CB Fry

If I've upset the man that thinks Southampton Football Club signed Nathan Redmond because other clubs got together and tricked us into signing him, that's fine by me.

I think us getting to a major cup semi, only our second in thirty odd years is a brilliant thing. Absolutely brilliant. You describe it as the "danger of the season". You wanted us to chuck the quarter final before we played it and you have written off the semi before a ball is kicked. Well, I want us to win, I want us to get to Wembley and win a trophy. I think it would be absolutely fu cking fantastic. Get on board.

This is a direct quote from Les Reed, yesterday. "It’s really important that we think long term so that we are still competing at sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth in the league for the long term and we are not going up and down like some of the other clubs around us." A direct quote published yesterday. Not a year ago. Not with a headline written by a BBC sub editor. Yesterday. Not made up to suit my agenda. Actual words he said, published yesterday. Read them. Read them again. You dinlows can get upset about horrible old Les promising us the Champions League but look. He's not any more. That's what you want to hear right? There you go. He's said it so you can stop getting all furious that we're not challenging for fourth. Happy to accept your apologies when you're ready.

Our resident club historian called our first major cup semi in a over a decade (only our second in 30 odd years) as our "biggest enemy" of the season. Frankly bizarre, especially when you consider some of the (justified) fury from our last three quarter final exits, that it seems like the only thing that is worse than losing a cup quarter final is winning one.

I'd suggest only a tiny minority of Leicester fans expected to win the league this time last year, but you expect us to win the league this season? You're a special little guy.

Where does Les Reed says he wants/expects a proper stab at top six this season? It's ruined your little world I know, but you know he said something very specific and quite different to that only yesterday. Read it, remember it and you can use that from now on, can't you? My expectations are top ten and I concur with the early, sensible posts on this forum, Whelk in particular.

Does he? This season? You absolutely sure about that?

What happened to that £15m player we've already signed? We don't seem to have signed him.

Turgid.

Turgid.

I think he's picked the team in the same way they do the FA Cup draw. And in goal, number 41.

Radio commentary on the SFC website if you can stand Dave "what they don't want to do now is concede" Merrington.

We've just hit peak Delldays.

Les is saying the same there as he's ever said. Read the baggytrousers post for as decent a summary as you'll get. Champions League/top four is a stretch target which may be achieved by ensuring we are best of the rest every season. One season, if at least two of the big six fail, we then are in a strong position to break in. That's what "Champions League ready" means.

Eh?

Read baggytrousers post above. Or everything that Les Reed has ever said, ever, about our approach.

Not sure Markus, or Cortese while ML was alive, ever publicly talked about any aspiration for the Champions League. Premier League, yes. Happy to see otherwise if you can find it.

No, unless you want the manager to say "I hope we get knocked out of these cups pretty sharpish so we can all have a rest".

And you can tick "Steven Gerrard" off your bingo cards, everyone. Have another read of it.

Or, you're a paranoid delusional conspiracy theorist who babbles on about how other football clubs conspire together to pretend they want to sign particular players to trick Les into signing them for Saints. My recommendation to you is to avoid talking about PR spin until you have actually mastered the reality of actual real life rather than the chaos of fantasy you've constructed in your own head.

The Les interview in Echo also backs this up saying the midfield need to contribute more goals, both through assists and shots (actually going in). Obvious stuff of course in our current situation and clearly needs fixing ASAP but a million miles away from the current forum hysteria that we are actively telling the midfield not to contribute offensively.

He did, however, say this, directly quoted: "It’s really important that we think long term so that we are still competing at sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth in the league for the long term and we are not going up and down like some of the other clubs around us." There you go ladies, suck it up, drink it in. No more grizzling about howwible old lying Les promising us the Champions League. Read it. Digest it. Read it again. What a beautiful day.

I've read it and it doesn't basically say that at all. Try reading it again.

Er, not only is it it possible, it's the position taken by the vast majority of Remain voters, including me and Gordon Brown.