The Kraken

Technically could be potential problems against a few sides. Should be ok in most cases, but you could argue a case for quite a few sides: Aston Villa, Burnley and West Ham. All dark maroon with blue in the tops, so the red of the stripes and the dark blue may not be ideal. Palace, red and blue. QPR, can't wear the blue away, would red and white stripes offer enough contrast against blue and white hoops? Newcastle and West Brom, both dark/white stripes so both our kits could cause issues. We'd probably be ok in most instances, to be fair, but it might indicate a potential need for a third kit. Especially against Palace and QPR.

Hmmm. I'm not really a fan, to be honest. I think it looks smart, and I certainly don't dislike it. Just something about it that I'm not a huge fan of, can't really put my finger on. Not remotely bothered though; it's an away kit for a year or so. Although it seems quite fitted, so it will be quite interesting to see what some of the XXL brigade look like after they squeeze themselves into their own oversized versions.

Good memories. We were absolutely dirge at times in those two seasons; sometime great but for the most part quite terrible. But I always look back fondly on those days, even though it was clearly so often so very disappointing. Despite Saints being a bit sh*t, I always found the contrast to the Premier League to be very refreshing and the match-going experience was still something completely different to what we had gotten used to in the top league for so long. The Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday routine of a 46 game season in the Championship is still one of the things that makes it a fantastic division. Palace 1-4 on opening day of 07-08, I'll always remember that one, I was in a corporate box with friends of both sides and it was eye opening! But looking back, utterly hilarious. The Sheffield United staying up game last game of the season, still my favourite game at St. Mary's (I prefer it even to both promotion pitch invasions). 08-09 was very dark for most of the time, but still some cracking memories including the 3-2 Preston away fight back, 3 wins in a row in feb to give some hope before the final capitulation, and of course the massive upturn in crowds and anticipation once Rupert had finally been ousted. Happy days.

Even at this very early stage in the window, this is a very good indication of how the closed-shop nature of the top few clubs in the Premier League is only going to get worse. Man City have yet to get properly in gear too.

What could have been if Adidas were still on board and went with stripes. Hideous. Pretty naff design. Club badge far too low. Ridiculously cheap looking panel sponsor. Basically, utterly sh*t.

The Championship is where all the fun is at anyway, buddy.

I see that point has already been covered. Hmmm. Balls. I'm with you Diggers. Relegation me up.

F*ck's sake, Diggers. I had Alpine Saint in the who-would-be-the-first-to-post-a-'we're getting relegated with this squad'- thread sweepstake. I'm so very disappointed in you. I wouldn't have even had you down for top 5.

Yeah that'll show 'em, they'll have no comeback to that one.

I don't see a loan as likely either. No real value in it for United, and I'd have thought the new manager would be keen to run the rule over his squad before any big name departures. Never say never, but I'd be amazed if we pulled that off.

Can't see: a) United dropping their price for him below £20M. b) Saints paying that much. Plus I imagine he's on a monumental wage that we couldn't sustain.

Arjen Robben, Daley Blind, James Rodriguez, Paul Pogba, Thomas Mueller. FACT.

Hurrah! More new money for Ronnie Koeman to spend!!

Poor old crabby. What a complete f*cking prat he looks now. I wonder if he'll show Alpine's predilection for never admitting he was wrong. I doubt it.

I'm wondering if anyone's outward opinion about Saints has ever swung so much in either direction as much as Santsweb's favourite pink jacketed militant's has and continues to do so.

I'm only surprised we haven't yet had his annual "we're not signing any players" laughter fest of a thread. Though, to be fair, in the summer the only things worth reading on here are Alpine's temper tantrums and meltdowns.

Absolutely right. This to. He's an attention seeking liar.

I think it's fairly clear they're none too happy about how Lallana has gone about things.

Actually, I think you'll find that's a Henry vacuum cleaner.

I found this post in my history about good old Corp and some of his best whoppers in recent times. A compilation of quotes from our MIA Pompey hero Corporate Ho, and a lookback on his Nostradamus-like predictions of all things football. About Sulaiman al Fahim, and his 2009 Pompey takeover... But then, a couple of months into the season, our hero has had a change of opinion somewhat... Ali al Faraj enters the fray... About Saints Youth Academy... About the value of Fratton Park...

Step 1 in Liverpool's plan for Premier League success; wipe Southampton FC off the map.

And my point is, so what? They're a small local paper. They have very limited (and dwindling) resources. Seriously, with unrealistic expectations such as your own, and an over-willingness to stick the knife in, they simply can't win. It's also quite funny yet ironic that they're described as 24 hours behind the news yet in the same thread are being criticised for immediately responding to news just released into the public domain.

Again, what difference does it make if they break the story? does that make it more valid? should they only run with stories they break the news on, and ignore others that have already come out? I genuinely don't know what you think the Echo should have done once the story was broken. Instead of turning back time and breaking it themselves.

But it's only you that is saying they don't have kosher news. If what they say is true, that they verified the story with a source close to the player, then they need to report it. So they didn't break the story; so what? They'd probably get criticised if they did do that, for printing negative stories and creating instability. They're a simple local paper, but for a branch of Saints fans they simply can't win. Report something, and they get criticised for not breaking a story and/or for printing negative stuff. Don't run the story and they'd get criticised for not being in the loop and being behind the times.

What would you rather they had done? Ignored it? Tried to put a positive-only spin? I get a bit lost when people criticise the Echo and other media for actually responding to and reporting the news. Does it really matter if they didn't break the story? They're hardly an investigative unit, they're a small local paper with limited but sometimes decent resource.