Ted Bates Statue

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.

No but it is on the official website. Seems to cut out frequently for me, however. https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2022-07-18/live-stream-sk-austria-klagenfurt-southampton-pre-season-friendly-18-july-2022

My first choice would have been Drew Surman, thought he sounded very comfortable on the radio. Didn't Merrington's grandson also do a match? Thought he was good too.

Interesting if he was saying that before Leicester went on their run to win the league. I'm sure Vardy would have been quite instrumental in their promotion campaign, but I don't believe he really did much in the PL until 2015/16.

Prepare for hot weather, but don't you dare bring any sustenance if you didn't buy it inside the stadium at our special inflated prices. I put up with it at Spurs new stadium as a one-off, don't think I could be bothered to go if this is the new norm.

Facebook is full of the sort of lunatic who claims there is no new kit being released this year. I believe the answers are already on this thread.

I would appreciate the signing just for the bizarre news articles which feel the need to re-name him as Caleta-Automobile. ...if we sign him it could be a good indicator of the board's level of drive.

Lallana didn't want to leave either, until he did. All the chat at the time was of him being a one-club man and yet it goes out of the window when Klopp comes calling. Appreciate the sentiment of your post otherwise.

Seems like a universally well-received signing. Let's see how much goodwill is left when both he and Salisu have an afternoon of panic and we ship five or more... I'll give it until the end of September I was particularly grateful for the lack of accompanying gif on this occasion.

I sense that I might just be in a minority on this opinion, but I really don't get the hype for the late 80s shirts. Guessing there's a strong element of 'you had to be there'. If we're going to do halves I would like to see a simple red and white. To me, this just looks pink and red.

Jan Poortvliet too, although he bought himself out of his previous contract as we weren't ever going to stump up. Resigned of his own accord too.

I raise you Burley without Snodin.