californiasaint

It was O Jogo Sounds like if the offer is there, he's prepared to take it. I can't fault him for chasing a new experience for the twilight of his career but will be gutted if he leaves.

Small feet, can't be trusted.

I know it was only 10 men but encouraging to see that many players in the area.

If the faith was really built on opposing western values, you really think they'd wait until they hit some minimum threshold of openness before doing something about it? Laughable. Attitudes like yours make it very easy for radicals to recruit. Think about that.

If the religion is such a problem why is it only becoming a threat to the West now, despite being around for centuries? The problem is a group of sick people are using Islam as a way to justify killing. One does not turn into a jihadist just by having Muslim faith or this would be a much larger problem going back a very long time. Again, millions of peaceful, not sick individuals out there. History has shown us Catholicism was used as a similar justification for killing innocents long ago. It is not a problem today. It's not the religion. It's sick people. Continuing to blame the religion only inflames the sick. Stop.

It's not religion, it's lunacy. Millions of peaceful religious people out there that don't feel a need to drive a truck through a promenade. If you blame religion, you're just adding to the problem.

Fonte is a natural leader. Despite joining the national side somewhat late in years, you can see that he has earned the respect and friendship of his teammates. It makes this run that much more enjoyable for me to watch. It will be a real test if Pepe is out. It helps that Ramsey is on suspension. Ronaldo is maturing and becoming less of a tw*t every day. He will probably never make it to the ranks of the humble, but (in addition to loving himself) he has immense love for the game, team, and country. You must respect that, along with his talent.

This + some additional design variant across the neck, I reckon.

Mané getting his price up!

T Rowe Price

As an American raised Saints fan I think this is a great idea. My one worry is that the team will need the commitment to stick it out as it will likely take at least a decade before a significant return on investment is achieved. However as others have said there is an incredible amount of potential, both in terms of potential players and fans. To address some of the comments above, there I agree that there is an incredible amount of raw athletic potential in the states. While one would expect this would correlate to more successful footballers, the reality is that the current system is weighted against producing them. Despite a decent of young Americans (ages 5-13) playing organized "soccer" this is almost exclusively on recreational teams with minimal commitment levels (a few months a year, poorly coached, lots of turnover, etc). Many of the most talented athletes from this pool abandon soccer once they attend high school (age 13+, the US equivalent of secondary school) to focus year-round on the big 3 sports (American Football, Basketball, and Baseball) in the hopes that high performance will attract university recruiters and scholarship offers. Then, once at university, the goal is to attract professional recruiters and land on a professional team. Therefore most of the soccer players remaining in the US who look to play professionally are those who simply love the game and continue to take whatever opportunities they have to play it. Unfortunately, because of the shoddy coaching and team structure outlined above, these players are quite often not very talented athletically (those are generally claimed by other sports) and/or technically (because they've been poorly developed). Contrast this with the women's side, who, without the competing rivalries of established professional football and baseball have seen much more robust development programs, much more support at the university level, and a much more competitive team on the international level. Second the tide is currently growing against allowing participation in football at the high school and university level. It is possible that in a few years' time the game will be deemed 'unsafe' to be played in schools, which would completely shift the development landscape. This, combined with a general growing interest in soccer due to historically better performance by the US national team, a surplus of funding $$$ injected into MLS, and growing media coverage of international soccer, means that a portion of prospective athletes could be persuaded to see professional soccer as a viable career path and join something like an academy program. Finally all these same reasons mean that there are many folks becoming interested in the PL. Most newcomers go to teams that they've heard of (the big 4). Anything to get Southampton on the map would be an increase as the majority of casual soccer fans here have never even heard of the team!

Certainly true but I've seen him make the same kind of dumb mistakes (poor clearances, mostly) for the national team, too, and he has plenty of excellent cover there. I'm fairly sure it's mental and hopefully it'll get ironed out.

Saints looked poor after the substitutions. Mentality changed. It's an entirely different team without Mane / a feeling of aggression. I watch Fonte the closest of any of the Saints and while I agree that he has looked very questionable this season (I think signing with Mendes and the national team callup has gotten in his head -- Portuguese are a mentally fragile bunch), that tackle was not out of character for him. Can recall several fairly reckless challenges last season where I thought "surely that's a pen" and he got away with it. He's never been afraid to slide in the area. I'm okay with it as long as it doesn't become routine.

Very encouraging. Black box seems to have done a nice piece of work on VVD.