The9

We don't normally play Italian teams. The club has already said tickets are online purchase only, you have to provide those details online, they will send those details to Inter, and it's £6.50 to have the tickets delivered, which implies they may be being sent direct from Inter, with those details printed on the ticket.

Duplo.

I'm still amazed they haven't taken their enormous competitive advantage out of that division upwards in 3 years of trying. It's bloody hilarious they're still down there despite having a load more cash than everyone else in the division, the best bit is every season they do that without improving the ground is another year they won't be able to compete at Championship level when they eventually get back there. Their ground is their greatest asset and biggest problem at the same time.

Comical, given that the club didn't announce the travel package until almost a week after the draw, and at over £1000 it was around £700 more than the cheapest return flights still available. Me and the wife are doing the whole thing for a few hundred quid less than the quoted cost for the club package per person, with two of us going, taking direct flights out (not the cheapest ones), and two nights' hotel accommodation (not the cheapest place). If it was just me going I'd be paying over £600 less than the club's offer, which was frankly extortionate and poorly thought out. Also, Celtic, not exactly known for their sparse travelling support, took all of 200 in the Champions League Play-Off round in the round before - pretty confident we'll manage to beat that turnout, even for a MIDWEEK AWAY GAME IN ASIA, ffs. But apparently this is somehow "bad".

They did well not getting the game abandoned, like some poky League 2 clubs I could mention...

We already know that we have fewer than 5000 ST-holding fans who've been to more than 5 aways since the start of 2015/16 because they're ALL guaranteed a ticket to Inter as long as they buy in the first window. Based on my "counting the ticket number bought at 9am" for Arnhem last season, I can also confirm that we only sold maybe 150 to people who had over 11 aways as well. I had ticket number 160 and I had 10 valid aways for that, which is around my average for domestic games. I had to wait until the third day of release for that. Those ticket numbers were consecutive, as I bought on successive days for mates and posted about it in last year's thread. That tells you the sorts of numbers we're taking to domestic aways. You've made a fair point about "just on aways" and as a former Saints exile I know there are some who go to as many aways as homes, especially if they live up north. But you can start another thread about that.

There will be a heap of people in Milan and Prague without tickets - they'll probably get in in Milan (which in itself will probably lead to Saints making Prague tickets much less accessible), but are less likely to in Prague. Tbh, Inter really need to have a look at their planning if they're actively turning away up to (say) 5,000 more Saints fans in a ground that'll probably be half empty just because they can't be bothered to make people sit in one of the other 3 stands or even just segregate the bottom tier away from the second tier and/or provide separate entrances.

I'm sure we'll have some helmet on here being embarrassed or saying cringe in a minute though.

He has a physical three year contract in his possession, which he already had before any of the Man U rumours. He hasn't signed it yet.

Hasn't he got to score against them at Anfield first?

No, it's definitely Branfoot immediately before they're dancing on the level crossing.

Immedately before Nick Illingsworth, yes.

They do print at home, so they probably just print them with your name on at the kiosk.

He wishes he was me.

Or other form of ID (for instance Driving Licence).

1 Man C 2 Man U 3 Chelsea 4 Arsenal 5 Liverpool 6 Spurs 7 West Ham 8 Leicester 9 Everton 10 Saints 11 Stoke 12 Middlesbrough 13 Sunderland 14 Watford 15 Palace 16 West Brom 17 Bournemouth 18 Swansea 19 Burnley 20 Hull

We signed a non-international and turned him into an international and hiked his value in a matter of weeks, pretty much the plan generally.

In the sense that some of them are money-grabbing nutcases who earn more than they can spend and then just sod off from football entirely?

Lets hope "Liebherr takes us higher" is more enduring than the previous version...

I'm confused. We haven't lost any defenders since last season and have signed a right back. Now, about those injuries: we already have Pied out for the season, Bertrand hasn't played yet, Gardos is just about starting to show signs of coming back, and Fonte wasn't back in time for the first game. So given that we're coping fine even with 3 defensive injuries, I don't see why the defence is being considered a problem. Yoshida, Gardos, Targett and Martina are competent cover and individually fulfil their roles in covering well enough. We're not going to be signing two top class players for every position and few will be happy with the supporting role that three of those 4 seem to be.

The "neutral" area according to the bloke on twitter who contacted Inter, is the entire stadium other than both ends. So probably about 40,000 seats.

Yeah, stabby stabby.

Interesting, they didn't with mine - but you've been a lot more than me.

I haven't actually read it in any detail because I know I'll get a ticket, but that's what your pull quote suggests - so the criteria is slightly different for Inter than Be'er Sheva, as that was only 2015/16.

It's some kind of fairly recent legal requirement in Italy to have ID for football. They had (unpopular) away supporter cards in place a year or two ago - but that doesn't mean they're actually going to check ID for 5000 people for an evening match - it's a logistical nightmare, and I know for a fact no-one checked my ID for the Serie A match I went to there (though I was in a home section - well, "neutral" if you go by the tweet above). Anyone attending any major international tournament will also confirm that despite endless warnings about ID and names on tickets that no-one EVER checks. I've been to over 30 major tournament matches on a couple of continents, three Euro aways with Saints, various Cup Finals, Community Shield, etc, and that one match in Serie A at the ground we're going to, and no-one has actually checked the ticket against any personal ID, ever. They all know crowd control is difficult enough and the view that a legit ticket is enough proof is widespread. See below though - someone with more Italy-specific experience than me.