The9

First and second sentences I agree with entirely, the last one falls into the trap of discussing individuals when the point is that there are plenty of potential options if we want to look at them.

That was the next step. I wasted my time just removing the Saints players from the list, evidently.

It's not pointless at all, it's an illustration that there are loads of players we could be signing, chucked together quickly to counter a far more ridiculous point, which is that no-one can name any players in the Prem who we could be signing. You'll note I'm point-blank refusing to engage in the far-more-pointless "name a single player and have the cynics pick holes in their suitability" game. There are players, and some of them are in that list, point made.

You can take £2m off Jack Butland's fee based on that clearance for GB just now, so he's probably back in range now too.

No, it was a very quick and dirty edit of a list of Prem keepers with the criteria I mentioned above just to name some players to stop the pathetic counter argument that no-one could name "ONE SINGLE PLAYER". There's at least ONE player on that list who could be signed now, and probably at a guess about 10 of them. There will be a few who are out of our price range, a few who will not be better than what we've got, but fundamentally they have Prem experience and could be signed.

Whilst I also agree that there's a middle ground between "Skate overspend and default theory" and "Lowesque prudence", and you're right to point out that "let's spend billions" isn't what's been advocated, until we get the tv money we are definitely spending more money than the club is generating. We've been doing it for 3 years, presumably with the sole intention of getting to the Prem and hopefully making some of it back - for as long as Markus' Millions are backing us (and the Financial Fair Play isn't a factor) that's not a concern. As with anything, if your losses are sustainable it's not an issue, but let's not pretend we're turning a profit at the moment.

So what you mean is that you actually DO want me to do the exact same thing with every other position on the pitch as I've already done with keepers "because no-one has named a SINGLE player [blahblah]". The reason no-one has named any of these players is because there are HUNDREDS OF THEM currently playing in the Premier League, of whom we certainly could sign the tiny proportion we need in order to get these affordable players of Prem quality if we wanted to. You'd think my example of at least 10 players who would at least give Kelvin a run for his money might have made that point, but apparently the availability of 10 players for one position isn't sufficient grounds to extrapolate that to every other position. As far as Reading's signing, Pogrebnyak is a better signing than any we have made so far based on recent Premier League performance. Guthrie was third choice at a top 6 club, but prior to that had played an entire season for Bolton who were nowhere near relegation with him in the team.

Nope, same backdrop. Maybe you have a different resolution. There's a Man City David Silva pic in the middle of the page at the top behind the banner.

Where ? I can see Bale, Rooney, Kompany, a Newcastle shirt, Bogdan, Ruiz of Fulham and an Arsenal player in various background pics. No matches featuring Saints - assuming they rotate the images somehow. I'll keep hitting F5.

I've read the entire thread and haven't seen an anti-Cortese opinion yet.

I don't think kits with massive club crests are likely to improve the shirts much...

Get into the 80s grandad. I actually agree that clubs should at least offer unbranded shirts for those who want them.

Is anyone still talking about improvements at St Mary's ? The stuff that hasn't been moaning about you specifically ruining the thread has been about people in general using "dell-sized mindset" and other derogatory terms. The closest anyone's got to discussing the actual changes since the barrage of mockery is flyer and Kraken discussing Loftus Road. Though I will say after you got the usual gibes in there was some interesting debate for a couple of pages before the reaction kicked in. I am stepping away, being in a good mood today, having taken alpine off block being all the evidence of that I need.

Just to prove how completely pointless the "naming possible players" argument is, here's a list of current Premier League goalkeepers with Premier League experience. It is not a short list, and all I've done is taken out new signings, perennial reserves, promoted players with no previous Prem experience and Saints players. L Fabianski ARS W Szczesny ARS S Given AV P Cech CHE T Howard EVE M Schwarzer FUL D Stockdale FUL B Jones LIV J Reina LIV J Hart MC D De Gea MU S Harper NEW T Krul NEW J Ruddy NOR R Green QPR A Begovic STO T Sorensen STO M Vorm SWA C Cudicini TOT B Friedel TOT B Foster WBA M Fulop WBA J Jaaskelainen WH A Al Habsi WIG M Pollitt WIG And that's just Goalkeepers. Admittedly you can remove about another 10 regular starters of top half clubs... but...

You're starting to sound like alpine now... never had you down as a victim, but I'd be inclined to think this is the logical conclusion of you basically ruining pretty much every thread of any interest for the last 3 months or so.

One of the few "unofficial" numbers that the store staff were happy to print ("at your risk"). The fact that the Megastore had Lallana 20, Lee 19 and Lambert 7 shirts made up in the shop for the Liebherr Cup is also a rather large hint.

They can't because they only have player stock SensCilia numbers (which are bigger than the plasticky ones you can buy from any club shops, JJB etc), but you can buy them off eBay (including Player stock sizes) and iron them on yourself. I'm giving serious consideration to doing that myself with the yellow shirt, but I'll probably buy a white away kit (and numbers off eBay anyway). eBay search on "SensCilia" is your friend.

What worries me is that interviews with Reading players (McAnuff on Premier League World) and West Ham players, Noble on SSN, have both stressed their goal as being Prem survival. Reading were up in 2007 and had a couple of seasons up here more recently than us, West Ham have been a yoyo club for the past 5 years. So they're both more familiar with the Prem situation than anyone (except probably Jason Dodd, Kelvin from his disastrous relegation with Sunderland (15 points) and Steven Davis, and Cork and Fox who got relegated with Burnley) at St Mary's. Whereas we've got the manager banging on about challenging for Europe and pushing on from there. Now I appreciate the positivity, but basically it smacks a little of naivete, and having watched the Premier League Years recapping last season, I'm not entirely sure we know what we're getting into. Could be wrong, but certainly the lack of pace at centre back, our limited GK and unproven players everywhere else (along with the 3 former relegatees) makes me a little concerned. At the same time, the players we do have are mostly young, ambitious and the best the Championship has to offer, so who knows ? Home to Wigan will be the proving ground, and at least they usually start slowly.

A little bump here : The yellow away kit of last season is now "sort of" confirmed as our third kit, the Dev squad wore it at Exeter, and though they also wore it at Sholing and in their other preseason match, those were with Championship numbers and was last season's kit. Last night they pitched up in the 2011/12 yellow kit with Premier League navy numbers on the back. Given that none of our other kits (home, away or either GK shirt) have navy numbers, and they could have easily used the black numbers from the away kit, that suggests to me that the yellow kit will be used occasionally for first team away matches, as there would be no reason to buy in the navy numbers unless they'd be more widely used. That and the fact someone from the megastore told me on Facebook. He also said they didn't expect anyone would want to buy a year old kit, which is why they flogged them off cheap a couple of months ago.

Pretty sure I said that a number of times previously, based on misremembering what was in the Prem Handbook - it says squad numbers "before the commencement of each season" and kits to be confirmed to the Premier League 4 weeks before the season starts. Thing is, the Prem Handbook for last year wasn't released as a pdf until December 2011 anyway. Oh, and while I think of it, the yellow away kit of last season is now our third kit, the Dev squad wore it at Exeter, and though they also wore it at Sholing and in their other preseason match, those were with Championship numbers and was last season's kit. Last night they pitched up in kit with Premier League navy numbers on the back. Given that none of our other kits (home, away or either GK shirt) have navy numbers, and they could have easily used the black numbers from the away kit, that suggests to me that the yellow kit will be used occasionally for first team matches, as there would be no reason to buy in the blue numbers unless they'd be more widely used. That and the fact someone from the megastore told me on Facebook.

I know of 2 people who are there... can we name the other 2 ?

Not unless you're planning to insist the players wear it in front of a couple of hundred million people on telly when it's a symbol of the club's identity, I won't.

See above. The Prem numbers are a new development (excuse the pun), and I've got a guy who works in the club shop on my FB hinting heavily that that's the third kit alright.

Most significant thing that's happened tonight is that the Saints side is wearing yellow (albeit again), but rather than the Championship numbers as seen at Sholing ...they have navy Premier League numbers. Which implies we have a third kit for next season and it IS the old away kit.

Massive whoops.