John Boy Saint

Goodness knows what to do ...........................................no football on TV for 2 days!!!!

See my edit - apologies @skintsaint too

As you asked so nicely @Ted Bates Statue & @Turkish. A friend of mine at a Saints invited fans thing, in no rush to get home after and always one to be nosey got chatting to Martin Semmens. He said they chatted for a good 45 minutes and (if you met my friend you would get this) “he was in no hurry to get me on my way - very happy to chat”. As he was excitedly telling me of his conversation slipped in “Did you know we were in for Connor Coady” only the usual rumor on here, my reply. “Well it’s was pretty a done deal to get him on loan, Martin Semmens drove up to his house with the contracts etc to start the final process”. “Can you believe the reason he turned us down? - he didn’t want to play in a back 5 which Ralph had decided to play all pre season - that’s why he wanted to get away from Wolves”. So who knows how hard we sold Saints to these 2 lads. With it being World Cup year these 2 players people could have suggested “ what’s the point of going to Southampton, a team that struggles just to get into the Premier league - you’re in your national squad stay a little longer and see how the WC pans out for you”. - “And we’ll discuss it after Christmas”. People in football know what’s going on in football beyond what is surmised on these pages, the fact that Ralph was on borrowed time was likely no secret inside Football, so for a youngster making a move onto the Saints stepping stone - their futures at Saints might have some clouds on the horizon. Just like Coady was primed ready to sign on loan before the season started, then we suddenly start pre season games with 5 at the back, and he’s going “hang on that’s exactly what I am trying to get away from”. Rumour was both these strikers were a long way through the signing process - did weight of uncertainty surrounding the management at Saints raise doubts as to whether the move was really right. Maybe if we’d pulled the trigger on Ralph at the end of the season they would be Saints players now. Our opening games might have added to those doubts, just as having a mid season World Cup likely did - it’s not as if both players were having to play their way into the Dutch and Portuguese squads. MY EDIT WAS DUE TO MY IPAD ABOUT TO DIE SO I SAVED - AND SOME OF YOU JUMPED IN (@ 1am !!)BEFORE I’D FINISHED. Sorry

Tale I heard about Connor Coady and Semmens - missing our on these boys is of no surprise.

Think Portugal look like they are playing with much more freedom without their superstar millstone posturing around the pitch. Tyldesley still makes your ears bleed with his flippin inane wittering.

Mbappe is truly lethal

I watched the Swiss v Serbia game and the there was a camera shot of Gianni Infantino in the crowd - just finished watching something else and exited - the re run of Brazil v Cameroon was on, and there was a shot of Infantino at that game - either TV is editing in “Super Gianni” to make him look good or at half time he’s popped of to the other game to make himself look good: that’s why they chose Qatar all the grounds are 20 mins apart. He’s going to be buggered trying to pull that PR stunt at the next WC.

Blue touch paper has been lit in the Serbia v Switzerland game, Shaqiri opened the scoring Mitrovic replied with a superb header.

Harsh - Maya is a million miles away on the mental scale from Lyanco 😁 If you watched Maya in the ground his reading of the game was exceptional, his failing was being Japanese and grained with the work ethic their culture instills from a very early age. He could see danger in the box with us, but defensive partners weren’t on the same page, so his defensive errors came about mostly through being caught between the danger his partner hadn’t seen and the danger he was covering. Best example was V Norwich in the cup - Norwich scored a last minute equaliser to take the game to a replay. Everyone on here got stuck into Maya - when in reality the then mercurial and untouchable VVD had gone missing on the edge of the box ambling - Maya could see the ball was about to be launched into the box, but obviously had no idea who the target was and got caught in no man’s land, hoping vainly to cover VVD’s player and his own it was a lottery ticket ball in and like most of us the numbers didn’t come up for him. As you can no doubt tell, I think he was far better than he was given credit for. I liked the night Andy Carroll hit him whilst in the air heading the ball away ref did bugger all about it - the 4th time Maya motioned to jump and head the ball My Little Donkey went to hit hit him again, Maya stopped and side stepped, Carroll went down in a heap -broken - needed to be subbed. 😁

You can’t see the usual post tournament extended break for the players involved, with everyone back at it so soon after the final. Who knows what’s been agreed - obviously he has been training whilst the rest of Saints have been kicking back for a couple of weeks prior to this week. It’s a strange one really as I would imagine most of the European Leagues who would be traditionally preparing for the winter break now, are like us getting ready to get going again………..pretty sure I will be corrected on this by those who have looked it up.

Don't be daft - a Moroccan wanted to be sure having got the 98th and 99th goal of this World Cup one of them got the 100th and whilst thinking it would be nice to show the Canadians how to score in the oppos net 🙂

So they are off to Spain on Monday for 7 days in Andalucía https://www.southamptonfc.com/news/2022-12-01/winter-training-camp-southampton-football-club-mens-first-team-2022

10% of those with a s**t view of the pitch - only ever seen one game there with a decent view of the game. Last, and final, time at Selhurst park I wished I’d nicked Mrs JBS 6” Spike heeled Stilettos just to save standing on tiptoes for most of the game. 😳😜

Probably thinking “Hmmmm I wish this steaming pile looked as good as the training dome” 😜

I’m guessing you sawed through the cloth too 😳 if you are emotionally attached beyond grief these could fix it for you - you might need to get a firm grip on the top of your trousers before enquiring 😂 https://www.foxumbrellas.com/blogs/news-and-information/umbrella-repairs-and-restorations

Something I vaguely recall on the radio from 1994 was most American housewives interviewed liked the World Cup there, because unlike American Football when the husband said they were going to watch the evening game after work with the boys from work at the bar and be home for dinner, they pretty much knew when they would be home - 2 hours the game is done as opposed to 4+hours.

Mrs JBS mentioned that she heard that on the radio today, and the general consensus from people commenting was why fiddle about with something that has worked for years.

Its notable the amount of shots hit from outside the box that don't seem to dip just head in to low earth orbit.

It fell off the front page mate https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/topic/59658-the-football-academy-on-cbbc-iplayer/

Never got off the ground - Redknap poo pooed it as witchcraft Hocus Pocus or some such - the main aspect of it was to widen the periferal vision of the players. The head Wizard Woodward also with a stick in the bubbling Staplewood, had the lady doing it as part of the Rugby World Cup winning team back room staff. Can’t recall her name, but heard it mentioned by Gold Medal GB Olympians: and possibly the Lionesses in the Euros preparations

Yup! That was right in front of us - we just looked at each other in disbelief whilst grinning quietly - we were amazed that it was right under the linos nose too - Walton puffed up his chest “I’ve made my decision so that’s that” Brighton were incandescent, when one of them got a straight red for arguing, that was just a cherry on the cake (I don’t think it was rescinded). After Rickie being wrongly sent off by Andy d’Urso at theirs it was divine retribution. I think he possibly only did one more game after that. (Someone posted a You Tube of it on here only the other day) @mikec

Us Saints fans can’t complain to much about him after he gifted us a penalty for an offence 4 feet outside the box 😂

Bloody Palace AGAIN

Amazing one minute at the end of the half, Brazil v Switzerland- Brazilians have been going down all half at the merest breath upon them, then rolling about After the first 2 games today, it’s as dull as ditch water too!

Cameroon v Serbia has just lit up 3-3 superb