SaintBobby

We'll probably be relegated then. The first handful of games are quite easy. If you "can't see Saints being top 10 at then end of Sept", then you must be pretty certain we'll be relegated.

Well, this thread turned out well...

It's just you. HTH.

The ridiculously tacky red home shirt with gold transfers is a cheap knock off for the Maltese market. I feel confident I will find a proper, closer to home, high quality Saints shirt in the English megastore in August. Right?

I still reckon Stoke could be in all sorts of bother. A declining team who have just appointed a pretty terrible manager.

Our official attendance was 44,000 and chump change. God knows how you account for virtually all corporate areas being bought up by Saints fans. Prob more like 50,000, but tricky to verify.

The strategy under Strachan (according to WGS) was to only add players better than what we had - e.g. players expected to be in the starting XI. After the FA Cup Final and WGS departure, the strategy seemed to be "we can fall backwards without actually getting relegated". When that strategy went t1ts up, the strategy seemed to be panic/gamble/ignore reality. When the new Swiss owners came in, the strategy was to be to spend big and accelerate up the leagues pretty quick. When this was achieved ahead of schedule, it now seems to be to push up into the top half/towards a Europa place PDQ. We've probably shown less of a "stabilsie where we are" approach than virtually any other team in English football over the last decade or so.

Many ways to describe Saints' strategy/ies since the turn of the century. "Staying roughly where we are" ain't really one of them though.

Yep. Have yet to see a club unveil their "we want to hang about roughly where we are now" strategy.

More such cutting analysis, please...

At the moment, I'd go for TOP Chelsea Man City Arsenal RELEGATED Norwich Stoke Palace Saints about 10-14th, say 12th

Nah, not really. Clearly, Man Utd concede less goals than Saints because they have a better defence. But the difference isn't simply "defensive errors"

My own expectations for the season are for a top half finish and never to really get involved in the relegation fight at any time of the season. If we go on a really decent cup run, I'd settle for 10th. And I wouldn't be mortified if we end up 12th-ish. I don't think top 7 is realistiic unless another £40m+ of talent arrives (which does seem just about possible tbh)

I don't think ever Manchester United or West Ham United will be relegated. The chances of either being relegated therefore equal 0%

Like it. Would be better still if we could find a slot for Frazer Richardson to play the "front sweeper" role though...:-)

No, it's not. Failing, for example, to pull off an utterly incredible last ditch clearance off the line - the sort of clearance that could only be achieved by the very best of defenders in the world - does not constitute a "defensive error". Nor does failing to save a well taken penalty - just because the very best goalkeeper in the world might just have saved it.

I think Beattie, Ormerod and Oakley are also now "unattached"

Read every comment on this thread and I'm still non the wiser. Given it seems impossible to discern what the OP was asking or what he thinks, I guess the signs were never auspicious.

Sounds plausible. Lots of players being edged "out" and it's pretty likely we will get at least one "in".

I wonder if getting one or two superstar signings opens the floodgate to getting others. eg. If we got Leandro and/or Bangua might it be easier to get other top players to follow. Or does it just bankrupt us?

I don't doubt you for a second, but can you explain the use of the first person plural possessive?Or are Juventus known as "our youth" in Brazil?If so, that's a great pub trivia question ;-)

It's bloody awful. Truly bloody awful.

I simply refuse to believe that this is a "leak" of the shirt. It's an unconvincing photoshop effort. Am holding out hope for a return to stripes....

I visited the place a few years ago. (Well, we got as close to it as we could....driving up to a sign warning you to go no further or lethal force will be used). It's clearly a top secret military base. The alien stuff is good for tourism though.

I wonder. You're right of course that top, top players will be attracted to the CL clubs. I mean, geees, Spurs now look like too small a club for Bale. But we did lose all three of those players while we were out of the Premier League. Perhaps we could have kept them a little longer at least if we had been in the top flight, as we are now.