The Kraken

"F*ck this, I'm going back down"?

Can't say I'm a fan of our new orange kit.

It seems you're about the only one doing that, china. Pretty much everyone else (including the OP) has recognised that Cortese has got nothing to do with it and have largely agreed that in fact the club have ended up coming out of it quite well, given their swift action to rectify the situation. Nice try at making a non-existent point though; better luck next time, eh?

What on earth are you wittering on about? This is a win win situation. The family got no joy from the club. Presumably they didn't just give up after being told "no" once, so it was already a bit of a saga and a sensitive one at that. Family go to social media and the club hierarchy get in contact with an offer to resolve the issue and ensure no more hassle is caused to the family from a genuine mistake. Fair play to Turkush for doing something proactive to get it easily resolved, and fair play to the club for listening and getting it sorted promptly.

How do you know that didn't happen? The club got in contact with Turkish through social media, after his family had been rebutted by the club. fair play to the club for sorting it out, but the situation should never have arisen in the first place so fair play to Turkish for raising the issue publicly and getting it sorted.

Sorry to hear that Turk; hope it gets sorted and the club does the right thing.

I feel the opposite. I have the Umbro sash kit anddon't think its as nice as 3 adidas tops I have. I only wear them all for 5 a side (not at the same time, clearly) but having been through that and regular washing & tumble drying, a couple of the adidas ones are 3 or 4 years old now and almost as good as new. To be fair the Umbro is still decent, but I prefer the fit of the adidas tops.

Lee is on a lot more than that; there was some article last season that suggested he was on around £25K a week. With promotion bonus, God only knows how much of his current wage we're contributing to. Hopefully we haven't had to contribute too much to the wages of the others we have had out on loan.

^^ Puncheon, Davis, Rodriguez, Ramirez for me. Davis has played an awful lot under MP, often instead of Ramirez.

You're correct, Lallana is another who has under-performed. In fact I'd go further and say that Lallana has been found out at the top level as a wide player, he is a lot more effective playing through the middle. Unfortunately that leaves our two most creative players vying for one midfield spot, so Lallana hasn't really been given that chance too much (at least for any prolonged timeframe). I also credit us persisting with Lallana out wide as a primary reason why we became so predictable in the last few games of the season, we lacked someone with pace to run in behind defences, Lallana does his best work with the ball at his feet bringing others into it and as a consequence too often looks to play in front of defenders, making him easier to defend against for the better sides in the division. He had a few good games but largely against the weaker sides. Another with a lot to prove, though I'm not sure how much he'll do if we persist with playing him as a wide man.

There's also an element that we of course should look to do both, and make sure we get the balance of youth and experience just right. Although in Ramirez's case i wouldn't put it down to an experience/lack of experience thing at all, he's just flattered to deceive IMO and so far not lived up to the fanfare. Lots to prove.

I'd say Gaston's numbers are the best part of his season. 5 goals is ok for an attacking midfielder in a side that finished 14th, admittedly the number of assists is a bit on the low side though, especially as he's on corners and free kicks. Coutinho has had a better impact but he's a different type of player (one we could do with though, to be fair). Essruu's post has, for me, really brought home how much of a concern it is that Ramirez once again won't get a proper pre-season. That and "adjustment to the PL" have been pinned as the primary reasons he has under-delivered compared to expectation. As for Bazza Sancho, I have to say I'm disappointed. At first I quite enjoyed some of his posts, it was often a contrary view but I enjoy hearing all views. Sadly he's become a parody of himself and I'm genuinely not sure what he's trying to prove any more.

I don't quite understand this comparison. If anything it serves to prove the point; Kagawa arrived with big fanfare and has significantly under delivered. I wouldn't say for one minute that he has offered value for money on his transfer. 5/10 season for Gaston for me. Some flashes of decency but all too often some poor performances. Most frustratingly its not that he's tried audacious things that haven't come off, but that he hasn't got the simple things right. Also Essruu's post has kicked in to touch the premise of "give him a good pre-season and lets see where we are". He's got it all to do next season; this season can be put down to adjusting, but even still I'd have expected him to be a stand out first choice player at the end of the season, which he clearly wasn't (before he went and got suspended).

I've had a couple of 318s in the past, though petrol not diesel. Really great car, as Turkish says not too bad on insurance or servicing. My two were reliable as anything (one was about 5 years old when bought, one from new), I kept both for 3 or 4 years and never had any major bother. Thinking about another BMW now, as it happens.

Not sure what's quite so wrong about saying Lambert isn't the right choice for England and/or a side looking to break the PL top ten. It's got nothing to do with not rating him, just recognising his limits.

I'm definitely a member of the Jack Cork fan club, but I wouldn't have picked him on the basis of his finish to the season. He was excellent with Schneiderlin up to the last 6 or 7 games but faded pretty badly (perhaps the Olympics and his injury caught up with him). I can't even make a case for Clyne over Johnson and Walker right now. As for Lambert, great for us but wouldn't really be at home as the main striker in a top 8 Premier League side, let alone a top 8 international side playing against one of the best sides in the world.

Exactly that; point in case WBA who played 3 up front and played longer balls over the top and into the channels which constantly put us on the back foot. We were torn apart in that game, Steve Clarke got his tactics absolutely spot on and we simply had no answer to a rather one dimensional gameplan of our own.

And rightly so. Mayuka has seen very little game time but he has at least looked a little lively in his games towards the end of the season. Looked ok against Spurs too. Sharp's level is probably upper Championship, lower Premier League at very best. An Adam Le Fondre type, if you will.

I'll stick to my opinion that I had of last season (which was a minority opinion that I copped a bit of flak for). I'd still prefer that last season we had spent on a striker with Premier League/top league pedigree, and added JRod this summer. Towards the end of the season when Lambert was flagging and looking dead on his feet, that's exactly when we needed a striker to step into those boots and do the business. I didn't feel Rodriguez was up to that; he's got potential but he's also got so much to develop, including his shooting where he often snatches at a shot. So where do we go from here? Plenty seem to think we need a new winger, and plenty also think we need a new striker in the Lukaku mould (that's if we're to progress into a top 8 and upwards side). Can Rodriguez give us that? IMO, not as a starting player for us, no. And if he does become a sub, that's a big step backwards from this season where he has primarily been a first team player, if not playing in his preferred spot as out and out striker.

Yes, I remember that lad who doesn't post here any more, thedelldays, mentioning checkatrade a while back, the very last post on this thread. http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?37729-New-Sponsor&p=1361101&highlight=sponsor+checkatrade#post1361101

They could get bought out of it. Particularly if it wasn't for that great an amount in the first place (which is likely given we achieved 2 promotions in 2 years). Other football clubs have done it in the past, so its not exactly as unprecedented as you seem to think.

I'll send it you 100% Saint, but you'll need to pay your fiver to be a Full Member to be able to receive PMs.

It shouldn't have to be that way; the yellow kit doesn't have a huge label, its just red without any big background.

I didn't think we could come up with an uglier kit than this year's effort, but there it is.

Hopefully doing something that lets us turn defence into attack much quicker; in the last 6 or so games we were so frustratingly slow at getting forwards when we had opportunities. WBA showed us exactly how to play on the break and absolutely murdered us doing it; so a bit more pace in the side and new personnel to allow us to break forward behind the opposition's defensive line much quicker and get them properly on the back foot.