Nordic Saint

We've got a lot more historical facts we could use if we wanted to, like when Parliamentarian Southampton defeated Royalist Portsmouth in the English Civil War. When Portsmouth was attacked from the west, the Pompey Royalists either ran away or surrendered. The truth is though that these Portsmyths started from the 1970s onwards and most of them, including the dock strike originated even more recently in the 1990s. It was created as a spoof story in a Pompey fanzine, called Frattonize, in which Southampton Corporation Union Men broke a strike by Portsmouth Fish Corporation workers. At my first derby game, in 1966, I was with Dougal's mob in the Fratton End and there wasn't a single Pompey fan who'd even thought of shouting Scum or Scummer. The derby wasn't even considered a big game back then so there were swathes of empty terraces at Fratton Park, which meant Saints fans could march around three sides of the ground, unopposed. Any history they don't like, they've reinvented, like the origin of their nickname, which came from their pink shirt colour, resulting in them being called Pompadour Pinks then just Pompey. They now claim all sorts of heroic legends like brave men from Portsmouth climbing Pompey's Pillar in Egypt, which is total bullsh!t. A lot of these Portsmyths became established as 'facts' after a pre-match interview Colin Farmery gave to the Guardian before one of our derby games.

You'll certainly need to, Turkish as I didn't say that. Can you show me a link to this supposed statement on here? I'd be interested to see it.

Yes, that one was bad but this one is worse. We bought Ramsdale and Fernandes last summer. At least we improved one of the key positions: goalkeeper. We haven't even done that this time.

Worse than last summer's. We knew the team had a weak spine and that as our priority we urgently needed to strengthen 3 key positions in this window: goalkeeper, centre half and centre forward. We haven't strengthened any of them.

and a centre forward.

You're right. Looking on the bright side, there''s always the next 2½ years for him to score another one.

I've got to admire your optimism. Ross Stewart has scored 1 goal in the last 2½ years.

The 3 positions we most needed to strengthen were centre forward, centre half and goalkeeper. Will Still would have possibly told Sport Republic something similar. In response, they have signed Downs, Quarshie and Long. So far, they don't appear to be strengthening the team much in those positions, if at all. Sport Republic like signing a lot of midfielders. They did the same last summer, but Jay Robinson already appears to be a better attacking midfielder than any we could buy, and the defensive midfielders we had already and the new ones all appear to be much of a muchness. We've got so many midfielders now that we'll probably have to get rid of a few of them next summer, including 1 or 2 we're signing now. I'll reserve judgement until after the Pompey game. That will tell us a lot about how good or bad this transfer window has been.

We don't get much luck with cup draws, do we?

We want 9!

What is the most important? Centre forward? Centre half? Goalkeeper? Our squad is terrible in all of them.

I'm not surprised with signings like this. Our recruitment is a total joke.

How on earth can Sport Republic be this stupid???? It's almost like our recruitment is being run by John Westwood. NorwichCity 4 mo. ago TrickySpring4984 George Long The worst keeper I’ve ever seen in yellow and green. TheTalkingDonkey07 4mo ago Agree. Giving Long the contract extension was the first big red flag. But this playing out through the press is mind bogglingly naïve. I was happy to give him the summer transfer window and another year, but this is beyond inept. He's clearly way out of his depth thaibaht69 4mo ago Yes, to give him a new 3 year deal must be a sackable offense for all who greenlighted it! shadyjudgement 4mo ago He wouldn't have made sub in my under 10's team PerfectStealth_ 4mo ago Never want to see him in a Norwich shirt again, but some helmet offered him a 3yr contract… https://www.reddit.com/r/NorwichCity/comments/1k26zmj/george_long/

I remember him well from this game. He is No.30: Southampton sweep past Brentford at St Mary's | Football News | Sky Sports

Jay Robinson is such an exciting player - easily the best forward in our squad. Thank God we've got him, as he's our one real goal threat up front.

He is a defensive weak link and against good sides, he's always likely to present them with goalscoring opportunities. We saw that in our last pre-season friendly v Brighton.

One thing's for sure: after all the money he's been paid, he's definitely not poor. Not a bad return for 1 goal in 2½ years.

Well, we found the answer to that today: Ryan Manning and Jack Stephens. But, can they do it every week?

It will be interesting to find out who we have who can score goals. The only player who really looked a goal threat in pre-season was Jay Robinson. The last time I saw Saints play Wrexham was in August 1979 and we beat them 5-0 in a Tuesday night League Cup game, then beat Liverpool, the team that would be champions that season, 3-2 on the Saturday. We certainly had some goalscorers in the McMenemy era. For no reason other than we beat them 5-0 all those years ago, if Jay Robinson plays, I expect (more hope really) we'll win by at least 2 goals today.

I see he's captain of Birmingham against Ipswich tonight. He was in the League One Team of the Year last season.

Spors is the boardroom equivalent of Stephens. No wonder they get on so well together. I only wish they would do it at another club. They're just two more hangers-on we need to get rid of.

It was and he came across as a bumbling idiot. No wonder it's such a shambles.

Talk about timewasting. That's probably what they're going to talk about next.