SaintBobby

I can't be sure what the exact, official policy is. But I asked for an email from the senior corporate staff so I had in writing that I could share out my STs before I was willing to pay £3.5K for them - and I got this email. You're right that my name flashing up on the swipe card system is likely to raise less eyebrows than "Matt Le Tissier" coming up on the screen, but still....

Might the problem Adkins/Cortese faced have been something like this: 1. Mr X is better than Fox at left-back, but the transfer fee demand is £5m and the salary demand is £40K a week on a three year contract. That's a total outlay of £11m. Although we'd definitely be a better team with Mr X than with Fox, we don't think we'd be £11m better. It just isn't worth the outlay. 2. Mr Y would be a better choice centre back than Seaborne. But the total outlay would be, say, £3m. That would be £3m well spent if we had to rely on Mr Y for 10 or 12 games, because Seaborne is quite sh1te frankly. But, in all likelihood, we aren't going to have to rely on Seaborne at all. We basically think that Fonte-Hoovield-Yoshida can do an acceptable job (and replacing them runs into the sort of problems outlined in the Fox scenario above). 3. We know we're taking a bit of a gamble here. We may regret it. If we do, at least we can revisit it in January. 4. We might just peruse the free agents to see if we can pick up a value for money offer to mitigate some of this gamble between now and Xmas. 5. Ramirez could revolutionise the team. He has genuinely world class potential. £12m is a steal, frankly. We weren't really expecting to be able to attract him, but he seems well up for it. To be honest, we rate him as a £20m+ player and just the sort of bloke who could, over 2 or 3 years, take us to the next level.

Am still confused about this free agent thing (I've finally got it locked in my mind that loans aren't possible until the window reopens in January) What would determine whether a free agent can be added to the squad? (i.e. what wld determine the "permission of the board"?) Are we saying that, say, Michael Owen should really have signed for a Premiership club before Friday and may now be in limbo until January?

Yep, thanks for the pic. It's the higher up block I was referring to. My group sit right next to those empty seats. Although looks more like 100 or so empties rather than the 300 or so I guessed at....

I'm perplexed that we're so light at the back. But less despairing of our back 5 as some appear to be. I think a player like a Ramirez is such a coup that you have to snap him up. He is a gamble, but potentially revolutionises the team.

I posted this in the "Manc punched thread".... "On the capacity point, the corporates in block 5 have quite a bit of extra space. The seats close to block 4 are quite empty (rough guess, 300 empty seats). I gather the reason for this is that the new "club lounge" membership is at its max for fire or health & safety regs or some such. So, the club could sell these seats - but have no easy way to actually get people to them (and nowhere to put these people pre match/post match/half time...or no way of stopping them getting into the club lounge at these times if they sold these seats separately). I'm told the club is appealing the ruling from the relevant quango/govt body."

I have asked for clarity from the club on this. They said it was no problem for me to share out the three STs I hold (but I wld be responsible for the behaviour of those using them).

So, the rent would be about £115k per season? Or about £5-6k per home game? Lol. Only true if there's a dubious ulterior motive.

No loan window in the top flight, sorry!

Hard to credit this. But then I was a Ramirez non-believer too...

I'd probably build the team around Ramirez. Basically, 4-3-1-2 with Ramirez in the hole/free role. Not sure who the 3 are, really? Schneiderlin, Davis, Lallana? If Ramirez is as good as suggested and becomes our playmaker, I wonder if this puts Lallana under some pressure?

On the capacity point, the corporates in block 5 have quite a bit of extra space. The seats close to block 4 are quite empty (rough guess, 300 empty seats). I gather the reason for this is that the new "club lounge" membership is at its max for fire or health & safety regs or some such. So, the club could sell these seats - but have no easy way to actually get people to them (and nowhere to put these people pre match/post match/half time...or no way of stopping them getting into the club lounge at these times if they sold these seats separately). I'm told the club is appealing the ruling from the relevant quango/govt body.

Strangest thing for me was Mayuka as the holding centre forward and Rodriguez on the wing? Surely should have been other way round? But, from what I could see from just behind the bench, the idea was to have Jay put real physical pressure on a tired (and small) Rafael (at least this appeared to be roughly what was signalled). If that was the strategy, it didn't work. But it wasn't insane either.

Gut wrenching horrid finale. But, in cold light of day, a quite excellent performance. Slight query over the subs, but - with two hours of reflection - I'm actually quite confident we will stay up. Ramirez potentially offers us an extra gear, of course.

The skates new signing, Ertl, has scored. Sadly, for the phew, it's an own goal. Pmouth 0 Oldham 1 :-)

Interesting to reflect again on the poll results. I'd say that most football fans tend to be over-optimistic about their clubs in most respects. But 57% of those who voted in this poll were on the wrong/pessimistic side (myself included). Some sort of proof that SWF posters and readers are disproportionately miserable bastards?

You were presumably cheering on Coventry on the last day of last season then, right?

That just simply can't be taken remotely seriously as an opinion of someone of sound mind. I can understand preferring to keep Sharp over Rodriguez. But to believe Sharp's value to Saints is greater than that of Ramirez and Rodriguez combined is just beyond ludicrous.

On reflection, it is pretty staggering that we've spent about £30m net. I do hope we're not being financially reckless - I suspect not, Cortese seems to know just what he's doing.

I would say we're probably a bottom six team still overall, but hard to judge what impact Ramirez will have. Seems to me that our prospects rest quite heavily on his shoulders.

Very happy overall. But just bizarre we have so little cover at CB or LB.

Hammond to Brighton - season long loan

really? does short-term loan window shut today too?

Lol. If Owen is to find a club, does he need to do so by midnight? Or can he join a club whenever, as he's a free agent?

is there any shred of truth to the recurrence of this Owen rumour?