The9

It's on Saints Wall. Tell a lie, no it isn't. I've seen it somewhere. Probably up there.

It's a bit different to the FA Cup, isn't it? I haven't even got to the crap about banners or media areas yet...

I love Jeebus, I do. Did that help?

Which tells you just how dull they are.

Compulsory YouTubery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXGbvPRdU8

Happy enough with the signing, I remember him shipping one right through him at the near post for Fulham but I also remember him making some decent saves behind their random knackered-looking team. He'll be fine, wonder if it's a loan to buy?

And he still hasn't proven himself as a Premier League keeper 8 years later. He was crap in the Championship for a couple of years too until the takeover.

I've had enough for now. Off to look at the Stekelenburg thread.

Group stage fixture order is already confirmed! Each club plays one home and one away match against each other club in its group. Three points are awarded for a win, one for a draw, and none for a defeat. The following match sequence applies: Matchday 1: 2 v 3 4 v 1 Matchday 4: 1 v 3 4 v 2 Matchday 2: 1 v 2 3 v 4 Matchday 5: 3 v 2 1 v 4 Matchday 3: 3 v 1 2 v 4 Matchday 6: 2 v 1 4 v 3

13.03 If, for any unforeseen reason, any of the participants in such rounds are not known at the time of the draw, the coefficient of the club with the higher coefficient of the two clubs involved in an undecided tie will be used for the purposes of the draw. We already know that one, seeing as the 3QR draw will be made half way through the 2QR. 13.04 For the qualifying phase and play-offs, a draw between the same number of seeded and unseeded clubs determines the pairings... Clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other (So they can be in the group stages?? Or the last 32?).

6.01 "Clubs agree to field their strongest team throughout the competition" is an interesting one. 7.05 "Visiting clubs undertake not to play any other matches when travelling to and from away matches in this competition." - does that imply the team has to go back to Southampton before going on to Newcastle in early August, for instance? 8.02 Anti-doping "UEFA may test any player at any time." 11.01 "The original trophy, which is used for the official presentation ceremony at the final and at other official events approved by UEFA, remains in UEFA’s keeping and ownership at all times. A full-size replica trophy, the UEFA Europa League winners' trophy, is awarded to the winning club." 11.02 "Any club which wins the competition three consecutive times or five times in total receives a special mark of recognition. Once a cycle of three successive wins or five in total has been completed, the club concerned starts a new cycle from zero." 11.04 "The winning team is presented with forty gold medals and the runner-up with forty silver medals. Additional medals may not be produced."

Also, the first thing I remembered reading the regulations link above is the one time insistence by UEFA of not using the first row of seats, so that's 1000 off the capacity already if they're still doing that. I am now reading the whole thing and will post quirky regulation-based crap for a while.

I'm not being funny, but both these teams were facing the prospect of playing fairly uncompetitive opponents for at least two rounds before they got to the stage we're entering at. It will depend on who we draw, but I'd expect us to get at least 25k on a Thursday night in late July in our first European match for 12 years if we were playing a load of Andorran sheep farmers (as West Ham sort of are). There's no need for us to market the pricing competitively. As long as we don't do something stupid like Cat A them, people will buy tickets at £30 and we'll shift loads.

That's the same link. They're both 2014/15 - if you found 2015/16 you probably deleted the wrong link. Here you go: http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/uefaorg/Regulations/02/23/69/59/2236959_DOWNLOAD.pdf

I don't expect they will be pricing them as competitively as the League Cup or FA Cup games against L1/L2 opposition, though Thursday nights might have an impact.

Yeah, true, but without viewing it in isolation it's just another 4 weeks of waiting Plus you must have missed my "getting to Kazakhstan" comments above, absolute nightmare travel times and lack of connections. Good job the club are considering travel options!

He already has a multi-year contract with Saints drawn up as part of last year's loan-to-buy deal because of the option clause. I should think that would still be valid even if they end up renegotiating the transfer fee.

Well, he's cover, but we lose so much from moving him from CB that I'd never actually want to use him for anything else - maybe push forward late on if we need a goal but that's about it. He's not all that great at RB and he's not a patch on Schneiderlin or Wanyama at DM. He is, however, a bloody tremendous CB who is competent in those other positions if absolutely necessary. Hopefully our business this summer will make those kind of fudges less prevalent in the squad, because they all cost us points, even if it is probably the most efficient way to put together a squad. I still can't believe we mostly got away with the GK/CF gambles last season.

Even though we had plenty of options to indirectly replace him, and Austin wouldn't directly replace him either.

Well, I've put my money where my mouth is regarding Newport getting relegated. Unfortunately they're only a poxy 11/2 so opened a new account and stuck a reasonable sum on them, getting another equal-sized free bet which I also used for the same purpose, basically doubling my odds. So if my home town side falls back out of the Football League in 2015/16 (which unfortunately looks ridiculously likely at the moment), I'll be about £600 better off, which might slightly lessen the inevitable trauma. Skates are still favourites with every bookie to go up, as usual this is a prime opportunity to lay them and make lots of money from deluded Skates.

You basically have to climb the top tier stairs like its a ladder judging by the viewing angle. Why are there not thousands of people hanging off the barriers at the front of the top stands trying to save themselves?

A cautionary tale to other people posting spurious nonsense that ends up being inaccurate so other people don't do it?

It's being going on for a looooooong time now. I have no problem with the stupid being relieved of their money, especially if it leads to opportunities to do stuff like laying Alderweireld to Spurs, f'rinstance.

Exactly. Apart from the second bit, even I don't care about that, though I appreciate your attempts at distracting him with busy work.