Ted Bates Statue

Listening earlier on Talksport, apparently Henry Winter got fucking drenched in the Orlando downpour, too bad there is no god or he would've been struck by lightning too. They were also fawning over all the graffiti in the tunnel saying it was a "sight to behold", and I immediately knew it must be shit The graffiti:

Really not sure what to make of our Spygate situation getting likened to the activities of a sexual predator, and not for the first time on this message board either. I also didn't expect to see this being glossed over as cancel culture. I haven't watched the doc and until recently I knew very little of Sullivan's activities beyond him being dubbed one of the dildo brothers, but I have skim-read the article below and it doesn't look good. Strikes me as a long-term exercise of various groups of people content to sweep it all under the rug. This includes the police, who yet again have turned a blind eye to reports for decades - deja vu, anyone? https://www.patreon.com/posts/david-sullivan-143515737 If someone's good reputation is being trashed, that implies the person had one in the first place, not sure that's the case here. Seems like his activities were an open secret, and that's probably an understatement. Karren Brady certainly knew when it was time to cut and run, and considering she has worked with him for her entire career, I think that probably says it all for me.

I really like this but gotta admit I'd struggle with the first couple of lines, so I'd suggest the English version of the chorus for that bit: When you fall get up, oh oh If you fall get up, eh eh Ties in with our redemption arc as well... oh fuck it we're all just going to do "Na nana nana oh oh" twice aren't we

No one likes us, no one likes us No one likes us, we don't care We're Southampton, from the South Coast Fuck the EFL, fuck the rest

You've reminded me, the first sign that we weren't going to sack Tonda came from Alex Crook

I know Will Salt is only a kid of 27 years of age, but he really managed to drop us in it here, didn't he?

Good day to bury bad news by releasing our embarrassing Whatsapp messages, on the same day as HM Government publishing their own Whatsapps that are somehow more embarrassing than ours. Although if we're making parallels with political events, it's too bad even Russia managed to get sanctions lifted in the week we were hit with ours. So many wet blanket comments online, but it's going to happen with a sensationalist media and a brigade of other teams' bitter supporters who don't realise we're all living in the "peace prize" cesspit era of football corruption. Crabs in a bucket mentality at its finest. The Saints page on Reddit got mentioned the other day. One of the first comments in the wake of Hull's playoff final victory was, of all things, a Leeds supporter slating us, but when you clicked his profile you could see that one of his most recent comments elsewhere was that he would hypothetically cheat on his partner if offered significant money "like a shot". Most people on there are savvy enough to hide their post history but you get the idea, most of these internet idiots are virtue-signalling hypocrites who make the lunatics on here look normal. Their opinion should be taken with a very generous pinch of salt, if not ignored altogether. If keeping Eckert upsets those sorts of people, that can only be a good thing.

I personally really like the FA Cup Winners crest which omits the black background of the "Southampton FC" bit. Just feels a little more aerodynamic somehow.

I really hope you know something we don't, as we held fire during the first two weeks since the shit-storm began, to the point that most of us thought it was just a red herring and a bit of a joke, until it came crashing down with probably more to come. It's not fair to make anyone a scapegoat with the pitchforks and torches, just get the sense that numerous people have been taking this club for a ride and not taking their roles seriously enough while Bournemouth down the road achieve European football. How did we become the shit-show club of the south coast? Yeah I think some posters had been joking about this possibility earlier in the week, not much else to do seeing as this football club is screwed for the foreseeable

Thanks for bringing that to my attention. That was not great to hear, particularly the bit where the presenter tries to compare this point to Pochettino's departure and Peach just says, "No, because at least then we had good players coming in..." Blame laid at the feet of Sports Republic for lack of leadership, unbeaten run papering over the cracks. No surprises there.

They're talking about Steve Grant, the owner of some saints-related website, think it's called saintsnet or websaints. Without wading through the podcast, he's apparently deduced that one of the clubs that Boro tried to whip up to pile on us declined to help because they too are guilty. But just because they can't be arsed, it doesn't mean there's necessarily anything there. It would be great if Parsons actually had a reverse uno card to the rest of the division, which he alluded to in the creation of a 'working group' but I think it's safe to say we have absolutely no incriminating evidence that others spied, because even if we did, the idiots would have lost it. As an aside, the Ugly's "Field bindweed cannot flower in May" conspiracy theory about the Will Salt photo has definitely been one of the more unexpected diversions to this fiasco.

Oh great, so because we laughed at Gibbo today he's going to come after us again, but this time round up the other 22 clubs and hand them all pitchforks and torches, because who needs to play football and stick the ball in the back of the net when you can just sic your lawyers on Southampton instead? Is this why we're being quiet now, everyone's been sacked in the vain hope that we get away with getting sent straight to League 1 next season, rather than fumble around in the same division like Sheffield Wednesday did, desperately trying to achieve a positive points total?

Cheer up weepy Kim, Oh what can it mean, To a smug whingeing bastard of a shit football team Too bad they couldn't win their participation trophy in the end. Turns out you can't win football matches on a blend of just sanctimony, lawyers and lack of fitness

That would easily top hiring Koeman to replace Poch (and I was always surprised his name was never linked with us in that era - mind you, Tuchel was, and I hear he too could be available soon). Seriously, we might be in disgrace, but we're unbeaten in the league since January and how many jobs come up for a team in this kind of form? Granted that Scienza will leave, and I accept Charles, Jander and THB may well be off. Get Bielsa in a room with the rest of the players and his grenade and they'll be the perfect blend of being too scared and too awestruck to leave. Next season would be a banger.

I can only presume he's putting together a monster powerpoint presentation that would dispel all doubts for anyone who thinks that he's only had us performing because of some sort of Back To The Future almanac or Football Manager game cheat code. And he'll do it in English too. Just a thought - The club have clearly used him as the scapegoat to save everyone else's jobs (particularly Parsons), but they could probably tolerate an interim manager while he serves out a 6 month ban. It would be no different to this season as we were basically rudderless for the first few months anyway, so it would be no big deal doing it all over again.