The9

McQueen and McCarthy both look decent, McQueen has a lot of first teamers in front of him though. Seager needs to go out on loan to a side which plays to his strengths, being with us is doing him no favours now. I rate Sims too, but he's lightweight (though not to Hesketh levels) and again, lots of established players in his position. Plus, I rated Jake Thomson.

Nicely done.

I'll be on my phone unless I risk the laptop in my hand luggage... current (annoying) plans seem to have us pointlessly headed for Amsterdam mid-morning on Friday. Three problems with this: 1) the draw 2) my hangover 3) we don't have train tickets to Amsterdam, only Schiphol.

I think it's less likely than that. We need 6 results. Currently 3 are going our way in the CL (of 4) and 5 are going our way in the EL (of 15) including Astra over West Ham, and Vojvodina which is all but bolted on. But in the CL matches there's only 1 goal in it in 2 of those 3. Celtic, Steaua, BATE and Red Bull Salzburg could do us a favour by winning their ties tomorrow, leaving only 2 of those 15 EL match upsets to be required (or 2 of the 4 currently in the process of being an upset, if you're looking at it a different way). But unless Steaua pull their finger out and beat Partizan I think we're going to need at least 3 upsets in the EL of the 4 currently in place. There are currently two possible upsets which are only 1 goal up with the away leg to play - and 3 others who are currently losing but might turn it around and are only 1 down with a home leg to play. It's not much more than 52/48.

Basically, yeah. Right on the borderline - and not helping is that we have the same coefficient as West Ham and it is implied that there's a countback on previous years which would presumably favour them having qualified for Europe more recently. Though if they lose to Astra, problem solved. With Vojvodina 4-0 up against Sampdoria, as long as the CL games go to form we could be only one upset away come Thursday (as long as it's not us! ).

Time for an in-context update re: Play Off Round seedings: If there are 22 teams with a lower seeding than Saints we'll be seeded in the Play-Off round (if we're in it). There will be 15 CL 3rd QR losers and 29 EL 3rd QR winners in the PO Round. The following teams will definitely be ranked below Saints in the Europa League Play Off Round (ELPOR), if there are 22 of them, Saints will be seeded. Confirmed: 1. Kairat OR Aberdeen 2. Žilina OR Vorskla Poltava 3. Debrecen OR Rosenborg 4. Thun OR Vaduz 5. Belenenses OR IFK Göteborg 6. Charleroi OR Zorya Luhansk 7. Elfsborg OR Odds 8. Apollon Limassol OR Gabala 9. AIK OR Atromitos 10. Brøndby OR Omonia Nicosia 11. Hajduk Split OR Strømsgodset 12. Krasnodar OR Slovan Bratislava 13. Milsami Orhei OR Skënderbeu Korçë 14. HJK Finland OR Astana 15. Midtjylland (lost to APOEL in CL 3QR) 16. Molde (lost to Dinamo Zagreb in CL 3QR) In addition, West Ham have the same ranking as Saints, whilst Astra Giurgiu are lower than Saints - that one will be for UEFA to decide but ideally an Astra win (though in the long run England's coeffecient might take a kicking). So we need another 5 or 6 results to go in our favour. They need to come from the following matches: CL 3QR - losers into (ELPOR) - in these 4 matches we need results to go with form as we don't want high ranked teams dropping into the ELPOR. Qarabağ if they lose to Celtic (Qarabag 0-1 but at home tomorrow) Partizan if they lose to Steaua (1-1, with Partizan at home tomorrow) Videoton if they lose to BATE Borisov (1-1, with Videoton away tomorrow) Malmö if they lose to RB Salzburg (Malmo 0-2, but home tomorrow). Europa League 3rd Qualifying Round (winners into ELPOR) - IF the 4 matches above go with form, we need one (or two if West Ham are above us) of the Europa League games to go against form for us to be seeded. However, for every match above that doesn't go to form, we need an additional team from the left column in the list below to win as well. Leading sides in bold. Dinamo Minsk if they beat FC Zurich (Minsk 1-0 up with home leg to play) İstanbul Başakşehir if they beat AZ Alkmaar (Alkmaar 2-0 up with away leg to play) AEK Larnaca if they beat Bordeaux (Bordeaux 3-0 up with away to play) Spartak Trnava if they beat PAOK (PAOK 1-0 up with away to play) Târgu Mureș if they beat St Etienne (St Etienne 3-0 up with home to play, forget this!) Jablonec if they beat FC Copenhagen (Copenhagen 1-0 up with home to play) Vojvodina if they beat Sampdoria (Vojvodina 4-0 up with home to play, mental, but that's all but +1) Kukësi if they beat Legia Warsaw (Legia 3-0 up - awarded, with home to play, forget this one) Sturm Graz if they beat Rubin Kazan (Rubin 3-2 up with home to play) Ironi Kiryat Shmona if they beat Slovan Liberec (Liberec 2-1 up with away to play) Wolfsberger if they beat Borussia Dortmund (Dortmund 1-0 up with home to play) Željezničar if they beat Standard Liege (Liege 2-1 up with away to play) Inter Baku if they beat Athletic Bilbao (At. Bilbao 2-0 up with away to play) Rabotnički if they beat Trabzonspor (Rabotnicki 1-0 up with away to play) Rheindorf Altach if they beat Vitoria Guimaraes (Altach 2-1 up with away to play)

We need 22 unseeded teams below us.

So does the chipkaart work around Amsterdam on the trams? If so I should have bought one of those to use in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam on the same day two weeks ago!

Yep, you're right, every formation discussion ever has been wrong. The 1 is a constant and until keepers start playing up front, people will know not to be stupid enough to bother listing them in formations, because THEY ARE ALWAYS THERE AND DON'T REALLY MOVE MUCH.

I'd argue that we continue to play 4-2-3-1 with Mane in the middle so there's no conundrum. MLG will give you some crap about 4-3-3, but I haven't seen it yet and I've been looking out for it.

I was recently told that Spurs didn't wear yellow away shirts enough recently to assume it was a likely away kit colour, you know. Despite them averaging one every other year for the past 40 odd years. The long and short of this discussion, as Gecko Saint once told me having designed at least one yellow away kit, is that the club doesn't like selling them because we can't shift many, because everyone's already got one. Now for a "buys everything" lozor like me that's basically sacrilege, but I can see why Johnny Two-Kits would prefer a nice one-off green effort over "another yellow one", and the home sash shirt (and the much less palatable all red efforts) pretty much showed that people will buy anything, and like it, with enough justification. Which reminds me, anyone heard anything about that supposed Seattle link-up yet?

As mentioned above... needed to sign before midnight CET before the first leg. Announced at 13:55 on 29th July on the OS http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/20150729-steven-caulker-announcement-signing-2579154.aspx, match was played on 30th, so he should be eligible as he was with the club before midnight, as long we've notified them he's eligible for the Premier League (which presumably he is). All assuming we meet the criteria about number of club-trained players, of course.

There was a link to the rules posted a couple of days ago which implied that if he'd signed by midnight CET on the day before the game he could play in the second leg (or something like that). I can't even remember whether he did, 28_H.

I genuinely don't know where this crappy "can't see it" rubbish is coming from either, no problems at all with the colour, completely different shade of green from the grass. We're also very unlikely to play against a backdrop of green shirts which it could blend into, and seem to have no problem at all wearing mostly red in front of an entire stadium of people wearing pretty much the same thing. Anyone would think the background blurs out compared to nearby teammates or something...

It was a very amber-gold "yellow", much darker than the yellow we wore fairly regularly after 1976. I really like the colour match with the navy border on the muvi advert as well - though I dislike the white numbers on the back of the shirts, I assume we went with those thanks to the wacky UEFA number contrast rules I posted the other day, because there's really no reason not to have navy numbers on them.

You can wear what you like away from home from the up to 3 kits you've registered as long as the Prem Committee agrees there isn't a clash.

Um, why start a thread when there's already a large thread discussing kits, AND not offer any evidence that "others agree"? Personally I love it, it's different, it's unique (albeit the same colours as Swansea's away this season, different style), and it stands out.

Think I'd pick ----------Stekelenburg-------- Cedric Fonte Caulker Targett ---------Wanyama Reed------- Ward-Prowse Juanmi Rodriguez ----------------Long Keeper shouldn't matter as he's not getting tired, strongest defence available and opportunity to further integrate Caulker alongside Fonte to see if he can play left side CB, Wanyama for security with Reed to learn a bit and not risk Clasie who may be injured, a second-choice attacking midfield but still with excellent potential, and leave Pelle out to give Long a start - he and Rodriguez can switch positions. I can understand wanting to keep Fonte and Yoshida in the side together, and maybe not picking Reed, who's a bit of a card risk usually, and some people might want to play Pelle all the time for obvious reasons, but if nothing else it's nice to see the options we have.

I still have a lot of video of that match I haven't bothered to upload...

Yeah, probably the match at the Met Police ground, the day I took squad pics and Rabbit was at 99% Rick Wakeman Hair.

They didn't announce the channel at the time, the commentator actually suggested it would be on the new BT Sport Europe channel - which it isn't.

You have to tap in and out on the trams, the touch pads are like London Tube ones but they're next to the driver or the conductor, you can only get on next to them, and you get off at different doors. It was 6 Euros for a 24 hour card, which is about £4 for unlimited travel, don't be a scabby dog. They will all speak English, and they will also fine you. I didn't get on a tram last week which didn't have at least two people checking. You CAN buy a ticket on the tram itself, but if you're getting on more than one of them you're better off getting the 24, 48 or 72 hour card anyway. Time starts from first check-in. You can buy the GVB cards for the Amsterdam local transport from a machine on the right as you go into the white pavilion-looking hut across the tramlines to the left as you come out of the front of Amsterdam Centraal Station - and probably from the concourse in Centraal as well, though I didn't check that. The 7.50 Euro OV-chipkaart seems to be primarily for overland train travel, but it also worked on the RET (trams, buses etc) in Rotterdam , let's put it like that... though I have no idea if it would have been valid in Amsterdam on the GVB! Suffice to say once you know you're getting nailed 7.50 Euros for a permanent "Oyster-style" card, you tend to look for other ways to get a valid ticket.

Nice work.

Thanks - I think for most people only visiting for the one match it's probably better to buy the tickets online (if they can) and get either pre-printed or use the QR code you can get through on the b-europe app. I printed mine to prevent any phone battery problems. I found it REALLY annoying to have the cost of the card added to the cost of the ticket for very limited use (basically two trains) and decided to get a disposable one instead, it more than doubled the price of the journey to pay for the card AND the train and the disposable ones don't charge a "card" fee - might be useful if anyone is planning multiple visits to Holland though...

The ones with 7 aways have been able to buy that exact travel package for a week without those with less than that being able to buy it.