The9

I think you'll find it was a second class return, ACTUALLY.

#onlystripesontheshoulders

Just out of interest, there's a load of (sort of) 2014 adidas World Cup designs here which will define the adidas styles for 2014/15 (so we can start the thread even earlier next season) http://todosobrecamisetas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/aclaracion-con-respecto-las.html - you might want to translate from Spanish, and note the comments about the designs, collars etc probably not being confirmed, but the colours are, and there seems no particular reason for Argentina to have such a large white bit at the bottom of the sleeve if it wasn't a design feature. Anyway, 2014 World Cup potential leaks.

Oh yeah, and forgot to post the Ajax kit leak, this should annoy a few people, being a better Saints kit than the Saints kit. You will note that this year's Ajax innovation is a diagonal weave pattern constructed of many smaller vertical stripes. But that otherwise it's exactly the same as every other adidas kit they've had, just using one of this year's templates (the same as the green Seattle kit).

We had a great time because most of the time they were new grounds and we were winning most of the time. The two and a half seasons in the bottom half of the Championship were crap, because we were losing all the time and had already been everywhere. Using that theory, they'll probably enjoy the new grounds, but it'll get boring quickly if they don't start winning games.

Page 44 of the rules here : http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/Regulations/01/87/54/21/1875421_DOWNLOAD.pdf The regulations state that for the Final Competition (of the World Cup) "Each team shall inform FIFA of two different and contrasting colours (one predominantly light and one predominantly dark) for it's official and reserve team kit (shirts, shorts and socks)... Only these colours may be worn at the matches". There's some other stuff in there about FIFA determining which colours teams will wear, and trying to ensure they get to wear their home kit at least once in the group stage, and potentially wearing combinations of home and away kits. The rules are clearly in use in the Confederations Cup already anyway, looking at the otherwise inexplicable kit combinations being used.

What's strange is that you've managed to do it without me actually noticing. I'd have probably been able to name the other 6 in the top 7 off the top of my head. You must be remarkably reasonable or something.

I'm not remotely surprised about the number of posts I have on this topic. Can't believe MLG has posted "but we used to wear navy shorts" 33 times on this thread and Blakey has said "I hate stripes and like all red kits" 30 times now. I'm somewhat disappointed that Batman hasn't got more than 29 "it's just a shirt" posts as well.

Something which has occurred to me is that we'll see the training kit on July 1st when the team is back in training, so that'll debunk all the "the leak is a training kit" stuff once and for all. Also, our first friendly is 17th July, by which time they'll have to have unveiled at least ONE kit - because unlike the previous seasons where they've just not bothered wearing new kit and even worn previous season's kit (the yellow last pre-season after selling it off in the club shop but before they announced they would use it as a third, and the old L1 black away kit all through 2011/12 summer which was unprecedented at the time), this season they CAN'T wear last year's kit for contractual reasons. I know people are ITKing that there will be an announcement next week anyway, but those dates guarantee we'll see something by July 17th.

Speculation on my part, but it seems like rather a coincidence. Interesting comments about the Sunderland kit, I had no recollection of it at all, but I see what you mean, they wore this from 86/88 and have never worn white socks before or since : Also in seeking that out I spotted that Sunderland wore black shorts as early as 1888, so I think we can discount my theory earlier about Saints' navy shorts being due to the colour black "not being available"... although it IS true that more colours of shorts became available from the 1950s and led to a lot of teams changing colours just because they could.

It's in the competition rules which have been online for a couple of years (since the qualification began). You'll basically see loads more teams playing in one single colour, and far fewer three colour combinations (eg Brazil's yellow/blue/white is all but done) and far more "two colour" outfits where the colours don't contrast. Basically it looks like they're making it up as they go along to me, but Italy have worn all blue in two of their three Confed Cup games and all white in the other. Brazil have worn yellow/blue/blue or yellow/white/white, Japan all white, and Mexico green/white/white, green/red/red and (when Japan wore all navy) white/red/white. Only Japan's all white is a combination they regularly use as either a home or away kit, the other teams usually wear either x/y/x (shirt/short/socks) or x/y/z combinations, but they all seem to be forced into x/x/x or x/y/y... if you follow. The only time a team seems able to wear x/y/x is when none of it's colours are part of the opposition's main kit colour. It completely puts the mockers on Brazil though, they'd only be able to wear their normal home colours against a team that doesn't wear yellow or blue or white, so basically teams in all red, or all black, or all green, and Holland (who are already "all orange" now most of the time). Any other time they have to change something.

Fwiw, Switzerland don't play in all red. They have white shorts, and only play in all one colour in major tournament finals in line with FIFA's ridiculous "predominant colour" policy for finals tournaments. This is also why England's recent kits were all white and why they'll probably drop the navy shorts for 2014. But anyway...

I'm sure they embraced the new postwar technology that enabled them to have black shorts. Almost everyone was in navy or white until then, the processes didn't exist to have other colours. And FWIW I think navy shorts would look great. I've done a mix and match before and it goes really well - plus it's embedded in long term Saints history. The problem with the all red shirt is that the history is lacking as the previous all red in 85 was in itself a one-off total redesign for the club anniversary. Also, short / sock colours are secondary to the shirt, though when the shirt is 'wrong', them being right minimises the impact.

Full First Team pre-season schedule Monday 1st July First Team squad reports back to Staplewood Wednesday 17th July (7pm local time) UE Llagostera vs Southampton – Estadi Josep Pla i Arbonès, Spain Saturday 20th July (7pm local time) Palamós CF vs Southampton – Nou Estadi Municipal de Palamós, Spain Wednesday 24th July (6pm local time) Southampton vs FC Schalke 04 – Stadion Villach Lind, Austria Saturday 27th July (5pm local time) Southampton vs Beşiktaş J.K. – Stadion Villach Lind, Austria Saturday 3rd August (8pm local time) Celta Vigo vs Southampton – Estadio Municipal de Balaídos Saturday 10th August (3pm BST) Southampton vs Real Sociedad – St Mary’s Read more at http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/saints-confirm-pre-season-schedule-875903.aspx#KU8xpLWZAcEYAaEX.99

Says it here : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/saints-confirm-pre-season-schedule-875903.aspx

Batsh1t mental, love his tactics, inasmuch as you can love anyone's tactics. Innovative with Bilbao and Chile, not averse to a 3-1-3-3, gotta love it.

Uruguay have an ageing side and need to transition to their younger players like Gaston and move away from the likes of Forlan, though I'm not sure a "winner takes all" match against Nigeria to (most likely) keep the winner in the Confederations Cup is necessarily the time to make that transition. I suspect he might get a bit more of a run against Tahiti on the weekend... which FWIW is why the OP should consider his targets and his timing a little more carefully, as he'll probably set up or score 6 goals this weekend.

Don't forget that Gillingham's high quality recruitment policy has led them to make Tommy Forecast a contract offer, so he'd be in some excellent company.

I'm quite pleased, as the owner of a Latvia 2004 shirt. It IS about the only thing around this shirt that I'm pleased about though.

You can't quite see the predominantly white sleeves...

This is worth a bump now we've got sight of the twitter "leak of what is believed to be the 2013/14 kit : Though you can discuss it here if you like : http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?41881-Pointless-Early-2013-14-Kit-Speculation-Thread/page41#.UcRNCDv_mSq The point being that if the poll is any indication, it's only supported by 9.66% of fans, which is fewer than even the "don't mind"s.

All gold seems to be the suggestion from the kit leak last night on twitter... in line with 16.25% of the fans canvassed's opinions then...

The irony of that one being that the actual thing in the middle of the badge now looks realistic instead of a weird stylised non-existent thing in the head of a number of designers which evolved it into something which didn't actually exist over a number of years. They still should have stuck with the motto though, and I'm not entirely sure that the "we'll change it back next year" claim is one that will stick, they'll have (as we have) a year of "this is what it looks like" by then, with the status quo creeping up as acceptance of what is "the norm" increases with time. The concept of inclusion in change management seems to be utterly alien to football clubs, which is the weirdest thing when you consider how many people there are out there with opinions they're happy to share, and the ease of canvassing those opinions en masse nowadays. The only conclusion to draw is that they're just not interested in giving fans the products they'd pay the most money out on, which is bewildering, though widespread in football. "Less unhappy" is not the same as "happy", nevertheless !

Stop being so reasonable and smash something.

Climacool logo, has appeared on all adidas shirts since around 2000 in various forms.