Ted Bates Statue

That is so unbelievably tinpot. Really hope they get promoted to the Championship so they don't have to bumble around in this division for another year.

Ah but I bet Broja gets into much better positions for scoring, so that his Xg would be far superior to whatever Wood would get... I sense another thread leaking into this one!

Interesting point although this site has different figures, possibly your numbers include cup matches as that would account for an approximate 20% difference. https://www.fotmob.com/leagues/47/stats/season/10418/teams/ontarget_scoring_att_team Incidentally, I have been noting that our win percentage in the league has been very close under the two managers.

Good points/ Our best bet is to outsmart other teams, not outspend them, and I do feel more confident that we can attempt that with Sports Republic. There will always be teams like Everton, Villa and Brighton blowing huge sums of money and ending up nowhere near challenging for Europe but instead bumbling around with us in mid-table or worse. West Ham would be in that group as well if it weren't for Moyes.

Think the decade in question here is the 1990s...

I get nervous about eating out for the same reason. For all we know, Lighthouse might have been eating horse meat lasagne for dinner, and who knows what was in those drinks if he didn't brew them himself and grow all the ingredients. Notwithstanding that, you might struggle to find people who agree with your sense of freedom, especially when you consider that the vaccine wasn't compulsory under almost all circumstances. Slight digression but bear with me - I heard recently during a discussion of the concept of happiness on Radio 5 the story of Eva Eger, a holocaust survivor, who was sent to Auschwitz. On the day she arrived her parents were killed and that evening she had to dance in front of Mengele. The last thing her mother told her was "Nobody can take away from you what you put in your own mind". She took the advice on board and that evening visualised that she was dancing to the music of Tchaikowski in the opera house. She also commented that she considered her guards to be the ones truly in prison... Anyway, the point I'm getting at is that she survived in part through staying optimistic through incredible hardship, and bringing it back to topic, perhaps freedom really is a matter of perception after all, even if it means sitting at home and not having fun in the Alps. Apologies for the rambling but I found it interesting and felt it applied here to an extent.

I'm not sure either Keegan or Strachan agreed to anything, from recollection it was mostly forum hype claiming Strachan and Martin O'Neill were spotted in Winchester. MLT, however, had agreed to joining the board - possibly chairman(?) and that obviously helped get him on side. I don't think anybody at the time really held the incident against him as a person, as ultimately it all ended up ok. Even if the club got wound up, people still probably would have given him credit for having acted in good faith. Having said that, it was widely observed that the preference towards the Pinnacle deal held up the Liebherr bid and I think it was somewhat damaging for his credibility. He claimed Pinnacle backed out because of the points deduction but, it was plain to most that he had completely backed the wrong horse. At various points in the decade after his playing career ended, fans and media talked about whether he could join the coaching setup or the board. The Fialka incident put a stop to that. Obviously he has now gone on to find a new audience who will worship him like we once did. Strongly agree with your last sentence.

Here here. I have just sat through the Western propaganda TV miniseries 'Chernobyl' which somehow forgets the CIA-led plot to make Russia look like shifty incompetent idiots, whereas the reality of the matter is that it was only thanks to the efforts of heroic Russians that the world was spared from nuclear catastrophe. Similarly after what happened in Salisbury, look at the willingness of Russophobic media to point the finger of blame at two innocent tourists from our motherland, who only happened to be visiting at the same time because they simply held a life-long ambition to check if the cathedral spire was indeed 123 metres tall, as claimed by fake-news peddlers Wikipedia. I, for one, am looking forward to discovering the views of Southampton's greatest footballer on events from history such as these.

I have literally no idea what you're on about. 🙂

Archived version here https://archive.ph/pT4J9

According to a comment on the Ipswich twitter page we only conceded one shot on target, which was the penalty.

Ditto 1-1

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/portsmouth/news/16115/great-pompey-myths-debunked--no-1-the-origin-of-scummers This article confirms that it was the other way round, Portsmouth dock workers had no union so they couldn't strike anyway. Hilariously, it's actually from a Pompey fan website.

Nope but there was a classic thread on here about him.

I have heard the story that locals back then would typically watch whichever side was playing at home but I wasn't aware that there was any semblance of a rivalry prior to the 1960s, got any more information about that?

Fraser Forster is about to get an England recall. I guess the FA couldn't wait a week and a half for April 1st...

I stumbled across a Rupert Lowe interview from a few weeks back that covered his thoughts on the Redknapp appointment, at which he commented that he should have stepped down at the time. Also suggested that the Hoddle leak might have been a result of phone hacking, although surely the culprit was a little closer to hand considering the board split, as much as his ilk wish to blame the mainstream media for all the ills of the world. I've set the link to start at a humourous anecdote that I'm sure a lot of you will enjoy. Apart from that, Rupert Lowe increasingly seems to resemble a Harry Enfield sketch character these days. Just to warn you, it is GB News and I'm not sure how Mark Dolan managed to get the job of interviewer: https://youtu.be/lmByaGgCC0Y?t=395

To a Ralphtologist.

They must be pretty happy with their recruitment having replaced Gerrard fairly seamlessly. Flying in Europe, not in the bottom 10 in the league, and could still win it yet. In retrospect maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Armstrong has become an integral cog in our side, Elyounoussi has come good as well, Vestergaard was useful until we managed to palm him off to Leicester for a tidy sum, Lemina - clearly talented but took a risk on his attitude, Hoedt - ok even I can't put a positive spin on that one.

I thought he looks mildly amused in that picture (and others). You have got me wondering if prostate exams are actually a lot more fun than everyone's been letting on.

I was worried what sort of bonkers political belief it could possibly be. Support for lowering the age of consent? Death to all white men? Clap for the NHS (but jog on if they want a pay increase)? End the NATO aggression and bullying of poor little Russia...? LGBT group supporting LGBT people in the utopia of Saudi Arabia, while playing against Newcastle? Now that is truly outrageous. (maybe not as outrageous as that weird shirt - but let's not go there, again...)

I think most of us were just waiting for a decent slice of schadenfreude at seeing Newcastle go down this season and the cherry-on-top hilarity of seeing Howe get sacked for the triumphant return of Benitez. Clearly none of that's happening as he seems to have got them into gear already, credit where it's due. (Hopefully we can still laugh at Everton...) As for their points total, I know you're not a fan of the annual table but I heard on the radio this morning that only Man City and Liverpool have had a better points total than Newcastle so far in 2022. I didn't see them as rivals for our 10th place trophy prior to this, but I would be a bit miffed if they manage to finish above us this season.

Not only that, they beat City in the Championship on their way to the semis, the year after they won it. So in their last three FA Cup meetings, they have won all three and done it from different divisions. That is some fucking record and I will clutch that straw into dust, oh and the fact that we are once again in very good form.

May I suggest that he takes a look at the bigger picture in some of our league games, as opposed to what will hopefully be three precious opportunities to duplicate our 1976 success.

Oh FFS I thought we had got past this sort of nonsense with Pochettino and Koeman.