SaintBobby

Yes, I have factored that in but mistyped. At present, 3 teams out of 20 get relegated (15%), in future it is effectively 2.25 out of 18 (12.5%). But in reality, relegation will be more of a threat as the strong teams will still be in the division but we will be light a couple of weak teams. So, the season before last and/or the season before that would have likely seen Saints down.

Glitchy today...maybe about 50% of my efforts to get onto the forum have failed

The first thing to go would be collective bargaining rights for TV. That would ossify the top six even more....and probably for ever.

Only for this stint in the Premier League (which might be permanent, but probably not). If we're relegated and bounceback, we will be at the bottom fo the queue in terms of getting back a share. The real maths also work against us. At present, it is quite easy to find six allies from the other 19 clubs to defeat a move by the big clubs. (I think the 5 substitutes rule was a recent example). Under this system, we would move to having 1/9th of the vote and often be outvoted 7-2 or 8-1. At present, we have 1/20th of the vote, but only need to get allies to get this to 7/20ths to stop something. You can't measure Saints' power and influence purely on the % of shares we hold. A hypothetical system where we had 49% of the shares and Man Utd had 51% would not be an imporvement in our power - we'd lose everything that mattered.

We should oppose this. Saints being one of the nine shareholders will disappear forver if.when we get relegated. The chance of relegation goes up markedly. Statistically, it only goes from 15% to 15.25% of teams going down, but if you cut the division to just 18 clubs there will be fewer candidiates to be whipping boys at the bottom. The current arrangements - whereby any 7 clubs can block anything - are a godsend for a club likes us, and I'd need something spectacular on the table to want to surrender those constitutional rights. Too much power is already concentrated in too few hands. This would make it worse.

Can't see it. We maybe need a bit more cover for RB/LB, but the Williams deal goign south was probably the end of that.

Chilwell out for the Belgium game. I’m guessing every left back in England would need to get injured and become unavailable before Southgate even considers putting Bertrand in the squad.

£15 is a bit on the high end. But I would otherwise have bought 2 tickets for Stamford Bridge, so I'll pay. Worse experience, but saving money. A lot of that seems true of lockdown.

What's the problem? I think all 380 matches should be available on TV. I'd expect to pay more the more matches I can watch.

Sweet. He’s had a good game.

According to that Guardian article, in England it's David Watson of Notts County with the longest break (17 years). Looking him up on wikipedia, he only ever scored two gols for them - one in his first spell and one in his second. So, even if Theo scores for us, it won't be the longest gap between goals scored by a player for the same club!

yep, glitchy today again

On the cusp, I’d say. Prob just bottom half - but anything from 6th to 16th is possible.

May be nothing to it. But a range of things seemed odd. The club was days behind in confirming the signing, even after it was reported as done deal everywhere. We have seen virtually nothing of Salisu. Not sure he’s even done an interview for the club website? Hasn’t apparently been training with the first team, but instead training alone to get fit - fine, but not obvious how this would be the best way of getting him used to our style of play, which is the apparent priority. Most likely everything is fine, but it’s all rather unorthodox and I think there are grounds for being just a tad uneasy without any real grounds (yet!) to panic.

Feeling a bit sentimental. But even on hard nosed rationality, it’s a £1.5m gamble/insurance policy. Pretty small beer even if it doesn’t work at all.

Assuming Theo gets confirmed, who was the last ex-Saint who came back? By which I mean someone who played in the first team before leaving us initially, not only playing for the U-12s?

It does seem like most/all of the deadwood has finally gone. No immediate huge benefits, but less of an overall financial mess and absentee players. Good for the long run.

Good window. Despite the mystery over Salisu. Hope that turns out to be nothing major to worry about it.

Meh. Good general cover if we get Theo, I guess. But hope he is just used as cover.

Amiri? No chance. No way. Surely?

Don;t see either of them as droppable at the moment, really. But there's so many permutations - niggles falling short of injuries, yellow/red cards (either leading to supensions or a need to take Romeu off to stop him getting a 2nd), moving JWP to RM (or even to RB if there's a problem with KWP) etc etc

He's definitely become a starter for us. Not at his best today, but was decisive for the 2nd goal, with a great run off the ball.

Really tidy. Poor opponents, but you can only beat what’s in front of you etc. Not sure how easily our new signings break into the starting XI, which is a sign of strength.

I think the crowds will come back big time as soon as the law allows. Not because 100% of fans are keen to go and watch a match live, but because 50% are totally desperate to. I'm in the "can't wait to get back" camp. Totally get others are in the "not until there is a vaccine" camp. But the "can't wait camp" will be enough to fill grounds.

Yawn.