Ted Bates Statue

True, although considering the last two years - a handful of games at Bournemouth without much impact, and a whole season without playing - I would classify that as a massive nosedive in comparison to the promise he showed with us. Good to see him get a run of games with his first club, which will hopefully build his confidence again.

2-0 Newcastle😂 I note Clyne is back at Palace again. I wouldn't have called it for his career to have gone the way it did.

Whoosh

Useful to know. For all the statistics awash in the game, this sort of exercise is roughly as insightful as whatever floats around in Garth Crooks' head. Given the low rating of even the best players, the demographic of people who fill out these ratings must mostly consist of either irate 'big 6' fans frothing at the mouth, or trolls who rate everyone 1 out of 10 for the hell of it. Apart from the comments from all the supporters of the team in 2nd place bemoaning the biased media coverage, I like the comment that suggests that "All this proves is loads of people that support Southampton vote" which cannot possibly be true as there aren't loads of us (despite our catchment area) and we definitely aren't the ones voting for Redmond, or for that matter, Armstrong as a DM.

That will be a good one if we actually achieve something noteworthy this season. No need to thank the fans for their wonderful support 😂

Portsmouth have thrown a 2-0 lead in the FA Cup. 15 minutes left, live on BBC website.

I've been admiring this table since the start of this week but didn't want to jinx our chance to go top 😉 Looking at our form through 2020, we have been consistently good since the turn of the year - only behind Liverpool and City. We actually have 46 points from 26 games but the website hasn't updated yet. We are staying up! https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/daterange/fromdate:2019-Dec-30/todate:2020-Nov-05/type:home-and-away/ Form since lockdown puts us in 2nd. https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/daterange/fromdate:2020-Apr-01/todate:2020-Nov-05/type:home-and-away/ Most surprising of all, assuming the tables are correct, we have taken 58 points from our last 38 games - and this period includes 5 matches of our horror run of 7 games from last autumn which culminated in that match... yes, I'm talking about the defeat to Marco fucking Silva's Everton. As a comparison, we scored 56 under Pochettino in his only full season, while with Koeman we amassed 60 and 63 points in his two seasons. https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/daterange/fromdate:2019-Sep-30/todate:2020-Nov-05/type:home-and-away/ Anyone got any better links for comparing form over a date range?

Yes. Also if we win, we will need to STOP THE LEAGUE because any future results from all other matches that take place henceforth will be fraudulent and illegitimate. It actually makes a lot of sense, the more you think about it.

Adam 'Nostradamus' Blackmore was happy to call that one about a minute before JWP took it - gave it all the hype.

I've already been stung from my 'cheeky insurance bet' for us to Definitely Not Win against Burnley.

It fits their modus operandi, although Ralph would have to pull some rabbits out of the hutch with us for that, considering they put 5 past us the other week. Hopefully Poch is holding out for a return there once things go south with Mourinho.

Hi Virg, Now you have some time on your hands perhaps you'd like to give some more thought to working in Spain? Not like you've got anything else to do at the moment. As you yourself once said, a career in football can be very short, so why spend the rest of it in a shithole like Merseyside? Sincerely, Ronald

Can't say I'll miss them. And how will their fickle fans put up with teams that struggle to achieve 10th in their super duper league, when they can barely scrape to 4th in the domestic league?

I recall Danny Ings was classified as a Mark Hughes panic buy, back when we were all speculating as to how we could wriggle out of the obligation to buy.

Reducing qualification for the winner to the Europa Conference has already helped it on its way I'm afraid. If that's the incentive to win it, then what does it say about the rest of the competition?

He could end up toast before then, the way he seems to have completely underestimated the Covid threat to his own health.

Anywhere between 9th and 12th - we haven't done enough to improve on last season but I don't believe we'll get significantly worse either.

Let's be honest, we would have sold him on long ago after two decent seasons. Heaven forbid having Ings and Antonio in the same side. Although we couldn't justify paying around £1M for him while we were in League One, bearing in mind we had knowledge of the player, it feels like he was one of those that got away, not getting him in when we were back in the PL. I suppose we had better options up front until relatively recently, and he was unproven in the PL. Just checked West Ham's fee - £7M, bargain for ten goals a season.

Couldn't cut it as a manager so he has to resort to being a professional shit talker to pass the time. Entertaining but low effort from one of the giants of the prem. He strikes me as the sort of person who has to restrain himself from punching his own face when he sees his reflection in the mirror.

I'd like a novelty face mask of MLT so I can wear a surgical mask over it.

We went into restart without many friendlies (Bristol City and Brentford?) and that was following a longer period, albeit with the players on standby as opposed to on holiday. Based on what we saw in June/July I'm comfortably optimistic that we'll be one of the fittest sides in the division.

Have they tried putting them through the wash a couple of times?

Pretty much sums up why he's decided to move on. On the other hand, it took JWP around 7 seasons before really nailing down a place in the XI and showing his true capabilities and Jack Stephens has given 3+ years of dodgy performances before last season's improvements. Chicken and egg hypotheticals, but I think if we gave Harrison Reed similar patience he might have been a lot closer to nailing down a place in our matchday squad. Even if Fulham go down, I wouldn't be too surprised if he ends up playing in the PL again.

LD Sports - the Ali Dia of sponsorship. We all knew something was fishy. If anything, it's surprising that it took this long for things to fall apart.

He's been sent to fat camp