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Gk - Shilton RB - Kenna CB - Mark Wright CB - VVD LB - Bale CM - Case CM - Schneiderlin (saints form) LM - Danny Wallace RM - Mane Free role - Le Tiss FW - Shearer Bench - Niemi, Wanyama, Toby, Armstrong, Lambert, Killer, Shaw Manager - Poch

If Fonte hadn't been badly, badly advised by his agent (including promises that simply weren't true) he'd have gone on to be a true Saints legend and it would've been him in the position Kelvin currently is, and him being groomed as a future manager for the club. Sadly he acted a complete pr*ck because someone had made him false promises. Of all the players that left badly i hate Fonte the least, and if anything actually feel sorry for him. He doesn't deserve the vitriol he gets, and he genuinely loved the club and felt an affinity to the fans.

Pretty much nailed by a few on here, 83/84 is always going to be the best season for us, and i agree with Turkish that post that the 89/90 season was one of my favourites too. I guess not in terms of success but in terms of actually falling in love with the game again and feeling like football was fun, i'd have to include the league one and championship promotion seasons. League one especially was superb, really didn't want to miss a game and had some of the best away days of my life, with Saints taking over grounds and being the "big boys" in the league.

A common theme? ??? Jesus i've lived in London for close to 12 years in total and i've first hand seen less physical violence than i ever saw in Southampton, less knife crime than i ever saw in Southampton, less gun crime than i ever saw in Southampton and about the same amount of muggings. This line that London is somehow out of control is crazy, yeah there's a problem with working class kids killing working class kids (and it's a real and horrible problem) but it's largely self contained and the majority of people will almost never see it or be affected by it. Also it's worth noting that it's not just a problem isolated to London (that's just were it gets reported on more), Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and others have all had a massive upsurge in violent crime amongst young working class people too. The reason seems pretty to simple to most (though the government do nothing to fix it), austerity measures have hit everything, from cuts in the police, to social services, to the ability to claim benefit, after school clubs and the rest. Poverty is the cause for that, and a government that has failed the weakest.

I tend to agree with Simon Peach, i think we're actually a pretty poor side generally speaking, with a serious lack of experience through the spine of the team. I can definitely see a world where we lose both of fullbacks this summer, that'd leave us needing first choice signings in RB, LB, CB, CM, LM or RM and CF. that's a significant upheaval to the squad, and we've all seen what happens to teams that makes that amount of changes (worse if we lose McCarthy too). I'd love Trippier and he was on our radar before Mitchell (the black box) took him to Spurs. I don't he'll be leaving them though.

I'm worried that the player who flatters to deceive most of the time is the best choice of a very weak selection, and we'd go from needing 1 right back to 2, alongside all the other positions we currently have holes in. In fact i'm just generally worried about the quality of our squad and the need to significantly rebuild over the summer, whilst somehow shipping out the massive amounts of mediocre or poor players we've accrued in the squad.

i'd tend to believe that, it's well documented that Cedric thought he was leaving last summer and in those cases we normally have agreements with the player that next time we don't stand in the way. Also think Arsenal are far more likely than Spurs in terms of a signing. For what it's worth i'm genuinely not sure if he's of the standard that they should be looking at, there's obviously quality in there but he flatters to deceive a lot of the time. Does worry me though who'd replace him, left back we have choices but right back already looks weak, even without removing our first choice.

I would've thought a number of people on football forums would have tattoo's and know any sizeable work will take more than a single sitting, assuming that's the case and his story is true why not wait until it's finished before casting judgement? Perhaps if Piers Morgan (the original source of that quote ) hadn't hacked a dead child's phone he'd be in a position to make moral judgements. There really does seem to be some weird vendetta against Sterling, the only rationale i can think of is that he decided to move from the presses favourite club (and perennial victims) to another one. Even the sh*thouse rag that came up with that story (and many more) are targeting them as their sales are decimated in Liverpool after years of lying about Hillsborough.

Les Reed went to Kiev, to have a money party. Doing deals with scousers, to sell Alex McCarthy. He sold them all our players, it almost sent us down. He's never going anywhere, the useless f*cking clown.

I really don't understand this logic, not only is it galling to see the victims winning after everything they've done to us, but the more successful English clubs are the worse it is for us as it just makes them richer and more able to take the better players from those below them. Personally i want English teams to fail early and often in Europe, and hopefully the premier league lose a Champions League spot. That happening means less revenue going to the big clubs, more likelihood of those missing out losing their better players, and more chance for the rest to catch up.

I wouldn't worry too much our kit next season is one to please the traditionalists on here

And the season after that we finished 8th yet closer to relegation on points than the champions league. And the season after that we avoided relegation on the last day and the gap between 5th and 4th was wider than between relegation and mid table. And that’s WITH al the money that the team that finished 5th had to spend. I honestly don’t know if you’re deluded, a troll or just a bit special, but if you can’t see the stark and very real reality of who we are you’re going to be bitterly, bitterly disappointed. I’m confident enough to lay a huge stake down that we’ll get relegated again before we ever get into the champions league. And I’m relatively sure we won’t see a club our size there in the next ten years if not more. The sooner people like you understand the league we play in is rigged the easier it’ll be for you. The best (and I mean very best) we can hope for is a cup win, and even that is incredibly unlikely. Mid table is realistic, a shot at Europa league on an exceptional season is possible, champions league is virtually impossible. And if you want to go statto, name other clubs in our wage and transfer bracket that have done it since it’s inception, because that list can be done on one hand. Oh and for what it’s worth that doesn’t bother me, I like the fact we’re a provincial club who occasionally punches above our weight. Forget the marketing rubbish, THAT is the Southampton way. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Huddersfield, Bournemouth, Brighton and us were all in League One together and are all now in the premier league, Man City also went down to league one and came back to the premier league, despite what people want you to think the league one to premier league route is considerably easier than the mid table to top six route in the premier league (and Champions League is nigh on impossible other than an absolute freak season). So many people on here have played far, far too many computer games and need to get a sense of reality. Europa league for us is one hell of an achievement, and at best something we'll get once every 5 or so years even if being run well (and keeping players). Realistically all of these clubs can outspend us, City Chelsea Liverpool Arsenal Spurs Man United Everton West Ham then these clubs can match us at least, Leicester Newcastle Wolves And if Villa come up i'd put them in the second tier group with us to begin with (but will pretty quickly move up). So that basically means to get anywhere near the top six we're reliant on 3 teams that can outspend us having poor seasons, as well as the ones around us having average or poor seasons, us doing well and no other smaller side having an exceptional season. To even talk of the Champions League is madness, without the biggest slice of luck ever (Hi Leicester) where all the stars are aligned, you'd have to outspend and out perform at least three of the richest clubs in the country, and one or two of the richest clubs in the world. To do it regularly you'd need to break virtually every rule in FFP as the model would be totally unsustainable. And yet people still seriously think we can break that group!? Delusion doesn't even come close to covering a portion of our fanbase.

Some of us having been saying for a while Reed is going and Hughes is all but done though Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nope no idea sorry, might be someone else that knows, to be honest i didn't even ask the question as i was busy celebrating us not being sh*tter than Swansea! No idea and wouldn't want to guess but i'm by far the only one that's mentioned this and the rumour has been doing the rounds for a while, normally with the club if that's the case there's more than a little truth in it. But as with everything to do with the club these things are never nailed on till they are.

think most of what i know has been posted on here already, Hughes not the only manager in the ring, big sticking point is he doesn't want a DOF. Reed has been "informally" leaving since January but club were hoping he'd have a new job to announce his departure. Bertrand almost certainly gone (no surprise there given the agreement last summer). Krueger not going anywhere and working on other revenue streams with Gao. Players in i tend to hear very little about, and when i do it's absolutely last minute.

He didn't get the job at the FA

Genuinely no one gives a sh*t about the branded name of the top flight of english football except for geeky weirdos with nothing better to do in their lives.

When did football start doing this guard of honour nonsense? I'm sure i don't remember it when i was younger and yet now it's turned into some huge deal if people don't do it.

If it is someone is losing their jobs.

The home game against Liverpool and our game against Leeds in the championship which i think was also him, are the only two times in my life i'd have believed that there was match fixing going on by an official.

You don't understand what pc means do you?

We didn't make profits without player sales, when Cortese left the club was in dire financial straits, we'd taken out a sizeable loan due to our overspending and there was spending going on on things that weren't beneficial to the club (like refurbishing houses), the reason that Kat stepped in and removed Cortese from his position was because of that financial overspend, in fact she was happy for him to carry on in some factor but needed to place checks and balances to protect the future of the club. All of this has been talked about at length here and the London Saints also heard the same thing from Krueger when he met them. Everyone mocks, laughs and jokes when some of us said we were heading down the Pompey/Leeds route, but mark our words that was exactly where we were heading. The club was in a very, very bad situation and simply couldn't afford the outlay that way happening. So you think Reed sold these players in isolation? I'm the first to think and say it went to far in recent years but the first and second waves of large player sales were to balance the books, the summer Cortese left we had no choice but to accept offers for players, and actually the fact we did so well out of it speaks volumes for the club, if you go back through old interviews you'll actually hear veiled comments that explain the need for these sales and the reasons why (although Cortese isn't mentioned outright). Some people here (and in our fanbase in general) are hugely blinkered to what he did to the club, i think that stems from two things, firstly we were successful in the period he was here. That success was largely built on money we couldn't afford, but football fans will always look back at periods of success and think the guy in charge did well. Secondly due to the overly litigious nature of Cortese (who would often threaten court action on things that wouldn't hold up as the fear of cost would stop people), quality of his press links and pr, and the desire of the club not to air their washing in public the club have always chosen to keep these facts quiet. It's also good business sense from the club at the time to do so as it would've weakened their hand in player sales if other clubs knew our financial position. Finally to add, this last season/summer there was some hugely bad management in the club at it's highest levels, personally i think the rot really hit with the way we dealt with Fonte. There is no doubting he acted appallingly badly, marching into board rooms during meetings, causing divisions in the changing room etc. but he was very much a Saints man at heart, and the leader that carried the side through a hell of a lot. Not playing Fonte in Europe was a catastrophic error on the part of Puel, and soured the relationship to the point it was irreparable, and personally from what i've heard it was reparable at one point and the club even had Fonte earmarked as someone to fast track into management. Post the Fonte saga the board and higher management took their eye off the ball on the playing side, bringing in Kelvin was too little too late and meant to galvanise the squad and bring some togetherness (a role i have no doubt would've gone to Fonte had he stayed). Alongside that, and as others have alluded to here, certain people took more interest in expanding our overseas offerings, as well as managing the sale of the club. Something which included not selling certain "crown jewels", hence the VVD mess. We also ballsed up our choice of manager post Puel (and choice forced not by the fans as some think, but due to him having significantly lost the dressing room) and the club panicked into getting someone who wasn't their first choice by some distance. In terms of not sacking Pellegrino by the sounds of things you can square that blame at the door of Krueger, he felt that Pellegrino was a good tactician with good ideas, and wanted him given time when others wanted him gone. Don't forget we first put out feelers for new managers before xmas. So the truth is bringing Cortese back now, or even defending him, is both an exercise in futility and something that will never happen as the club don't trust him with the most important thing, the money. By all means get angry at the current arrogance and disaster of the board, but understand what came before, and understand too some of this had/has to happen to release more funds for the club (investment in Chinese academies).

This would be a terrible decision in my opinion, you never hear anything but good things about Maya from inside the club and he's well respected and by all accounts an absolute model pro. This sounds to me like a mistake on the same level as letting Pelle go, we'll be dropping a well liked player, respected in the dressing room and a model pro for a some cash. Very short term thinking from the club, and the kind of thing i would've thought they'd learnt had got us in this mess in the first place. There's way too many people inside Saints who believe their own hype, and are too clever for their own good.

Absolutely every single piece of research, data and surveys (including from the right) show immigration was exactly what Brexit was about, Farage even posed infront of a poster of queues of people supposedly entering the country and was rightly mocked for how it co-opted an almost identical poster from the nazi era. A massive swathe of the pro leave campaign was run on anti immigration rhetoric, taking back control of borders, wages being dragged down by EU workers etc. Post Brexit attacks on immigrants rose to an unprecedented level, even the last month a spanish woman was dragged by her hair along the tube for speaking spanish. There's been a hell of a lot of revisionism around Brexit, but to claim immigration wasn't a massive part of the Leave campaign, and a key factor in a lot of people's decision, is beyond revisionism and into propaganda. It may not have been your reason, but that doesn't mean it wasn't still a significant reason.