The Kraken

Soon must be a very long time in football.

Completed it, but the survey seems far too simplistic. Would English football be fairer if there was a salary cap? Probably. Would this be completely detrimental to the English game if European clubs didn’t adopt a salary cap? Also, probably.

I’d say centre back is a priority. Salisu is good but nobody else is good enough as a starting CB if we’re aiming to consistently break the top ten. just watching the Liverpool game and Joe Gomez is nowhere to be seen again, I wonder if someone like him might be available, I liked the look of him but he’s well out of favour.

🤪 fucking hell Saints

Good start. Ings assist.

Either way I prefer it too! I like the progression Perraud is making.

Ralph said it on Thursday, that he was subbed off Wednesday because of it as a precaution.

Exactly for the reason that Saints seem to always let one in to strikers who are on a barren run! Take Antonio in midweek. Im only half serious and being norman negative, but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Hamstring according to Ralph, hopefully not serious.

No surprises in our line up. Ings is bound to score Ffs.

It’s about the most sensible suggestion if the requirement is to make the Northam home only. Won’t happen but yeah, that’s the next best arrangement. Of course you’d then have a load of our lot who would move just to follow the away fans….

I don’t disagree, but I think the point I’m making is that Chelsea don’t want to sell. At least not yet, before they’ve actually given him a chance to develop further and the try to break into their first team. They’ve got a player on a long term contract with bags of potential, and if their financial situation is sorted, they don’t need to sell. The ‘value’ they have supposedly put on him is really just a hands off warning, nothing more IMO, and we are just not going to chase the player if it goes much beyond 25m I reckon. I think his future is another year long loan, either with us or another PL side.

He isn’t valued more than Abraham. It’s 70 million euros, so about 58 million pounds. And there’s a big difference between his actual value and what figure Chelsea put on him effectively as a release clause. Depending on their financial situation under whoever takes them on, they may have no need to sell and therefore can attach a value to him much higher than true market value. I don’t think anyone is going to pay 58million pounds (or whatever the euro conversion is) for him. Much as I don’t think Chelsea will pay 68 million to get Abraham back.

Not all that surprising, that’s roughly what Tammy Abraham’s buy back clause is that Chelsea set with Roma.

I always remember the England game MLT started, Italy at Wembley. He had a great chance in the first half, a header. It went wide. Zola scored later and England lost 1-0. Had his header gone in, history would be different imo.

I always say that as a younger player MLT was a little quicker than people give him credit for. Ok, he was not fast, but he was definitely no slouch. Certainly in some of his earlier games when he was playing out wide, he had a combination of supreme skill with a bit of pace to get him past defenders. When Alan Ball came in and gave him the luxury of a free attacking role, that kind of spelled the end of any hard running! His game became much more about finding the right space in the oppositions danger area and, yes, by the latter years of his time with us, he relied on his skill alone.

It really was. Perhaps the last time we had black shorts and black socks? Or maybe the pony days carried that on. Those socks were brilliant, they had a saints badge sewn into them, they were my footballing socks for a kick about for years (until the badge ripped off Ffs). Bought from sportskit near Debenhams. Edit, just checked and we also did black shorts and socks 99-01 too.

It hasn’t really evolved into that, it was like that from the very beginning at St Mary’s. During the summer when we left the Dell there was lots of activity on the old Saints List about where fans were going to go in the new stadium. So a lot of fans chose to be by the away fans. It wasn’t always like that, back at the Dell the Milton and Archers ends were both full of singers (we made the mad decision to make the Archers away only for a season or two in the all seater before taking it back). Lower east was always a lively place to be in the terracing times too. If anything, the Chapel provided a new home for all those who don’t like the lad culture of football but want to be behind the goal. A comfortable seat where you sit down most of the time, not all that much singing going on, and a ‘safe’ place for the kids section too. All the bollocks that gets spouted by the usual protagonists about how we’re missing out on a home kop consistently overlooks one thing, that a lot of fans sit either in the Northam or in the Itchen 1-3 because they like the interaction with away fans. People don’t want to move to a new area for a kop, if they did want to do that they’d have done it years ago. It would be better if away fans were off to a side, I don’t doubt that, but given the particular logistics of St Mary’s it just ain’t gonna happen, and there’s a sizeable amount of fans who really like the status quo as it is.

Ah, 1989-90. What a season. 4-2-4 under Chris Nichol, Shearer, MLT, Rod and Ray Wallace, Franny all coming through the youth ranks (plus a young Jason Dodd making a big impact, and Neil Maddison and Andy Cook getting a handful of games each). We finished seventh, scored 71 goals (the second highest in the league) while conceding 63 (the third highest in the league). And of course the unforgettable 4-1 hammering of Liverpool at the Dell.

This is where I’m at with it too. Yes, players need chances, but as you say it’s far too convenient to say it’s just general rotation when we made 9 changes. I don’t want to criticise Ralph, he’s doing a stunning job considerations the limitations he’s working under. But come on, let’s not just say this was a standard selection of a team, it was clearly affected by it being an FA Cup tie.

He has form though, he hit the bar with a rocket in the last tie

Just fuck the fuck off with that lineup. West Ham put out their first team, we put out……that. Ffs.

There’s your problem with Mark Hughes right there.

In other news, how does Mark Hughes still get work? Utter fraud of a man. Just fuck off.