Saint Keef

Turkish - you kindly responded to my post, so I will return the compliment. Rather than disagreeing with me, I think you were just furthering my points, and putting a different slant on them, if that makes sense and I think your summary is absolutely spot on. When I mentioned he is self-serving, you are right, he is now in the "covering his own arse" mode. Cheers.

My suspicion, based on his body language and his comments, is he's had enough. But he isn't going to walk. He'll wait to be sacked so he can pocket his substantial wedge. So SR, please do us as fans, the club itself, and him, a big favour. If it can't be done today, then tomorrow morning will be acceptable thank you. Further message of advice for SR - please can he be replaced with an actual football manager, one with proper tactical abilities, who can actually coach the players to their strengths, and who is less arrogant, less self-serving and less up his own arse than the current (soon to be former) incumbent, Rusty the Clown.

Is that his resignation speech? I do hope so.

Reuben Selles leaving Reading......to go to Hull City. Crikey! that lad does like a challenge. In all fairness he has done a great job at Reading, under extremely difficult circumstances.

I can't believe there isn't "unrest" in the dressing room by now. No player likes to go out every game knowing they are going to get "hammered" each time, knowing that the style of football they are being told to play isn't working. Do they really enjoy passing it around tippy-tappy at the back and making no progress, just waiting for one of them to make their next mistake and ultimately concede another goal. I think not. I actually think we have some good players, but it is clear as day, to anyone with half a brain, that they are not suited to this style of play. So.....I may be miles wide of the mark here, but just trying to give an alternative view and possibly put a positive spin on the events of last night, Jack Stephens as club captain, knew his actions would lead to him being sent off and in all likelihood another embarrassing drubbing. Maybe, just maybe, it was a deliberate action to get sent off and thereby as a result, (hopefully!) speed up the process of getting rid of Martin. Maybe he was "nominated" by the other players, as club captain, to do what he did. It was his "slap in the face" to Martin and his style of play, in the hope that the hierarchy finally remove their heads from up their own respective arses, recognise the disquiet among the players and take the only logical course of action. Every day I come here hoping for some good news and every day I leave disappointed. PLEASE LET IT BE TODAY! As I say, I'm possibly miles off, but I'm clutching at straws. Thanks chaps, I needed to get that off my chest.

Steve Cooper possibly? To be honest though, I'd take Tommy Cooper at the moment.

Yeah - the apple didn't fall far from the tree there did it. Carrying on the family tradition.

My Grandparents were actually called Pearl and Dean. We just used to call them Grandma and Gran pa pa pa pa pa pa papapa.

I've just joined a Fantasy Accountancy League. I've signed mainly Leicester's, Man City's, and Chelsea's Accountants. You can spend up to $800,000,000,000 before you incur any penalties. If you pick Everton's Accountants for your team you can spend £1.75 with an added bonus of being able to sell a second-hand dugout on ebay.

The bloke who invented "auto correct" and "predictive text" actually died last week. His funeral is next Monkey.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that.

Depending on fitness - a loan of Lavia would be nice as I can't see him getting much game time at Chelsea - him and Downes in front of our defence would be...........most acceptable!

Surely it's a Ram? Standing in a Dale? New goalkeeper incoming?

The betting odds probably swung in Saints favour when the bookies saw that the COT (was it Turkish?) had put up a green (Celtic's colours) Smiley (rhymes with O'Riley) on Saintsweb 🤣 (addition) Which leads me to wonder.......if we were to have a bet now on O'Riley coming to Saints, could we be "done" for having insider knowledge based on our association with the COT. Just a thought. 😧

I actually thought Smallbone was MOTM in the final at Wembley. He improved as last season progressed and I believe has developed into a very good player. His through ball to Arma for the winner at Wembley was superb and allowed Arma to run on to it.....and we all know how that ended up. I'd be happy to see him in the starting XI.

Surely not! Lallana training separately....... injured? This cannot be true. Frankly, I don't believe you.

Nothing constructive to add really, other than that's a really good bit of news.

I wonder where Starling Bank are, in the pecking order of sponsors?

Nobody bothered to let me know we'd stopped hating them. You'll be telling me next that we've stopped hating Everton......and Liverpool......and (surely not!) that lot down the road. 😀

Trying to put a positive spin on this. Just my observations, but when McCarthy came in, it was immediately clear that his ball control at his feet, and short-pass distribution is not as good as Baz's, (we probably all knew that already anyway) and in those few games Alex played we gradually moved away from playing so much of the "tippy-tappy bollocks" around our own area. It took a couple of games to suddenly readjust that style and to me, we looked better for it - ie. the play-off semi's and the final, we looked better for getting up the field quicker. So if it means we ditch the "tippy tappy brave" stuff then personally I think that's a positive. We would get ripped apart trying to play that way in the Prem. I think (hope) RM suddenly realised that too. I also think Alex commands the box better on crosses than Baz. The near post shot stopping is still a worry to me, so, whilst being somewhat underwhelmed by him possibly being our "new Number 1" I do think there are positives in there, if it means we play a bit more direct. Alex seems a bit calmer under pressure. At times, Baz looked like a rabbit in the headlights. Time will tell of course. All Keepers are prone to errors from time to time and Ramsdale has made his share, but I agree with those who say that he would probably be an upgrade on both Alex and Baz. Anyway folks, that's my immediate thoughts.

Hi Noodles. I don't know you and didn't know your lad, but like you say, we are all part of a family. It felt like that a few weeks ago as the coaches turned up at St Mary's and red smoke filled the air before the play-off semi's. And again at Wembley. As someone else has said above, Elijah's last game would have been at Wembley. I know football doesn't really matter at a time like this, but if ever there was a fitting tribute....Wembley 2024! My sincerest best wishes to you and your family mate.

Sad to see him go, but probably the right move for all concerned. As someone else said, £7m for the service he has provided for the club is an absolute bargain. Sincere best wishes to him.

I've copied and pasted the relevant details from the report. A couple of points to note - Wolves maybe interested. Would that scupper Che going to them? Says he was valued at around £50m, but that could drop to £25m-£30m with sell-ons and buy back clauses. Would he want to go to Europe (Monaco)? Would he like to come back to Saints? He proved himself here previously, could he be the answer to our search for a striker. If it worked out well, £25m would seem like a bargain. He obviously doesn't fit into Chelsea's plans. Anyway, lot's to consider and it's a discussion point. Here's the BBC report...... Chelsea striker Armando Broja has interest from multiple clubs in Europe, including French side Monaco. The Albania striker, 22, is available for sale this summer and is ready to take the next step in his career. This year Broja had an unsuccessful loan spell at Fulham, who paid a £4m penalty fee for not starting the former Vitesse and Southampton striker in 10 or more matches. Fulham are not interested in making the loan spell permanent after a superb end to the season for Rodrigo Muniz but long-term admirers AC Milan and Wolves could join Monaco in the race for Broja's signature. Monaco are seeking a replacement for outgoing striker Wissam Ben Yedder, with Red Bull Salzburg's Karim Konate and Ajax's Georges Mikautadze also on the club's list. The Blues valued Broja at close to £50m in January but the fee could drop to between £25m and £30m. Chelsea could look to leverage any discounts by adding a substantial sell-on or a favourable buy-back clause to make any deal more worthwhile.

Yep. Still buzzing here too. I've lost count of the times I've watched that goal. I still keep panicking every time I watch it, that he's going to miss it and I'll suddenly wake up from a beautiful dream.........screaming!

I haven't read all of the posts on this thread, so apologies if this has already been mentioned. Just a thought. It's pretty unanimous here that we want Flynn Downes to sign on a permanent. However, West Ham might not be so keen to let him go. If we were willing to take Danny Ings off their hands, and it is possible they do want him out (new management etc), it may give us some negotiating power with them and the Flynn Downes situation if we agreed to take both, Flynn Downes at a reasonable asking price, and Danny Ings on a free or "nominal fee", with reduced wages. Would that be of interest I wonder. As I say, only a thought.