Chez

Team selection makes sense. You want your best side for every game, but he is obviously protecting Scienza who has only just come back from injury and not overplaying Stewart. Gonna be a tough game.

I always feel wembley suits the bigger sides as they play those kind of huge stadiums on a regular basis, but Palace showed the way last season and we are half decent on the break too. we have underperformed the last two semi final though. third time lucky?

its time to return to semi finals elsewhere, Wembley is paid off. No reason for it other than to pamper to sponsors. football is for the fans.

Saints Leeds final. Works for me.

2023 £155m loss 2024 £124m profit (due to them selling the women's team back to itself before the loop hole was closed) 2025 £264m loss I think a chunk of that 2025 loss is actually Strasbourg's. A significant amount of the outgoings over the three years will be deemed "non football-related", so they will somehow manage to be under the £105m maximum for the three year period.

In general I think Puma do a pretty terrible job of football kits. Putting the logo on the shoulders or sleeves for example just looks fucking terrible. I guess they pay a fortune so simply have to have the logo appearing no matter what the angle of the photo. I think what they do do well is these kind of shirts you have posted images of with the unusual patterns. I think some of them look great. I really liked the Hummel 2022/23 obscure pattern shirt, so would be happy to see Puma have a shot at something along those lines.

I am not a fan of Jelert, so I'd be starting with Bree.

City made them look ordinary. Not sure we quite have the same threat as Haaland, Doku and Semenya up front though. I don't watch too much PL football these days, but one thing I noticed was that without the ball ,City absolutely packed the middle of the pitch to prevent Arsenal playing through them. When the keeper or back four had the ball, Semenya and Doku tucked in, making it almost impossible to play through the lines in the middle. They didn't mind Arsenal playing it out wide, but Arsenal didn't seem all that keen to pass it out there. I'd be watching videos of that game and others to see if that was a City tactic combatting what Arsenal usually do. it worked a treat.

do they get the tickets for free? If they do then they don't have any reason to return them other than good manners. With such a small allocation it would be nice if the club insisted tickets were used, made any 'freebies' pick them up at Wrexham, and then they could see if they were actually used. Seeing as away tickets bring no money into the club, I imagine the club will do fuck all (I mean, what do they care, and why would they want to make it hard for players families and sponsors?) and it will be all forgotten in a few weeks time. If I had 26 aways and didn't get a ticket, I'd be a bit narked if I saw an empty seat in that away end.

win win situation. What joy it would be if the skates go down. And once gain we can point to their failure to pick up 3 points in either derby game sent them down and the two points we got helped secure our play off spot...lovely.

Can't ever get worked up about refs, Roger Milford apart. They usually make less mistakes than the players. Some games you get decisions, some games you don't. The only one that ever got under my skin was Mike Dean, who seemed to go out of his way to goad players. I guess like a bobby that is lied to every single day, you get a bit fed up of players moaning and acting like twats and you end up being almost confrontational.

We are showing good fight, that's for sure, but if Cov and Norwich had taken their chances (and there was some that they really should have taken to be honest) then I think we'd be asking a lot more questions. Sometimes you ride you luck and win games, sometimes the only shot they have goes in the top corner. It's a funny old game saint.

Reminded me of watching him play for us last season. Trying to stop the tide with an almost non existent error prone defence on front of him.

It was Hoddle. let's move on swiftly. That game still gives me nightmares.

he's quality. I am wondering if he might make the step up. Maybe not quite quick enough, but certainly got the ability. Really been impressed with him since we got rid of Still.

it seems so long ago that we couldn't keep a clean sheet for love nor money. with four at the back, some organisation, confidence and team spirit we look tough to break down, all be it norwich and coventry should really have got something from both games.

Very good point (idea). I am guessing they just offer the same amount to each player/official no matter what the away allocation size is.

The minutes read: The club have been working with football ops to reduce the number of empty seats (player comps) and to put these back on sale. FAB asked how many tickets are made available to non-paying attendees. MSilv confirmed numbers available in line with EFL regulation.

So, Arsenal fans pay £25, but Saints fans that are not ST holders have to pay £35. Nice. I've no issue with ST holders getting a discount, but asking me to pay more than the fucking gooners is a bit annoying.

that depends if the Larin signing was dependant on selling AA or Archer. Not entirely sure it was, but Larin coming in has certainly changed how the side functions as a whole and dare I say it given us a chance of promotion, which looked very unlikely with Armstrong as our central striker.

Much better. But Jelert is a poor signing. Not sure Roerslev is all that either. Good signs that Spors knows what he is doing. Tougher to get the quality needed in the PL though. Hopefully we get see if he can do it.

Why would we piss about? It will be Newcastle that pisses about either looking to see if they can get better or trying to drive the price down.

Fraser didn't go on strike. He simply refused to sign a new short term contract to play in the extended COVID season. Can't blame him. He was about to be a free agent and secure the contract of a lifetime. He couldn't risk getting injured.

Cracking goal. He hit the post later when maybe he should have scored.

I fancy a draw.