Nordic Saint

Clattenburg is keeping United in this game.

Rooney looks a real liability so far. He's slowed down the United attack and given the ball away to Palace in dangerous areas. United's best hope of winning would be to sub him as soon as possible. Let's hope he doesn't play for England in the summer. But I still hope he scores because we really need United to win this game.

Thanks. Yes, I was. My apologies to Ron and Colin.

No, existing season ticket holders could change their seats, but brand new buyers couldn't buy season tickets. On Monday, they will go on sale for the first time to members. After that, they will go on sale to non-members.

According to the official site, season ticket sales are up by a thousand on this time last year, with more than 90% already renewing. But, the really big increase is going to come next week when new season tickets go on sale. I predict they will sell out very quickly so should the club raise the limit of the number they sell? This would probably ensure every home game next season is sold out but it would limit the number of new fans who could come to individual games. Pity we don't have a capacity of around 40,000 which would be just about right at this stage of the club's growth.

Totally agree. If he really wants to go, and let's hope he doesn't, we should not sell him until the January transfer window.

Let's hope that Liverpool fans don't riot after the game to try to get all other English clubs banned from Europe. They cost us a European place that way in the 1980s.

Just seeking reassurance here. Is it 100% certain that Liverpool winning tonight will not stop us going straight into the group stages of the Europa League (if Man Utd win the FA Cup, of course)?

A few facts to get things started: The last 2 season have seen the 2 highest Premier League finishes, 7th and 6th, and 2 highest points totals, 60 and 63, by any south cost team. Next season will be our 40th in the top flight in the last 50 years, which is more in total than we have been in any other division in our entire history and 7 more than any other south coast club. This season was our 12th top 8 finish and 14th top 10 finish in the last 50 years. Next season will be our 9th in Europe, which is 8 more than any other south coast team. We have had an average home gate in excess of 30,000 in all 8 of our top flight seasons at St Mary’s. Next season we’ll play our 119th league and cup game (189th if you include all competitive games) v Spurs, which is more than we have played against any other team in our history. 34 players have been capped for England while playing for the club.

Yes, I think Wes speaks for all of us in that post. Post of the Year?

With Pelle, Mane, Wanyama etc, what we need to do is keep them for the beginning of next season. Then, see where we are at January. If top 4 looks likely, they'll want to stay and we'll want to keep them. If not, that would be the right time to sell them if they really insist on leaving. We all have our favourites and scapegoats, but this squad is our best since 1984, so let's keep it together for as long as we possibly can.

Alfie Jones deservedly won Saints Young Player of the Year award. If he continues to develop he'll be pencilled in as Fonte's long-term replacement in 2 years' time. Our current central defensive partnership is one of the best we've ever had and definitely good for another year. Keeping Mane and Wanyama for at least one more year should be a top priority. We are so close to breaking into the top 4 with the current squad that we should pay whatever it takes to keep it together, at least for next season. We know from decades of supporting Saints that an opportunity like this might not come again for another 50 years. As we saw from early in the season though, we need better cover at goalkeeper and full-back. With that, we probably would have been top 4 this season.

You obviously don't leave the ground via the footbridge, Whitey. South West, Southern and Great Western trains all slow down there already on the line running from Bournemouth to Brighton, so stopping there on match days would be no problem, and all points in the country would be accessible from there. A lot of fans travelling to the stadium watch the train pass the stadium and then have to walk back to it from Southampton Central. I've heard a rumour that the council would require the football club to foot the bill for a small station there before they'll grant permission for any stadium expansion. That is just an internet rumour though. Ladysaint is right. The tannoy system is rubbish. Surely it wouldn't be too difficult to sort that out. i believe the King Power Stadium was built using the plans for St Mary's. I guess that must have saved Leicester a bit. There are media reports that Leicester are considering building a 2nd tier on their East Stand ( the copy of the Kingsland) to take their capacity up to 42,000. If they do, maybe we can use the same plans.

With 2 more signed up to long-term contracts today, things are looking good so far. Let's hope Wanyama and Mane are our next big 'signings'.

That's about what I've expected, Adrian, but it looks like more than 15,000 tickets have been sold already and I guess a few thousand more will pay on the day. It's not bad for a player who, although he's considered a nice bloke, many of our fans would have liked to see leave at least 2 years ago. Le Tissier got 32,000 because of who he was; not the price of the tickets.

For the first time in years our main transfer targets this year should be the players who are already here. They are going to give us our best ever Premier League finish and possibly come within 2 points of a Champions League place. Without the injuries to Forster and Bertrand, we'd probably be 3rd now. We are not going to get players much better than that so let's spend the transfer budget on keeping them here.

Not if we finish above Man Utd. 5th is looking distinctly possible as both Man Utd and Palace will rest players before the cup final and West Ham should struggle to do better than draw away to West Brom. In fact, we could finish just 2 points off a Champions League place.

Pompey fans started 'skatebashing' back in the 1970s. It was their nickname for the RN personnel they hated and used to attack. According to the Oxford Dictionary, Scummer is a fifteenth century name for pirates or buccaneers, so it has probably been in use in the port cities for centuries. Now that views towards the armed services have become more positive, their football fans now consider it a badge of honour to be called skates. They hate being called Worzels though.

"I expect that Mane, Wanyama and Pelle will be off". No need to expect that. Let's just keep this team together for another year. If Forster had been in goal all this season, we'd have finished 4th. Next season he will be. There's a lot to look forward to.

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It reminds me a bit of Jay McInerney. Remember him? Fast-paced, ephemeral, New York haute fiction.

Has Les ever convinced anyone to stay?

Mane will be a 20 goal plus striker next season. He'll probably finish this season on 15 but he's improving all the time and remember he's been played out wide for a lot of games.

If we win our last 2 games, we'll finish 6th or 7th. Even a draw and a win might be enough for that. The 7 points dropped to Newcastle, Everton and Watford in our first 3 games really cost us. If Forster and Bertrand hadn't missed so many games through injury, we'd probably be competing for 4th place now. We're doing very well. Let's just continue where we left off next season. There's a lot to look forward to.

Keep Wanyama, Mane, Pelle and our other key players. With Forster in goal for the whole of next season, that should be enough to get us into the top 4 or 5.

Do other clubs' fans constantly speculate about their managers and players leaving? I don't read other clubs' forums but I guess some of them must do. It seems a bit of a negative thing to do though. Admittedly our turnover of players and managers in recent years has been quite high. It would be nice to have a settled team and manager for a few years. Just when I get to like a manager or player, like Pochettino, Koeman, Lallana, Mane or Wanyama, and I can't be the only Saints fan who liked them, I get told it's time to start hating them because other clubs want them. I really hope that we can keep Koeman and our players. Why shouldn't we?