sandwichsaint

Best players I've seen playing for Arsenal = Berkamp / Adams Bournemouth = Wilshere! Brighton = Lawrenson Burnley = Trippier Chelsea = JT Crystal Palace = Ian Wright Everton = Ratcliffe Huddersfield = Leicester City = Linekar Liverpool = Dalglish Manchester City = Ageuro Manchester United = George Best Newcastle United = Malcom McDonald Southampton = Channon Stoke = Gordon Banks Swansea = Toshack (Jack Cork!) Tottenham = Hoddle Watford = Barnes West Brom = Cyril Regis West Ham = Brooking

Goal line technology - clear and obvious improvement Mistaken identity - not sure we've seen one yet (at least in this country's trials) but potentially useful Offside - useful for 'obvious' wrong calls (where it's wrong by a foot or more either way) - which is extremely rare in itself (I would have used it for Gabbi at Wembley for eg). Where the players can't be split and we have to watch multiple replays to see whether they are a bootlace or a haircut either way - total waste of time, if you can't tell on one real-time viewing and one replay then it's advantage to the fd and he is not off side. I wouldn't use it for penalties at all - the ones we've seen have been very debateable - and most of it comes down to a second round of 'interpretation' - if both sides are happy with a corner and the ref then gets a delayed voice in his ear saying it's a penalty it's a total farce. If we are going to give penalties for holding/pushing/treading/contact at set plays then there will be 5 or 6 every game - is this really what people want? Retrospective diving - definitely a good idea but something that's proved much harder to implement in the real world. We have seen relatively few cases where bans have been dished out. Genie clearly not going back in the bottle and we are lumbered with it but I can't see in what way it will 'settle down' or 'bed in', it is what it is - clunky and totally against the way football has traditionally been played. My opinion was to leave it at goal line technology and I've seen nothing in these trials to make me change my mind. It might be good for the Playstation generation but it's not for the old-timers!

'Clearly' Pochetino is our first best signing, he turned us from wide-eyed happy-to-stay-up newbies to contenders (as in EL contenders but hey, baby steps and all that). Second best RK, little ol' Saints got lucky not once but twice; where once the likes of Sturrock, Wigley, Redknapp, Burley and Wotte froze in the soccer hot-bed that is St Mary's we were blessed to be led by somebody who registered on the worldsoccerometer. And if you want winning football and our highest finish for umpteen years then Ronald was your man. Third best has to be Mane. Lambasted by some as a Swiss Ali Dia, he lit up SMS in a way that those who have endured the Puel/MP years can only marvel at. If I could only live just a few minutes of my Saints-life again those 2mins 56 seconds against Aston Villa would have to go in my all time top 10.

Any more spare tkts out there? I would love a pair if anyone has spares?

Based on what exactly?

VAR :x

You can all put the bacofoil away for another year ......... but,but, but ........... the beeb hates Saints,

Bacofoil crazy! What is the preferred final? C/Sp, M/Sp, C/M? Obvs Saints will be weakest in the last 4 .... who do we play? How do you fix the winner of the other semi? Because the BEEB hate Saints (or something?)

Well deserved tho, terrific player. One that got away from the #blackbox.

Can't beat Swansea and Palace home, then unlikely to get much away at Newc or BHA. Shame, started well and seem to have a decent manager, hopefully we can limp above them.

Hudds look down one place to play for....

Totally in our own hands, we have to put points on the board, 'other results' won't keep us up. Beating West Ham and Swansea looks to be our escape route..... squeaky bum time.

Modern football, it's all about the ££££££££££££££££££££££££££s.

Can't wait to see him swish up to Staplewood, wind down the window, and tell Sky reporters he's joining 'a proper football club'.

'Interesting' weather forecast for Sunday, light snow showers in the SE, 'heavy snow showers' locally up the MI/M6 between about 09-00 and 11-00 Sunday morning. No threat to the game but not ideal at all.

Hughes: 1 keeps us up and he carries on next year 2 keeps us up, he takes the big bonus, and we go again next year with another new manager 3 go down and he is the man tasked with bringing us backup 4 go down, thanks for trying, here's your money, we are in the Championship with another new manager Who would a Les be, I bet he's got wet sheets tonight. I could get behind 2 but 1, 3 and 4 are pretty depressing. I would cut straight to Potter now.

Extraordinary weekend, one of the all-time classic Saints cluster-ups at Newcastle and we come out on the Monday evening better than when we went into the weekend!

Don't forget Brendan Rogers, he'd be a very realistic target, stepping up from CL football to the Championship would be a good step forward for him.

Bit harsh on Shroppie?

Something doesn't add up: either Gao has totally handed day to day control to Ralph/Les (why would you do that?) or Gao is quite happy to go down and thinks he can rinse his 200m through the Championship. #fishy

Pass the crack pipe, is there a manager in world football* that could get our unfit under-performing misfits 11 points in those 8 games? *a manager that would come to little old Southampton for a two month contract.

Give him a season in the Championship to get acclimatised and I reckon he could quite be useful in League 1.

Not really sleep walking though is it? More like hiding in plain sight. I called it last year after the B'mouth H game, 0-0 and going nowhere, I stood up in Block 36 and said we are going down, I was shouted down by a few, then added not this season you (expletives deleted), it's next season that we're nailed on for relegation. I just had a feeling last season that we had lost our mojo and that the black box seemed to have become a virus-laden curse since Mitchell left. Hate to say I told you so and I would never bet against Saints but fair play to those that got on at 25-1,12-1,6-1 etc.