The9

Fair enough, I didn't suggest we were offered anything bespoke, but I'd be sure Cortese was after IT, based on his exacting standards elsewhere. I dare say Cortese being an utter pain in the ar5e to deal with had nothing to do with that awkwardness either. They did have NINE Prem teams last season though, which was probably part of the supply problem. As well as, I'd guess, our relatively low volumes (partially due to the local retailer restrictions, partially because half the fanbase wouldn't buy the all-red things) making Saints a lower priority. As far as money for sponsorship, Man United are doing very well, flogging ad space to numerous different companies for training and warm up as well as match shirts, and raking it in from all of them. It's not really about the company profile, is it?

You can argue it all you like but because Mané was running away from goal it isn't a regarded as a goalscoring opportunity under the current IFAB interpretation of the Laws.

No chance. Not when 3rd and 4th are viable options.

No, clearly we are about 7 quality first teamers short of being able to field competitive teams in the Champions League AND challenge for the top 6 in the Prem. If we tried to approach a CL or El campaign with the current squad we'd be knackered by November and falling to bits by now, with the team somewhere around 12th in the table. Players just can't play 60 games a season at such a high intensity any more.

Raised the profile of Warrior which up until then were basically a lacrosse outfitter, better to have two well-known brands than one.

Nice bit of info sourcing - might be worth listing the loanees as such, because if Alderweireld has a pre-contract (which apparently he must do because all international loans are conducted as full transfers) his end date isn't 2015, but Atletico have to pay a break clause to terminate the option.

No music should make the blindest bit of difference to the pre-match atmosphere and frankly I hate all of it. The only thing worse is music after goals.

Yup, it's not about leaving, it's about sneakily manipulating the situation whilst trying to portray yourself as the good guy and basically outright lying once you'd decided to go, with a plan in place for your personal gain at the expense of the club. Lambert has the excuse that Liverpool was his home town club, and we were looking at moving him on anyway. Lovren was as bad as Lallana and the hairdresser faux pas proved how long in advance he'd decided to go. Shaw was fine, if anything he was exceeding expectations, he didn't make anyone any promises, there was always the idea he was going to leave and we got a lot of money for potential that may not be realised. Chambers was similar, taking an opportunity to get himself to a regular CL team when it looked like the club was falling apart and without the calculated longer planned exit of Lovren.

Apologist ahoy. So you're saying Cortese delayed until it was too late for anything bespoke and then didn't like what we got given, but that's not his fault? Plus you also haven't seemed to work out that Adidas pay the club, not the other way around. So "a bigger deal" wouldn't necessarily be better for them. Though it's also us who insist on the limited retail points, which massively hampers the sales figures, so I guess we could move away from that and Adidas would get a cut of a much bigger market in exchange for use of their distribution infrastructure. Picking up year 3 of a deal having just ignored year 2 seems strange, maybe it was the easiest and cheapest way to revive the agreement?

Next season's NB Liverpool shirt is already on this thread.

Strangely the other sleeve is intact. despite being my phone pocketside.

He's going to get absolutely hammered, if he plays of course.

Interesting comment about West Ham feigning injury, didn't one of their lot lay around on the floor in the Itchen/Chapel corner after Pellè blocked a clearance and the ref actually went over to have a word when he just got up after there wasn't a card?

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/20150214-adidas-southampton-201516-2269810.aspx Full article. We're being very nice to them for their support and understanding. Fůcking Cortese.

It isn't. It's usually red because it denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Could easily be yellow if the keeper handles when there's no one within 50 yards of him.

Yeah, I've been banging on about this. The supposed "pull back" was after Adrián hacked Mané's legs in the box.

Close, the current interpretation of the Laws States that the ref should take account of the direction of travel when considering a DOGSO and as they were both going away from goal, THAT'S why it's been overturned. Of course, that is tangible nonsense in practical terms and leads to silly shïte like this, but that's refereeing for you.

There's a thread for this, it has the word pointless in the title. I sort of agree on the quality front now, my long sleeved shirt now has about 9 pulls all down the one sleeve, the stitching has gone as well as the pebble thing, plus the club ran out of replacements before Xmas.

For those who can't be bothered to click, Saints have announced Adidas as our technical partner for 2015/16. Only sounds like a one year thing though, bit weird.

Well would you look at that.. http://twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/566522306847985664

But it's last year's kit style so we won't be getting that even if we did have a sash (and isn't it the 130th Anniversary this year?). Here's the current 2014/15 Swindon shirt:

I thought he went missing a bit when we had the ball, to be honest. His defensive play was excellent though, and he might have been told to use our possession to have a break. But I thought there were numerous occasions in transitions where we missed Schneiderlin showing in the middle for a quick and easy courier pass to a more advanced player, it was part of the reason we didn't get the breakthrough (albeit nothing like as significant as us sodding about with it around the box).

Because that's not what it is called, and there are other competitions which actually do use that name. I'm still about 99% more chilled out about grammar nazi stuff than in the SaintsForever days.

If there's anyone not already reading this who didn't know that, they should probably try harder.

Gerrard having a hamstring scan, Lucas is out for months. Their 3 at the back is the system our wide men is designed to take apart, and with Schneiderlin and Alderweireld hopefully back, we should be solid against their re-Sturridge'd up attack. Sod's law that we're going to be pretty much the only team he plays against twice in the League this season, but left back, Long and Rodriguez (and Mayuka ) aside we should be back to full strength. May even have a striker who has scored in the Prem before on the bench now Gallagher's getting Dev Squad games. I think we'll pick Yoshida at left back, not sure Targett's got enough experience for this one yet.