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Did the club bring it to Wembley then? I was under the impression they had it in storage, as opposed to any individual fan.

I'll likely be in Waterloo at the crack of dawn, but in terms of 'decent' pubs it doesn't look like much is open around there until 11. Quite possibly then!

Sod it, I'm too tempted to make a big day of it. Braving the trains it is. For anybody doing the same from Southampton Central, I'd recommend buying (and collecting) tickets in advance.

Almost exactly the same plan, though I don't think we'll get more than 5 or 6 pubs in. Starting at Waterloo at 11am and probably leave Brewdog Soho around 3pm. Originally had a plan that started at Borough Market and worked across from there. Then I realised that the market is closed on Sundays...

Yeah but you can't expect the people to support AND think for themselves.

Also: @OptaJoe: 7 - Dusan Tadic has been involved in seven goals in his last four Premier League games (scored 2, assisted 5). Scheming. Brilliant end-of-season form against some tough opponents.

Advertising revenue and sponsorship, mostly.

Equal 7th highest number of chances created in a season lacking security of starts. Not to be sniffed at. Tadic is a creator and he creates. There's a few blokes around me at St. Mary's that are on Dusan's back for roughly 50% of the time the ball's in his vicinity. The common theme being that he's a "lazy ****". "You're ****, Dusan" comes up a lot too - and the calls for him to be subbed at half-time never get old. For some reason it doesn't seem to matter how often they're made to look daft by him having a hand in a goal moments later. Even if Tadic is a "lazy ****", very few teams in the modern game possess (nor require) ten outfield workhorses. Tadic lacking consistency is indeed a fair criticism -and one that Koeman has levelled himself. But that's to more to do with his output than effort. In terms of running, he puts in significantly more per match than the league average for midfielders anyway. Had Dusan been able to perform at a slightly higher level this season then yes, his stats would read even better (as may the league table). He'd also be off in the Summer. I'm a fan.

Plymouth. Which I suppose does qualify him as one of the few people that gives a toss about what Portsmouth fans think or say.

Cinema ticket - £10-12 (standard seat, non-3D), £14 (standard seat, 3D), £18 (premier seat, IMAX) Gig - £10 (new band/comedian), £20 (mid-sized act), £30-£70+ (mainstream act) Theatre - £20-£200+ I'm really not sure your issue is with football so much as modern entertainment pricing in general. Refuse to see how £14 (with the public fully aware that proceeds are going to charity, FFS) doesn't represent value for money. Especially compared with how far that money would get you elsewhere.

According to The Mirror, yes. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/revealed-andros-townsend-8million-escape-7724519 At that price I'd suggest it'd be worth a punt. Has a touch of the 'Bertrand' transfer about it.

Completely agree with this. Now that Townsend's got his head down he's making a bit of a nonsense of the long-held belief that he's one-dimensional. Though I maintain concerns that he could revert to type without something to fight for.

That argument makes zero sense. Who could have seen the way forward for Leicester 12 months ago, beyond planning for another season of avoiding relegation? The money being loaded towards the top 5 or 6 is nothing new and was very much still the case in 2015-16 too. Arguably this season has shown it to be anything other than a flash in the pan. With Man City, Man United, Liverpool AND Chelsea all faltering (to various extremes) it demonstrates the frailty of even the biggest clubs. That can't all be solved by simply throwing money at the problems. Three seasons of 'top 8' establishes us rather nicely. I'm not saying that pushing on won't require redoubling our efforts, nor that it won't rely on a bigger club or two stumbling. The crucial point is ensuring that we're primed to pounce when they do.

A fair few fans going OTT over missing out on Europe (not necessarily on here - bear with me) are the exact same ones that were saying in January that we were doomed for the drop. Shows a) what a topsy turvy season we've had and b) just how quickly expectations build. All in all we had a slow start then a good run, a horrendous run, a blinding run and are now cruising over the line. The horrendous run put paid to our chances of a higher finish; end of.

30,057.

Would certainly be interested in this. Next Summer sounds reasonable.

Was hoping to be sat elsewhere e.g. Northam, but couldn't be arsed to hold off (and as designated ticket buyer for my group I'd be for it if I waited and then forgot). Just above the dugout won't necessarily be a bad thing I guess.

The transcript for that AGM's available here: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4000947.print/ Quite a read...

10 assists, 3 goals in the league this season and last alone (30 starts and 23 cameos). Also an assist in the League Cup this season and in the FA Cup in 2014-15. Clearly not Beckham-esque but clearly also nowhere near as shabby as you inferred. He's added a lot more bite to his midfield play too. Can't think of a better recent example than him robbing Allen/Skrtel, directly leading to our 3rd goal against Liverpool.

Absolutely. I referred purely to signings due to the main thrust of the thread.

You'd think that money would be better spent on our 'black box', as it were. The thing is, if it's us and Liverpool vying for a player, which team will they pick? Some still say we should've signed Coutinho but what chance did we have? It's exactly why our scouting and recruitment is so key to our progression; we've got to get there before the bigger boys (or relying-on-historical-size boys) get so much as a sniff.

Glad you lot are finding it worth a read. The spike in traffic would suggest that quite a few Saintsweb users had a browse! As I hinted at yesterday, I'm primarily writing for myself i.e. as an outlet - but if it finds an audience then so much the better. Fair comment. And lo, for all the statistics in the world, football remains an opinions game.

For some inexplicable reason I've decided to start writing a Saints blog entitled 'Say It Saint So'. You know the drill by now; some of you will politely pledge to read it but probably won't bother, then I'll stop updating it in a month. Anyway, I thought I'd lob a link up on here just in case anybody's able to garner entertainment from my ramblings. First three posts are up: Football Chants: A Pedant’s Review Mythbusting, #1: Graziano Pelle Fantasy Premier League - Saintly Options

Yep, aways used to make me think of James Beattie when I walked past that. The full list in The Dell is Channon Court, Stokes Court, Wallace Court, Bates Court and Le Tissier Court.

MLG, the criticism of you is generally harsh and OTT but this comment is a ****take. Assuming the 'modern' era to be post-Premier League then yes, games rearranged in this manner are very much a modern problem. You know full-well that people are peeved because matches are moved willy-nilly in this division and that the European competitions exacerbate that. Nobody's purely frustrated that it's due to Europe - it's because of the cumulative effect of all rearrangements and you know that. Don't you attend matches, or do you simply never have any plans in your life to clash with ever-shifting fixtures?