John Boy Saint

AMN looks like he’s won the chance to play for Saints in a raffle

We need dunking in WD40 - jeez you can hear the grating rust

I think in his case he tries too hard - bit like playing golf, you try and hit the skin off the ball and your ball is most likely going all over the place. If you slow things down the ball goes more or less where you are aiming and a long way. Djenepo always seems to be in hurry to do things, how many times do you see him test and go beyond the limit of grip of his studs ending up on his arse. He obviously has ability, if he tempered his frantic endeavour a little he would probably find he was a little more in control and would be able to easily pull off what he has planned in his head. People in the club must see something in him as a player, as I’m pretty certain he got a contract extension recently.

Maybe his attitude was when he made it to the big time Premier League "I've done my work and have arrived in the big time - nothing more to be done". That last bit is where he fell down. Whilst he would quicken the pulse when he got on the ball, those moments were sporadic, but where he failed, with Ralph in particular, Sofiane wasn't prepared to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in with the team mundanity on a matchday.

Thought his leg was going to come off when he hit that

8 minutes

Fuck a duck - you’d have put your house on that

I thought the ref was one of the better ones hmmmm - after tonight his match report will take a while to fill out - not as long as it will take to get the purchase tax back at the airport on all non fouls he bought especially from L Messi & Co. Even though the Dutch didn’t complain (or turn up for all but 10 minutes) I thought it was a bit rum to appoint a Spanish ref, given the relationship between Spain and Argentina. Certainly got to be marked down for not punishing that ball fired at pace into the Dutch dugout.

Err I thought you were boycotting 😳😁

Shits and giggles for starters 🤪

But we are getting it! Like I said we get a set minimum of live game money even if we are only on the box once in a season. if we ain’t razzle dazzle box office we ain’t going on the box in a hurry - we are in a select few clubs suited for the contracted Saturday night game up against Strictly. in La Liga, Barcelona and Real Madrid get 55% of the total TV money pot - which is similar to what the top 6 are arguing for here (it may have snuck through already) They are box office and we are mere cannon fodder - In La Liga you support Osasuna AND……..

Liked the commentary line “a moment of sheer brilliance from Brazil, followed by a moment of sheer bloody mindedness from Croatia”

So basically we are buggered!? Hmmmmmm just looked at the Championship table - can't see anywhere that I haven't been or offers a touristy long weekend - ho hum

I use to work for the Reading Evening Post in the mid 80's when our most favoritest manager of all time was in charge of them. While I was there they got promoted from League 3 to 2 helped by a season opening run of 13 straight wins. Working in circulation sales the uplift when the paper ran a feature piece on the club was very noticeable, and it had the sports department working flat out to produce something else about the club to keep the sales up in slow news weeks. Weirdest thing was when Reading got to the playoff finals against Bolton, my neighbour a keen Reading fan asked if I could get some bits from the club shop for him for the big game at Wembley - stood outside a bike shed with a shutter on one end that was the "mega Store" I was peering over the fence into Elm Park and thought "jeez Man U could be playing on that pitch next year!". Just before that playoff John Madejski happened to mention that it would be a financial disaster if they got promoted to the Premier League as so many players were out of contract. I went to the playoff game - to this day I swear Reading threw the game, from being thoroughly ruthless in the first half to being a bunch of stumblebums in the second - something that was not in their DNA all season.

Hey - the majority of Stoke fans would freely admit that a Jesus of Nazareth miracle would have failed to get a tune out of that squad.

He was definitely on something during his last game for us 🙃

Not really - the club knows before the season kicks off the minimum amount of money they will get for facilitating a UK live TV game. Think it’s 10 but if you don’t get that number of live games you still get the minimum facility payment - I think a couple of years ago Palace had featured in 8 live games and us 9 but we still got paid. On the flip side a couple of season back when Liverpool had failed to beat City to the title yet again, when the divi up of the money list came out Liverpool topped the money list as they had been featured on Sky something like 33 times, City 20 something Ultimately it’s all down to advertising revenue for Sky Saints v Palace isn’t exactly going to get people talking in the streets

Living in north Ampshoire a great example of that scenario was nipping into Tesco on a Saturday morning and it being very notable how many people in Reading shirts were doing a shop before making the easy 10 mile trip up the A33 (they were plentiful in other parts of town too). When they got relegated from the PL it was equally notable that Reading shirts seemed to vanish from view. On the other side of the coin; 4 of us “old” boys use to sit together in the Chapel and go away too, it was great fun as going through the turnstiles was like a time machine and we were 14 again in the 70’s, down the Saints (except the banter and ribbing was more sophisticated. Returning to the Premier League broke the spell, one by one my 3 pals packed up going purely down to the PL product making going a chore and not a pleasure.

Robbers got greedy and/or the rozzers got lucky - as some light fingered sorts got caught burgling a house round the corner from Stirlings 2 nights later - can’t see the PR department of Surrey Plod turning down a freebie like that; even if it turns out to be a different band of robbers.

Think its like being at the Deli counter with him - take a ticket and wait in the queue!

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.