dubai_phil

We all said we shouldda kept him Antonio to WHU for 7mil! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3217089/West-Ham-secure-winger-Michail-Antonio-Nottingham-Forest-accept-7m-offer.html

As I pointed out in the build up thread, our poor start hasn't been about VW it has been about Tadic not turning up. Well has sure has today and with the Red Card, Karma has us against 10 men with a creative MF playing "DM" alongside Romeu which for us is a whole lot better than having 2 DM's. Welcome back Dusan we could have done with this on Thursday but #wemarchon

Wanayama gets unsettled by b**s from Spurs. It screws with his head he is dropped/asks not to be involved, fans go into meltdown and some of the language being used on Twitter by supposed Saints fans is just out of order. Because EXACTLY the same thing happened at the start of last season when Morgan threw his toys out the pram and Spurs unsettled him with B**s and he was dropped for not being mentally right to play. How did that all work out last season? Or has everyone forgotten. Norwich will be a hard test. I am far more concerned about the contribution of Tadic & his fitness & form than I am about VW. We lack creativity because he has not provided any. He starts to play today then we will be fine. He has another anonymous game and you lot will all be here blaming VW for our inability to score.

Thats hould end the lowest attendance debate when they are forced to play a match behind closed doors. Should also hurt their finances with the fine and then re-imbursing the fans who paid for tickets.

You heard very wrong. Mane was breaking through, their CB whacked him in the Hip/outside thigh, he pushed the ball too far and then got flattened by Gomes. Should have been a foul given by the CB outside the area. He clearly had a dead leg or close to at that point. 30 seconds later he was kicked up in the air on the touchline, came down hard and hit his head. Tried to stand up but couldn't. He was out of it TV showed a close up of his eyes. Our bench were all up and at the 4th Official. The formation worked defensively but the main flaw was that it wasn't balanced. Caulker did well pushing forward to give Cedric support on the right side. On the left, Maya did not do the same. As a result Targett was isolated much of the match and even when he recieved the ball rarely had anyone within 10 yards of him. Caulker was in the oppo box regularly Maya was past the halfway line rarely. This meant we were pressed in the central midfield area and had no tempo, no composure and none of our crisp neat passing from last season. In fact Davis was often pulled out of his forward role and again left too big a gap between MF & the forwards so lomger balls were played. We were a team lacking confidence and composure. In the past if we found all avenues closed down we would recycle the ball around the oppo penalty area. Yesterday we tried speculative 25/30 yard shots. In fact it seemed we did that more often yesterday than in the whole of last season. The 3CB formation is what we SHOULD have played in the EL game to combat their direct approach. We didn't have Caulker fit for that game. As awful as yesterday was, it was as if RK decided to try the formation out before Thursday and hope for a breakaway goal rather than to try and win the game. 3 CB's looked bad last time we tried it and that was with Betrand on the left. Targett wasn't to blame for being left alone, Maya should have supported him more yet Maya had a great game. For me part of the blame for this bad start has to be down to the poor start by Tadic. We are set up for him, he was supposed to have been fully fit for the start of this season and yet has made little impact in the games he has played and has been dropped. We are awful at the moment but with Betrand Clasie & VvD we will improve, and hopefully Dusan will get his act together. BUT if we play like that again, the only player likely to score is bloody Caulker.

Which part of Sustainable club did everyone not understand? This is how the world works now. Don't like it but it is reality.

VVD. This seasons' TSW of Stephen Caulker? When he was at Cardiff "we" "had to sign him" when we got him in on loan from QPR we had a meltdown. Do we really need to undermine the value to the club that Jose brings (3rd best CB in the PL last year) to bring in his replacement a year early when we already have cover? While most fans have fallen in love with VVD there have still been occassional nagging voices in our ears - big step up in quality, more physically demanding etc that we have simply chosen to ignore. No idea who we'll pick, but don't believe we will get both. Gardos should be given the chance to recover & return. He has the potential to mature (Man Utd away win). Stephens or Turnbull may be ready next season as cover. It wouldn't make any sense. Unless we've decided Jose won't reach the standards of last year...... (Which I think is a bullkrap concept)

Filming on the new Star Trek movie is continuing apace in Vancouver. Written by Simon Pegg (and others no doubt) it appears Idris Elba is involved in it. I picked all this up in the past few days, as it was announced about 6 weeks ago that outdoor filming would take place in Vancouvr and Dubai. So that got all of us fans interested!. The logic on Dubai is that they wanted "A Vertical City". In the past week the town has been excited to hell & back as the local It involved lots of hanging around, filling in forms and then having mug shots done before going for a costume fitting. The age range they need is from 5 to 70 so I was processed at about midway through the recruitment as #383. http://www.timeoutdubai.com/knowledge/news/65525-time-out-auditions-for-star-trek-%E2%80%93-you-can-too As a result of all this, anyone here who pinged any info has been stalked incessantly on Twitter by Trekkie groupls, but it has been interesting to see their forums and some of the actual behind the scenes stuff starting to emerge:- http://trekcore.com/blog/2015/08/did-a-federation-starship-crash-land-in-vancouver-for-star-trek-beyond/ It's also good to see many of the comments pages on these sites debating the whole ST Prime vs ST Reboot arguments. Those forums have their own versions of MLG & The9, not to mention their own Fashion guru versions of Turkish Anyway, I won't do a whole golf story thing on it, I'll just pass on any news or snippets we pick up and IF I actually get through or can work on the filming dates I'll see if I can sneak (or copy from local press) any of the reports.

Clearly Dr Barry Gale messing with his motor had a bigger effect than any of us could have imagined..................... (Or press seeing Saints after a CB and assume we have Maya & Fonte & VVD and can let one go)

Billund lovely. Can take in Legoland for some excitement.

There is a nice square behind the Saints fans with lots of nice restaurants. Full of Saints + the global crew

The ticket office also managed to sell 2 tickets for one seat by us. Add the delays getting in meant we had 4 people & a Steward arguing it all out for the 1st 10 minutes of the game. They were moved to other sold seats that were no shows. (They seemed to have a terminal down the front to check stuff like this) Pedant note. The official attendance is always the number of tickets sold. Never deducts those stuck in Eurotunnel or incapable of walking from the pub.

Bloody loved that whole afternoon/evening. meeting family then we met mates, then Dutchies, then beers, then the perfect result. Total class above Arnhem, always seemed to have another gear ready up front, second half we just cruised and tbh lost a lot of shape when Classie went off. Thought Cedric had some superb touches and looks to be a much more intelligent player than Clyne with subtle dinks and touches. Just not sure I could stand listening to the Chapel crwod calling out keeper C'mon Stickleback............. We March On. Oh and what was with the ticket office. We had 7 seats in a row, 2 guys sat in the middle of our lot. TO had managed to issue duplicate tickets for the same seats. That is a crock of crap when you've travelled 5,000kms to sit with your mates. (Yes I know it was their ST seats and appreciate that but how can they issue duplicate tickets at all?)

Google ticket box NFL. Right click to translate on chrome search location if you have a hotel address look for nearest post code then go to Google maps enter code and get directions. So simple even I managed it

Duncan look out for our Dubai flags in town before the game (hopefully Korenmarkt if not rammed). Would love to meet up and finally share a beer or two

Brilliant - thanks. Hopefully you may spot our crazy gang & Dubai Flags in one of the bars before the game, come & say Hi and we owe you a pint. Bad news about the Poffertjes. Will have to try & take the crew down the beach for them on Wednesday if the weather's good instead!

Hey Vitessefan Thanks for stopping by. Really looking forward to a great afternoon in your City, hopefully we'll get time to hit one of your great musuems before joining the crowds in the Korenmarkt Some question, during the day is there a bus service from the station to the Stadium & back into town? How often does it go? Can we pay cash on the bus or do we need a card? and do you have a local brewed beer rather than the multinational stuff that we can look out for? Oh and anywhere in town sell fresh cooked Poffertjes?

How many Subs are allowed on the bench in UEL games?

Yeah just like it did in Bucharest The only Saints fans likely to get a slap are ones behaving like idiots and are most likely to get a slap from their own for being d1cks and threatening everyone's chances of getting in the ground and enjoying the game & experience

Yes but I bought using a Dubai Credit Card & address with a stadium pick up. (We can wave local ID and do the whole Tourists Routine). If need be I have some Dutch FB friends who have said they would order for me and get delivered to them in Holland before meeting up Wednesday, couple are even considering coming to the game with us. They reckoned that the worst they would do is cancel any UK based transactions but everyone thinks it is highly unlikely. #GlobalSFC are all interlinked now and in a plan B situation, we have a big Dutch following and I am sure they will tweet/FB nearer the time. The various groups with fans travelling to the game (inc the crazy Auddies) are already communicating

Great plan but you could be screwed IF the game goes to Extra Time & Penalties. Last direct train is 23:00 there is one at 23:21 that needs 3 changes and arrives in AMS at 01:49. That issue is causing us a few planning concerns as well!

So far at least 6 of our Dubai Saints massive (and 4 more applying for vacation time this week) are heading back for the two matches. What a logistical mare THAT is. (BTW Cologne is only 2 hours from Arnhem if you can't find closer flights) Luckily we have some Dutch based FB pals between us so if our scrounging of mates ST's and our Memberships don't get us access to tickets we can go Dutch. (Interesting the ENG lang\uage page on the Vitesse web site says tickets go on sale on 21st whereas the Dutch version says on sale today. Out of interest how many did we actually take to Bucharest? Everyone talked about going but our allocated end was only half full, the rest was just somewhere to give our flags a good washing in the rain!

I shouldn't. No it really is stereotypical. Oh alright then That old use of a Skate, possibly she needed a push to get over the edge http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Mini-driver-smashes-fish-van-pleasuring-sex-toy/story-26891651-detail/story.html

A fair point Duncan but if you are going to credit Lowe for Morgan then you HAVE to include Georges Prost in your praise. He more than anyone else is responsible for birth of "The Southampton Way" and the legacy of our Academy in the way that the kids are brought up to play the game, and it was him that recommended Morgan to Rupert. I don't believe Rupert would have listened to any other agent/scout/source and pushed through the purchase. IMHO the loss of Georges meant that Rupert lost his real trusted advisor on football matters, but then that can be argued until the cows come home.

Havant. We that is a surprise. Getting used to their new home already then?