SaintBobby

I have to say I am amazed by how bad their attendance is. Genuinely amazed. Beyond the "only one team in Hampshire"/"they are a pub team" jibes, can anyone genuinely explain why their attendance is so pitiful?

What's happened to Fitz Hall?

I like Brighton. Always have. Okay, entertaining clash between Poyet and Adkins. But hardly something to get upset about. They are also a shining example of "back from the brink". Saved themselves - with deserved widespread football support - from the clutches of mercenary owners. Kept themselves alive while ground-hopping (no mean feat). Got the fanbase to lobby effectively for a decent new stadium (some candidates in local elections for the Seagulls Party getting majorly impressive %s). Sure, I wish we'd pipped them by two points last season rather than vice versa, but they are otherwise a team I want to do well. Also, the fact that they are South Coast is good news. The entirity of England south of Trafalagar Square has performed pathetically at football for the last 50-100 years. I'd like to see that changed.

I assume you all had 2-5 in the prediction league, as I did. If not, why not? :-) What a start. What a result. Proud to be a Saint...

Wish I could make this one. The Mrs is a closet Ipswich sympathiser. Play without fear - and good luck and godspeed to all who travel in our colours. COYR.

I'd have to be seriously skint to take the coach. Never have. Hope never will.

Lol.

For the free speech merchants... Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.

Sorry, I shld have done smiley thing. Your £100 is 99% safe.

I think we can all agree that despite this win, we're not going to finish higher than 17th.

I think we run at an operating loss, but it's not obvious to me whether or how much this matters.

I'm excited by the progress made and the start to the season. Of course, we should aim for promotion, but I still have us finishign around 8th - 10th. Which wouldn't be too bad at all. A lot hinges on the next couple of rumoured signings. In: De Ridder, Cork and Fox Out: Chamberlain is not a bad transfer window so far. But there's a world of difference between us now spending an additional £7m or so and spending no more cash. The money's there - that's clear - but that doesn't always mean the deals gets done.

Yes. It's possible. But I'd say the odds are about right - 14/1 to win the league and about 4/1 to be promoted when I last checked. That's to say, about a 6% chance of winning the league and a 20% chance of promotion.

Are you still taking bets on Saints finishing 17th or lower? I'd like to place a wager that we finish 16th or higher. Name your stake.

I'm starting to become a real convert to Hammond. Midway through last season he was developing into a hate player for me. But had a very good run in and a very strong performance v Leeds. My family at the game said it was evident that he was actually a more proactive and involved captain v Leeds, but that was hard to gauge from the TV coverage on the otehr side of the Atlantic.

The idea of starting the Carling Cup a few days before the league season is a really good one, IMHO. I reckon attendance would have been much, much higher if the game had been played a week or ten days beforehand. Just treat it as a pre-season friendly, with an actual competitive element. I'm not prone to complaining about ticket prices, I think Saints get the pricing right most of the time. But £14 does seem on the high side. Wasn't the JPT game vs Torquay about a fiver or something? One query: does anyone know how much the club makes (in profit) from the average supporter in terms of programme sales, merchandise, beer, pies etc? My guess would be about a couple of quid.

I'm no torch bearer for Rupert Lowe. But I've always been amazed that the monographed tracksuit thing caused such outrage. If Cortese wants to turn up at Staplewood in an NC tracksuit and kick a ball around for a few minutes one day, so what?

Yep, I reckon Bent counts. So £15m is indeed plausible.

On the AOC transfer....the OS reports it's one of the biggest deals ever for a championship player. This implies to me that it isn't the biggest deal ever, but maybe the 2nd or 3rd. Does anyone know what the highest fee paid for a second tier player was? If it's £12m, say, then that means it is unlikely that we got £15m for Chamberlain.

On the basis of those highlights, I agree. He's a bit of a forgotten man. I don't know if he really is injury prone or whether he's just had a couple of shocking pieces of bad luck. He does look like a useful squad player though, especially as I'd say we have a lack of overall pace in our starting XI.

I'm conflicted on this. It does seem that we'd be better off getting Puncheon off the books, even at a discount price. However, I think clubs need to do more to stand up to "want away" players. We are sending a clear message to all current and future Saints players that if they don't play by our rules, they risk a frustrating time in the reserves and a dwindling of their career. That has a lot of wider value, even if Puncheon isn't worth his wages to us on an individual basis.

Great save by "the young Portguese keeper" according to Solent - that's Bialkowski by the way.

Who is skipper? Butterfield?

Not obvious to me that it being undisclosed helps us in transfer negotiations. That would only be the case if the undisclosed fee is higher than the fee reported in the media. E.g. if we got £20m for him, but most people believe it's about £15m. However, we are better to disclsoe the fee if reports are higher than the actual amount.

The OS seems to think he didn't play after the Charlton game last season. But I distinctly remember him scoring against Walsall....