The9

Think he's been playing against Sholing and Exeter along with fellow non-25ers Dickson, Barnard and Forte.

I liked the bit about great distribution, that's one of the keys with our recent style.

Oi, that's my job.

Paul Williams and Paul Telfer both did quite a lot to build the foundations of Strachan's sides early on, both Coventry rejects as far as I was concerned. Beattie eventually got good as well, but looked pretty useless as a makeweight for a while.

Also with the players and manager out of the country much longer the only real "Saints iconography" currently in the country for a pic is the Stadium. Seeing as he can't really nick off to Switzerland to shake Nigel's hand when he's tied up with the UK team.

I think it's quite likely Butland would come down to take some pics if they knew a deal could be signed shortly but that he'd be away with GB for the next few weeks and wouldn't be able to do the photos after today. But then it was a mate of my wife's who started the story on FB. To be fair the source has some previous ITK too, a few things but I only remember them correctly stating the bubble plans for the Fratton Match (inc departure times). Not sure why her mate was at the ground but she said she recognised him cos "He's fit" or something like that. Was posted late afternoon, I believe.

They clearly held off to get some photos of him holding the kit and shaking hands with the manager. Which were done in daylight, so either immediately on his arrival before it got dark or early this morning, difficult to know.

I like the bit about "strength, pace, superb ball skills, positioning acumen and the right attitude. He has all it takes to be one of the best right-backs ever."

You might expect that if a deal is concluded, which it clearly is from Clyne's tweets, that the club actually bothers to tell people about it. It's not a clamour for urgency, it's an expectation of information sharing at a very basic level. No-one expects to be kept informed of who is at which service station, training ground or airport, but they DO expect the club will want to tell us when we've actually signed someone.

Les Ferdinand and Ian Wright are the classic "late developer" cards. I think you can make a case with players over 25 that they have a particular expected level and irrespective of performance it becomes difficult to progress beyond that. Lambert = L1 success, may have been at the top Championship striker level for years but never had the chance to prove it. Kids are more likely to get opportunities offered rather than necessarily earned, and are more likely to fly up or down the Leagues based on fewer performances, simply because they are a longer term investment and viewed as more likely to improve greatly than established players. A 28 year old L1 player on a hot streak is much less likely to get a dream move than Oxlade - Chamberlain was, purely because by then he's had 10 years of not being perceived as a top level player.

Seemed to be a problem for Patrice Evra on his Man U debut, IIRC.

I had assumed he was off to get some Toblerone or a cuckoo clock, and the fact he changed his twitter profile and happened to be flying to the one place in the world where the Saints first team squad was playing a match that night was entirely coincidental.

I vaguely recall a mate saying that he spoke to Richardson before the Liebherr Cup about his squad number and the reply was akin to "I thought it would be 2, but apparently we're signing another right back now". I would say based on last season that Richardson rose to the challenge more than anyone except maybe Lambert based on L1 performance, so it will be interesting to see if he can find another level. This does basically come down to the thing I constantly bang on about in the Prem, which is that you can teach techniques to improve skills and positioning and tactical awareness, and work on strength all you like, but you just can't teach players to be significantly faster.

Nope, I was just suggesting some downsides of Welshness without resorting to stereotyping or irrelevances (much), no comment on whether these are problems with existing signings generally.

He didn't look great at St Mary's either. I'm no expert on him but we wouldn't sign anyone who can't pass, and he's got pace, so let's hope he can actually defend!

Yeah, but as Dodd only played 5 matches for Saints and none after Redknapp's first game in charge it was hardly a contributing factor to our relegation... He was on loan at Plymouth for the last 2 months, even Darren Kenton couldn't put in a recovery from there.

Lack of international tournament experience and frequent international call-ups for pointless matches are two of the more relevant problems I can think of...

Wouldn't "flexible pricing" be less about having Categories (which hasn't changed) and more about undercutting the fixed by category prices you already have?

Fewer times than you have in the last 12 months, I assure you.

Darren Kenton was FAST, the secret is not getting so far out of position in the first place that Usain Bolt couldn't even help.

Have I ever mentioned that I'm crap at FM because I can't be arsed with the overly complicated interface?

It is a little heavy on the hypothetical.

Would now be a good time to point out that Arsenal are discounting their lowest category matches In 2012/13 compared to 2011/12 ? Presumably to help fill the massive stadium they have and can't sell out for smaller opponents? *Retires to safe distance.

Surely the choice is to negotiate with all players who are suitable and see what happens? No point in signing backups or cover anyway if they're worse than the current players, if you're bare bones (spit) then one of the kids might step up, and at least will get valuable experience, albeit possibly in a less than positive way in the short term.

No possibly about it, though we could have just played Hooiveld and Fonte there again I suppose.