the_emu

He regularly clashed with Patrick Vieira... He may or may not be talented on the pitch but his character profile wouldn't have fit.

Am I the only saints fan that are now finding these articles just a bit tedious, having been churned out ad nauseam for the best part of 9 months now. They are just plagiarised vanity puff pieces by wannabe investigative sports journos. Nothing new whatsoever.

The system by design is to get more people through the turnstiles and help widen the fan base where ST holders cant make a game as an exception, its not to turn ST holders into casual attendees for premium games and then tout the rest. Perfectly sound reasoning to me.

Some good points - the third is very telling. Not sure about the US but this has phenomena has been around for donkey's years in Australia, where the kids first sport tends to be soccer where mums don't want their precious angels hurt - concussion injuries is just one excuse in a long line that mums will have in their armory in an effort to wrap their young ones up in cotton wool. The problem for football being though that when the kids grow into their teens they swap codes through pressure from peers, dads or dare I say it is just a more enjoyable environment (ie Australian Rules being one of them). I think the key takeaway is as CanadaSaint put it, its going to be a generational shift.

For last year (13/14) the median YoY revenue growth for all PL clubs that weren't promoted or relegated across the two years was ~£5m however if you take out the big 6 and their mind boggling commercial deals the figure drops to ~£2.3m. For those wanting to scrutinize my calculations, my source was the guardian website, figures were for commercial revenue exc TV rights and matchday, and it was the year our commercial revenue grew by £3.5m. I couldn't use latest figures because they are not released for all clubs. Make of that what you will, but my take on it is that increasing revenue outside the top 6 is easier said than done.

Even though I'm not in the US I'm a bit surprised that you missed one major factor - broadcasting exposure. NBC paid a reported $1Bn roughly double what was paid 3 years ago and importantly is now broadcasting every game - this is a game changer in the states and so I would actually say it's naive for us to not try and tap into it as a long term growth market. Hence, I thinkEurope (esp Europa) is not as critical as remaining consistently competitive in the PL over the coming years - I would argue beating Man U at Old Trafford on prime time has greater long term value than FC Mitjiland midweek.

Thanks for the info, wasn't aware of who it was with... a bit of digging revealed this.. "LONDON, UK– August 10th, 2011 – SapientNitro, part of Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), announced today that Football League Interactive (FLi) has signed a multi-million pound deal with integrated marketing and technology services firm SapientNitro to build the next generation digital platform for its member clubs. With 86 club websites (65 Football League, 9 Premier League and 12 non-league)" So in short, it's not all clubs but I'm guessing the lesser clubs who didn't have a decent marketing budget at the time. Frustratingly all the clubs above and around us have bespoke sites. I wonder how long it goes for, how cost effective it would be to opt out of and whether the club are seriously contemplating it. It is, which deal? Have I missed something as I've heard nothing but rumours about the Under Armour deal. Spurs deal reported is for them to get "up to" 10m a year, and Spurs commercial revenue is about 7 times ours. Our deal is reportedly 5m per year with Adidas so I think we are doing ok at the moment. Also not sure of the source this article suggests that our 3 year deal excludes the "gap" year and we have another year with adidas.

Reality check - the online Saints store is going to be our only real avenue to global revenue in terms of kit merchandising. Having a couple of shirts hidden on a rack behind an array of other clubs shirts isn't going to cut the mustard. That's why its pivotal to invest in a solid e-commerce and SOE strategy, fully integrated website, rich content, social media, mobile integration yadi-yada, none of which we really have but as an outsider looking in seem to be making some inroads.

Edited...

Is it just me or do his younger photo's (re 2:30 in) look like Jordy Clasie.

" I think that’s why he wanted our job. He is a man who will have done his homework. He will know the history. He will have researched our sub-cultures and customs." Whilst their supporters are deluded, I actually quite like Klopp. The the way he came across today in his presser, especially when he totally debunks the above by saying (not word for word) - he's a normal guy, Liverpool's history is history, their supporters are not particularly special and the same as countless clubs the world over and so the pressure of coaching liverpool is no different, the all the external hype is superfluous and he doesn't really give a sh*t about it.

“We have another player in the academy who is showing even better promise than Sadio,” - Source

"However, what we’ve seen in the opening two months of the season has fired a shot across the bowels of all those who let doubt creep in." Has someone been analysing Alpine's stool sample?

I don't have 5p, I'm not paying for the bag

The first? Oh my you whinging poms are living in a bubble.

That's because you were in R's stomping ground. Not sure you would have got a warm welcome if you were down bottom of Kings Road after dark.

We can play a quick game with Pelle. What some underestimate is the amount of attention he gets, which should free up time and space around him. The reason why all too often he hasn't been influential (as opposed to poor) away from home is not down to him but down to the defensive lineup and tactics we have deployed. Get the ball to him quick, on the deck, runners around him and behind the lines quickly and we can do a job on Chelsea. Go defensive with an absent midfield and we will get destroyed.

I like this from tonight's game And this had been coming. Brahimi dances into the Chelsea box from the left. He waltzes past a static Ivanovic and looks for the top right. Begovic sticks out a strong arm and saves brilliantly, but it’s all he can do to parry the ball towards Andre Andre on the penalty spot. The man so good they named him twice sweeps a first-time shot into the unguarded net. Poor Ivanovic. A Chelsea legend, but time marches on and this can’t continue.

Oh FFS 5 minutes in on TSN via Kodi then chucked me out and can't get back in on any channels.. Anywone else with same experience?

At a guess ...because the man who has replaced him has only played 45minutes of senior football...

Of FFS Davis and JWP together again....really?

Would dearly love Juanmi to score a brace - looks like he's getting them on target.

Well there you have it - Kpeman... Yoshi "is selected because we need a good defender". Says it all really.

I am left scratching my head with Yoshi's selection.... other than to say why play our strongest orthodox XI when we rarely do anyway. Koeman must know something everyone else doesn't. I do hope he is asked this question before the game, but will most likely be some crap question about Morgan and Luke.

This will just mean the issue will start 15 minutes earlier. My advice is upgrade capacity or business reputation will be shot and Willow will be singing for his supper in 6 months time when subs are due for renewal.