Nordic Saint

I've always though it would be an idea to have a retro song day, perhaps for the last away game of the season. His name is Ronnie Davies He's the leader of the team The greatest centre forward that the world has ever seen You always can rely on him to score the vital goal And as for Tony Hateley, you can stick him up your hole DddDavies, DddDavies....... I'm not sure we could sing that one about any of our current strikers though. I won't bore you with them all but I know a lot more like that as I used to be one of the people who started the songs at the back of the Milton Road in the late 60s/early 70s. Few of them were unique to us though. Most fans had different versions of the same songs, just the same as they do now. If you go right back to the early 60s when singing at football games really started, there are some that would sound totally ridiculous today like "Two, for six, eight, who do we appreciate?" Some of the old 60s songs seem to have survived though. Yellow Submarine seems to be very popular with Serie A fans this season. Our version used to be "We all live at the back of Milton Road."

If it's someone with a long memory he could be referring to the match at the Dell in May 1967, when we needed to win to stay up and they needed to win to win the league. They weren't too happy the last time we met either:

Get Jose Fonte in as manager so the youngsters will be improved, we develop a winning mentality and, hopefully, pick up our first major trophy for more than half a century: the Championship.

Happy New Year to you too, Del. May you live long and prosper and your wit continue to fail you.

He took RB Leipzig to runners-up in the Bundesliga and he also turned Saints around after our decline under Pellegrino and Hughes. You don't last 4 years at a Premier League club without being a good manager. His mistake was not to leave us after two years when his stock was high. I'm sure plenty of clubs wanted him then. If he'd left at the end of the 2019/20 season. he'd have been hailed as a good manager by everyone in the football world. He made the mistake of remaining loyal to an unambitious club which was not prepared to back him financially. Under those circumstances he did well to get us to 11th, 15th and 15th the last 3 seasons. He was clearly disillusioned this season and it was time for him to go but I'll always remember him for putting the heart back in the club and taking us to the top of the Premier League for the first time in our history. I wish him well in the future.

Nathan Jones' replacements always do better than him: Mick Harford did at Luton, Michael O'Neill did at Stoke and now Rob Edwards is at Luton. At least, we've got that to look forward to.

First we need to get rid of Nathan Jones or we'll end up like Stoke did, bottom of the Championship.

To be fair, Bad Wolf did.

Organise the team and motivate it, a bit like Ralph did when he arrived? Jones seems to have done the exact opposite. He's got them playing like lower league footballers. They can barely string 2 passes together.

He was superb in Rangers' two games against Borussia Dortmund. "Ryan Kent terrorised Dortmund like Franck Ribery" | BT Sport

True, although Kent is more of an old-style left winger. My guess is that he's a player Nathan Jones has had his eye on since Kent's Barnsley days. Admittedly, a striker is more of a priority for us but at £5 mill, I'd say he's a bargain.

I like Ryan Kent. He was the star of Rangers' run to the Europa League Final, which showed that he can play at the highest level. He always gives 100%. Although he's a left winger, he'd be a Steven Davis type signing, who'd offer work rate and guts to the team.

Probably this: Nathan Jones Ralph Fastenbüttl replied to Master Bates's topic in The Saints I become more impressed by Nathan every time I hear him speak. 🤣

And how did they do in the EFL Cup this season?

He must be absolutely terrified of the Lincoln attack. There are 8 defensive players in our starting 11.

That was the greatest World Cup Final, bar none. An absolutely magnificent game of football.

It will be a problem if the new manager doesn't suit any of the players. When they look at his background and especially what happened at the only biggish club he's managed so far, Stoke, they're bound to be a bit sceptical at first. He's going to have to win them over by winning games. It's lucky he's got a very easy run of fixtures to start with. If we don't win some of them, I can't see him lasting much longer than his countryman Mark Hughes did.

From his point of view, nobody wants a relegation on their CV.; from ours, he's been a part of the management team that's got us into the bottom 3.

I agree with you, Pilchards. Grealish for Bellingham looked such an obvious change to make. I know he's a very talented player but all Bellingham did in this game was keep passing the ball to the French. Some of our players were just too nervous to give of their best, as was Kane when he skied that second penalty several yards over the goal. The occasion got to him. Sometimes you need a player like Grealish who plays for fun and doesn't worry himself sick about every move he makes. Credit to Saka who tore into the French at every opportunity. Perhaps with Grealish doing the same, we'd have won. But, a better referee might have made the biggest difference of all.

He was certainly a great buy for Villa at £20 mill. He's 30 now, the age at which goalies reach their peak. The top goalkeepers are nearly all in their early 30s but because of their age, their resale value isn't usually very high. Pound for pound, a good goalkeeper over 29 years of age is the best buy you can make and will win you more points than any other player on the pitch, other than a top striker, who will cost you a fortune. McMenemy knew that when he bought Shilton.

Well, Michael O'Neill did. With exactly the same squad he achieved much better results and saved them from relegation. Mick Harford also got better results at Luton with the same players when Jones went to Stoke, and got them promoted to the Championship. Stoke 2019/20 season: Jones W 2 D 2 L 10 points per game 0.5 O'Neill W 14 D 6 L 12 points per game 1.5 So, basically, O'Neill was able to get three times the tune out of that squad that Jones did.

They probably remember where Nathan Jones left Stoke: 11v11 league table generator

LOL at Graeme Souness. I hope his half-time bit of know-all punditry from the Japan game gets played over and over again, especially if England win the World Cup. "That's how you win the World Cup. "🤣

You only have to look at what he did to the Stoke and Luton players to see that. He'd have Boufal playing like a Luton player in no time.

Pat Nevin: "The skills of Sofiane Boufal are fantastic." The problem, as we know, is that he only displays them in 1 game in 10. Admittedly, that first half was one of those occasions, when he looked the most skilful player on the pitch.