The9

Yeah, true.

Cardiff City backlash : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-22722605 ST holders given the choice to vote on the colour of shorts. Kind of misses the point, given that 99% of them would change the colour of the shirts, given an option. Absolutely hilarious populist pandering nonsense. ""The decision had been made as a means to help visually distinguish the club in the Premier League, while continuing the theme of our successful 2012/13 Championship winning season," said the club in a statement. "The resulting response carried across social media quickly indicated that a large number of supporters were unhappy with the choice of colour concerning the shorts." So to "visually distinguish the club", you picked a colour combination being used by 2 current Prem clubs already, and a main shirt colour used by 6 other teams ? Guess how many Prem teams currently play in their old colours of royal blue shirts and white shorts ? Just Everton, with Chelsea also having blue shirts. You could not make this stuff up.

Except as provided in Rules U.31 and U.32, after the second Transfer Window in each year and on or before the third Saturday in May next following each Club shall confirm to the Secretary: U.30.1. whether the list of players provided to it for these purposes via the Extranet is accurate in all material particulars; U.30.2. in the case of each Contract Player whose registration it holds and whose contract expires on the 30th June in that year, whether or not the Club has: U.30.2.1. offered him a new contract under the provisions of Rule V.17.2; or U.30.2.2. implemented any option provision in respect of him; and U.30.3. in the case of each Academy Player whose registration it holds and with whom it has entered into a Scholarship Agreement, whether or not the Club has: U.30.3.1. (if the Academy Player is in the second year of his Scholarship Agreement) given him written notice, pursuant to clause 4.2 of the Scholarship Agreement, of the extension of the duration thereof by one year; and U.30.3.2. (if the Academy Player is in the second or third year of his Scholarship Agreement) given him written notice, pursuant to clause 6.7 of the Scholarship Agreement, of its intention tooffer him a professional contract as a Contract Player. L.30 U.31. The date by which each Club is required by Rule U.30 to give confirmation to the Secretary shall be extended in the case of a Club which on the third Saturday in May in any year is still participating in the F.A. Cup, [the UEFA Champions League or the UEFA Europe League] or has yet to play a League Match the outcome of which could affect: U.31.1. identification of the League Champions in accordance with Rule C.8; or U.31.2. identification of the Clubs to be relegated in accordance with Rule C.11; or U.31.3. qualification for a UEFA competition. L.31 U.32. In the circumstances mentioned in Rule U.31, the Club shall give the Secretary the information required by Rule U.30 within 4 days of the last relevant F.A. Cup match, [uEFA Champions League or UEFA Europe League] or League Match having been played. U.33. The particulars contained in Clubs’ lists of Players shall be published by the Secretary by the second Saturday in June in each year.

We should always be signing players who are better than our best players, and dropping the ones who aren't as good. Why bring in people who can only do what you can already do ? If they don't bring something better, just stick to the players you already have who know each others' game. Bring in 5 who you expect to be starters and you might get 3 or 4 new starters. Bring in 2 starters and 3 squad players and you'll get, at best, 2 new starters.

He came to my house and told me the size of our bedrooms without going upstairs.

West Brom this season was awesome, got a lift at about 3pm, in the pub up the road from the ground by 5, parked for free, awesome cheap pub curries all round, then... yeah, well, the football wasn't great. But I'd take a £15 ticket and under 2 hour road trip and that curry any day of the week !

Andy Cawwoll has much nicer hair.

True enough, the question is whether teams will be able to keep doing that under FFP rules or whether the gap will close, as well as the relatively new Elite Academy regulations allowing clubs to hoover up far more top level youth talent from all over the country irrespective of geography. Unfortunately, given Man City's novel approach to the FFP rules (buying an MLS Franchise and building a new, sponsored academy costing shedloads) and extending their "wage allowance", I'm not sure it'll make that much difference. I guess we won't know if we can compete for a top 6 place until we see the kind of players we're signing. Realistically we need at least four £15m players to get into the top 8, never mind higher. We were, after all, 22 points adrift of 6th this season and only 8 from 8th. There's no really big noise coming from the academy at the moment, so we can forget anyone other than Ward-Prowse or maybe at a stretch Targett adding to our numbers in the next year or so.

SO16_Saint didn't seem to think so when I mocked it up t'other day...

Saints : Artur Boruc (G) Signed Free aged 32 Nathaniel Clyne (D) Signed Undisclosed from Palace aged 21 Jack Cork (M) Signed Undisclosed Chelsea aged 21 Kelvin Davis (G) Signed £1m Sunderland aged 29 Steven Davis (M) Signed "Free" (cough) Rangers aged 27 Jose Fonte (D) Signed £800k Palace aged 26 Daniel Fox (D) Signed Burnley Undisclosed aged 25 Paulo Gazzaniga (G) (ESP/ARG) Signed Gillingham aged 20 Jos Hooiveld (D) Signed Celtic Undisclosed aged 28 Adam Lallana (M) Trainee 2006 (ENG) Rickie Lambert (F) Signed Bristol Rovers £1m aged 27 Jason Puncheon (M) Signed Plymouth Undisclosed aged 23 Gaston Ramirez (M) Signed Bologna £12m aged 21 Jay Rodriguez (F) Signed Burnley £6m aged 22 Morgan Schneiderlin (M) Signed Strasbourg (FRA) £1.2m aged 18 Luke Shaw (D) Trainee 2011 (ENG) Maya Yoshida (D) Signed VVV Venlo (NED) aged 24 The next two are Guly and Ward-Prowse, 12 starts between them. If anything this shows that we're not actually very good at bringing players through compared to Villa, who now have a side full of young integrated talent with a season's experience. We've obviously had a different approach in picking up players from the lower leagues and are only now adding bigger signings - but this alone suggests having half a team of academy players is a bit of a pipe dream (as opposed to home-grown ones, for which Schneiderlin qualifies along with Cork, Clyne, Rodriguez etc). Having seen Villa's experiences this season I'm not sure I'd want us to go through the frankly hairy integration process they had. We also have 3 keepers in our "most appearances" 17, Villa have 1.

Yup.

For comparison, I'm just doing the same for Saints (starting, League appearances).

Time for some patented The9 Facts... Villa's 17 players with the most appearances last season were : Gabriel Agbonlahor (F) - Trainee 2004 (ENG) Nathan Baker (D) - Trainee 2008 (ENG) Barry Bannan (M) - Trainee 2008 (SCO) Joe Bennett (D) - signed from Middlesbrough £2.75m when aged 22 Christian Benteke (F) - signed from Genk, BEL £7m when aged 21 Ciaran Clark (D) - Trainee 2008 (ENG) Fabian Delph (M) - Signed from Leeds undisclosed when aged 19 Karim El Ahmadi (M) - signed from Feyenoord £2m when aged 27 Brad Guzan (G) - signed from Chivas USA £600k when aged 23 Brett Holman (M) - signed from AZ Alkmaar NED free when aged 28 Stephen Ireland (M) - signed from Man City £8m when aged 23 Eric Lichaj (D) - Trainee 2008 (USA) Matthew Lowton (D) - Signed from Sheff U £3m when aged 23 Charles N'Zogbia (M) - Signed from Wigan £9.5m when aged 23 Ron Vlaar (D) - Signed from Feyenoord £3.2m when aged 27 Andreas Weimann (F) - Trainee 2009 (AUT) Ashley R Westwood (M) - Signed from Crewe for £2m when aged 22. Sylla will probably play more than Stephen Ireland in future and was next on the list having only signed in January, so worth adding him, signed for £2m from Clermont (FRA) aged 22.

Seems to be that we're copying the approach of some highly successful teams in Ajax, Barcelona and Man U.

Might have been a fairer point in League One when we were trying to sign the odd journeyman, notsomuch when linked to bigger European names like you just did though.

What bugs me is how difficult these things are to track down. I only found this one because I accidentally clicked on something colinjb posted, ended up on his blog and it appeared in the feed on the right of the screen.

Nah, I cope. I don't wear the stuff much anyway.

Red version of Hearts kit, possibly with different collar and probably without the white bits on the sleeves - OR the template as worn by Toronto (home kit, not the white one above). Black with gold seems likely with the badge usage, and also as gold is one of the 5 colours Prem numbers are available in.

Pretty much.

I'll give you that the ones in bold have been made by more than a tiny minority, but the rest of it is just, at most, one or two people in about 5 years.

It's VERY easy to design something most people would like - even the justification that "it's different from stripes to sell more" doesn't hold water when it's "just red" like the previous season. We could easily go normal striped-Rank Xerox striped-narrow striped-sash-wide striped and take in 5 years of shirts without even repeating the general pattern, never mind changing brand or sponsors in that time and all the away kits they could sod about with.

Toronto kit is a 2012 shirt, also means that Hearts away kit is an old template too. I'd like to think we were a little bit more important than getting a 2012 retread...

Twitter's just full of 'em. Interesting to see that Toronto shirt, I haven't seen a pic of that before, though I have seen them wearing it on MLS Kicks on ESPN. Not sure it's a new one though, will look into it, can't quite see the sleeve stitching/seams but the red part on the shoulders is in line with the Hearts away shirt.

Exactly the same for me, minus the extra 9 years.

Still a Saints player for another 31 days...