Nordic Saint

We didn't and we wouldn't have; Les Reed did. Our next manager will have to meet the same requirements Puel did: to do as Reed wants him to do and to be prepared to accept a job where he is not 'the boss' where football matters are concerned. In the end, neither Pochettino nor Koeman could accept those limitations. So, it's unlikely Reed will appoint a strong character with his own ideas again.

Off the top of my head: Forster, Long, Hojbjerg, Reed, Targett, Boufal, Martina, Tadic, Gardos, Austin, Rodriguez, Pied, Caceres, McQueen, Hassen, Isgrove etc... most of the squad, basically, for one reason or another, although some of them were simply Les Reed's overhyped buys who've been found out.

You are just agreeing with a quote you wrote yourself. How desperate is that? There is no mention whatsoever of our fanbase in any of the comments, let alone anyone making fun of it. One poster simply says, "Do you think Southampton should play the big 4? I think they are in their place in the top 10."

Les Reed.

It feels like we're just treading water until Kat manages to sell the club and I can't see any significant changes taking place at the top or any major investment in players until she does. The atmosphere at the Club is so different to this time last year. What a difference a year makes.

On today's evidence, Andrea Ranocchia would be ideal. Hull have only got him on loan from Inter so he's available.

I assume whoever started this poll must be a Pompey fan: https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/portsmouth-v-southampton-are-saints-really-a-bigger-club-than-pompey/

How quickly things can change. Under Pochettino and Koeman we regularly beat top 6 sides and we expected to; under Puel we don't. I'm not sure it's all his fault. The squad has been severely weakened by the sake of our best players and the failure to replace them with players of a similar calibre, although perhaps we have also failed to appoint a manager of a similar calibre to the last 2. As you say, we can expect more of the same this summer.

Well, they certainly can't defend themselves.

If we had a decent goalkeeping coach, he would surely tell Forster to stand in front of his goal line instead of behind it. The recurring problem of Forster standing behind his line happened yet again for City's first goal. When the oppostion are pressing for a goal, he often retreats more than a foot into his goal, from which position he can save nothing.

A Saints fan running on the pitch, winning the ball during the game and attempting to score the winning goal v QPR during the Mick Channon Testimonial, at which the referee abandoned the game.

ALL of them aren't: just the ones it was fairly obvious from their recent form and injury record, were dodgy buys.

He seems to have found some form: http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2017/04/11/southampton-flop-juanmi-scores-again-was-he-sold-too-soon/

I doubt many people have. He hadn't played for a year before we signed him. I'd class him as semi-retired. At the other end of the career spectrum is, as others have said, is Josh Sims: one of the most promising youngsters we have ever had at Southampton.

I was pleased to see that the Chapel kop did actually sing and chant a couple of times during the Palace game. If some of the singers tucked away in the corners of the away end, where nobody notices them, moved to the Chapel end next season, it would, of course, vastly improve the atmosphere and help the team.

A good win against an in-form Palace side. Redmond, Ward-Prowse, McQueen and Stephens are all improving, which bodes well for the future. We never used our 3rd sub and it would have been good to see Sims come on.

Thank God we got a point today but we're still only 7 points off the bottom 3 As in many games this season, we dominated possession for the first 60 minutes and created lots of chances but had no goal scorer to finish them then Bournemouth's superior fitness began to show and we were just hanging on at the end As well as the penalty, they missed the 2 easiest chances of the game and fluffed a free-kick right in front of the goal. Let's hope Gabbiadini comes back soon We need his goals to get another win

If they did retrospective video reviews of past season, it would be interesting to see how many trophies would have to change hands. We might even have a couple more. In the interest of fairness, video technology can only be a good thing. The sooner it comes, the better, except for the 'big clubs'. who might lose some of their advantage.

"Southampton FC - Brasil 1 hr · OFICIAL: Chelsea chegou a um acordo com o Southampton por Virgil van Dijk! Os Blues pagarão £40M em Julho para o Saints e emprestarão Nathan Aké por uma temporada. Virgil, que não joga mais essa temporada, realizou sua ultima partida em janeiro, na vitória por 3-0 diante do Leicester. O que não podia piorar, ficou pior. Official: Chelsea came to an agreement with the Southampton for Virgil Van Dijk! The Blues will pay £ 40 m in July for the saints and lend Nathan Aké for a season. Virgil, that doesn't play anymore this season, has done his last departure in January, in the 3-0 win in front of the Leicester. What couldn't get any worse, it got worse." I copied that from the Saints Brazil fan site. I don't know where they go their info from. But £40M sounds about £20M less than we could get if we waiited for a bidding war in the summer. So, let's hope it's not true.

My grandfather lived at 457 Scotswood Road more than 100 years ago and his grandfather lived in Pudding Chare back in the 1840s. It's changed a lot since then. Quite a lot of young men moved south from Newcastle in the pre-war era, looking for work in the docks. I always think there's some affinity between the 2 cities and there has never been any real animosity between the fans. In the first match I saw at the Dell, John McGrath was playing for Newcastle. Not long after he moved down here too.

A lot of people, my grandparents from the Scotswood Road included, moved from Newcastle to Southampton in the 20th century, mostly following the dock work. The first football match I was taken to see as a boy was Saints v Newcastle. I think a sizeable percentage of Sotonians have Geordie roots.

Thanks for the link, Vectis. For those of us interested in football stats, it is an interesting list. As someone who started watching Saints when Terry Paine was our first England player for many years, I am really impressed that we have overtaken some of the traditional big clubs of the past in terms of the number of our players who've been capped by England. We're ahead of Leeds, for example, and not far behind Chelsea. That is one sign of our progress over the last 50 years. I've picked out the ones that are of interest to me, Norway, because I can Birmingham City (1908-2012), 17 Players Blackpool (1923-1966), 13 Players Bolton Wanderers (1885-2011), 28 Players Brighton & Hove Albion (1925-1982), 3 Players Bristol City (1901-1957), 4 Players Burnley (1889-2017), 27 Players Cardiff City (2010), 1 Player Charlton Athletic (1923-2006), 12 Players Chelsea (1907-2017), 44 Players Coventry City (1956-1998), 4 Players Crystal Palace (1914-2016), 13 Players Derby County (1891-2000), 38 Players Fulham (1922-2011), 11 Players Huddersfield Town (1919-1964), 21 Players Ipswich Town (1961-2000), 12 Players Leeds United (1926-2004), 31 Players Leicester City (1927-2017), 17 Players Manchester City (1904-2017), 48 Players Middlesbrough (1905-2009), 29 Players Newcastle United (1901-2016), 36 Players Norwich City (1976-2012), 7 Players Nottingham Forest (1879-1997), 36 Players Portsmouth (1900-2010), 16 Players Preston North End (1886-2007), 14 Players Queens Park Rangers (1908-1994), 15 Players Reading (1900-2007), 3 Players Sheffield United (1892-1992), 34 Players Sheffield Wednesday (1872-1998), 41 Players Southampton (1899-2017), 35 Players Stoke City (1884-2016), 24 Players Sunderland (1891-2012), 28 Players Swansea City (2015), 1 Player Watford (1982-2007), 3 Players West Ham United (1911-2016), 40 Players Wolverhampton Wanderers (1887-2011), 34 Players

Southampton David Armstrong James Beattie Ryan Bertrand Wayne Bridge Arthur Chadwick Mick Channon Nathaniel Clyne Peter Crouch Bill Ellerington Tim Fowers Fraser Forster Charlie Fry Kelly Houlker Kevin Keegan Adam Lallana Rickie Lambert Bert Lee Matt Le Tissier George Molyneux Terry Paine Tom Parker Alf Ramsey Bill Rawlings Nathan Redmond Jack Robinson Jay Rodriguez Luke Shaw Alan Shearer Peter Shilton Fred Titmuss Arthur Turner Danny Wallace James Ward-Prowse Dave Watson Steve Williams Mark Wright 36 Portsmouth Jim Allen Sol Campbell Peter Crouch Dan Cunliffe Jermain Defoe Jimmy Dickinson Jack Froggatt Peter Harris Mark Hateley Kelly Houlker David James Glen Johnson Arthur Knight Len Phillips Jack Smith Fred Worrall 16 Does anyone have an updated list of other internationals? Saints have had so many recently.

Because we're playing a 'big club'. Anyone who thinks the officiating in the Premier League is unbiased, just has to watch our games against the 'big clubs' this season to see that it isn't.

Unfortunately, someone seems totally oblivious to reality: http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/southampton/news/reed-southampton-have-best-midfield-in-pl_276561.html