Bad Wolf

I don't get the Puel hate. I can quite understand wanting him out, being frustrated at his tactics etc but some of the comments here and elsewhere seem to go above and beyond normal sporting dissatisfaction. I saw on our Facebook page last night someone saying they hope his car crashes on the way home like the car crash he's turned us into or something like that and I know you'll always get nobs like that but this had a load of likes on it! I don't remember being this much hate when we had other managers the majority wanted out (Wotte, JP, Burley at the end). What's the man done to have so much raw animalistic hate and childish name calling thrown at him? Surely just doing a below par job at a football club doesn't warrant that sort of treatment?

Just talking to my house mate who's an avid Birmingham City fan, who is obviously delighted but we got onto Stern John and I told him about his hatrick against Hull years ago. Does anyone have highlights of said game that I can show him?

Bit of a weird thread but I'm actually gutted for them. Even Skatesmuff have won the title (all their comments on the Facebook articles are STILL about us would you believe), the worst thing from League Two is the relegation of Hartlepool *In the style of Helen Lovejoy from The Simpson's* Think of Jeff Stelling, won't somebody PLEASE think of Jeff Stelling?!

So do we go down to the Championship 2 or something?

IF Puel leaves my first three choices are: Benitez (if he leaves them up north) Pellagrini That bloke who we were linked with last time that went to PSG and didn't do too well. I forget his name but I remember thinking he'd be a good fit. The thing I've noticed in all my time as a Saints fan is we tend to go for unemployed managers. I think in all my time, the only manager we've poached from another club was Adkins.

Didn't Caceres sign on a year and half? As for McCarthy (assuming you mean Jason) it'll be real shame if we don't give him a chance next season. He's looked great every time I've watched him on loan spells and in the developmental squads. Isgrove though, how he keeps getting these one year contract extensions is totally amazing. The fact he's still here is bizarre. He's got to be about 24 now surely?! Nothing against the lad personally but he's clearly not good enough despite always having decent preseasons. I think I remember watching him play in the JPT a couple of years ago on loan and he actually looked quite good. League One-Lower Championship is probably about his level.

As a 25 year old, I was still some years off being born when this happened but it brings it home that, regardless of our different opinions about Saints and where Tadic should play, whether Puel should be sacked, whether Chinese investment would be a good thing, we're all on the same side and have this one fantastic day to share/listen to stories about. I just can't imagine you get this as a United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea ect fan because there must be so many of these days, it must be meaningless. The day I spent at Wembley three months ago, is something that I'll remember forever but even if we'd won, I can only imagine that if we'd won, it still wouldn't have quite matched up to 76 (for those that were around for both). The only story I have to share is that apparently my grandad (who was a Millwall fan, so no bias) guaranteed we'd win the Cup when we got the late equaliser against Villa. Any older fans care to share memories and stories about, not just the game but the day itself? Or the days leading up to it?

Okay, above points taken...So IF we finish Top 10, will the consensus be that he's done a half decent job?

Okay this one game was probably his fault but the best managers ever have all made dodgy subs. The arrogance of our fans astounds me. We're on cause to finish in the top ten for a fourth season in a row, we've had a cup final (which we narrowly lost) and people are acting like we're about to be relegated. West Ham are a bigger club than us, they have probably have more resources and we're still pretty likely to finish above them yet they seem (reasonably) content. Puel is doing a very solid (if unspectacular job) and I'm pleased we went for him. We could have quite easily gone for someone who may have taken us down. We're having yet another solid season, we're just not as "in your face" about it as the last few years due to not having upset any of the big clubs (bar Everton). The football is drab a lot of the time but if sexy football is your priority, why not just bring back Jan Poortvliet? I mean, he was tactically clueless but we played some absolutely beautiful stuff under him. If we got rid of Puel, who would you go for? Howe who absolutely flopped at Burnley? Moyes who sems to wreck every club he's at post Everton? Some guy who we've never heard of who MIGHT work out better than Puel but MIGHT go horribly wrong? That's not a risk I'd be particularly happy to take. Realistically, any club outside the big seven is always going to be looking over their shoulders. Any club bar those top seven would probably consider the top 10 a privilege, not right. I think we're in safe hands with Claude. If you go to a club like Southampton and you finish above 12th plus lead them to a cup final, I think you've done a pretty good job. As I think Puel is doing with us currently. In 40 years I'll be more likely to tell my grandchildren about this season because of our great day out at Wembley than last season because we finished 6th. In Claude we trust!

Tadic is the worst penalty taker we've ever had. I make that four he's missed and even the one's he's scored have looked dodgy.

Five years ago today! And we're (barring some sort of incredible disaster that would go down as the most amazing collapse in the history of sport) about to do our 6th season back up! My personal favourite games: 8-0 Vs Sunderland 6-1 Vs Villa and that Mane hatrick 3-1 at Chelsea Both wins at Old Trafford Favourite goals: Lallana Vs Hull I think it was where he ran through everyone and finished from a tight angle Austin Vs United J-Rod Vs Palace Sunderland's first own goal in the 8-0 Shane Long Vs Liverpool (I know it wasn't actually PL but it happened since promotion so I'm counting it) Martina Vs Arsenal At the risk of souring the mood, favourite goal against us: Begorvic for Stoke Enjoy:

If I supported someone else and saw this I'd be laughing at the blatant sour grapey bitterness. You can't say a manager isn't good just because he had good players. Was Fergie "lucky" because he had Giggs, Ferdinand, Ronaldo etc? He still has to manage those resources. I find your point utterly ridiculous.

I reckon he'll play on Saturday. Not ITK, just a hunch.

I'd love Sheff Wed back up. I got into football in 2004 so have no memory of them in the top flight but I've always had a soft spot for them for some reason. Very likable club.

Nope. I'm still behind him and think he's a good manager. We've been massively spoilt in recent years. 8th place is still a real possibility for us. Any Saints fan that says they wouldn't have taken 8th (or probably anywhere down to about 12th), plus a cup final they're either deluded or lying. I think this has been a very solid first season with the club for Puel. He's not as charismatic and animated as Koeman was but he's doing the job well. He's also done fantastically well with the academy that Koeman said didn't have anyone good enough. Good manager, good bloke. It could have been a heck of a lot worse. In Claude we (Well, I) trust!

Not much you can do about that. Oh well, on to the next one. Beat Hull and I'll happily forgive and forget the last two. Simply beaten by a better team tonight

Newcastle spent a season entering to Kurt Angle from WWE's theme music...It was beyond cringe and so typically American. Their fans might as well have been chanting "NEW-CAST-LE, NEW-CAST-LE" in the way the Yanks chant "USA" during NFL half-time shows etc. In our Championship relegation season, we should have entered to the Benny Hill tune. A fitting tribute to our City's most famous (non directly Saints related) son.

Can someone translate into idiot's terms exactly what's going on?

Was that ever proven? He said when he left a lot of things wern't true. And even if he's lying, at least he tried to leave with as much respect as possible. Didn't Morgan refuse to play in that pre-season before? Like I said, good luck to Spurs, Poch and Wanyama.

I like Spurs. And Poch. And Wanyama. I have no reason not to. I'd rather see them do well than any of the other top 7. Poch has spoken very highly of us since he left and the paragraph Wanyama wrote on his departure showed what a class bloke he is. How Morgan is more thought of (especially after his brattish tweet that time) than Big Vic baffles me. The hate our fans have for Spurs is a bit weird. I think we're they're Bournemouth. They saw two managers they wanted and offered them jobs. Same with Wanyama and Bale. That's just how football works. Good luck to them.

The Mane one, if you watch it from a certain angle, you can quite clearly see they got it right. Though I'm still dubious about the Pelle one. When he shot, the defender didn't stop the ball, he just slowed it down and it was quite clearly going in. If that was Zlatan, Kane or Aguero, there's no way they'd have taken that goal off them, thus robbing them of a hatrick.

Norwich win 2-0 without having a shot on target via two Brighton OG's. Remind anyone of anything? "Who needs Rodriguez, we've got your back four!"

All this talk about who is and isn't our rival, do we still have our love in with Southend? Any other clubs we get on with?

When I first got into football, I got a management game for Christmas, I picked a team at random, got Dundee, stayed with them for years and years and ever since then I've always looked out for them and considered them my second team. I actually got to watch Dundee and Saints back to back a few weeks ago when we played Spurs and they played Celtic beforehand. Sadly it was the same result. Weird reason for following a team I know but it's better than people's excuses for supporting the big boys. Happy to see someone with a Saints connection there but I was hoping they'd go for someone with a bit more experience, they've had a horrible 2017 so far!

I don't see why we can't have other rivals apart from P*mpey. They have Plymouth as their secondary rivals and after our promotion season, there's clearly a thing with Brighton that we have. There was bad blood before that. Remember Poyet's first game in charge of them? They brought out a DVD of ffs. I know there's a lot of debate on here about whether Bournemouth counts but surely Brighton does! It's not like we're their main rivals either. They have Palace. It'd be nice to have Brighton, Bournemouth and the Skates in the PL with us, that'd be an incredible season!