franniesTache

Looks like he's off too Forest, and personally I'm glad the skate isn't coming back to be honest. Not sure he'd have offered that much and he'd make Russball even more turgid than it already is. I mean our style is slow enough already, adding him to the mix and we'd be playing walking football

A lot higher than i expected but i should still be ok for a ticket, wonder how many are in the 18+ group? Can't imagine a massive amount as you tend to recognise people when you do aways and I doubt there's much more than 200 odd that do most games

caviar blinis or nothing for me

CHAMPAGNE BAR - Coming soon! We will be converting six of the executive boxes on the top floor of the Itchen North end of the stadium into a new Champagne Bar. This lounge will be available for matchdays and can also be used on non-matchdays as a celebration space for birthdays, anniversaries and much more. More details and the full launch will come later in 2024. https://www.southamptonfc.com/en/news/article/whats-changed-at-st-marys-this-season-everything-you-need-to-know-so-far It's what the people are clamouring for, at a time of a cost of living crisis, when people are moaning about the atmosphere, and football has lost it's edge, the only sensible answer is a champagne bar. Live. Love. Laugh everyone, it's bubbles o'clock!

I think the corporate boxes at the back of the Itchen North are being turned into a champagne bar aren't they? Hence why they're closed (and no this really isn't a joke, it's true! God alone knows what's happened to football that we're now having champagne bars pop up)

I didn't go saturday because the trains were a bloody rip off (plus i've done newcastle away loads), but have we finally binned off that god awful library bollocks? I think we sung that at every single away ground last season, which just goes to prove how fucking dumb it is

Looking at the fixture list and based roughly on other seasons, i reckon the "flip" this season will be the fulham away game on 21st December

except the same people who claim it's unfair or impossible to get away tickets for games like Brentford or Bournemouth won't go to Cardiff midweek because it's inconvenient, and then moan others are ahead of them

I can only imagine he'll be on the clubs panel given his status and the way he represents us as The Voice Of The Fans. Honestly i don't know how us plebs ever operated without our public school boy messiah telling us what to think, do and say, we are so unbelievably lucky to have someone with no connection to the city condescend us so often so we don't lose sight of our place in the world. Right i'm off to practice my curtsey and hat doff in case i see him in public

We have some genuinely very, very strange fans in our ranks. On social media this week some where saying Martin should quit now because he's not being backed and deserves better than that. It seems there's a weird cult forming around him the same way we had a weird cult that formed around Ralph. It's almost like some of our fans don't really support southampton, instead they support managers.

Hopefully someone asks Russell Martin what his top three biscuits are, when we are expanding the stadium and adding an aquarium end so we can take advantage of our marine catchment area, and if we're still planning on getting champions league when one of the big clubs slip up. Also looking forward to our social media "influencers" claiming to speak on my behalf again, that was great when they did that, and not at all arrogant and weird Edit to say i almost forgot the most important question: When are the Five Pledges(tm) coming? Honestly i'm sure all of our woes in recent years must be down to the fact we have never published the five pledges

Sounds about right to me, similar sized allocation to brentford but with one game more played. Good news is it looks like non of our aways have been moved for TV in October https://www.premierleague.com/news/4076999?s=09

Newcastle went to general sale didn't it? I'd also imagine, United (midweek), Wolves, West Ham, Leicester at least will all go under 5 aways. Plus there's bound to be the odd one or two moved to midweek/friday/sunday etc. which will make it easier to get tickets. Yes the popular london games will be hard to get tickets for, and the last away of the season, but it's relatively easy to build numbers up if you put in the miles on the crap games, especially if you target the early ones before it resets in January In fact looking at the fixture list (and assuming people got newcastle on general) you could get to be close to front of the queue pretty easily by the reset by just doing Newcastle Man City Wolves Villa Plus there's bound to be a league cup game in there somewhere too, and if we get someone like say Palace in the league cup you'll pick a ticket up easily.

Wolves and West Ham will probably be unpopular as well as both of the away ends are shit (and Wolves is a shit place to go generally). Wouldn't be surprised too if United sells slowly as it's a midweek I think.

It's not really "negative" or "doom", we haven't really improved from the side that finished 4th in the league below last season and haven't exactly looked great in the pre-season friendlies. I think it's fair to say everyone knows that we need a new keeper, we're lacking in center mid and on the wing, and we have at best an untested striker, a strikers that proved they can't score at this level, and a striker who's been pretty much permanently injured since we signed him. Also given we're most likely losing our best player in KWP it's not completely unfair to think that it's going to be a long season. But Saints being Saints we'll probably get a shock win or two but also get absolutely destroyed on a few occasions. In my opinion we need to treat this season as a mini league, we really shouldn't care too much about 10th and above, it's all about beating those sides around us and nothing else if we have any chance of staying up

4th bottom will be an excellent season in my opinion, so far we've not really improved the squad much beyond the team that came 4th in the championship and added to that we don't have a striker who can score more than 10 goals in the premier league, a selection of keepers that i'd argue are our worst choices since the 90s plus a manager who's stubbornness to change a style that sees us lose position at the back far too often leads to us shipping a lot of goals (imagine how that will go against City or Liverpool!) I think realistically if this is the squad for season we'll be 2nd bottom if Leicester gets a points deduction, 3rd bottom if that happens and Everton implode, and if neither of those happen bottom.

That's a hell of an angry rant about a made up compliant, made even funnier by the fact you yourself say you know it's not what i was talking about 😳 🤣 All i was saying is it's a bit hypocritical calling out out of town united, liverpool etc. if you're not from southampton, absolutely nothing to do with your bizarre rant at all, but if you're that insecure you do you

Kind of see where you're coming from but the flip side is lets say you're from East Wiltshire, to watch Saints you need to travel past, Swindon, Yeovil, Bournemouth (all league teams), and have Salsibury as a decent non league team. Then the other side you have both Bristol teams who are hardly small teams. So that would seem to me like you're choosing a "bigger" or "more successful" side, because historically that's what we've been, In which case there really is very little difference, other than you're a bit strange, because if you're going to choose a team who's slightly more successful than the ones close to you why not just go the whole hog and choose one that actually wins?

Wasn't that after promotion? Really strange behaviour that I'm not judging anyone, just pointing out it's basically the same thing. I'm sure most big club fans not from there will have some sort of story about why they have a connection. So surely if you're ok with one you're ok with the other right?

Didn't say you were i was just asking what the difference was. Because personally i've always seen it as a bit hypocritical for people to have a go at people supporting the big clubs when they're not from there, but celebrating not from Southampton supporting saints.

Always chuckle at the irony/hypocrisy of people from places with their own teams but support smaller teams like us moaning about fans from elsewhere supporting big clubs like united or liverpool. I mean how is it any different if you support Saints when you're from Salisbury than it is if you support Man U but are from Cornwall?

David Armstrong was my first saints hero (from the same team obviously) but Moran was still the one you'd pretend to be on the playground. Makes me feel fucking old now though thinking how long ago that all was, and how much football has changed

Hope he recovers soon, that '84 team was the first team I saw play live and his goal against the skates is second only to Stokes at Wembley for being our most iconic goal.

Talking of stewards the newcastle stewards have to be the most over the top heavy handed bunch i've come across in the ground, we had a woman near us who was on some sort of insane power trip and doing her best to cause trouble, the police actually had to remove her from the away section due to the problems she was causing. As much as i love newcastle for the piss up the actual experience in the ground is terrible (and the less said about our ability to get anything there the better)

It's a brilliant view of the city and you can pretend you're playing sensible soccer with the view of the pitch