John Boy Saint

Bear take a trip to Bruges this winter, take in the sights, drink some interesting beers, buy some souvenirs and Chocolates. Then go to the Chip cart in the main square by the clock tower and ask for chips and mayonnaise: Mmmmmmmmm if you try it here make sure it's not cheapo nasty mayo.

I liked the August midweek games, where a normally nice sunny day gave way to a pleasant evening, nice new lush grass accentuated by the floodlights as twilight turned into the purple of night! Bolton home first home game of the season 1978 (2-2) was just such an evening and a lasting memory of those balmy August evenings................... and boy did Frank Worthington stink of embrocation (how the chuff he pulled so many birds stinking like that had a teenage nipper slightly confused).

Might be worth asking at some point where that chuffin great big flag vanished to.

Ron mentioned looking forward to Mane coming into the team on Saturday evening on Solent (if memory serves me well) in the same sentence as the return of Rodriguez will be like a another new signing. If there was anything to get your knickers in a twist over this it would have slipped out by now: especially as the media know everything there is to know from tip to toe of the club!

And we aren't Manchester bloody United.

Maybe that because he looks like an upside down pint of Guiness!! I'll get my coat

Apparently that's what he says when he puts the afterburners on................ Supposed to be quicker than Johnno Quick!!

That did have me scratching my head a little as I thought we had the ball more: I figured the stat man got confused and looked at white stripes not Black or Red ones.

Schadenfreude is something we are good at on here............. And we have 3 prime suspects to keep our hunger for it fed for a while. You would hope that by 25 in a position you have been playing in for years you, would have gotten an idea as to how to lead in your job especially as you have just become one of the more expensive defenders in world football and handsomely paid too, as they always say the grass always looks greener...............

That was a very good one of those.

Cheers SuperSAINT............. I got all excited when I saw the thread title had bumped up the pages....... Grrrrr at you

As I was watching the game I thought this team is revolving (for want of a better term) Newcastle are being baffled as the player they are marking has buggered off somewhere else on the pitch. i have to say I do like the cut of our jib right now we coasted through this game to the point of being so bored at the lack of opposition in the first half that we switched off. I also like the fact that we have depth to the squad that when a substitution is made its like the team has been re mapped and a player with a different bag of tricks that his team mates know adds to the confusion of the opposition. I have a feeling deep inside that when these boys get fully settled with each other we are going to be a formidable force.

Sold out already........ I must have slept though that going on sale. if you go via Salisbury make sure you have a good book, the trip will be cheaper but a damn sight longer, if memory serves me well I rocked up at Cardiff station (after getting the Tin Tack) and the cheap trip home to Blazingsmoke via Salisbury had me getting home at least 2 hours after going via Reading.

My (both pink flavour) tiddlers were just 5 and 6 when we took them to Real Sociedad in 2000 the eldest clicked pretty quickly the youngest had ants in her pants but amused herself people watching. I would always recommend the family corner (Chapel Kingsland corner) as the pressure of being concerned about your sprouts playing up / getting the fidgets is lessened as most other folks tin lids are pinging around too: I hasten to add that my 2 were good as gold (yes I know every parent will say that) and the youngest was thoroughly entertained just watching people, no electronics involved.

Blimey that's a surprise. Especially as he dipped into his own readies to help the cash flow/wages at the club some time ago.

Probably there already lurking in the hedge shaking a bag of nice juicy Jelly Babies.

Just reading that made me think of a post match interview on Solent where we had given the oppo's on the day the right run around all game and secured a win, cant remember who was being interviewed but the comment that struck me was "there are a lot of knac........ tired players in our dressing room as we have had a very hard long week on the training ground". As you can tell the fact that stayed in my head for quite a few months after the event (apart from being a bit sad; I know) came as quite a surprise considering we looked so comfortable on the pitch all game. And especially after thinking back to the days of WGS where the last 10 minutes of games were always good value as you felt he had the players conditioned to play for 120 minutes.

Time travel does exist, just take the Eurotunnel from France to England and you arrive half an hour before you left France................ Weird

Heresy, Witchcraft, the words of the Devil!! 1990!! Football in 1990!!!! Everyone knows Football didn't even exist before 1992!! If I were your Mother saying such things like "7th in 1990" I would be washing your mouth out with carbolic soap for telling such lies!! Get the ducking stool......... Better still burn him at the stake, and cast his ashes to the four winds!!

I think I read somewhere that Chelsea quite often contribute to players on loan wages at the club they are on loan to, And if memory serves me well when we had Le Saux from them (as part of the Bridge deal?) even though he was our player they supplemented his wages. At the end of the day under FFP our wages can't exceed 52% of our income or something of that ilk. Someone posted a link to an article that said if we paid Luke Shaw the £100k pw he was now reputedly on at Man U we would have had very little room on the wages front to manoeuvre in. QPR are the ones to watch as I think the last thing I read was that their player wages account for 91% of their income!! So they get a hefty fine as a result of that and if they had not been promoted they would have had a transfer embargo in the Championship. i think our money folks will have done their sums before getting these players in.

Ah well it will be amusing when we do an Athletico Madrid and upset the status quo by rocking up at Citeh last day of the season only needing to avoid defeat by 3 clear goals to win the Premiership ................ Nurse!!!

Certainly looks robust but all depends on pace, angle of approach and view of the ref, more of a scissors action than full on leg breaker: that said if it was at speed then photo 21 has mateys Wedding Vegetables perilously on course for an eye watering meeting with Clynes knee!!

As I have said many times before we were sat in front of him in the stand in Palafrugell for Saints first pre season game last year, and what a funny engaging chap, my mate pounded him with all sorts of questions which he answered concisely. He was also talking Mayuka through the game regarding formations etc. Still I can't believe they printed his answer to a question asked on the kids pages of last seasons opening day programme: "Which would you prefer to fight? A Horse sized Duck or a Duck sized Horse?" his reply "A Duck sized Horse, because it wouldn't be able to kick me in the balls!". Good luck Jos.

Gaston Ramirez was delivered as a big fish into a small pond, throughout my Saints watching history that goes back to the 70s we have very rarely snapped up a player that has made you go Wow! The coup of nailing down Kevin Keegan still remains as the signing we stunned football with and as such we still talk about it, yes we have had names Shilton, Osgood, Case, Watson, Mills but they were in the latter stages of their careers, we also have bought older players who had we bought them at their peak would have had many of us watering at the mouth, Kerry Dixon, Mark Hughes, Stuart Ripley, Barry Venison, of course our ongoing means to survival has been the ability to produce youngsters who have gone on to set the world of football alight. When we moved into St Mary's we had busted the bank and bought Rory Delap for £4m from Derby a club record but it wasn't the sparkling all singing and dancing player that our opponents for our very first game in SMS v Chelsea had dotted around the pitch but cost so much more, we had also been linked with Oliver Bierhoff the German Team Captain but his wage demands weighed heavily against his age of 33 but the mere thought had the place abuzz with excitement, but the disappointment of that non signing was tempered by the signing of Augustin Delgardo, which if memory serves me we well "we got at a snip" at £3.75m (even back in the noughties this kind of money in football made folks sit up and take note). He was South American he spent more time on the treatment table for split nails and grass stains on his knees yet could fly back home and play for his country....... And amble back to Southampton again (sound familiar) However I am getting off the point: After Saints journey to the edge of the abyss and back into the money spinning Premier league big time we eventually pull a rabbit out of the hat and land Gaston Ramirez a Uraguayan full International plying his trade and exciting Serie A with his skills. Other teams were chasing him down including Liverpool which qualified his potential purchase, we jumped through hoops to get him which further enhanced his growing reputation and expectation of his abilities with Saints fans, eventually we have him for a (again to Saints fans) Whooping £12m!, this was the Marquee signing all Saints fans had longed for after years of buying less than household names , we had bought Clyne Rodriguez, and Yoshida decent players for decent money but this one passed the £10m mark put them in the shade to most onlookers. Yet in reality that £12m no matter how you light has turned out to be money not well spent. But we are not alone take a look at the money bags teams in the Premiership who have gone out and spent bonkers money on players that have had Sky Sports and other journalists reaching for a box and of Kleenex and a change of Calvins! Chelsea have had more than their fair share of players setting European football alight but then rocked up here on the back of a big money move and in the grand scheme of things failed to deliver resulting in having bit parts in the team through the season then moved on, but at the end of the day after the fanfare of their arrival having fizzled out and moved on in the next summer window, no one even Chelsea fans have got all hot under the collar about it because they also bought 2-3 other named players who have shone for big money diluting the impact of one of the big money signings not working out. In our case we bought Jay Rodriguez who was the scourge of the Championship from little Burnley for a club record fee, which was about the level of player we as Saints fans were use to spending our corn on, at £7.5m a bit pricey but then we knew that was the market, within a couple of weeks we smash that club record buying an International class player who as it turns out has been a bit part player who has failed to deliver but many Saints fans just see the once dreamed about price tag and assume, hope, pray, that the superstar player that money buys will surface eventually and after 2 seasons,one more than Chelsea would have given him, still hasn't made his mark. In last seasons summer window we buy Lovren for a steal, then Wanyama for £12m and not long after Osvaldo for a further £12.5m if you look at Osvaldo he came in on a Ramirez sized wave of excitement, but within 6 months he became persona non grata through his off field actions and was eagerly being shipped out which considering his price tag not many fans have gotten emotively overly upset about; after 2 summers of £30m window spends we as fans were already slipping into the Chelsea mindset of 2 from 3 is fair enough. By being the first £10m + player for Saints Gaston Ramirez stands alone floodlit upon a pedestal in many Saints fans eyes, they view his price tag as if it was their own hard earned money: and find it hard to accept it wasn't more wisely invested. apologies for the ramble

Toby RCB and RB - Gardos LCB.