the games?

Though this is awesome. We could all wear church robes and sing falsetto.

Well this is tremendous. I always like when Turkish comes up with ace songs whilst trying to take the p155.

He's not yet proven he's back to his previous form and he's not an addition to the squad as he was already there. As I said, Stekelenburg as a new squad member only actually improves the squad when Forster is fit. As far as the team goes, I don't see much difference to when Forster was playing, though he's obviously an improvement on Davis / Gazzaniga. Rodriguez has offered a bit more than Juanmi so far but not all that much. It'll understandably take time, but so far he's just another squad player. You're also missing that point that a weaker defence is far more detrimental to us than a stronger attack benefits us, as well. Weak links are exploited in defence whilst weak attackers can be covered for by numerous other methods.

Oh and let's not forget the analytics adage, we scored 2 goals that were only worth 0.5 of a point each, a clean sheet would have got us 3 points.

Seeing as this is still just about a Wanyama thread, here's the next quote of his that'll be taken out of context by the media come January as him agitating for a move: "I think Morgan and I understood each other when he was here and it was easy for us to play together, but now he’s not here and I have to move on.” Source? Wanyama interview on OS! We know what he means, but "now Morgan is gone I have to move on" is just too easy for the clickbaiters.

I am agreeing that it has never caught on, just for the record. Because I have friends who always sing it and it never takes.

I don't think you've been watching Pelle much if you think he does "pointless flicks which work once in 20 attempts". He was everywhere on the weekend.

I have a few friends who sing at least one rendition of Woolston Ferry in the ground every single match (and I know all the words via repetition, having been born 100 miles away)... ...so yeah, never going to catch on. I did not know there used to be a zoo, though as I used to live right by The Common I can guess where it was judging by the Hawthorn comments. And I always wondered why there was such a desire for an ice rink here, where did it used to be?