John Boy Saint

Not harsh at all - looking at their ages worrying that they have probably polluted the gene pool already.

Just thinking 2 weeks before the season kicks off they seem later arriving than usual (I know we don’t need them for 3 weeks). Probably on the same boat as the Shirts.

Nor would I, he was a decent punt doing a good job at Lille young a little raw still he probably ticked enough of the Black Box - boxes. That said if you look at Fonte, who went off the boil with us then was a bit of car crash at West Ham, he has just ended a successful season with Lille. Which probably highlights the gap between Ligue 1 and the Premier League. Having gone from enjoying his football with rave reviews, Sofiane finds himself looking forward to the bright lights of the EPL, but find himself playing in an empty SMS with the under 23’s (anyone seeing his sending off can’t have failed to notice the sheer frustration in his action to have first go at the hot water). One thing that was noticeable under MoPe when Boufal did play his defensive play was much better, under Puel he played like it was not his job to defend, under MoPe to stand any chance of a game he knew he had to take defensive responsibilities seriously. So he is capable of adapting. If Ralph thinks he will be receptive to his methods and can do a job for us then fair enough. If he Ends up going elsewhere it will be less of a failure of a signing more a failure of Saints to manage him and nurture a young talent. The lad obviously has ability, we have never seen, or saw, the merest potential of the goal he scored v WBA or the one v Sunderland from Juanmi, Moi, or Carrillo. (The latter even all us armchair experts went “what?!, who?!, how much???!!!”. So far he is a failure big enough to eclipse Ali Dia).

And shipping them out on loan across Europe - with very few academy products getting a meagre sniff of first team football at Chelsea that’s why that Hudson-Odoi wanted out, the lad just wants to play football. But because Chelsea keep spending stupid money on players in that position the obligation is to play X who cost gazillions and is paid £100k+ pw over a player who cost nowt by comparison................hang on they bought that lad from Germany in January for mental money then loaned him straight back: the lad they bought plays in the same position as young Callum and is the same age (I think). Like has been said already, Saints hoover up kids at 8, those who make it are more likely to play first team football with us. And with the system in place likely to make heaps more money over their career than the poor sods running around in blue up in Cobham.

Ralph said as much in a press conference at the tail end of last year, if you are accepting of that strategy then as a fan you are willing to accept enjoying the performance of a player while they are with us. Unfortunately recently acquisitions to do a Mane have been more buy and hope rather than a considered purchase. When you factor in the last 3 managers before Ralph, 2 were relatively unknown and the last a bit of a Dinosaur, possibly the management were unable to or unwilling to buy into the club philosophy, just managing players rather than improving them into a viable commodity to contribute to the underlaying business strategy of the club to survive in the Mickey Mouse money world of the Premier League. The wrongly maligned (in some quarters on here) Sir Clive Woodward had a system called “one percenters” which was to improve a players performance by 1% during each training session, that system won a Rugby World Cup, that same training system was applied by the England ODI Cricket team over the past 4 years. Claude May have had that in him - but the players weren’t buying into it or him (anyone stood on the terrace in Prague watching us fumble along and watching CP tearing his hair out as they repeatedly ignored him would have noted that) MoPe just developed us into a team of poor defenders, Hughes just tried to manage in world that had moved on beyond his skill set. With Ralph’s press conference comments last season we seem to be heading back towards a course to buy, develop, and sell on at a stonking profit. Hopefully he is on a percentage. One thing is for certain buying in nippers who haven’t been overly polluted with other teams training methods gives him a chance to work with a blank canvas and make the return of the Southampton Way succeed as it did up until the departure of Koeman. As a fan if you are accepting, (even reluctantly), of this policy as Ralph seems to be, as long as the production line is churning out players to smear the noses of the big boys across their faces during the season, during their time with us, like we did under, Pochettino and Koeman. If you walk out of the ground with a smile on your face at the final whistle that’s all you basically want as fan.

Some on here will be calling him Bloody Useless if he ain’t scored a hat trick by teatime on the 10th of August......oops forgot about the VAR kicking off........by Supper time then!

Sorry if this is on another page This seems a bit of a funny one Trippier to Athletico Madrid https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/49022843 Then reading the article Rose left at home too, to explore other options for next season, he is one player I wouldn’t miss in the Premier League his regular impressions of feigning being taken out by a sniper in the floodlights that the officials flippin buy week in week out without recourse the sooner he sods off abroad the better. That said in the Spurs game at SMS he collapsed like he had been kneecapped in both knees right in front of the lino with Valery 2 feet away going WTF as the linesman’s arm nearly fell off flagging for murder, got Romeu booked after an Oscar winning fall on the floor..........still revenge was served piping hot when the dopey bugger stepped over the ball in defence thinking it was going out unaware that Valery had snuck up behind him to scuff the ball home for 1-1!! Odious little toad........still surprised at Trippier.

What a wasted talent SAF gave him so much slack because the talent the lad had, but the silly bugger would still hook up with his scummy mates getting into bother with him. When he went to West Ham you thought that’ll be fun swapping Mosside for Stratford. Very weird risky acquisition: him and Nile Ranger, equipped with the gift to earn themselves millions playing football but stupid enough to prefer being all gangster without a pot to piddle in and the prospect of porridge.

West Ham should be taking a page in all the Nationals to thank the nation for allowing them to spent money like water on players!

Errr to do what? Because he ain’t going to protect the defence!

Looking at the last training video they are likely to be getting a game at Croke Park - Long will love that with his background! Cedric too with his shooting!

Thank the Lord! That’ll get him out of the England squad a la Cleverly!

Cobblers he was at Juventus THAT is a big club, look at his stats there he did diddly squat for them - he was contracted till 2020 - we rock up 2 seasons ago, slap £15.4m on the table, Juventus probably polished the company Limo to drive him to the airport, and upgraded him to first class for the flight to England, once the plane took off the Juve board opened a couple of special occasions Chianti and passed round a box of fat Havana Cigars. Similar to what Marseilles board did when they unloaded him to Juve having done diddly squat for them too.

I have an image still in my head from when he first turned up at Saints(alas Phone Cameras weren’t really around in those days) my 9 year old youngest daughter saw him in the car park and ran after him shouting “Peter Peter” he stopped turned around as she ran up to him and asked him for his autograph on her shirt, he asked where she wanted it and she pointed to a space just below the collar on the front, we must have been 30-40 yards away nobody between us and them, she was small for 9, just seeing the comparative giant bend almost seemingly in half and sign her shirt was quite surreal. Dont think anyone can begrudge his career

Amazed Barry Vennison slipped through the Speedie Dixon net - we bought a cut and shut with him.

With Obafemi - I thought there was something about him, Lemina and Leminas brother burning the candle at both ends but Ralph had a word, put a flea in his ear so hopefully all done and dusted......... seem to get the impression Ralph ain’t going to poke up with any horse poo from anyone in his squad.

We were indeed, teetering on the edge of the Abyss, when the great man came in and then said this club has no debt what a moment of relief as a Saints fan - thank you Markus. You can’t deny the ride back to the top division was a bloody wheeze, and all thanks to him.

At the end of the day another one where winning “the race” to his signature was probably pretty easy. harsh as it may sound but Gabbi was easy to get too, as he scored in flashes, if he was prolific we wouldn’t have been in the running for him. A Mane or Pelle will be along soon enough, never know Boufal might respond to Ralph.

Ah just found a Red Sharpie - please can you tell me which day that will be on so that I can mark it on my calendar please.

Discussion over breakfast regarding the White handball - VAR obviously called it then were so uncertain that they referred it back to the Ref for a final decision? Being a cynical old Hector, it was 33°c in Nice for the game what’s to say the ref just went “do I really want another half an hour out here in this heat?!”. One thing is for certain it’s going to be an interesting season coming up!

If that’s the one v Cardiff - then I don’t think I have seen a ball hit with such ferocity - that said my memory might be peaked by the fact that it looked like we had made a complete hash of the free kick - until Baird lit the fuse. I quite liked Matty Targetts goal against Bournemouth that was a perfectly executed header.

They will still be dusting off their RoboCop body armour in case one of them has one cream sherry too many! New kick off time suits us just fine for once, got relatives arriving Saturday morning from South Africa now we don’t have to feel guilty about buggering off Saturday afternoon or scrabbling about trying to get extra tickets.

Maya Yoshida

Cheers Steve - that means I will be able to take Mrs JBS to the beach tomorrow without fear of missing anything

Hardly a surprise - obviously not much else happened in Southampton over the weekend. We much have enjoyed the Tommy “Fourpast” experience so much that we thought we would have 2 of the buggers clogging up the roster.