Saint Keef

They could have had Wesley Hoedt too if they'd asked us nicely.

OK a question....If you could have a pick of any Premier League manager to come to Saints instead of Ralph, who would you choose? To be honest, I can't think of any who would do a better job the he is currently doing. I personally think we are very lucky to have him. He seems a perfect fit for a club of our size. I don't think, based on our budget etc that the managers of "the big six" could do any better than Ralph is doing. They rely heavily on their clubs spending enormous amounts of money. Klopp, Guardiola, Jose, OGS, Arteta, Lampard - See above - Need masses to spend to be successful (I think given time, Arteta may be the exception) Nuno Esprit Sanchez at Wolves is a very good manager and could move on to bigger things. Carlo Ancelotti - proven manager but not a Saints 'fit' Bielsa at Leeds - early days in the Prem - time will tell how good he really is. Dean Smith at Villa - early days having struggled last year. Seems to have spent wisely this year though. Brendan Rodgers, Scott Parker, Steve Bruce, Sean Dyche, Roy Hodgson, Chris Wilder, David Moyes, Slaven Bilic, Graham Potter - No thanks. (although Moyes seems to have found his feet again and I think Potter could do well with a bigger club) Ralph Hasenuttl - Yes please - All day long. We are currently playing some of the best and most stylish football we have seen for a number of years and he seems to know exactly how he wants us to play. And results at the end of last season (post lockdown) and so far this season are pretty damn good. And please permit me one further question - No premiership managerial sackings this season so far. Who of the above is your money on to go first. For me there aren't any obvious ones yet........Possibly Parker as he has issues wit the owners,and if Burnley are sold, as has been muted, maybe Dyche, based on league position and the utter boring, negative football they produce each week.

Basil Fawlty as owner and Manuel as Head Coach (well.............. he is from Barcelona!!!!)

Well that totally pi$$ed on Sky's chips. Unbelievably biased build up and commentary. How many times can we say Calvert-Lewin in 5 minutes? How many times can we refer to the 0-9 anniversary? Or the "annihilation" of us by Spurs. Or Southampton's "darkest day". Give it a rest Sky. Anyway - brilliant result. Fortress St. Mary's! ......Captain Marvellous (JWP) my MOTM ......Goal Machine Che Adams........King of assists Danny Ings......bloody hell, I even thought Kevin Friend was decent. I know, it's all been a dream, no doubt I'll wake up in a minute.

Yeh you're probably right. It was just some crazy mad moment I had. It's the hope that kills us.

I know it's a big "if", but if we win tomorrow, we would go above Man City, West Ham, Chelsea and Palace.....and depending on other results elsewhere possibly others too. Now there's an incentive.

Personally, I think if it was Covid, they would have said. Quite a few footballers and other sports people have gone public about it (our own Stuart Armstrong) and as serious as Covid is, it's no big deal to be up front about it. If it was an injury, again why the secrecy - just come out and say it. His whole signing wasn't reported in the normal fashion and seems to have been clouded in mystery since. If it was an injury or even Covid I think they would have still announced his signing as per KWP. Theo and Dialli. A press embargo has been mentioned above. If it was an injury or Covid I can't see that being the case. Shy? Homesick? Didn't want to move in the first place and got "pushed" into it by his previous club and/or agent who saw lots of £ signs? Saints haven't stumped up the money for him yet? Work permit issues? Just a few thoughts.

According to the BBC VVD had said this on social media. "I'm ready for the challenge ahead." I suppose that's the challenge of earning several million pounds a year for NOT playing football. What a brave soldier he is. Get real VVD.......Arrogant ******. Unless of course he's going to work for the NHS during his absence. Anyway VVD I hear Barcelona is nice this time of year and good for recuperating.

One game - one assist. He was brought in to replace Boufal. How does that compare to Boufal's ratio? No doubt some here will know how many assists provided in the seasons he was here. I think I can remember a couple but I'm afraid my memory is not good enough to remember against whom.

Che's through ball to Danny Ings for the first goal was inch perfect as well. If they both stay fit we have the makings of a very good partnership up front.

So we've now played 5. Two of the "big 6" and three of the "lesser" sides and we are 10th in the league with 7 points. I think the realistic ones among us would have accepted that at the start of the season. We are again competing after a poor start to the season. Fitness levels have improved and we are are scoring late goals rather than conceding them (a sign of good fitness, belief and attitude). We outplayed Spurs in the first half (admittedly we crumbled in the second half) and outplayed Chelsea in the second half.....and on their patch too. Yes there are still issues in defence, but even the "big" teams are struggling to keep clean sheets having spent a damn sight more than us. Today was a great result. Pleased that Che is off the mark for the season - that will help him too. Very pleased overall.

It's easy to knock Harry McGuire.......so here goes. £80m? To be honest, you'd be lucky to get £8m for him at present. I honestly prefer Saints centre backs to him. Someone above mentioned call up Jack Stephens. I know Jack has his critics here, but at the moment, he is no worse than McGuire and in some respects possibly better. The talk at Man U was trying to find a partner for McGuire.....at this rate they will be looking for a replacement for him. He looks an utter liability and one of the reasons Man U conceded 6 at home in their last game. I can't make my mind up about Southgate, a great result on Sunday, but tonight? Easy in hindsight, but as soon as McGuire was booked after 5 minutes (and he was a bit lucky that it wasn't a straight red) I would have been considering replacing him. He looked like an accident waiting to happen. At half time, me as a mere armchair viewer (tonight) could see this wasn't Harry Kane's game. With Danny Ings on the bench, I would have rolled the dice then. Danny does the closing down and chasing back of 2 men. Just what you need when you are down to 10 men. So either take of Rashford and bring on Danny with Kane or take Kane off for Danny. Good to see PEH got his normal yellow for a clumsy tackle. Good to see Vesty come on - that won't do his confidence any harm albeit a cameo appearance. Finally - we need to nulify Mount at the weekend. He looked like England's best player tonight.

Totally agree. The falling over thing is just too much. He did it for 90 minutes at St Mary's last year, but each time, the ref gave a free kick. It the refs got wise to him and didn't "buy" the fall every time, he would stop doing it. Something else I've noticed. Other Villa players have started doing it, possibly to a lesser degree, but still going over way too easy......a couple of them have also copied his weird hairstyle. He's obviously has quite an influence on the Villa camp.

Still, if Ings and JWP don't play, they can't get injured! That's with my selfish Saints hat on.

Chelsea have blown hot and cold so far this season. Still look shaky at the back. Seem to struggle defending set pieces. If we can get at them then who knows.

Kane looked to be back to his best against Man U last week, but it seems Gareth Southgate has now got a number of options up front in Sterling, Calvert-Lewin, our own Danny Ings, Grealish (he still falls over too much for my liking), Rashford and Greenwood. It's been mentioned above, but I thought JWP looked very assured when he came on - nice shot at the end too. Well played by the Saints lads, they did us proud. I think Coady looks a better option than Harry McGuire at the back at the moment. McGuire looks to be worth considerably less than the £80m United spent on him based on his season so far. And with Chilwell out, it would have been nice for Bertie to get a call up, but he doesn't seem to be on Southgate's radar at all. (Great pictue of Danny Ings above by the way - thanks for posting that.trousers). Only one other point - does anyone else think Ben Davies (Wales) is morphing into Tony Adams. He's the spitting image of a younger version.

......or St Mary's? Just a wild thought.

Sincerest best wishes to Stuart. Depending how serious his symptoms are, and I hope they are not too bad, Theo could be an extremely shrewd signing indeed..

Based upon the madness of results in the past 2 weeks.....Villa put 7 past Liverpool, Leeds draw with Citeh, Chelsea held 3-3 by West Brom, Man U beaten 6-1 at home, West Spam win 3-0 at Leicester......and any others you can think of...........compared to Saints, two wins, two clean sheets (home!!!! and away), plus added to the European commitments of some clubs and a bit of Covid spread around, I'd say we're nailed on to be CHAMPIONS......remember, you read it here first. 😉

If Theo can score even half the goals that our last "injury crippled emergency last day signing striker" (Danny Ings) has scored, when everyone whinged and moaned, I'll be very happy. If, in the next 9 months he can score 6 or 7 times as many goals that Boufal has managed in the past 3 years (and even a few assists) I will also be happy. If after those 9 months Ralph gives him a 1 year contract then that means he is doing well, I will also be happy. He doesn't get many mentions on here since he left, but I always felt Steven Davis was an important part of the Saints set-up - not the greatest player in the world, but always gave 100%, experienced, likable, apparently popular in the dressing room, a good level headed guy to have in the dressing room.....maybe that's a role Theo can adopt at the club as well and in my opinion that's no bad thing. I believe Ralph knows his stuff and if this is his idea and he is happy then I trust his judgment. Shoot me down if, after 9 months his bum is numb from sitting on the bench or the treatment table is permanently engaged. Some confusion over Hoedt going to Roma or Lazio. Unlike him to be in the wrong place............Oh. Mind you, in his head, he is so good, he could probably play for both at the same time.

I feel like I'm on some sort of weird LSD drugs trip (I'm told that's what its like). Villa put 7 past Liverpool. Spurs put 6 past United at Old Trafford. West Ham win 3-0 at Leicester. And most weirdly of all, Saints win at St Mary's. Highlights of course were listening to Carragher and Neville having to commentate on their respective team's abysmal performances and Evra wanting to cancel his Sky contract, live on TV because he doesn't want to be a pundit anymore on United games and that although he isn't prone to violence he would start "smacking" a few (of the United players I guess). Observations: As bright as PEH's star seems to be shining and to a degree Targett's , VvD's star is definitely on the wain. "Nutmegged" on one of Villa's goals, deflected another into the goal and generally seeming to have lost command of the back four. I said 2 or 3 weeks ago on here, he suddenly seems to be prone to making mistakes. Also a pretty nasty foul and booking today (but not as bad as Luke Shaw's - who should have been red-carded). I wish the Villa crowd had been in there singing "Sacked in the morning" to Klippity Klopp. Add to the waining stars, Messrs. Lallana and Lemina (both not playing for their new clubs this weekend). Liverpool are obviously desperate for a back-up keeper as Adrian clearly isn't up to it.......I hear Southampton have a couple of possibilities - How about Fraser Forster (£15m-£20m)....or even a loan with an OBLIGATION to buy next season similar to the Danny Ings deal. They might also be interested in a back four partner for VvD. Is it too late to mention Wesley Hoedt to them? Not sure there will be time on MoTD2 for the Saints game the way today has gone, but all of a sudden, with what is happening elsewhere, a relatively comfortable 2-0 win looks to be a damn fine result. Cheers!

Maybe United haven't been busy in the transfer market because they have no faith in Ole. As he trudged off he looked like a dead-man walking. Poch has long been tipped for this job, but United's resurgence after lockdown made it difficult to replace Ole. I have a feeling today will have given them the excuse to get rid of him. Poch by the end of the week? Mind you, having seen the shambles today, would he want the job?

The reason for this is, I put Vardy in my Fantasy team this week. That's done the trick - stopped him scoring anyway.

Or he can't find the door....he's tried several times but keeps walking into the bathroom.

I'm not saying the end product is always there....his shooting can be wayward, which is why he frustrates, but he does run at defenders and take them on. Nobody did that last weekend which is why I say we are missing him. Some youtube clips attached.....hopefully