OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Yes we did struggle but I still think there was a defining moment in the whole season early on at Wolves. Earlier we'd beaten Leicester, the game before we'd beaten Chelsea and then in this game Che did the miss of all misses. Standing on the half way line we could only assume Che had fouled someone but to see that miss later was just incredible. It cost us 3 points, and I genuinely think with a win there, it would have given us the momentum to stay up. Ironic that Che could be going to Wolves. I didn't add Everton to the list, but Fulham aren't all that great also. I'm quietly confident that with a solid replacement for Che (not that I have any ideas), we'll be very competitive next season.

And the West Ham boys are pretty good negotiators, so I can't see Flynn Downes going cheap. Think those that suggest we need a striker, a goalkeeper, another central defender, a left back, a central midfielder and another right winger are going to be sorely disappointed. The focus seems to be on finding a striker. Domina hasn't come off but the club seems to recognise that we need someone instead of the man made of glass and Mara doesn't cut it and Che is likely to go. The club also seems to be sticking with Baz, so McCarthy gets a new contract and we find a stop gap here. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if we started the season with a back five and Wee Man at the back, so all in all, I can't see a lot of change this window. The good news is there's a lot of crap in the premier league. Aside from Leicester getting a points deduction and Ipswich coming unstuck, there's Notts Forest, Wolves, Brighton, Brentford, C.Palace who are all very mediocre and I think our current starting 11 would beat them.

With 10 months under his belt, Russell Martin is up to 6th longest serving manager in the Championship. The merry-go-round in this league goes even faster than the premier league. You would have thought staying up in their first year represents an achievement for Plymouth and the manager could have been given more time to consolidate their position in the league.

Speak as you find, but overall I think the club has handled this ticketing process very well. Was wondering if it was worth having the Saintsplus membership this year given how many away games didn't get past season ticket holders, but on Monday it was easy to get tickets for this game and they came through the post yesterday. All quite painless given the scale of the operation.

Agree. This really is a game for us to lose. Their press is not like a full on Leicester, it's got pretentious Summerville & Gnonto. We can play through that. We just need the player(s) to grasp the nettle when we play the passes behind. Who's it going to be - AA, Edozie?

That's the thing. It comes across that he's made of glass and from a distance, his legs look like they'll snap at the mildest of challenges. I'm hopeful that destiny will work out and he'll score a 97th minute winner at Wembley, but concerned that we won't see him in the final.

Best day out ever at St Marys. Got a bit too close to the Ted Bates statue early on so for a while, everything was just red smoke. Inside the Block 43 concourse, there was a Smallbone looky likey creating great banter and the atmosphere in the ground was superb. With regards to the team, you start to realise that with Stuart Armstrong out, Che out, Stewart out our attacking options are very limited. The defense were excellent, the midfield were excellent, Manuel Neuer in goal (apart from one moment) was excellent, but up front AA can't play in the centre. Reading back through this thread, I think Coalman spotted there were times when no-one was in the middle for the cross. But the gulf between 3rd/4th and 5th and 6th in this league showed in the end. They didn't have much to offer. Regarding the end, personally I don't object to people going on the pitch at the end of the season (last time I did it was Walsall), but you don't goad the away fans. That shows no class. Just like the knob that mooned the away fans. Funny maybe but I wish I has my old Enfield 303!

Really think we should do the same to W.Brom. We've Manuel Neuer in goal (hopefully he didn't just make a guest appearance last week!) so they're not scoring and we'll create sufficient chances to put a few away. 3-0 Saints. Question is, do we come on to the pitch to congratulate the players after the game? Leeds didn't today but we all know their support is very fickle!

I think it is a brainer. Arma has proved particularly useless in that middle role, so not too sure what the answer may be. Stewart to start with someone replacing him after 60 minutes? Just keep Mara away from the team. The way RM spoke about Che is a massive hint that he's not ready given he often downplays injuries.

Sod the light show. Word has it there's a big display planned outside St Marys to welcome the team buses. People on Twitter are bulk buying red pyro flares for it!!

I reckon they'll be pretty despondent not to come to St Marys with a win behind them. They are for the taking. Certain Che will play unless he's on crutches and even then, he would be better than Mara. Manning didn't do anything positive yesterday so I'm hoping Bree will replace him. Another concern is Joe Aribo. He runs out of puff every game after 60/70 minutes. Like Francis1947 said, by all means play the possession game and draw players out of position, but once you break the press, you have to move with purpose. Get Edozie/Fraser on from the start.

He's had a couple of poor games recently. He worked well with Bednerek when they were our centre back pairing but then if I recall, he played right back to cater for Jack S in the centre, and after that he doesn't seem to know whether his arse is punched or balled. I think it's another example of Jack S upsetting the balance at the back.

Should suit us then but once again, totally useless today. What's particularly frustrating is that he never breaks out of a jog. There were a couple of occasions today when a little more effort and he could have got to the ball first or put their player under pressure - but he didn't. I've also given up on him. Hope he doesn't play for us again.

Got to agree. Dull. Lack of ambition. No-one wanting to make a mistake. First leg playoffs don't have to be that way as shown by the League 2 games. And there's no way Mara was going to score, so 0-0 looked likely from the moment of team selection. Thought Downes was excellent. Macca was superb but other than that, there were a lot of average performances. Definitely our advantage but we'll need to show more ambition. Fuck the 'bravery' crap, 'ambition' is the key word.

You've got 15 years on me but even when I started watching Saints, the players were everyday Joes who you could meet in the pub or on the street. Nowadays there's that distance between the fans and the players. You watch them play and then they get in their fancy cars and disappear. Some look like they don't even give a toss about our club (eg ABK, Sulemana) and probably couldn't even point to Southampton on a map. So it goes two ways. We'll accept you when you win, but put in a shit performance and we will boo. But even if we don't get promoted this year and lose a lot of our squad, I still think we'll have enough quality to challenge for promotion again next year. That said, I hope we get through via the play offs.

Che evidently has an injury. AA absolutely cannot play no9. People have a memory of Mara playing quite well at West Brom, but that was because everyone kept chanting his name with that Allez, Allez song. He should be nowhere near the team. So do we chance Stewart? Sule played ok against Leeds. Think I would prefer Sule.

I've found these guys can be pretty good. Contrary to Bangkoksaint, I think if we get promoted, FD will join us and even if we don't get promoted our people should be working overtime to persuade him to stay. Our best loan signing by a country mile. He seems a bit fragile, and like one Saintsweb person said, he's no Kante, but he does a great job for us in midfield.

Apparently London Saints is a good one to join.

"It wasn't negative to start with so many defensive players on the pitch. They were brave" Was getting a little concerned RM was losing his cliches. He's back. We're back. Bring on West Brom!

Not living in Southampton, I get this Saints Plus membership every year for away games. Last year, in the premiership, it was worth it because we got tickets for the London games but this year, this membership got us the square root of fuck all. Big allocations like at Cardiff, Bristol City, Millwall didn't even get to Saintsplus membership and the games I went to up north (eg Huddersfield, Blackburn, Sheff Wed), you didn't need the membership to get a ticket. So along come the playoffs and you think you're getting a little bit of priority and the shits sell this membership again. Yes, I'm a mug for wasting money on this but I'll be mega pissed if I can't get tickets for W.Brom on Friday because a load of jonny come latelies have got in before me.

Hardly watched any premier league football this season and just half watching Chelsea/Spurs on TV because it's on. And they've just taken 3-5 minutes with VAR to decide whether a Chelsea goal should be allowed. They're going through all the permutations. Was anyone offside, was anyone fouling anyone, was there obstruction? FFS, what happened to the Clear and Obvious error? I swear even over a season VAR has got more and more anal.

Totally agree. I always buy the SaintsPlus membership to get some sort of priority. It's been pretty shit this year because the only games I've managed to get tickets for have been north of Birmingham but at least that membership should get a ticket for the home play off.

Saint86 sums this lot up perfectly. What really grates is the way these people in sharp suits play with our club and treat it like a project. Sorry, Christophe, but I don't really care how Valencienne get on or whether Goztepe got promoted. In fact, driving up to Blackburn the other week, we got behind a Saints coach with a flag in the back window which had 'Saints on Tour' and the Goztepe emblem in one quarter!! Really? Maybe I'm getting old, but I hark back to Ralph who really cared for the club. We're weren't some stepping stone to him (unlike Poch, Koeman), and he recognised these chancers for what they are as soon as they got in. He was too polite to say it direct, but his "I'll be here for only two more years" told us all we needed to know about SR.

This concerns me, Chez, I thought we were in the black after our sales last summer, and it doesn't take much to offload the out of contract players and expensive loan players if we need to. How do you motivate a kid who's been sold to us for £10-15m quid and thinks he's Billy Big Bollocks? How to you motivate a Sulemana who struts around as if he owns the place but is shit and needs to prove himself? I'm not convinced RM has got the most out of this squad and next year, if we're not promoted, he'll have a lot less to play with. One thing I have noticed is he's gone very British with his team, so I can't see the likes of ABK playing for us again. I'm also still very hopeful for the play-offs. There's no team to be scared of. If any of that lot play the high press, RM needs to get the team to look forwards once we beat the press rather than stop and wait for reinforcements. That's why Edozie has something about him. He is willing to take on players..his problem is he's just too much of a lightweight.

I look back with affection at the days of Ralph's high press. The way after 70 minutes, Shane Long or someone would go down so that everyone could get an energy boost to keep them going, how occasionally we'd be found out and the lobs over the top would lead to a 9-0 drubbing only to bounce back again. And when you think of the crap in that team. It's no surprise Rohl has done a great job at Wednesday, even Selles has a cult following at Reading. That style of football is much more fun to watch if you have the players. So, yes, I'd have Rohl at Southampton in a flash. Our current squad is better than last year's squad (even being short of a goalkeeper and striker). Rohl would have got this team automatically promoted. But it's all too hypothetical. RM is going nowhere.