The9

It is QUITE far-fetched, you only have to look at our Championship relegation season to look at what happens when you try to bring too many kids through at the same time without sufficient experience on the pitch to guide them. Assuming we could get maybe 2 or 3 new stars into the side every season (and that's a BIG assumption at Premier League level), it would still take 3-4 years to get more than 8 home grown players into the team regularly, and that's then discounting the need for pros to provide on-pitch guidance even if all of them are successful, and even more questionably, assuming we've got the players with that ability in the ranks to begin with. More likely would be to get maybe 4 or 5 home-grown kids and the rest of the side balanced out with experienced pros - looking at the current team, Lallana has about 3 years' experience, would you consider him knowledgeable enough to mentor someone yet ? The likes of Richardson, Chaplow and Butterfield are in a much better position to give feedback at a Premier League level - and of course positional tips vary by player. The same goes for the squad as a whole, every young player needs someone to get their guidance from, it all takes time, and I'd be more inclined to think that we'd need to be established at the top level for a good 3 or 4 years before the Prem-ready kids were coming through the academy at a rate of more than the current "1 every 2 years".

Really though, does anyone "own" a colour ? It's just the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to a variety of arbitrarily-named categories ? As colour derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors, surely it doesn't have any physical properties to facilitate ownership ? Can you buy or sell "colour" ? How do you quantify its value ? Here endeth a load of cobblers.

Actually if you read the posts someone has already posted that it's not possible, with some pretty convincing figures. I'd also point out that even if it WAS big enough to host an 8-lane blue riband international athletics event (which let's be clear, it isn't) I'm pretty sure no-one else is suggesting Redknapp was "having a pop at Saints for having a stadium that was potentially big enough to hold a running track" anyway. And that's WITHOUT a long jump pit. Looking at the stadium pic at the start of the thread, I'll reassess my guesswork regarding the width of the pitch if there was a running track from "20 yards" to "barely wider than the penalty area".

Well found, saved me looking. As for ottery's finding of Puncheon playing against Blackpool as "strange", let's bear in mind that we changed 8 or 9 starting players for that match, so Puncheon was being regarded as backup even then - though he did play reasonably well in a formation that seemed to be a little reworked to enable him to play more centrally as he did at Millwall.

It's not a running track, it's a stadium designed specifically for football with a small all-purpose area for safety, access and advertising reasons. If you don't know the difference you are some kind of special mental, and it's got nothing to do with pedantry. For a start an Olympic standard running track is going to have at least 8 lanes, if they had that at St Mary's the side stands would be half in the river and half on the railway track. Or to put it another way, if they had the two straights of an 8-lane running track inside the stadium the pitch would be about 20 yards wide. Also, if you think Redknapp slating running tracks around football pitches, which is something pretty much everyone in football hates, is having a pop at us (especially as we don't have a running track) you are probably paranoid and delusional as well. HTH.

And neither of them are any better than Jake Thomson was, amazing the difference playing in a winning team and not getting injured makes.

It'll be nice to have Block 43 look full on the telly for once.

As I only wanted to see the goals I thought it was absolutely fine, though James Richardson, who is usually very assured and occasionally amusing, looked at best "distracted". I don't have a problem with the casual tone of the programme, but the nature of MOTD, MOTD2 and the Football League Show have been annoying me for a while. Having said that I'm pleased that the chat on MOTD has taken on more of a tactical nature in recent weeks. I also thought the trailer for the "inside the game" stuff looked very interesting, though now they've given notice that they're doing it and focusing on some elements of gamesmanship, I suspect the local FAs will be on the phone telling them to pull the feature as its not in line with their Respect campaign or responsibilities to coaching kids, or some nonsense like that.

To be fair, they're only reporting the fact that someone's edited Wikipedia, which is true. I'm sure the Echo are more than aware that it doesn't actually mean anything, but it's a snippet of fresh info on a so-far-nothing of a story.

Gosh what a surprise, Prem teams attempt to siphon up all the young talent because they have rules giving them "free" numbers of young players in their squads and aren't going to be able to fork out billions on players once the turnover rules come in. Frankly, WTF has the development of young players got to do with the Premier League? It's for the FA to decide upon. Shame they're a waste of space...

Meh, I said when I heard the FA Cup draw that we wouldn't win another game this month, so we're one Oldham thrashing ahead of schedule. It's hardly a surprise.

The most valid point I've seen in this discussion so far is the one about Cortese wanting loyalty from players like Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lallana contrasted with his attitude towards Matt Le Tissier's loyalty, and the impact this might have on Ox-Cham's decision-making. Other than that I really couldn't give a toss, I can understand the problem and wish they'd sort it out so we don't have to sit through debacles like this situation (and this thread), but that's about it.

Load of ar5e, Lung. Fuller turned even the moronic fans around to the point where he was getting "used to be a Skate but he's alright now" long before he left. Though I have to admit to singing "Fuller sh*t" myself, when he was. As for Hoddle, he'd have been a second-rate disaster like he was at Spurs before and Wolves after, and only had such a decent record with Saints because he left before we played most of the top half in the last 3 months of the 2000/1 season. Fuller's not worth £3m at the moment, but Sunderland are desperate for cover with Bent gone and Welbeck injured.

Which b'stard has decided a "smacked wrist" would be appropriate for Barnard after the amount of time he had that cast on ?

Well, now that they've closed that place that sold Man U merchandise on the corner Above Bar, and all of the nation-wide sports retailers in Southampton have closed. Oh. Truly horrendous items of ultra-plastickery. Mind you, I paid $5 (he was asking $2) for a Steuau Bucharest 1988 European Cup winners scarf from some kid through a fence in the Ghencea, so I'm no better.

I'd be inclined to think that sort of thing would only expand Man Utd's fan base, in the main.

Nor that it's got anything to do with this discussion, but Lowe did a very good job (managerial roundabout aside), given Saints' resources, from 1996 until about 2004. But this discussion is about 1) whether ex-players should be able to demand large numbers of tickets 2) whether some ex-players should be able to demand more than other ex-players 3) the relative rights of fans compared to ex-players 4) whether our current chairman had any input into the situation 5) whether that input should be relevant to the situation 6) whether the person who deals with ex-players' tickets was really helping sign Guly (or whether that's a ridiculous piece of fan-pandering excuse-making as I assume it is) That's about it. Even I don't want to get into another Cortese / Lowe / Wilde debate or rake over takeover issues. EDIT : Oh yeah, and whether they should have to pay for them... or buy qualifiying tickets (i.e. Carlisle).

Yeah but he's been playing for lower league sides the whole time, what does he know compared to Prem youth players ? By definition the academies at smaller lower level clubs aren't going to have as good players.

Well at least I know why he didn't offer to take a pay cut when we were in administration now.

I can also confirm that most of the cuts they've "revealed" this week were offered / made months ago. I know of 4 management staff above my grade in my direct chain who've gone (either now, in March this year or 2012), they offered voluntary redundancy to everyone in a grade who is on more than about £35k and the Dept Management Team of senior managers is about halved. As hamster said, E grade and above cuts are complete, and they've merged 3 departments in the past 18 months to reduce costs. For some reason IT is now in the same bit as property, culture, and recreation and heritage services. As for Adult and Children's (Social) Services, they won't be replacing any social workers who leave, and as my wife got the boot 3 months ago (due to her sick record, seeing as she has a heart condition, which didn't stop her turning up for work for nearly 3 months whilst throwing up at her desk but they got rid of her anyway - coincidentally she was at the top of her pay scale and £4k better off than her colleagues). All of her colleagues were either offered reduced hours, let go if non-permanent, or (in 2 cases) are now pregnant so probably won't be coming back anyway. I can confirm they're minimising administrative staff too, under various spurious premises, and they've chopped a load of contractors and replaced them with permanent staff (eg unqualified Project Managers) who won't get the training to do the job properly because they're not paying for it any more, guaranteeing in-built inefficiencies for some time. Still, as there aren't many projects due to the low funding, they need to find something else to do. The long and short of it is, whilst there are probably a lot of posts which can be trimmed, as an HCC employee, I've already taken a pay cut (removal of retention allowance), have a pay freeze for the next few years, have been forced to work at another office which has increased my travel costs significantly, had our household income nearly halved due to a redundancy, and will be expected to cover various other people's roles at a higher grade as they won't be there any more. Plus I can't get any useful training in my current role because they're not funding it, which makes me less skilled and less motivated personally. Hard life...

I think Charlie Brooker is amusing "I think this may be an Al Qaeda recruitment film", and he was, but the rest of it was tedious ar5e and far too sensible in the main. Actually bored me.

...and stealing the plot of Heartbreak Kid.

Can't help you with the buses, but I can point out that Southampton Central train station has been closed for the last two home games which pretty much explains away the extra traffic. From past experience (in the Prem) of driving down, if you leg it at the final whistle and park where you are already, you'll miss all the traffic anyway.

The team's usually announced on twitter just under an hour before kick off anyway... and a few minutes before that the Official Saints twitter is saying "waiting for teamsheets but expecting KD, DH, JF etc..." and it hasn't been wrong yet. So we usually know by 2:10pm either way.

Went to Fihalhohi in South Male Atoll for honeymoon last year. In July, for a fortnight. It was awesome. Weather (as it always is) was 28-30 degrees every day and night. There were some clouds on occasion, but as you're sitting on a beach in 30 degrees anyway it doesn't matter - in fact on the 2 occasions it rained, not only can you see the dark clouds coming from about 5 miles away, but you can see the extent of the storm as the rain disturbs the water. You probably won't even bother getting away from the rain, because firstly it's a novelty, and secondly you're dry within about 10 minutes anyway. In addition, there wasn't a single day when it was more cloudy than sunny - and the clouds are mostly independent and very lonely in the sky, there were very few "cloud banks". Definitely get a room with air-con, the people without all bought it at some point so it's a false economy not to. It is a great relief to come back to your freshly cleaned room and cool down a little. The water bungalows looked nice but weren't all that special and you could upgrade for just a night or two if there were any free anyway. Every room was cleaned about 3 times a day, the island could be walked all the way around in 10-15 minutes, food hall was the entirely opposite side of the island to us (buffets for 3 meals a day, plenty of choice) and it took about 5 minutes to get there. There were boat excursions to Male, Maarufushi (larger island for shopping), Dolphin watching (we saw some from the beach anyway), night fishing, sunset fishing and island hopping (with a BBQ on the boat next to a sand bank in the middle of the Indian Ocean). Also there's a water sports centre (windsurfing, jetskis etc) and SCUBA and snorkelling centres on the island for those who want to do that. Have to say I spent half the time on the beach, and half the time drunk or in bed. Flew with Thomson, perfectly ok - then on arrival we had a speedboat transfer from the airport which took about 45 minutes and was plenty interesting enough. It wasn't choppy at all, though I must admit it was when we went sunset fishing, big swell and I chundered - the extra bait didn't help me catch any fish though. All the staff were friendly and helpful the whole time - you get your own waiter for the holiday who brings you drinks etc though you get your own food from the buffet - and I also got to play 3 games of footy (guests against staff in the staff quarters, sand 5-a-side pitch and actual World Cup standard Jabulani ball, mentally enough) which was good for the weight loss, playing 2 hours in 30 degrees on sand ! . Evening entertainment was one of two bars (there's a beach bar restaurant which you can buy food at as well as your all-inclusive meals), and they try to do something different every night, though it's a bit limited. A very low-annoyance Karaoke Evening, showing terrible 1970s-looking Korean and Japanese background video footage, a Bingo night (hilarious, there was a Bingo cake as a prize), plus crab racing (bid to buy a crab to race, watch it run to the outside of the circle quickest to win, realise you bid more than you won anyway...), and the odd movie and tv show on the projection screen. There were two internet PCs for which you can buy an hour at reasonable rates, plus a wifi you can hop onto for a small fee too. That kind of stuff. Definitely a honeymoon / couples kind of thing, very relaxing and not high pressure in any way, though there were a few kids on the island they didn't get in the way. http://www.fihalhohi.net/english/ Holidaymakers are mostly an even split of English and Germans, but your room gets 2 sun loungers and its own towels, plus there's LOADS of room on the beach, only about 180 rooms in total, so no sunbed wars ! All the holiday islands are are split by hoidaymaker nationality, we went to an Italian/Russian island amongst others (including a couple for the locals).