ooh it's a corner

Playing devils advocate here, if he was at say West Brom, would you want us to go out and buy him and for how much?

Would you have swapped him for Jay Rod?

Or taken him as part of that deal, let's say Jay Rod = JWP + £2m, on the basis the goal scorer is always more valuable.

And I think he is the perfect profile of footballer that we look to buy. Young, right attitude, capable with room for improvement, and not on the radar of the big clubs, so wont cost you £35m+

I enjoyed this little gem from YNFA.....

Coutinho leaving anfield earlier today....

https://twitter.com/ynfafootball/status/896002077012369408

Tim Flowers. That sprint down the line having beaten Man Utd at Old Trafford on pens.......

I believe he lived with a surrogate family when he first came to SFC as a young man, and on his first major contract with the first team, bought his surrogate mum a brand new kitchen.

all round good human being.

I hope his retirement from football brings him further success

perhaps the additional effort on season ticket sales this year has nothing to do with number being down, and everything to do with a potential sale to new owners?

just a thought.....

Equally, I doubt there are many season ticket holders who sit in a large group. Probably most are in 2,3,4 folks sitting together and it is a big enough stadium, with a small enough season ticket base to wait until the last minute to buy and move seats if they have to. There is almost no incentive to pay for next May's fixtures, this May.......

For me, the football has been tedious, and despite my ST, I have missed more games this season that ever before. I've still renewed, because I'm not a Puel fan, I'm a Southampton fan, and that's simple enough....

Who's the leader of our club for all the world to see?

P-O-M-P-E-Y, T-C-W-T-B

The **** with the bell

The **** with the bell....

anyone with a picture of the chap with the home made "Keep Calm & Follow the Saints to Welmbey" t-shirt?

I still don't know where Welmbey is, but it sounds nice.

Let's be honest, if a Sunderland win puts a smile on young Bradley Lowery's face on Saturday evening, then I will hope for a home win.

Sorry Saints, but you can win the next one....

I'm over the moon to be going to Wembley. But my god I can't stop thinking about that complete ***** Sam Matterface and his 'Koeman is a winner' headline about us, whilst we reach a final and Koeman goes out in the first round of both cups. Would love to win it purely to shove that down the skate bastards neck.

I hadn't given Ron a moment's thought, but since you mention him, I thought I would share this from the Everton forum, (and this was posted yesterday)

"I'm sure when they're finishing bottom half with no Europe that all the Southampton fans will be made up that Puel at least brought through a few kids (even if they're not good enough).

Southampton are getting worse, I think quite a few if they put their bitterness aside would gladly have Koeman back."

hahahahaahaha

Having a squint at the Everton forum, their jury is well and truly out on Koeman, "give him time", "too early to judge", "needs two transfer windows" versus, "he's made the attack toothless", "season is over", "most we can hope for is to finish where we are today", "no better than Martinez",

I think if he fails to get Spiderman then I think he will throw a hissy fit. The agent, the player and both clubs want the move. The stumbling block is the £20m that Man Utd allegedly want. For a guy who has promised a £100m chest to Koeman to get his man, he seems awfully reluctant to spend £20m of it on a player than the manager wants.

I'm not sure Man U will get many offers of £20m for MS.....which means Everton, as expected, will be paying a premium on each and every transfer........

Is the grass greener Ronald?

For me, this evening created a wonderful football memory.

I was there to watch Southampton beat Internazionale Milan.

Fairly and squarely.

We were better than them at the San Siro and we were better than them again this evening. We deserved to win tonight and most pleasing was the entire team's energy in the second half to prove their superiority by putting the ball in the net.

Over time I will forget the missed penalty, the potential red card, the fouls on VVD from every corner, the time wasting Italians, followed by the time-hurrying-up Italians, but I will remember the joy the of the equaliser and the delight of an OG from the short-arsed, lairy git that was playing full back for Inter.

Tonight MY team beat Inter Milan.

I'm chuffed to nuts, and I reckon when I wake up in the morning my first thought will be, "we beat Inter Milan". And I'll smile some more.

Enjoy the ride, I know I am.

what would be interesting would be to understand how many managers left (for bigger and better things) versus how many were sacked.

So, if my memory serves, then Strachan chose to leave, as did Burley, Hoddle, Redknapp, Poch and Koeman.

So, 17 becomes 11 ?

Not sure we would have kept any one of them for the 20 years Wenger has been in charge, but 17 in 20 years makes us look like a "hire 'em, fire 'em" club likes Leeds, whereas the truth isn't that clean cut

Something had been 'going on' in the away end but the steward in the north car park wouldn't say what. The PA in the Kingsland was crap as usual. Were they speaking in Czech all evening?

They did put announcements out in English and Czech. The first one was in English and along the lines of "would all Sparta supporters please remain in their places at the end of the game until given further instructions from security". The second message in Czech was, "would all Sparta supporters collect their chicken from the station after the game". I think that's what they said, but my Czech skills are a bit ****.

Maybe they just put their shirts on?

maybe, but then they sat in different seats in the second half, coz there was a big void (well perhaps a 20 seat void) where they had been in the first half.

I'd like to think they left to take in some of Southampton's highlights having realised their team were going to lose.

My in-game rant was aimed at Tadic.

Looking at the post match comments, Austin and Puel seems to lean towards Tadic being the named penalty taker. So, Austin needs to be rapped across the knuckles and more importantly, the captain(s) needs to be told, that designated penalty taker means just that. VVD should be rappped across his knuckles for not letting Tadic take it.

Shambolic though really in a professional, very very very well paid sport.

Good win.

Opponents were poor and I am grateful for that.

My guess is that the penalty was Tadic's to take judging by the comments post match from Austin and Puel. So I will lay off him for arguing about it.

On the basis there was no beer for sale in the home end, and therefore probably no beer in the away end, where did the shirt-less away fans go after half time? Seems a long way to go to ignore the football.....

Just to bring the thread back on track to the OP....

Tomorrow evening, I have the privilege of watching the team I have supported all my life in a floodlit, European fixture against Sparta Prague. In order to make sure I can enjoy a couple of pre-match beers, with friends and family, I am working from home.

I am excited this evening. Tomorrow morning, I shall be more excited than I am now. Tomorrow afternoon I shall be watching the clock, longing for 5:30pm when I can attempt to stop work and head to the pub.

I expect the game to be a dull, European fixture, with an away side that time-wastes and doesn't try very hard to score. But I shall enjoy the event.

These games are rare. They are the little gems in my Southampton FC supporting history, that create memories.

I can remember losing 2-4 to Sporting Lisbon at the Dell. They only had 4 shots all game.I was ten years old. But I can still remember it.

Yes, football is not what it once was. It's less tribal, it's more about tv, it's more about over-paid, foreign national footballers. But tomorrow evening, when the smell of hotdogs and onions hits my nostrils, I will be transported back to a ten year old kid, loving every minute of it.

Losing interest?

Maybe.

But not tomorrow night.

Highly unlikely that there is any truth to these rumours, given he worked so intensely with Angers management in his youth...

oh, i like it

an internet droll at his best

Labour cant win a GE with Corbyn at the helm, any more than they could with the very intelligent, hopelessly presented Michael Foot

Always a pleasure to see Brendan Rodgers progress after slating Saints lack of ambition:Tonights Champions League qualifier result: Lincoln Red Imps (Gibraltar) 1-0 Celtic. Funny old game...

When he said he would treat the opponents like Barcelona, I didn't think he meant he would be reasonably content with a 1-0 away defeat.

Here's a thought.

We will end up with a new Prime Minister and almost certainly a new leader of the opposition. Assuming the new PM calls for a general election (not guaranteed, I know), what happens if the opposition make a campaign pledge NOT to leave the EU?

The mind boggles......

Crystal Palace F.C. ‏@CPFC

BREAKING: #CPFC have completed the signing of defender James Tomkins for £10m from @whufc_official. #WelcomeJames

 

He couldn't look happier could he?

awkward.....

CONFIRMED: Watford complete signing of Isaac Success for club-record fee

Just goes to prove that money can buy Success

.....boom tish......

Let's see the personne we have lost:

 

2014:

 

Lambert - getting old so a bit meh what ever the past service. (With hindsight, we had the best of him, he has gone downhill since.)

Lallana - so be it (Has future potential, could be great, but always a nearly player, but hasn't had a better year since his exceptional last season for us)

Lovren - c*** (Plenty of good years ahead of him, even after a poor first season. His arrogance with the national side is something we don't need to have near us)

Chambers - stupid money for someone who had hardly played (Hasn't played enough to improve since he left us and wouldn't be missed by AFC if they sold him)

Shaw - even more stupid money (Great talent, broke his leg, anything could happen from here)

Pochettino - a shame, but what could the club do? (Missed, we'd have him back in a heartbeat, but left for greener grass)

Matt Radcliffe - so be it

Paul Mitchell - so be it

 

2015:

 

Morgan - didn't want to be here (Good footballer, but not a worldie. Not being used at Man Utd, but would walk back into our midfield)

Clyne - last year of contract and refused to extend (Disappointed that he's not England's first choice full back. Thought he would have nailed that with his move to Roy's LFC)

 

Koeman - didn't want to see out his contract and went for the money and the entry on his CV of improving an under performing Everton (whatevs)

 

2016:

 

Mane - stupid money and didn't want to be here (£34m for him is good business. Good footballer, hope he goes on from here, fear that he won't)

Wanyama - last year of contract and refused to extend (Wants Champions League football, will have it for 1 season at Tottenham and then move to back to Celtic, citing ambition)

 

Do you advocate the club buying in some guns and holding the staff hostage so that they don't leave????

We sell players, we buy players. Typically the players we sell (that we remember) leave for big club challenges. But we must remember, we have bought half the Celtic team in recent years, and there is no doubting which of SFC and Celtic are bigger. (there's also no doubting which one has the financial ability to pay more)

Can we start a petition for another go?