The9

Good, reasoned OP, already getting dragged into the same old arguments.

"Nothing changing" =/= news.

I'd be ok with this if there was any remote indication that that was Cortese's aim.

I find myself agreeing with you. As I said earlier, not great when the club's a pawn in business politics.

He's Swiss-Italian, but his banking to my knowledge was done in Switzerland, not that I am massively interested or certain of that, or even bothered enough to Google. Besides, Swiss Banker is a much more familiar term. The Man U Chairman also knows there are thousands of people out there who'd want his job in a heartbeat, it's a tad more global and a little more glam than Saints... for now.

Guh, it's just occurred to me why Cortese might have chosen to leak it now. Knowing he had Pochettino's support, they've allowed a week to build the panic, so Cortese and Pochettino get tangible backing from a worried crowd at the final home game of the season, thus strengthening his negotiating position further. I wish he'd spend as much time planning the ticketing and kit launches.

At worst this will last a few weeks, when's Cortese saying his decision's got to be made by ?

I would be absolutely stunned, and to be honest I also give Adkins more credit than to jump ship on Reading.

Like Forren did ? The fact that player contracts are usually 3-5 years and outstrip all but the most hardy managerial careers at this point makes this a non-factor. Now if you'd said "do you think people will sign not knowing if we'll have the funding to pay their contracts" that might be more relevant - though as that lot down the road have shown, players are stupid (or desperate) with stuff like this, and the PFA protects their earnings and they get them somehow anyway, so even that's not really a factor.

I don't doubt Cortese would be in demand, he's got a bit of a higher profile than most Swiss bankers at the moment though. Don't you think this might all have a significant effect on our ability to retain said players though ?

Seems a strange thing for Pochettino to say, given that his contract won't depend on Cortese's involvement, but if they want to play hardball with the Liebherrs, that's up to them. Always nice when the club's a pawn in a game of business politics. Sky Sports News is already getting boring with the lack of matches, this will at least give them something interesting to discuss other than Rooney and John Terry's Shinpads. At this point, you'd have to say continuity would be better than needing to find a new manager and Chairman and Cortese's on-pitch record has been good to this point, I just hope they can find a compromise.

To inform the debate... By the end of the Transfer Window after relegation we had sold : Tessem (Lyn Oslo - Undisc) Phillips (£1m to Villa), Yahia (St Etienne - Undisc) Telfer (£200k to Celtic) Crouch (£7m to Liverpool) Nilsson (Panathiaikos - Undisc) Bernard (Rangers - Undisc) By the end of the following window we'd also sold the following : Blayney (Doncaster £50k) Niemi (Fulham - Est £1m) Quashie (WBA £1.2m) plus Van Damme went after a year out on loan to Anderlecht. Everyone else was a free, inc Anders, Delap, Fernandes, McCann, Ormerod, and we'd already sold Beattie the previous season.

Actual fact, Steve Grant once went out with a girl who, soon after they split up, went out with a Scottish bloke who claimed to have played as an attacking midfielder for Celtic in the 2003 UEFA Cup Final and ruined his ligaments and had to retire. I googled the match, and there were only 2 Scottish players in the squad I didn't recognise at the time, only one of whom played and was an attacking midfielder. So the bloke in question was pretending to be Shaun Maloney. Why the hell would you do that, in 2006 when it was so easy to disprove ?

No, you're not. I have a lot of empathy with you, I was that bad once too. A lot of the others were on that page though, it was amusing.

Yup. Stupid bloody white kit in home match. Also, that WAS our FA Cup campaign for 2012/13.

Weirdly I've seen some of the launch shots and it looks like the badge is the regular Stoke one not a monochrome one. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they wore it against us on Sunday though, would solve the "slight clash" problem they'd have with their red/white striped home and their red/navy striped away. Difficult to tell, but looks red and white to me ?

Yup. 100% guaranteed, loads of leaks all over the place, just haven't been released yet.

Just noticed the way the light shines clear through the shorts on that Newcastle kit - quality kitwear...

That and the fact the club explicitly stated they wouldn't take a place not earned via results.

Does nobody get the irony ?

Thing is they could do that even if they were planning for 2014/15. Judging by the club's speed of getting kits to market and all...

Will I f'ck.

Yeah, forgot that for a minute. I actually really like the away kit they've launched today, especially the slightly different coloured stripe right down the side.

There's a thread in the Lounge for non-Saints related Premier League kit discussion. Probably. I haven't checked in the last 8 hours.

Nope, that's a good 'un, looks suspiciously familiar.