Polaroid Saint

Fantastically Awful. Not sure if I love it or hate it. Article mentions these efforts too. Which I also quite hate and love. The Beer one especially. http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/7/19/5919149/cd-lugo-beer-octopus-shirts-2014-2015

He Does Things That Only A Spider Can. Hence the potentially steep price tag. In all seriousness, Morgan is MY favourite Saint and has been since the Championship when he just grew massively as a more defensive player but retained a progressive attacking mindset. (I credit Adkins for this, but MS is clearly a 'student of the game' anyway). I get a wee bit too excited with every interception and clever hold off. Worse still, when he makes a ten yard dash forward from the centre circle only to calmly jog back again, I can't help but shout out at anyone who will listen how he has brilliantly created space for the attacking quartet by 'bouncing' the oppositions DM out of position. I am aware this is not normal behaviour.

Just arrived! Looks to be an excellent addition. I read the first edition a while back and was pretty darn impressed, but this looks to be a complete revision really - as it should be with four more years of technology and stats analysis in the game (I.e. a massive amount of data and a cultural shift completed). Adrian - it's funny you should say about 'stating the obvious' as the introduction has an anecdote about exactly that response from Roberto Mancini, who then (gladly) eats his words. Yes, I suspect many of us will 'know' a lot of this already, but its nice to have the facts n figures to support gut feelings and to, sometimes, have your accepted views changed and your eyes opened. There are possibly better football books out there, but not many that reveal in such geekiness too.

Awh Bless! Both you and the fox. ?

Redmond is perfect. Plus Ings. ?

I hope it wasn't a red panda in that ambulance, thorpie?

I also agree with this.

Ooh, a new edition? Perfect holiday reading. I will Amazon Prime it. 7? Is this about beards?

I try not to have a fixed stance on THAT sort of thing. However, if one down-stairs carpet style has a benefit over another, then I would not be adverse to (cautiously) giving it go. If successful, I would of course demand Saints force the entire squad to adopt it.

I know, I believe you are right; there was always a genuine and obvious passion to the man. Nowhere near the worst offender of the Golden Shower Generation (see what I did there?!). Only being harsh because of his (typically inane) statement that he 'enjoyed every minute'. Would have been decent and honest for the out-going captain to have acknowledged the hard times and disappointment of his tenure as captain and time as a player.

My attitude to Gerrard's England career can be summed up by looking at Gerrard's attitude to his England career; The Liverpool midfielder said: "I have enjoyed every minute of representing my country. It's a sad day for me." Here he is 'enjoying' one of those minutes: and another: and another: and one of those 'enjoyable' minutes captaining his country versus Germany at South Africa 2010: 'Enjoying every minute' from Brazil 2014: And one last one, enjoying 'an England minute' with a 'team mate': In summery; I am glad you enjoyed every minute Stevie. Unfortunately, I, for one, did not.

It's okay Minty; this year we are going with neat minimal facial hair. Gone are the days of Lallana Under Beards, Cant-be-arsed-Stubble Strikers and Lumberjack-bearded CenterBacks (well, as soon as Jos gets sorted). Still hipster, but clean shaven hipsters!

A bit of Town and Sun? No better place than Bridport (and West Bay) IMHO. It is a good base as it is a bit 'funkier' than most west coast towns (always good gigs on, odd stuff happening, great food n booze). But you have Eype and West Bay for beaches etc too and Chesil / Lyme along the Jurassic Coast too. Check out these 'much-higher-production-values-than-you'd-reasonably-hope-to-expect' promo videos. http://www.bridportandwestbay.co.uk/whats-on/news/286-the-bridport-videos.html

I like this.

Now we are getting to the nitty gritty and important stuff. Yes, he did, but (as was widely reported at the time), the world reached 'peak beard' in mid April - around the same time Saints' campaign began to stagnant. Coincidence? I think not. We need to be ahead of the times here - I'm not saying forget training and the sports science - but come on Saints, sort it out; there must be a decent Turkish Barbers in Southampton somewhere?

Everything! Are you mad? Facial Hair is everything. For starters; the Lallana 'Under Beard' should be banned from the training camp immediately. I saw one or two youngsters wearing it last night. To give Jos his dues, I think he has sported the beard longer than most - but this may point to its origin. I agree; off with the beards! Saints Squad should be clean living clean shaven nice young men, not yobbos with hipster beards and intricately shaved stubble designs, YMCA n all that. (Moustaches are, of course, fine and to be encouraged).

It is well known that the Manchester Evening News have the best 5-a-side team in the national Journo league, the cheating båstards!

Some very eloquent and quite rightly indignant posts regarding the EPL and what it has done to our sport. I am not trying to counter any of those, but the question was specifically about middling success. It could be argued that it would be much more than a mild success if Saints retained 8th next season (regardless of summer activity). In fact it would be a massive success for any club of our size/recent history. If the ceiling for a club like Saints really is 6th, then, maybe, we'd rather compete for that position with other 'mildly successful' clubs than enter the murky world of becoming a Yo-Yo Club? Even the excitement of a 'winning season' in the Champ'ship soon fades against the frustrations of a season being the whipping boys in the EPL. So, yes. If 'Mildly Successful' means Southampton FC battle between 6th and 17th each season, I think it is worth it.

Lol

I cant work this out! It's either absolute genius, or a crying shame, "shame on you lady, shame."

To be fair I didn't click the link at all. Just liked Killers Knee's calm and rational look at our current squad, the player movement so far and what, in his opinion, was the more important areas for us to improve. I have long given up trying to find 'factual information' about football finances online: some are surely more accurate than others, but even the 'authoritive' sites are, at best, educated guesses cobbled together from other sources.

Will people stop posting erudite and sensible opinions? I'll forget which forum I am on! V.good post sir.

Aha. So Morgan followed Spurs on twitter. Got it now. As I say, Simon Jones showing his superb 'insider' knowledge!

Oh. Did I miss something? What did Morgan say on twitter then?

Not a single quote in that 'article' from Morgan. Just Simon 'Lazy Bones' Jones earning his corn with aplomb as usual, flinging any old sh;t in the hope some sticks.