St Louis

Because it isnt a Football Manager video game. Any of these players could be with us this season, deals collapse, etc at last minute and we would want them fit. And if we are negotiating to sell the stars, then the buying clubs also wouldn't want a player with no fitness or game time (and an injury risk). We also have a game on Saturday and start the season next Friday, we need to use the squad and not burn players out, they all need minutes, but not too many.

Left Back (or LWB) usually, but cheers 😉 He definitely looks useful and all comments from other Championship fans (and Swansea) in particular sound very positive.

Is the game on Facebook too? As don’t think you can Chromecast to TV from the Saints site.

I grew up in Andover in North Hampshire through the 80's/90's and the vast majority of kids at school supported Saints. You'd still get the odd muppet who supported Liverpool, Man Utd, etc, but most of us were Saints. My Dad is an Andover man too and was on Saints books as a kid, and he has supported them all his life (he is in his 70's now), and he took my brother and I to games from mid-80's onwards (it was only a 30-40 min drive to The Dell) and I've been hooked ever since. I couldn't feel more passionate about the club if I tried after 40 years of support, but I do agree that its slightly odd that I dont know the city that well, dont really have an affinity with the city (other than Saints), but adore the football club (although they've tested me these last few years 😆) There are a lot of people in Andover like this. I now live in Bournemouth and have The Cherries just a 5 min drive away, but we still attend Saints matches, as do my kids now and hopefully they will stick with Saints (and not their local team, Bournemouth) as they grow up too. When I moved to Bournemouth around 2005, you would see more Saints shirts than Bournemouth, but that has now changes as people here have decided to support Bournemouth now (I wonder why!?) I think Saints are quite a rare 'city' club, in that there aren't many clubs nearby competing for the support, so we have a decent fanbase in Andover, Salisbury, Basingstoke, Winchester, New Forest, IOW, etc and I love that about the club.

We did exactly that with LD Sports (or whatever they were called) 3 years ago, when we switched to Sportsbet. We sold the first batch with the LD logos, and then restocked with new logos. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/aug/25/southampton-say-no-alternative-but-to-ditch-shirt-sponsor-ld-sports

Ive also just noticed that Sportsbet.IO logo has been removed from the footer of the main website. It definitely was there. I know it wont be Draper Tools, but does that point at a potential change of main sponsor too?

This is an interesting visual of all of our shirts (Home, Away & Third) since 1976 - https://footballshirthistory.weebly.com/s---t/category/southampton

We definitely wore it away to Palace in September 1992, when Iain Dowie scored a brace (after being on one of his barren spells) and he ripped the shirt around the neck in celebration, in true WWF/Hulk stylee in front of the Saints fans! I had a poster of it on my wall as a kid 😆 https://www.11v11.com/matches/crystal-palace-v-southampton-26-september-1992-20888/ Video (not very HD!) -

That's last seasons kits... 👍

Official Saints 22/23 Kit Release Dates Home - 29th June '22 Away - 4th July '22 Third - 4th Aug '22 (Lyanco's Unofficial Launch - 2nd Aug '22)

I think both of them would make decent Championship players, way more their level. I may be alone, but I dont think we need to sell the entire squad and bring in 15 new players, I hope we do keep some nucleus of the squad and add to it. I think our 'better' players (JWP, KWP, Lavia, etc) will move on, but some of the more 'mediocre' players (Diallo, Djenepo, Adams, Armstrong, etc) could make decent Championship players. Just ask a Burnley fan (I have), they hated their entire squad this time last year, and love most of them again now...

Your talents are wasted on here, as you'd make a great sleuth You have no idea what headspace people are in, so spare a thought. They are Saints fans at least, so I personally wouldnt get much joy in making them feel like sh*t. Our football club does that to us already! But whatever floats your boat 👍

There are loads of muppets all over Twitter, especially when it comes to football opinions (not just Saints fans) and yes they spout a load of sh*t, but this thread feels like its bordering on bullying to me. These guys probably read this site. Sorry if it makes me a party pooper, just wanted to mention it before it potentially went too far.

It is a completely different landscape now though. If you read Le Tiss's book, he says the best wage he earned here was something like £5,700 a week, and that Chelsea and Spurs were offering something like £6,300 a week (I cant recall the exact figures, but it was along those lines) and he says that he enjoyed it at Saints so much that an extra £600 a week wasnt enough to tempt him. But he does say that in the modern era if he had been on £50,000 a week at Saints and one of the big guns had come along and offered £150,000 a week, it would have made it impossible to stay. The chasm is bigger than its ever been between the 'big' clubs and us. Personally I think JWP will leave, he will at least want a shot at making the Euro's squad next summer, and he knows he needs to be playing regularly in the Prem to even have a small chance. But us paying him well already (£100k a week) might give us a very slim chance of keeping him, as I cant see him being paid huge amounts more elsewhere.

The only one I've watched a few times this season is Dan N'Lundulu, while he was at Cheltenham. And trust me, he was nowhere near their level (lower end League One) let alone what we need, sadly. A few friends are ST holders at Whaddon Road, and they were pleased to see the back of him. He's scored 7 goals in 67 games whilst out on loan in League One over the last 2 seasons. That's 1 in every 9.6 games in League One (Shane Long was 1 in 7 for us in the Premier League, for reference) Given he will turn 25 next season too, im not sure there is a huge amount of 'potential' in him that we havent seen yet.

Ask again this time next year All these posts on here about who is good at their role, who isnt, etc... lets face it, none of us have a clue what they are like behind the scenes. A combination of mistakes have been made, and led us to where we are, but it will certainly have been way more complex than being one persons fault! Lets just hope that the new structure and staff, equates to better decisions and performances all round (and essentially on the pitch for us lot!) starting with the new manager choice and summer transfers (in and out). But only time will tell, and structural changes in a business of this size (which is essentially judged by us on performances on the pitch) take time too. Not one of these organisational changes will have mass impact by August, so if we lose our first 5 games, it isnt the new structures fault, and likewise if we win the first 5!

I'm sorry, but footballers do not turn down Man Utd to stay and play for Southampton. It's just as simple as that, there is no way he was staying once Man Utd (and others) wanted him, and that's not Southampton's fault, its just modern football.

Believe it when I see it, but I really hope so. For someone so young, he has slotted into a new team and league brilliantly. He looks such a top prospect. I’d rather we kept him over anyone else (maybe aside from Lavia, but we know he won’t be here long regardless).

I have a very strong hunch (and it's only that) that Selles will be our manager for the start of next season.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles Lyanco Duje Ćaleta-Car Joe Aribo Adam Armstrong Mislav Oršić Paul Onuachu James Bree Sékou Mara Ibrahima Diallo

I really dont rate him either, he frustrates the hell out of me too. I've also wasted the last 5 years wondering what he actually does and when he will come good. I just wonder if the Championship is his level (given how well he did at Molde, Basel and Celtic) and if we might have an attacking midfielder who could actually score goals. Matters not anyway, he's off. Last time we went down, we brought in a lot of absolute cr*p and it took us a few years to get it right, I just worry that the players that SR bring in could actually be a lot worse than what we already have (the ones we are all wishing away).

Would probably be decent in The Championship. Did really well in Scotland, and the couple of Celtic fans I know loved him (he scored 25 in 66 for them too) Champ is probably his level, maybe one more year wouldnt have been so bad.

There are a multitude of reasons and people to blame, but I'm not sure Mateusz Lis and Juan Larios would be high on the blame list for me of 'why are we being relegated' 😆

I'd swap McCarthy for Bazunu, and Bednarek for DCC (if fit) but agree with the rest of it. Maybe S. Armstrong on for Theo later in the game. Ive also just watched the Bournemouth v West Ham highlights, and didnt realise that all 4 goals came from crosses into the box and awful defending, so maybe Tall Paul has a role to play in this one?

If you can be bothered, go and have a read of the thread on Foxes Talk about Brendan Rodgers. I had no idea quite how disliked he was by their fans, he makes Nathan Jones seem like a god amongst Saints fans. They hated his team selections, formation, stye of football, signings, personality.... everything basically. And thats not just one or two of the more vocal fans, its pretty much all of them.