The9

Ok, the halved shirt is a stunt to get people to sign up to £30 membership, which entitles the "member" to "Access to exclusive members only merchandise", which clearly includes this "new kit" they're probably never, ever, wearing again : http://www.nufc.co.uk/page/Members/BandWMembers But the normal kit to be worn this season is still striped.

Is that Brett from Camden with another new identity ?

Oooh, now that I WASN'T aware of. WTF ? I've had a bit of a look and they mention "Wearing their new Members home kit of black and white halves". I have no idea what that is meant to be.

Don't forget his PFA pension from, what, aged 30? too... I don't get the bitterness either, he was crap, did nothing for the club, happened to also cost the club a fortune (not really his fault) and I don't particularly wish him well because all indications are he's actually a bit of a d1ck, but he had a contract and that's that. Moaning about the amount of money and everything beyond that is just jealousy that he managed to land a dream job with apparently little in the way of qualifications, and I bet there aren't many here who'd look a gift horse in the mouth.

He might have been with us four years, but I doubt we were ever paying him that much, surely? Even if he was on £5k a week, that's a million, and at his age that won't be enough to see him out. Fifty years on £20k, excluding property. It's a million quid in 5 years, unless he's bought himself a million quid's worth of junk and doesn't have any of it left, he could probably live comfortably off the interest and investments alone without having to put a dent in the money itself. It's a lot more than £20k over 50 years.

Liverpool have this as a hideous third kit, was it this you saw ? Comes with white shorts and black/white hooped socks (one of which has purple turnovers, the other doesn't).

That seems to be the case, yes. And no-one on this thread has said that Cork or Schneiderlin are "miles better" than any current England or France internationals.

Huh ?

Seems strange that he was offered a deal by Gillingham but chose to do this instead, though he probably never needs to work again anyway. If anything I think he's still above his actual level, given his lack of success on loan with non-league clubs like Thurrock.

Q1: What were your opinions of your first season back in the Premier League? We did well to learn and progress, considering the difficult fixtures at the start and the steep learning curve - a lot of players exceeded expectations and stepped up. Pre-season the lack of Prem experience was a concern, we went a bit quiet when safety was all but guaranteed and were probably disappointed not to finish top half by the end. Q2: What are your expectations for the upcoming season? Improvement and a top half finish, can't see us challenging for Europe unless we win the League Cup though. Q3: What are you expecting from West Brom this season? It will be difficult to replace Lukaku, so maybe a slight drop off in final position depending on whether he's effectively replaced. Q4: Happy with the clubs transfer business so far? The two we've signed look suited and are probably upgrades, we definitely needed a CB and probably needed more CM depth. At least one, maybe two academy products seem to have reduced the need to add more, but at the same time, we've already resold the only player we added in January, so we could start stagnating or becoming too predictable in another 6 months if we're not careful. Q5: What other positions need adding to before the close of the transfer window? We still need at the very least a top level striker to push us towards the rumoured European ambitions. Arguably a top flight back up keeper, maybe full back cover - Shaw isn't up to playing every game and Fox has been repeatedly lacking something, but Chambers from the academy might give us a new right back option as Clyne can cover left back. Elsewhere, make or break for Gaston Ramirez this season, could be looking for a new playmaker if he continues to glide through matches before getting subbed. Q6: Favourite memories of games against West Brom? The final whistle, both times last season. We were AWFUL. The curry I had from the pub up the hill from the Hawthorns was cheap and very nice, and it didn't take too long to get home from Sandwell from the Monday night game. That is literally all I can say which is positive about both matches last season. Lallana's goal back in the Championship season when we didn't go down at your place is about the only good thing I can remember, ever, and I think that was only a draw. Q7: Worst memories of games against West Brom? From previous seasons, Prutton missing an open goal at the Hawthorns in the 0-0 in 2004/5 eventually basically relegated us, and your love-in with Portsmouth on the last day still sticks in the craw somewhat. Q8: The previous game between the sides finished 0-3. What were your opinions on this game? We got turned over on the counter by long balls both matches and completely didn't turn up last season. Two of our worst performances of the season, the worst at home by some distance (and we shipped 5 to Chelsea in the FA Cup). . We didn't turn up, sleepwalked around all match and got done by a better side exploiting our weaknesses. Q9: And finally, score predictions Being optimistic, 1-1. We can't possibly be that bad again and you won't have Lukaku to exploit us at the back. If it's not a draw, you'll nick it.

I actually thought the proportion of new home kits on show was significantly lower amongst adults than in previous seasons, and that there were relatively few on show - but there were loads of people whose kids were wearing them. The nag effect, as it were.

I've been saying it for months, whoever told him he could play right back was just... wrong. His efforts covering for Clyne at Newcastle away for their first goal were awful. He is, nevertheless, a very good defensive midfielder, and I'm hopeful we'll continue to use him there in rotation.

Another thing I noticed yesterday, loads of kids and families there, the lower cost was going some way to getting kids invested in the club who otherwise might be wearing Arsenal or Man U shirts - and much as I hate the kit, there were LOADS of little kids wearing new Saints shirts which was good to see (other than the actual kit itself). A mate of mine who's a very occasional Saints fan went with two of his brothers and they had about 5 kids with them, all kitted up and buying into the club's future. Meanwhile the PA is playing 70s rock classics for a generation that's still just about going.

I went, in the main they were mostly right. He was ineffective and frustrating - his time is running out to make an impact, Confederations Cup etc. or not. I'd love it if something just clicked with him, but it hasn't happened yet. Guly was much more effective yesterday, and Puncheon more impactful too. One of the things I thought was weird was that we switched the two central midfielders and the match tempo stayed low and nothing much happened, but we brought Isgrove and Mayuka on, and suddenly there was a ton of movement and activity everywhere for 10 minutes. Was very counterintuitive.

On a general note, loved the way Rodriguez, Lallana and Lambert switched positions across the front 2+1 in the first half, disappointed with our rank defending when we could have cleared (Schneiderlin pulling out of a hoof away the same way Lovren did against Besiktas(?)), and quite pleased with Chambers with the exception of failing to get a block in for one of their goals when he was isolated. He was significantly better than Cork there, Cork doesn't look happy running with the ball or playing longer passes and his skills are definitely suited to more combative ball protection in tight areas than expansive attacking overlapping or tracking runners. There remains a fear that our set up with the full backs attacking leaves us susceptible to long passes into the channels, but it's hardly like the head coach wouldn't know this, and we did show signs of a different set up late last season (apart from WBA). Thought Wanyama had potential, he and Morgan seemed to dovetail nicely, and he played some decent longer passes over the top. Seems to have a dubious first touch, popping up thigh-height a few too many times, but on a number of occasions he went into tackles or interceptions and diverted the ball safely back to our defenders to keep possession - he obviously knows what's needed an gives us a different option in the middle. Feel a little sorry for Cork getting shoved out to full back though, he's been good in the middle. I wasn't really focusing on the formation much after a few beers, so aside from us appearing to have a front 3, do we think Wanyama/Schneiderlin were a 2 in a 4-2-3-1, or do we think we were nearer a 4-1-2-3, or even a 4-1-3-2 ? We certainly had a wide front two with "number 10" in the hole behind, but the three of them rotated. Difficult to pin it down as we were so fluid, and the full backs are basically part of the midfield most of the time.

I'm starting to come around to this. Having said repeatedly that he needs someone with pace to offer him an outlet for his forward passing, yesterday he had a good 20 minutes with both Isgrove and Mayuka in front or alongside him, yet Puncheon was the one who got involved and scored, whilst Ramirez just glided around midfield just, really, not doing enough. It's not really workrate, he runs and closes down (albeit not with the urgency of some others), and he's clearly got the vision to see passes others don't, but at the same time he frequently injects pace into passes at the wrong times and is loose with simple passes that make him very frustrating to watch. He's not suited to the way we play, and that's why he got dropped for Davis when Pochettino first came in. Oh, and Cork is STILL a bloody awful right back.

Jesus, that passes for a "joke" now ?

Basically ART is a borderline nutcase with a history of completely fabricating things and jumping to some utterly bizarre conclusions that literally no-one else has come to with the same evidence. You're wasting your time asking for evidence, as it's utter fantasy. I haven't seen any Sharp hatred on here, there's nothing to think this was as a result of anything other than a genuine assessment of a player's ability, and there is plenty of time for Sharp to do his LJS Foundation work without it impacting on his football, and where he chooses to play and what he and his partner choose to do are in no way relevant to the footballing decisions at Saints. I wish him all the best, but we wouldn't be signing him now and the die has already been cast on that front. If he chooses to sit out his contract at Saints, I don't have a problem with that either, we're still paying far worse players for their part in our revival. Still interesting that we have no number 11 though...

The council have no balls, they agreed with LOWE when we closed the corners that if the club had more than 10x 20k crowds in a season they would have to reinstitute free bus tickets with match tickets (as per the original agreement for having the ground where it is). They obviously don't have the will to enforce it under the club's new ownership.

Always. I wouldn't want people to think I'd seen it and didn't think it was important enough to change. You can also see this in action in the Man U > Saints thread.

Not so that I have the foggiest clue what you're talking about, no.

There's a thing here offering £2.50 dayriders to match ticket holders within the M27 : http://www.bluestarbus.co.uk/football.shtml They also do a bluebus dayrider outside the M27 for £5.50, dunno if they go to Romsey though. Guessing that's it ? Don't know (and can't find) anything about the trains.

I found out he was Scottish today. Just thought I'd share, can't say I expected that.

When I was a kid in the 80s I'd watch absolutely any sport, though I used to find horse racing (except the Grand National), golf and cricket pretty tedious. But I'd watch a ton of athletics, all the football that was on tv, Five Nations rugby, Athletics World Championships, the whole of Wimbledon, Kelloggs City Centre Cycling, London Marathon, Tour de France, Commonwealth Games, Olympics, NFL on Channel 4, NBA before MotD on BBC1, basically pretty much anything - back when there were 4 channels and you'd take the sport where you could get it. Nowadays I literally just watch football and occasional NFL, NHL and NBA - plus I caught myself watching Hants T20 the other night, but that's hardly cricket. I couldn't give a toss about anything else. I watched a load of stuff during the Olympics but that was a one off. I watched a little bit of the TdF this year as it happened to coincide with a spell of working from home, and I had a mate running London Marathon so I saw that, plus the Wimbledon Men's Final was the only bit of that I've watched in about 20 years, but I have no interest in the sort of sports that Question of Sport used to ask loads of questions about in the late 80s and I know literally none of the "stars" outside Usain Bolt, Andy Murray and Tiger Woods. But I've also gone from watching all football to watching only football I'm specifically interested in - there's just so much of it out there now.

Pretty sure we used to sell food and/or soft drinks pitchside in front of the Northam back in the first season at SMS.