The9

I can see the similarities with the "centre badge" last FP kit, but there's nothing wrong with that.

Also, if we happen to sign up with Puma, here are two of the options Odense have been presented with, two of which are clearly Puma's striped kits for 2013/14 (and apparently Option 1 is Newcastle's kit for next season too :

Incidentally, just noticed that the Catalan flag away kit graphic there has different coloured sleeves AND a different shaped collar to the photo in the OP...

A couple more Nike efforts for 13/14 which show their Celtic and Man City kits : nothing of note for the City shirt, but the Celtic one shows the "thin stripes within wider stripes" motif which is similar to the Boca one. A Saints shirt with the Celtic hoop style in stripes would be pretty decent.

I actually agree on this, Sorenson's been prone to clangers for the best part of the last 10 years and wouldn't be any more certain to upgrade us than Boruc.

I'd like to see us rest anyone of any use other than the GK and 2 CBs who need to build a relationship. Rest the others for Villa and the rematch. So, by a process of elimination : Boruc; Richardson, Fonte, Yoshida, Reeves; Davis, Chaplow, Ward Prowse, De Ridder; Rodriguez, Mayuka. Assumes Mayuka hasn't gone yet. If he has, um... Lee instead. Can you guess if I'm going or not? Shame about the Cup, but we need Prem first this season, when we've got a better side and established in the Prem we can try to win a Cup too, we don't need the distraction at the moment.

Does he speak English?

I never want to see Yoshida play full back again thanks. I have my reservations about Cork there, that Arsenal performance was about 1000% better than every other time he's played there.

In reality I face the back of the stand, mumbling about Lambert.

Glad you assumed it was front bottom.

They don't count as any unless you've been to the current ground, apparently.

70/92 for me, thought I'd lost a few through ground moves but on recounting it's only Oxford, and there are only 4 Conference teams who used to be in the League that I've visited. Newcastle, Sunderland and Wigan will complete the Prem for me, Ipswich and Hull for Championship. After that it's places I have no inclination to visit, most glaring omissions are Crawley, Oxford, Aldershot and Bath City. Oh, and Newport in the Conference, seeing as they've moved this season. However, I've got 127 in total on footballgrounds.co.uk due to a few international tournaments, and endless trips to crappy shacks in south Wales and across the west country playing and watching non-League in the '90s and early 00s.

I hated playing in studs due to the inevitable screw pressure blisters in all conditions. Have worn FG boots (usually blades) in all conditions since 98 and have never had any kind of problem with slipping that wasn't directly caused by a design defect. Studs and blades are equally useless in a quagmire because studs hold mud on the boot causing grip loss, and blades don't dig in as much. St Mary's was fine in blades when I played there too...

I think I'm more boring on kits tbh.

1st Jan I think, when McLeod left. He played in their thrashing on NY Day too, came on as a sub at 1-0 down.

PS Vs to the opposition fans are for paranoid weirdos. Who cares about them?

Jump up and down, hug the wife and a bit of fist pumping, plus occasionally light-headedness and a mad feeling of nearly passing out for the really special ones (eg Pahars v Skates, Davis at City and Ramirez last week). Won't be any of that tomorrow, saving my money.

Can't see Martin getting a game for Saints in the league until he gets some more experience lower down, he's been unlucky that Palace have been so much better all around than last season so he hasn't been as involved as we'd have expected. He has limitations but he doesn't seem to be any worse than, say, Alex Pearce at Reading, who is purely about hoofs and headers and can't pass 5 yards.

There have, last season there was a Prem match (Stoke v Swansea) being played at the same time as the League Cup Final.

Difficult to know at this stage, I'm just pointing out that contrary to Adrian's point, things are not the same.

FWIW I think a team with Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Shaw, etc would go a long way to being in the top half. Add a few others who are still Prem quality and some of the current lot like Clyne and we wouldn't be a million miles away.

Things have changed. The FFP rules include provisions to prevent trumped up sponsorship deals and the income for all Prem clubs will shift significantly next season with the new TV deal - there will still be a difference in CL teams and global brands to others but there's almost certainly a window of opportunity to acquire players on higher wages before the market settles down and the extra funds (inevitably) get hoovered up by player wages. A shrewd club would be throwing money at it as soon as their Prem status is secure for 2013/14 because they'd save money or get better players more cheaply in the long run. That's still subject to being able to entice them in the first place of course.

Agreed.

Seems feasible.

I doubt we'd do any transfers via twitter. We're not Newport County and/or Lincoln.