Sunglasses Ron

Absolute pish, Sterling drives me f’ing bonkers when he plays for England.

Absolute trash so far, Kane looking like it’s his first game of football. He must come good soon right?

... plus you never know if you'll be playing on-the-beach versions of Liverpool and Leicester at that time!

I remember the 'devastation' of seeing Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert all leave in 2014. I genuinely thought we were gonners, but then we did some stellar transfer business and actually became better. I'd like to think the club has learned from the 'everything we touch turns to gold' complacency that followed VVD's exit.

See where you're coming from, but there are ways to lose and there are other ways to lose. Even if the points don't materialise, the very least you expect to see is decent tactics executed by a committed team backed up by good use of subs. If we get smashed a few times and are around the bottom of the table then he would be luck to get to Christmas. Desperately hoping for some decent summer transfer business, but expectations are set pretty low to be honest.

Thanks for confirming, it really should be in my opinion!

Absolutely this! Clear and obvious as it's always supposed to have been.

Let's see if we can extend our laughable record of opening day results! What is it again, 3/4 opening day wins in about 30 years? Only ones I can remember are Coventry away ('99 ish), Leeds at home ('11 ish) and West Brom away ('14 ish).

Well fair play to them I guess for finishing the game, but they should definitely have replayed the match today (thought that before the result). Think someone at the top should have taken the decision off the players shoulders. I shouldn’t laugh but Hojbjerb clearly fancies himself as a bit of a Henderson.

Italy a joy to watch!

Great post, thanks! As someone who squeezed in with just 15,000 others in its final days, it seems difficult to conceive how 40,000 could have been in the same space. Amazing!

Yes it was, but I was talking about things from my perspective as my first game was in 1993 when capacity was about 17,500. If we're being pedantic, then the attendance of the game you went to was 31,044, whereas the first league game at St. Mary's was 31,107! 😎

Crazy isn't it! I remember clear as day, taking one last look at The Dell and then walking down to see the new ground in the summer of '01. That first league game at home to Chelsea was memorable, walking out into the bowl and seeing 30,000 Southampton fans at a home game for the first time ever. It's not bad ground, in fact far from it, I just wish it had a bit of unique character to it. If nothing else, whack some striped seats in there like the old Milton Road End 🙂

Well I knew it begun with a B 😃

Birch Construction rings a bell for St. Mary's. I have the glossy brochure somewhere...

Definitely nostalgia! I loved the place, but it was a right, rundown, dump in parts 🙂

I’d usually agree, but if it gets us results at the Euros then he can crack on!

Well done JWP, decent effort son.

Tidy from JWP, our boy has a great engine on him 👍🏻

I hate to point the obvious out, by our kids shirt has a rather prominent looking 'Southampton Football Club' badge on it. I'd like to think most people would identify it and then know that it's a Southampton shirt rather than Brentford. I know they just got promoted, and fair play to them, but it will be a sad day when people see a kid wearing it and think that they're a Brentford fan 😃

The news article on the club website says: Fans can pre-order the new kit online until Wednesday 16th June. So I'm guessing it comes out around then!?

I think he’s unlucky not to go and I’m genuinely disappointed for him as he deserved a shot. As above really, it’s the principle of him not being picked (plays for us) that’s annoying and not necessarily the blind belief that he was going to rock up and bang in a worldly winner in injury time of the final.

Saints and England seem to have a really uncomfortable relationship. Our players seem to have to move mountains to get a call-up during qualifying periods, but when the big tournaments come up they get left out (unless they happen to sign for a big club just beforehand).

I've followed Saints for 30 years and have never considered the kits good value, perhaps apart from the early years when they were about £25, mum and dad paid, and they remained 'current' for 2 years. I guess you have to look past the transaction as more of a donation than a purchase. The problem with that is that your expectation as a fan increases as you're expecting something in return (better signings / results etc.). It's great when everything goes well, but when it doesn't then you feel short-changed, a point which is made worse by the fact that your inclination to wear the shirt reduces as well!

I bet Athletico Madrid are absolutely cursing their red and white stripes right now 😃