VectisSaint

Like me you never played in modern football footwear (I hesitate to call them boots). I wore them a bit when I was coaching kids, the problem is what we used to call studs. The blades they wear these days cause these cuts because they are sharp (blades). Mistimed tackles like Armstrong on Saturday will result I'd deep cuts like these, the tackles are no more reckless than in the old days, but the effects can look far worse. There was not an ounce of malice in Stu's tackle (I would suggest there is no malice in any of his tackles). Imagine Brian O'Neil or John McGrath in a pair of modern football footwear, complete amputations while you play. Laporte is obviously also a complete wooss, thank goodness Stu didn't tackle Pretty Boy.

Apart from Will Smallbone, Yan Valery, Nathan Tella, Harry Lewis and of course Theo Walcott. Of those Jack Stephens has the least claim to be an Academy graduate but technically he did join our Academy at 17 having already played a handful of League One games (5) for Plymouth. Smallbone is a "true" Academy graduate having joined when he was 8 years old, the same as JWP. The others joined at later ages and from other clubs but they are still academy boys. I think some people may be confused by Smallbone because he represents Ireland, but he is a "local" lad (born in Basingstoke).

Had forgotten until yesterday how much of a turd Pretty Boy Girlish is.

I assure you that was not condescending sonny (but that was if it makes you feel better). It was in the Echo and HL as I said.

Maybe having a different GK coach might have a bearing.

Absolutely. The logical conclusion to this is that because the failings were at Southampton Football Club, we should remove all references to the name of the Club at St Mary's and change the name of the club as well to avoid any reminders that this happened at this Club. That would go down well, what do you reckon, AFC Saints, New Forest Rovers, Freemantle City, Soton Town, Antelope Athletic. I'm torn, I don't know what I would prefer.

The problem with removing the statue of Ted, is that because he is the man rightly honoured and remembered for all that he did for the Club the action will make it seem that he is the main culprit in the disgusting activities of the paedophile, and actually associate Ted with those activities. Whereas there are (many) others who are equally, if not more guilty of ignoring these activities at the time who will not be damaged in this way because they are not honoured in the same way. The outsider will look at this and say, look they've removed the statue of Ted Bates, he must be as guilty as the paedo if they have removed the memorial, whereas as far as i understand his only "crime" was to do nothing. I'm not against removing statues of wrong doers, fully support what happened to Edward Colston's statue in Bristol, but this is wokeness gone mad. Ted Bates was a honest and honourable guy, who did so much for the Club and City, his crime is almost certainly that he only saw good in people and would not have thought these horrendous activities could have taken place; he was perhaps a little naive, but then who wasn't back in the 80s when these things were going on.

Social Media, Twitter, FB, etc. See article in the Athletic, Echo, Hampshire Live. If you are not seeing it you must live a very sheltered life.

If there is any truth in this then it cannot be allowed. Ted was one of the most honourable people around and to try to taint his memory with something to do with that disgusting man would be a travesty. I can't imagine the effect it would have on his daughter(s) (who incidentally are my cousins, but I don't actually know them). The world has gone mad and no one should support such an action.

The Premier League is run by an executive committee who make day to day decisions.

Even more disgusting that it hasn't yet been rescheduled. The PL have lost the plot.

Do we really want a player that made the Football365 Worst XI of the weekend? 😉 Along with Bednarek and Tella by the way.

I think they played a significant part of the game with 10 men, women, players (apparently they didn't). Difficult to be sure the twitter feed was useless, at one point showing the score as 0-0 but with the scorer named (the tweet was then deleted). The OS shows the game is in progress. Looks like Ipswich beat Hounslow (bottom of the table) by 9-0.

Would like to see Perraud get a goal, will do wonders for his confidence, he is certainly putting in the effort.

It was brought up weeks ago when Chelsea were bemoaning their lack of strikers and their "fans" were telling Tuchel that he ought to recall Broja. It is nothing new. As far as I understand it they cannot recall a loan without the permission of Saints (and Broja). I am just getting a bit concerned that we may have shown our hand too early this season and affected our chances of getting him long term or for another season without a significant impact on the price.

Did you throw it all over him? I think that's the only way that numbnut would be more bearable.

Still a problem at Newcastle, apparently up there it lasts a lot longer before the infection is cleared, they reckon they will be over it by the end of the transfer window, sorry month. I see Klopp tried to back peddle on his false positives claim, but really didn't explain it very well.

I seriously doubt Pompey saw it as giving us a helping hand 🙄

No. As Ralph pointed out before the game we have played Brentford quite often in the last couple of years, in behind closed doors friendlies/at the training ground, we are more aware of their strengths and style than many other teams. Think it was pretty obvious beforehand that we were going to play the formation we did, because of the lack of RB and also to match up Brentford's formation.

What match?

Agree with you totally, my point really was that Tella was perhaps not the best example of the value for money of the Academy, because he was a player that we signed from elsewhere (OK he was effectively a free agent) rather than one who had been brought through our Academy from the start. he debate is becoming whether there is any merit in having an Academy, but I think the debate is focused around the kids, 8 year olds and so on upwards, not whether we can effectively buy players from other academies. It is an interesting debate, being compared with how Brentford have dispensed with their academy. I see Ralph defending it today, on the basis that we are there for the local kids, but not necessarily saying it is there for us to develop players for the first team. Personally I think the Academy system has gone very wrong in the last few years and needs a radical revisit. Hopefully Mr Pedant will not barge his way in on this post.

We only have to 'make do' for 1 game, really don't see what the fuss is about. Too late already to do anything about tomorrow. I just read we might be looking at Joe Aribo from Rangers. Can't for the life of me see why he would come to us over Villa, unless he and Gerrard didn't get along. Sounds like me may be looking at bolstering CM though.

Today's award for stating the bleeding obvious. Try reading the posts and understanding the context before you come back with your pedantry. Now I've wasted one of my 3 posts replying to you. Presumably you still haven't got a grasp on what professionalism means with regard to Valery's performance on Saturday.

Is Tella a product of our Academy? 10 years at Arsenal before he joined us when he was 17.

At least the muppet commentators will stop confusing Tella and Valery. Might still have a problem sorting out JWP and Stu though. Valery WAs actually doing OK, but it was always going to happen after the first booking. Hope Tino is fit for Brentford otherwise we will be stretched.