The Cat

The difference with Man City and Chelsea academies to ours are that the hoover up an enormous amount of talent at a young age because they have the resources to throw loads of money into scouting and offering the kids parents houses etc. Then when the players get to 16 they offer them silly money to stay, whereas Saints lose players to them like Dibling this year and the kid last year who went to City (sorry, forgot his name) because of the money on offer. There's no doubt our academy went through a lull and has failed to produce regular first team players for a while but this has been rectified by appointing good people at the top and better recruitment which means we now have an exciting group of players at U18 and plenty more behind them to come. We have kids regularly representing their national sides at young age groups and successful youth sides for the first time since the days of Reed, Gallagher, Sims, Hesketh etc. Fingers crossed we see a lot more academy players in and around the first team this season.

5-0. Some great goals too.

Are France really good or are Italy a bit shit? It's an absolute battering in the first half.

Weird this buy back clause hasn't been mentioned before?

Considering the number of mid size stadiums we have in the country it's a ridiculous decision. Iceland are really annoyed about it. They sold out their tickets and would have sold a load more if the games had been scheduled for a bigger venue.

If he was staying he would have been announced with the other scholars a few days ago so it's safe to say the answer to your question is yes.

As I said earlier in the thread, he's not going to Newcastle.

Worst thing about that is the article says they have 4 kids. Going to be a tough ask in language lessons at school when they have to say what their parents do in French or whatever.

Nice work Saints. It's going to be really exciting to see a dynamic, young team out on the pitch next season.

Is he still pulling a blinder?

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My son has just quit his team, has got a bit fed up with playing top league in Southampton and just wants to play for fun now. He still loves football, just can't be bothered with chasing league titles and cups anymore. Priorities change once they leave school, they start getting jobs and other interests that take over. Tyler's family is sporty, one of his uncles has had a few pro boxing fights. https://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/fighters/236903-lewis-edmondson

Nice family. So pleased for them all. Tyler's a really good kid. Great attitude, very solid player with a great passing range who came on leaps and bounds at U13 before Saints signed him. Interestingly Chelsea watched that Sholing team a few times and took 2 others on a 6 week trial but Tyler wasn't one of them. About 4 months later Saints picked him up and he's just got better and better. Of the kids Chelsea looked at one is now on a scholarship at Cheltenham, the other did play Hants schoolboys but never really kicked on to Academy level.

Tyler Edmondson is my son's mate. He played with him at Sholing and they both went to Hamble school until a couple of weeks ago. Great to see this officially announced, looking forward to watching him progress and get some games in the U18's this season.

Loving this. Welcome aboard.

I only watched for a bit and didn't hear them. Maybe I picked a good time!

Atmosphere not actually that much different to an England men's game. At least there's no fucking band.

Another potentially great signing. So impressed with what we have achieved already in the window and no doubt more to come. We'll look like a completely different team next season with more speed, athleticism and energy.

Edouard started well but then seemed to struggle to nail down a place in the starting eleven for Palace. Not sure he's strong enough at holding the ball up to play on his own up front which is why Palace ended up playing Mateta. We'd have to do a lot of work to get him on board with pressing. Technically very good though.

It's alright. As normal I won't buy one though because I'm an adult.

Was tongue in cheek. Look on the Long thread, that's where my real thoughts about him are.

I was wondering if there's any mileage in using that as a rhyme in a song.

A lot of Saints fans were saying otherwise though. You don't have to scroll back to far to see it either. When SR came in there was a quote about us having "more flexibility" in the market, the last week is obviously a sign of that. No longer do we have to sell before we buy. We won't be spunking £40 million on anyone but we can get these £10-£15 million ones done straight away now. Realistically this kind of business makes perfect sense. I'm looking forward to seeing a young, more dynamic team next season. Yes they will make mistakes at times but we should be in for some exciting games.