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You joke but if SFC signed LaDainian Tomlinson they'd be the most talked about soccer/football/futbol team in the whole of the USA. The coverage would be phenomenal. Cortese seems to like to do things a bit differently - I reckon he should give it a go :-)

Cheers for the info George. I think cornhole is a Midwest thing. Some bars even have cornhole courts/pitches - makes a change from pool or those electronic dartboards they have over here. Biggest prob for this Saints game is not having a heavy one the night before. In theory you could just stay up all night and not bother going to bed but that never works well in practice. Tickets are for Terrace End Zone 623. Anywhere near you? Broncos won quite easily last night. The Steelers without Roethlisberger looked pretty poor. They will struggle for their first 4 (or 6) games without him. Good.

Spot the fat c***** in this pic. Clue - he looks a bit like Bungle.

George. As the Saints game is at midday what time do people start tailgaiting? I'll whoop your ass at cornhole (hopefully you've been in the USA long enough not to get the wrong idea about this statement). Are there any offy's near the ground that will be open early on the day of the game? Unlike Indiana I assume you can buy take-out beer on a Sunday there?

Good to see you back on form George. Anyone down there into baseball much? If so - what teams are popular? I'm a Cincinnati Reds (COYR!) fan. Having a great season so far as well - it's been good. Anyway. NFL - what bets has anyone got on then? I've done the usual hopeful accy of the 8 division winners: AFC East - Patriots North - Bengals South - Colts West - Broncos NFC East - Cowboys West - 49ers South - Saints North - Packers Pays about 1700/1 - easy money :-) Plus done singles to win the Superbowl on Broncos, Bengals & Saints. Broncos are live on Fox Sunday night (8pm ET). A good chance for the nation to see some quality pre-season play :-)

For anyone who drinks in the Royal Oak. Very bad news about Chris the barman who worked there from 2005-2008: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxford/8348397.MURDER__Grisly_details_emerge/ Anyone else remember him? I used to use this pub quite a lot. Although not knowing him that well I recognised him instantly. What a way go...

A grim looking, wet Monday afternoon and there is a lot of people, a lot of traffic and an ambulance is parked up there at the moment. I can't believe there ain't some geezer knocking out Beatles t-shirts etc from the side of the road.

Never ask locals for directions when wearing away colours. It's just not a wise idea. An early season at St Marys. 'Someone I know' got asked by some non-scouse accent Liverpool fans the way to the ground from near where the BBC is. They got directed towards the old Dell. Gullible fools headed off that way as well (despite everyone else in a football shirt heading the other way). I do wonder how far they got before realising they'd been tucked up.

1am and still there is the odd person trying to do 'the pose'. It's all made better by the odd bunch of drunken mushes turning up and taking the p*ss. Didn't realise that bit of London was a 60mph speed limit after midnight. Wish there was a good a cam as this one for Totton precinct. Would beat those 'Sexy Sue from Glasgow' ones anyday.

Cheers for that. Funny as f****!!! I've seen about 3 near misses in 5 mins. Great entertainment. This is what most of the saps are trying to get their pics to look like. Just what is it with foreigners and The Beatles?

I'm already in one at work for this site. It's quite a serious thing over here. Some guy in my league plays it for real elsewhere (ie it's a grand or more to enter). Needless to say he won our work league last season. To be good at it you need a good knowledge of all teams and what all their players are up to. Too much hassle for my liking. It's hard enough knowing who is on the Broncos team most weeks - let alone the other 31. I'll chuck some players in a team at work and see what happens though. It's a great way to get to learn about the different positions and just how important every player on the pitch is. Even all the big linemen - vital to the team. If one is seen as a weak-link then that is where the opposition will be hitting hardest to make the breakthrough. Roll on the new season! (though it's kinda started already over here - all the pre-season games are on TV (live or delay). The score doesn't matter but they are quite well contested and it's the best chance to try out fringe-players & new moves).

If the Broncos win it this year then I think I can safely say that they will be the Champions of the UNIVERSE. Never mind this lightweight 'World Champion' nonsense. Predictons: AFC Final - Broncos v Bengals NFC Final - Saints v Redskins

A good motto there. Hopefully Markus Liebherr can look down on SFC for years to come and say he put it into practice. RIP.

Yeah that is way too simple. That is talking about the actual game and results on the pitch. I'd go as far to say the club would do well to seriously think about subsidising cheap away travel to all games (especially whilst in League One). Free parking at the ground and 5 quid on the coach to any away game - regardless of distance. It would be a loss-leader. In a black and white accountants spreadsheet it costs the club money - out in the real world you would have a lot of happy fans who will be more likely to spend their happy money at SFC. Plus 3,000 people bellowing out 'HAND BALL' is going to get you more decisions than 300. Extra points = higher league position = higher home attendances = more money. Going to football is quite addictive. You need to encourage people as much as possible to get 'the bug'. Not find silly little ways to p*ss them off. As an aside: some will say that travel-club support isn't 'real' support. The 'bingo bus crew' etc. Although they may not be beered-up and jumping around on their seats there are some diehard fans on those coaches. I spect some of the Coach-Oners have good claims to say they've seen Saints at the most grounds possible of the 92. I don't know what her name was but there was always some lady of about 80-ish who had to walk with a stick. Whether it was Pompey or Middlesbrough on a Tues night - she'd be there on the coach. Fair play.

CCC. Clotese = crazed chief. A couple of weeks ago people on here were hinting at this. Now you have The Sun putting it into print. Two totally different levels. FFS - just what is going on? It all just seems a bit too crazy & clueless to make sense.

Not good (though slightly funny). In theory it is pretty cool that SFC have managed to p*ss off The Sun. In reality it is a dodgy path to be taking. Agents, journalists & late night drinks. Plus as someone already said - a lot of journalists kinda stick together. If this 'no photos thing' is a hassle for them then they will definitely want to make sure that other clubs don't get the same idea. Hopefully Markus Liebherr (or at least his advisors) can work on quickly nipping this one in the bud.

I miss the away trips more. Totton station at 7am on a Sat morning with a bag of beer - couldn't beat it. USA is a load of different countries in one really. Indiana is the size of England. The big difference is there are only about 6 million people living here. There is so much more space and less conjestion. I bet you guys (that American enough for you?) living in FL, CA & NYC can't say the same... That's why it's funny where I hear people say things like 'all Americans are fat and rude' - that is such a myth. Round here they are all pretty friendly. An English accent goes a long way when you live in a non-tourist area. I disagree about baseball. I've got into it & watch the Cincinnati Reds most days on TV. Once you realise that the pitcher and catcher signal to each for the type of pitch and that there is WAY more to it than the pitcher just 'chucking it as hard as he can into the strike zone' then it becomes way more watchable. FL is seen as the least passionate baseball State - not surprised you didn't enjoy it down there too much. With Saints Player, FSC, FSC Plus & ESPN I get a good fix of English footy. Just watching Norwich v Watford now. Got more than half an eye on the Cubs v Reds game though. I'm sure one thing all of us ex-pat USA Saints can agree on is GET BACK IN THE PREM SAINTS. That way we'll see 80% of their games either live on or delay. Now I don't live in Southampton I'd love the chance to be an armchair supporter.... Should def sort out a good SFC Fans in the USA p*ss-up sometime. Make mine a (case of) Miller High Life. I'll suggest the venue as somewhere easy to get to - like Indiana :-)

On the handicap: Blackpool (+49) 16/1 Norwich (+16) 18/1 Walsall (+28) 18/1 Kilmarnock (+41) 9/1 A 2 quid accy pays 122,740. Easy money.

The only thing I really miss being able to get is Nurophen+ (the ones from behind the counter with codeine in them). The USA painkillers are poor in comparison. Food, beer etc - I'm quite happy with what I can get here. $6 for a bottle of salad cream just ain't worth it. A $2 bottle of Ranch does the job just as well. 6 bottles of Old Speckled Hen or 18 bottles of Budweiser. Same price. 6 or 18? Give me the 18 any day.

I will be checking these on Sat morning. I'm sure there will be a 'are there any streams for the game' thread on the main board. Here's to finding a good one. Enjoy the season all you USA Saints out there. Radio Solent at 10/9/8/7am Saturday mornings for the next 9 months sounds good to me!

FSC Plus does have a lot of live Championship games on over the weekend though. 1 on Friday, 2 on Sat and 1 on Sunday. If you are on Directv then some are currently listed as being 'Cricket' !!! Look at the description of the program to see what it really is (ie Norwich v Watford on Friday afternoon). May be pretty useless for us this season but IF we can go up.... Hopefully they'll be a stream knocking around for Saturday's game. Surely you'll get up at 4.15am for the 1st game of the season? You need to move over a few timezones mate - 7.15am sounds good 'ey?

Well I never knew that an '8' followed by a ')' gave you a sunglasses smile....

Anyone putting anything on the handicap betting? Each team is 18/1 (Stan James) Southampton (Scr) Sheff Wed (+5) Huddersfield (+7) Peterborough (+10) Charlton (+11) Brighton (+13) Swindon (+15) Plymouth (+17) Notts County (+17) Mk Dons Fc (+19) Colchester (+21) Bristol Rovers (+21) Brentford (+23) Carlisle (+25) Tranmere (+28) Bournemouth (+28) Rochdale (+28) Hartlepool (+28) Leyton Orient (+28) Oldham (+28) Walsall (+28) Yeovil (+31) Exeter (+31) Dagenham & Redbridge (+32) Can Saints beat the spread against every team? Not easy.

Good luck with it. I often would buy the home team zine when going to Saints away games. I think quite a few people used to do that. The Internet obviously did cripple sales but I do think there is some sort of market out there for printed copy. How many do you estimate you will sell? It's always a hard thing to get right. Especially the 1st issue. Print 100 and they sell out in an hour and you wish you had more. Print 1,000 and you only sell 400. Very hard to judge....

That'll scank you up. Never bet on the Scousers. Horrible accent, horrible city, horrible team and way too many glory supporters. I'd say 90% of Liverpool fans you meet have not got a scouse accent. 90% is being generous. More like 99% if they are in their early 40's (ie a nipper when Lpool won everything). Must admit I think I'd die laughing with my 60 grand if the rest come in (as per Kaiser's bet) and that one doesn't. Seriously - re-do the bet without Liverpool in it.