VectisSaint

Aliens

4 posts already on this thread since this enlightening post earlier.

For the position he plays in the team there is not much to criticise with his goals and assists. This season he has 8 (goals and assists). This is the same number (of goals and asissts) as Frank Lampard, Jack Wilshere, Fernandinho, Skrtel and Schurle. Reasonably good company (OK less goals than all of these but more assists). Our nextbest is Gaston (4) and Clyne (4). Cork and Wanyama between them muster 1 (assist), even Boruc is credited with 1 assist. Yet often Davis is playing in a more defensive position than either Jack or Vic when he is covering for Clyne or Chambers bombing forward. I'm not sure what some people expect in terms of goals and assists. I'd like to see him score more for sure, and I must admit he should have scored on Saturday, but to dismiss Davis as "not enough goals and assists" suggests a lack of understanding of how the game works and his role in our team. The reality is that 8 is a very good return for the position he plays. He is also a lot more skilled that some give him credit for. If he had been a Saints Academy graduate he would be our team captain. It will be very difficult to find someone to take his place in the team, if we do find someone, e.g. a better Gaston, then we will need Morgan, jack and Vic to make a far greater contribution in the goals and assists stakes. As others have said Davis is also one of the most improved players under MP, his goals/assists stats bear this out, 3 last season, 8 this - 1 assist last season, 6 this.

Hodgson said as much, there will be no surprise inclusions in the squad.

37.93% for Saints 32.92% for Espanyol 34.25% overall. Wrong again.

We have Mods? Wow. Administrator doesn't understand the issue, believes it to be a case of like or dislike and shouldn't be a problem because we are all "grown ups". Unfortunately Steve's post shows how pointless it is hoping that something will be done about these dullards and why this forum will continue to descend to the depths of two or three posters who are not Saints supporters and who are only here for a wind up. Forums are for discussion, for some light-hearted banter and also to exchange information about the subject between supporters of Saints, but there is no point in a discussion with someone who offers no point of view other than to take the contrary standpoint of everyone else (except the other trolls) simply to wind up, who is clearly not a Saints supporter and/or who offers no opinion at all, only posting interminable new questions designed purely to wind everyone up. This place would not be dull without these people, it could actually become an enjoyable experience, sadly the surgery required may be too late as we no longer have many of the posters who actually helped to make this forum interesting. No need to ban the trolls, but they could at least be limited to the Lounge or the non-Saints part of this Forum.

No, Wet Sham have lost more points from a winning position than us so far. Its a daft statistic anyway, in order to lose points from a winning position you have to be winning in the first place. Man City have lost 12 points from winning positions (compared to our 18) and they will most likely win the league. So if we manage to only drop 11 points next season from a winning position will we win the league? Nope. Crystal Palace have only dropped 6 points from a winning position this season, equal best in the league, probably because for most of the season they never took the lead in the first place until Pulis turned them around).

No game time again for Osvaldo tonight. Named on the bench again, but then Serie A allows 11 subs to be named. Can't see how he is going to get selected for Italy at this rate, and how we are going to get much for him especially not from Juve. He will be back in the summer imho, we'll see then what happens.

"Luxury penthouse apartment in Swindon". That's a sentence I never expected to see. Still nice and handy in Gordon Gardens, right opposite Swindon Crown Court.

Dozy Altidore. Makes Ali Dia look like a professional footballer. I hope we never make a mistake like signing Mezut Ozil, that would be awful. Would take him like a shot but perhaps not at 45m. Will be interesting to see what happens with Dani, he will be back in the summer for sure, because I can't see Juve paying (anything) for him. Unless we can find a gullible team in the Turkish league or something then we may have to deal with the situation in a way that we actually see him playing for us next season. We are not exactly overloaded with strikers, and it was obvious that he was just beginning to adapt to the PL during his last few apps. Maybe Ralph can knock some sense into him with a hockey stick or something.

We are Southampton, we don't need to score.

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.