Ted Bates Statue

Winner stays on, it's only fair isn't it!

I'm sure there are all sorts of stories in the realm of weird shit that never really got an explanation. Not that recent any more, to be fair, but just in terms of our sponsorship deals, the AAP3 deal had the feeling of it being a desperate fall-back option after someone bungled our original first choice. On an unrelated note, I wonder did anyone ever find Nicola's missing spoon? Slightly more recent in the bizarre stakes was the hiring of Pellegrino and how on earth did we end up signing Carillo... easy to mock this website at times, but there were plenty on here who were proved horribly right on both counts. Appreciate I've gone off on various tangents, but hey it's an international break and it's not like there's anything Saints-related to talk about currently.

I wouldn't be so hasty to dismiss the notion. He has a home in Winchester and I saw him in the area very recently.

I was thinking of saying that Saints were looking by far the more likely to score, but thought against it. No matter, we've just conceded against the run of play.

If we were to appoint Brendon I might even settle for us continuing to be shit, just to marvel at the irony of his downward career trajectory.

Surprised this hasn't been brought up on here. Media seem more than happy to run with this, because his opinions were kept sufficiently vague enough to suit just about anyone's viewpoint.

Some comments from https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6786896/2025/11/07/southampton-will-still-sport-republic-analysis/ Regardless of who we appoint, Sports Republic have a bloody long way to bring back confidence in how our club is being run. Another belter was that we wanted to bring back Danny Ings. For all the misgivings on here about data in scouting and analysis, it's a bit sad that our primary source of identifying talent to join us now seems to consist of browsing our alumni on saintsplayers.co.uk

James Bree

According to @Pilchards Ankerson has always been keen on Carrick, or at least he was a couple of years ago when we were looking to replace Nathan Jones. Wonder if that will put everyone here off Carrick now 🤣

KO at 2pm today.

I think it's a lot easier to fake a muscle injury or the like as opposed to some kind of sickness, so it probably is legit on this occasion. That said, of them certainly should feel sick after yesterday

I told myself I'd hold off a comparison until we passed the quarter-season point. The time has now come but I'm not doing a game-by-game comparison. Instead, here are our performances in comparable EFL Championship seasons after 12 games. 2005-06 17 points (W3 D8 L1) 2007-08 16 points (W5 D1 L6) 2008-09 12 points (W3 D3 L6) 2012-13 26 points (W8 D2 L2) 2023-24 20 points (W6 D2 L4) 2025-26 12 points (W2 D6 L4) Repeating Lowe's Dutch Total Football points tally with a mega budget was not on my bingo list this season. Before the match I was expecting we would be on 13 points, embarrassing either way, but Still is far from the only scapegoat for this fiasco. It's Sport Republic that I'm really losing confidence in. Silver lining, at least Minsk doesn't have to put up with this nonsense any more.

Hate to say it, but I think our unbeaten run is about to come to an end.

Well, he knows that his former assistant is no longer interested...

Thought he had a stand-out performance in the derby, and not in a good way. I got the impression from Brentford supporters that he was seen as a bit of a weak link towards the end of his time there, only getting on the pitch when better players were out injured. Too bad we let James Bree leave to accommodate him.

It's not like Maccabi supporters to engage in antics like this. I reckon this has been engineered by Brummies infiltrating Tel Aviv to give those poor innocent Maccabi fans a bad name.

I mostly agree with you except here. We're still left with a heavily bloated squad and having to completely sideline players like Aribo and Edozie is ridiculous for a team in the EFL. For me it's a warning sign that we're not being run properly, and that's before we consider that our biggest goal threat in Ross Stewart is out injured again.

I don't quite understand it really. In 2005-06 our average attendance was 23k. We only had one attendance above 30k, against Leeds when we lost 3-4. Even under Adkins our league average was 26k. How is it that we are so accepting as a fanbase? Blind loyalty or a sign of changing demographics?

I was thinking there already was, and then I realised you were talking about Palestinian bodies... this aspect has been very much kept quiet. The tank method sounds a bit Tiananmen Square. Similar bizarre attitudes over Maccabi fans getting banned from Aston Villa following their actions in Amsterdam last year. For all the instances over the years that a team's support gets punished due to hooliganism, it's only on this occasion that both our PM and Leader of the Opposition choose to weigh in and say they should be allowed to attend regardless of their past actions. Nobody really bats an eye over bans for 'tragedy chanting' so I'm amazed at the level of support for teams from a certain country to be allowed to do it.

In his defence, nobody won or lost games on the basis of their press conferences. Apart from the odd snippet of interest, it's literally a pointless exercise.

On the face of it, it's a baffling story, so this must be the sound of him and his agent activating the Alderweireld ejector seat button. "who gives a shit if Saints are interested, find me a better club to sign a contract with"

You could say that again. Reims aren't in Ligue 1 this season. I clearly meant to refer to Lens - shame you were totally incapable of reading between the lines. I look forward to my propaganda being dredged up and mocked in a few months' time, because it would mean that we'd be doing well. In the meantime, forgive some of us for expressing an opinion on a poxy corner of the internet. It's not as if Sport Republic is listening to us anyway.

That Wednesday team was essentially a League One side and he got them into top half as a basket-case club. If he goes to Rangers and sorts them out, it'll be a bit tragic for us given we've known about him for donkey's years but always gone for other options instead. The timing might not have been quite right this summer but this season is beginning to feel like a missed opportunity for us as we drift in mid-table. I don't really know what is so special about what Will Still achievements with the sides that he managed in France. His points average for both clubs over there is below 1.5 points a game, a trend which is continuing with us. At Reims he was apparently given decent funds to compete to qualify for Europe and he fell short. To compare with other managers in our history, I'd had next to zero knowledge of Adkins or Martin but putting aside any of their eventual shortcomings, the logic was clear that both had done well at their previous clubs and this translated into some degree of success for us. As a club, I accept that we are never going to compete at the top level without getting the most out of our limitations. I find it incredibly ironic that it still rings true despite being several years into the SR era where we have thrown away money like never before, in lame attempts to make our problems go away.

His ego will demand that he goes for at least one more job in a few months' time. If I try and think of the most arrogant option possible, that means he goes abroad to join a club in La Liga with the aim of touting himself for the ultimate prize, the Barcelona job. If things get really desperate (as they inevitably will), he could thereafter land on his feet in Turkey or America, before finally settling into managerial retirement with Sky Sports. On the other hand, if Lucy wants to stay in England then EFL teams like West Brom or Leicester need to watch out in case Martin ends up there. If he managed to blag his way into Ibrox after his spell with us in the Prem, he knows he can pull the same stunt in any boardroom. He'll be updating the CV and burnishing the book of excuses as we write.

Didn't expect to see "I wish we were Palace circa 2004-05" but there we go. Palace supporters don't exactly miss him, which should tell you enough. Much easier to snipe at Steve Parish from the sidelines than it is to run a club. I wonder if in an alternative universe people are saying "I wish Rupert Lowe was our chairman," but seeing how his popularity has only grown over time nationally, I'm not sure I want to think too much about this notion.