jonjapan

Good point. Weird that we only need to win four games and Cortese has his European football... Is that correct? Would playing our best team each time in this contest really doom us to likely relegation...?

This please! Quite do-able? LAST SIXTEEN: Sunderland v Middlesbrough Swindon v Aston Villa Wigan v Bradford Leeds v Southampton Norwich v Tottenham Liverpool v Swansea Chelsea v Manchester United Reading v Arsenal QUARTER FINAL: Sunderland v Aston Villa Wigan v Southampton Tottenham vLiverpool Manchester United v Arsenal SEMI-FINAL: Sunderland v Southampton Tottenham v Arsenal FINAL: Southampton 3 Arsenal 2

Are you over here now btw?

Yep - even the footballers here have had enough... Southampton's Japanese inbound immigration rate set to double?

Anyone gonna join me Sun Sep 2nd 23:54 at Footnik in Ebisu for Premiership LIVE!! Southampton v Man Utd? http://www.footnik.net/english/locations/

Wanna start watching some games together in Tokyo? I'm jon@tigermusic.jp btw

Yes you should be able to see the Man U game in any british pub or sports bar - though it will be late on a Sunday night so not every bar will stay open. SUN 2 SEP Man Utd Barclays Premier League 16:00 H Japan is plus 8 hours - so a 24:00 start... I just checked a few websites and saw they don't promise individual games... Have someone call for you to ask if they'll stay open is best... http://www.whynotjapan.com/guide/sportsbar-en.htm

As above... Great biography of Adkins here suggests he'll be a relentlessly positive plus for us, and has got here the hard way compared to Mancini... http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/the-hardest-job-is-done-for-southampton-manager Predicts it'll be 'impossible' for Saints to stay in the top two from start to finish again, however...

Yep - a 'reverse Blackpool' would be nice - slowly get better - and then lower Prem survival at the end will seem like a hard fought win... So many web pundits are predicting us to go down right now... 90% of them on this article put us at 18-20th: http://hereisthecity.com/2012/08/10/revealed-where-southampton-will-finish-next-season/ Hot signings soon though please!

Just read this on the often-interesting bleacher report. Suggests not only did Dan get a famous team, but we may be a up to a mill better off, wages etc included over a year... Transfers Out Southampton lost one player of note in the offseason. Dan Harding, who was the second-choice left back behind Danny Fox, left Saints for Nottingham Forest in a deal worth 500 thousand pounds. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1290238-southampton-a-look-back-at-saints-preseason-preparations-and-transfer-moves

Fair enough, but just saw in Daily Mail 2011 that EPL wages are five times Championship wages: Average Premier League wages have reached £22,353 a week - before lucrative bonuses - or £1.16million a year. Average Championship earnings are £4,059 a week (£211,068 a year), less than a fifth of players one division above. So perhaps we'd save £200,000-500,000 a year for every little-used squad player we cut. Add possible £300,000 sale income, and it looks smart to keep the squad lean. Forest seem happy to have Dan so all looks good for him anyway.

How much could Saints expect to get from selling a player like Dan? Is it mostly just about reducing our wage bill?

Great blog - thanks! Voted on FB... 2nd right now...

Hi HK_Phoey Great stuff. Wish I'd seen your post back in March - managed to watch our final game with a neutral anyway... I'm jon@tigermusic.jp Or find me at http://www.facebook.com/SaintsInJapan

Somehow that kind of defensive formation looks great to me for taking on the top teams. So we play on the break, and as mulletsaint said, confuse them by flexibly making runs and swapping positions. Fox and Richardson would need to practice running back faster and shielding the back three more proactively though, right?