Daren W

No a question of questioning their professionalism, it's more a question of whether they're good enough to beat Huddersfield. Judging by that live game on Sky, I don't think they're all that...

It's nothing to do with where we were, it's where we are now as a club that is misinterpted as "arrogance." Best stadium in this League? Tick Best Academy in this league? Tick Best supported club in this League? Tick Wealthiest club is this League? Tick On all fronts we are a big club in this league and it's only ignorance, jealousy or stupidity that dictates otherwise.

I wonder if St Peter doesn't recognise him and sends him back?

3-1 Liverpool 1989 3-3 Liverpool 2000 6-3 Man Utd 1996 5-4 Norwich 1994 4-0 Spurs 2004 And strangely enough 3-2 Sheffield United 2008, the most blood pumping rollercoaster of a game I've been to. One minute we're relegated, the next we're not, the next we are, the next we're not... Stunning stuff and one of the reasons I lost total faith in Lowe when he got rid of Pearson...

How can you tell?? He looked half dead when he was alive..

"During the last years of his career, Louis Armstrong would often confuse an arm for this trumpet..."

But I thought the Academy was being sold and all the youth team players in Hampshire being released??? Is this not true???

Actually that s a damn good point, regards of traffic issues you'd think people would want to applaud the boys after a game like that...

And that's different from normal mathematics, how?

This... I'm best mates with his uncle and Brian would come here but with a possibility of Premeirship promotion who here would blame him for staying?? A decent lad from a good family who will play here again one day...

Point... But with pompey it's historical... With Bompey is hysterical...

But as I said, it's ONLY because we're in the same league. If we're in different leagues next season will anyone give a stuff about Bompey? Not a chance... This is a one season thing and only to expected but I'll guarantee you Saints won't be singing or posting about Bompey...

So we don't need any match report in todays Echo then? Sorry but this "You spending that much time saying you don't care just gives the impression you do" crap proves you just didn't bother to read the article in the first place... Again... "the moment the two clubs are in different leagues again Bournemouth will be a distant memory to me; I’ll no more cast an eye over their results than I will Yeovil or Reading. The sad fact that most Bompey fans hate is that there is no rivalry other than the here and now, the moment that’s gone then so are Bournemouth in the minds of most Saints fans."

So let me get this straight, on the weekend we're playing Bournemouth I'm not allowed to comment on them? To be fair I'm getting bored about the people who are saying they're bored. It's a local derby but a really minuscule one. I'm fully entitled to write about the cherries on a weekend we're playing them ffs...

This week’s column comes to you courtesy of hindsight. It’s once again one of the weeks where the main topic of conversation is Saturday’s game against Bompey. Yes by the time you read this article Saints will either have leap frogged Bournemouth into second place or are still behind them with everything to play for. Either way, our “neighbours” down the road are the topic of conversation right now. Right now being the operative word, Gordon Simpson’s article in Friday’s Echo was an interesting one, apparently the rivalry between the two teams is very real and very much in the present. Well it would be, we’re in the same league and battling it out toe to toe for the automatic promotions places. But come next season, if the clubs are in different leagues, who will really give a stuff about AFC Bournemouth? I won’t. Like a lot of Saints fans, I used to have a soft spot when it came to the Cherries, that was until about ten years ago when I attended a pre-season friendly at Dean Court with my late mother. Bournemouth were in financial disarray and Saints, under Dave Jones, brought a full strength side down to Bournemouth along with a full away support to put money in their coffers and help them in their time of need. It was an eye opener, far from being grateful that not only did we bring money but also a fair amount of goodwill, Bournemouth were out and out hostile towards us. We’d arrived early and made the mistake of drifting in with the home fans not really thinking there’d be any ill feeling towards the visitors. It was monumentally naïve and within 15 minutes of the game a kindly, Saints supporting steward, had moved my mother and myself away from the home fans and in with the Saints fans. But, as I said, it was an eye opener and from that moment on my opinions on the Cherries changed irrevocably and any goodwill I had towards them quickly disappeared. Bournemouth fans have some serious chips on their shoulders but not for reasons of locality or history…. Bournemouth fans hate Southampton FC for one reason and one reason only, jealousy. That jealousy was all too apparent at those two pre-season friendlies, the very fact that they needed the money from Saints fans hurt them. Whilst most of the travelling Saints fans thought they were doing Bournemouth a favour they were in fact laying the foundations for ten years of green eyed resentment. “Ah, but you Saints fans are arrogant and have rubbed our noses in it ever since” Bournemouth fans replied. Did we? As far as I was concerned we were showing a bit of south coast solidarity only to see that solidarity thrown back in our faces. South coast rivalry? Don’t make me laugh, the moment the two clubs are in different leagues again Bournemouth will be a distant memory to me; I’ll no more cast an eye over their results than I will Yeovil or Reading. The sad fact that most Bompey fans hate is that there is no rivalry other than the here and now, the moment that’s gone then so are Bournemouth in the minds of most Saints fans. There is only one south coast rivalry and that’s between Southampton and Portsmouth, for anyone to claim that Bournemouth are in any way shape or form any kind of real rivals for us is just farcical. The comments from Bournemouth chairman Eddie Mitchell are the words of a chancer looking for a bit of cheap publicity. Take a look at the Bournemouth Echo’s own website and the words of “journalist” Neil Meldrum and you see yet another cheap attempt at stirring the hatred, if “Rather than welcome the boot being on the other foot after so many years of playing David to the Premier League’s Goliaths, an undercurrent of arrogance began to seep out of St Mary’s. The tiny club of the 90s was now far too big to welcome the likes of AFC Bournemouth and Dagenham & Redbridge to its 32,000-seater St Mary’s home” doesn’t smack of attention seeking then nothing does. If Mr Meldrum doesn’t have the acumen to see that a 32,000 seater stadium, the best youth Academy outside of the Premiership and a set up that is universally regarded as Premiership class, doesn’t belong in League One then it says more about him than it does about anyone else. Southampton aren’t a big club, that’s a fact, we’re in League One and in the big scheme of things there are clubs bigger than us up and down the country. BUT in League One, like it or not, Southampton are a big club. Owned by a Billionaire family, a UEFA standard football ground, a world class Academy, only an idiot would say that in this league we’re not a big fish. Either idiots or desperate attention seekers. Come on Saints, and let's get back to talking about proper rivals...

^This...

Well at least I know where we stand, I can chuck out all my Saints books, old programmes etc as this season is all that counts... It's all about the brand apparently, we can can ignore our history completely... The fact that without their history Man Utd etc wouldn't be the clubs they are today is lost on some people... (rolly eyed thingy)

The fact that you continually mention the word BRAND in this post tells me all I need to know... It's a football club. Not a franchise or a brand, just a football club... We'd do well to remember that...

Very true. Very nice guy, very under-rated defensive minded midfielder with a sweet foot. A lot of people seemed to over-look his qualities, he'd be the man filling the gaps as other players went forward. He would have stayed here as well... shame....

And the whole point of the article, which I assume you've read, was him commenting how he'd been mis-quoted and wishes Cortese well... I take it Lawrie is not allowed an opinion any more? You are, why shouldn't he??

So why are people commenting on an article they have no idea what it contains?? We have people on here jumping on Lawrie from a great height with no idea of what he said... That to me is absurd..

Excellent post, you remain one of the more balanced contributors on here... The fact is that there is no proof whatsoever that Lawrie has slagged Cortese off at all and yet people continually put words in the great man's mouth and attribute all sorts of crap to him.. If anyone had bother to read the article it states that Lawrie doesn't want freebies, doesn;t expect anything from the club and respects Cortese for his achievements off the pitch. His comments about the online snipers is a simple one. If you want to slander/libel the man, be man enough to put your real name to it. Saying "Oh my name's "SaintScottofthe northam" sue me, doesn't quite cut it with me, be a man and slate him with your real name...

Have you read the article? just asking as you seem to have drawn opinions about what he said, have you actually read what he said? Yes or no?

True, the pitch is the most important place in any football club, but that doesn't mean people should stop asking questions of their club. That was how we got into a mess last time around...

Or they're two people with the balls to stand up and say something when they think the club does something wrong...