John Boy Saint

I have a little niggle about the possible re intergration of VVD into the team. I have mentioned before that last season I thought the team did a Leicester with Ranieri on Puel. The evening in Prague just had something in it to think like that. 1-0 down McQueen with space to run into to open up attacks, him calling for it Puel telling the team to play to McQueen too and everytime the ball played to the opposite side which was much more congested. The person most guilty of ignoring Puel and McQueen was VVD. After being raped and pillaged for players every summer, I am pleased that Saints have been able to dig their heels in over this and also not buckled to pressure from the player and agent playing their games. It's also interesting that no one has tabled a bid, we all know that Liverpool is "the players preferred choice" but still you would expect someone to put in a cheeky bid for someone allegedly as good as Virgil. So we get to the 1st September and he is still a Saints player, he wakes up and decides he wants to play football, what's to stop him subtly getting his own back on Saints for not letting him leave. 0-0, 1-1, oppos attack "accidentally" trips a player or handles the ball, of all the want away players this summer his actions do appear to be the most messy.

Indeed what a lovely strike, almost effortless.

The world of sport must be having a quiet day for a national to dig that up and deem it worthy of printing. The club obviously don't care, and for Saints fans he is a bit of a cult figure of the folks behind the scenes thanks to the Barry Gayle skits, and a main part of this seasons Kit launch so UA don't give a tinkers cuss either. As has been said already, who cares!

Oh what joy, They may claim he is from Bolton, but he was born in p*rtsm*th!!!! Explains much................ the lengths those slippery sods down the road will go to!!

Steve Parrish the Palace owner use to post covertly on the Palace version of Saints web, Apparently he blew his own cover by posting something only he would know. Oooo maybe we should set a trap for Tom?

Can I add in early 2009 if someone had told me and my mate as we trudged across Northam Bridge back to the car in the drizzle with very little to say to each other aside from debating whether to bother going next game. (Which we did) That within next 10 years we would be standing in the San Siro wearing our Saints shirts in the Europa League it would have lightened the moment and probably had us giggling all the way home. Even more so in the summer as we stood with our toes over the edge of the Abyss, with chancers and time wasters mucking about...... you did wonder how the clowns down the road managed to get snapped up so quickly...... and us with all the infrastructure in place looking increasingly like the worst was going to happen. Thank you very much Markus and Katharina you will forever be in the hearts of Southampton fans.

Barcelona lost to Real tonight 1-3, knowing how trigger happy they are in Spain, if they get beaten soundly in the second leg on Wednesday the phone could be ringing on merseyside then in Hampshire. ............. just a whimsical musing. As an aside Ronaldo getting sent off was funny, if he stood a chance of getting the second yellow riscinded (the first was for getting his muscles out) he blew it by pushing the ref in the back after being shown the red.

Blinding bit of business from Saints in getting a few quid for him, you can't beat getting rid of your trusty, but beginning to show signs of wear, old Ford Cortina for loads more than you paid for it 7 years ago!!

As no one has posted already - I will have a go at kicking one off........... Hopefully the boss will get them sorted and we will remember how to celebrate a goal. My only changes Boufal for Redmond or Tadic........ and don't be afraid to go 2 up front.

Says a lot when our biggest scoring threat was from a centre back. If that scissor kick had gone in Augusts goal of the month would have been wrapped up on the first weekend. I don't care what anyone else thinks get him signing a contract extension, and get the captain's s armband off that Dutch bloke and give it to him, SD keeps the gig if he is playing. Looked better today, although Mrs JBS, made a valid point when Gabbi was subbed and replaced with Austin, I thought we were going to be playing a bit differently under this new chap. Instead we leave 2 useless players (in the grand scheme of things) on the pitch take off our best corner taker and persist with one up front. Tadic was infuriating as usual loses the ball so many times and his default is laissez faire at best (and still numpties sing his bloody name). Redmond needs wiring up to the mains and someone needs to be manning the button to press to wake him up. I will stick my neck out here if Boufal is not in the starting XI next week at the expense of Tadic or Redmond then both of them must have incriminating photos of someone secreted away in a safety deposit box somewhere. Without a doubt when he came on despite putting the ball out with his own cleverness early on, he certainly put himself about a bit. Overall we looked much more busy than last year, but in all honesty Swansea were a bit pants. I mean bring a sub on in the latter minutes to go 3 at the back, without a doubt 2 points dropped............... still better than all 3 dropped thanks to a spawny undeserved goal. Free Ice Cream was a treat!!

That's a shame, the Old Bill obviously shut down the Friday night lock in earlier than planned........... that said it's amazing how giddy folks can get on a can and a half of Top Deck Shandy!!!

Me too as all 3 are master exponents of losing the ball and cheaply more often than not. That said if Lamina and Romeu strike up a thou shall not pass relationship then it might work out to be ultimately less expensive.

Because Virgin Media are digging up just about every town and village in Hampshire, and they are fearful of losing heaps of Infinity customers who have their crap series 6 home hub? oops did that get a bit too personal?

That just made me think of the night we played Wolves in the Milk Cup at the Dell, being the Milk Cup Unigate were out in force promoting themselves off the back of it. Half time pretty ladies appeared in front of the Milton Road end and threw promotional mini cartons of Milk to the fans (who has these brain farts??!!). Trolleys emptied they disappeared. Just before the players came back out 2 coppers came along the cinder track in front of the Milton, one a normal Bobby the other a more senior rank as they got towards the goal it started raining mini milk cartons.... all open obviously! As the goal approached the Bobby saw what what coming and walked across the penalty box, the Boss walked between the net and the crowd at which point the milk shower got a bit heavier, milk cartons hitting the net and spinning their contents over the Copper. Fair play to him he didn't quicken his pace and was grinning as he approached the West Stand corner.

The same Alan Pardew who was given his first managerial chance at Reading, signed a new contract with them and "ten minutes later" when Reading refused to let him go to West Ham (then in the same division) so resigned from Reading to join them. Should have had John Madejski on there for the view of the club owners. When Pardew pulled his stunt at Reading Madejski didn't hold back on letting his feelings be known on Pardews behaviour.

Next draw should be fun live from Beijing, they say everything comes in 3s, so they will probably make a pigs ear of that one too.

I would hope that we get more bodies in and around the box than we had last season, and a bit more snap in our play rather than the ponderous ambling attack where we waited for the oppos to get themselves into defensive positions before we decided to attack.

I have to say it is the first away shirt of ours I have looked at in the shop and on quite a few folks at the pre season games, and given serious thought to when given the choice for a birthday present.

Can't see the point in singing Primary school level playground name calling songs about him while he is here and acting a prize pillock.................... or should that be Richard Cranium?

Blimey and we thought Ali Dia was bad!!

So as predicted in some quarters, this thread hits 120 pages before the season starts.

Is that the new one from Kylie Minogue?

Postie hasn't been to me yet

Well he set his stall out on Saturday with the brief chance that he had, having seen Jay Rod come back from one ACL for a lad coming back from 2 and given a 6 month chance he certainly threw the kitchen sink at the opportunity, just a shame Sevillas stupid keeper got in the way.

On Wednesday night getting a first viewing of the kit in the flesh gave a familiar feeling, then seeing Gabbi with his longer hair than the others and the kit whoosh instantly taken back to the days of Keegan, Watson, Golac, Jordan, and a nice warm feeling.