The9

You sound like you've just come from 20 miles east...

Do you mean me and VectisSaint, Crab Lungs, david in sweden or... oh. Right. Him. Sorry. FWIW it was delldays and Glasgow who started the "who's got Prem experience" thing...

I have MLG tendencies at the best of times.

I think coming top of the bottom 12 is 9th actually. Like whens you overtakes the person in 9th you is 9th. Oops, Bearsy moment.

Did you know that apparently I saw the new kit before anyone else and want everyone to look at me ? Just saying.

I agree, they're probably all better than they were then and Rodriguez definitely is, just making a point about how little our squad has played at this level.

Missed those, ok, so he's actually got more Prem games than the rest of them put together. Bit worried that he's been playing in much-less competitive SPL for a while, but anyway. So, he's, theoretically, good for the experience he can bring. I hope he's not gash, because then it'll be down to the rest of them to work it out as they go...

I am also looking forward to updates on Matt Phillips signing. But I'm looking forward to signing some players who have actually been decent in the Prem already alongside that.

I'm all in favour of signing promising prospects - to slot into a team with a core of experience.

What exactly do you think I'm doing when you're replying ? Do you know how posting replies works ? Yes it's possible, I don't think anyone has said "we are definitely getting relegated based on this statistical premise" have they ? But having a team full of players who have previously not succeeded at this level does hint at a certain outcome being more likely. You're the one saying "judge the players on their own merits and not on their previous team's performances with them in it", so why would it matter what other teams had done previously ?

What, like Rodriguez ? Probably a couple of years too soon. But we could have kept Lambert and signed Jason Roberts, who was better than him and joined a mid-table Championship side at the time. Yeah, about 10 minutes ago, don't be so impatient. I don't have the time to look, find me a player with at least 15 matches in central midfield or central defence for a side in last season's Prem, who has been at a Prem club regularly for at least 2 seasons, and with a year left on their contract, under the age of 30 and there are your answers. Obviously you'll get some out of our price range, but you'll get some who aren't as well. There may also be some players who have top level experience in Spain, Italy, Germany or France who have non-Prem top level experience that could be worth a look, and some (but by no means all) top 30 international countries' players. They might not have the experience of the Prem but generally they'd be a fairly safe bet to be of the required standard. There will be exceptions though. Oh, and Chris Baird, as he plays alongside Davis regularly for Northern Ireland, isn't past it, has plenty of Prem experience and some Europa League too, covers a couple of positions we need to improve, knows the club, doesn't cost the earth, etc.

Two examples in the last 20 years. Just like Norwich going straight up - that is not the norm.

I'd have gone for Guthrie AND (maybe) Davis actually, it would have been perfectly possible. Ironically enough I'd like us to sign Mark Davies, who just got relegated... or pretty much anyone decent who has a couple of seasons under their belt in the Prem amd isn't past it. Decent players do get relegated, but that's not the same as only having one season - in which they went down. Shorey is a rubbish signing for Reading, but Ian Harte who he's meant to replace nicely illustrates what you can get away with in the Championship that just won't fly in the Prem. Gallas is good enough technically but you have to question the application we'd get for the megabucks we'd have to pay him. Fletcher I'm not that convinced by (and we've already signed Rodriguez), Jarvis would be a good signing. It's not the fact players have been relegated per se, it's the fact that the ONLY Prem experience all our players except Steve Davis have is of being relegated. The likes of Jarvis and Fletcher and Mark Davies have a season of staying up as well as the relegation, none of our current players do.

They're all good players on their own merits, but none of them have much experience in this League and we need some. And examples from League One to Championship are literally just not in the same league as Championship to Prem. Especially when you're talking about the same player needing to find further improvements on the unexpected improvements they already made. Some of these players will step up, some probably won't. I shall assume Saints will need tweaking downwards in FM2013 then ?

In summary, Steve Davis has 5 fewer Prem appearances than the rest of the squad put together, and is the only Saints player to have played more than 4 matches who hasn't been at a club when they've been relegated from the Premier League. This is why I keep saying we need some experienced Prem players from mid-table. I'm sure you can gain a lot of knowledge and motivation from going down, and there are plenty of upsides to signing promising young players, but I think I'd also like us to have players who know how to avoid relegation, along with the ones who've done it before.

Puncheon, one half season on loan at Blackpool, 11 matches relegated. Barely played for QPR (2 subs) who stayed up on the last day. Fox - one half season with Burnley, 14 games, relegated Rodriguez - was on loan at Barnsley when Burnley were relegated, no Prem appearances Cork - 2 loans with Burnley, 11 Prem games relegated K Davis - record-setting low points season with Sunderland, 33 games relegated Richardson - 4 games for Leeds, relegated Butterfield - 7 Prem games for Palace, relegated Chaplow - 11 games for West Brom, first season stayed up and sent us down, second season eventually loaned to Saints as they got relegated Barnard - 3 games for Spurs. Matt Phillips - MLG says 21 games for Blackpool in Prem, relegated. Steve Davis, 91 appearances of not being relegated with Villa, by far the most experienced Prem player we have. Everyone else, 96 total Prem appearances (including subs) between the lot of them (plus 21 for Matt Phillips) and 7 (+1) relegations.

One hasn't signed yet and has only played in 21 matches, the other, yes, as the only player who's been in the Prem, played more than 20 matches and not been relegated from it, I'm sure he'll be able to convey this to the other 10 players constantly and in every situation.

Here's the article, 9,000ish Prem fans sampled http://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/uncategorized/youre-supposed-to-be-at-home As the article mentions, Man U are the 3rd best-supported club in London. You also need additional information about their travelling support and their locations before you can question the validity of "Do you come from Manchester?" as 91% of people claiming to be their fans don't.

Hang on, you could do the same survey in Singapore and get the same sort of percentages, doesn't it just indicate that United's global appeal transcends the area they're actually based in ? i.e. they have lots of fans everywhere, including Manchester. Also, rightmove aren't exactly the people I'd want to conduct a football fan survey, their statistical sample is probably rubbish and could be tremendously biased. Let's have a look at the actual document before going off The Sun's interpretation... for a start the relatively low Saints average mileage figure is at odds with the Prem Fans' Survey from 10 years ago which said we had one of the broadest fanbases in the Prem - so is that due to people not wanting to travel for non-Prem football, or has our fanbase significantly changed in that time ?

4 : Gazzaniga, Clyne, S Davis, Rodriguez.

I think he's good enough at recruiting players that we're not all absolutely CERTAIN we're going down despite leaping from the bottom of L1 to the Prem in 3 years, I just wish we'd mix it up and ensure we also have players at the club who can provide the Prem experience that the promising signings don't have.

Not a dormant CLUB, just being dormant in the transfer market compared to Reading and West Ham. Though Reading haven't actually signed many for a while either.

But that assumes that we haven't just spent 3 years running staff at League One levels and have actually increased staff by those kind of numbers on reaching the Prem in the first place. The reason we had to cut so many staff the last time was because the club had got bloated (on and off the pitch). Building from scratch and starting again in 2009 would have made the organisation relatively lean and efficient. I don't know everything, I just bother to actually read information that others don't look at.

There's Yo! Sushi and Zen, I don't think that'll be a problem. He can probably afford his own chef anyway.

Because they often lose key players to Premier League clubs on relegation (though it is happening less now due to the bigger parachute payments).