The9

I was talking about the Man U fans, not the team. They sing songs about eating dogs and rats, don't you think that's "embarrassing" or something?

It's not just them, the Sky Sports commentator repeated it for BOTH the last two FA Cup matches.

I bet you love them...

No, but he's not joining up with us until after the international break. Mayuka's the only signing who's around to potentially make his debut tomorrow.

So very lame.

Oh yeah, contract was expiring in 2013, now extended to 2016. Not sure when that happened, usual problem with sites not time stamping articles : http://blogs.bettor.com/Ajaxs-Nicolai-Boilesen-signs-contract-extension-until-2016-Official-a171011

Even if he would, we can't recall anyone on a season-long loan. I'd also prefer Martin at CB to either Fox (looked terrible in the 10 minutes he covered there last season and not good in the air) or Richardson (looked pretty uncomfortable at times at Stevenage, whilst Seaborne looked composed alongside him). But Martin's tendency to hit Row NN with his clearances isn't a particularly useful quality in the Premier League, and we can't really be giving possession away that far up the pitch that often in this division.

It's not on there yet - not on the fixture list never mind ticket info. But we usually play midweek matches on a Tuesday and the ties are to be played w/c 24 September, our matches either side are on Saturdays, and they've confirmed Everton v Leeds is on Sky so we're unlikely to move for that. So guessing Tuesday 25th September will be the date.

No they're not, there's this : http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/28/didier-drogba-nicolas-anelka-shenhua?newsfeed=true but this is more recent : http://www.itv.com/sport/football/article/2012-09-01/drogba-exit-reports-nonsense/

Boilesen is injured (article from 5 days ago mentions it here) : http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11670/8024018/Boilesen-flattered-by-Prem-talk so maybe that's what happened there. Rhys Williams is out for months after getting injured midweek last week, so he rapidly fell off the radar when that happened. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19423907 Rennes didn't want to sell Kana-Biyik and he seems fine with that : http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11700/7945520/Kana-Biyik-hints-at-Rennes-stay And the rumours about Biglia, according to his club Anderlecht, are all incorrect : http://www.anderlecht-online.be/article.php?id=14226&lang=eng

IIRC Dickson's twitter outburst a few months back seemed, with a bit of reading between the lines, to be about the club refusing to pay a share of his wages to let him go out on loan. His choices were a permanent transfer or take his wages and not play. I think his complaint was something like "Even though I'm not involved I just want to play but they won't let me".

The question remains "is it worth spending x million on adding seats which will be used for only a few matches a season, provided we stay in the Prem" ? And none of us have access to the figures to support that discussion for or against.

I'd go so far as to suggest it might even have been lower - though it will be interesting to see if there's any Yoshi Effect (or Gaston Effect).

Oh God, who thought THIS thread was a good idea ? Good job Turkish is on holiday.

Judging by the list above we'll name 22 players plus the U21s. The cut off for the U21 distinction is not being 21 or over on Jan 1 in the year the season commences. So anyone U21 on Jan 1st 2012, ie anyone born on or after Jan 1st 1991, is an U21.

Arsenal only named 17 last season, plus a swathe of U21s. They were limited by the non home-grown rule. Our only limitation will be the one Flyer mentioned on here a few weeks ago about 3 keepers - as 2 are U21 anyway. For consistency with the Premier League the squad should be named with the "25" first then the U21s.

We won't name 25 anyway, we don't have enough keepers over 21 so will only name 23 players plus Gazzaniga and Cropper as U21s.

Would be surprised if Yoshida wasn't 15, though we are being a little less analysis with the numbering this season.

Untested with a ( in front of it.

Signed on Page 192 according to me.

A better job doing what ? Neither attacking nor defending. We stopped playing down the left generally and started playing through Lallana only when Rodriguez went off, and conceded 2 goals in 30 mins rather than 1 in 60.

Because the teams at the top of the Championship signed the decent players from last season in January and July, and the top 3 teams are already in the Prem anyway ?

Why put Rodriguez up front alone when he might not be ready for it yet, and even more why be critical of playing him when he proved against Man City that he was able to get forward with Lallana in support of a central striker AND defend in support of the left back, and was very effective in doing so ? He'll get experience there, fulfil an important role and eventually get moved up top (assuming he's not too good to move by then). He was impressive at City and no-one was against Wigan...

Well, if I don't sell some of the duplicate shirts I bought years ago and never opened, because of various other costs, I won't be able to buy the current shirt, which I hate. There's some logic there somewhere. Anyway, as I was saying, one day left to go to buy them, I can't count. They are all in absolutely perfect condition as well.

It's not me that's being promoted, it's my awesome (and currently excellent value) Saints shirts, deadline now extended til 4pm tomorrow (i.e. I can't count backwards).