The9

Even the opposition manager wasn't exactly getting het up about Defoe's "bite": http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/6076094.stm My question is over FIFA's jurisdiction - it's their competition so I should think that unlike domestic competitions the national FA doesn't get involved. In which case, FIFA can ban Suarez for as long as they wish from their competitions. The FA are a FIFA member (for now!) and if FIFA want this to be a worldwide ban from all competitions they may not be able to enforce it without pre-emptive action from the FA regarding their competitions. FIFA themselves have enforced a worldwide ban (on Luisao for punching a ref), but the Portuguese FA enforced the ban for their competitions and FIFA extended it worldwide - FIFA were not responsible for the competition there. The other question, is if FIFA issue an international (national team) match ban, and the FA ban Suarez domestically in line with it but it's not extended worldwide, Suarez would just leave, and effectively have been forced out by the FA. The Premier League would be furious with FIFA and the FA, and I suspect the FA wouldn't be too happy with FIFA either.

Yes, every time I had to wait a second on highlights before working out if it was us or Liverpool in red it impacted on my viewing. Every time we took the field it was in the back of my mind, and every time we had a bit of success to reflect on I was thinking "I hope we can get this kind of profile in our proper kit before we become irrelevant again". On the bright side, it was so crap it was the first kit we've properly reduced in price for years. Also, what Colinjb said.

Perception and branding. The same reason that two identical shirts made in the same factory, one with the official logo, and one without, are sold at such different prices. Also, they don't use sweat shops - the largest companies have the most to lose from not adhering to legislation on this, and go out of their way to comply.

It still makes no sense that even with us unable to get a kit from adidas, we can't manage to get a decent design from anyone else in what was still a reasonable lead time, either... We'll see re: own brand, the last lot of own brand training kit with the flybe sponsor was nice.

Will be surprised if he's eligible to be honest.

Have to say, having backed Hodgson for his credibility, he lost me with yesterday's subs.

Just for the record, the Infant Skate shirts are £4.99 and the kids' kits are £6.99. They have now sold out of Goalkeeper shirts in L and XL for the home and away kits - still got every outfield size up to XL though, despite the UP TO 80% OFF sale. Re: Poke - since leaving Saints in 2010 he's played once for Brighton in the League Cup, played 8 times for now non-League Bristol Rovers on loan, and 57 times for now non-League Torquay, though not for the last 2 months of their relegation season when he was either dropped or injured. He also had a shedload of appearances for Torquay (50+) when on loan for Saints. But overall, 1 appearance for a club still in the Football League in the last 4 years, and before that, 4 for Saints in 6 years.

I quite enjoyed seeing Phil Jones watch the 70 yard launch from the keeper sail straight over his head to the striker, proving you don't need to have Gerrard's knees and 180 minutes of football in 4 days to completely shart up defending a massive hoof. But isn't it lovely to see that English players have to deal with hoofs so infrequently in the Prem that they have no idea what to do about it any more? Useful comments at half time about how much space Lallana is in and not being passed to...

The new Elite Academy rules are design precisely to support the big teams stockpiling kids and controlling their development and contract status, because the only thing they couldn't previously control was other clubs investing relatively small sums into developing their own talent and competing with them that way. I've no idea why Shaw would be worried about us pricing out of a move, had he been at Chelsea to begin with he'd be nowhere near the first team yet. It's one of the reasons the English talent pool is so diluted, a bunch of kids playing in reserve and youth teams instead of getting top level experience - and of course the ridiculous new "B Team" plan just delivers this even more. For as long as the Premier League is hostage to the top clubs for its branding and they are driving the agenda, it'll be (big) club before country all the way, with the impact being what's currently happening to England.

How has 4-3-2-1 got 3CBs?

Your argument is not exactly coherent. Regarding the age thing: Spain's manager was 64 when they were 2 time European Champions and World Cup holders, playing a then-unique system. Hodgson was not a "disaster" at Liverpool, they just lost patience with a manager who pretty much everywhere else has improved the team after a spell of adjustment. It took about 6 months for West Brom to turn results around and launch themselves up the table, Liverpool weren't prepared to wait. He also clearly comprehends modern football well, hence use of 4-2-3-1 and the introduction of the likes of Sterling. Age is irrelevant if you move with the times, and Hodgson has done exactly that. Can't argue with you about a mistake using Gerrard so much, but again, what were the options?

You do wonder how bad Jones must have been playing recently to not get on, Hodgson seems to regard him as a CB/RB cover though. It was a very risky decision to rely on Gerrard for 3 matches in 10 days with his age and in those conditions, and the late goal against Uruguay came from his tired legs failing to jump.

Lampard went purely for "experience" and with no expectation of him playing. I wonder if Hodgson wishes he'd taken someone who could at least play defensive midfield instead of Gerrard's creaking knees instead.

I'm not sure whether the system will depend on the players, or the players will depend on the system, assuming Koeman has funds to buy players. Fair point re: Mayuka, Sharp etc. Could be some interesting decisions to be made. Can't see Sharp agreeing to a move before January though, he's not going to get anything near his current deal anywhere in the Championship at the moment after 2 years of not matching his promotion form with Saints.

Agreed on the ugliness of the gold, it was always a good idea for a Lotus-coloured away kit (still convinced that was the original intention) but looked awful on the home shirt - even a plain white badge would have looked better than the gold.

Works quite well if you are happy with your full backs killing themselves attacking and defending with only two CBs against endless wing attacks.

So much fail here. 1) I'm sure the knowledge of how Saints have been playing is EXACTLY why Koeman tweeted that - it shows an enthusiam for a system that most Saints fans would recognise as "our way" without pinning himself to any specific style if he doesn't want to use it. 2) He said "Bielsa stable", not "Bielsa" himself. Any of those disciples would need a very minor tweak to the system we're already operating. Though if it was a system without Lambert, Lallana and Shaw (and Rodriguez for a few months) there would be the need for tweaks anyway, and all managers see players' abilities in different ways.

Deciding someone isn't consistently good enough to play regularly in Champions League or Premier League for a team that has designs on winning both doesn't mean he doesn't rate him, it just means he doesn't rate him enough to keep him there at the moment. He also thinks Demba Ba is better, which is a difficult argument to agree with.

I think Hodgson has reacted well to the challenges of not having a decent defensive midfielder, right back or central defensive partnership, he's changed and modernised the system, moved well away from Ye Olde 4-4-2, and introduced both young players AND players who don't play for the same old clubs based on their reputations, as well as seeing the limitations of Carroll and picking a more skilful player instead. Though I do think he's missed a trick with Lallana and Shaw (given how bad Baines was in the warm up against Honduras and against Italy), he's introduced Sterling, who is well worth his place, and ignored any and all media gubbins to do things his way. I think Neville is doing fine in the role he's in and given a couple of years playing together the side will be in with a decent chance in France - provided someone emerges as a holding defender and at centre back. By then Gerrard and Lampard (and Lambert) will be history and others will hopefully have stepped up. Maybe Clyne will stop making stupid positional decisions and miscontrolling the ball 6 yards out, or Chambers will continue to show his abilities, and that'll sort out the Johnson problem, but who knows who'll be DM and CBs? No matter how good a manager is, without the players, you're stuffed. At the moment England have nothing much between the attacking midfielders and the goalkeeper, and good players will take you apart based on that. The question is not "who should be the manager?", but "who will be playing in those positions in 2 years' time?".

With clubs having more money than ever from the tv deal hikes, and the value of homegrown young players escalating, we'd have to be insane not to be squeezing every penny of possible value from a sale we don't even want to make. Of course the ideal would be for us to spend those kind of amounts on the other 10 positions to make the club as successful as possible so he wouldn't have any reason to leave... though FFP might be putting the mockers on that.

This gives pedantry a worse name. The Telegraph style guide is clear that m is the preferred abbreviation for million. http://www.proz.com/kudoz/English/other/4204106-the_british_abbreviations_for_million_and_billion.html

That's horrible. Still way too much red. Probably works better with predominantly white, but only because I know the sash worked and the last two seasons' didn't.

I don't like the shorts, I think those stripes are on the front (like the classic Coventry and Wales kits) and would look WEIRD without the corresponding shirt stripes.

You'd think. It's also the one on the right I mentioned in the photo I linked. I'm just hopeful that if we do have to go for a short-term, crappy teamwear kit, that it would be with Admiral.

You can have a good sod about with colours and stuff here: http://admiral.axissoccer.com/mycolors/