Sunglasses Ron

Now this is a thing of beauty...

Yes, I recall there were a few things that made his transfer more drawn out than others (Covid issues being another of course). Another notable example I can think of (albeit a while back) was Van Dijk. I remember it seeming like an eternity between the first rumors of his move and him actually being announced. I was in Peppa Pig world when the pics of him in a Saints shirt finally landed 🙂 I'd have to check this, but pretty sure Adam Armstrong was also widely known as coming well before it was announced. Yup, definitely agree that Saints keep a low profile when it comes to their dealings, which is how signings like Bella-Kotchap come pretty much out-of-the-blue. As you say though, they don't always have full control, so it's still not uncommon for us to know that something is likely to happen in advance.

They definitely do that quite a lot. That said, I remember Salisu was out there in the public domain for several weeks before he officially signed.

Aston Villa: Hi, is that Southampton, how much do you want for that Bednarek guy? Southampton: He's not great to be honest, so we'll take a half-decent fee if that works for you? Sounds exactly how the dialogue would go really so this must be legitimate.

Now I won't have that said about Nathan Redmond... ... My Dyson has worked perfectly since I purchased it over 10 years ago!

Fantastic night!

Kudos to Sky Sports for mentioning our 8-0 win when showing Newport’s third!

I hear Bollard is a bit static at times?

4 in 2 for Che 👊🏻

No they’re not 😃

For what it’s worth, Cambridge have apparently made seven changes to their last game.

Maybe a better way to look at this is to consider the points tallies of the relegated teams in the previous few seasons: > 2019/20 - 35 points required for guaranteed safety (we got 52 and came 11th); > 2020/21 - 29 points required for guaranteed safety (we got 43 and came 15th); and > 2021/22 - 36 points required for guaranteed safety (we got 40 and came 15th). When you look at that information, we haven't really come close to relegation at all as we've either collected far more points than required and/or had several teams between us and positions 18-20. The worrying thing is that our points total has reduced three years on the trot. If we lose another 3-5 points from last season's total then we'll be bang in trouble, no doubt. Thankfully, early signs are that our new signings have improved us and we've obviously (hopefully) kept our best talent too. I know we're down 2 points on the equivalent fixtures last season, but I don't think we should see too much into that. I'm hopeful of a mid-table finish, but it's definitely not clear-cut at this time I'd say.

Great to see some character back in the team, it’s been a while!

Sometimes the threads are far more entertaining than the games!

That’s literally what he’s done by picking Moi 😃

Ahhh yes, he was on VAR, whereas Mariner was the actual ref.

Was it done willingly though? With no wrong decision to overturn, he may have been instructed to fess up?

I think that was Andre Marriner. Mike Dean was the VAR ref in that infamous 1-0 defeat at home to Villa a few days before his leading role on the pitch in the 9-0 at Old Trafford.

A truly dreadful ref and a lot of the blame for that 9-0 at Man United rests with him and his total incompetence. I was happy to hear that both him and Garth Crooks had 'retired' last season, only to see both come back like a bad smell in reduced roles.

Yup, sometimes less is more 👍🏻

The Scarab/Blue Coral Matchday Away and Third Shirt (whatever that means) is quite cool...

The green shirt is the away one, but not sure why it isn't available at the store right now...

Wilfried Bony had a pretty spectacular career nose-dive after he moved from Swansea to Manchester City. I may be mistaken but I thought I saw him operating one of those catering trolleys on a South West Trains service the other day.

If he meant that then it was absolutely brilliant. Thought he got lucky there personally but he’s clearly very decent!

Not far off a sell-out I’d say. Very few empty seats that I could see, at least not in any notable areas.