John Boy Saint

Defend from the front, always the way. Last season the team was set up to attack like the Italian army, happy days for the oppos push up at will, if we have a couple of effective predators up front then we don't end up with 21 players camped in and around our 18 yard box quite so often. Pelle and Mane up front our defence looked pretty damn good..........ain't rocket science

Oh I thought it was Pacific International Trapshooting Association The only video i saw with Charlie on a bike was the one about Harrison Reed swimming Lake Geneva, how could you get wound up by that? For "a crock" pretty impressive that he can film, ride a bike, and talk and not be blowing out of his backside (maybe he was and that was how he was going along ) I thought when he asked the "Gaffer" his thoughts on the day, Hughes response was quite witty.

I just saw this quiz on the BBC "can you name each PL teams most expensive signing" https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44857227 I will give you the answer to Newcastle United, as I was very surprised who it was and how long ago it was.......................... Michael Owen £17m!!!

Carrillo wasn’t ready for the premier league, Boufal despite flashes wasn’t ready for the Premier League, so the not ready for the Premier League arguement for academy lads who have been trained to play in the Premier League and look the part is a bit lame, their only disadvantage is they get tossed in and out of the side or get a brief cameo, never a run in the side. Hesketh smashed in a nice goal v Palace so Puel gave him a run in Israel where he looked like a fish up a tree and got pulled off during the First Half watching that game you thought hmmmm he doesn’t look like the normal lads tossed into the frey out of the Academy - just thinking of Harrison Reed being brought on v City, admittedly we were 3-1 to the good, but the way he harried and pestered Aguero with no respect or fear to the point where Agueros body language on a couple of occasions was “was will you just F Off!!”. If Mo turns out to be another foreign damp squib, I would have no qualms about Sims getting games, the one thing you do get from him is no fannying about, he is direct, he runs into the spots you want to see a player run into without even thinking about it. That run at Anfield in the cup semi from just outside our box just shows he has the intelligence to be a premier league player, he took Matip (?) right out of the game with his pace and the nouse to run across him making the Liverpool player check his run slow him down and he was gone. Got to give lads like him runs in the team not bit parts like they are getting, and folks especially on here mithering because they aren’t playing like Messi on PS3 straight out of the box!

Normally they are sat at home when we come back off holiday, which was Saturday. Probably feeling a bit like Angelman - hence not giving their non arrival a thought until reading this..........maybe someone in the ticket office hasn’t arranged the postage deal yet for this years Amazon-esque over sized presentation box!

I was with my customer up in Wolverhampton yesterday, all the lads working there are getting giddy and can’t wait for August. Apparently their owner ain’t short of a bob or two and happy to live the dream, I guess when an alledged £10 billion drops into your pocket in the last year, the current silly football money is small change rattling round down the side of the sofa! The latest rumour that was doing the rounds up in those parts yesterday, and being taken with a pinch of salt was......you’ll love this and think it’s 1st April...........Rashford on loan!!!

Certainly got mugged off by Sparky in the little video about Harrison Reed swimming the width of Lake Geneva

Whilst Lemina is playing hide and seek. Stopped at Auchan Boulogne on Saturday afternoon to fill some remaining gaps in the car, stumbled across a Ventoux Red on a what read as a too good to be true offer. It’s one I have had before not a knife and fork red, just a nice steady fruity model that I guess you could call a session wine, that even a wine snob would quaff without complaint. Asked the wine guy on the department (nothing like you would find in any U.K. supermarket) what the deal was, €5.40 for one bottle get 2 for €5.64!!! If I hadn’t had it before I would have thought drain cleaner! “It’s a good wine just like Cote du Rhône” and I chipped in “Just from the other side of the road”, He just said “Exactly” with a look of “I couldn’t have put that better myself”. So if you happy trippers en France are near an Auchan nip in and see if they have a Ventoux called L’etape .............has anyone found Mario yet?!

Not far off, closer to polishing the cutlery just before setting the table ready to present itself served up on a plate beautifully glazed with an apple stuffed in its mouth.

Funny you say that, Mrs JBS said the moment Sam and Rickie were on the pitch together for the first team, “Sam moves, positions, runs in the same way Rickie does, if you didn’t know any different you would think that they were related”. Big difference Mr Fry, when Rickie came to us in League one, his physical conditioning was pretty shabby for a professional footballer. A fact he even admitted it himself later in his time with us, he added that Pardew had a word with him to get his “pie and chips” diet sorted out and start acting like a professional sportsman. He obviously heeded that advice and made full use of the back up the club infrastructure had put in place. Sam has grown up with those conditioning disciplines, and as said infinitum has had his loan spells playing with basket case lower league clubs. I think it’s time to give him a spin out in a Saints shirt, his stature alone gives us something that has been missing since Pelle left.

Flip that on its head, considering his honourable Japanese attitude, he probably thought it would be the decent thing to do getting the burden of his salary off the books of the club easily. Should the worst have happened.

If you look at Yoshida last season and a half he has been holding the hands of 2 green centre backs and one fresh into the PL, plus playing with someone who until January couldn’t give a tinkers cuss about playing for Saints, prior to that he was in and out of the team. Unfortunately he is one of those players who needs to play every week, leave him out and rust sets in quickly, which is where he acquired a (permanent in some quarters) tag of an accident waiting to happen and not very good, that said Fonte was capable of even worse expensive howlers but because he played every week they were diluted, and was easily forgiven. If you actually watch Yoshida with no pre determined agenda he reads the game extremely well, and is far better than he is given credit for, especially on here. Hopefully with a more experienced defender like Vestergaard alongside him he won’t be needing to take to the pitch with a fire extinguisher in one hand to put out fires either side of him.

Is it me or are these bloody refs getting younger like coppers??!!!!

You mean League 1 minus 10 - Without doubt THE ultimate Saints match report, tells pretty much as it is through Red & White tinted spectacles. Language can be a bit tootie fruity, but no more than what you are likely to hear attending a match in person. Here is a classic from a few seasons back (when things were pretty good) if you haven't read them before: http://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.com/search/label/newcastle?updated-max=2014-09-16T00:22:00%2B01:00&max-results=20&start=6&by-date=false

Probably thought “I have had 3 weeks off, I managed to get into the team last season, managed to get into the Polish squad and score in the World Cup - there are a few too many options for my position in the Saints team - might be an idea to get back into pre season and try to secure a more regular berth”.

Certainly was, looked like zero defence management.........bloody great big hole where Maya normally would be repelling boarders.

As mentioned already it's only pre season and experimentation, if we are getting our knickers in a twist just imagine the dark mood on Merseyside where Liverpool failed to score with a healthy team and likewise Everton could only score one, both drawing against League 2 Bury (who were already relegated before Christmas last season) using that has a barometer Huddersfield must be rubbing their hands together As they smashed the shakers 4-0.

So he will be back in Ligue 1 again!! ............I’ll get my coat

I must be getting old or stupid or probably both!! WHO???!!! Hang on let me get the Panini Album out (speaking of which anyone want to do some major swapping?) to see who these fellows are??!! I know TV money has turned the world upside down and inside out, but how the Dickens can you spend that kind of money with a ground smaller than the Dell that doesn’t sell out, and from the outside the global footprint of a flea! A cynic would think that if they can do that without question, having binned off a trainer for financial reasons, persons inside the walls of SMS are skimming off a wedge out of the club. Unless they are just doing a p*mpey: but are much more polite.

See the “Macaronis” (thanks Das Boot for that handle) in the Fiat factory are threatening to to go on strike, because the Angnelli family who own Juve and Fiat Group have piddled £100m away on him, and they have been working under austere conditions in the car factory.

Must have spent too much time in Lovrens company!! As mentioned before, 5 years ago Fonte was about to become a bench warmer under Pochettino, But Yoshida picked up an injury in the Confederations Cup, Jose saw the writing on the wall and upped his game and kept Yoshida out. Most players when asked who was the physically fittest player in the club prior to the Euros every single one said Fonte, and for his age his conditioning was exceptional. But taking sentiment out of it, it was like the Euros were his pinnacle, probably due to the greedy contract negotiations, he was making howlers that were worse (as other have already said) than minor ones Yoshida was getting absolutely slaughtered for, any sane fan could see the flame was dimming..............and when he got to WHU many on here were mocking what he was doing with us and getting slack for. He served us very well, but modern day football has no time for sentiment: unless you are 5-0 up with 5 minutes to play.

Better make sure he doesn’t end up standing next to Ronaldo on the same beach!!!.........blimey Bob Geldof would be getting the band back to together one more time, and booking Wembley for a fund raiser!!

I would hope after being neglected for most of last season, Hughes wants him and has put a Spark back into him. if he went it would be no surprise, as he has been shabbily handled over the last season(s), he commmented that the goals dried up under Puel because “the manager changed how we played”. MoPe at the helm was Puel MKII

This Tenacious, seemingly good engine to get up and back, knows where the goal is.

If he can bang them in like Austin has last 2 seasons with their injury records they could time share one striking position