Brave Sir Robin

Presumably because those working with the squad are confident that we don't need to. If we have a good enough squad of players to meet this season's objectives, there's no point in bringing a load of new signings in at this stage and having to start the team bonding process all over again.

Joy - Watching Saints finally getting promoted back to the Prem with all my family around me on my birthday. Wept for hours! Sadness - Relegation in 2005. Just could not accept that we were no longer a Premier League side, especially because of the way we just limped out without a fight after everything we'd been through to stay up year after year for 26 years. The horror! Amusement - Man Utd changing their shirts at half time because that was the only possible reason why we might be out-playing them, then still losing

We've just signed the 3 most promising youngsters from the best academy in the country, a solid international defender and arguably Celtic's best player. Considering most people would consider us to still be a relatively small club in Premier League terms at this stage, that's pretty good going. In the unlikely event that by Christmas it doesn't look like the squad's strong enough to finish mid-table, we'll no doubt be in a position to splash out another £10m-£20m on another 1 or 2 quality players. Plus it's possible we'll sign at least 1 more before the current window closes. Whoever's to blame for that deserves a standing ovation imo!

Chelsea Man City Man Utd Saints 14th Stoke Sunderland Palace

I cant help feeling that it would be naive to expect any improvement on last season if we dont strengthen the squad any further. MP clearly has promise, but he isn't Mourinho and we aren't Chelsea! Sure, some of our players will have improved, but others wont perform as well as last season. Overall our squad probably isn't hugely improved so far. If we sign a real quality striker, that might be enough for us to be fairly assured of survival. If we want a top 10 finish we surely just don't have the strength in depth right now, so need a bare minimum of 2 more players who are better than what we already have for that to be realistic. Having said that, it's encouraging to hear bullish rhetoric about everyone feeling united, happy and confident. That kind of mentality often leads to teams over achieveing (Greece winning the euro's for example).

I would've thought it was Astori.

I think we need both, but a striker is slightly more urgent. A proper, best we could possibly attract given our status type, too. Someone along the lines of Lukaku. And yes, we'd probably need to spend upwards of £20m and £80k+ in wages per week. That's if we want to push on. If we fail to significantly improve our strength in depth, I think we're realistically looking at finishing 12th - 18th at present.

Oh ok then, we better make sure we have bad players in the reserves, don't rotate the squad and hope no one gets tired or injured!

Can't have too much strength in depth. Plus there's a possibility that Gaston might be off. I would imagine we're simultaneously trying to sign a striker as well.

He would've been in a better position to help England bring through the next generation of world class players by staying at Saints! Luke Shaw alone is a great legacy. I just hope his replacement does as well as he did, or it'll be damaging to both club and country.

Pacy winger Sorry, couldn't resist!

I reckon this'll definitely happen. Probably next season. Seems to me that Cortese is big into cutting costs to maximise profits. Opting for a template design kit rather than a bespoke one was one way of doing this, a monotone badge is cheaper to reproduce en masse, a simpler design will be cheaper still. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see something even as simple as just a gold halo. Frankly, if it means more money to spend on players, and our ascendency continues, it's fine by me!

Whoops sorry double post Run away!

This

This

None taken

I think you'll find that the CofE wears the same colours at the same times of year as their RC counterparts. It is all, after all, "one holy catholic and apostolic church"

Has to be Le Tiss for me Keegan and Channon very close behind though, if for no other reason than the delight I felt at reminding my Liverpool supporting classmates about this all the way through school!:

Indeed. ... I'd consider applying for a job in SFC's marketing dept., only Matt Le Tiss (aka God) tells me NC isn't the nicest of folk to work for!

A Fulham supporting friend of mine tells me he's something of a fan favourite up there. Spent years being a good, consistent, dependable rock in their defence. Too old and past it for us imo now though, unfortunately.

...and if I could work out how to edit posts on here, I'd change that last bit so it doesn't say this years kit twice in such quick succession, but it's early days yet for me. I'll try to keep a check on my grammar in future. COYR!, btw

Been reading this forum for the last couple of years, but haven't posted till now. About this years kit... I was as unimpressed as the next man when I first saw the lack of stripes, black shorts & white socks....until I got to mass on Sunday (hear me out!). You see, the catholic church celebrates the 12 apostles at various points in the year (the apostles, of course, being saints), this Sunday, the day when the new kit first went on sale, being one such day. On these days, the priest and servers wear red robes with gold embroidered details over their white garb, the sleeves of which protude from under the red. The similarity in appearence was striking! Of course, when priests are away from their church, they wear black with a white collar. This years away kit has a similar look about it. Cant help wonder if the Don thought an ecclesiastical theme for his Saints might be nice this year?! Now I stress this is just a theory, and admit it's just as likely to be coincidence (after all, I could just as easily point out that we seem to be paying homage to Postman Pat's van!), but the familiarity and connotations of this years kit are now making this years kit feel a bit more inspiring to me. Hopefully it'll do the same for Gaston and the raft of Spanish and South American players we're bound to sign for silly money any day now!