John Boy Saint

Or maybe they are uncomfortable with the thought of DaGrosa having to do what the Burnley lot are having to do, especially if Kat is in the mix, as her Dad wouldn’t be having any of that.

Beyond any doubt now - good old Sally Taylor on South Today announced it too - so it’s official. 😁

That'll be the toss of a coin then!

Still showing as 20:00 on the BBC Sport fixtures

Gosh - I wasn't far away with my comments!

Can't see what the issue is - the bloke has a positive Covid case in his house which turned out to be a false positive, unless we have experienced that scenario we have no idea what the personal effect that has on a person.............then at work you have your number issues hampering the preparations to play the top team in the land. At the end of 97 minutes you have pulled the rabbit out of the hat putting 3 points in the bag, with all of that going on the relief was probably immense: most of us at home watching were on edge for 95 minutes.............he might has had an eye watering win bonus riding on this. I had the last of 3 very very late to arrive 40ft Containers delivered to my customer on Christmas Eve - I was doing the funky chicken at home - Mrs JBS who will no doubt spending my commission from the sale was "Whatever".

Interestingly the Sky researchers fed Carragher (maybe I am being disingenuous towards him) an interesting point about that challenge by KWP later in the post match analysis. playing it back KWP as they were side by side and not KWP coming in angled from the side, KWP plants his foot square as if to block any cross rather than try and reach across Mane to touch the ball which would have been grounds for a possible penalty - that said the rough and tumble leading up to Mane taking the dive in many games has seen that as the reason to give one, especially Salah (anf (Rashford) can hit the deck if someone farts within 10 yards of them. Think Theo as he got straight up after wiping out Milner was likely viewed not to have been out of control - our senses were probably heightened whilst watching that we instantly thought it was the kind chance a ref would gift a cheap opportunity to our opposition for.

Whilst Gary Neville can sometimes be a bit one eyed when co commentating United games - to be fair if they are being given a good going over he will call it how he sees it and give credit where its due for the opposition - on the flip side Carragher is tunnel vision Liverpool and the opposition shouldn't have even bothered turning up. When they are being given the right run around by oppos the main commentator has to drag Carragher into the conversation. Last night when the cut back to the studio, he was funny as he was seething at the temerity of Southampton to beat his Liverpool - That was a pretty crap Studio though having 2 Liverpool players to pundit on the game and make it the Liverpool TV Show - There are plenty of non Liverpool pundits they could have dragged in for balance - but all you have to do on a week day is flick through the Sky sports football channels and you can be assured of catching a old Liverpool game - which is hardly a surprise when you look at Premier League money pay out spread, even when City have won the league Liverpool have won the money league through the amount of times they have featured on Skyverpool Sports. It ain't likely to change anytime soon

You never know might be given a spin out v Shrewsbury ahead of KWP - gives Theo the Weekend off, and with Redmond and Djenepo looking a bit dicky for a few weeks eases the load on Walcott and Armstrong.

Never had an issue with him always thought he was capable - stepping into VVD's shoes and not cocking it right up was good enough for me - the lad is 26, for a central defender he is still a bit wet behind the ears, far too many on here thought VVD was flawless, he wasn't, he made plenty of expensive gaffs in our defence when he was with us - I thought he was excellent tonight once again, with the last ditch block.

I have to say it took until the second half for the penny to drop. The lad is a ghost, quiet smooth invisible just gets the ball and moves it on effortlessly, an absolute joy on the eye. When you think that Romeu has been bloody good for us this season this boy is so subtle by comparison. JWP if you watch him sets a good tempo, Diallo tonight added rhythm. He certain is a fast learner, against Fulham he looked a bit powder puff getting easily nudged off the ball, this game he knew when the hit might come and stepped away from it with the ball at his feet.

Hmmmm if you read the thread about the Academy being a dead duck - and in particular the linked article from the Daily Mail with the new owner of Burnley. He says himself that he doesn't have pockets full of money, so that reported £100m shopping purse is pie in the sky. To make Burnley better than it is he pretty much says that ultimately (like DeGrossa would have to do here if he got in) he would have to pretty much get a mortgage against the club to fund them upwards. These guys obviously look at the Glaziers and their purchase of Man United, when they took over, they instantly mortgaged the club to finance the purchase, Man U were worth about £790m at the time, richest club in the world. If you read about it you wonder how anyone involved slept at night the numbers even now are mind boggling. The overriding fact is Manchester United are a very saleable "commodity". To re finance the debt of c£720m the Man U announced a bond issue which raised just over £500m in under 2 weeks!................can anyone see Saints or Burnley having the clout to pull off a money spinning stunt like that..........also if you read the Mail article a whole heap of money to buy Burnley has been borrowed from the chap who founded Dell computers. Would have been interesting to see where would have been if Markus had still been around.................minus a sports betting shirt sponsor for starters.

My Boss is a QPR season ticket holder (I was sat alongside him when Mane scored the winner at the death in our last game up there - thankfully as Mane got the ball he muttered "oh dear here we go" so I was able sit on my hands and curb my spontaneous glee - which was a good thing as the chap sitting behind me had eaten his family for breakfast that morning!!).......... Anyway I digress, he was so pleased last season when the transfer window shut and Eze was still with them. Like you I was amazed that he ended up at Palace as after a stuttering start to his QPR career, last season it seemed to click for him, and £17m could well turn out to be a bargain. I am quite surprised at how little Roy has used him, but then I guess there is quite a bit more to be squeezed out of £32m Benteke.

Madness! What a great game for the fringe players that come in to show Ralph just how hungry they are to be seriously considered for a starting berth - (I'm going to wash my mouth out with soap after typing this) It is the only game, on a Monday night, against one of the biggest football clubs in the World, if you feel your future as a player is no longer at Southampton and you get picked to play - there ain't going to be a much bigger shop window to pitch your stall in. Yes they may have ended up relegated, but Norwich played Man City last season with a team mostly cobbled together with a Rag Tag and Bobtail bunch of fringe players, at the final whistle City were scratching their heads at how they didn't have even a single point to show for their endeavors.

Will Ferry was £60k from Bury rising to £100k if memory serves me right. as an aside I often wonder what happened to that lad at Stoke who Liverpool offered the world to including Private education at a good school - Liverpool stuffed him on his parents greed and crafty paperwork - Stoke were not happy and when Liverpool pulled the rug from under him and his family - Stoke held his papers and pretty much used him as an example to other parents with greedy ideas.

I thought our category one status gave us carte blanche to pilfer nippers from wherever we wanted just like Chelsea.

Citeh have flown out of the traps at Chelsea

Interestingly in our last 4 games, all the opponents have set themselves up not to be beaten, Arsenal once down to 10 shut up shop. Man City scored a goal thanks to the ridiculous talent they have been able to go out and buy, but spent the latter stages of the game running down the clock. Fulham just set out not to be beaten. West Ham were likewise but hoping to convert any scraps that might be there, they defended like their lives depended on it, which was helped by our sometimes wayward passing, stumbling control of the ball in the “red zone” repetitive balls for the likes of Dawson to head away (there was a bloke making his first appearance since coming from Watford - and metaphorically knocking on Moyes door with his performance). If you take the current form expectation out of the results the last 4 teams we have played primary objective has been to stop us doing what we do - their opportunities to beat us have been pretty thin. Losing Vestergaard has obviously been a loss as he had been putting in some good performances, bizarrely not having the option to use Redmond has stifled the left side somewhat, especially when the option taken is Long, whos play is predictable even from the comfort of my Sofa, so must be even more so if you are a professional footballer. Seems to be a Ralph blind spot Djenepo is (to repeat myself) like that little lump of Sodium dropped in water in Chemistry at school in his randomness, Long runs ambles back, so in reality letting someone like Tella or N’Lundalu off the leash isn’t anymore risky than playing either of those 2, or is the issue that we know Bertie isn’t as crisp as he once was so the primary objective is to protect him so best put a reliable “old” Pro in there over a nipper, eager to impress, tearing about all over the pitch and losing focus on his positional duties. Time for Ralph to earn his corn and work out a way of negating teams who are now digging themselves in when they play us. At least it’s another point in the pot rather than a plucky defeat: keeps the tally ticking up.

Mrs JBS fell asleep infront of the woodburner watch that, didn’t have the heart to wake her up and take the whatsit, or make her watch more. They were hell bent on not losing that primarily which is the time of team Ralph’s game plan stumbles against. I would give young Dan a spin out from the off v West Ham as despite being green Long didn’t really keep the oppos on their toes like the Ings combo does N’Lundalu will move about much more. Diallo got a good education into the Premier League. 3 changes probably affected the dynamic a bit, still we managed to set a new club record of 7 aways without defeat. The kind of ball Saints are good to drop cheaply, against a side like Fulham.

If anyone watched Leipzig under Ralph - I thought that was the default setting/expectation from Ralph.

😀 🙂 you planning on Cheering on Clarkson, Hammond and May and their Massive Hunt - While the rest of us are watching Saints at the Cottage on Sky? 😇 Happy Christmas

me too I guess, now we have broken cover, we will be taking to both knees for them in a couple of weeks time! Anyway I will be lighting a candle and bowing towards the north west tonight for my absolution for posting such tongue in cheek heresy.

Sneaky little header to get Leeds into the game.

Hello - winkles FIFA isn’t real!! It is a computerised game that has no room for emotion or random acts of any emotion - whatever spews out of it is only based on facts input into it - you can guarantee there isn’t an input field for being a complete Cockwomble or Bellend. (jezza mate that’s not aimed at you just the “FIFA” thing in general).

More pissed off at; suddenly discovering, whilst looking for Whitehouse & Mortimer Gone Fishing Christmas Special on iPlayer via Sky Q, rather than watching Idris Elba blowing even more sunshine up Paul McCartneys chuff, that Amazon Prime Video is available now as a Sky Q app viewing selection, been rather nice if either of them 2 had let me in on the secret - as opposed to me friggin about trying to get a connection to watch the match via various means because the chuffin Wi-fi won’t pass through the bloody walls of the house (but works like the clappers at the end of Sandras, 3 doors downs drive!)......................................than I was at Saints losing 1-0 to a technically adept Man City team. Bit pants that we have come up against 2 teams in the space of few days that have started the season like they have water in their Petrol tank spluttering along, yet despite us being the best Saints team we have seen in a while, suddenly get a bit of clean fuel in the pipes just as they play us making an effort to play, and eek out a result. Hey-ho been watching Saints long enough to know not to hope too much. Thought Walcott played pretty well, just needs to up his ball retention, on the flip side Redmond just needs to stop thinking and just believe in himself - if you were sat with a Martian watching his first game and you had guessing game “ the players on the wide left and right - one is 26 the other is 31 - which is which?” On today’s game our little Green friend would guess wrong. Che got pants service, thought Tella did ok. If Che was living off scraps bit of a tall order to expect young Tella to fill his boots. Great to see Vestergaards turnaround - well done to him.