ashnats

Have I been away and missed something? What's happened? We're better than last season, the quality of football is better than it was, and we have our youth academy back. I thought all was well?

Attendance is about as expected, 3rd highest so far in the group stages, I.e. Not the best, not the worst. More than 5x what they had in the last home game. They will come back again.

think it is just acoustics. I am in the kingsland nr the chapel end, and it is usually louder than the northam - and actually the away fans make more noise in the northam than the home fans do, usually. for what it is worth, I don't get the singing thing myself, I've come to cheer the team on, not to go to church and sing hymns. I yell encouragement or frustration depending on what is happening on the pitch. it's not a sing-song. I very much doubt the players even notice, they'll be hopefully paying attention to the game.

get out now whilst you still can.

Young anyone may disagree. I think puel is a better manager for saints, because youth is important to us, much happier with our academy again with puel in charge, and the academy is one of the best and most unique things about saints.

A Troy Polamalu-esque performance from Romeu today. We look good for another top half finish...

ORLY?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/1858995/labours-shadow-health-secretary-diane-abbott-brands-the-17million-voters-who-backed-brexit-as-racists/

I don't get it. I keep hearing he took it past 5 players, but he was running across the penalty area, he didn't go past any of them? He didn't do anything tricksy it was just bad defending. I don't even think it was the best goal in that game, let alone of the season!?

we probably will be - i think it is unlikely to relate to Saints, and if it does, we'll deal with it responsibly. more likely to be from his time at Villa, they have always been a bit dodge.

and this from the weekend; http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/ronald-koeman-never-took-risk-8859889 Romeu back in love with football after the negativity of Koeman's no-risk approach.

genius from Puel, saving Austin for later in the game, I don't think he would have had the same impact from 0mins. Long can wear them down, Austin can finish them off...

We look brilliant, such a good passing side, this is how football should be played! Commentator just came I think, our build up play is fantastic. We just need to put it in the net. I'm going 2-0 saints.

no poccetinhioio would never have presided over any unprofessional behaviour. on another topic, anyone see the Spurs Chelsea game last season, now there is an example of real unprofessional behaviour, with a danger to limb as well.

JWP having a great game, driving forward with the ball, best I've seen him play - can't believe anyone think he is having a bad game?! I'd like Martina to win his place, he has to be the most improved player in the last 12 months, he was awful at first, but has settled now into a very good player.

I'm not saying there aren't positives - I even stated the one I found. It is a genuine question - can you name some of the positive outcomes? I'm finding it hard to get a straight answer to this from people who voted out. What can we look forward to when we're out? how does the post-EU UK differ to the current one? (from a positive perspective, ignoring all of the doom-gloom) - all the talk now is how it won't be much worse than now. yippee, but will anything be better?

can someone tell me what the positives are of Brexit? Apart from the 350m a week for the NHS I mean? Is it that the economy hasn't completely collapsed (yet)? The only positive I have been able to find is that it is considered extremely unlikely that we will escape EU regulations relating to climate control, and that we won't be able to veto the more strict regulations anymore, meaning we will end up more environmentally friendly than if we stayed in. Is there anything else?

you are watching NFL because NFL is a better sport - it is better run, with the aim for every franchise to gravitate towards 8-8. It means even the less good franchises can dream of a superbowl win in the next 4-5 years. It is also not all about money, because it is controlled with caps etc. it's bout winning. Soccerball, on the other hand, especially now with 'FFP', is a game of haves and have-nots, and is all about the money and club size. Which is what makes the Leicester story quite so amazing. now we are back to normal, saints will be midtable, until one year they'll be relegated, and maybe they'll come up again, maybe they won't and someone like west brom will take their place as a top ten side, before falling away, whilst the big 4 or 5 continue to widen the gap. no idea why you are watching golf though.

to be fair, it is nowhere near as bad as the ted bates statue. I think it is a reasonable likeness of when he was younger, and the proportions are ok. there was not a single appendage on Ted's that was proportionally correct. In fact, looking back, it can only have been done so wrong by someone deliberately. even the football was one of those 5-a-side practise ones.

this is a good thread for identifying the idiots and trolls, and then putting them on ignore. (e.g. that Verlaine fella, MarkSFC) so can someone please tell me how to put people on ignore? thanks.

Excellent performance, so so unlucky not to get at least a point. great passing on the ground football, I think we'll be just fine. Boufal will be brilliant in this team. Anyone who thinks we didn't deserve a point is probably a pompey troll, this could be an opportunity to cull them, because any saints fan would have been proud of the performance today and there was nothing wrong with the system whatsoever. complain about strikers, fine, but nothing wrong with puel today...

agree. he will definitely get a full England cap or two before the next world cup, wouldn't surprise me if he plays in the next friendly or two.

actually, pied/martin should only be +0.4, so I'll turn it down to +0.7 overall

shouldn't these numbers be weighted? boufal not being as good as Mane (I think boufal will be better though), is surely much more important than our 3rd keeper situation. I couldn't care less if Taylor is fractionally worse than Gazzaniga. I would sya this; Mccarthy/ stek - I'd prefer McCarthy (just do) +1 Pied/Martina - better with both, even if injured for now +1 Taylor/Gazzaniga - couldn't care less 0 hojberg / wanyama - wanyama more established -0.5 Redmond / juanmi/Ramirez +1 (obvs) Boufal / Mane really tough, will say -0.4 to try and remain balanced Austin / Pelle - biggest loss, -1 final total = +1.1 so, turns out we're stronger! bonus!

All MP's fault, he deliberately 'mentored' him into an arsehole. Actually, looking back, it was a blessing in disguise losing all the ******s from the club. (or at least replacing them with players we can pretend aren't ******s until they move to Liverpool and become ******s again) “We don’t want to be judged by our young, handsome, good-looking players,” said Pochettino. “We just want what’s fair. We can be a-------- as well"