The9

It's one that's usually done a lot more competently - the Surman-based Umbro home kit launch achieved exactly the same end with a well produced and clever "reveal", without blatantly just annoying people by refusing to provide any useful information and linking to one crappily produced video which tells you nothing. :smt076

When it comes down to it, there will be a bunch of people who really want to see it - who will wait for as long as it takes and will go out of their way to try and find stuff out... until it's released, then they'll either buy it, or go off and find something else to obsess over. And then there's everyone else, who isn't that bothered and might or might not bother depending on if they like it. When it comes down to it, releasing a club product this near to the World Cup is really bloody terrible marketing. Liverpool's away kit is the ONLY one of the major teams being launched this week, but they have already got a new home kit out which people can buy, and the thing's not on sale until the World Cup is over. All they're doing now is dragging it out and is going for the site hits - it even says it in the bloody article ! And you have to assume that if they had anything other than just the new badge to show us they'd have been "teasing" with that.

Just saw that. What a bunch of incompetent c'nts. They clearly have absolutely NO idea what they are doing. Does give some weight to the "Cortese interfering and endless reshooting of the photos" theory though. I mean they clearly don't have even enough of a plan together to present it as a teaser, it's just a b011ocks placeholder in lieu of them actually knowing when things will happen. More like a mushroom every day under this media policy.

I can imagine someone getting a (Liebherr?) digger down there and flogging it off on eBay for the next 2 years and making himself a few quid.

Too late http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=23113 and you can't spell "your".

It does mention the Saints Trust though, Stuey dilemma?

Bizarre. "Nearly doing what fans ask on the Forum" - they've cut up the pitch, and you can help yourself to the topsoil. No, it's NOT the turf. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2067113,00.html

The rumours I keep hearing are that Luker was taken out of the ST loop altogether, and the results seem to suggest that. Not entirely sure the same sort of flak wouldn't be aimed at anyone else in the same situation though Stu - they'd just have to look harder for something irrelevant to have to pop at.

I agree with pretty much all of this, other than the use of boycott. There's no expectation of a boycott, as if the goal is to drop ST numbers, enough people have been marginalised by the lack of instalment plan as it is. Fortunately for me (and the missus) I ended up getting a loan extended to cover the cashflow shortfall, but not everyone is able to do that and nor should they have to consider reworking their finances in order to pay up front for tickets - plenty would be able to save if given the time to. There's a bigger argument about the rights of fans to be ST holders at all, to get reduced prices and how they are paid for, but at the moment the consensus in English football seems to be that you pay up front or via an instalment plan or credit agreement offered by the club, and if you don't want to use their terms you can do it yourself - but we for some reason don't want to offer all those options, or offer the flexibility to maximise revenue up front.

An approach that has never actually been implemented for the sale of Season Tickets as well !

Yeah, and that's perfectly rational, but at the same time you're expecting that expenditure to come in that time model. If they suddenly asked for the school fees up front for the year without any notice you'd still be f'cked, monthly money put aside or not. *Ah, I see Stu has beaten me to that one. and Mike, the problem this year is mainly the lack of notice. No-one complaining about it THIS year is entitled to complain about the same thing for that reason if they do it again NEXT year because we're forearmed now - if I'm skint next summer and can't get an ST I'll at least know I SHOULD have saved up. At the same time, it still won't be the most reasonable way for the club to offer STs to fans and it is still a fair criticism that we should have some kind of instalment plan. Though cynic that I am, I'm half expecting the club to try another stunt if the aim is genuinely to reduce ST numbers - but that is likely to depend on which division we're in. My ideal situation next year will be the return of March Madness, with a decent priced renewal which would be paid for by August when the tickets could go out, removing the apparent "defaulter" issue. Not knowing the division, I suppose the club could offer a flexible plan so you pay an extra month if we go up or something.

In case I haven't already mentioned it, one of Mexico or South Korea will make the Quarter Finals.

Negative Kelvin/1

Good odds for a bloke who doesn't usually start ?

More amusing if you watch the way Rivelino ducks and turns away like a girl.

Interesting use of "playing the man not the ball" on this thread all of a sudden. No-one yet has offered any reasonable explanation for why the club wouldn't give notice of the removal of the instalment plan, so people have started having a go at Stu for unrelated issues. If anyone has explained why him offering a useful piece of investigation to prove the club's claim that administering an instalment plan wasn't true is a bad thing, I'm yet to see it. As for Frank's Cousin's "well, you should have been saving and expected the club to completely do away with a form of payment they've had for the last 7 years and that almost every other club offers" (except last year when the same owners went out of their way to offer convenient instalments so people could buy STs quickly after admin), a more spurious argument I'm yet to see. I don't put aside money for things I'm expecting to be able to pay for anyway, and nor does anyone else.

Not really at the moment, most clubs haven't started picking players up yet - will be more interesting if we get to the end of July and some don't have clubs. Like Lancashire.

You're on the wrong thread then!

Starting to very much not believe this now... Also, LOL at the whole Vasco thing. That particular shirt's been around since the summer of 2009, it's called Vasco because it's loosely based on the STYLE (not colour) of Vasco da Gama's shirt. Umbro have been naming kit styles after the clubs they loosely resemble, or using words that relate to those clubs, for at least 15 years to my knowledge - e.g. their bog standard hooped kit was called "Celtic" for about 5 years in the mid 90s even though Celtic had 3 different designs in that time. One colour of the Vasco happens to look very much like the first Saints kit ever, which, along with the club's proclamation of something unique, is why lots of people think it's a strong basis for being the design of the actual kit. As that particular shirt is an Umbro teamwear kit it'll be that level of quality, and though it's not as if the replicas themselves are ever GOOD quality, they'll at least have a club badge on them !

Haven't seen the detail, but Umbro are slapping "Tailored By" on everything this season, despite a lot of the designs so far being similar to last season's and clearly not being "tailored" at all - I think the Swansea one is probably a variation of the Sunderland home, from last season. i.e. it's a v-neck with two (same colour) stripes and fundamentally just a plain shirt style. The Shamrock Rovers kit is the same "plain" style but with the 09/10 v-neck collar - similar to the navy/yellow Saints away but without the contrast panel, the same as the Blackburn away already unveiled. Even the new Linfield kit is basically the Rangers template from last season.

The Vasco would be the shirt I linked on here about 2 months ago, and that's already been linked again on this thread about 6 times then. The "Winchester" sounds like its based on the Sweden/Republic of Ireland "tailored by" style.

Good point, I couldn't figure out how they got that effect (whilst still having the words "flybe" in the seats...)

I don't think anyone seriously is - I love this stuff but I can't say I'm that bothered by when they get around to telling us. Was pretty stupid to say "a few days" over a week ago though, seems to be pandemic is the club's communications at the moment.

Noh, he's upside-down. And they are absolutely, definitely 100% not changing that badge, having made such a big deal out of it. Especially not to something completely unsolicited and different, at short notice. Much as I like Gecko !

No, I think you're right, stripes are just a generic Saints thing we'll continue to flog even if the team is un-striped for a season. Judging from the pic of the stadium at the moment through the netting they seem to be changing the seats to red and white stripes too...