Nordic Saint

I agree with you. Saints are a top flight club. It's where we belong. Those who wish to embrace the lower leagues can go and find a lower leaguue team to support. There's one 18 miles east of us, who'd love to be where we are.

We could have put another tier on the Kingsland, which would have been a decent long-term investment as stadium construction costs increase at a phenomenal rate.

Yes, Stoke players and fans seem to hate Hughes so I guess they'll be quite happy to lose to Swansea. "Bojan Mackey All Time Stoke City XI ********** Posts: 10,676 Hughes Go on, send two clubs down in one season you boring, useless *****."

Like most of our rivals, they've got better players than we have in key positions: Lewis Dunk is better than any of our central defenders, Pascal Groß creates more goals than any of our midfielders and Glenn Murray scores more goals than any of our strikers. Considering all the money we have splashed out on players like Hoedt, Boufal and Carrillo, it shows just how damaging our poor recruitment has been in the last couple of years when the teams around us have bought much better players for less.

I was there, having just flown back from Brazil in time for the game. The atmosphere was brilliant and we were all on the pitch at the end. I thought Sheffield United fans took it all very well, considering the fact it was a crucial game for them too, whch they needed to win to get into the play-offs. There were a few Pompey fans there, who'd come to see us get relegated. They were a glum bunch who got on the train at Woolston after the game and kept close to the guard but started getting vocal when as we got farther east.

We weren't in the bottom 3 and we were still in th FA Cup when Pellegrino was sacked. That's the position, I'd prefer now: above the relegation zone. I'm not saying Pellegrino ws a good manager but I'd certainly prefer the position we were in then.

As a Saints fan, I appreciate any trophy. It's a pity the club didn't do more to promote the game more as there could have been a much bigger crowd. A hat-trick from one of the U18 players in the team, Will Smallbone, was a highlight. He looks like quite a prospect

Do we have anyone in our squad good enough that Swansea fans would be relieved to see missing from our team when we play them? I'm struggling to think of anyone. Possibly, on current form, Tadic. But, most teams would look at our team sheet nowadays and think there's really nothing to worry about there: all of their best players have been sold.

It's been deleted as Bournemouth fans weren't very happy about it: https://bournemouth-forum.vitalfootball.co.uk/threads/southampton-v-afc-bournemouth.5741/page-20

Bournemouth players were impressed by the atmosphere: Joshua King tweeted this: "In all fairness all anger aside, that was a proper football atmosphere."

The singing, clapping and chanting from the Chapel end was a real surprise. It's long been rumoured that's what the players have wanted and they applauded the Chapel end after the game, although they went to the Northam/Kingland corner first. Could this be the beginning of a home kop at last? Let's hope so. It will give us a real home advantage.

A win and a draw from our final 3 games should be enough to keep us up. With little left to play for, Everton may be our best chance of that win.

If you want gossip and negative rumours about Saints players and managers, Uncle Les is you man. He'd throw his own grandmother under a bus to save himself.

"which, under the guidance of the vice-chairman Les Reed and director of football operations Ross Wilson, had long been one of their greatest strengths." I think that's pretty obvious. The same source as most of the other stories which emanate from the club.

And we weren't in the bottom 3 when we sacked him. Now we are 4 points adrift and out of the FA Cup. It's shocking how fast things have gone downhill since then, isn't it?

No, things are not as childish and simplistic as that, which is why I haven't said it, whereas the statements I quoted are listed as if they are established 'facts' without anyone stopping to question who the source was or what their motive was for feeding such stories to the press. Les Reed seems to have fallen out with just about every manager, coach, scout and player who was doing a good job for the club so it's hardly surprising they either leave of their own accord or get nudged out. Of course, going to a bigger club is attractive to most of them so it often suits them very well too. But, the club's modus operandi has been to produce players from the Academy or talent spot them abroad so that they can be sold for a profit to rival clubs (which presumably is the vision of a cash cow that Kat managed to sell to Gao). It wouldn't be good PR to simply tell the fans that (although some of us might appreciate the honesty) so we get this constant stream of rumours about players 'sulking', 'threatening to go on strike', 'thinking they are billy big ********', how 'the other players will be glad to see the back of them' etc etc, being fed to the internet and the press with the effect that some fans have been successfully convinced that the board and owner really wanted to keep them and weren't motivated by money at all whereas I think players like Mane, Wanyama and van Dijk weren't bought with the intention of them having a long-term career at our club but rather as business investments to be sold for profit to other clubs. The board has been so focussed on making money, with players viewed as no more than stock, that it has neglected building a football team. Successful teams usually have a large nucleus of good players who have played together for many years; with our club's revolving door policy, we don't.

As a matter of interest, how do you know all this 'information'? A lot of it would have involved contract negotiations behind closed doors between Les Reed, the players and their agents. I remember very similar stories about Koeman and Fonte and in fact just about everyone else Les Reed wanted to sell or get rid of. So, who exactly is is the source of all these rumours about players and managers, whcih many fans on here seem to take as gospel? I also heard that Les wanted to sell van Dijk in the summer but that Gao wouldn't pay Kat for the club if any more players were sold before he took over, presumably because he wanted his slice of the action. Yet, we heard stories about Les making a bold stand against Liverpool.

Mo Salah is a wonderful player. Pompey fans, for example, have never seen him play live and probably never will do. Seeing great players and even occasionally a few of them like Mane playing for us is one of the things I'm going to miss about the Premier League. . I know it's unfashionable to be a football fan, as opposed to a hater of all footballers, but I am. If I just wanted to drink with my mates, buy cheap tickets, always have 3 O' clock Saturday kick-offs and support a local team, I'd go to watch Sholing instead. But, as a football fan, I enjoy good quality football and when Saints win games at the highest level it's even better.

After every big game, you're going to get some fans whingeing on here because everybody else didn't look like them, dress like them and behave exactly like them. They're always going to be disappointed because that's never going to happen as this isn't North Korea. The random seating arrangments at Wembley inevitably throw people together who wouldn't normally choose to be. When the game goes well, nobody minds; when it goes badly, these little things seem to irritate some people. To my right there were 2 drunk chaps in their 20s, who started, 'Stand up if you love the Saints' half a dozen times: a bit like people who are desperate to start Mexican waves at cricket. Then, when that didn't work, one of them shouted 'Get into them' while the other one replied 'F--k them up' for much of the 2nd half. Then to my left there was a 30 something husband and wife with their 6-year-old son, who sat quietly throughout the game and then there a few like me, who joined in some songs, sat for much of the game and stood up when everybody else stood up. I even heard someone near me mention popcorn, although I didn't take a photograph of them. None of them bothered me. They were all enjoying the game in their own way. Life would be boring if we were all the same - ask the North Koreans.

Bad news for us too. But did anybody realistically expect them to give a job to Les Reed? I guess this means we can soon expect his next 'leak' to the media that he has been 'shortlisted' for another job (a euphemism for 'he's applied'), which, of course, he won't get either.

To be fair, Gabbiadini was and he'd only been on the pitch a few minutes.

The board and owners have alienated the fanbase to an extent I can't recall since the Branfoot era,when there were also fan boycotts. I went today, hoping we'd pull off a miracle but realistically expecting us to lose. Considering the current shambolic state the club and team are in, I thought those of us who turned up gave decent support, although I was in the lower tier, which was full. It wasn't up to the League Cup Final standard but we didn't have any goals to cheer and it was only when we scored in the final that the support really took off. Our support was the least of our problems today. Even the most loyal of fans needs something to cheer occasionally, like a goal or better still, a win or even the hope of a win.

Hughes is a record-breaker already! The first man to manage 2 Premier League teams knocked out of the FA Cup in the same year and soon to be added to that another record: the first manager to manage 2 Premier League teams relegated in the same year. So that will be a double record. There is a reason why that has never happened before. No other club was ever stupid enough to appoint a amanager who had just been sacked from a rival club below them in the league because he was getting them relegated, when they themselves were trying to avoid relegation. We weren't even in the bottom 3 when Pellegrino was sacked.

We need to get rid of as much of the dead wood as possible and use the money to buy some of the best Championship and League One players, who have been regular first teamers and stars for their teams. Some to consider: David Raya, Sam Morsy, Dan Burn, Dael Fry, Nick Powell, James Maddison, Ollie Watkins and Albert Adomah. If Austin can stay fit, he'll be the top scorer in the Championship. I also think Josh Sims and Sam McQueen will thrive there.

Long had just one good season in the Championship, 2010/11. That was the only season in his entire career when he scored more than 10 league goals. The other seasons in the Championship he didn't score many. 2005/06 3 2008/09 9 2009/10 6 His finishing has deteriorated over the years so it's unlikely he'd be a great finisher in the Championship. If we have to rely on Long to score our goals, we're going to be in as much trouble next season as we are in this one as his poor finishing has been one of the key reasons why we are in the relegation zone. Last night was another example of how his woeful finishing costs us points.