Nordic Saint

In fact, I'm absolutely certain of it.

Man City's defence has looked poor since Stones joined them. He is still a work in progress prone to lapses. Austin should get the better of him. So, they are playing an attacking side in order to outscore us. Pity Aguero was rested midweek. He'll be really fired up for this one.

Anyone here done a DNA test? If so, what did you find out? I've just sent off for the Ancestry DNA kit, as I'm interested in my ancestry. They seem quite reasonably priced nowadays, at less than £100. I think it's going to take a while as it has to be sent to the USA. I'll report back later on whether it was worth it (if anyone is interested).

He is still improving but he is going to be worth at least £80m and be up there in the Bale class.

We miss Fonte's composure when Inter attack.

Surprisingly noisy atmosphere. I expected less noise in a big, half-empty stadium. "Southampton's massed ranks of travelling fans are out-singing the Inter crowd."

Yes, we need Austin on the pitch asap.

It just about sums up how bad our divided excuse for a kop is: one half can't even hear the other half singing at the same end of the ground. The numbers and the will are there but the right location and the unity are not.

I don't know if you realized it but when you were singing in Itchen block 1, the Northam were singing a completely different song, presumably because they couldn't hear you. You'd only really get a very loud song if your two separte mobs joined together. The other problem is the corner is about the worst spot in the stadium for acoustics, which is why most clubs stick the away fans there.

Itchen blocks 1 & 2 should be for away fans anyway and the home fans who sing there should be moved into Northm blocks 43 & 44 directly behind the goal, where they could join up with the other home fans in the Northam. That would help improve the atmosphere.

Err, no, he's not. That is exactly what Fonte was doing in the Euros. Maybe you're the one who's confused?

It amazes me how little some of our fans think of most of our players except whoever the latest signing is. Their attitude seems to be if they stay at Southampton they can't be any good but they'll tolerate the ones who they think are just passing through. We finished 6th in the Premier League last seaon and could beat any team in the league. The players who remain from that team are really not that bad. In the last 3 years we've had the best set of players in the history of this club, with the possibly exception of the early 1980s yet some of our fans are of the mindest that they are the same calibre as the relegation strugglers of the 90s. Quite a few of the players from this season and the previous 2 would get into an All-Tme Best Saints XI.

I certainly don't think Portugal would be European champions if they'd played Stones instead of Fonte.

It depends where you rate England alongside teams like Portugal and Serbia. Portugal are the reigning European champions. Forster England 6 caps Cedric Portugal 16 Fonte Portugal 19 van Dijk Netherlands 10 Bertrand England 10 Romeu Hojbjerg Denmark 21 Davis N. Ireland 90 Tadic Serbia 41 Long Ireland 70 Austin

Jose Fonte, the clean sheet king. 19 games for Portugal and 15 clean sheets in them. Also around 100 clean sheets in his games for Saints. In some ways it is a shame that he hasn't had spell at a top club because there are still some Saints fans who don't appreciate just how good he is and feel that the fact he hasn't gone to Man United yet must mean he's not a top player. He's not a flashy individualistic type of player but does what he needs to do for the team, which is why his teams keep so many clean sheets: a true Saints legend who'd certainly be the captain my All-time Best Saints XI.

Was André Valente da Silva ever mentioned? PL clubs will be queueing up to sign him in January. We have an advantage having Fonte in the Portuguese team, who could have a word with him like he did with Cedric. But, if he keeps on scoring the way he is, he might be out of our price range by then.

Did we ever discover he had a long throw while he was here or was it only after he went to Stoke? Incidentally, why doesn't every team train a long throw specialist? It's another means of attack and they lead to quite a few goals.

We're lucky Austin wasn't picked for England or we might have been left with no strikers at all for the Burnley and Inter games. The first half of our season depends on him staying fit until we can buy a replacement for Pelle and Mane in January.

89 caps and 9 goals for Northern Ireland. That's a lot of international experience, which will be very useful in the Europa League. I've never noticed him getting stick at St Mary's He's always seemed to be a fairly popular player, altough players who stay wih us, like Davis and Fonte, are sometimes perceived as beng 'not good enough' for a big club to buy by a mnority of our fans who only seem to prefer the latest buy. Judging from some of the stuff posted here, Boufal is already more popular with them than some of our long-term players like Fonte and Davis. Even Alderweireld is more popluar with them because a big club bought him so fast. Personallly, I prefer the players who stay with us for many years like Davis.

Fonte starts for Portugal in their World Cup qualifier v Andorra, giving him his 18th cap, all won as a Saints player. Van Dijk also starts for Holland v Belarus, winning his 9th cap.

Pellè starts for Italy in their World Cup qualifier v Spain. It's his 20th cap (he had none when he joined us). Will he score his 10th goal for them? It's live on ITV4 at 19.45.

It came up on a Google search when I was looking for Saints and Pompey's lowest gates. Theirs is definiteley smaller But I still wonder what that mysterious pre-war gate of theirs, smaller than the 1,355 they had last night, was. Presumably it was a league game, as the FA Cup attracted big gates back then and there were no other cup competitions. Google brings up nada.

I'm not sure any other Premier League club would buy him and foreign clubs don't pay big transfer fees so he may be here longer than you think. Most players seem to improve while they're here so maybe in another 2 years time he'll be ready for sale. Usually, it only takes 2 years to get them ready but Clasie is a slow developer. Van Dijk will definitely be ready next summer and if Romeu keeps improving at the current rate he may be too but not Clasie. It's all a bit like fattening turkeys for christmas except instead of christmas it's the summer transfer window.

That match was played on a Monday afternoon and the crowd was still bigger than the 1,355 at Fratton Park last night, which apparently isn't Pompey's all-time lowest home gate, which must have been in the pre-war years. Does anybody know what it was? Incidentally, although Saints' smallest home gate in the top flight was 9,028 v Ipswich, Pompey's was only 4,031 v Liverpool in Divison One on Sat, 25 Feb, 1933, which is always worth knowing when they harp on about the Ipswich gate;) http://pompeyrama.com/pompey-fc-match-3682-25-Feb-1933-Pompey-2-Liverpool-1.html

Perhaps, on the other hand, rather than being prejudiced against him because he is only 2 years younger than Ibrahimovic, they watched the match today or the European Championship finals, and saw what a great central defender he is, even if he is sadly underappreciated by some of our fans.