John Boy Saint

His wife said her and the kids would leave him if he took the Barca gig - having been boss at Espanyol

I have to say watching Leipzig last night you could see a little thread of what Ralph is trying to get going with us. They certainly were very workman like, no frills but solid stuff, that Upamecano was impressive I get why he was mentioned in hope for us in transfer thread comments. I cheered when that off target shot deflected in, pretty much because I just hate the squealing feigning at little or no contact Atletico must practice every Friday afternoon to get oppo players booked and sent off (thankfully the ref didn't buy much of it), every game its the same with them, but that same team a goal down suddenly ride every tackle instantly get up from the merest touch having acted like the sniper in the floodlights has taken them out. Tonights game could be interesting.

Got my pedants hat on (unless I've missed something recently) you've left out the Dutch bloke who apparently could challenge the mercurial Lovren for greatness. As an aside the fountain of t'internet truth Wikipedia claims Salisu signed last Wednesday.

Obviously no jolly abroad involved (Ralph has already said that - amazed the journo actually asked the question).Wonder if we will see a few friendlies with local clubs like the strange 3 x 45 minutes game we had v Bristol City where everyone had a go pre restart? Good challenge for management to make it interesting enough - as much as I like my house and garden boy do I long for a change of scenery and routine away from it.

Somewhere with nice scenery and good shops probably.

If Ralph can't get a tune out of Boufal, getting one out of Lemina is going to be like pushing water up hill. Ralph wants engines prepared to go and go again, Lemina's record everywhere he has been is yet to see him play a full season - I was going to say his engine is like a 2CV but that is maligning what was a proper workhorse of a car, maybe an engine of Lada.

I read on Sky that Hojbjerg will be unveiled some point today by Spurs - and the KWP deal is personal terms yet to be agreed - obviously no negotiators in the building at Saints as you would have thought most of that would have been just going over the pencil with ink, unless that's classed as tapping up even though they are on loan with us already.

Surprised given we have gone back to a "historical" sash - which I thought looked pretty smart for the Sheffield United game - we haven't gone back to the Old Gold shirts and Black knickers - as shorts were referred to on the programmes possibly into the 1950's (socks were likewise referred to as stockings). By the same token surprised the blue shorts have never made a return to go with the stripes, the only reason they were dropped apparently was because as the season wore on the blue got lighter and lighter in the wash, black held its colour better. Maybe thats what our new away is a reference to Dark Blue top to represent the shorts back then at the start the season - lighter Blue shorts to show how they looked as the season reached its conclusion and Mrs Miggins had put them on boil wash for the umpteenth time.

BBC Sport Gossip page has us via The Mirror sniffing around Harry Wilson along with Leeds, Toon, and Palace Liverpool have valued him at £20m (he was an loan for the Cherrys last season for those unaware). Pirlo apparently doesnt want Ramsey next year at Juve so all and sundry will be linked with him. Same pages Chris ' I like your shirt give it to me now in the penalty box' Smalling linked to Inter for a bang average player he still seems to be carving out a career with household name teams, unlike so many who have withered on the Man U tree and been cast out. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/53727766

There you go Redmond is fast but fails to deliver at a level that matches his pace and and ability to run with the ball - stand a a couple of big boys in front of him and steam starts to billow from his ears as he tries to figure out what to do, Long similar blisteringly fast keeps the oppo defence on its toes alas as has been seen more recently his feet don't operate at the same pace as his running and he has missed a few of what many would consider to be easy chances. Watch KWP and what has impressed me is his football brain and tenacity, not sure if he is quick but his quick thinking and importantly his vision probably more than makes up for that. Recent games he has lost the ball realised his error and been the first to Mop up the mess, Redmond is often dwelling on losing the ball running through it in his mind, SL is offside having burned all his fuel in the sprint. Again in the recent games to change things up when Armstrong has gone off, a few times JWP has momentarily slid back into a RB position and let KWP have a bit of a foray further up the pitch When KWP played against us last season and clattered Armstrong for the superb JWP goal - I thought he looked like a fish up a tree in the Spurs defence that day - I wondered what the whatsit we were doing taking him on loan. Seems to fit nicely into Saints way of playing under Ralph, and after that game last season for Spurs he has turned my head around and has looked a breath of fresh air. At the end of the day you need allsorts of characters and abilities in your team - if the manager can pull all the attributes together to produce a potent force then that has to be better than just one individual who can run fast.

it does seem a bit bizarre - 2 weeks ago it came up on the official Saints facebook post - looked on the OS - nothing - looked on here - nothing. Maybe the PR department got excited and had a premature moment.

I get the point totally - its the fact in some quarters that he played at Swindon as a nipper - that's it the lad is always going to be a 3rd division player until they screw the lid down on his box.......he could pop up and score the World Cup winner for England in the World Cup still as a Saints player (having played a season with a 38 game consecutive clean sheet defence ) instantly a national hero: on here "yeah but he played for Swindon 8 years ago......we could get a better player".

Wow! its is amazing what folks type - "oooh 5+ years ago at 3rd tier Swindon" cripes "the lads a steaming pile of manure" "you must have potatoes in your head to think he could that or even contemplate being a Premier League player!!" Whilst I am not saying that JS could play a DM role, the fact he is 5 years smarter (more experienced) seemingly counts for diddly squat in some folks minds - the lad learned to tie his boot laces at Home Park, Devon. then the County Ground in Wiltshire Hmmmmmm - if only he and learned to do that at La Masia in Barcelona "we could try him up front then". Fifa on Playstation is a game, the people aren't real, your team are only as good as your fingers make them work................ if you have been playing footie on a games consul for 5 years if you could play yourself from 5 years ago you'd be smashed off the park. The real Maldini, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, they weren't always the players everyone got to fawn over: and I am not saying JS make their level (bloody great if he did) Jack Stephens is a damn sight better than some folks give him credit for. Anyway we have all digressed, this is about Hojbjerg: hopefully by teatime it'll all be done and dusted.

Do you know, when we can all go back into the ground, whether on a day when I have driven 300 miles visiting customers having just enough time to swing by home to pick up Mrs JBS up (oh and get changed) driving the 30 miles to the stadium, getting through the turnstiles at 19:05, having only grabbed a quick sarnie from M&S at 13:00 .......... if I will still be able to buy one of the cracking pies made Brighton way that the club had on offer from the concourse to fill the void prior to kick off: as always Thank you in advance John Boy xx ☺️

yup The Sun reckons 21st August

Come on you Bees!!

No one seems to have commented that in all the launch hullabaloo so far there is not one image (that I have seen) of the whole kit being shown - maybe I’m being cynical but is this because in the cold light of day the lighter blue shorts and socks with the dark blue shirt looks an absolute dogs dinner or a village youth team who have cobbled a kit together by raising funds holding a raffle, washing cars, then raiding EBay?

Did for a while, mainly because he looked half arsed especially with the captains armband he was given presumably to keep him sweet. But going on a comment He made just after Ralph’s arrival most of that was likely down to the turgid football we played under Puel, Pellegrino and Hughes. He has been much better this season.

2 games stick out with him for me, one (alas the oppos desert me) but he was playing just in front of the defence, he was up against comparative monsters in the opposition forward line, but he was like a janitor, mopping up everything in very tidy fashion seemingly not getting at all flustered. The other game was his cameo against City under Poch where we upset the form book, he got sent on in the latter stages at 3-1 seemingly with the instruction to shut down Aguero. Every time Aguero got the ball Reed was all over him like a rash, which I thought was impressive for a green player up against someone who was already well established as having plenty of guile on the pitch. After being thwarted by Reed for the 3rd or 4th time, Aguero stood by the Kingsland touchline looking at his team mates and bench with the body language of “I don’t know what to do against this guy” I’d have thought that he would fit into the world of Ralph because he does seem to have a good engine and the tenacity to hunt the ball - which is how Ralph wants us to play. With PEH out of the picture and Romeu seemingly stepping up his game, it’s whether Reed himself would poke up with sitting patiently on the bench - he does seem to be one of those who just wants to play football.

I thought the same when I saw him - in the Bees game the night before when they mentioned Dean Smith Villa boss being their manager after Warburton departed them bizarrely after seemingly doing so well. Should be an interesting play off final - be surprised if it’s a cagey affair.

Like was said by one of the better Journos at the time of FFP being switched on - whilst being good in parts basically FFP is kicking the ladder away for teams looking to break into the top group of teams. Blackburn came close with Jack Walkers money, which is where the question was spawned, Man City are the only team to have pulled that rabbit out of the hat since Blackburn but as we have seen in this carry on they have had to apply some financial chicanery. Leicester winning the league wasn’t done with money it was just a freak of nature, but look at all the “big” clubs who swooped in to pick them apart of players afterwards. It’s interesting, reading some of the Hagiology books, Saints could have been an established as footballing power house, trouble was the geography of Football. We were capable of mixing it in the top flight of English football years ago while Football was still in its infancy. What would have killed us was the traveling to play in away games, top flight football was centered around the Midlands and the North the travel expenses to play away in these places would have crippled and broken Saints finances of the time. Certainly would have been interesting to see what might have been if we had the wherewithal way back then.

As I said around the time - I can live with that score line simply because my neighbour is a Leicester fan (more Rugby than Footie) but weirdly that was the first time he had seen them in a league game, and what a game to see your team win handsomely away as a first. The reason why I can live with it - my neighbour nicest chap getting all set for retirement has the bombshell dropped on him that he has terminal bowel cancer - his first target was to see last Christmas, his current target is to reach his wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks time. For him I am pleased he saw such a bizarre spectacle - as for the game his situation puts everything into perspective as a team and fans we can brush ourselves down and carry on.

Cheers Billy for once again keeping us throughly entertained with your post match reports for another season.

"Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said "another Liverpool legend" had left the club" ☺️"Legend" !!!!! If Lovrens a legend then Liverpool really have become B&M Bargains..............that quote has made me laugh more than when he missed that decisive penalty.

Probably not a bad thing as the Cockwomble would no doubt have had him heading to Anfield or OT by Wednesday teatime in his 'review' of him.