ant

Jon Stead is only 29, who'd have guessed? Thought he was about that age when he nearly sent us down in 2007-08, before Stern John's heroics.

Goes both ways - most readily available lagers are vile.

That won't help anything, companies will just raise the 'face value'. I don't see how paying the same amount as a ticket + booking fee costs now will be so much better.

I've seen worse, to be fair. No major rendering issues on my screen (viewed in Chrome). Usability's not great but then most websites fall at this hurdle. The biggest crime is the splash page on initial load - the call to action to enter the flipping site is near-invisible.

He's en route to Geneva apparently...

So who's he signed for? The big tease. Also 'full most', haha.

After your good-natured mocking of your own 17th place prediction for last season I thought you'd wised up a little. Nobody's saying that a few new signings wouldn't strengthen us but equally it's not worth getting hysterical yet. Even if the Buttner deal is dead in the water (and there's little other than supposition to say it is), there's no reason to suggest we can't or won't sign an equal or better player in his stead. Fairly sure that Swansea had only signed 2 players by this point last Summer - they had a flurry of late activity and further strengthened in January. Splashing the cash early is not the only option. Blimey, do people genuinely think that the backroom staff are sitting on their hands, or locked away in a darkened room with fingers in ears repetitively whispering "everything will be OK!"?

Says so on the Winchester City website: May pop along.

Well done guys, now I'm imagining Cortese as an Italian play on Tony Hayers.

You still have to explicitly choose a club for it to count though - a few people on my friends list don't have a team registered against their username.

The TL;DR version is that this sort of activity is mostly harmless - people are making fools of themselves, few would think they are indicative of the club's entire fanbase. At the very worst I suppose a player could be put off signing, but every club has its share of weirdos so any top pro would surely be used to that. In reality they probably just ignore 99% of fan 'interactions' and get on with their lives.

Simon Peach's contacts say we're definitely televised against City, although that was predictable enough. Hopefully it'll stay as a Saturday game.

I wear small/medium tops generally and an Umbro small is fine for me, so I'm not sure that's strictly true! Personally not quite cynical enough to believe that today's queues were conceived as a PR stunt - it's nigh-on impossible to predict how many people will turn up to an 'event' like this. Unless you want to start suggesting that half of the crowd were plants, but that's approaching Lowe-era hysteria. I don't doubt there would have been a few using a slow response as indication that the world at large hates the kit - a good showing of interest in the club is more of a positive isn't it? Heaven knows it would have looked feeble if nobody had bothered.

Walked past the West Quay ‪store earlier. Shutters are still down for 'refurb' but you could see the new kit through them. The red is definitely more vibrant than in photos I've seen so far. No doubt here'll be even more moans from the stands as from a distance the pinstripes don't particularly stand out. Thought it was a shame that they've still got the 'Kit revealed 6pm, 29/6' posters up. Missing out on a lot of free promotion as the footfall through there will have been huge today. As for the kit itself, I like it. It's neither good enough to become 'us' permanently, nor bad enough to deserve such vitriol - apart from anything else there's definitely room for a bit of experimentation if keeping kits for just a year is the norm now. Umbro's material quality and tailoring has been top notch so far so hopefully this one matches up. Only thing I don't like is that the aap3 logo is printed on that crap plastic stuff again. No doubt it'll end up cracking and discolouring. At the end of the day I envy anybody that's got so little to moan about that this has shaken their world. Buy it if you like it, send a message the club by keeping your money in your pocket if you find it that abhorrent.

Hmm, you were way ahead until very recently. Seems a bit fishy that they got so many votes in such a short amount of time.

Now I have never been and will never be 'ITK', but a mate from Birmingham today asked me whether we were in for a Blues 'keeper. When I said that there had been reports of interest in Butland he replied in the affirmative with the comment, "I know his mum and that's what she was saying". Only a tiny snippet so yes, I know there's little substance. Just thought I'd share as it seems a bit of a strange thing for her to come out with if we haven't made an approach. Not really like we're a big enough step up from Birmingham for it to be worth a fabricated brag.

Would you like a broader brush?

Windows Media Player is gash. VLC Player can decode pretty much any format of video file - best media program out there. Didn't receive my ticket today so I guess they're going out in batches. They're certainly keen, it's a good eight and a half weeks until kick off.

Will almost certainly make the trip up for this, about time I finally managed a Manchester away day. Only fifty-ish quid for an advance rail ticket from Southampton Central, though probably worth waiting for confirmation of fixture disruptions first. Especially necessary for me as I have to miss the first home game due to a wedding (which frustratingly would be more than my life's worth to miss). Can't be waiting until the 3rd weekend of our season to watch a live match! Guess that means my ST will be up for grabs for Wigan at SMS.

Using the Adam and Joe 'Bobby De Niro' song ( ) His name is Jay Rod [Ooooh!], Jay Rodriguez [Aaaah!], He's a lover-ly person [Ooooh!], And a very good striker [Aaaah!]. End thread.

Blimey, some tough tests in that lot. Hope Udinese bring a strong side, would be good to see the likes of Di Natale in action. Imagine the Ajax game will sell well too. Who are we plundering from Bristol City then - Adomah, Bolasie? Going back in for Fontaine?

Interesting, so where's the cut-off for JCL status? Season ticket holder for the last 5 years? Last 3 years? Bought matchday tickets for >75% of home matches in the past few seasons? I've been a season ticket holder for the past two seasons and bought my tickets week-by-week before that. I've barely managed to get to any away games since we were relegated to the Championship. Do I still pass the test? Look, I get where you're coming from but a full stadium means more revenue for transfers etc. Handily JCLs seem quite happy to splash out on success, better to wring them for every penny they're worth

Somebody at Storm ought to be in a bit of trouble though - found it impossible to log in using Google Chrome whereas Firefox and IE are fine. Also my renewal email arrived with a 'From' address of chris@stormconsulting.co.uk - they might want to change that to tickets@saintsfc.co.uk

I've heard some of the racist comments first-hand, it does happen. Even if it were infrequent that would be too often. I find it disgusting that anybody could talk about another human being in that manner, let alone a player at the club they supposedly support. It doesn't matter whether it's related to his ability or not, it's an abhorrent attitude and something that you'd hope we were long past by now. Clearly not all abuse directed towards Guly is racist, that would be moronic to suggest, but it cannot be ignored that there is a dark undercurrent and a minority with an agenda.

You forgot to say that he lacks creativity and almost never manages to make a valuable contribution in the build-up to a goal. What is it that causes such vitriol towards one of our own players? Not saying that criticism is a bad thing, but it goes far beyond that with Guly when he's made a scapegoat for everything. It's a complete myth that he lacks a decent workrate. Perhaps when he first came to England that was true but our coaching team have sorted it big-time. Whenever he's played at RM now he really puts a shift in tracking back and covering Richardson/Butterfield when they're maruading forward. Can't pass? He's probably got one of the best touches in the squad. Again, for some reason Guly is vilified for a couple of passes going astray in a match, whereas our golden boys such as Lallana and Lambert get off scot-free. The slate's wiped clean when they pull off a bit of magic, so why not for Guly? He lacked goals in the latter half of the season but created many. Anyway, 11 strikes for the season wasn't it? Not a bad return in anyone's books (better than a good few teams' leading men), especially for a guy mostly played out of position on the flank.