The9

No, the Football League clubs voted for it, and it applied to the Championship, League One and League Two, affecting 72 clubs, 48 of which were in a division the team you're referring to wasn't even in. They have also now reversed the decision using the same process, still applying it to the same number of teams and still including the same number of teams which aren't Portsmouth, thereby negating any possible argument that it was done somehow for their benefit. But it does say a lot about your reasoning, and ability to fabricate utter nonsense using an illogical and warped rationale.

If it's about them playing hundreds of matches in development "to get a run out" rather than getting first team experience (which they are more likely to get if they're in the match day squad), then the number of subs in the first team matches is irrelevant anyway.

There were plenty of "it's got grey stripes" posts both before and after release. You are probably right, and how insightful they were.

Yeah, but that's mainly because the proportion of people who go to aways is higher the lower down the leagues you go - because apart from not having limited allocations as often, the kind of people who will watch L1/L2/Conf football regularly are also the same kind of people who will go to pointless dumps of away grounds too.

There aren't any Skates on the main board.

Forgot about Tranmere - Saints were rubbish, the penalty was a nonsense, the place was a bit crap, but as we spent the weekend in Manchester and I proposed I can't really include it - didn't go the season after though !

He cared enough to mention it on here unprompted.

FWIW I've been on holiday for the last week, was in Lanzarote. I saw one new Saints shirt and one sash. I haven't seen anyone in Southampton wearing one yet, but I now really dislike the new home shirt, and will not be buying one unless they drop the price significantly in the spring - and I have bought every Saints shirt (bar the "fake" 1976 Anniversary one) since 1991. Every person I've discussed this with likes the away kit better as a Saints kit than the home kit, and I still think the away will outsell the home in terms of walk-up sales (likely that online the home will be more popular as people just tend to buy the home kit as it's meant to represent the team's colours and to some extent their identity, plus most plastic overseas sales to new fans will be of the home kit). I like the whole away kit, and the shorts and socks on the home kit in isolation, but I just can't like the home shirt. By the way, I still don't believe a word of the club's "record sales" claim, and suspect the claim they're making is something niche like "most sales in the West Quay Store on a Sunday" which happened to be the launch day and also the only time since St Mary's opened that the Megastore and online sales haven't been available beforehand. Made a nice picture, but I believe sales are still unimpressive taking the Prem Effect into consideration. The 350-ish sales I estimated on release day turned out to be not far of the mark, which appears to have been verified at around 400. Given that the club specifically mentioned last season that we sold 1000 shirts on online sales pre-order before they even released the design, they sold about 40% of what they did last year on launch day. That's not too far from the approval rate on here, coincidentally. Also, the yellow kit being used by the dev squad against a team in red before the away is launched doesn't mean anything regarding potential third kits next season. I'm keeping an eye on the Prem site for the 2012/13 Handbook, which hopefully will appear in the next few weeks... along with the squad numbers.

Should have read the 5 or 6 times it was already mentioned in this thread then - including a month before the kit was actually revealed.

International fixtures between the Community Shield and the opening fixture will have more impact than any amount of partying 5 weeks before. Unless he's Ched Evans, I guess.

Yeah but we also have a 7 year build up of the new ground factor for our younger fans...

Just for the record, "All Together Now" was an Everton FA Cup Final song in the 80s due to Peter Hooton being a toffee, and has been sung on their terraces. So not only unoriginal but also someone else's. Fwiw if we sing "We're Premier League" I'm going to go apopleptic, it's such a Championship fluke song to sing, we've already got more Prem history than Sunderland and various other recent Prem residents.

Wycombe by a mile. Chucked it down, pitch and surrounding areas were a bog, we were useless, missed kick off Sat in traffic in Wycombe for an HOUR and not much of an atmosphere. Also held back in the car park for 20 minutes despite being at the front of the queue, hugely annoying. The early L1 -10 Swindon match was pretty bad too, booing the team and a bloke a few rows behind me getting into a fight with Jacob Mellis' family after racially abusing him. Oh and Swansea. I only went from Newport, terrible weekend all round, not helped by a load of Saints fans I knew giving the girl I was with hassle about being welsh. Ended up coming home early to the house with the ex in it. Quite enjoyed Colchester in the fog though?

Seems much more likely. I can't see the club having a problem with anyone wanting to keep a high number, it has a "signature" feel to it and frees up lower numbers for those who want them, and there are a few out there it matters for (including Sharp now he's got personalised boots) .

I agree entirely, I'm just saying that the suggested reason is a load of utter cobblers.

By the time the season starts Nike will probably have a new colourway to replace the T90s he's got anyway.

That makes no sense, we've changed at least one (and usually two) shirts in every single season since he's been a regular first team player for us. So there's no benefit whatsoever "to the fans" in not changing a number, because every season's shirt is different anyway.

I can see there being a significant scrap over the much-coveted number 26 and definitely can't see the club being more than happy to go along with Hooiveld's request, which would keep the #5 free for a future CB signing (not Ammar Jemal, lolz). Squad numbers have to be decided 4 weeks before the start of the season, which is indeed in the next week or so.

I think I'd rather believe the reporting which doesn't come with a massive amount of hype and bullsh11te. i.e the BBC giving full details of the "third party" scenario re: Buttner and the clarification of the Davis deal being subject to clarification about Steven Davis' registration (which is the same for all previously in-contract ex-Rangers players from last season).

Not there. Not yet anyway. I'm sure they'll notice around April. Interested to hear on what grounds the sales are "record breaking" according to the OS... New lows? Most all red shirts sold on July 1 when it's a Sunday? Best selling Saints Prem kit of the 2010s..? There was no bugger buying it when I was in West Quay yesterday...

Yeah, I was about to say "number made up by some spanner on the other kit thread" myself.

I don't usually get them printed at all, but I have only once had my surname on it (twice if you include the Forum match but that wasn't optional), and even then had a blank version too. I do know someone who had a shirt with THE 0 on it though.

Cheers though, cos I also found "Almost 1,000 supporters have already guaranteed their shirt on pre-order" in this link http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2397705,00.html about last season's home kit, which hadn't even been unveiled at that point, and is certainly a thousand people you'd have expected to buy whatever the new kit was without even thinking about it. Where were they on Sunday and today ? Oh, and here's the launch article, no mention of your completely made up nonsense about third kits for 2012/13... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2402382,00.html

No, they didn't. I don't need to check, you just made it up. Just for the hell of it though, here's the launch picture, with the validity dates of the kit : First sentence in this link ? "Saints have made a popular return to the colours that have served them well over the years with the launch of a yellow and blue design for the 2011/12 campaign." http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2400067,00.html

Spain in the final were excellent, attacking and played far more expansively than usual, switching to the wings to create space, and shooting much more often than usual. Spain in pretty much every other game played the football equivalent of "keep away", bullying the opposition with bigger kid style (ironically) possession. And everyone hates people who play that game with inferior opponents, even back into the playground. The critics of 4-6-0 were mistaken, it was plenty attacking enough for as long as midfielders were making through runs, but the possession in non-threatening areas for the sake of it was strangling the game pretty well.