The9

Did you just say "our transfer budget for this summer will depend on if we're relegated or not"?

I'd rather we signed a keeper who can actually play in the first few months of the season first...

What if I was one of them ?

Contrary to your opinion, he's never kicked a ball in the Prem. He only played in two Carling Cup matches in their Prem season and was sent out on loan to Barnsley. Burnley were then relegated and he made his first team league debut for Burnley in the Championship.

And I still think Sharp will play more games than Lambert next season for Saints. We shall see.

It doesn't even matter if we spend nothing, provided the frees we get in are Prem quality players, they'll be paid appropriately, but no-one ever seems to talk about the wages, just the fee. £20k a week is about a million a year, so for a 4 year deal there's another £4m in expenditure immediately... yet apparently that's not worth considering.

We only received the lower figure because we went back and renegotiated the figure downwards in order to get more money sooner when we were desperate and in admin., it's hardly a good example for "increments don't always produce the full figure", because Walcott is still racking up England caps, has scored an international hat-trick and will probably add to his international goals tally at some point too - short of a clause for more money when England win a major tournament, we'd have probably got the lot for Theo, had we not decided to cash in a lower amount.

Even if we hadn't, the article still is.

Something just occurred to me. Where are all the people who blithely spouted "It's going to be red and white stripes" last year ?

I think you should reread the thread, there are at least two people on it who are claiming to know exactly what the home shirt will be.

Could be the difference between us looking a bit like Saints (black) and a lot like Forest (white) or Liverpool (red).

Orly ?

Same colour home and away shorts and socks ? It's not going to be #1, no idea about the away kit.

LOLz. I have absolutely no idea what our transfer budget is, but I bet we're not spunking the lot on a bloke from the League below who isn't even in one of our priority positions for strengthening. I think we'll sign around 5 players, and if £6.5m is the majority of our transfer budget, then I can only assume they're all going to pay for free, with the fairies in buttercup field near the dewy hills down Chocolate Mill Lane.

He was 27, which is the upper limit for any player we're likely to buy, by my reckoning. The only exception to that since Adkins took over has been Hooiveld, still only 28 when we signed him - and he was about 3rd choice centre back and the only option left at that point of the season. It would take an absolute superstar to change up our recruitment policy, and even that would be a gamble. Signing hungry young players who don't get pensioned off isn't much of a gamble in comparison.

Such a load of gash that we'd be interested in Yakubu.

It's the last year of our Umbro contract, they already have a number of shirts with this template, I don't understand why Cortese hasn't seen the love for the Rank Xerox and given us a version of this Hearts kit from 2010 : or something in a "Winchester" like this Wrexham shirt, with white in the middle and the "tapes" in black : Just for the hell of it btw, I found one of last season's kit threads when googling : http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://geckosaint.com/SFC-kit-history-22.png&imgrefurl=http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php%3F28897-Time-for-a-quot-new-kit-quot-thread/page3&usg=__z7x94IM-mmCDQysjLzIQSqKVen8=&h=264&w=604&sz=9&hl=en&start=18&zoom=1&tbnid=gcr1V5_5UeG7hM:&tbnh=59&tbnw=135&ei=-brET5zjN46p8QPIwYG5Cg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dumbro%2Bwinchester%2Bwrexham%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dactive%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

The most expensive "general sale" tickets for 2012 were £115 (10% of the total tickets). http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/announcements/fa-cup-final-ticket-news but you're right to say the genuine Premium tickets are Club Wembley, which (if you pay your Club Wembley "licence" at the same time) can be as much as £16943 for the season. WARNING - PDF ! http://www.wembleystadium.com/~/media/Files/WNSL/WembleyStadium/Club%20Wembley%20downloads/2011%20Pricing%20Information.ashx

The cheapest 1988 FA Cup Final ticket was £8 (terrace behind the goal); The cheapest ticket for the 2012 FA Cup Final was £45 to sit behind the goal (and they were only 16% of the available tickets too). That's over 7.5 times the cost. Worth noting that hikes in ticket prices have come from the following : 1) All-seater stadiums post Hillsborough (early 90s), reducing the cost of the cheapest (previously standing) tickets to the cost of the more expensive "cheapest seating" tickets, as clubs tried to replace the revenue they lost from reduced capacities. 2) Further price hikes to the lowest cost tickets as the 1990-1996 gentrification of football brought more middle class people into football, with expectations of better facilities and more disposable income. 3) Price hikes as clubs redeveloped their grounds to attempt to return to their higher previous capacities, reducing supply of tickets for a short period and then retaining those higher prices when development was completed. 4) More new stadiums, so clubs were able to set a new baseline for all ticket costs from scratch. 5) The push to meet higher costs from player wages and the impact on ticket prices. 6) Debatable, but there's an argument that TV money makes the actual physical fan in the ground less important, so pricing to fill the ground is no longer essential at the top level. Certainly arguable given the recent freezes of ST prices at a number of bottom half Prem sides. 7) Again debatable - a reduction in the number of matches in the top tier ?

I prefer it to the plain red one... even though it's maybe a little overproduced, it's more Saintsy.

I think I'm going to stick to pondering the away kit. I would like the reverse of that, just to readdress the red/white imbalance. It would also extend the life of my yellow shirt, hopefully. Now there's a shirt that might have been worth gambling some Prem numbers on.

I would, I loved the amber and black version worn by Newport County in their Third Division mediocrity as well... though admittedly that was a bit of a peak for them.

They were at least AS likely to be just making the statement that they don't pay attention to the shirt numbers, I think. I'm not that bothered, it's their problem if they want to go around looking silly. As I said, we weren't even promoted at that point.

I never quite understand the link people make between footballing ability and shirt designers' ability. Some of the best shirts I've seen have come from smaller manufacturers, and some of the worst have been worn by huge teams. The new Man U home kit is one of the worst designs I have seen in some time, and even though it's probably well made, it looks like a crappy cheap tartan rug with some logos on it. And by all accounts, they're quite a good side. I generally don't like "screen printed" shirts, which look like cheap quality compared to some of the recent Umbro "Tailored By" range - I guess we'll have to see whether it looks cheap or decent.

I would regard that as some kind of hilarious Turkish parody, so that would be fine. I'd advise waiting on the squad numbers though.