The9

You've not seen Muriel's Wedding ?

He was, obviously, but in a sideways kind of way to the point.

I think the logic is as this is the first match and against Wigan, everyone other than ST holders are in a big ole pile and able to buy what they want. They've twinned it with Man U but apparently people aren't signing up for both in great numbers, probably due to holidays.

I blame the Oxford comma for this.

I think he's hedging his bets on us Burleying it up like in 2007(?) and ending up with Bennett and Makin for a couple of weeks if we get a couple of injuries (don't forget we had defensive injuries then, part of the Burley strategy was to hope Powell wasn't going to be perma-injured). Funny how he seemed to get loads of stuff right between 2007-2009 when we were terrible and getting relegated, and is rubbish at predictions now we've been winning for the best part of 3 years. Will be nice if he's wrong and wronger this season too, but as usual with alpine, somewhere in the panic, abuse and warped logic there's a grain of truth - that being, we do need to sign some better players fairly soon.

Again, I think this is much more relevant to Championship teams than "lower" Prem ones. It's a bit more true in January when teams who are in trouble throw everything at it and there are more intra-Prem transfers, but I just don't think players not wanted at the top are likely to sign for teams lower down - they either have prohibitive wage demands or feel they have better options in their home country or at a big club in a different league.

Yeah, even getting rid of Harding we still have too many "Dan(n)"s in the squad.

I believe (vague recollections as I was at the match and only checked the threads later for my own amusement) he may have been posting over-dramatic ranting nonsense early on the second half thread, as opposed to late on the first half one. I for one am impressed by trousers' use of the search facility, I can never find anything useful with it.

To be honest I think that was a fair argument when we were in League One, hoping for Championship players to fall out of favour, but I don't think it's particularly relevant as a Prem club - there aren't many deals between two Prem sides and with the elevated status you suddenly become appealing to a vast swathe of overseas players who wouldn't move to a non-Prem club. With the exception of a few Man U rejects signing for ex-Man U players who are now managers, this theory doesn't really hold weight in the Premier League. For instance, Robin Van Persie signing for Arsenal / Man City / Man Utd has no tangible impact on Saints whatsoever, we're not likely to be in for (say) Berbatov or Roque Santa Cruz, and they're not particularly likely to be signing for any other Prem sides and unsettling possible targets either. The market we seem to be in is proven Championship youngsters, possibly some recently relegated ex-Prem players (according to the papers, though we haven't signed any) and maybe some out of contract experienced Prem players who aren't past it. There are some moves which will impact target availability, but mostly I think we're in for people who aren't becoming available from being excluded from Prem 25s.

To be fair, that's a cumulative table from the 20 club representatives who contribute to their Prem reviews, so it's the opinion of 17 people who by definition were mostly watching Premier League matches last season and probably have no idea about either us or Reading, but know West Ham and Big Sam's teams reasonably well. Interesting that we were above Reading though.

You appear to be suggesting that a side put together with lower priced imports of similar quality to English players can't survive in the Prem. Wigan, for one, would beg to differ.

Noooo, I'm saying I don't get paid between Man City match going on sale and the Udinese match which I don't have a ticket for, so I can't go to both.

Just to add a little context, he's currently a free agent after leaving Exeter, having played for the mighty Shamrock Rovers, SV Wilhelmshaven and Dacia Chisinau in the past 2 years. Stephen O'Halloran is at Nuneaton Town, having played 1 loan game for Saints, none at Leeds, 2 at Swansea. He then signed for Coventry (11 appearances), and signed for Carlisle last season, playing 3 times. He has 2 Republic of Ireland caps, from 5 years ago. He was utter gash at Saints, even in 2008 when there was a lot of it about. FWIW Lee Molyneux (I've thrown him in for the hell of it) played 9 times for Plymouth in 2010/11 (when relegated from L1 - Jack Stephens played about 4 matches in the same period) and that, along with 4 Saints appearances, is his entire footballing career, he's been "a free agent" for 2 years now. And he played in that match when Plymouth beat us 1-0 at St Mary's... for Plymouth.

Agreed to a point, but as time passes without further additions when we've been told we are looking at players, the concerns are going to rise. I'd also say that given the tendency for the club to sit out some of our signings to get them to fitness without playing matches (Sharp most obviously), it's in our interests to sign players earlier rather than later. We haven't done that for the positions Adkins still says we're looking to strengthen, for whatever reasons.

I did mention a while back that Birch (as "the club") might be spending the PPs to get rid of the players. Next question : assuming he does take over, what is Chainrai actually able to asset strip from PFC to get his money back before he (presumably) sells to the Trust and gets his money back via rent ? What is there still left which constitutes what Chainrai is buying at this point ? And of that, what's already earmarked for other things ? I don't even want to start a list with Fratton Park and 3-and-a-bit parachute payments, but is that it ?

That's in nine days - unless we're happy writing off the first couple of matches or confident of getting something from Wigan without new signings. Either way, it's 20 days to the closure of the Window. The Wigan game is the key, we can lose the other 3 and people (hopefully) won't think too much of it - if we lose at home to Wigan the wrist-slitters and "told you so"s will be out in force. As it happens, I think we need a GK, a LB (could turn out to be Shaw), 2 CBs (could be Stephens), two CMs (which could be moot if Davis/Ward-Prowse are up to it), a wide right midfielder and possibly even a proven top flight striker by the end of January, but I doubt we'll get more more than 3 of them before September.

Disappointing lack of alpine complaining from what I just read. But well done finding it !

With the greatest of respect, I went to the bloody semi-final at Wembley AND the Team GB QF in Cardiff and even I don't give a toss about the Final. Having said that, I'm not going to the Udinese game either. Would have liked to, but have chosen to go to Man City instead.

You don't think that Premier League football clubs which are up for sale are a limited entity ? Unless they're haemorrhaging money and the owner wants rid, it's very much a seller's market, you ask what you like and you only sell when you want to and for what you want to sell for. Houses, however are not in anything like as limited supply, and therefore there's no surplus of demand and that doesn't drive up the price. This is a very basic tenet of economics. So basic that I actually remember it.

And numerous other examples. Where's the half time of the MK Dons match thread when you need it ?

I don't think we're getting sold any time soon either (though that rumour was all about getting us to the Prem and selling at a profit when I first heard it two and a half years ago on here). The "going rate, market value" will reflect what the owner is prepared to sell for, which of course will include a premium if they so wish. It's not "plain ridiculous" at all.

Well, quite. An 8am kick off might have maximised the crowd on this occasion. Would have been nice to see Granada and Watford roped in for a pathetic tournament too, seeing as they all have the same owners as Udinese. Don't worry, hopefully we'll be fully integrated into the ridiculous Prem team pre-season kick off timetable by next season.

Well we, like every other club are, if our backer leaves and sells to someone with no money. Or one that doesn't exist. Or an arms dealer's son. Or all three... There is absolutely no way we have been self-sufficient in the past 3 seasons, and we won't be until at best 2013/14 if we're still in the Prem with the vastly inflated prize money on offer then from the new tv deal (£60m for coming last should cover the wage bill).

They changed it about 6 weeks ago.

Oh, as an aside, my work colleague came through with the programme for me from last night's AFC Wimbledon v Skates match - it's actually a £1 dual programme for AFCW's matches with Preston and Portsmouth, which makes it all the funnier, as the Preston part of the programme looks normal, whilst (as you may have seen), the Skate Teamsheet is blank and there's an apology for not being able to include Pen Pictures of any of their players !