The9

We have a winner !

I'm watching it and listening to Solent, I haven't seen Everton touch the ball yet, but then Magay-Gay is playing, so it's hardly their first team.

We should drop that donkey Lambert. Rodriguez is clearly miles better. These are both sentences people will claim I have said.

Interesting to hear on Solent that Mayuka, Shaw, Lee all have "knocks". Also interesting to see Phil type it directly above.

Guly is #21, #31 is free since Forecast left.

My guess is 10,396.

Thanks to our ridiculous Virgin deal we actually have two TiVo 1Tb boxes, that's one more than televisions in the house.

No, it was charcoal grey. How has this thread got this far without mention of Rupert Lowe ?

No, I was pre-student. It was quite a nice suit for a 17-year old to go to a funeral in though.

One in two is a pretty decent scoring rate, which hasn't been hurt by playing for a team which finished in the top 2 of its league in the past two seasons. It'll be interesting to see if both Saints and Lambert are able to maintain that scoring rate in the Prem.

Yup, don't know why I typed the opposite, edited now !

As for Ramirez, the first we knew about the potential deal was this : "I have got a four-year contract with some big numbers. “They give me so much money – €2M net per year and €1M for signing.” http://www.insidefutbol.com/2012/08/17/they-will-pay-me-so-much-money-liverpool-target-gaston-ramirez-set-for-southampton/67264/#4MsI8OohhxijlbFJ.99 That's £1,589,304 after tax per annum at the current exchange rate, or near as dammit £30k a week (after tax).

Rather than any dubious tax practices, I think it was more that Italian clubs generally deal in "netto", Ruud Gullit used it as a contract negotiation tool when he left Chelsea as manager (having previously played for Sampdoria and Milan). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/football-chelsea-claim-gullit-wanted-pounds-33m-a-year-1144766.html ""I said to him, `Well Ruud, if you misunderstood, the figure was pounds 1m per year gross. Would you have accepted that?' And he flatly said no. Ruud, who is a master of the media, very craftily said today that he asked for pounds 2m. He did ask for pounds 2m and I immediately responded and said, `Gross?' And he said, `No, netto. I always talk netto.'"

Mmm, there will always be quirks of the system, but in that case, assuming his loyalty is represented by a ST, he's got the same priority as all other ST holders, which is pretty fair.

I mentioned this earlier - it was genuinely the only reason I'd even considered going tonight. I really don't need to see our reserves play again and lose another 3-4 hours of my life, just turned down a £10 ticket.

It seems pretty obvious from the West Ham model that they're happily going to mix and match the systems used, at best. What exactly is wrong with using loyalty points throughout I don't know, very few people go to every match, and even if they do, there are still tickets for others at most games. Of course, the refusal to even attempt to include genuinely "hardcore" games like Stevenage and Sheff Weds in the loyalty system makes a bit of a mockery of it - they're precisely the way to sift out the properly "loyal" and reward them with priority. I say that as someone who isn't going tonight - fair enough if people are, it's worth 20 points... it might be nice if that actually meant anything. As for what Steve said about Sheff Weds giving you priority for the next round... um, I went to Stevenage which is at least equal to tonight's match and in the same competition, where's my priority for that ?

Duly noted, and already done to death by me in particular before Ramirez even started a game for us. Safe to say no-one except Mayuka would have got a touch on that ball late on which created the penalty. We'll be ok at home as we can create chances from all over and don't have a problem supporting Lambert (as we saw, we can get in behind with the wide men and full back running from deep), it's deciding on the kind of sole striker to maximise our returns in away games which poses the problem for Adkins - I'm not sure Mayuka at right midfield would be successful in away games.

It is mildly insane to have a points system and then completely ignore it. I am now doubly delighted that I haven't been sucked in with the "20 loyalty points" available for tonight which was the only reason I'd have gone, and would have had precisely no impact whatsoever on my priority for West Ham (or maybe even any other future aways). Having not missed a match yet I could also gripe about not having priority over people who've only been to 2 aways... but as I'm not even going to West Ham I'm not that bothered for now. It's ridiculous to have a system and then ignore it - at least stick the points against the matches when releasing the info. I was going to try but I've already forgotten which matches were in which categories - and I suspect this might also not be held as a calculation within the Ticketing system (otherwise why can't we see how many points we have?), so they're basically dispensing with the points system already in favour of just "which matches you went to". It'll be interesting later in the season if they go back to points, or stick to number of games attended - in which case Sunderland away will be worth the same as Reading away, which is a bit daft. Then again, QPR away is worth more than Man U home under loyalty points...

When does anyone do that ?

Competition for places.

I found out what it was whilst watching MotD, would have been more than happy to have joined in if maybe someone from Villa had mentioned it to, say, anyone. As for "no respect M'Lord", I had no idea that's what they were singing either.

It's true, he can't.

Roger thinks Lallana should be dropped, lol.

You were offering crap odds, that's why. I'm going to say... "4", for the lolz. I'm still waiting for his inevitable injury, which was the basis of the Billy Sharp prediction in the first place. I am slowly coming round to his general awesomeness though, and of all people, *I* should be able to appreciate what an immobile player who never runs but can pass, shoot and win headers can offer a side.

Well, here are the Norwich JPT pens...