John Boy Saint

Has to be in the mix, first touch "head in hands - oh dear" second touch - back of the net! Third touch - back of the net!! Shame a few more subs for Saints didn't follow his sparkling example :-)

Still Spurs have easiest travel agenda of the lot, at final whistle nowt is more than an hour away, all of those balls must have been in the oven for at least an hour too! Chelsea nippers have a bit of a hike - Yeovil - Exeter - Plymouth. Leicesters are a bit of a pig too - Morecambe - Fleetwood - Carlisle.

Blimey Spurs got a plumb easy draw with hardly a late night getting home to be seen, will their oppos be getting a night out at Wembley too (can't remember how this new format works)

True. Especially when you consider our lowest benchmark of player being Ali Dia, given the amount of match time he had Cucu had, 2 separate managers obviously thought something of his abilities, certainly launched a few tasty troublesome balls into the box from the wings under Koeman. Defensively certainly wasn't the worst we have had either, I remember VVD going for a sortie up field the attack broke down and the oppos were off down our left Cucu departed the right wing ran diagonally across the pitch smashed the ball into the Itchen and cleanly wiped out the attacker too. As he trotted back over to the right Bertie, Virgil, and Jose all gave him a hearty well done pat on the back. Knew his place and his abilities, never kicked up a fuss, scored a brilliant goal, and considering he cost us bobbins gave decent value for it.

Really a bloke who always looks like he was press ganged outside a pompey pub and instead of waking up to find himself bobbing about far out to sea with the King's shilling in his pocket, Smalling finds himself in the penalty box wearing a Manchester United shirt with a look of "someone is going to spot that I am not actually a real footballer in a minute!!!"! Most Man U fans I know think that is a pretty good analogy of the bloke. Also as soon as he is out playing elsewhere, he will no longer have the Man U shirt invisibility cloak on and will be giving penalties away willy nilly. With the amount of blatant shirt pulling he gets away with.

The programme Obviously found that the interesting possibilities had been all used up when trying to interface with the seats available!

What's Boufal going to do now his Saints bestest mate has buzzed off?

What sad news, his smile whenever you saw him was a ray of sunshine despite the discomfort he must have been in. That "penalty" he scored against Chelsea, when you see someone like Diego Costa (who many would consider a nasty whatsit) encouraging young Bradley to take it was a nice moment. Even as a parent you cannot begin to think what his parents have been through, aside from there but for the grace of God I have not had to experience what they have. and in these cynical times where footballers seem out of touch with reality, hats off to Jermaine Dafoe who was not only Bradley's hero but became his best mate, that photo of him asleep on Jermaine in hospital must have touched even the hardest of souls. RIP Bradley

And he still dines out on that moment

I can think of the 3-1 surprise drubbing of Citeh early in the MoPo days. Pochettino wound him up flicked the switch and sent him out into the fray, he was all over Aguero like a rash, to the point where after being chased like a Jack Russell would chase the postman, Agueros body language was will someone get this fecker off me please! Against Sunderland (admittedly no great shakes) in the EFL cup this past season he was playing in the Romeu role, up against 2 lumpy lads resembling a wardrobe and a skyscraper in comparison to him, he was a bit like the shark in one of those recent animated films "eat my bubbles". If he gets similar game time to Young Sam at Blackburn last season, he could live up to Les Reeds billing of him in the future, I would say Davo is blocking his path.

Phil Boyer - and very kindly he marked my first trip to the Dell with a brace. Best of all he knocked my gobby mate off the wall at the Milton Road end during the tapping about just before kick off, my mate was in a heap on the floor, our little posse of nippers were on the verge of wetting ourselves with laughter, I swear Phil had a grin on his face probably having just won a fiver off Channon for knocking the nipper off the wall first time!!

Mrs JBS is very happy, said it umpteen times - when it comes to football she knows her onions. She will call it right on a player pretty much every time. Very rarely has to eat her hat. When she has seen Sam playing, she has come away from the game saying "I hope we don't let him slip through our fingers". i have Ice cream, custard, and squirty cream on standby, no doubt once again it won't be going anywhere a hat.

Add it that Ibrahimovic thought he could wind him up in the EFL cup final, Jacks body language was almost "you want to play: let's play". Ibrahimovic's reaction was "oh ok - I am not getting any change out of this one". Good news on his signing.

And they weren't propagated in their own greenhouse.

If Pellegrino gets the players onside from the off, and we play in a way that the players understand and like,we are more than capable. Rather bizarrely I reckon the players last season were doing to Puel what Leicesters players were doing to Ranieri, last 5 home games without a goal was simply hammering the last nails in.

You really must stop hiding behind the bloke in front of you like he's a sofa when Maya is on the ball.

Jeez I don't know all this Horse poo "Yoshida and Stephens are 3rd and 4th choice" what cobblers the pair of them were 1st choice for half a season, the only flaw in the partnership was Mayas good nature trying to protect Jack as he eased himself in, which sometimes saw them ending up in the same place at the same time. As a defensive partnership they must have been more exposed last season than in any other since Saints first 6 months of life back in the Premier league, especially as we weren't sticking them away at the other end. Thank the Lord proper people run the football club, not folks who base their team selection on the past CV's and exotic name of some Carlos Kickaball who looks bloody dynamite when smashing their 3 year old before bedtime on Playstation. The reported new contract for Young Jack must have some experts on here holding their heads, weeping, and wailing WWhhhyyyy!!

.......... in other news Pigs are fed and ready for take off!!

I think just as Claude came across as one dimensional and uninspiring in his press conferences, Black alongside him (obviously came along with a negative cv) looked like a miserable sour bugger in every single photo of him. By the same token he never came over as an inspiring character in any TV interviews, at the same time I can't recall him ever coming to the line with instruction or direction during games. With the Koemans both Ronald and Erwin always seemed positive with a smile never far away, both coming to the touch line along with Dave Watson (another non smiler) with sensible input, but when an instruction needed extra impetuous they would send out Sammy Lee with his potty mouth and a bit of passion. Pochettino masked everything with his "lack of English" but Toni Jimenez could get the message across as his English was excellent, but most of MoPo's work had been done on the training ground. Nigel Adkins was a ball of likeable positive energy, but his right hand man Andy Crosby always came across as Nigel's enforcer, if he was chipping in then what Adkins just said he meant. Everyone up to Puel had positive energy in his team, Blacks only qualities was that he knew football, but primarily could speak French. I jokingly mentioned Dennis Rofe, he was a bit like Sammy Lee on the touch line, good with the bibs and cones but a positive presence witha bit of passion. Minus 20°C he still sat on the bench in shorts and tee shirt, memorably squared up to Souness in one game (which most folks wouldn't dare do). One thing that I remember from the relegation season when Redknapp was in charge was after the warm up players would be sat on the pitch, then Rofe and Kevin Bond (?) would take turns giving the players a little pep talk, pre the famous Norwich game Rofe was stood there punching his fist into his hand in a positive manner, before the fateful Man U game Bond was on duty, by comparison his pep talk was like a damp rag. Sammy Lee might not have the attributes to be a manager, but he has a positive aura, where Eric Black is concerned I don't think any of us has seen anything of his aura, just his ability to speak French. Which is why folks are calling for the return of Sammy: they want to see some passion not only on the field but on the bench.

What's Dennis Rofe doing these days?

No surprise really at some of those reactions, our Nige had taken us on an adventure, we played some lovely stuff, and as fans we were still riding a big wave. No one with half a brain had expectations of grandeur, we knew the world had moved on in the Premier League since we were last there, and so were realistic: stay up and no one would have been so upset if Adkins left in the summer.

Just shows how much contempt football clubs have for the FA and by the same token how bloody feeble the FA is, if they can apologise leave it 10 days then start all over again from a different angle. That said The FA would be all over little Southampton if positions were reversed. But then the FA showed just how good they are at running football by suggesting recently that there is a salary cap in Women's football!!

Yeah shame on them, bunch of twisters, deduct them maximum points throw them out of the league and replace them with Leyton Orient

Ooo that's a bit good, congratulations Steven. I think this is worthy of being made a sticky

Poor Maya getting typecast in an Anime style cartoon. They will be dragging this out until at least the 1st July to keep in line with previous years launches.