VectisSaint

You clearly have no idea about their relatively recent history. How could they be a yo-yo club before 1963, they were only relegated 3 times in 44 years. Their record attendance, nearly 58k. League Champs in 1992 (long after Revie) and PL top 5 on several occasions. Average attendances of about 39k 2000-2003, seriously get real mate. I do agree with you though that they are unlikely to get back to their glory times until there is a major change in the way the club is owned and managed.

1) Why? We live in a world of professional football, which is a business. We should not be sentimental about a keeper who was past his sell by date 3 years ago. 2) No he wasn't. He was on a level all of his own, and it was nowhere near the level required for a PL team. Plenty of players covered for Kelvin's mistakes, there were so many of them, primarily in the kicking department, but in the end the kick out that lead to their 2nd goal was a bridge too far.

Beat me to it, though even Nige knows that Kelv is not up to it, after all it was Nige who brought in Boruc 3 years ago (debut anniversary today) to replace him.

Leeds should be a Premier League side, no doubt. They aren't and won't be until they sort out their ownership and get someone sensible in place. But have no doubt, Leeds United are a massive club and should be top 8 at least. Its not a 1970s thing David, they won the league in 1992, the last season before the Premier League started. Ridsdale finally screwed them in 2001 and they were relegated in 2004. They haven't been lower league for as long as you may think. But they are going nowhere soonish, except maybe down. Still, no love lost there, dirty Leeds, and Norman 'bites yer legs' Hunter and all that. At least we don't get to see the 7-0 thingy as much while they are down amongst the dead men.

And if you don't have 8 home grown over 21s you lose one of the squad places. Until we signed Caulker I think we only had 7 including Forster and Kelv. In the end it was a moot point, as we still have one spare place for an overseas player

We also needed to register FF to allow us to register non home grown players. Think there is still a chance he may be fit before end of year from what I've read.

He was possibly our first choice keeper from August to October 2012 (though Gazza also got a look in), when the Club belatedly realised the obvious and brought in Boruc. So thats 3 years since Saints realised Kelv was not good enough, and yet he is still seen as 2nd choice, and our 3rd choice who we have given a new extended contract to is still here and still is not deemed better than Kelv. It is a shocking indictment of Saints perspective on the goalkeeping position.

Although interestingly he has not played in the last 2 U18 games, and was not even on the bench at the weekend. Last appeared for the U18s in the 5-1 defeat by Leicester.

It really isn't about who goes to see it. Football or any sport for that matter should never be about spectators, it should be about the participants. If a lot of people go and support a team, great, but you seem to have lost the point of why people participate in sport. Southampton should be about being a successful, inclusive sports club, maybe not even just football. Sadly at the moment Saints are the only PL club other than ManU who do not have an associated women's team. If you don't want to actively support a women's team that is fine (I won't either) but you should support the club in its ambitions to grow and to provide a top class pathway for development of sports people within the City and region.

Schmeichel got nowhere near it. Mane should have killed the game (see the highlights on the OS at 12.40) By the way VvD's goal should have been disallowed. He was clearly offside when he hit the post and probably marginally offside when he actually scored. Big mistake by the officials which fortunately went our way.

Except we were a Championship side when we signed him, not a PL one. He served us well in the Championship and League One, but he was 8 years younger then and he was more than adequate at that level. The Club made a big mistake when we were promoted not bringing in better backup in this position and continuing to extend Kelv's contract. It appears we thought we were improving by signing Gazza, but clearly this has backfired since now even Ronald doesn't consider our young up and coming keeper to be better than Davis. If Gazza is that bad (and personally I don't think he is and he should have played Saturday) then we should have already signed a better keeper as backup initially for Boruc, then for Forster, but for some reason the club have remained blinkered in this area.

Is he a top 8 backup keeper? Frankly I'm not sure he would curently be a League 2 backup keeper. We will never be top 6 if we persist with backups in this position who are not good enough. Not something we can instantly remedy, but we need to be working toward better before next season by not rrenewing contracts any further.

... and our record signing before Gaston, i.e. Jay Rodriguez, is not only still at the club but doesn't even make the Top 10.

Ronald said he took Davis off due to the injury in the first half. I want to believe that he was planning to replace JWP with Clasie rather than Davis, because otherwise it was a huge mistake, and not for the first time. We really need to find another Davis (and please no jokes about Kelvin), because it is being proven time and again that we can't play effectively without his energy, closing-down and link-up play in midfield.

Sunderland were well on top first half. We got some lucky breaks. 2nd half was very different. Recall Ronald being very unhappy with our first half display.

I remember Charlie George playing, but now I have this image of his two knees playing on opposite wings. I know they were shot, but they were surely never that far apart :-)

straws, clutching, at... It was marginal, down primarily to Kelv's awful kick. A decent team would have been 3 or 4 ahead by this time, the number of chances our inept keeper/midfield/defence combo gifted them. Fortunately (for us) they were so bad at shooting, the only person having a hard time was the steward in the concourse between Blocks 43 & 44.

True. Its a bit like saying Jesse Joronen would be better because he scored yesterday. Actually on reflection he would, it demonstrates that even a League Two keeper can kick almost twice as far as Uncle Kelv. Even Ronald admitted that Kelv's kick cost us the second goal [and thus 2 points].

We dropped 2 points yesterday because of the keeper. Whether another PL relegation fodder team has a gk who played crap yesterday is totally irrelevant. Villa also have skate Sherwood as manager, not relevant, if you honestly believe that Kelv was OK then you are welcome to your opinion.

Some people seem to be having difficulty with the concept of "record signing". The original list missed Jay Rodriguez who was our record signing for a brief period in the summer of 2012 before Ramirez was finally signed. Record signings used to mean some of our best ever players, Big Ron being by far the best. The original Ossie (Peter) was also superb, though his best years were behind him when he joined us. KK was also of course one of the best ever English players. David Armstrong, hugely underrated, great player. I didn't realise that Barry Horne was a record signing, have to say he was in an era where I did not follow Saints as closely as before or after. Alan McLaughlin looked to be brilliant when he was at Swindon, but for some reason never really showed that form again after he joined us. Delap and Delgado really started the downward spiral of record signings, punctuated only by J Rod of course. Gaston has been a disappointment, though there is still a great player in there somewhere trying to get out. As for Dani, he was still a top player, just a complete and utter ***** (and he is Argentinian by the way, only plays/played for Italy due to his parentage).

Then we need to get shot of both. I don't actually believe Gazza is currently any worse than KD, having seen him play a few u21 games. He is not great but he sure as hell can kick a ball.

No there weren't. I doubt there were worse performances in the Football League either, though I have not watched any of those games. Really don't know what people were watching who claim that he was anything other than dire. His kicking was awful, he was flapping at crosses (first 20 seconds gave us a taster of what was to come), his punches were weak if he managed to connect at all, he was not confident, he did not come for the ball (mix up between Fonte and VvD was due to this). He made one or two bog standard saves, but even with these your heart was in your mouth. I have to say it was one of the wort goalkeeping displays ever (I know if didn't have a complete howler like Bart or Boruc). we have to stop this notion that he is a great servant and so every thing is OK. He is not good enough (and to be honest has not been for 2 or 3 years). Of course its not his fault he had to play, but to have this standard of keeper as current 2nd choice is shocking for a top half PL team. At least Gazza would not have cost us the game because of his kicks (though he may have cost us elsewhere). Sorry Kelvin, nice bloke that I'm sure you are. Truth is sometimes unpalatable.

Leicestet had 10 players on intrrnational duty. They were also awful. It took them a long time to get back in the game after we started helping them. Fortunately for us their finishing was woeful.

What a complete load of garbage.

Of course we can. He is not good enough, his kicking is a disgrace. He was awful from the first few seconds when he flapped at that cross. He may be a legend, but there comes a time when a player needs to realise that he is past his sell by date. Yes, we shouldn't have had to play him, because we should have better backup (what is the point of Gazza if he is not preferred to Kelvin?).