The9

That first contract ran out at the end of the season he was with us (summer of 2010), he signed a new deal until 2013. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/reading/9031012.stm

I can't see that the PFA would have any interest in a player earning significantly above minimum wage who has signed a contract of employment.

I have. There's nothing about David Connolly.

Aaron Martin might have qualified, until 11 days ago when he signed a new deal.

Which means that half didn't ?

Right, so say a thousand people tie up the phone lines for an hour in their rush to get the seat they want. And then no-one else bothers to buy one after that. It doesn't mean there's high demand, just that the demand has all come at the same time. And to be fair, people posting on a Saints Forum are probably by definition more likely to be keen to get their STs than people who see it as a more casual thing anyway. I'm not saying that's the sudden stop in demand is going to happen by the way, just wondering why "I can't get through on the phone for an hour and a half" is being used as some kind of pointer to demand over the course of the ST sales period. If it's still the case in two weeks' time, then either we're selling a lot of tickets or the phone system is broken !

Yup.

There's an argument of course that if we hadn't taken Cork on loan he wouldn't have signed permanently now, but I guess you'd have to ask him about that, it didn't help Watford, Scvnthorpe or Burnley.

Nice little video, how on earth players managed 40+ matches a season with no subs with all the waist-high lunging at each other in clumpy boots and heading that near medicine ball with their woolly socks on I shall never know. Anyone got the link to Saints training from the National Film archive?

That's fair enough regarding a mailshot, but the cost of writing and sending emails to a targeted list from a database is negligible. The club has also run a billboard campaign in the past, which can't cost much relative to the benefits of getting say 10 additional people to buy an ST compared to the empty seats they would replace.

Aldershot's manager Dean Holdsworth also happens to be Newport County's previous manager, and he set up Stoke's friendly with Newport which is happening on Saturday, Tony Pulis being a Newport boy and all... On Sunday Stoke are actually playing the Welsh League side who I was playing against when their left back scythed me knee-high from behind and wrecked my ligaments, so I kind of hope Stoke absolutely batter them. As Newport County are my other team, I am desperately hoping that young Anthony doesn't pitch up at home for a trial as well, because I don't think he'd offer much to a top half Conference side.

In that case, good luck to you, I hope you like what your £42-£59 buys you - and don't come on here on Wednesday either!

Stop talking such sense, you're making delldays and Turkish look like hysterical drama queens.

It's an Umbro kit, which again shows the styles they might use for the Saints shirt - ignoring that it's halved, because that's not likely to be a factor in a Saints kit. It does show the shorts though, and last season the Blackburn home and away shorts were the same as Saints - in fact the away shorts and socks for both clubs were identical other than the Blackburn logo. For those actually interested (and after 30 pages you'd think you would have to be to be looking), the Venkys sponsor is only for their Asian tour though, they don't have one for the Prem yet.

Decent Blackburn pic here :

I'm not bothering to answer your stupid rhetorical questions any more. Oh, and it's "affect".

I believe this is covered by the Forum Rules, it says something about not posting on threads you're not interested in. And "vaguely interesting" is probably about right. But I think the gradual detective work has been pretty interesting as well. I agree with you on the delay stuff, but then I've been told the original plan was for May and July releases, which means that (again) the club is making it up as they go along. I genuinely don't think anyone can be getting much satisfaction from knowing what it looks like and not being able to tell anyone anyway. It's a "claim to lame" at best.

I don't mind them keeping it a secret for a bit in a bid to build interest. I sort of mind them failing to spread out the launch of the two new kits by not launching one at the end of last season when there was a ton of excitement and interest around the club, waiting a month to even mention it, asking people for pre-orders for something they can't even see (I'd love to know how many pre-orders there were last season) and putting themselves in a corner by not launching any kit in time for the pre-season games which would have helped market the shirt. But even that only bothers me because it's just crappy business practice, not because I'm particularly bothered what we actually wear (within reason). Working in sports retail for 18 months made me completely inert to the hype around kit launches because I knew how far in advance the designs were approved for some clubs. The whole excitement thing wears off the second it comes out anyway. But I think the club has misjudged the relationship between the hype and the sales, especially regarding pre-orders. 500 is a pathetic number of pre-orders for a new home shirt for a club averaging 23,000 home fans, especially in comparison to the sales of the last one. It's entirely down to the unknown design factor, but we'll see how it sells when it's out this time next week.

Fair enough. I am 100% certain that he just hates the "dead" song.

Don't tell Cortese, it would be a bloody text vote.

It would be if that was actually the case. As it is I think other people fabricating other men's erections in their minds might be slightly more sad.

It's not something I'd do without seeing it first. Also, you will know what it looks like when you open it, because the club are launching it the day before...

Were you ? Looked to me like you were moaning about people discussing something you weren't interested in.

I don't get the bit about cupping his ear then, I haven't heard the "Back From The Dead" song since Plymouth.

As I said, at the end of the season he was fit and on the bench at Plymouth.