The9

David Longhurst, Marc Viven Foe, a couple of Spanish players recently... awaiting the inevitable I fear. Pretty sure he's a mate of Lallana via England U-21s too, they were Facebook friends a few years back before FB security improved...

How many times do you think they had to re-edit that poster to remove players in the past couple of weeks ?

Did he say they paid for Muntari ? They bloody didn't, the money owed to Udinese was still owed even after they'd flogged him onto Inter and was part of the original list of football creditors. In fact some of those parachute payments that Pompey weren't allowed to have probably paid it off.

But if they do that they won't be able to bleat about not being able to put out a squad and then try and ask for additional loans to the allowable number to be granted, and to be able to have them outside the transfer window, which is clearly fuelled by some kind of addiction to the desperate need for affirmation that "they ARE special" they seem to want at every turn.

But they've got no history?

You wish.

Get Michelle to find out, she's longtime personal friends with him. Kinda. She did ask him to buy us in 2008 IIRC.

The wiki of Atletico mentions Eldoruy, Blackburn, Southampton, and a bunch of nonsense about them taking our black shorts and then changing to Blackburn's blue - when we were still playing in blue shorts until 1950... They also have the "mattress makers" nickname - which their website notes is from the 1920s (so after their red and white striped shirts were in use) : http://www.clubatleticodemadrid.com/Web/gestion/museo/en/escenografia.htm It explains Atletico's blue and white halved change kit recently too, and they were founded by 3 Basque students. Interesting that there's a link to Shanghai Shenhua on their website - and vice versa : http://www.shenhuafc.com.cn/en/ there's a strange link I wasn't aware of.

Ok now that makes some sense. I just couldn't work out why a Basque club would have a team in Madrid. Next stop, Atletico's website.

The bloke from Zonal Marking certainly has an opinion on it - albeit this is against Arsenal away where you might also find Cork and Schneiderlin struggling. Pretty interesting video showing the pivot between Tiote and Cabaye, and how it didn't really work with Guthrie in there : http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/03/15/tiote-cabaye/

Tautologies generally don't bother me. In your first example, no-one has ever said "can you enter your PI number" to me...

I'd like to ask Bearsy for a ruling regarding pointing out incorrect spellings. The last thing you'd want is opposition fans laughing at the inability to spell, especially if you had gone to the trouble of sticking it on a banner. The second one is pretty good, but requires the kind of advanced knowledge of history and current affairs that I doubt the fishy few have.

The opportunity to try and start it at a match. I'm still bewildered that we managed to get the Lambert song off the ground given that it has more than 3 lines.

It'll be as clever as the Ipswich/Derby fans singing it at us.

Possibly the week of the match. It's never been a big seller, the perceived threat of trouble puts loads of people off, just as it does with Millwall away, even though it'll probably be the safest match of the season (apart from the trip to Fratton).

I think at that point I'd probably just sit on the barrier until it falls off, they're designed to break, you know . They haven't got me with a car park charge yet, and so far they're down a pair of home shorts, a pair of away shorts, a pair of home socks (bought from JJB at half price instead) and a sale of both the white and blue away socks. That's £70 worth of merchandise I specifically haven't bought from Saints this season due to them charging to park in the car park and me not being prepared to pay for it. It'll be the same in future seasons too... and I also haven't been down there to buy a match ticket for a long time (including away matches), so they're conditioning me just not to buy match tickets and enabling me to make a disconnect between it being a matchday and me going to a match, which will definitely have happened already if I wasn't an ST holder. We'll see how this works out for them too if we get up to the Prem and stay long enough for the novelty to wear off.

I don't actually have a problem with "can I get" or "my bad", as long as the user is aware they are ugly Americanisms, but use of the word "relegate" as a verb out of context : eg "when we relegate" instead of "when we are relegated" massively annoyed me on here and should result in firing squad. PIN number is a tautology but used because "PI number" isn't recognised in conversation, so I think it should be allowable. Loose/lose is a useful indicator of when you are dealing with an imbecile, so I'm in favour of a special rule which allows pedants free reign to tut and point, and to post about it on one in five occurrences, but no more. Oh yeah, and the free movement between American and British English usage of license/licence and organisation/organization is fine, because even pedants don't usually pick up on those. PS If Bearsy gets mod privileges on the Main Board I'm out.

I tend to adhere to these rules anyway, otherwise I'd go slowly insane. I think "Adkins" should be a minimum requirement for entry though. Unless you're Japanese, in which case basic English and excessive Chung-love is essential.

I wish. Not that I care about England particularly, I'd just love to see Adkins talk his management nonsense in that job and see what Bielsa could do with Saints... in the Prem. Think the language barrier would be too much for the level of tactics he'd want to implement - would be fine for Tadanari Lee though.

Oh yeah of course, World Club Championship, lots of exposure to South American fan culture. Cheers for that ! Most of what I know about Japanese football comes from Winning Eleven imports back on PS2, though I do have the J-League first season magazine somewhere, not that I can read it. I bet they'd have applauded Thierry Henry too... as if !

Most of my occasions are odd.

Like this place is for Saints history ? THIS load of excessively pointless guff from Wiki is why I regard s' or s's as "a matter of style" : Singular nouns ending with an "s" or "z" sound This subsection deals with singular nouns pronounced with a sibilant sound at the end: /s/ or /z/. The spelling of these ends with -s, -se, -z, -ze, -ce, -x, or -xe. Many respected authorities recommend that practically all singular nouns, including those ending with a sibilant sound, have possessive forms with an extra s after the apostrophe so that the spelling reflects the underlying pronunciation. Examples include Oxford University Press, the Modern Language Association, the BBC and The Economist.[18] Such authorities demand possessive singulars like these: Senator Jones's umbrella; Tony Adams's friend. Rules that modify or extend the standard principle have included the following: If the singular possessive is difficult or awkward to pronounce with an added sibilant, do not add an extra s; these exceptions are supported by The Guardian[19], Yahoo! Style Guide[20], The American Heritage Book of English Usage[21]Such sources permit possessive singulars like these: Socrates' later suggestion; or Achilles' heel if that is how the pronunciation is intended. Classical, biblical, and similar names ending in a sibilant, especially if they are polysyllabic, do not take an added s in the possessive; among sources giving exceptions of this kind are The Times[22] and The Elements of Style, which make general stipulations, and Vanderbilt University,[23] which mentions only Moses and Jesus. As a particular case, Jesus' is very commonly written instead of Jesus's – even by people who would otherwise add 's in, for example, James's or Chris's. Jesus' is referred to as "an accepted liturgical archaism" in Hart's Rules. However, some contemporary writers still follow the older practice of omitting the extra s in all cases ending with a sibilant, but usually not when written -x or -xe.[24] Some contemporary authorities such as the Associated Press Stylebook[25] and The Chicago Manual of Style recommend or allow the practice of omitting the extra "s" in all words ending with an "s", but not in words ending with other sibilants ("z" and "x").[26] The 15th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style still recommended the traditional practice, which included providing for several exceptions to accommodate spoken usage such as the omission of the extra s after a polysyllabic word ending in a sibilant. The 16th edition of CMOS no longer recommends omitting the extra "s".[27] Similar examples of notable names ending in an s that are often given a possessive apostrophe with no additional s include Dickens and Williams. There is often a policy of leaving off the additional s on any such name, but this can prove problematic when specific names are contradictory (for example, St James' Park in Newcastle [the football ground] and the area of St. James's Park in London). For more details on practice with geographic names, see the relevant section below. Some writers like to reflect standard spoken practice in cases like these with sake: for convenience' sake, for goodness' sake, for appearance' sake, for compromise' sake, etc. This punctuation is preferred in major style guides. Others prefer to add 's: for convenience's sake.[28] Still others prefer to omit the apostrophe when there is an s sound before sake: for morality's sake, but for convenience sake.[29] The Supreme Court of the United States is split on whether a possessive singular noun that ends with s should always have an additional s after the apostrophe, sometimes having an additional s after the apostrophe (for instance, based on whether the final sound of the original word is pronounced /s/ or /z/), or never having an additional s after the apostrophe. The informal majority view (5–4, based on past writings of the justices) has favoured the additional s, but a strong minority disagrees.[30] It's just not worth knowing if even the academics can't decide. But I know for damn sure it's not Wale's.

Nigel Adkins almost certainly cares. I'm pretty sure anyone called Nigel Atkins cares too. Matthew Le God cares, I care. I know one of my mates' mates cares enough to make sure he deliberately spells it incorrectly every time he posts too just to wind people up. So that's five that I know of. It's just as arrogant to assume that no-one else is interested as it is that everyone else is interested. As far as I'm concerned, with the people who aren't doing it on purpose, it's symptomatic of how little attention they pay to things, and it fundamentally weakens any argument they make, because I see "Atkins" and I think "why would I take any notice of anything else you say if it's as poorly observed as that?". In this particular instance I'd give the OP the benefit of the doubt because he was claiming predictive text did it. Twice.

What I'm saying is it doesn't bother me if it's Wales' or Wales's, it's a matter of style. I prefer the former for brevity and convenience. Saw that article earlier, it's one of many conflicting sources. I've even ticked "Spanish" on my Google preferences and searched on Juan Eldoruy in case something unequivocal popped up - but as Athletic Club aren't confirming it, we're stuck with the conflicting reports until someone finds out for certain - and even then (like with the Herbert Chapman WM formation stuff and the myth that Man U changed kits in the 6-3 defeat) when someone disproves it the media just carries on reporting what they decided is the truth.

From watching Portland Timbers on ESPN HD earlier this week, I think the US fans more recently have actually imported a lot from the early Japanese J-League fans with their organised chanting, flags and banners. I'd be interested to know what Tijuana Tim thinks of the LA Galaxy fans' methods too, I know he went to "First Kick" this week. I don't know where the Japanese crowds got it from though, they had a few Brazilian players over there at the start so maybe a variety of South American influences ? Pretty sure the Korean K-League mostly copied the J-League (though they'd probably deny it).