Ted Bates Statue

Good point, which means next Saints match isn't until 1st October against Everton. Hope we can fit in the rearrangements in before then, because that's one hell of a gap. Not sure why. No league cup fixtures until November either, surely there isn't usually such a long time between the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

I'm sure we are preparing targets for January's transfer window... perhaps Broja will be back on the menu by then?

Love these old threads where we speculate as to whether Tuchel, Emery, Schmidt or, er... Pellegrino would be our top choice to manage a high pressure, passing stylish kind of style (copyright Les Reed via Saints' Board of Directors PR aka Jeremy Wilson at The Telegraph) Should have got Marco Silva in with benefit of hindsight. He wouldn't have stayed for much longer than a season and we would've still ended up bringing in the next in line out of work manager, but we would've actually won more than 7 matches in 2017-2018.

Indeed - four major trophies in 25 years or so, all while they've spent a fraction of that time in the top flight. That's a haul we could only dream of, not to mention the likes of Everton/Villa/West Ham/Spurs. It's a complete joke but the big club supporters must lap it up or Sky wouldn't bother with it. Pathetic really.

I personally feel that he is much better suited to Twitter. I had a look the other day and he was quite rightly taking Hampshire Police's football account to task over Man Utd fans with flares being included front and centre on the Saints website's best images of the day. If he were still on here he would be wasted on us, trying his utmost to get other posters tangled in his sticky web of pedantry. But if he wants to berate other fans into believing that Gakpo's most likely destination is Southampton, I am all for that. On a final note, please could the mods put this sort of epic chat in a thread separate to the transfer window discussion? Maybe Turkish could come up with a title.

Idiots in music crowds has always been commonplace, I've heard stories of Oasis gigs being fairly unpleasant with the constant aerial threat of piss bottles. When I saw The Who around 15 years ago, during an instrumental solo someone took it upon themselves to throw a bottle at the stage from a fair distance away and it hit Roger Daltrey in the head. It must have been quite a nasty impact and it did cut him a bit as I recall, but he just took a step back and got on with his tambourine playing. Absolute pro. I should imagine Axl Rose might have taken a different attitude. Not a festival in the same vein as Reading/Leeds, but there are always reports of trouble at Notting Hill Carnival, to the extent that police are requesting for it to be held in Hyde Park instead. Honestly can't tell if things are getting worse as I don't really get out much generally, but there could well be a bit of post-covid exuberance involved as people learn to socialise again.

Shaqiri-style Albanian eagle celebration incoming...

Could still end up that way

Had to check the annual table to see how bad we are this year, and embarrassingly we still have fewer points in the prem than Burnley (24; we're on 23) although funnily enough we have both played 22 matches. Burnley must have had three games called off in 2021 due to Covid. On the other hand, I was surprised to see some 'good' sides only having collected a few more points than us - West Ham (25), Villa (26) and Wolves (27) and two of them have played an extra game. I had assumed there would be a really large gap of around 10-14 points. Leicester aren't much better and Leeds were very much part of that group until last weekend. Considering we've endured a long spell with barely a win, there are evidently plenty of other sides doing their level best to find new ways of disappointing their supporters. At least West Ham have enjoyed a cup run this year but for the likes of Gerrard and Lampard, they have bright futures ahead of them in the field of matchday punditry. The longer it takes for Villa and Everton to realise this, the better for us.

Solent stream just started working for me.

Yep, the same issue for me.

Che didn't train for most of this week and is clearly not for sale (and definitely not for £15M, FFS!), but don't let that stop idiots who reside on Twitter from berating RH and the club over him.

Ah, so it's not an individual transfer thread for a player who's on the brink of signing, but an excuse for the resident pedant to post memes and gifs. I'm sure the main thread could have handled it but we must be in muppet show territory now. If we're resorting to shitposting I think we need more work on some sweet Haribo/Aribo puns, I'm disappointed at the relative lack of them ever since he was linked to us a couple of years ago.

Bit of harmless fun that pales in comparison to what occasionally gets sung in the stands.

Yeah, but along the same lines as to when we were talking of signing Emery or Tuchel and we ended up with Puel and Pellegrino. We can dream, but's it's gonna be a no from Mauricio (especially when Manchester Utd call him in a panic after we get our first win of the season)

I sympathise with season ticket holders and regular match-goers this year, as it must be infuriating to be paying to watch the team perform as it has done for most of this year but I agree. Losing against Spurs is not necessarily the bellwether for performance across the overall season. Last year's first match we lost to Everton FFS, but we did ok up to November. I think that like last season we (and Sports Republic) can probably give him about 6 games to get a better view of where we're heading. See if we can get any wins against Leeds, Leicester and Brentford and pick up a draw against anyone else. (Getting this post in before we lose to Leeds tomorrow and I return spitting feathers)

I've got flashbacks of 2008 - Rupert Lowe and getting rid of the 'log jam' of strikers that kept us up previously, leaving us reliant on David McGoldrick up front.

Fair enough. Not to get all MLG on you but you said something along the lines of 'no better than the crap we have here already'. I might have got it wrong, but thought you watch a fair bit of French football and might have seen him in action. Appreciate the elaboration and agree with you for the most part (but I think - well, hope - that AA will come good with us).

You're the one who said Mara was crap the second he was linked with us so, like Hasenhuttl, you obviously don't consider him to be the complete article. It's one thing to not expect signings to hit the ground running (especially the younger ones), but what the hell are your expectations for him then?

Well if it cuts the mustard for Ketchup himself, mayo we all consider this as his official nickname henceforth? If it bothers MLG so much, that just adds an extra layer of spiciness for me.

Not a high quality post but in my defence I do agree with your sentiment - I was being flippant and posted after the first goal. Not expecting Adam Armstrong to score 20, but with think he can be useful for us with more confidence this season. As with last season I will try and reserve judgement until about 5-6 games in.

Yep, some people need to be told what's happening at ear splitting volume, clappers and preferably vuvuzelas in order to understand a goal has been scored. How would we know that something interesting has happened without any screaming in a half deserted studio?

This

Nice song, link to youtube... Boyzone, WTF?! Well played.

I watched Spain v Germany and thought Spain were a distinct second best in that match, lots of pretty passing and not just sideways either, but Germany were able to snuff out the attacks so easily to the extent that it was 70% possession in Spain's favour but there was only going to be one winner. My impression at the time was that Spain would not get much further in the tournament, even if they qualified from the group. Refereeing seems to have favoured Spain in both that game and tonight's but at this rate (as England equalise), whoever wins tonight is not going to lift the trophy. England struggling demonstrates that they have been massively overhyped.