The9

West Ham very nearly disproved that one last season with hindsight !

No, it's only 99.8% sure, or 86% sure even if we lose our last 5 matches. We are rolling in chickens. Or is that eggs ? Oops.

Any reason ? I think the defence is quite poor, though it's basically a first team in the front 6 positions.

Fixed it...

As of today, 44 points is mathematical safety, whilst 43 only sees us safe if one of the results is a win, as 5 draws leaves us with a miniscule possibility of relegation (under 0.05%). But we could lose all 5 matches and we'd still only have a 14% chance of relegation.

For the hell of it (and yes, there are a few quirks worth discussing) : English Saints (4-4-2, obviously) ---------------K Davis---------------- Clyne-----Richardson--Martin-----Shaw Puncheon--Cork--Ward-Prowse--Lallana ---------------------Rodriguez-------- -----------Lambert------------------- -----------------v-------------------- --------------Mayuka----------------- ---Lee--------Ramirez---------Guly---- ---------Schneiderlin-S Davis---------- Fox----Hooiveld-----Fonte------Yoshida ----------------Boruc----------------- Foreign Saints (4-2-3-1) Looking at the English Centre backs (Seaborne and Stephens could also sit in there to no great impact) and going on being as weak as your weakest link, I'd go for the overseas team, even with Guly and Tadanari Lee starting and Yoshida out of position on the right. Who do you think would win ?

Davis was born in Ballymena in Northern Ireland and plays for Northern Ireland, not sure that's quite as "eligible" as Danny Fox, who is English but plays for Scotland. Besides, if you chuck in "British Isles" to include, that probably shifts Wigan, and definitely Spurs, up loads. Anyway, it's given me an idea.

I don't see THAT League table being produced by Opta. Actually we may not be, we may have just scored more overall than some other teams.

In the Prem : Davis, Schneiderlin, Fox (Scottish international), Ramirez, Fonte. 15 goals in total. Tadanari Lee also scored in the League Cup, fwiw. Even the 3 ogs in our favour have been scored by English players (Barry, Wilkinson and A Ferndinand) and the of the numerous we've conceded, all but one were scored by foreigners (Hooiveld piling in, and one for Guly, plus Clyne at Arsenal).

If you base it purely on number of appearances it takes the fringe/rotation argument out of it in terms of "proportion of English goalscorers", but agreed it still has no bearing on quality due to the European matches for the top clubs. Either way, I can't be bothered to work it out.

Would they ?

That's a rubbish choice. The '76 Cup Win all the way. 15 years before I was even a Saints fan, but that's not really the point. As for the Europa League, why would I write off a massive moment in Saints history just for the privilege of playing a Thursday night game in some random country against a half-decent team, where a couple of the matches might not even mean anything due to the group format ? Oh, and the p155 for me as well, though it's a terrible analogy.

As someone pointed out on Facebook last night : "so, this is basically a table of teams with the most English attackers then?".

Urgh. I'm being polite.

Nah, this is Paul Wotton :

...and still waiting on the super-transparent unrestricted definitely going to appear on the Trust website any time now Agreement document. Which is now 6 days late. I would also pee if they went to the end of the season, asked for an extension and the FL just booted them.

Like ours was, it'll be a very short term positivity bump followed by a further drop on previous attendances until fortunes change.

Legally speaking, I think that's probably the crux of it from the FL's perspective. Not that they can't crush all legal challenges by threatening to withhold the golden share... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/southampton/5209783/Southampton-plan-appeal-against-Football-Leagues-points-deduction.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/jun/23/southampton-football-league-matt-le-tissier

They've already had the chance, the reiteration was "applicable at the point of transfer of share" on 10th December 2012 : http://www.football-league.co.uk/footballleaguenews/20121210/league-board-considers-pst-proposal_2293334_3002405

The other thing of course is that the League pretty much can do whatever they like, and the PDT will have to accept it or not join the League. Despite the protestations of some on here, the FL generally have done the necessary to protect the integrity of the competition (which also includes previous instances of booting teams out and hammering others with points deductions).

You'd think the FL would have someone looking at this from the perspective of the worst case scenario given the stunts they've pulled so far to circumvent the rules, wouldn't you ? But to be honest, as long as they get a deduction which has an effect I'm fine with it - and there's no reason for the League to have invented the punishment for them if they were just going to overlook it. I would of course pee myself laughing if they ended up getting more than just the -10 (even if they got a negligible one this season AND -10 next) and a set of financial and transfer restrictions that utterly cripple their ability to compete.

It was necessary because they had to leave the door open for the possibility of a takeover by someone who paid off the first CVA, thereby avoiding any need for punishment. I know, I know...

Yeah but it's MLG's point, and there's nothing linking the unpaid/rolled up/diluted CVA to an insolvency act in ANY of the FL statements (see above). Even the Saints admin message on the FL website specifically quoted the Sporting Sanctions, none of the Pompey messages have.

I always dump mine onto my Facebook and link from there, much less hassle. Reading these comments I'm also very pleased I have avatars disabled.

Winning the JPT kept us in the Prem ?