VectisSaint

Most of the Everton supporters left early so expect him on here soon. Davis motm for me today, he was everywhere and was dominating mf.

This is great ART, only 5 points of a CL spot with 3 games to go. Living Nasty Nic's dream still. And all the other naysayers said top 4 was impossible, and you've gone and shown just how possible it is with your little league table that you meant to be another swipe at the club. Of course its not reality, but nice when the club bashers and the trolls stitch themselves up like a kipper again. Reality is that we've had mediocre results since the turn of the year when we were still in the midst of a serious injury crisis. It shows that when we have our best team available we are as good as anyone, but we have no depth in the squad and will need to invest in several players simply to maintain our current position next season let alone move forward. All teams have injury crises, but many have stronger squads than us. It is something we can address, but whether it will take one or two seasons we will have to see. Nothing to say we cannot move into top 6 or 7 next season if we invest wisely and keep our current manager and the star players. There will be some slip ups from teams who are above us this season, for example Everton (sorry Bazza and Glazza) will possibly struggle if they qualify for CL with their relatively small squad, who knows even Liverpool may find it tough next season with a CL campaign. Maybe Poch will improve his win ratio next season and will get it to maybe 35% which is very good for a mid table team.

I'm sure Barry and Glasgow Toffee will be on to provide us with their opinions very soon. At least it should be something they know about for a change.

Can't believe anyone takes this sort of stuff seriously. To be saying today that the Boscombe sell-on clause has "just come to light" is completely laughable. I thought these people read this Forum, it was on here weeks, maybe months ago. Do these so-called journos have no intelligence at all? (rhetorical question). There is press coberage because our players are good, I doubt any of the stars will leave this summer, if they do then c'est la vie, life will go on. If you are worried about what you read in the press, then try this little trick, don't read it (admittedly its hard because a few on here will ensure that every press rumour is added). If Manure were to sign every player they have been linked with this summer they will have about a hundred players in their first team squad. Why would anyone go to Manure this season when they are not even going to be in Europe or at best in the Europa Mickey Mouse League.

Not nice reading because it is an awful article, full of mistakes, which does nothing to explain the author's assertion that Saints will have to sell. It is to put it politely ********. But then that is par for the course for the idiot that is Samuels "sportswriter of the year, my arse". By the way he also doesn't condemn Saints, he is actually very flattering, though you could say he is condemning us in the sense that he thinks we are condemned to our current position due to the Fair Play rules (which we aren't). Thank God though that we will not be signing stars like John Terry, I really almost feel sick seeing that ***** in a Saints shirt (would take RvP though). Rubbish also about it always being so with us, citing Shearer as being not part of a young squad with potential, no you're right Samuels, only crap players like Le Tissier, Rod Wallace, Jeff Kenna and Tim Flowers were in the squad when Shearer broke through (you could add others like Dodd as well if you were inclined) Apart from Wallace they were all still there when Shearer played his last game, indeed Kenna and Flowers followed Shearer to Blackburn, and Kenna made about 30 apps for Ireland, seem to recall Flowers made a few as well (I know Flowers was not a product of our Academy but I think he was only about 19 when he joined us from Wolves). Still I guess the article has boosted the anti-Saints posters on here, I see Barry and Glasgow Toffee have weighed in to say "told you so". Well Trolls, you are wrong again.

If Palace get 7 points from their last 3 games and we get none then they will have done very well, Liverpool, Man City and Fulham. They might get between 3 and 5 but I think Pulis in his wildest dreams will not think more than that. "Newcastle0" surprised everyone today by scoring a goal, reasonably sure they will not overtake us now. Stoke improbable, and Hull would not win 5 even if they weren't distracted by the FA Cup. So 11th it is then.

Are you sure it was a plane and not just a big crow ****ting on the buggers below?

While it is true that we have not won a game this season after going behind, we have come back to draw 6 times, which is the highest of anyone apart from WBA. Indeed we are 13the in the table of points gained from a losing position, one place behind Man City (Liverpool are 10th). This would suggest it is not a mental issue, since we seem to have the mental toughness to fight back and get on terms again. Incidentally the old stat that gets trotted out and has been repeated here 2 posts up, that we have dropped more points than any other team in the PL this season is no longer the case. That honour has pased now to Wet Sham who have dropped 20 points from a winning position compared with our 18. Given we were bottom on this stat last season maybe this is a small sign of improvement and also can not be aimed wholly at MP since half of last season was under NA. By the way Liverpool and Man City are 11th and 12th in this table. So is it such a terrible thing?

Fred, many thanks for your reply, hadn't thought to look after Monday assumed it would sell out. Clearly Man Utd are not the draw they were, looks like a few tickets will go on general sale. I had bought one ticket (Yeovil) so was able to get one for my cousin from Oz after all. Cheers.

As a Season Ticket holder who would have liked to buy a ticket for cousin visiting from Oz, I think actually it is fairer the way it is. My cousin has been to no games this season, and one last, why should he get priority over people who have attended 4 home games? Are you sure in the past season ticket holders have had the right to buy tickets for games that they already have a ticket for? I know we have priority for FA Cup and League Cup games but wasn't aware we had the "right" to buy extra tickets for hangers on for games that are likely to sell out. I have only been season ticket holder for this year and last so don't know what it used to be like in the old days. In any case you do not have a right to anything, it depends on the commercial contract between you and the football club that you entered into when you purchased your season ticket. That said if anyone has a ticket for sale I would be interested in buying one.

10 + Quagliarella would be fine, we were apparently looking at Q in March. Would mean no or small loss on the 12.8 we paid. Would not be surprised to see him back though and with good management things could be patched up. Big test of Poch's management skills to re-integrate a player after such an incident. Maybe Freddy could work his motivational skills on Dani.

Why? Is Fonte injured? Lets replace good solid dependable CB who teams up well with Lovren and covers up some of his frailities, by playing a RB/CM youngster as a makeshift CB. WTF are some people on these days? Fonte is also one of the smallish band of players who also coudn't give a feck about the WC.

Our net debts are approx £1m. It said it in the accounts. Thats peanuts compared to just about any other PL (or FL) team. We do not have to sell anyone to balance the books, and we don't plan to sell anyone that MP does not want to sell according to Ralph. People thinking that selling Spiderman would not weaken our team significantly are basically in cloud cuckoo land. The only players we will plan to lose this summer are probably Guly and Jos and presumably some swap deal or something for Osvaldo. If we sell Shaw it is not to balance the books, its because some club come in with a stupid offer and Shaw is happy to go and then we'd be nuts to turn it down. Unbelievable Jeff is how I would term the OP.

OK, so you had enough qualifying purchases as well. Should have read your post better.

So what did you do when it said Restrictions Apply?

We were not out fought. Cardiff gave the impression that they really didn't give a toss whether they were relegated or not and clearly were happy with a draw. I thought they were awful and had no plan to beat us at all. In the end they were very fortunate that we gave even less of a toss than them.

Forgotten about him, but you said opposing player, he really was not in any way shape or form a player. I stand by Wes Brown.

Really disappointing day. I really did not think we would miss JRod that much. First half we lacked any urgency, lots of nice little passes and a couple of great moves but it was very pedestrian, lacking the usual energy, and we really could have been playing against statues for all the effort Cardiff were putting into it. Fighting for their lives, they looked like they couldn't give a monkeys, though Kim and Daehli looked useful. The biggest problem we had was making our way round their little fat bloke in the midfield (number , I really thought they had plucked one of the supporters out of the crowd and given him a shirt to wear. Gaston had some great moments, but all too often he was frustrating, but he should have scored, the deflection taking it on to the bar. Marshall kept them in the game with a couple of smart saves. Our defence were never really tested today, apart from a few corners. Gazza did nothing wrong, apart from punching a couple of corners behind for another corner, but was in no way responsible for the goal which was just a defensive calamity. Lovren had a couple of howlers again, and Fonte's attempt to foul Zaha (was it or was it Campbell) were comical. Shaw's crossing was woeful, really he is not the great LB everyone believes until he learns how to cross and even more how to score (but I'm sure it will come). Thought Adz was kept very quiet, and really did not seem up for it. Lambo pulled out of a chance in the first half that he would have gone for if he was not thinking about the WC. Morgan was strangely wasteful, Cork was probably our best player, but please can someone teach him how to shoot. Davis was good, but not quite up to his usual standards, but you cannot fault his effort, just seemed a bit unsure a few times what to do with the ball. I have to take exception with those who claim Cardiff came with a game plan to nick a goal, they had no such plan, they came for a draw, which was very odd for a team supposedly scrapping for their lives. They deserve to go down, they were awful, but lucked out. Gallagher, poor touch, really looking out of his depth after his encouraging start. Guly made one excellent pass late on which deserved better, but really it is time for Guly to be saying goodbye (but thanks for all you did for us in L1 and the Champ). Can't make up my mind about Chambers and Clyne - usually I think Chambers is better, but clearly he was struggling with the pace of Campbell and Zaha, and Clyne did do better against that. Today showed so clearly to me the problem we have. We have had a great season and have 13 maybe 14 excellent players. We are now 3 strikers short (given that JRod will not really be back to full fitness this side of Christmas. Even if we bring Osvaldo back into the fold, we still need 2 more (lets not forget either that Lambo if he goes to Brazil will not have a full pre-season. So we should probably be looking at 3 strikers - unikley to happen but thats what we need. We need a LB to push Shaw and we need at least one new CB (hoping that Blackbeard is on his way out). We also need some new creativity in MF, probably a replacement for Ramirez and another one as well. Then there's the GK, we need two for sure, someone to push or replace Boruc who is too unreliable and someone to replace Gazza who really is not up to it. Reaiistically unlikely to bring in 6 or 7 but that is what is needed, our squad is so small and will need to be bolstered if we are to achieve 8th again next season, and thats assuming no-one leaves (other than Guly and Jos). Some will say Targett is the LB to push Shaw, but its clear to me that he is not thought ready, if he were then he would have made a matchday squad or two by now. It would ask a great deal of MP to manage bringing 6 or 7 players into the tightly knit group, one of the down sides of having such a tight knot squad is that bringing new members in is incredibly difficult. Not being negative, but think today demonstrated clearly to me that good as this season has been there are some serious issues that need to be addressed this summer.

Really? Thought he was excellent today, would have him in our squad on that performance. Very clever player and full of running/energy, probably a bit lightweight if anything though. Who was the little fat bloke in the centre of midfield, looked like they had fished someone out of the crowd. Wes Brown has to be the worst player against us this season. I gather he did himself proud today as well. Truly awful player.

Anyone know the Cardiff team for tomorrow? It should be available by now.

More likely the board approved beforehand what Morgan has said, and that this is probably an indication that they have the same outlook. The big challenge for Poch will be integrating 4 or 5 new players into the tightly knot squad that exists, he will certainly need to earn his keep on that side of things, unfortunately you could argue that he does not have the greatest track record given his apparent failure with Osvaldo. With the depth of the squad we have 4 or 5 has to be the target, maybe even 6, all players that need to challenge the current incumbents, not backups to sit on the bench.

Why is Harry tweaking Gaston's nipples?

"Guly Ramirez". Alpine will be apoplectic.

Why the Sunderland references? They play in our (proper) colours because they bought their original shirts in Southampton. The same as Atletic Bilbao (both Basque teams, Madrid were formed by Basque exiles in Madrid from the same club). Story is that they wanted to buy Blackburn Rovers kit, but kit could not be found so opted for Saints shirts, but kept the preferred Rovers blue shorts. The Blackburn bit could be rubbish because we of course played in blue shorts as well.

When I first went to the Dell in 1966, there was no bitter rivalry with Pompey, our rivals then were Spurs. which my understanding had been the case since the Southern league days when Spurs and Saints were regularly top dogs. Many of my family regularly went to Fratton Park one Saturday and the Dell the next. My dislike of Spurs has remained ever since. The Pompey thing used to just be friendly banter (a long time before the word banter was ever used), we hardly ever played them so why would it be any different. The hoolies took over in the late 60s/early 70s and younger people now think it was ever thus.