OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

You have to accept that if they need to sell in order to balance the books, then he has to go, but I think he's so integral to the team's success, I'd be looking at other ways to raise funds. When they bought Peretz, they probably thought selling Rambo would be an easy sell. I'd be working double time trying to offload him. Jander - again I'd sell him before THB but his sale won't probably add that much to the coffers.

That was my thinking. It does say when you push the click 'here' button on that email that to meet the 2026/27 third criteria you will have had eight opportunties to have bought tickets for other matches so the Stoke game must count. When in doubt, call them. I've always found them pretty useful.

Exactly. This THB is on the move bandwagon is getting on the move and if SFC have any control over it, they should stop it. Some say he was only good last season when Tonda took charge...well, that was when we went on our run. He is an integral part of the team. He is solid in defence, he scores goals, he sees a pass and if SFC can, they should stop all speculation on the player. I don't know what financial constraints they're under, but if they think making £10m on the player is good business, they should think longer term and how much revenue they'll lose by staying in the Championship.

Some managers never learn. Hopefully, he'll be a starter for them this season.

Good. One on my 'skill spots' memories from last season was him running towards our goal, ball at feet and defenders bouncing off him. Very talented, strong player. Don't need him playing against us.

Think that's a pretty kind start to the season. No Wolves, W. Ham, Burnley, Wrexham, so a chance to wipe out that negative points start early on. That stated, we do seem to draw with these guys. 1 - 1 incoming.

That perfectly weighted pass by Azaz would have split any championship defence so arguably Aka would have had the same opporunity in the League. Didn't see if he was giving it large to the Colchester fans but if so that's bad form. Needs some advice on winning gracefully.

Yes, Archer had a really good cameo today. There was one bit where he did a great tackle on the edge of our penalty area, laid it off and before you knew it he was down the other end to receive a pass and a shot on their goal. Matsuki is better on the wing. He loses the ball sometimes and it's much better to do it there than in central midfield. Leo looked like his shirt didn't fit (evidently enjoyed the summer break) and Dobbin's passing was off centre today, but that was his debut. Once again, Downes oozed class. Bree and Manning also looked in control as did Jack and THB in the second half. Shea Charles came over at the end of the game to applaud and take the applause from the fans....so he's definitely off.

Tonda won't underestimate the importance of this game. It's not just another noddy first round Carabao cup game. He knows we need to get this season off to a winning start here and then in the League, especially as we're starting on -4 in the League. Defeats early on and he'll have people on his back. And I've gone for the warm-up in the sweepstake of when we'll first hear "You cheating bastards"... 😉

Best way to give the EFL the finger is to beat every team we play this season...and we can start with this lot.

How many times have you had one too much to drink and you think you have something really important to say but comes out as nonsense? That's what that question sounded like...and of course the panel love those sort of questions because they can take an age answering them rather than answer the more pointed questions.

I think you're right. It's not what they say at these forums because they're going to give nothing away, it's more the vibes and feel you get from these meetings and I also felt the mood is very positive. Tonda and Spors come across as very genuine. Parsons though, is more of a spiv.

To the above, my guesses are: Yes, yes, No. Indeed, the audience should play Buzzword/Phrase Bingo. Looks like SR have realised we need another striker. Ultimately, given Stewart's return even over last season, he shouldn't be too hard to replace. Jebbison & Louis Ben Farhat are already being mentioned so I'm confident someone will come in.

Flynn Downes is giving it large saying we're going to make sure we win the Championship this year. He's going to be key this year. Always been a fan of this guy. Okay, there were times when people wondered whether he really cared about the club but the way he ran back and did that tackle in the final match against Boro last season was up there with the all tine great tackles. He cares about us and thanks Flynn, because there aren't many guaranteed bets but he's won me a few bob on getting a yellow card in matches!

I don't understand SCR either, but it seems strange that one minute Hull have to sell players to comply with SCR, the next they're buying £17m strikers and foraging around for other players. Here's hoping we can keep all three of the above. Don't mind if they sell Charles and presuming we can also keeps Downes, then I reckon we're only another striker away from having a really good team this year.

And they've got money to spend. And so much for their ground being a morgue this year. They've sold 50,000 season tickets - more than last year = and their fans will want to see goals.

Good point. So yellow cards aren't competition specific? Downes should be an integral player to our team this year.

Arguably season starts even earlier. EFL is in 15 days, but Colchester in only 8 days away! Hope we also take this game seriously, a) because I'm convinced our winning cup run and that reinforcement of the winning mentality helped us in the league last season and b) I'm going! Of all the rumours, a touchline ban makes the most sense. A fine and we just up his wages to cover it.

Literally every friend I have who are season ticket holders at other clubs think we've been hard done by. Everyone. They all say the whole thing is a nonsense and we've been sh*t on. It wasn't cheating. It was scouting. On another tack. When I said to my son, what employer would keep an employee that has lost the club potentially £200 million, his argument is we were nowhere near the play offs when he became manager. I've never thought of it like this.

That's the thing. UEFA needs to get together with South America and force FIFA's hand. While it's hard to argue against inclusivity and making the world cup open to everyone, Infantino has gone too far selling the WC to the nearest bidder/friends. And as for feeling a migrant worker, feeling Arab, feeling gay, I say nothing. It's a shame Italy weren't at the World Cup. They are one of the best 32 teams in the world. As a kid, the World Cup was for me the pinnacle of football until we didn't qualify in '74 & '78, and now I just watch it. For me, us not qualifying was when I turned to be more interested in my club team than country. Another mistake!

Yeah, yeah, yeah......problem is, we lose a couple of matches early in the season and a lot of people will be making these type of comments. So there's a way around this 😉 There again, in matches last season, the team had a bad ten munutes and there's all sorts of doom and gloom messages. The biggest concern from this match was that Baz was spotted with a Saints shirt on again - though he didn't play. Phew!

But are Blackburn making these signings? MLG says there's no link with Stewart (and he's often right) and I can't see anything on their website to say they are taking big names or Stewart or Scienza for that matter. In fact, Scienza has only said he's 'open to possibilities' = so he's possibly staying with us. Ramsdale to Brighton? Just a guess given they're selling Rushworth.

What I don't understand is that for those holding Saints Membership, you could always get away tickets for premier league games (when we were in the premier league the time before last). Now, away tickets hardly ever go on sale to Saints Members. Even this Watford game didn't reach Saints membership whereas five years ago for the same fixture and allocation, there was a huge choice of seats for Saints members. Something has happened to our fanbase. There is no altruism happening here. SFC have only gone to the Eticket system to make their life easier. I can't see touts making a killing on a Saints/Watford game, so why not make tickets transferable among registered Saints fans?

Possibly, but you look at the unbeaten run we went on this year and he was captain for most of the games. I also think THB and Stephens are our best centre back pairing this year and want both of them playing for us.

Bit disappointed with this digital ticket app which says the tickets aren't transferable. Appreciate you don't want touts scooping up loads of tickets, but is that really a problem for Southampton FC? Every year, I go to about a dozen away games. When we were in the premier league the time before last, as a Saints member not season ticket holder, I could usually get tickets for away games including London games like Watford & Chelsea. Then away tickets got harder to get so some mates who are season tickets holders got away tickets for me. With this App, tickets can't be transferred among mates (you could pass each other's login details but technically that's not allowed). Appreciate some away games coming up will be paper tickets, but this will probably become rarer as time goes on. There must be a way SFC will allow tickets to be passed among fans. Either they allow tickets to be transferred among friends or they link every ticket with a dedicated phone number to stop people passing around each other's details illegally.