John Boy Saint

Or just give a coded message over the PA which is the signal for the whole stadium to shut the F up! Although allegedly us in the Chapel are well versed in being quiet already.

That's pretty good (aside from the erroneous Spurs scoreline). I liked this line "Don’t let schoolboy looks or genial off-field personalities create false illusions. Southampton are a battle-hardened side, able to take you into deep waters and eventually drown you".

Unless I've been deaf and blind, the subject of 5 subs hadn't been anywhere near the agenda until the lid was lifted on that particular box during project restart. Looking back to our 1-0 win over City in the summer, we didn't make a change until past the 90 I would guess that was down to Ralph not wanting to alter the dynamic of the team repelling the onslaught, bizarrely with the option for 5 subs City only made 2 changes.

That's pretty much how Ralph had Leipzig playing when they ran Munich close to winning the league - mate of mine bets on all sorts of football made heaps on Leipzig when Ralph was there - but having nearly made it himself as a pro footballer he watches football through different eyes to many of us. His biggest observation was that when Leipzig got in front whereas other teams might protect that lead by tightening up defensively, he was driving them on to keep on scoring, and not let the other team get much of a chance to find a way back into the game.

As I said earlier in the thread Chinese hate to lose face - Chairman Gao would have been smarting a year ago, pulling the trigger would have been very easy. And if Ralph did offer to walk - that would have made the decision easier especially as we are likely still paying off Puel MoPe and Hughes.

I’m more amazed that no one has commented on the applemakeyoulookatit auto correct poor use of English in my post 😳😜🤪

Everton do seem to be a bit agricultural with there challenges

Baileys is a bit of cheeky touch too 😜

This stays as it is we might be asking you to stay down the allotment all weekend and Monday night - pretty sure we can take turns in keeping you topped up with hot chocolate. 😜

And the magic ingredient to make that happen TIME. A year ago everyone was waiting for the trigger to be pulled on Ralph, especially after such a drubbing such is the fickleness of football - Chairman Gao is much maligned (and Chinese hate losing face) but the one thing he got right was not showing Ralph the door (or accepting Ralph’s alleged offer to walk himself). As an aside that Karen Carney might be a lass - but the other week she hit the nail on the head when she said the way we play “they drown you”.

As its Friday night with no school for most of us tomorrow - maybe tonight is the night for in play 9-0 (sorry) shot bingo!

After our game 3 cheers for having the IPL to watch - what I could be bothered to watch of the other 2 games they were pretty grim especially the Manure v Arse game even more so after the hullabaloo in the build up from Sky - but then Man U v Chelsea same blockbuster build up same damp squib.

Thirty seconds added on for their 2nd goal malarkey - ref wasn’t a select group one so he’s going to make sure he betters his chances of making that step up with a decent assessment - certainly showed he wasn’t grade one ref.

I’ll have some of what your smoking - pretty certain Ralph will be needing a few tokes too before he gets anywhere near putting the pen through Ches name relegating him to the bench!! 😁

In the games I have seen and he has been playing - he has looked a bit of a handful more often than not. In the Chelsea game last week aside from Che we looked small in stature as a team. Seeing Dan on the pitch yesterday leaves no doubt he is a big lad.

Blimey was that a year ago! I really had no idea..................I mean nobody sent me a card or owt...........well that stayed under the radar. Yup agreed same team. Its a PPV 12pm kick off on Sky Box office Sunday. (without wishing to get ahead of ourselves, I note that our next game at home v Newcastle is Friday 6th Nov 8pm on Sky Sports Main Event - hope the IPL game will be over by then).

Think the observations from Karen Carney just about says it all about this game, correct me if I am wrong but Everton skimmed the crossbar and rifled a free kick straight into McCarthys hands. Apart from that you did wonder when they might start playing given the hype of recent weeks. Last 20 minutes were pretty surreal they looked like they had been at a lock in until 3am that morning we just went into energy conservation mode, in reality they looked wary of us almost as if they knew if they got daring and attacked us we would pick them off. Ancelotti has reams of experience, but the fact that he had cashed in his chips using up all the subs before the hour was up, is very complementary to Ralphs set up and the lads execution. Not having the piped crowd noise it was interesting to hear Ralph encouraging the players, even in the last minutes when the game was securely and N'Lundulu was running across the Everton defence in pursuit of the ball, Ralph is urging Dan to keep going. Adams is such a deceptive player, a bit of a unit, strong, and I think his size masks his pace, most defenders are going to think twice about taking him on because if they don't get it right its going to hurt as they just bounce off, if N'Lundulu can cut the mustard we have the ability swap one mobile unit with another, which is going to keep any defence on its toes. All that said, as a Saints fan of many years some of our play whilst crisp and neat, you still have that feeling in your gut that its going to go wrong at any minute, but then when we lose the ball in close play we do seem pretty good at getting it back now.

She nails it here - said similar to Mrs JBS at the final whistle last Saturday "Football is about working hard and having tempo and intensity. That's what Southampton have. They drown you. it’s very subtle Aside from their goal when we nodded off after equalising - Chelsea could hardly touch the bottom 2nd half.

I think since Bill Green our then Head Scout sadly passed away in 2017 he left a rather big hole in the place. Maybe with the wealth of targets not coming through like they once did the club has decided to get on and get the scouting department sorted. On top of this in our current Covid Pandemic situation, hopping on a plane from the UK to have a look at someone in Spain then France etc, incurs self isolation upon return, and in some cases upon arrival from the UK. As football still chugs along the need for players still exists, and missing out through someone sat on their backside expensed up in a hotel room for 2 weeks is no use to the club. So they may just as well get a Johnny on the spot who can then, if needed, isolate at home with no big expense incurred.

If this lot were to break away - then quite rightly they deserve to be expelled, denied the right to play in the PL or EFL. If this “super league” were to turn into a flop and fall apart, then this lot should not be allowed to breeze back to where they were, but all the way back down to the bottom of the pyramid and earn their place eventually at the top table. That way grass roots football will get the money they need through home gate receipts and the exposure that the “big 6” being in their league would bring. When the Glaziers took over Man U and mortgaged the club to finance the take over, the Uproar from the true United fans was immense and a new football team was spawned FC United (?) 1000’s of Man U fans turned their back on the Glaziers and went off and supported this FC United who gained the right to play in one of the Northern Leagues - most Chairmen of the teams in this league weren’t too happy with the seemingly easy entry into their league. Pretty certain one of the most vocal was the chairman of Leek Town - that was until 2nd or 3rd match in, they hosted this FC United. On match day Leek Towns little ground was bulging at the seams as 1000’s of FC United descended upon them - and fair play the LT chairman the following week held his hands up and admitted he was wrong in his initial objections as the gate receipts from the huge additional support FC United brought with them had pretty much put the club in the black for the next few years.

If I was going to open a candle shop - Liverpool would top my list of possible destinations.

Yes! That's the Glen reports we like - must have laughed out loud twice at the very least. Cheers

Seeing as Diallo was on the bench and had a spin out for a few minutes, I'm guessing that he is somewhere up to near Ralphs readiness, with Theo out due to it being against his home club - and we don't know what the Armstrong situation is re his Covid positive test, maybe we will see him on Sunday from the start with JWP (seeing as no position is a challenge for him) and him switching positions through the game. When KWP has a trip up the wing JWP often slides into right back as cover, and we all know JWP has been used at right back before.

Be interesting to know the results for the whole weekends PPV - tonights 5:30 game I can imagine would be pretty low, bit like our game v Burnley probably was at 8pm on a Saturday night, only die hards would be watching it especially up against the main channel Saturday night family big guns. interestingly Newcastle fans boycotted their PPV game and apparently raised over £20k donating the £14.95 to a local food bank charity, the most they have collected from matchday collections outside the ground is £5,800, amazingly they had donations from outside the UK too. Seeing the result bet quite a few were glad they didn't watch it. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/54597058

The way MOTD highlights got later and later into the match, I thought one of these is going to nick it at the death.....................by all accounts it was a hard watch.