ant

What happened to "all new, locally sourced food and drink menu within the concourse, which for the first time will also include craft beers"? Not noticed either on the boards above the bars. Has looked like same-old, same-old since the season started. Still, you'd be nuts to drink at the stadium when there's Unity a 10 minute stroll away.

Even with that moment, I had it down as poor communication by McCarthy.

Easy enough to use Google as a lo-fi alternative with the following search string: site:saintsweb.co.uk your search term E.g. site:saintsweb.co.uk lyanco

Quite. Think we've done well to get much of the 'core' business done before the daftest period of the window. And hey, if a too-good-to-miss opportunity crops up now...

A small, provincial club (whose close reflection of the local area is generally regarded as its most unique aspect) has chosen to note a large event that's occurring within the city today. Whoop de doo.

It's specifically Southampton Pride.

Looks like we just need for the cards that have been received to not scan through to really complete the clusterfuck.

Alternatively, should that article be believed, it didn't miss two-fifths of infectious cases. Breaking the link of a significant number of potential infections. The purpose of suppression tactics isn't a utopian Covid Zero. It's mitigation, plain and simple. The much vaunted 'living with the virus' doesn't mean letting Covid run amok. It's using whatever tools are at our disposal to help keep ICU admissions, deaths, chance of further mutation etc. at manageable levels. Enabling some semblance of normality, and allowing individuals to make more informed decisions about what they are and aren't willing to do. There's a generic term in Section 21 allowing for variations, so long as they notify ticket holders. Guess it's up to you whether you class posting this on the website and social media as notifying you.

It'll 100% be LFT. Our media team's world class proof reading in action again.

It is late in the day to announce it. Albeit surely anybody with a ticket must have been anticipating some measures, given news from last weekend's games? Doesn't seem a big ask to me. If you're not double-jabbed (or don't want to be), get tested. Neither are flawless benchmarks, but better for all in the ground if we're playing the percentages rather than having a free-for-all. By-the-by, I looked up the vaccination rate for the local area the other day, and it's miles behind the national average. Wouldn't be surprised if that's played into the decision.

I get the logic of moving him on - especially given 12 months left on the contract. But to those saying "he was part of one of the worst defences in the league", well... that defence is even weaker now. Yes, we will likely replace him, alleviating that. However it puts an awful lot of pressure on Salisu stepping up as a definite starter, or on us spending the money very wisely. Not an awful lot of success/failure wiggle room at that budget. Let's just hope the recruitment team are on the ball and already have targets in mind. Let's not go back to frittering money away on panic buys.

As you well know, thousands of people will have seen the social media posts today. To the point where the reach from that massively outstrips the number of fans that'll be in the ground on the day. There's more than one way to get a message across. Do you support inclusivity (and are just unhappy with how this has been handled), or do you not?

So taking this as a given, what's the problem with football trying to advertise that it's not as big and bad as minority groups currently perceive it to be? Because that's what this ultimately is - a promotion of inclusivity.

It'll mean nothing to the majority but a lot to some. The players will only be wearing them during the warmup, when most of you will still be in the pub anyway. I don't think it's tiring to demonstrate representation and inclusivity. I think it's tiring to keep hearing how it's supposedly being rammed down our throats. If it's not for you, fine. But it's a bit much to act like it's some kind of oppression.

Quite a definitive thing for Blackburn to say (unless they're openly inviting a hijack).

Admittedly Albania don't have a massive pool of talent to select from, but it's interesting that he's already essentiually a fully-fledged international.

Tempting to bank an extra 2 hours of drinking at Unity.

This is hilariously tinpot.

I take this bit back. Did eventually manage to get through and spoke to a helpful chap, who sounded fairly frustrated with the decision himself. Apparently the club left it to the 11th hour as they hoped Kingsland would be ready by now. Albeit you'd think that if it wasn't sorted for Wednesday, it'd be pretty obvious it wasn't going to be sorted by tomorrow...

Same, except it doesn't actually say where I'll be. But that's OK, Saints - I didn't pick a particular area or anything. Oh wait, I did. Tickets in the affected areas should never have been on sale. And to let us know just 24 hours beforehand is all a bit silly. Can't even get through to the ticket office on the phone. Sigh.

This seems a lower-risk version of the model we successfully implemented until ~2018. Yes, it'd be galling to lose young players on the 'cheap' after several years, but: 1. If they're worth buying, that means they've done well; 2. If they've done well, they've improved the overall quality of the squad - meaning the club's more likely to have done well; 3. It shows youngsters at other big clubs that we may be a more appealing pathway; 4. Turning a smaller profit on a player is still turning a profit; 5. When did us directly sourcing players ever stop us losing them if they prove top-drawer? 6. If it doesn't work out, it's far less of a gamble in terms of transfer fees. And pending wages paid, those may be less of a millstone too.

The entire point of asking for proof of vaccination is reduction of common risk. Proof of vaccination isn't a perfect method (and won't stop every case) - but it's a reasonable identifier to the club that you are less of a risk to those around you. Your logic infers that unless Saints know what you get up to at every moment of every day, knowing your vaccination status is useless. Well... no. Being vaccinated (and the associated percentage decrease of transmission) is exactly why it's now more reasonable to go back to socialising. If you and all those around you are vaccinated (on the train, in the pub, getting food), it means a significantly lower common risk once assembling within the stadium. Again, not a perfect method - but it represents playing the percentages where possible. Might I also remind you that the original proposal was to more widely roll out proof of vaccination to other venues. It's this misguided outrage over supposed lack of freedoms that means that schemes like this are having to scrape through with the bare minimum measures, and no failing of the concept itself.

Doesn't anybody else think the neck is really OTT? Also so many recent kits (i.e. not just ours) have terrible sponsor placement. On this, it runs bizarrely close to the Hummel logo. Drop it down a few inches and it'd look miles better.

Yup, 5pm here. Good job I can flex my hours...

Frustrating that Fulham scored. Ruined potential 'THREE-OH WALCOTT' headlines.