The9

As the quote from the woman in the article put it; “When I drove in, someone was coming out saying how disgraceful it was,” she said. “People were complaining that there was no way they were going to get out in time without having to pay for their parking. “It’s so unfair on loyal supporters who are renewing their tickets. “I applaud (chairman) Nicola Cortese for everything he has done for the club, and I know it is difficult managing anything to do with money in these times, but I just think this is beyond the pale. There should be some goodwill somewhere along the line.” People are already more than fed up with this kind of stuff - it should be noted for those who haven't read the article that the bloke was also hit by the 60-64 hike, so he'd already swallowed that increase, and the extra quid having spent a grand drove home what a petty measure it is. GOOD customer service would be to issue a complimentary / validated car park ticket with the season ticket purchase - you're a customer, you've spent a lot of money, and that's the least courtesy the club could extend. BAD customer service ? What they're doing.

To answer the original question, this is the first signing of a player that I'd actually decided I'd WANT us to sign before we signed him since we were in the Prem - with the exception of the 3 full backs and Barnard and Forte, I basically hadn't heard of any of the others (including Lambert) and it's as pleased as I've been with a signing since Jose Fonte, who was clearly a good signing given his experience, whether I knew who he was at the time or not ! Even the last time Cork was playing for us he was outstanding with his effort and drive in a team that looked poor all around him, hopefully in a successful side he'll look even better. Definitely wanted by other teams, definitely our first signing that says "we do have a couple of quid set aside if need be" to me, and my minor worry about Adkins' experience and ability to attract good, known, players has been slightly tempered because Adkins has helped us get him with Cork having played under him before. Very pleased generally. Ironically enough I think I'd have been more delighted if the rumours hadn't been around for so long ! It's up there on a par with Lallana's 4 years deal and Oxlade-Chamberlain staying, but the other two had surprise value as well.

I'd say 27 goals in 2 seasons was pretty good considering we got relegated.

I hate it too...

My concern is that as it's the 4th year of a 5 year contract, and (aside from the 10th year at St Mary's or "return to stripes") there's no real "hook" for the new kit. This along with the tendency of manufacturers to resume the over-production of kits, suggests we could end up with something hideous, because it's "only for one year" and they'll then go with a nice normal striped Saints shirt for the final year of the contract, thus satisfying all the people who didn't like the last one. On the bright side, Umbro generally haven't made any blatantly ugly kits for a few years and are still tending towards the classic look for as long as their "Tailored" branding lasts. Oh hang on, I forgot the new England keeper's shirt : http://ridiculousfootball.blogspot.com/2011/07/have-hart.html

Interesting also as none of the Umbro templates other than the Bilbao / Livingston / Ireland away style even have a significant contrast colour (or third colour, assuming it's predominantly red and white) on the sleeve, so I'm not sure how that would work. The new Rangers home has a contrast flash up near the shoulder at the seam with the arm, but it's not really like the Burley / Bale flybe kit which had a large chunk of black all the way down the sleeve. Aside from the piping on the Hearts away / Ireland home mock up directly above, there's not much third colour anywhere and a lot of the styles don't even have a second colour... Black collar seems likely then, but the away being "like Brazil" just means "yellow" to me, I'm not expecting a big pointless green bar on it ! Did a few mock ups of Umbro styles similar to older Brazil kits earlier in the thread.

Here's the one without the texture on the white stripes : Assuming the info about Cosmos collar is (still) right, I'd say this is the most likely kit so far... Doh, forgot to put the stupid grey feet on the socks...

What about the other 6 pages ? All it says to me is I have too much time and too many Umbro templates downloaded for Photoshop !

I have to say that when I changed the colour on the Hearts kit template it looks pretty likely (might also do a version without the pattern). Also, it's the 10th Anniversary at St Mary's... and this is very similar to the 2001/2 kit ? Could be...

And here's one using the stripes the full width of the body...

Interesting, same style as the Hearts away with a different collar. Definitely a possibility. A couple based on the other stripes as seen in the advert :

Oh well, I think we can rule out the "normal stripes comprised of thinner stripes" idea, unless we use mahogany the colour just comes out looking too pink. If I wasn't going out in 10 minutes I might have tried a few with just the stripes in the band down the middle kinda like the join-the-dots one up there... I suppose it's still feasible to do that thin stripes effect with two shades of red, but I'd have to mess about with the template for ages to recreate that... it's got a sort-of Hummel Denmark kit feel to it.

I am almost certain that it WILL be bog standard stripes, the only twist possibly being that the stripes might be made up of thinner stripes, and that's just speculation on my part.

Exactly my thoughts.

You're about 30 pages late with the kit analysis / speculation "beginning"... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?29337-Speculation-about-new-kit&p=1082593#post1082593 There will be no star, and nothing in that article remotely hints at it. The only clue in that article is that pre-sales have been crap, because Lallana has only been "told" they are great, i.e. it's a blatantly lie which if queried can be put down to a misunderstanding of what someone else said.

Jesus, not again. Sure as eggs is eggs. It'll be the terrible things Kevin Phillips said about us next... Ooh, and if we're lucky we can start the racism argument as well...

Well if nothing else they don't know what an "open goal" is.

Marvellous, so Gecko's design from earlier in this thread is the next one to get another airing... unbelievable ! I note that the white and black background adverts on the OS have now been joined by a red one. This also tells us nothing. Those quotes are uttely pointless, though the Lallana one which says "I'm told we've had lots of pre-orders" made me laugh, as they clearly haven't but can't have him outright lie like that.

Actually it happened yesterday. Genuinely. Although it was my allocated parking space and not the lawn. In response I parked my car in someone else's space, thus shifting the problem elsewhere. But what's that got to do with anything anyway ? Is this about property ownership, preventative measures against a negligible number of free parkers, or as you've claimed already, the club "being a business" and making a profit ? Personally I think it's about the club failing to provide a service to fans to enable them to spend money on the club as they see fit, rather than as the club sees fit. Being a business often means taking care of your customers so you don't lose them, something Saints are evidently getting more and more careless about. For one thing, dropping the "free" time from 30 to 15 minutes cannot possibly be construed as a move to prevent all day parkers, because they're eradicated by the original restriction. Changing it to 15 minutes just catches out those making short visits to the club. But it's a stupid move : If I'm in the club shop considering whether to get a name and number printed on a shirt at £12 a pop, but there's a queue, and I've got 5 minutes before my free parking expires, am I going to get the shirt without the printing, or am I going to pay the extra parking ? I suspect I'm going to forego the shirt printing and save the additional cost. So the club's lost £12 they'd have probably got from me otherwise, and it's going to take 12 people parking in that car park for "too long" to get it back by other means. I might also decide that my shirt looks better with a plain back compared to the name and number, so they lose out on the future revenue as well. Compare that to free parking - I'll pitch up and amble around the shop, no time pressure, just have a look to see what there is and maybe pick up a few extra things.

That certainly wasn't the case for online bookings when some people tried last week.

I think it's pretty nice, though they have sold out regarding the single colour backs for some time now.

Yesterday, actually : http://www.lcfc.com/page/LatestNews/0,,10274~2387002,00.html Peltier, Danns, Schmeichel, St Ledger, Nugent and an offer for Matt Mills accepted by Reading too...

The answer is, "nobody knows", but we suspect some time in the last few weeks. Now can we get on with complaining about Cortese taking the p155 ?

And to all the people saying "it's a business decision", well yes it is, it's a business decision which you would hope had weighed up the likelihood of fans being (further) inconvenienced when wanting to buy tickets against the likelihood that they just won't bother any more, because they're fed up of the club taking liberties and adding surcharges to everything. ST = £480 Plus we won't post it so you now have to pick it up, so add some petrol Plus if there's a queue, you might have to pay for parking Oh, and did we mention the Ticket Office is only open at the times you're working ? Plus as of tomorrow we're going to insist you stand on one leg for 30 minutes before any tickets are confirmed. But you can't pick them up now, you have to wait a month - and if you don't pick them up, we'll sell them to someone else. And an ST only allows you the theoretical right to enter the ground, we're putting a row of armed security in front of the turnstiles on match days. But you can pay £8 for a VIP pass and then you only have to face the dogs...

Given that there were hundreds of empty spaces anyway, what would it matter ?