The9

I think this only applies to people who are actually short ?

I prefer swinging it into the mixer early doors, myself. And plenty of box to box stuff from the terrier in the centre of the park, and the lad with good feet for a big fella giving it the eyebrows at the front stick.

Nope, same distribution deal in terms of outlets, Saints control the two Southampton outlets, not sure whether there's still the store on the IoW with exclusive rights as well like there used to be, but no, Pompey's SportsDirect.com controlled Sondico kit will be available in many more stores than the Saints kit. We'll still sell more than them though, even of this crappy red number.

I saw a couple of blokes in the Kingsland with the £15 darker red Tiro 13 shirts on, from the Northam they were (nearly) indistinguishable from the normal Saints shirts. I only noticed because of the lack of ugly gold sponsor and the tiny white bits under the armpits - the colour was remarkably similar, in broad daylight. Course, why you'd want a non-authentic replica in the same style as a kit you obviously dislike, I can't quite work out.

I doubt it, if rumours of their late u-turn this summer are true, I don't get the impression Cortese forgets these kind of things easily. Pretty sure that's also one of the reasons the away shirts were particularly late, I suspect we re-ordered them to get rid of the black/gold colour scheme that would have tied in with Lotus F1 AND the black/gold Saints badge on the early adidas promos. The rumour did the rounds on the massive pointless kit thread some time from April, I think. As it was they had to do the whole launch video and photo sessions with unsponsored shirts and photoshop/splice in the sponsors to the video later.

Adkins couldn't get the grin off his face just being interviewed about his call up - I should think he's being peeled off a ceiling at the moment.

Shame about the crappy "duh-duh-duh-duh" song they trotted out for him, but I suppose learning a song with more than one line that mentions Matt Le Tiss was probably too much for them. You'd think people could have "lalalalala"ed along before "Rickie Lambert England's Goal Machine"-ing though. Maybe next time...? Oh, and congratulations to him, lest someone else start having a go at me for not congratulating him in every post I make.

If that's true (big IF) I would assume the plan is for Chambers to cover right back and Clyne to cover left back. If Shaw and Clyne both get injured we can play the "which CB is worst in the middle" game and dump one of them out there (worked so well with Yoshida).

I was delighted for him, it was a lovely moment. Also, I didn't say either of those other two things.

Depends on your resolution that one...

I think a pic of him in his first Saints season sums up his longevity nicely, and it should only be changed for one of him in an England shirt.

Not unless Rob Earnshaw scored an international own goal against England at some point. Steve Bull never scored in the top division I don't think, but he did the rest.

Well, that was pretty fcking marvellous. What a story ! I squeaked like a guinea pig when the header went in, went head to toe in goosebumps and then started yelling general swear words about how the ball should "get in". Suppose this means I'm no longer just ambivalent to all Saints players.

Interesting points regarding travel costs - I had an ST in 2001/2 when I lived in South Wales, and went to a lot of matches in 2002/3 as well - and there is absolutely NO way I could do that now (everything else being the same) just based on increased petrol costs alone. I tried to get the train when possible, but often had to drive due to late postponements of matches I'd have been playing in (esp in 02/03). Would have been about £20 petrol and £4 for the Bridge, compared to about £40 + £6.20 now, without even considering the cost of food, drink and match ticket. Having said that, the wife managed to get a ticket to Newport on Saturday last week for £20 on the day, so maybe it's just about getting lucky or planning (which isn't easy with tv times either).

My main problem with Yoshida is that he's poor at reading long balls over his head, especially low, flat ones, and he's not very quick on the turn, which is precisely what you don't need when the rest of the team is implementing a gameplan which leaves you exposed to long balls. I used to think his passing was poor but by the end of the season it showed significant improvement over the frequent shinning of 10 yard passes that coloured his first few matches, and his positioning is usually decent. He's not the quickest, but none of our CBs are. I don't think there's much difference in the speed or accuracy with which Hooiveld and Yoshida execute defensive passes, I think Fonte is probably less accurate but sharper and more agile, and offers more from an attacking perspective as he's much comfortable bringing the ball out. Having only seen Lovren a couple of times on the laptop and against Sociedad, I can confirm he likes a hoof, but not usually when the ball is on the ground.

I agree that coaching is useful, I don't agree that Fox has the potential to be a really top rate player - or a couple of others in that list either. Now Shaw, Rodriguez, Ramirez, Lallana, yes. As for "an extra striker option shouldn't be dismissed", that's good, because almost everyone I've seen commenting on the West Brom thread thinks we need one, and the OP on here has suggested two.

I think Cardiff and Hull have both signed well, but that doesn't mean they've done enough to get themselves up to standard.

That's much more likely to be true for a side full of Championship and L1 players than one with a year of Prem experience though. By definition, the signings we made last summer would not improve the side this year, they're the same standard that we already have. It becomes much harder to sign players of higher ability than you have the better you get (at least until to the point where you become attractive due to your success). There are fewer of them in the first place, and the sums involved are usually bigger, making it more of a gamble with less likelihood of success.

Second Season Syndrome "SSS" tends to apply to teams who are not familiar with the Prem and have done exceptionally well in their first season dropping off, not ones which have done "ok" (eg Reading circa 2007). If we'd come 7th or 8th last season there could be a real feeling that we'd overachieved and would be lucky to have everything fall our way again - a little like people are saying about West Brom. The consitituent parts of SSS tend to be Reduced motivation in players from revisiting places they're now familiar with Change in attitude and application from club's players now they're established in the top flight Losing best players to bigger sides Opposition familiarity with personnel and tactics Opposition squad rotation - more likely to field top players against you, especially if you beat them last season. Overpaying for mediocre players due to increased status and cashflow Loss of the basics of success from the previous season (basically the above, combined) How many of those are relevant, and how many other factors there are are open to question - the one good thing is that even if our new players are flops, we have the foundation of a decent side. Assuming they are still applying themselves as they were last season. The question is whether they will still get to play against the odd reserve player here and there, and if the opposition know more about what we're likely to do and counter it - we were already looking predictable by the end of last season but the signs of change were already visible too.

...about half the time.

Our 2 STs combined are £121 a month for 10 months, that's a pretty big chunk o' cash. I could probably justify up to £1000 for one ST provided I could spread the payments over a year, which is nevertheless a frankly insane near £50 per home match (this would be for a discounted ticket in the cheapest bit of the ground). I think at that point I might just consider only going when I felt like it. We went to 10 aways last season, suspect it'll be 3 or 4 at most this year, though I may do a few nearby Newport games (Oxford, Portsmouth if I don't go to Newcastle, then maybe Burton, and Exeter if I don't go to Liverpool). Much of this will depend on mates' availability though.

It's not just based on this one post.

Cool, all the content is interesting - pics are a bit out of date though, those stands were Zoopla'd up last season with some uuuuuugleh purple sponsors.

His comments about the first few minutes of the 5-a-side in training being an eye-opener suggest not.

In the interests of reality.... --------------------Boruc Clyne/Chambers-Lovren-Hooiveld-Shaw/Clyne/Fox --------------Schneiderlin-Cork------------------ ------------------Wanyama--------------------- Rodriguez---------------------------------Lallana -----------------Lambert------------------------ That's Shaw left back and Clyne right back if fit... or Clyne left back and Chambers right back if Shaw's not but Clyne is... or Fox left back and Chambers right back if both Clyne and Shaw are injured. I'm also going for a defensive looking centre mid with a front 3 rotating.