The9

He's got at least one more contract in him before he's completely found out... assuming he didn't play against many League 2 sides last season that is...

Oh yeah, and if Jack Rodwell's there, why wouldn't the wonderkid linked with Arsenal in January be ?

Quite. If we need the money and there's really £15m available, sell him. Same goes for £10m, which can buy 2 or 3 top 5 nPC players. If we don't need the money, why sell a player you'd want in the team ? And to the sceptics about him being at an adidas do - firstly he does wear adidas boots and was one of the first to debut the new F50s (those hideous orange things he's got), and secondly, even if he wasn't in the promo pictures, it's feasible that adidas would invite some of their "lesser" stars to get a feel for what their brand can do for them by mingling with some of football's top names. Off topic, I wonder if Lambert will go back to Predators now they've got a new boot out, he switched from the old style to Nike Tiempo Legends around November time ?

I have absolutely no plans, and no cash, but apparently the wife has 4 weddings lined up for us to attend. Oh, and a freebie at the Test Match at the Rose Bowl - cheers Radders.

Weird, given that there's a motorway and a mainline train station between Cardiff and Swansea and the travel time is well under an hour with nothing of note in between them. I lived in Newport for 30 years and whilst I've been to Cardiff hundreds more times than Swansea because it was the nearest (other) City, but if you're coming from England in terms of travelling you barely even notice the extra bit past Cardiff. I played semi-pro for a team near Swansea commuting from Newport, not something you'd do if it was much of a distance. I do however readily agree that the "off the train, into a cage, onto a bus, up a private gated road alongside the train track to another cage, into the away end" approach of South Wales Police in Swansea last time left a lot to be desired. Also the Liberty's location isn't a patch on that of the Vetch, right near town and across the road from the beach. I don't care if Swansea go up, I just don't want Cardiff to - mostly because I hate them, but also because I haven't been to the new ground yet. And yes, it is the England and Wales Cricket Board. Went to the pub (Y Mochyn Du) next to the Test Match venue at Sophia Gardens when I was at the Wales v England match t'other month, couldn't believe the development they'd done there since my first 20:20 there.

The joke ceased being funny about 3 hours ago for the record.

I think if the Queen can put all of it aside and lay a wreath in Dublin this week, the least some of the mongs on here could do is stop pretending to be remotely interested in religion just to find new insults they probably don't even understand.

I think it's viable. Teams moving in and out of the Prem would have to adjust salaries appropriately (and also presumably there would be similar situations in other promotion and relegation scenarios under cap rules for each division) - but that's not sufficient reason to dispense with the idea altogether. There are always going to be huge resources of players who aren't at the very top level and wages will naturally find their own level - historically nPC players who want more money aren't that likely to go abroad, which is what the top Prem players would immediately do if salary capped - the Championship "brand" won't be affected by the standard of player much, as it's not sold as being full of the best in the world. The Prem in contrast would lose out on millions of pounds in tv deals if it went back to the mostly English makeup it had prior to 1994, which is a logical conclusion of not paying top whack to the top players. The biggest problem with implementing salary caps are making them work under EU legislation and how you deal with expensive player contracts in the event of relegation - which could probably be addressed by loaning players out in order to meet the cap. The bigger picture (below the Prem) is that fair competition and ensuring clubs operate within their means are beneficial to football generally, and under the existing Prem set up the rich get richer and everyone else is a bystander. The MLS model of shared ownership and salary capping (with exceptions) works, as it's exciting and competitive, and even aids the US national side - but they don't usually match up well in Supercopa games against Mexican sides who can splash the cash through the whole team. That's not a concern in the Football League, but it would be for Prem teams in Europe. Of course, as Saints are apparently very wealthy, it wouldn't suit us in the short term either.

You seem to have explained it pretty well. The person making the loan is only interested in getting their money back with interest, and the "owner" can cover the cost of that interest using the club's profits, as well as getting some of the club's profit to themselves. As long as the costs aren't passed on to the fans in terms of a depleted squad or higher prices, fans usually don't care either. It's only going to be a problem if the club's moneymaking suddenly stops paying off the loans, which with global sales for the top Prem sides won't happen for as long as they stay high profile. I'd say Liverpool got very close to falling off the global merchandising radar this season though, but it'll take a couple of seasons of utter anonymity before loads of kids in Vietnam or wherever temporarily turn into Man City fans instead of Liverpool or Arsenal ones.

Agreed.

There's already teletext on BBC digital broadcasts, you know ? Not that I can believe anyone with access to the internet would bother reading it.

Don't hold your breath - if they get relegated they won't be able to sign him permanently, and he's our player again in 5 days' time.

Despite singing it on a number of occasions, I have to admit it just doesn't lend itself to football. It's a song about a ferry, and even according to the lyrics, not a very good ferry at that. Not fast, not built for comfort... and only really relevant to people from Sholing and Woolston. It's even a bit dismissive of Bitterne, so that's a chunk of support gone already. We need a stupid yet familiar tune to put some original but simple words to.

Grow up.

I'd say that in modern times Saints have definitely been more of a striped shirt, black shorts and white socks kinda team, despite the occasional flirtations with red and hooped socks. I still find the switch from white to red socks in the second season of the broad striped Sanderson shirt a bit strange.

Shame there's not enough room for the fans to start doing it en masse, seeing as we're looking for a unique celebration...

It's not like he's theirs to lose anyway !

Yeah, I can't see that being potentially fatal or anything. I was in enough of those in the 80s, thanks...

We've already been doing 1 recently (Plymouth was the "5hithole" in that case, I first heard it after Wales v England on March 26th on the train). As for "Saints will tear you apart, again", we started that one around the time of the 6-0 win at Oldham. I Just Can't Get Enough is crap, and I've never seen anyone do the Heartbeat song yet. We should just do what the Steaua fans were doing in 2003. Which seemed to involve a bloke with a megaphone and a lot of pitch-facing Poznaning. Then again, we can't even get the left and right actions going for Lallana... which is a lot less embarrassing than singing a kiddies' song in The Wheels On The Bus, FFS.

Pretty sure the numbers won't be red, white or blue. And what about that bit at the bottom of the badge ?

Haven't heard it more than once in 6 months personally.

I love it and will do it on my own if necessary.

Despite it's simplicity it doesn't currently match any existing Umbro templates due to the stripe that goes right up the sleeve to the collar. Does look nice though, and the shorts and socks match likely styles.

This weekend I discovered that my aunt went to school with Tony Pulis, so I'm declaring myself out, as this is a conflict of interest. But not before mentioning (again) that I played for the same side as his uncle Ray for about 6 months in the early/mid 90s, and that I'm 90% sure he'll end up signing for Newport County when his contract expires... and never getting a game there either. I also saw him play for the reserves (which I haven't for Forecast), and if you want to see some comedy abuse, if someone could dredge up that old thread... To the person that said "he only looked bad because the rest of our squad is so good", I refer you to him still looking terrible for Saints reserves in a seven goal win against Salisbury when such luminaries as Gasmi were playing. He wouldn't have got a game for Salisbury either.

Spencer Trethewy was the Aldershot kid, I don't remember him being the manager at any point though. Has since changed his name to Spencer Day, been in prison, and is running Chertsey Town. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Trethewy The bit about him mortgaging his house for the benefit of Aldershot seems rather strange, given that he was a 19-year-old property developer and even in the late 80s surely couldn't have accumulated that kind of security that quickly ?