The9

I'd assumed the money is coming from Liebherr's £2.5bn. If it turns out Cortese's an evil, deluded megalomaniac and just pretending he's got the cash, well he's not a corrupt money laundering arms dealer invisible sheikh so we can't really be expected to have foreseen that.

I refer you to the 4.5 million views of the Pompey Takeover Saga thread in The Lounge.

My entire excitement is built on one free kick in the Olympics and "£12m so must be good". I do know a few people who went to Uruguay matches at the Olympics but I doubt they specifically noted him. Still a major big deal for us though.

With you on that one.

I park at the Podium, they've always charged and there's no perception that (say) Next or Republic or Thornton's are suddenly asking me to pay for parking at West Quay after it being free previously. JJB's takings from me would also be down though, I never go in there since they started charging for THAT car park because like St Mary's I don't use the car park any more so I don't go there anywhere near as often.

Home grown is anyone who's been at an English or Welsh club for 3 seasons before aged 21. We are comfortably within the "must have 7 home grown players" rule. Dunno fully about dual nationality, Fox born in England but plays for Scotland (and Phillips), there was a run on south Americans having EU passports a while back and many have Spanish passports, but can't clarify on that one. Gazzaniga didn't need a work permit though and there's no mention of it for Ramirez yet (and with only a few caps he won't qualify automatically for one) so I'm guessing he may have a Spanish passport. Other than Gazzaniga who presumably speaks Spanish, Guly and Fonte are Portuguese speakers which would be useful if not perfect, but you'd assume Guly also knows some Italian as well, which Ramirez might do. Or he could speak English, who knows?

I wouldn't know, I never go in the car park any more. Which of course means I go to the Megastore a lot less than I would have previously as I resent being charged for wandering around the club shop. Have I mentioned that I haven't bought any of the new kit yet ? That's £160 they'd have got out of me previously which they're not seeing this year... it's the little things that help build an affinity with the club rather than driving a wedge. They either care about that money from me or they don't, they can't logically care about the £1 but not the £160 it's basically costing them to have that. When that stuff goes away Cortese can have my undying loyalty. For now I just appreciate that we're back in the Prem and hope we're good enough to stay in it. Most of the on pitch stuff is spot on, but with Prem tv money there's literally no point in persisting with policies that just annoy potential customers. Anyway, woo, we're (probably) signing Ramirez !

I remember Ruud Gullit relating that he basically got the sack from being Chelsea manager as a result of a "misunderstanding" over his new £2m contract being gross not net, so yeah, probably.

Yes, but they are my conditions for the kind of hero worship he already gets from some on here. He's already more than met my conditions for being decent at building the playing squad to get us back into the Prem, some kind of consideration of customers would round it off nicely. Would cost a lot less than the grand gesture of not having sponsorship on the sash kit, for instance.

We're not signing anyone from Chelsea.

Various English, Fox - arguably Scottish though born in England (same goes for Matt Phillips for the record) Ramirez - Uruguayan Lee - Japanese Forte - Barbadian S Davis - Northern Irish Schneiderlin - French Guly - Brazilian Hooiveld - Dutch De Ridder - Belgian Gazzaniga - Argentinian Fonte - Portuguese We no longer have any welshies in the first team squad though. I make it 12 including Ramirez.

I'm not ready to hero worship Cortese yet and these are my conditions for doing so.

All I have to say on the "historic" front is that he's our biggest signing since Delgado, who was also exciting at the time but at least Ramirez doesn't have a known knee injury.

Mikael Nilsson even. My least favourite Saints player ever, completely sh111t out of a 60/40 in his favour at Norwich in our relegation season. The twaat. He was a Swedish international though, which worked with Anders and Killer (and nearly worked with Jacobsson and Jesus).

Loyalty points are 10/15/20 for Cat A/B/C respectively - the bigger opponents are Cat A (though they've said Man C away is an extra 5 pts). The same number of points are allocated for home as away matches. All ST holders get their home loyalty points when the match goes on sale. Loyalty hasn't come into the equation for buying home games so far (they chose to give priority for Man U to people buying Wigan) but for aways there will be priority based on points. For Man City there were no points to prioritise on, but Arsenal priority is for people with 45pts (ie. attended City and both homes) and then anyone who's got 30 pts (which includes all ST holders). On the bright side for you, other than Arsenal and other London matches (and Reading), we probably won't sell out anyway. Even Man U is midweek.

Get rid of the car park fee and the booking fees and push us on to the top half and I'll be there with you. I'm easily pleased, just stop pretending we're self-sustainable and get on with it.

Yes - and it's not because Saturday is a working day, because Man U play Monday night and van Persie's deadline is the same.

This in full (may have been posted, thread's moving too fast) : Ramirez told Corriere Dello Sport: "They believe in me in every way... and above all I have said that they are going to grow. Southampton is a newly promoted team in the English top flight, but they have the means to stand tall in a few years. And with me they are going to build. It's all very stimulating. Even if it is a little strange." The 21-year-old scored eight goals in 28 apperances in Serie A last season and revealed that he was offered a deal that was too hard to refuse. "The truth? I think so, yes, this time," he said when asked if he was about to leave. "Bologna have reached an economic agreement with Southampton. There are only a few details to sort out, but they have found the agreement in principle, and the English club have reached an agreement with me. "It is an offer that you cannot refuse. They will give me so much money (€2 million net per year and more than €1 million signing-on fee)." Nicola Cortese, executive chairman of Southampton, is believed to have been key in bringing the youngster to the club from Italy. Read more at http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/165563.html?CMP=OTC-RSS#YqqB9LUUVxpsgLJd.99

The worst thing about it for me is that I get LOADING TIMES for pictures, headlines and articles to appear. Even going to other teams' sites with the same template I don't have that problem. I don't find it difficult to navigate though, it's probably easier and less cluttered than the previous one, but the roll-over is a massive faff and needing to scroll down for the main news list is annoying as hell.

Nope, I thought that too, but van Persie has to sign by noon too, and Man U are playing on Monday night.

Ramirez has done an interview already : Ramirez told Corriere Dello Sport: "They believe in me in every way... and above all I have said that they are going to grow. Southampton is a newly promoted team in the English top flight, but they have the means to stand tall in a few years. And with me they are going to build. It's all very stimulating. Even if it is a little strange." The 21-year-old scored eight goals in 28 apperances in Serie A last season and revealed that he was offered a deal that was too hard to refuse. "The truth? I think so, yes, this time," he said when asked if he was about to leave. "Bologna have reached an economic agreement with Southampton. There are only a few details to sort out, but they have found the agreement in principle, and the English club have reached an agreement with me. "It is an offer that you cannot refuse. They will give me so much money (€2 million net per year and more than €1 million signing-on fee)." Nicola Cortese, executive chairman of Southampton, is believed to have been key in bringing the youngster to the club from Italy. Read more at http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/165563.html?CMP=OTC-RSS#YqqB9LUUVxpsgLJd.99

Um, apart from the fact that link is already in the Gaston Ramirez thread, that just says he's headed to Southampton to agree terms. We already know we've agreed a fee. The fact that he's done an interview saying how much we're paying him and is pleased with it is a very good sign, but he still has to sign the deal.

Everything you need is mentioned in here : http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/no-place-like-home-317176.aspx There was priority if you got a Wigan ticket to get one for Man U but it appears Man U has moved onto general sale, which says a lot, frankly.

Two, I believe.

You didn't have to comment to find that out. They were basically very dirty and cynical in the same group as Scotland and Denmark (who beat them 6-1) in the World Cup. Managed to get a bloke sent off in a matter of seconds against Scotland, hacking people down all over the shop (still drew 0-0) and some excellent professional fouls. Made Suarez's goal-line save in 2010 look like child's play.