The Kraken

The blinded arrogance and ignorance of Saints fans never fails to amaze me.

How much top level management experience did Pep Guardiola have before he took over at Barcelona?

That's ok then; until the playoff final is over we're technically still a Championship club.

No, that is not a fact at all. It is, on the other hand, complete b0llocks on your behalf. But carry on, I love a true delusional rant.

Exactly right. I love Rickie as a player but to suggest he should be in the squad is delusion of the highest order. If you were the England manager; if you had just been parachuted into your job. Would you take a man who has scored many goals in the lower leagues? Or would you take a man who has played at the highest level, who came on in the FA Cup final and totally turned the game on its head, and who is finally attracting plaudits from the national press for his game. There are so many reasons to take Carroll and so few to take Rickie. Despite how much he is adored here, he simply isn't ready for an international tournament. And, from a Saints point of view, I'd much prefer he wasn't there.

If you were England manager and took Lambert instead of Carroll it would be an incrediby stupid move.

In the past 10 games for his club alone, Micah Richards has started twice at right back.

Is Nigel Adkins really THE man for us. SHOULD we be doing better?

Steady now, that's what kicked this thing off in the first place.....

I thougt today that Villa's statement of intent for a new manager had NA written all over it. Young, vibrant and someone who will transform the club. Now we're in the Premier League, the more successful we are the much greater risk there is of losing him. Paul Lambert is already being talked of as managing at another Premier League club to Norwich this season; a fact of football for clubs our size, I'm afraid.

Well I think you adequately answered your own question there. Well done.

True enough. But I believe the break even point last year on a one person match by match basis compared to ST was 20 games, maybe even 21, whatever it was pretty high. Whether its true or not, the booking fee has been marketed as being cost-neutral, so not sure if that can be factored in (I don't actually believe it is mind). As you say though, its impossible to predict, and even if it were I don't think I could be bothered as we're only talking about potentially a small amount of extra season tickets anyway, most people who want one get one in the window.

I totally agree. The policy they are taking makes no financial sense, unless it is to minimise season ticket sales and maximise match ticket sales. But that only works when the home matchday tickets are completely sold out, which they haven't been relatively often so far. Its a policy which MAY work better for the Premier League. In any case, I don't believe the club are missing out on a huge amount of tickets. But I do agree that its not a very fan-friendly approach. Although I believe there will be a new installment plan this season, so details of that will be interesting.

In that respect, no different to with the previous book system. So you should be fine (just don't advertise it!!) I still don't think you'll a problem though, apart from Reading, Arsenal, Chelsea. Northern teams I reckon even if they do sell out it won't be immediate, watching Saints away at Man United or Man City is a very different draw to watching them at home.

To answer the question of can you transfer your ST: Officially, no. The club will tell you its non-transferrable. Unofficially, yes, it should be fine so long as its an adult ticket and another adult uses it.

I'd be pretty surprised if we sell out a lot of our away allocations. Our away attendances have gotten better over the years but they're still not amazing. Getting an ST seems a potentially very expensive way to guarantee away tickets that probably won't be all that tough to get hold of (perhaps Reading and some London clubs aside).

They'll now be doing a credit card system with a swipe on the turnstiles. So all you will need to do is take your card, no need for the paper books previously used.

Interesting. Personally I'd have thought a longer window would encourage more who are sitting on the fence to actually go for it. There will always be the last week or two of the sales window which will put people under pressure. Having them on sale for longer means a longer marketing campaign and a longer opportunity to make sales. To date it can be argued that the current method has not worked in comparison to a longer window for (potentially) more sales; we had an average of 6000 empty seats last season, so often weren't selling out. I doubt there are many if any people who didn't buy a season ticket yet went to 20 or more home games, which is around the break-even point. Premier League, with the majority of home games selling out, maybe it will make more financial sense. Especially when you factor in the booking fee (althoughthis has previously been promoted as cost-neutral, so not a revenue spinner allegedly), so perhaps not a factor after all!

I don't think anyone is saying its a "problem"; because it's certainly not a major one. There are certain details that it would be beneficial to know in advance of course, but nothing that won't eventually be revealed. Its just a little mystifying that the club goes so very quiet on season tickets during the off-season (when there's not much else to talk about or get distracted by). Especially so when you see the likes of Reading promoting their STs from before the season ended and through the off-season. It trades off the feelgood factor of promotion and gets fans on board early, and from that point of view must surely maximise sales. We on the other hand have a two week window for sales which is usually announced a few days beforehand, and other than that no news whatsoever. Sure, pretty much everyone who wants a season ticket will have the opportunity to get one, and we can all guess and speculate on how much it will cost. Its just that some find it a bit odd that we choose to "advertise" and sell season tickets in such a closed, low key fashion.

On that note, some rather poignant quotes from Pardew about Newcastle that he made before he knew whether Newcastle were going to play Champions league or not. Kind of indicates the gap even between 5th and top 4. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18042729 To summarise the choice quotes: "We have players who are not on the salaries these top clubs can offer." Demba's release clause has been widely publicised, there is some truth to it, and some untruth," said Pardew. "There is a clause there. There is a situation with his contract and we are in talks with him and his agent. It is not a foregone conclusion that he will stay..." "The one security I have is that [owner] Mike Ashley is a difficult seller. He is not going to let someone go for £7m, he is going to want top, top money. But if Yohan Cabaye gets a call from Manchester United and they tell him he is going to be the next Paul Scholes I am not going to be able to stop him. It is going to cost Manchester United a shedload of money, but until we have Champions League football, and we might have that by this weekend, we can not compete with that."

As least it wasn't bolded, italicised and underlined this time round. Just daft and a bit pointless for this board.

Yes, I accept the cashflow argument. Certainly for the "early bird" renewals. But even still, and perhaps its a different argument, I don't understand why the window for renewals is now so short. As I recall last year its was around 2 weeks! Just about enough time to get it done (assuming you're not on holiday abroad for those 2 weeks), but not enough time surely to promote it, get the word out there, and completely maximise ST sales. I agree with Dune that we're not bothered about ST sales and more interested in matchday sales. But having just seen an average attendance of 26K in what has surely been one of the most exciting seasons in a generation, there's an argument that this approach let quite a few potential sales through the net.

If last year is anything to go by, I think the answer will be "at the last possible moment". Quite why that is, I don't know.