The9

There seems to be a distinct correlation between Chaplow playing and the amount of effort expended by the rest of the team, which I why I like Chaplow as a player despite his industrial first touch. He's also useful at supporting Butterfield who otherwise might be subject to a lot of problems with faster players going past him (like Cox of Orient last season). I'm not usually a fan of our water-carriers, but we do look a better side with Chaplow harrying and closing down, probably because we get the ball higher up the pitch in transitions with defenders out of position, and it's getting it in threatening positions where we sometimes struggle.

Maybe find something else to do for the next 4 days. I wasn't remotely nervous about the Boro game and utterly bricking it after 10 minutes of Leicester v West Ham. For now I'm fine again, but come half 11 on Saturday when the team news breaks, I'll be hyper and/or paranoid.

Nah, the only time we miss him is when Lambert's injured, and we have Sharp to cover that now. Has a quick brain and good movement but his quickness in behind the defence is all but gone and he looked a little off the pace even at the start of the season when we were dominating sides. Sharp's not quite as good a passer but he does everything else as well or better now.

I still think Cardiff's effort is worse.

But a 37.5% in a contest where everything being equal you'd have a 25% chance is a superb return rate. I'd also question including other divisions where there's no parachute payment effect skewing the table, though that does depend on the overall bouncebackability rating of the relegated sides.

Cardiff managed to be top for 4 months and not even make the playoffs due to losing an an end of season match by 6 goals to the team that pipped them to a playoff spot by one goal on Goal Difference, so I beg to differ. The one thing I can be certain of with these playoffs is that either Cardiff will choke to miss out on them, or choke to miss out IN them.

I also don't quite understad why having a second goalkeeper on the bench is going to help us not concede, its not like we can play two of them at the same time. I agree that we need a sub keeper on the bench generally though, especially with our attacking options limited by injury rather than numerical limitations anyway.

Thanks for that. I also wholeheartedly support YOUR right to post complete drivel, FWIW.

I don't think using "must draw" is helping your argument. "Must not lose" is more accurate - but West Ham streaking off against Hull will make it a "must win" pretty quickly anyway.

How about the chances Saints missed against Reading at 0-0 and 1-1 ? Kevin Nolan's 1 on 1 last night, the difference between them needing a 2 goal win or a 3/4 goal win if we draw ? The foul on Lallana at Boro, Sharp shooting over from 6 yards, Chaplow spooning one over after a 30-pass move, the ref giving Boro the free-kick for the second goal, not us on Saturday. El Abd chucking himself to the ground whilst fouling Lambert cost us a load of points in January. I keep looking back at Wes Morgan's 95th minute header last night and thinking "what if he'd put it in the corner"?

Since the last 4 (or is it 5?) times Cardiff did it, I'd say.

Just for the record, to those saying "screw the maths", how would you feel if we "did a Man City" and weren't in the Prem next season due to playing keep-ball when we needed a goal ? Saints stayed up that season as a result of it of course... The minutae is something that the manager at the very least needs to be aware of for tactical reasons (and I don't doubt they'll be on top of it). Consider the different responses required in these two situations : a) Saints drawing 0-0, West Ham 5-0 up in injury time. b) Saints drawing 2-2, West Ham 1-0 up in injury time. If you're adopting the same approach to a) as b) you're a mentalist. In a) we desperately need a goal, in b) we desperately need not to concede one but don't need to score, and a trip to the corner flag is in order.

Historically it is basically an even spread of promotion from every playoff position, actually. See above.

Just the record, I could see from the other end of the pitch that Jutkiewicz was pulling Fonte's shirt and pulling him across the pitch for about 10 yards, and that Fonte had pulled Jutkiewicz's arm to try and release it. So it should have been our free-kick.

How about red background with thin white stripes though ?? I was having a look at this one in a sports shop in Leicester today, the "pinstripes" are actually pairs of pinstripes. Does that count as "stripes" if Saints wear that ? Notts County have something similar this season and it doesn't look "striped" from any kind of distance :

There was no "lack of support", I assure you.

I can't imagine Liverpool would be looking at signing "a Championship striker" when they could basically get anyone from anywhere on the club's name alone. Even if they are crap at the moment.

Glad we've got Umbro, they make more effort than Nike and adidas with variations on templates. Bilbao aside, nothing looks like Saints this season, nothing looked like the Umbro flybe and the sash was unique as the sash went the other way on their teamwear kits.

Sorry, duplicate due to crap mobile connection on the M1...

Just for the record, I'm not sure why the fact its already being / been made means no-one is supposed to discuss what it might look like. As for "I couldn't tell you who sponsors the nPower Championship... One other thing, asking non-kit wearers what they want the kit to look like gave you England's indigo (grey) away kit, and that hideous US star/denim effort in 1994.

I won't be posting any mock ups this year, no need. It's so clearly and obviously going to be stripes... *cough*.

Subtle?

Pretty simple question, the non-striped mainly white sash kit from the Anniversary season was (apparently) the best selling Saints shirt ever so there's obviously a market for something different, we wore plain red in the late 80s, as well as the Denmark halved/stripe thing. We're still under relatively new ownership and the future is looking good on the pitch, plus there's only one year of the Umbro deal left, so if the management wanted to change us from stripes to, say, the sash, or maybe plain red shirts again how would you feel about it ? A poll might be an idea mods ? : Always, ALWAYS Stripes Predominantly plain red Predominantly plain white Red/white Other (eg halves/quarters) New start, new colours. To those on the St Mary's Expansion thread : You were warned

We're not even close to self-sustaining in League One or Championship, the question is, is the hike in tv revenue going to cover all the wage increases and the shortfall from the last couple of years ? Or are we just going to write it off to another Estate Loan ? http://swissramble.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/southampton-saints-alive.html TV Revenue (note it's gone up for Prem sides since 2005) Wages v Turnover (and a lot of players got 1 year extensions when we went up last time) Also Wages are in here : So we'll be getting £40m minimum tv money, and our wages at the moment are likely somewhere around the figures from the Crouch/Wilde splash out era of £15.6m (though they were £26.5m last time we were in the Prem, under Redknapp). I guess there's a bit of wiggle room for wages in that if we want to buy some Prem standard players. I fully expect us to sign players I've heard of now, as most of the ones who will be up to the task are already going to be reasonably well known. There's always scandinavian internationals of course...

I am just waiting for the opportunity to drop "draw a blue line under it" into a project meeting.