The9

Not remotely bothered, we'll all continue to call it St Mary's anyway.

Bednarek looks better than both of them at defending on what I've seen so far. Functional defender, marks well, good in the air, decent positioning, quick and capable on the ball and decent distribution and awareness.

Wasn't even the worst Premier League manager this season. Palace somehow lost 8 straight matches without scoring a goal and still finished 11th just because they were no longer being managed by Frank de Boer (though admittedly Hodgson oversaw the last 3 of those 8 ).

He tried Ward-Prowse up front pre-season and once during the League, it didn't work, that was every idea he had, I think.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaabsolute garbage. Puel with this squad would have had us in the top half. Pellegrino took a mainly attacking team which had too many matches that was crap at finishing and turned it into a random bunch of individuals who didn't even know they were meant to be trying to score goals on the rare occasions they played matches.

That's basically my concern too. We've played 3 CBs for 2 months and they won't have been coaching that at every level of the club, Les won't like it in the longer term (which is of course him missing the point again, our system is now predictable and easy to prevent).

Cheers, I saw this one on one of the other sites and couldn't find it again when I looked to add it to the OP. It's definitely a new collar style - but then UA have proven already that they're not averse to giving us the same collar style in different seasons so they've got plenty of other collar styles we haven't had yet...

That's because I've barely been on here this season and there's nothing whatsoever to go on regards UA leaks or other teams' releases.

That "striped back" thing has been completely ignored by Newcastle, Palace, Huddersfield and Bournemouth this season, and two of those don't even have the excuse of having been promoted after deciding their kit, so it's either been ignored, isn't an actual regulation, or is a lot more complicated in practice than initially thought.

You may recall from the Cortese bailout season that him cancelling the adidas deal in January led to us having to go with our own brand. I somehow doubt this will have happened.

We're now the only red/white striped team left in the Premier League, so that'll do for me.

They made a statement on the day. It was actually quite reasonable. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/swansea-city-southampton-premier-league-14630043

The FA Handbook retains the terms "long term" and "short term" loan (over 93 days and 28-93 days) in the 2017/18 document (but it applies to all levels of football, including some without Transfer Windows). https://www.thefa.com/-/media/cfa/global/files/rules-and-regulations/the-fa-handbook-2017-18.ashx Here are the rules anyway: 6.6.2 Short Term Loan Transfers – A Club can have up to a maximum of twelve (12) Short Term Loans during a Playing Season. The minimum period of a Short Term Loan transfer must be twenty-eight (28 ) days with a maximum of ninety-three (93) days in any one Playing Season. The Competition shall not approve more than two (2) Short Term Loan transfers to or from any one Club, including Premier League and Football League Clubs, at any one time. On completing the National League System Temporary Transfer Form or FA form H3, a Club must send the original to the FA, one copy to the Company, and a third copy to the secretary of the League with which the player is registered. To extend the period of any Short Term Loan transfer a further National League System Temporary Transfer Form or FA form H3 must be completed and copies sent as directed above. If the Short Term Loan transfer is extended only the Club for whom the Player was originally registered will be allowed to cancel the agreement at any time within the extension period, i.e. after 28 days. In the case of a goalkeeper Clubs may mutually agree, if they so wish, to include a recall clause in the agreement to enable the Club for who the Player was originally registered to recall the Player at any time during the loan period. Players other than goalkeepers may not be recalled within the first month, i.e. 28 days, of any loan. Any Short Term Loan transfer which may terminate after the last day for registrations may be extended for a further period provided the maximum period of 93 days is not exceeded. Short Terms Loan Transfers which become permanent before their expiry date shall not count against a Club’s quota of days or Players. 6.6.3 Long Term Loan Transfers – Clubs may have up to a maximum of six (6) Long Term Loan Transfers of any age during a Playing Season. Long Term Loan Transfers shall be for a full Playing Season; or from any date prior to 31st August to any date between 1st and 31st January; or from any date between 1st and 31st January (the January transfer window) to the end of the Playing Season. A Player on Long Term Loan may not be recalled, except for a goalkeeper or where the Player is to be transferred permanently by the Club (or club) holding his registered contract. A Player other than a goalkeeper so recalled cannot be permitted to play for the Club (or club) holding his registration after such recall until the end of the Playing Season. Players so recalled can only be replaced by a further Long Term Loan with permission from the Company. Long Term Loan Transfers will not count against the number of Short Term Loan Transfers. To extend the period of any long term loan transfer a further National League System Temporary Transfer Form or FA form H3 must be completed and copies sent as directed above. The Competition shall not approve more than two (2) Long Term Loan transfers to or from any one club, including Premier League and Football League Clubs, at any one time. ------------------

Hit the NEXT button here to show why the top 6 are better... it's very simple. There's also much of a muchness across the others. https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2016/aug/03/interactive-exploring-the-relationship-between-premier-league-clubs-finances-and-their-success See also this from 16/17, the first season with the new overseas tv deal:

I guess the easy way to work this out is to see how many draws there are across the bottom 14 teams over the past 10 years, to see how even they are. It'll include draws against the top 6 too but that shouldn't be significant. I don't think we need to look at anything other than the table to see that top 6 vs the rest is skewed more now than ever. No, I'm not doing it.

No, it's more competitive in the bottom 14 because everyone overall has improved due to having £60m to get more of the best players in the world (we've gone backwards by a couple of players and 10 places) but the top sides are still able to spend even more due to the various spending regulations and the very top players aren't interested in signing for anyone outside the top 6. And only one team can win a match no matter how good both sets of players are. Which was particularly true with Liverpool and Man City in the Champions League. There are various factors for how the likes of Burnley have done well, and as Leicester proved if you get the right combination, some shrewd tactics and a pile of luck you can overachieve, but the usual determinant is wages. I can appreciate how Saints fans don't see the spending correlation, but it's there. As an indication, Saints were the 18th richest club in world football at the end of last season, showing that everyone in the Prem has got enough money to attract better players than before from better clubs elsewhere.

Depends how many left backs we have at the club I'm guessing. As we noticed under Koeman he's ideally suited as a narrow left sided midfielder in a 5-3-2 though.

Not sure how it's a "decline in the League" when what's happened is the top 6 have gone out of their way to ensure that's where they stay and the reason the remaining 14 are scoring lower points is because they're all beating each other and spreading the points around evenly. We in particular have contributed to a load of draws that reduce the number of points that can be won overall. If we'd bothered attempting to attack/finish and won against Swansea, Huddersfield (A), Stoke (A) and Newcastle in the first 8 games of last season we'd have 9 more points and probably finished 10th (and be moaning about it compared to 8th the previous season). 15 draws from 38 games suggests we were a good illustration of how equal the bottom 14 are. Only three of the bottom 14 drew fewer than 10 games, only one of the top 6 drew more than 7 games.

He's on a hiding to nothing at Leicester, always changes half the team for midweek games and Leicester's greatest ever success came as a result of them picking as stable an eleven as they possibly could for the longest possible time. He should just be glad he didn't come 7th and get into Europe or you'd see the helmets come out with their "pick the same team every three/four days for 4 solid months of the season" nonsense.

2-0 on the night now.

Which games under Hughes didn't we win that you expected us to?

There's no such thing as a "recall clause" any more, only season long loans which can be terminated in the January transfer window.

Forren is my benchmark and he's been a lot better than him. Gaston also had a lot more chances.

Who are your two left backs then?

I think you may be right, I also think that would be a shame for us. There's probably a full team of players I'd rather see leave before him.