CB Fry

I think you are failing to understand that there is no attempt to destabilise us. If there is a collective "media" viewpoint (which there isn't) then it is the absolute joy that something new is happening.

I've watched MOTD every week, most weeks the Saints bit twice and read, open mouthed, the paranoid comments on here straight after. "They can't wait for us to fail!!" Err, what? MOTD are loving us. Anyway, right back atcha.

Why would there be negative stories about Chelsea right now? Chelsea between Jose leaving and Jose coming back copped it plenty. If rumours about key people leaving is "destabilisation" then Liverpool (who were doing very well) were being destabilised all season last year re Suarez departure. If we are in the CL next season, there will still be more stories about Man U and Liverpool, even if they're not. The stories will still run, the clickbait will still be there.

Man U will still receive far more coverage than we do, even if we finish third and they finish eighth - and so they should, they are tons bigger than we are with far more fans, far more interest. Same for Spurs and Liverpool. Liverpool in crisis is clickbait gold. Basically that's how it should be - Saints are a provincial club with a local fanbase, the others are national clubs with huge global fanbases. And it will also be true that BT Sport, as a business, will not want Saints in the Champions League - they've spent a fortune for next season and have got subs and advertising to sell - they would clearly want Liverpool in there, not us. Again, that's fine. If I was the BT Sport marketing director, so would I. But that isn't the same as saying "the media" are trying to "destabilise us" so we don't finish top four, and it isn't true that the big clubs just get fawned over. Basically the Saints fans on here seem to want us to be treated the same as big clubs, but ignore the fact that in general the big clubs get far more shi t from the media than any other clubs ever get. How many negative stories have you seen about Burnley this season? And how many about Liverpool?

About what?

Okay, what "will happen when we start losing a few"? Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Man City have been "losing a few" all season and have copped no end of sh it from "the media". It's really only nutcases on this forum that think the media "fawn over" the "beloved" big clubs. Just goes to show the delicate flowers on this forum cannot actually cope with Saints being a top 4 club. The big clubs day in, day out are on the receiving end relentless barrage of criticism, rumour, counter-rumour, conflicting agendas from agents, players, brokers, ex-players, ex-managers and anyone else with an opinion. Man United have has to put up with that crap for decades, as have Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool and all the others. Week in, week out, season in, season out, for decades. 10, 20, 100 times more than Saints have ever, ever had to deal with. We get a little story about one of our backroom staff possibly leaving to go to another club and we are being "de-stabilised". What a fu cking joke. Man up.

We're doing not bad for a team with a Steve Wigley level manager anyway, Alpine.

And Pelligrini. Oh, he has been so "beloved" by the media this season. And Man U. They haven't put a foot wrong according to the media reporting on them all season. So "beloved" they are. Alpine chats sh it shocker.

Villa away - D City home - W Arsenal away L Utd home - D I would like to make it absolutely clear the above, while it looks like a prediction, as it is on a prediction thread, and looks much like all other predictions on prediction threads in history, it isn't. Its a hypothetical set of results demonstrating detailed analysis or something but bears no relation to what I think will happen, although when challenged I will say it is what I could think might or could happen and it's all based on thorough analysis but I don't think it will happen or not, although hypothetically I do. Or don't.

Even if we lose next Monday we can be massively smug. We lose a match in mid - November and we're still second in the league. Smug on a plate right there.

Nice little bit of analysis ruined by this line. There aren't any pundits predicting our "comeuppance" and there certainly aren't any that have said we deserve a comeuppance because we haven't done anything wrong and, again, no pundits have said we have. A real unnecessary recurring theme on this forum that "the media" want us to fail, when there is no evidence of that whatsoever. Not sure why people can't accept that the coverage of us has been very positive.

Meh. Jay Rod. We've got a squad to burn. Nothing can go wrong now.

The media have no interest in "dancing around" a Southampton related bonfire. Well, no more than they'd dance around a West Brom or Villa bonfire. They go where the story is. Given a choice they'd much rather see a crisis at Liverpool, Spurs or Arsenal. Seriously, they couldn't give less of a sh it about us beyond being story fuel. That said, "the media"(if we pretend it is one homogeneous thing) would love it if we finished in the CL places, they'd absolutely love it. What a story.

Why would BBC news report on Saints winning on the Saturday during their Sports reports on a Sunday which is when when Spurs played Stoke? I call that day - centric rather than London-centric and it kinda makes sense.

Flipping wrist slitter.

Agree with this. Already difficult to imagine both Spurs and Liverpool getting above us. One might but actually think it more likely that neither will. They are weeks and weeks away from catching us right now. 1.75 per game is still a tough ask even if it does represent a drop in form. But right now I don't see why we can't do it.

Frank did apparently. He knew all along. While the rest of us are obsessed with "resources", Frank, who would never lower himself to ever even thinking about "resources", knew we would definitely be second in November and therefore is not in any way surprised.

I'm not "stuck on" anything, I'm just dealing in simple facts. Nice attempt to suggest I am not looking at "the things that are driving our progress" and you, captain Nuance, is the person doing that. Well, there was fu ck all evidence of that wonderful perspective when you were having your little paddy over the summer, was there? Your petulant tantrums over the summer suggested a wee bit more focus on horrible old "resources" than you are letting on now. But then you always are full of it. We are punching above our weight and I am very proud of that.

It "implies" we are doing better in our league position by being the second best in the country (the punching) than our resources, finances, squad cost and revenue (the weight), which is not the second best in the country, therefore our punching is above our weight. Just some people with chips on their shoulders who get upset that we are being patronised and make up their own interpretations what a howwible thing it is to say about us. It really, clearly isn't. Not really about a difference of opinion. We are punching above our weight. Simple.

Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn, Blackpool.

You don't understand the phrase "punching above our weight". Oh well.

We are punching above our weight. But we are also where we are on merit. You can be both. We are both.

Just listened - great job Nick. "Champions Elect" was a brilliant line! We march on.

Nick, you're using that post from Turkish in your defence against me, and at the same time accusing me of being the person that "misunderstands" things. Okay then. You can type and type and type and type whatever feeble defense you like. On a prediction thread, you posted W/L/D the list of games being considered for predictions on that predictions thread. That, on earth, is commonly accepted as a prediction. And you've changed your mind about it, fine. It's nice to admit how wrong you got it. Orrr, the other explanation is you are really struggling with what a prediction thread is. They are, after all, really hard to understand and that. But they've been on this forum for many, many years so it surprising how much you can't grasp the concept. And everyone else on that thread (and, lets be fair, on every prediction thread on every football forum in history) understands how they work. Such a shame you struggle so. Send me a PM and I will explain how work, so you know for next time. That way you won't embarrass yourself again by predicting results you then try and disown.

We're due a win.