Nordic Saint

Masaryk Station by David Downing. This is the sixth and, sadly, the last of his 'station' novels. I don't think I've been as hooked on a series of novels since Olivia Manning's Balkan and Levant trilogies, and this is in the same class. Great descriptions of Germany from 1938 to 1948 as seen from the perspective of an Englishman living there.

It would come too late to affect the 2016/17 season. Cedric and Fonte both have 9 caps so far but will be well into double figures by the end of the year. Players like Romeu, Juanmi and Tadic might be at risk in a couple of years' time. But, any government which pulled the UK out of the EU would be unlikely to alienate voters afterwards by sending some of their favourite footballers home. Anyway, if Brexit hits the UK economy hard, many players may leave of their own accord for better money elsewhere.

Many athletes reach their peak in their early 30s nowadays. Linford Christie was 32 when he became Olympic 100m champion and Jo Pavey won Her European 10,000m gold at 40. It used to be the case that footballers were at their peak at 24-27. Now, it's more like 28-32. Cristiano Ronaldo is 31 and at his absolute peak.

It used to be, but as average lifespans increase, so do players' careers. Ibrahimović is 34 and never been better.

For a Dutch striker, look no further than Vincent Janssen. He is the Eredvisie's top scorer and he was excellent last night. Hopefully, Wanyama will stay with us but if he doesn't, Jan Kirchoff would be the ideal replacement. He is big and commanding and he was the best player on the pitch in our 1-1 draw with Sunderland.

The first Division 1 game at White Hart Lane in 1966/67 saw another 10,000 Saints fans take over the whole Park Lane End.

You may have been confusing it with our next promotion game at Orient, in 1978, when there were only 12,000 of is in a crowd of 19,248 and we were packed into just one side. The wall collapsed at the end as we all flooded onto the pitch to celebrate and chase the 200 Spurs fans behind the goal to our left. Coincidentally, both were night games, and what I remember about 1966 was how much darker it was, as floodlight were not as powerful then as they are today. Terry Paine's bullet header came as a huge relief in a game we were expected to win fairly easily.

Point of order. The attendance was 19,839 and over 15,000 of them were Saints fans, as we packed three sides of the ground.

Clasie usually gets ratings of 4 to 6 out of 10, with the comment that he passed well but was weak defensively and allowed the opposition midfield to control the game. I agree that Clasie is a neat footballer but I'm not sure that he can cope with the central defensive midfield role we bought him for. Maybe he might be better as an attacking midfielder but so far we have seen no assists or goals from him. Players do improve at Southampton so let's hope there is more to come from him. Player ratings: http://www.goal.com/en/match/netherlands-vs-france/2165477/ratings

To be fair, they've improved in the 2nd half after subbing Clasie and Van Dijk at half-time.

I watched England beat France 2-0 in their last match. This is possibly the weakest Dutch team in their history. They even lost at home to the USA and in the Euro qualifiers they lost at home to Iceland and were thrashed by Turkey. So, I'd expect England to beat them too.

It would be great to celebrate a victory at White Hart Lane with a chorus of 'Glory, Glory Hallelujah and the Saints go marching on'. Spurs fans would definitely not like that, even though they copied it from Hibs fans. Glory Glory (football chant) History Hibernian were the first known team to appropriate the tune as a football chant, with the release of a record by Hector Nicol in the 1950s ("Glory Glory to the Hibees"). The same underlying tune was used in "Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur", which can be traced back to 1960. Tottenham's version was recorded as the B-side for the 1981 FA Cup single, "Ossie's Dream.

I was thinking the same. What a miracle it would if the Northam corner could get through an entire match without singing about Pompey, but then, sadly, they did. At least it wasn't as bad as most games, when they sing about Pompey for the entire game. Maybe it was just because they weren't singing at all. Pompey must love all the free publicity our fans give them at televised Premier League games and away fans must leave St Mary's thinking, I never realized just how massive Pompey are down here. With regard to when the noise started at the Liverpool game, what impressed me that it wasn't when we equalised but when we were losing 2-1, and it really did seem to motivate our players. It's true, however, that until then it had been very quiet. I agree with what's been said about the acoustics at St Mary's. I guess soundproofing materials were used in the construction in order to reduce 'noise pollution' to the surrounding area. The other problem is that the stadium has low, gently sloping sides so a lot of the noise is not channeled onto the pitch. A second tier on the Kingsland, like the one they've added at Cardiff's stadium, even if it were completely empty (which it wouldn't be) would improve the atmosphere a lot. I think what you hear does depend on where you sit. I am towards the southern end of the Kingsland and from there you don't really notice the home fans singing in the Kingsland North/Northam corner much. I think many away fans leave St Mary's without even noticing there were even any home fans singing in the Northam. They only really notice the Chapel End and wonder why the home end is so quiet and the little group of fans who sing in the Itchen because they are facing them. The chant of 'Come on you reds' which went up from the Chapel was not very loud, but it was hopefully the beginning of us having a proper home end at last. It would only take a group of 20 singers to migrate from the Kingsland/Northam corner, to behind the goal in the Chapel for the singing to spread around them, and the atmosphere in the entire stadium would get a massive boost. John Boy, it's nothing to do with our DNA. You obviously weren't around in the late 70s when we were among the noisiest fans in the country and really used to lift the team when they were losing. That's what winning a trophy does for you. It gives fans hope and belief. But, decades of failing to win anything have made fans cynical as they ultimately expect to be disappointed. Anyway, let's hope what happened towards the end of the Liverpool game was just the beginning of us having a proper home end at last, instead of 2 groups hidden in the corners of the away end, singing about Pompey all the time, except for big cup games when they disappear altogether.

The9 is right. Those stats are not very accurate as the officially stated capacity of many stadiums they are using, like St Mary's, is far bigger than the number of seats actually available. The most telling stat is that Saints have averaged in excess of 30,000 every top flight season at St Mary's, and over 90% of capacity every top flight season since the 1980s. In contrast, until 2002, Pompey had never averaged in excess of 75% of their capacity in their entire history.

Yes, Mane always has that serious business face when he scores. Some players do silly dances; Mane just gets on with the job. Makes a refreshing change really. In fact, it's how players used to be.

The whole stadium as well as the players seemed to perk up when the Chapel end started chanting, 'Come on you reds'. The atmosphere after that was almost as good as it used to be in the best days at the Dell. Hell, forget almost, it was as good. I'm really looking forward to seeing it continue for the Newcastle game. I've missed the atmosphere you get with a home kop and at times the lack of one has even made me wonder what's the difference to watching it on TV?

One of the best things about the Liverpool game was seeing the fans in the home end singing and chanting for a change. I think our players appreciated it and it really seemed to motivate them to go on and win the game. Let's hope it continues. St Mary's has badly lacked the support of a home kop.The fans in the corners of the away end really don't have much of an impact, as they are in very poor locations for influencing play or key refereeing decisions, or even making themselves heard above the away fans.

I have watched Saints for decades and I have rarely seen a player as supremely talented as Mane wearing a Saints shirt. Manchester United and Arsenal, yes, but Southampton....What you say about him is very true. His performance was incredible and sublime. Earlier in the season he was being valued at 50 million, then, along with the rest of the team, he went through a really bad patch, and that valuation started to look silly. But, if he plays like he did today, it's not. He's better than Bale and how much did Barcelona pay for him? If that dip in form means the big clubs have temporarily lost interest in him and we can keep him for another season, then it was worth it and I'll be very happy.

Bad timing for Hart, but excellent timing for Forster's England career and Saints' Champions League hopes.

They are both more expensive but not as good as Borja Baston though, who would probably score more goals than both of them combined over a season so, in a way, he is right: they are being overhyped, when there are much better value strikers out there.

Panic over. Koeman is only just over halfway through his current contract, and he has already made it clear he is staying until the end of it so there's no need to worry about replacements yet.

Borja Baston

Sorry, but if you want to win, you field your best XI. I'm sure Pompey would. Sentiment simply doesn't come into it. So, you simply can't replace world class players like Bale, Shearer and Keegan with journeymen like Dennis and Golac, who only ever got 1 international cap between the pair of them.

If you want to win, you pick the best players. I'm sure Pompey would include Prosinecki, even though he was wrecked from years of chain-smoking and could barely run when he played from them for a few months in the second division. I wonder if Osgood would get in the Chelsea XI?

Saints have had more than twice as many international players as Pompey have. This is a complete list of the players who were capped for England while playing for the 2 clubs: 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 Jack Robinson Jay Rodriguez Luke Shaw Alan Shearer Peter Shilton Fred Titmuss Arthur Turner Danny Wallace Dave Watson Steve Williams Mark Wright 34 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 But, you have to base it on the best playersto play for the clubs, not just the ones who were with us for a long time or who had their best seasons when they were with us. So, obviously, Bale and Shearer would be in. Ivan Golac FFS??? He wasn't even good enough to play for Yugoslavia. Mostly, you should be looking at players who won a lot of international caps, like Alan Ball, even if most of them were won at other clubs. Although when magazines do our best XI they usually do stupid things like include Benali. So: Peter Shilton 125 caps Alf Ramsey 32 Dave Watson 65 Toby Alderweireld 52 Gareth Bale 54 Terry Paine 19 Alan Ball 72 Matt Le Tissier 8 Kevin Keegan 63 Mick Channon 46 Alan Shearer 63 Others to consider: Lallana 19 caps already and will probably go on to get 60, which is a hell of a lot more than Le Tissier; Mark Wright 45 caps but not as many as Dave Watson.