VectisSaint

Jonny-come-lately. You'll get the hang of it eventually sonny 😉

I must have missed the bit where Juanmi was in the Academy.

Except there is no relegation.

There is a good argument for playing Forster in this game. We know he's leaving at the end of the season so put him in between the sticks and won't do our long term player's confidence any harm. 😁

Agree, personally think that having Grealish in their team would be a bonus for us, instead of all their gifted players. Also he's easy to wind up (JWP/Stephens please note). Sadly I would imagine KDB will be back in the team by then.

Apparently being lined up for 1st team squad appearance (according to Tom Leach) 😳

Apparently the B Team were "down to the bare bones" before last night's game in the Checkatrade Trophy according to Tom Leach (I thought it was the Papa John's Trophy these days). Oludare Olufunwa, Caleb Watts, Will Tizzard and Ryan Finnigan all missing (is that down to the bare bones?). He did mention that Watts might be fit to play (and did). Also noted separately that Thierry Small is coming back from injury (didn't know he was injured).

Seems a bit disingenuous. He was injured and you expect him to walk into a team that won 5-1 away.

I read this yesterday that it was a rule, but I'm sure it never used to be. There have been instances in the past not just at Saints where pros have not been registered, I think Sam McQueen was omitted recently for example. My only thought is that perhaps you can do it if you have more than 25 senior pros, and then have to make a choice who is registered. Still it does no harm and I suppose in a dire emergency dear old Ollie could make a return 😂

In what world is missing Stu good news?

Corrected for you 😉

No, Southampton won it 8 times, twice runners-up, but Arsenal have sin e won 14 times. The historical link between the current Southampton Women and the original team in the 1970s (which at some time used to be called RS Southampton I think, Red Star) is tenuous, Southampton Ladies have a probably better claim to that history. Lowe closed down the Ladies team and although it survived it went into serious decline with no funding.

Same here, they should have already been in the top level, they parachuted Man U straight in 3/4 years ago but put Saints at 5th level, then Covid hindered progress. Spacey has been gradually building a squad for the higher levels with some experienced players coming in. They should be in the Championship next year.

Minnie Mouse surely. Two 9-0s, where have I heard that before? Coverage will not improve until at least they are in the Championship (next season). Even then coverage is sketchy compared to the top level (Super League or whatever its called).

It will go to tribunal if a fee cannot be agreed between the clubs. It is not a transfer fee it is a development compensation fee, because Small was a youth free agent. Very unlikely that tribunal will set the fee as high as £5m, Saints know that and are trying to second guess the tribunal outcome. Seems to me they may as well let tribunal decide if the valuations of the two clubs are this far apart.

Drew 1-1 with Arsenal in the PL Cup. Simeu captain, Caleb Watts returned and scored early on. Probably a decent result.

Goalkeeper, we did offload Gunn, so perhaps 1/10 would be more appropriate Centre Back - may not be applicable this season but we also signed Simeu for the future, is Lyanco an improvement on Vestegaard, depends which Vestegaard you compare with, the one prior to last season, most definitely yes, the one who had a good half season last year, no, unless he turns out to be a star, but with Salisu improving (and Stephens) then its fair to say we are certainly no worse off. We also disposed of Hoedt so that's a bonus. Midfield - failed to address critical weakness in defensive Midfield (cover for Romeu), think 5/10 is generous on this basis. Probably improved attacking midfield by losing Minamino, and the return of the new and seemingly improved Moi is reason for optimism.

Long covid?

There are one or two on here who will blame Stephens for goals that are conceded in games when he is not even on the pitch. They see what they want to see. One or two used to blame Steve Davis for everything in the same way, going back a bit Matt Oakley was often criticised by some for anything that remotely went wrong whether he was involved or not.

"I'm not slagging Stephens for the sake of slagging Stephens" says the man (?) slagging Stephens for the sake of it. I'm not "slagging" Tino or Salisu either, just calling out that if you want to apportion blame for recent goals (which is a completely pointless exercise) then at least apportion it to the right players and not avoid them because they are the current "cool" players.

Stephens was not seriously at fault for either Newcastle goal. If you really must apportion blame for their goals then the first came about because KWP let their player go, Salisu was also way behind Stephens and probably should have got it. The second Salisu was the player that lost St Maximum, but its hard to blame him (or anyone). Blaming Stephens for either let alone both of those goals smacks of playing the man and not checking reality. Salisu had a great game Saturday, but he did make two mistakes, quite frankly the way we play our 2 CBs are left horribly exposed at times, with no other cover, the reality is that they both actually do a bloody good job in the circumstances. Its obviously not cool to blame Salisu yet, just like it wouldn't have been cool to blame Tino for the Man U goal, but it did actually develop from his mistake which subsequently put Stephens under pressure to put it out for a corner, which then led to their goal. But the boo boys just see a Stephens mistake, because it suits their agenda.

Not going to say whether it was a brilliant save or not, but it is not the movement that is being praised so much as the reaction. Sure he didn't have to move that much, but he had no time to adjust and actually make the save. Its not really relevant but Forster wouldn't have reacted that quickly.

Did they mention it was in the League Cup? It was 2nd Leg, we won the home leg 4-0, and aggregate scores were level after 90 minutes of 2nd leg, so it went to extra time. Lost 5-7 on aggregate. I'm reasonably sure I went to the game, it was soon after I got back to UK after living in Australia for a while. Charlie George hit the woodwork. Watford were in the 2nd Division as well by the way.

No points to add to the most points lost from a winning position league, come from behind twice, completely outplay opponents, 2 VAR decisions go in our favour (wasn't Dean on VAR duty?). Not sure how some people on here think it was predictable or that it was scripted 😂 Good result really but could/should have been better.

He will be fine once he gets back to full fitness, but goes to show that we really haven't learned our lesson from last season and brought in a decent backup in such a critical position.