ericb

Arsenal away is the worst i've heard our support in years, we even had some dicks infront of us taking photos on ipads.

biggest plastic support in London in my opinion. Really dislike Arsenal since moving up to London, their fan base seems to be largely made up of student types from the rest of the country who've moved to London and started "supporting" Arsenal.

I ****ing hate the "ultras" thing, one of the most embarrassing trends in modern football and marks your club out as two bit, you'd never see Man United or Leeds away support dressing up as Ultras and pretending to be Italian. Much rather have a proper old fashioned support, though we've lost that since we got to the premier league.

I don't think he's saying don't enjoy it or be proud, i think the point being made is a valid one. That we're not unique in our rise from league one/admin, that Swansea's story is arguably more impressive and that we've spent a lot on the way to achieve what we have. None of that takes away from our enjoyment or successes (nor the fun of the ride to get here), but if we're not to be hypocrites when we call the Skates Portsmyth then we shouldn't profess myths ourselves. Like it or not we were a very well set club before our admin, we got bought out by a billionaire, outspent most sides in the lower leagues when we were there, invested more than nearly every club in the league in our academy and training ground and outspent all bar the top 5/6 in our three season back in the premier league (admittedly pulling back in more due to phenomenal sales). That doesn't denigrate what we did achieve, or the roller coaster to get here, but it ain't a rags to riches story in anyway shape or form. Much more a club rising back to it's correct level based on intelligent funding, good planning and a re-structure that put us ahead of the curve. Still a great story for Saints fans and no need for the myths that i'm sure our friends to the East would add into it.

Would love the Cherries to come up would be superb for them and given all their hard times it'd be the icing on the cake for them. Like many i always look out for their results and really want them to do well. Would also like to see Brentford come up too, only because i missed the away day there last time and i want to tick the ground off. Aside from that i'd like to Forest back up from the play offs, partly because it's a great away day and partly because a club their size should be in the to flight.

Palace fans calling us deluded and middle class!? Jesus they're so harmless and modern football they've even started playing fancy dress ultras.

You mean another pundit who's a lifelong saints fan, grew up in the city and had been going for years?

I'm genuinely amazed how many people completely missed the point of my post and instead went all massively defensive, i think that says as much about them as it does the post!

Funny that we get threads like this slating plastic United fans who don't come from manchester, but also threads that celebrate Saints fans that don't come from Southampton. Anyone would think we're a bunch of hypocrites...

Away somewhere i've never been before please, so that rules out most of the Prem and Championship sides.

was one of the worst away support's from us i've seen in a long time, but Arsenal away always seems to bring out the quieter element of our support for some reason. We'll be much better at Sheffield United as it's further north, midweek and a bit grimier.

Just buy the childs ticket and beep an adult through on it, i use that when i do aways since i've almost never seen a club that checks

I'd personally love to see the QE2 preserved as a tourist attraction somewhere on Southampton Waters. We have very little that truly celebrates our maritime history and a fully restored QE2 on the quayside, with working restaurants and tours etc. would be great for the city (and unique to us too)

Written this a few times before, i personally believe we have a kid who can be as good as Paul Scholes. He is extremely talented, and outside of Morgan he's the Saints player i've seen with by far and away the most talent at such a young age. Unfortunately, and as with Morgan, a section of our support seems to be very short sighted about him. He's not going to become a superstar overnight, and his natural game isn't the glamour game that lets people get excited about at a really young age. Instead for him you have to look at things like his ball control (which is phenomenal for a player of his age), his reading of the game and his passing/delivery. Sadly in England a lot of fans look for pace or strength, i remember the comments about Morgan being "lightweight" when we were in league one, and people wanting him dropped for donkeys with half the natural ability he has. The discussions around JWP seem very similar to me, and my guess it's down to a lot of people never having played football to anything resembling a decent level (and for a lot the closest they get to playing it is a spreadsheet). The good news is our backroom staff and managers know full well how good this kid is, and they're bringing him through at the right pace, what scares me the most is that he'll get sold to early and it'll stunt his development. Ultimately i think he's going to end up right at the top of the game, and that's probably not for us, but my hope is he has advisors around him clever enough to know that his best age is going to be in his mid late 20's and that he should progress slower than the "fancy winger/striker" type and work on reading the game and controlling the midfield. Still expect a lot of our fans to write him off far too early though, but i'm fairly confident he's a future England international and technically one of the best players we have on our books at the moment.

There's not really a lot of choice to be honest, and that's the best of a (very) bad bunch. GSTQ - terrible, just terrible. Land of hope and glory - religion, monarchy and dubious colonial undertones, which leaves Jerusalem. It's not perfect but it's better than the other choices. The best national anthem i think is La Marseillaise, shame we don't have anything like that really (all though nearly all national anthems are bloody terrible)

To be fair God Save the Queen is a bloody terrible anthem. I struggle to get behind it at all due to be an atheist and anti royal, would much rather have something like Jerusalem like we do in the cricket.

You need to put it in context. They're playing Scotland.

What's even funnier is that Liverpool's home support is beyond ****ing dire these days, if it wasn't for the karaoke version of YNWA they do for the tourists at the start of each game it'd be as bad as the emirates (just with far worse views)

Male YES Aged 60 or above NO Social grade is ABC1 (Which is upper, middle or lower midde-class) YES Lives in the South Coast region NO Leans politically to the right NO Typical professions are in Travel and Hospitality, Engineering and Mining NO Favourite dish is Sweet and Sour Spare Rib NO Favourite hobbies are Bird Watching, Gardening and Reading NO Favourite sports are Football and Cricket YES Have general interests in Business and Finance, Radio and International News YES Most likely pet is a Cat NO Shops at Waitrose NO Wears brands like Blue Harbour, Bench and Craghoppers NO Banks at Lloyds NO Drives an Alfa Romeo NO Favourite film is One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest NO Favourite TV Show is Bleak House NO Favourite music artist is The Moody Blues NO Favourite celebrity is Audrey Hepburn NO Reads The Guardian and Condé Nast Traveller GUARDIAN - YES So basically nothing right... Also love the fact that number three on the niche interest for a skate is Southampton F.C and they shop at Lidl, they're favourite brand is Rebook and they believe they're good with their finances and saving up for things they want!

There's a simple thing Lallana could've done to leave with respect. It's called humility. If he'd kept his mouth shut in interviews about Liverpool/Saints, if he'd not kissed the badge at the end of the season, and if he'd expressed something like respect towards our club and support, then there would be no issue. He obviously has a terrible PR agent, since i'm sure he would've got his move regardless of the crap that came out, but someone advised him in a way that was only focused on him. Arguably that could be correct for him and no footballer really cares about their legacy off the pitch, but given his choices it's very difficult to see how he should anything other than a lot of abuse when he comes back. As for who is a better player i think that's too early tell, but currently all i can say is that if i had to make a straight choice between Tadic and Lallana (based on current form) i'd take Tadic every time.

I wasn't having a go at you mate, and the Brazil thing is a touching story too, i just hate what the game has become and the need to turn our local club into a global "brand" really saddens me. It sounds like you're doing things with a good heart and the right attitude, but it's just a sad indictment of our sport that even a club like ours has to stretch itself overseas because the competition has been killed in it's true sense. Nothing would personally make me prouder than to see our club as the heart of our community, representing the people of my city (and if it wins a few fans outside as an by product then fair enough). But as you say the sad truth is to "compete" we have to franchise ourselves abroad.

I might be alone in this but i'd prefer it if we didn't try and chase global "fans", i hate the ones that follow Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal and the rest and don't want that kind of support following us. People who find the club naturally, have an affinity with us or a link is fine, but whoring ourselves overseas it not something i really want from my club. I want Southampton football club to represent the people of Southampton.

That brought back a few memories that'd be buried deep, was a totally different era that but in some ways more exciting. Listening out for the goals on the radio for an away game was always an interesting way to finish the last hour or so at work on a saturday (could get away with having it on because it was "music"). Also remember really enjoying having to get shoes from the small shoe shop next to the east street shopping center as a kid because they'd have Solent on for the game. Or the gaggle of people outside of Rumbelows on a Saturday watch the scores come through on Teletext. Such a different era that, and part of me thinks the lack of coverage actually made it better and more exciting, since you only got to see Saints play if you went to the Dell.

It's ok according to most we can replace him fairly easily with Paul Wooton.

Well that's clearly not true, if anything it's probably an incredibly positive thing for the media (as are West Ham and Swansea) since it means they can flog the myth that the premier league is the "best league in the world" and that it's not all about money. In fact if you look at the amount of positive coverage we've had, and the amount fans of other - non big - clubs who've been revelling in this season, i'd say our story probably does the exact opposite and sells papers since it's a different story to "will x cash rich club, beat y cash rich club with £xbn player they signed for image rights in Japan/China/India (delete as appropriate). More likely is the fact that we're doing well so other clubs are taking note and trying to restructure in the model we have, since football is largely a fad based sport due to the unpredictability in advance of what is going to happen (in terms of a good model that is).