trousers

Lol

Confirmed that the semi-final will indeed be held at St.Mary's: https://southamptonfc.com/news/2019-03-14/premier-league-international-cup-semi-final-draw-southampton-dinamo-zagreb Saints drawn against Dinamo Zagreb btw (who we beat 1-0 in the group stages)

How about this for a possible chain of events...? Tonight: Parliament votes to avoid no-deal on 29th March Tomorrow: Parliament votes to extend Article 50 Next week: One or more of the the EU 27 veto an extension Tuesday 26th March: May brings a slightly tweaked version of her deal back to parliament to vote on for a 3rd time; she fails to get a majority again Sometime before Friday 29th March @ 22:59: May revokes Article 50 and resigns May/June: General Election

I didn't catch Southgate's team selection press conference livem but apparently he said the reason for leaving out JWP is because "He’s only recently got back into the team at Southampton"... hmmm.... interesting definition of 'recently'.... https://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=60449 Whereas Delph, for example, has featured in 1 (one) of Man City's premier league games in 2019 (in January).... nothing contradictory there then Gareth....

Peston reckons a no-deal Brexit in May/June is on the cards... https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/03/were-now-heading-for-a-no-deal-brexit-but-not-just-yet/

If Lemina has fully recovered from his operation, and now just needs to get 'match fit', I'd be tempted to give him 45 minutes in this game.

Form table since Ralph took over

This

I missed the first half. I assume the match thread will make amusing reading courtesy of the usual suspects...? Great win. COYR!!!

This

Fratton Park

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17484785.southampton-manager-ralph-hasenhuttl-on-yan-valery-and-loaning-out-cedric-soares/

I'm not seeing where he's explicitly saying that the aim is to bring the wages down to match league position? My interpretation of what he said is that they anticipated finishing higher with the players we had/have. As such, I reckon he believes that we can close the gap between wages and league position by finishing higher up the league next season, rather than reducing the wage bill, per se. Yes, there's a debate to be had as to whether our poor position the last two seasons is a blip due to poor management rather than poor players, but from what I've seen from Hassenhuttl so far, I'm pretty confident we'd finish in a more comfortable position next season with a similar wage bill (should we stay in the league of course!)

If having a ponder on an internet football forum = "obsessed", then guilty as charged m'lud. Humble apologies for my idle curiosity

I don't see any conspiracy theories. As a paying 'customer', I'm just genuinely interested in what the nature of his injury/condition is. And, yes, of course the club have no obligation to reveal any details. Equally, they're under no obligation to be 'secretive' about it either. Conspiracy theories tend to be born out of organisations giving the impression that they are concealing information. Ralph gives out fairly detailed status information on most players, so just seems a little odd that they seem more guarded about Lemina's situation. Just an observation and nothing I'll be losing sleep over. Are you not even slightly curious about it?

That was my assumption at the time too, but I always understood hernia ops didn't keep footballers out of action for weeks on end. Indeed, a quick search threw up this article, where Drogba talks about playing again only a week after a hernia op: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/drogba-fit-and-firing-after-hernia-surgery-2048001.html

And yet another pre-match press conference passes by without any of the journos seeking any specific information about Lemina's condition. Sigh.

Hasenhuttl (during today's pre-match press conference): "We will be playing a friendly against a championship team during the 3 week PL break after the Spurs game" Hmmm... wonder who that'll be?

Have Alps and Adrian Durham ever been seen in the same room together?

Does anyone know what is/was specifically wrong with him? All I've heard is that he has/had an "abdominal problem" but a multitude of conditions could fall under that general/vague description.

Wonder if they'll play it at St.Mary's?

Actually, I'm now having second thoughts. Can see why the penalty was given on reflection

Yep, defo no penalty IMO. But how cool was Rashford? We've got some decent English penalty takers at long last.