The9

Spot on. As was I.

And who else would you pick?

He was the opposite against Stoke.

This one's a fail. A non-spectacular one.

Long and short (hoho) is that if he's good enough, it doesn't matter how much bigger than the kids of his own age he is. As by 19 he'll be needing to be good against every age group, and you learn the most by being challenged.

The comments about "looks like an adult in a kids' game" are all the indication I need that the kid most likely won't be good enough. Good luck to whoever ends up stumping up for him though, prior to his lengthy slide down the leagues as teams of lessening degrees give him a game based on reputation and former clubs only. How long did it take Anthony Pulis to stop pretending to be a footballer once his dad got him in at Stoke (and he wasn't even tall)? 2-3 contracts' worth of about £10k a week should set him up nicely. Well done on being tall when young.

Gonna be a bit of a pain actually hearing about the draw, seeing as many of us will be on our way to St Mary's when it happens. Ok, so here's the MLG-approved "The9 Ranking of remaining teams" table, based on existing League positions. The first 44 are easy (though 3-5 has to get a shake up tonight, it'll be after the draw). Chelsea Man City West Ham Southampton Man Utd Arsenal Newcastle Swansea Liverpool Tottenham Aston Villa Everton Stoke Sunderland Crystal Palace West Brom QPR Hull Burnley Leicester -------- Derby Ipswich Bournemouth Middlesbrough Brentford Watford Blackburn Norwich Cardiff Nottm Forest Charlton Sheff Wed Wolves Reading Huddersfield Leeds Bolton Fulham Birmingham Millwall Rotherham Brighton Wigan Blackpool ----------------- Bristol City Preston North End Sheffield United Rochdale (or Aldershot) Bradford City Chesterfield Barnsley (or Chester) Doncaster Rovers Scùnthorpe United (or Worcester City) Colchester United Yeovil Town (or Accrington Stanley) --------------------- Luton Town (or Bury) Bury (or Luton Town) Cambridge United (or Mansfield Town) Accrington Stanley (or Yeovil Town) AFC Wimbledon Mansfield Town (or Cambridge United) Oxford United (or Tranmere Rovers) Tranmere Rovers (or Oxford United) ------------------------ Gateshead Wrexham Chester (or Barnsley) Dover Athletic Aldershot Town (or Rochdale) Southport -------------------------- Worcester City (or Scùnthorpe United) -------------------------- -------------------------- Blyth Spartans

How strange that this story appears right before we play them. I really don't get how these kind of mind games are supposed to work, they don't demean the opposition, they don't weaken the players, who either think "that's wrong" if they weren't liked or are likely to be happy with the decision they've made anyway given our position. It doesn't put it in their mind that they might like to play for Man U, either. It's just pointless.

I was about to come and take the pee over the spelling of the title, but joke's on me. Spectacular.

And you can then lay the blame firmly at the feet of the Premier League, and the Financial Fair Play rules. Unless we get into the Champions League this season, in which case the FFP is the greatest thing ever. *Hastily pulls up ladder*

Warning flags are flying, I see a sincere Turkish post.

Hey, that's not my fault!

Jose Fonte wants a word! http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/brighton-1-2-southampton-fonte-dramatic-1697243 I'm sticking to "someone crap in the bottom half of L2 at home" as my preference. Probably means we'll get Man City or Chelsea away.

Just found this one too, Argentina 2015 Copa America shirt - doesn't really look like the other templates, I wonder if there are white inner cuffs and tape at the bottom which have been cut off the pic?

New Bayern shirt leaked for 2015/16, can't see much of the design though. You'd think Umbro might want a word... Of course the big kit news of the past week has been this, which might set an unfortunate precedent for striped teams trying hoops: That's if you don't think Saints launching new red/yellow training kit is more interesting. More adidas styles (that we've already seen): Universidad de Chile Away kit on the left here is the same style as the white Mexico/navy Colombia shirts above:

I believe so - my shirt sizes for home and away are the same, anyway, and they're the only 2 items of clothing I've ever bought which are 2XL...

With our run of fixtures I want us to draw a crappy League 2 side at home. Non-league would be too much attention and a greater risk of injury, some "happy to get this far" lower league bums would be a good chance to rotate the reserves in. Oxford, Tranmere, Sc*nthorpe, Hartlepool all look like good ones - if they get through. Take your pick: The Third Round Proper draw numbers 1 AFC BOURNEMOUTH 2 ARSENAL 3 ASTON VILLA 4 BIRMINGHAM CITY 5 BLACKBURN ROVERS 6 BLACKPOOL 7 BOLTON WANDERERS 8 BRENTFORD 9 BRIGHTON & HOVE ALBION 10 BURNLEY 11 CARDIFF CITY 12 CHARLTON ATHLETIC 13 CHELSEA 14 CRYSTAL PALACE 15 DERBY COUNTY 16 EVERTON 17 FULHAM 18 HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 19 HULL CITY 20 IPSWICH TOWN 21 LEEDS UNITED 22 LEICESTER CITY 23 LIVERPOOL 24 MANCHESTER CITY 25 MANCHESTER UNITED 26 MIDDLESBROUGH 27 MILLWALL 28 NEWCASTLE UNITED 29 NORWICH CITY 30 NOTTINGHAM FOREST 31 QUEENS PARK RANGERS 32 READING 33 ROTHERHAM UNITED 34 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY 35 SOUTHAMPTON 36 STOKE CITY 37 SUNDERLAND 38 SWANSEA CITY 39 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 40 WATFORD 41 WEST BROMWICH ALBION 42 WEST HAM UNITED 43 WIGAN ATHLETIC 44 WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS --------------------------------- 45. Oxford United (L2) or Tranmere Rovers (L2) 46. Bury (L2) or Luton Town (L2) 47. Wrexham (CONF) 48. Scûnthorpe United (L2) or Worcester City (CONF N) 49. Colchester United (L1) 50. AFC Wimbledon (L2) 51. Accrington Stanley (L2) or Yeovil Town (L1) 52. Blyth Spartans (NPL) 53. Chesterfield (L1) 54. Southport (CONF) 55. Gateshead (CONF) 56. Doncaster Rovers (L1) 57. Preston North End (L1) 58. Barnsley (L1) or Chester (CONF) 59. Bradford City (L1) 60. Sheffield United (L1) 61. Dover Athletic (CONF) 62. Cambridge United (L2) or Mansfield Town (L2) 63. Bristol City (L1) 64. Aldershot Town (CONF) or Rochdale (L1) Read more at http://www.thefa.com/news/the-fa-cup/2014/dec/third-round-proper-draw-details-051214#GFsQOYI2bEWLYhI1.99 Purely statistically based on tier of non-League, Blyth are by far the best opponents, followed by Worcester.

First mention was here: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?52367-Veli-Kavlak#.VIHL9NKsWSo

Here's one of the previous iterations of the "squad depth" argument. Needless to say NickG comes across as a deluded happy clapper... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?52458-Four-reasons-for-and-four-against#.VIHJY9KsWSo

I completely disagree. Mane is actually pretty strong and perfectly capable of holding larger players off, and has done plenty of times. He only goes over in order to win free-kicks or if he's off-balance.

Well this is news to a lot of posters on here judging by some of the threads about our "much stronger squad" less than a month ago. Precisely the point of this is that we can sustain losing Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, Cork, and Tadic because we have so much depth in midfield - but lose Alderweireld and we've got no-one to cover at CB, or for that matter cover at DM or RB when there are others injured.

Wouldn't that depend a fair bit on wages?

He was regularly failing to read high balls when he was in the team every week (notably when we played against Lukaku for West Brom). I think the reason he's getting a run at the moment is that we're not playing aerial-based teams. Will be interesting to see what happens against Everton, if Alderweireld isn't fit by then.

Why would we want to do that?

I knew what you meant.