The9

Counts as close season or 2012/13 friendly.

They'd forfeit, get fined and points deductions, if Middlesbrough's 1997 experience in the Prem is anything to go by - can't field a team due to illness ? We don't care, you have a big enough squad including the youth players, so give them squad numbers or pay the consequences. In Boro's case as has been mentioned before, they lost 3 points for unilaterally not turning up at Blackburn, and got relegated as a result of that points deduction. Saints stayed up as a result, but that's what we did back then...

F'ck me, do they think these players play for free ? Sol Campbell was on around £100k a week at Arsenal. The first "cheating" in there is an edit by me to replace the word "winning", btw. And they may have sold players at a profit, but they DIDN'T EVEN PAY UDINESE FOR SULLEY MUNTARI after they'd sold him on !

I'm 12 years older than my wife, who was barely 24 when I met her about 3 years ago as a 36 year old. We came within the "7 year rule" for the first time this year... Biggest relationship gap I've ever had was 14 years, she was 18 and I was 32, 7 years ago, haven't seen her since and moved down here pretty soon after. I dumped her by text, classy. Most of my mates are 30-or 40-somethings with wives or girlfriends who are about 10 years younger than them, it just seems to be our social groups.

So is the ticket office actually open on those Sundays? Admittedly it seems strange to put "10am" if the thing's going to be closed all day... but I can't say Sunday Opening is something that springs to mind about the TO opening hours.

Incidentally, the reason I knew we'd signed Hooiveld first is because I remembered the tactless Echo story which mentioned Hooiveld having signed at the end of the report about Seaborne fighting for his life, implying that he was going to be replaced anyway.

Aside from your timeline on the Seaborne/Hooiveld thing (see the post above), yeah I agree with that, we've slowly evolved and that's the way to do it - I think the only difference here is I'm expecting 4 or 5 new players if we go up, and others think 2 or 3 will suffice - which up until now I'd have agreed with, but I see the changes other promoted teams have had to make and hopefully we've learned from those. As mentioned above, QPR have changed almost everyone in a pretty adhoc fashion and it's not working as well as Swansea and Norwich's gradual changes. Regarding Jaidi and Barnard, I suspect they're nothing like as "injured" as had been reported, same with Butterfield, but it explains them not being in the squad without affecting their possible transfer value or professional reputations, and I think that's one of the reasons Adkins gets the players' respect, he looks after them. We were always going to sign "upgrades" in those positions even if they stayed fit, the Sharp/Maynard/Rodriguez rumours were around in the summer, and I know the bloke who took Ammar Jemal back to the airport after his trial.

I'd take issue with the assertion that the side was basically only 2 players different for most of the first half of the season - we've only added Sharp to the starting line up since January. We also signed Hooiveld the week before Seaborne's accident (after a summer nearly signing centre backs like Jemal) so your assertion about not signing Jos is way off. The gradual replacement of Harding by Fox is more evidence that even if we sign players we can integrate them gradually, which is why I'm not worried about probably needing to replace half the team - we've already done it gradually whilst maintaining the ethos. The other issue from the step up to the Prem is that if so many of these players were League One players, one step up is impressive, two might be a bridge too far.

I didn't say you said never buy a player, I said you haven't grasped that you buy players to improve the TEAM, not the squad. You buy better, not the same. Your issue is with the attitute of the players you think we might buy - I've not seen Adkins sign anyone with a bad attitude yet, I doubt he'll start doing that any time soon. As for "most of the players were actually good enough", let's see... from our starting side against Derby : Davis, Richardson, Fonte, Hooiveld, Fox, Chaplow, Cork, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Sharp, Lambert. 4 new signings since the start of the season - pretty much in line with what is being suggested now. Plus we had Lee and Puncheon* on the bench who weren't in contention this time last year and are appropriate starters. Hartlepool away on 22 Feb 2011 is the nearest equivalent : Davis, Jaidi, Harding, Butterfield, Fonte , Hammond , Chaplow, Guly, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain, R Lambert So we've replaced FIVE of those starters in the past year, and the step from League One to Championship is nothing compared to from Championship to Premier League. Richardson and Chaplow probably weren't actually good enough for a Championship side this time last year either, and their improvement is to be commended, but it's fair enough to say that any 2 of the current side could step up like that to keep or get a place. Regarding the other sides who went up... Swansea have replaced SIX of last season's promotion side : Last Prem match : M Vorm, A Williams, A Rangel, N Taylor, S Caulker, L Britton, N Dyer, G Sigurdsson, J McEachran, D Graham, S Sinclair Feb 12 2011 (4-3 win at Middlesbrough) : D De Vries, A Tate, A Williams , A Rangel, L Britton, D Pratley, M Gower , S Sinclair, N Dyer, A Richards, L Moore Norwich have FIVE different starters to the equivalent time last year. 11 Feb 2012 (last Prem match) J Ruddy, E Ward, R Martin, A Drury, K Naughton, A Surman, D Fox, A Pilkington, E Bennett, S Jackson, G Holt 12 Feb 2011 (beat Reading in CCC) J Ruddy, E Ward, L Barnett, R Martin, A Drury, A Crofts, D Fox, W Hoolahan, H Lansbury, C Martin, G Holt Now admittedly that's across two transfer windows not one, but the fact remains that about half of the current team are likely to be replaced in the Prem, and if they're not good enough in February, they're probably not good enough in August.

I wonder if a few of the more paranoid Derby fans thought it was about the Play-Off semi-final ? A quick rendition of "Billy Davies is a cnvt" would have helped. come to think of it, we should sing that one when we're playing Skate Cheats FC, it's never NOT relevant.

It is usually the London games, probably able to get more of their mates along for laddish c()ck-waving antics with the closer matches. Also, the only problem I've ever had at an away game is with our own fans - actually the last time was at Cardiff, some scrote turned around and yelled in the face of a disabled ex-services mate of mine for no apparent reason other than the scrote being young, stupid and drunk and deciding he wasn't singing enough. You can't tell he's disabled from looking at him, but that's not really the point, I wouldn't expect anyone to have to put up with that. I can get as drunk as anyone, always sing and support my team, and stand in the Northam for home games for the atmosphere - but for some reason I manage not to antagonise massive bunches of other away supporters by acting like an utter bell. It may have something to do with respect and consideration, and actually knowing (or caring) what the parameters are and where the line is.

Added England kit leak, will upload some better pics when it comes out next week, but it's pretty dull, as you can see.

Actually he had a decent run of games until the Play-Off semi-final when Burley unceremoniously dropped him.

You don't seem to grasp the concept of the squad evolving or buying players to improve the team. We should NEVER buy a player just to fill a space on the bench, and I'm sorry if that means some of the players you like get replaced. No sensible manager will introduce a swathe of new players at once unless they are significantly better than the ones in the team already (eg Pardew replacing nearly the entire defence in one match in early 2010).

We'll see, if we're doing well and he's getting a regular game there's a whole country that knows who he is and loves buying merchandise. Come to think of it, he's of Korean origin, so TWO countries. With 175 million inhabitants between them.

Because it's free money for the club. I have no problem whatsoever with millions of other people wanting to become Saints fans and spend their money on our club. Provided I can still afford to go, that is.

Not sure what in the transfer policy so far makes you think we'd do that ? And bringing in 5 players to challenge for 25-30 places isn't a mass cull - we're probably going to need to replace Forte, Doble, Seabourne, Jaidi, Dickson and Holmes, so there are your 5 to replace. I'd best put Ward-Prowse in the squad too as a homegrown youngster...

I knew I'd forget someone. 4th in the right mid depth chart ? He's a striking option for when we have the need for pure pace... I'll add him in.

Less than 1 in every 5 songs sung at St Mary's.

Everywhere has its losers, not everywhere has the island mentality. I've never been abused by someone pulling onto a roundabout and cutting me up in Southampton, nor for driving the last 30 yards of a single-lane double-parked road I'd already driven 150 yards down by someone at the far end who decided they had right of way. And as for walking around their shops in a Saints shirt compared to the basic lack of hassle you'd get in West Quay in the reverse situation...

Except it doesn't, we always know we're superior and taking the p155 when we get the chance to prove it is the icing on the cake.

You get a lot of West Ham fans along the front of the stand with zoom lenses so they'd be used to the angle the photographer got... The best evidence I have that Noble dived is that Sharp didn't break stride whilst running behind him.

Monmouthshire, and I've worked all over the south of England and Wales. Most places are broadly similar, Portsmouth mostly isn't.

As an outsider, I beg to differ.

Its a fair point, you don't attend matches generally to have any kind of feel for public opinion or the nuances of people's responses at the best of times, you weren't at that particular match (I wish I hadn't been), you didn't have a ground full of Skates giving it the large one, didn't miss the start due to being stuck on a train and in Fratton for hours surrounded by police, weren't locked in for an hour afterwards and the inconvenience to you was restricted to how long it took you to click the off button - how could you possibly know what people who paid money to go through that feel like, or how they should deal with it ? F'cking right we want them to know we haven't forgotten about it, we still owe them a thrashing and preferably a relegation too. There was plenty of that coming out at Fratton in December, they stupidly think we were remotely bothered about our League One side bossing them for 60 minutes in the FA Cup and the result ending up the same, so they started "4-1 in your own back yard" - we went 1-0 up at Fratton and they got "1-0 in your own back yard" in spades. Most Saints fans only care when we're not obviously better than them, which rules out most of the last 50 years, but when the pretence is that they're superior, we're going to to point out that they're wrong. This season especially has been good for that - assuming they survive, most likely next season they'll be in a different division and once again an irrelevance. But for now, we owe them big, and we're clearly in the ascendancy, so why the hell not rub it in ?