Nordic Saint

+ another 1. There's plenty of space to Rickie's right.

Can his picture be added to the banner at the top of the page now, please? He certainly desrves to be there alongside Rickie Lambert.

He's a truly great player, up there with Paine, Channon and Le Tissier in the pantheon of all-time great Saints, in a less glanmorous position, but achieving more than all of them. It's good to still have football heroes, especially one so modest and unassuming.

And some classic examples of the latter quickly followed.

"People like you". Exactly my point. We used to all be Saints fans together. I have never known us so bitterly divided.

It seems that anyone who doesn't follow Sir Les like a sheep is going to get called a melt or a bedwetter by the sheep. To be honest, the extent to which he has bitterly divided the fanbase and got us turning against each other is a cause for concern.

You are right. It was England's 2nd game he played in: a 2-0 win v Mexico.

No, Fonte and Cédric are the first. Terry Paine played in England’s opening game of the 1966 World Cup Finals v Mexico but then was replaced by Alan Ball, who, of course, later played for Saints. If there had been a World Cup in the early 1900s, however, Saints might well have been good enough to win it, as they thrashed the national teams of Argentina, Uruguay, Hungary and France on tour. I think that Fonte, although playing in the less glamorous position of centre back, has now earned the right to be considered one of the all-time great Saints, up there with the likes of Paine, Channon and Le Tissier.

We could do with buying another couple of players from that Portugal team. I expect José will have a word with them. He appears to be the leader of that team, constantly organising them and nearly all of their attacks build from the back, starting from him. Cédric really has electric pace. If he converted from wing-back to winger, he'd be a brilliant replacment for Mane. The only question mark would be against his finishing.

Like a few players who've not really impressed in the Premier League, he's done well in the Euros. But, whenever he's played for Liverpool, he's looked fairly anonymous, to such an extent that I always hoped he'd be in their lineup when they played against us. I can certainly see why they'd want to sell him but not why any top 8 team would want to buy him and I'd expect him to end up at one of he bottom teams like Sunderland, West Brom or Watford or a newly-promoted team and again I'll be happy to see him in the oppostion lineup as he won't make much of an impact.

It's definitely an under armer. You'd think that somone would have pointed out that it looks like they've raised the bra. At least it doesn't have a small, white triangle at the bottom. We should be grateful for small mercies.

That should read Mane, not Pelle, although the fact that further player sales are expected is going to have an effect on season ticket numbers.

Yes, it is ridiculous, especially when they claim: "Starsport have teamed up with Express Trainers to bring you the best possible data on which clubs have attracted the most fans to commit to the cause ahead of the new season. Please note that in most cases the figures are estimates based on thorough research. But, I'm sure fans of other clubs, particularly Pompey, will believe it and quote it endlessly. A quick vist to our official ticket site would have shown them over 20,000 had already been sold 3 weeks ago. I have noticed though that since the departures of Koeman, Wanyama and Pelle, season ticket sales seem to have dried up completely.

Posted less than a month ago, that hasn't turned out too well. I think we'd be pretty excited if we heard right now that we were signing players of the calibre of Mane, Wanyama and Pelle from Premier League rivals. On the plus side, I see Redmond as an upgrade on Juanmi if that's who he's been bought to replace and I'm glad we've got rid of Steckelenburg, especially to Everton

Pelle was clearly petrifed with nerves, as were several other players on both sides. The irony is that the 120th minute substitution of 'penalty taker' Zaza for Chiellini ultimately cost Italy the game. Overall, up until that point, I think Pelle had a very good tournament.

I try to be there for Saints' players England debuts, at least when they are at Wembley, and one of the highlights was watching Rickie Lambert come on and score the winner against Scotland. One of the lows was going to watch England v Northern Ireland in the hope of seeing Channon make his debut. He didn't and England lost 0-1. Soime of us are old enough to remember when international caps were so rare that any player with one had the capital letter of his country printed next to his name in the programme. At one time Terry Paine was the only one in our team with an E, although there was also Stuart Williams with a W and Tommy Traynor with an I. We never could have imagined then that we'd have Italian and Portuguese internationals playing for us. How exotic and glamorous it would have seemed. I guess the real breakthrough was when Spurs got Ardiles and Villa after Argentina won the World Cup. Then foreign stars started to become more commonplace. But the real point is, as Saint Fed, says, that many players are now making their international debuts while they are playing for Saints. You couldn't say the same about many of the 'smaller' Premier League teams.

It's Pellè's 17th cap for Italy tonight and Fonte will get his 15th cap for Portugal on Wedensday, while Cedric should get his 14th then, although, in his case, not all of his caps were in his time with us. Good luck to them all. Let's hope we have a European champion playing for us next season.

Puel's career hasn't been an unqualified success anywhere he's been but Eric Black''s has been an unqualified failure at 5 clubs in a row. Managers do have their ups and downs though. Roy Hodgson did a fantatstic job at Fulham, taking them to their highest ever Premier League finish and a Europa League final whereas Chris Coleman was a failure there, taking them to 16th and being sacked after a 7-game winless run.

Only 2 years ago Puel took Nice to 17th in the French league and his career has taken a turn for the better so I guess Eric Black's could too.

I don't know that much about him but he doesn't seem to be a very popular fellow. The black box must have seen something: http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/06/30/aston-villa-fans-respond-on-twitter-to-eric-blacks-southampton-a/page/1/

I'd rather we went for Krychowiak, who is a stronger version of Schneiderlin.

Cedric is a very skilful player and in ‘the old days’ would have been a great right winger but his small physical stature sometimes causes problems for him in the modern defensive duties of a wing-back, as it did with that high crossfield pass which led to the Poland goal. Fonte looks, as always, like what he is: one of the finest central defenders in Europe. His leadership of the line, positioning and reading of the game are absolute perfection. Watching him play is a masterclass for any aspiring young centre back. Wouldn’t it be great to see Fonte v Pelle in the final?

He started his coaching career as a physical fitness coach and he does look very fit for his age: definitely in better shape than Koeman. I must admit I'd never heard of him until he was linked with us so I'll keep an open mind and hope for the best. If he can stop the club selling any more players and start our season with a win against Watford, he'll have got off to a flyer. It would be great if we could maintain the last few seasons' progress and finish 5th.

"Samuel was voted Sports Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards in 2007 and 2013, Sports Journalist of the Year at the SJA Sports Journalism Awards in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2010 and 2013, Sports Journalist of the Year at the 'What The Papers Say' awards in 2002, 2005 and 2006 and Sports Commentator of the Year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards in 2014. In 2012, Samuel was named top in a UK Press Gazette poll of Britain's best sports journalists. In January 2015, he was named in Debrett's List of the 500 Most Influential People in Britain." Samuel is usually very pro-Saints, but he is a very good judge of managers and doesn't think Puel is good enough for us.

So, effectively, he destroyed Lyon's dominance of the French league and his career has never really recovered from that disaster. Even ex-Pompey manager, Alain Perrin was more successful there.