The9

Worked that one out two pages ago. If they get O'Hara on loan they should get an immediate points deduction for p155taking from the FL.

Yes, Whatmough. And now Brentford have recalled Diagouraga they might need to find another one from their auspicious youth side.

Other than the half plain red back.

Newport's sports shops were stocking Cardiff City shirts within 5 years. Some people even went across to the dark side. Not me, guv, I found the nearest top division side and found a Uni course to go to there.

Um, Newport County AFC? 21 years from bankruptcy when bottom of the Conference in 1988/89 to a glorious return to the Football League at the start of this season. TWENTY-ONE BLOODY YEARS! Long enough for me to move to Southampton as a student in 1991 and now have been a Saints fan longer than I supported the original Newport County for. Oh, and guess who the Skates are playing on Saturday?

They can't get Connolly back BECAUSE ITS AGAINST THE RULES. Never stopped them before of course, but you can only recall season long loans (i.e. loans to season end) during Transfer Windows - if the loan is before the Jan window players on "season long" loans can be recalled then (eg Lukaku could have returned to Chelsea) but if you set up a loan to the end of the season after January that's it. The very fact that Bird's loan ends within a week means his isn't a season long loan and he can be recalled.

Let's give this a moment of reflection: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/jun/16/glen-johnson-transfer-liverpool-portsmouth So Liverpool paid £18m for a right back, though actually it was only £11m because the Skates owed them £7m for Crouch (not like them ). In the context of that, I'd put the chances of their being any additional payments on the deal at somewhere between 0 and 0.00000000000000001%.

In unrelated Schadenfreude news, Billy Davies got sacked as Forest manager after a 5-0 defeat to Derby.

I had an S2 for 2 years, went to giffgaff for 3 months, dropped it, and now have a Note3 (with free Galaxy Gear watch which has since been superseded), would be surprised if S5 delivers much more than Note3 has.

They won't be getting any money from Skrill next season, they've cancelled their sponsorship of the Conference.

Boo, Morecambe equaliser against Cobblers.

Not that it's relevant here but AFC Wimbledon have just scored 3 in 5 minutes to go 3-2 up against Cheltenham!

I see Bristol Rovers crept another point ahead of the Skates last night...

Stoke didn't end their deal with Adidas, their 4 year contract finishes this summer. We still have a deal in place with Adidas (can't remember but I think it was 3 years?).

Can't argue with a nice stripe. To be honest, after the last couple of seasons I think I'm over the whole "plain panel for the numbers" problem now though...

I've already posted on this thread loads? I could have resisted this one, comedy genius: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?44975-Nike#.UyoX0Kh_uSo

Problem with that one is that the top half of the back of it is plain red. I know, cos I ordered a blue/black set for a local club in the summer, back is half black.

Anyone who says we didn't wear stripes in the 80s is a massive spud. The Air Florida/Rank Xerox etc Patrick kit was a broad white stripe, two narrower red stripes and two white stripes down the side. The next Patrick kit (Centenary shirt), yeah, that was red (with shiny red shadow stripes). The "Denmark" hummel kit was loads of red and white stripes in two shades to also create a halved effect overall. The next hummel kit was bona fide red and white stripes. Last year's kit, not stripes. I'm still not buying any of this "kit is signed off, can't change it" crap, it's March, we've not launched until August before. If they want to swap it, they can, just launch the yellow one first.

B0110cks, Newport lost again, now I may have to temper my enthusiasm for a Torquay home win on Saturday, given that County are now only 7 points off the relegation zone (albeit 9 places), and if Torquay win it'll be a maximum of 6 points.

They can't make him anyway, you can only terminate season long loans in transfer windows, and Connolly's loan is for the rest of the season.

I'm hopeful Newport will beat Dagenham and Redbridge tonight (bloody fixture congestion, 2 matches in one night? ), meaning I won't mind if they lose to Torquay on Saturday. Rene Howe returning to his old club for that one, so Newport might actually remember how to score. Newport, for the record, haven't won in their last 14 matches and are now sliding perilously close to the relegation zone themselves (down to 14th, having been 8th for about 4 months) - though it'll take the whole bottom half winning a few games to drop them right in it. I should reiterate that Newport, despite not having won in 14 matches, are still 3 points and goal difference above Pompey, AND they still have 2 games in hand on them. And Newport haven't been in a play-off position since Christmas. They are, however, also playing the Skates at Rodney Parade (aka "the beach") the following weekend... and it is the currently worst pitch I've seen at a professional level since the 1970s.

We didn't sell anything off under Cortese for the last 2 seasons, with the exception of a 10% reduction in the yellow kit on promotion from the Championship - and they ended up using that kit in the Prem the year after anyway!

We should be looking to maximise revenue through a zillion partnerships, sponsorships and product placements of all types, just to get our income through a medium which is completely unlimited by the Financial Fair Play regulations.

Did have a discussion with a friend of a friend when I was dragged to the Megastore after the match on Saturday (everything's half price, which is still a rip off, and no, I didn't get a home shirt, £15 is my ceiling on one of those - the wife got one though, to my vague annoyance). Black away kits are practically non-existent and sold out in all but 3XL, whilst they still have absolutely loads of the crappy red thing, including stock off site they haven't even touched yet. Regarding sales figures, it was made clear that any "fastest selling kit ever" story went immediately to sh!t within a few days, and sales have been completely in the crapper all year. Anyway, he said he thought they'd have already made the kit decision months ago and that he wasn't expecting stripes, but seeing as I'm pretty sure we changed the away kit design at the last minute last season due to Lotus (and probably their black and gold colourscheme) falling through, I'm not sure that's the case. As you may recall, the rumour mill had it that aap3 weren't scheduled to take up the last year of their contract with Saints, and as they no longer sponsored any of the junior or development sides this season having done so in the two previous seasons, I'd be inclined to think the story is true that they signed back up with a new one year deal as opposed to continuing the expected 3 year one (with both scheduled to end this summer). I resisted the temptation to pick up a pair of green keepers' socks for a fiver because they don't have any size 5s (Men's 11-13s), figured one of the other 8 Prem sides wearing adidas would still have them on sale. They don't, and Saints' stock levels are higher for the size 4s than anyone else's too, most of them only have kids' sizes in their lime green keeper's kits.

I'd take someone like Crouch over both of them at the moment, which isn't saying much.