edprice1984

I have some limited knowledge of the process of the design and implementation of kits etc after being involved a little with Gloucester Rugby. They use OXEN who also supply a number of Rugby League kits too. From conversations with the Marketing team and the CEO, the design for kits is normally decided pretty early on in the previous season if you want something bespoke, whereas if it is templated you can generally wait until nearer Christmas. Of course this is Rugby and the shirt sales are significantly different to football.

A shirt often will succeed or fail because of the performance of the team that plays in it. The Pony shirt from 1993-95 will always be remembered because of Le Tissier - but it was a horrible design. Equally the 2009/2010 and 2011 shirts are often looked backed favourably because we played good football, won a trophy and got promotions. The Sash kit was very different and with no sponsors became an instant classic. The Keegan shirt from 2018 was popular on here, but we were dog awful that season so I have mixed feelings about it. Personally I like the Denmark version, it looks good (although slightly ruined by the gambling sponsor). If the rumours about the Away and 3rd kits are true it could be an expensive couple of months for me (my daughter likes the 3rd kit)

Best mate is a Liverpool supporter and we were discussing the Mail 'article'. He agrees its just utter bullshit and pointless filler. We all know if someone comes in for JWP with a bid of £45-£50m he will go. No less than that unless he properly kicked up a fuss, and to be fair he doesn't seem the type. No one would begrudge a move, but if he stays and takes us back up - club legend status would be secured and I don't think he would ever leave.

Barkley is a massive no. Clearly no drive left and will want a chunk of wages. Gyokeres will end up at Wolves. I have a mate who is a Season Ticket holder and he is convinced they are in for him.

Could be worse - see Leeds United owner using Elland Road as security allowing him to buy Sampdoria!

That will be go down well with our fan base... Re the earlier point by Tauro on Adkins, you have to remember that at the time Nigel was actually joining us from a Championship club! Remarkable when you see where Scunthorpe are now (Conference North!) and had been promoted from League One on several occasions. It was the first time he had any real budget - however it must be remembered we already had the core of our squad in place - Kelvin in goal with Jose Fonte, Dean Hammond, Adam Lallana, Morgan Schneiderlin, Dan Harding and Ricky Lambert already in place. RM potentially starts with a very strong squad for the Championship with plenty of exciting young players, particularly with athleticism and pace and a number of former Championship players who are arguably better suited to the division. He will clearly lose some very good players and recruitment in defence is going to be crucial, but the fans need to be open minded and at least give him a chance.

I can't get a Season ticket as I am already committed to Gloucester Rugby (it's just as painful as supporting the Saints, it's just we have Red and White hoops rather than Stripes). The season ticket will look brilliant value if we have a good season and get promoted or end up in the playoffs as demand for one of tickets will increase as the Season goes on. However initially don't expect to see many sell outs or crowds over 27k very often. I am happy that I get to watch more local away games. Bristol City, Birmingham City, West Brom, possibly Coventry, Swansea, Cardiff, maybe Stoke - rather they were all in the Premier League, but we are shite so...

I went to Uni in Swansea, loved the place and have a real soft spot for them as a football club. I was at the famous Hull City Survival match (Can't believe that it was 20 years ago) and it was the greatest football atmosphere I have ever experienced. Hoping that the stars align and I can get down to the Away game next season as it's been 10 years since I was last there and I have heard its changed a bit!

Well surely we should be getting Hassan Khalifa based on the stats alone....😉

Unless I am very much mistaken (to be honest I have never really paid much attention before) Sportsbet.io aren't appearing as a Sponsor at the footer of the Website pages... Does anyone remember when the current sponsorship deal was due to run out?

A couple of things since my post last week re RM, whether we could 'do better', what that might look like and the style of football. Firstly, to cover off whether we could 'do better than RM'. Can you name me realistic options out there at the moment who would be looking to join a newly relegated football club with a despondent fan base, a dressing room which clearly needs a lot of work, a mixture of players who are not good enough, in horrible form or who need to leave and an ownership who have so far made every bad decision possible? They aren't likely to be household names, or if they are there is probably a very good reason why they are now available! Re the style of football. We may have played a number of games where we had the majority of possession, but this is because most teams (outside of the top 6) now try to play counter attacking, transitional football with a high press. Once you have had your initial press bypassed, the safest thing to do is to fall back into a system and wait for the opponent with possession to make a mistake. We are exactly the same. The difference between us and others is that we have had very average forward line who couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo. Personally I find possession football without an attacking intent - see Claude Puel - incredibly boring and most teams now know how to combat this. Be compact and aggressive around the box, forcing play out wide as much as possible. I can't get too excited about who the next manager is because the bulk of the squad aren't suited to the Championship anyway. Ironically the two signings made in January (Tall Paul and Kamaldeen) are actually the most suited in my opinion. (Although I am clearly going to be proven wrong when they are dreadful next season too).

JWP, KWP fair enough. The former should be given an opportunity just because he was pretty much the only one who seemed to care in the last few weeks. He could go to Newcastle or Utd beat Beckham's record and in about four matches next season with the opportunities he would get. Lavia and Alcaraz, I would personally hope that we set out very early that offers need to be significant in value. If we keep them, we could build a side that would allow us to bounce back. Without them and I reckon we are mid-table, missing out on the playoffs by 3 points. ABK - I'm not sure. He's been in and out of the side and is an International. Great if we keep him, not a huge loss if he goes as we would likely recoup and more on our outlay.

He's not the worst option out there (see Gerrard or Lampard etc), but equally I would prefer Potter who IMHO would be the perfect fit. However, Potter can with some justification point to the basket case that is Chelsea and realistically get another job in the Premier League. We have to be realistic and remember how utterly shite we currently are and that the first job for any Manager is to restore clarity, calm and a sense of purpose. RM at least has convictions in how he wants to play but isn't a lunatic like Jones. If he wins a few games early on I think the fanbase will warm to him.

Clearly there is a fundamental battle going on at the heart of the Conservative Party and one that is likely going to leave them in the political wilderness for many years. The main reason is the infiltration of an Evangelical Christian element (imported from the US) and an attempt to win elections on 'Culture War' topics. The issue however is that even when we were a far more Christian country than today, overt religious comments have always been generally dismissed by the UK electorate. Faith is seen as a private affair in the UK (especially in England), unlike in the US where it is often the total opposite. As we increasingly have moved to more of a secular society, any politician who expresses their religious convictions publicly is often seen as a bit of a crank! It is one of the reasons, I suspect, that many watching the Coronation felt uncomfortable and possible confused with the religious aspect, despite the fact that the Monarch is the Head of the CofE. The other part of this is that most people don't care about the culture war stuff, again because it barely affects their day to day lives. Most ordinary voters care about jobs, healthcare and their own security. If the economy was booming, the Conservatives wouldn't be talking about pronouns, immigration or anything like that - it would be rightly "Vote Conservative, it's the economy stupid" or something to that effect. The 'normal' Conservatives (and I include Rishi in that category, for now at least) are going to be squeezed out by the lunatics unless they really start to push back. But Brexit has already torn away the Centre/Left leaning One Nation Tory, so I imagine there isn't much fight left in them.

On the basis that West Ham weren't properly punished when they stayed up because of Tevez etc (which was blatant cheating); Everton - if they stay up - won't get punished other than a points deduction next season

We (and most clubs at the time) would often wear next seasons kit on the final game of the season in the mid to late 90's. I seem to remember some sort of rule the Premier League introduced that stopped it though. A good example of this would be the final game at the Dell, where we wore the kit for the first season at St Mary's.

It's just another thing for the Conspiracy theory brigade to excited about. Last time I was in New York (2019) my phone was pinging all the bloody time with alerts around missing kids, crime alerts and heat warnings, after a day the novelty wore off so asked the Concierge in our hotel about it and he showed me how to turn off notifications etc. Very easy to do. I live in an area of the country prone to flooding (sometimes severe) and it can effect how I get to and from work, or to see my parents; so flood alerts (if kept local) would be very useful.

Calling it now - it will be Wayne Rooney.

The Board may think that it would be a dangerous precedent to sack Jones due to the overwhelming fan pressure, but as a fanbase we are generally very tolerant and since Branfoot I can't remember another instance where a manager has been so universally disliked. Unless something happened today involving the players making an official complaint etc, they aren't going to sack him unless we don't win on Saturday. At this point only 3 points could save him to be honest and as others have said, even then its simply a case of when not if. Personally I think it would need a run of form that we haven't managed in a long while to change the opinions of fans. When you consider the fixture list, it isn't reasonable to expect that either.

She'll be fine. She was at the Coventry Cup game last season, where Neanderthals were trying to punch each other because the other team scored! We are in the Chapel too, so fairly confident it should ok. If it gets silly, we will leave.

Looking forward to taking my 11 year old daughter to her first (and at this rate) last Premier League game on Saturday. The drive back to Gloucester after the match will be two and a bit hours of explaining why everyone was using all of those bad words...

The Vitinha to Saints link seems pretty solid. Lots of outlets (including in Portugal) basically saying its a done deal. The interesting thing would be if we added one or two more. Very un-Saintsy.

We will sign a striker - I suspect it will be Vitinha. I would also imagine the issue with the up-front fee could be managed by sticking in a generous relegation clause and sell on percentage alongside structured payments. Everton are linked to pretty much every player that any of the bottom six are supposed to be interested in. It's easy copy for the papers to print and require no actual work or genuine information. Dyche will want a particular type of player to join - he doesn't have a lot of those at Everton currently, so the only one of the signings that would make sense from their point of view would be Onuachu.

3-0 now. Another one for Tyler Dibling.

Who was the last Saints player to score at a World Cup???? Turns out it was Bednarek against Japan in 2018.