The Kraken

I’m not a huge Howe fan, but this line makes it seem like he did nothing in the PL. He kept them up for a few years, didn’t he, and they weren’t perennial strugglers for all of that by any stretch. I thought Howe’s major downfall was that, after consistently building a core squad with him who rose through the leagues then he built them more and kept them in the PL: he spent big money badly in his latter years. Imo before that he proved himself in the PL for at three seasons, and after five in the top league then got relegated. Hardly a failure imo.

Bloody foreigners coming over here and winning our trophies.

Good news that it’s on the increase. I still find it very interesting that, at the start of the Premier League, there were a total of only 13 non GB and Ireland players that played in the first weekend of fixtures.

Genuinely the funniest thread I’ve ever read on any forum. Literally laugh out loud. A mix of a small number of staunch defenders saying “it’s not that bad” whereas everyone else went from “that can’t be it” to ripping the shit out of it. The photoshops on here and b-anter were brilliant. There really should be a golden threads part of the forum with that one in it, real belly laughs from reading it. The head of the hapless statue trust brigade, who as said at the time were just a well meaning bunch of simpletons, ran out this classic quote: “It is very rare I am lost for words but I saw the statue last week and it is awesome - a tremendous tribute to a great man. Fans have waited a long time for this and it is going to be fantastic. I really believe it will be the best football statue anywhere both in size and the amount of detail.” 🤣 As you say, thankfully the replacement is a proper work of art and an absolute treasure to be proud of. I love game day and seeing how many people give the statue a little respectful touch on the way past. Edit: and thank you Leon Crouch for that 🙏

BBC run a system where everyone can vote on players performance and it averages it out. Redmond was the lowest ranked Saints player. But then Lyanco scored 7.8 for a cameo appearance, so pinch of salt recommended.

I didn’t watch the game today but just caught the Sky highlights. He should have scored the header imo, looked like he was trying to loop it back to the far post but got it wrong. Aside from that he looked lively and he’s definitely got something about him, decent with the ball at his feet. I see him, Adams are Broja as 3 very different options, so good options to have all round.

I know Ranieri had a new manager bounce against Everton, but I thought when Watford appointed him that that’s them for relegation, just doesn’t seem a good fit to me.

SOG has always been a prat, and a wind up merchant, across various Saints boards. His “you’re on ignore” routine is consistently hilarious though. As for aintforever, he’s consistently been one of the thickest posters on here over many years, and his “it’s not rocket science” mantra is predictable every time, although I’m constantly surprised he can even spell the words. As for the knee. Personally I have no problem with it whatsoever, I think it’s a tiny gesture that does more good than harm, if only in a tiny way. But IMO there’s no doubt the PL are pushing this onto their member clubs to comply and it is more of a PR exercise than any type of movement. A nice gesture in itself, and I’d keep it, but only for those that genuinely want to do it.

He’s still a ridiculously handsome man. 😍

I understand that Chelsea cannot recall Broja now. My confusion I guess comes from, like you say goal.com and others, saying that he could be recalled in the January window. But as those reports say, only if both clubs agree it. I’m not arguing either way, for the avoidance of doubt. I’m saying I don’t know. I think the rule as I quoted isn’t clear. I’d also hope Saints would say no, therefore it’s moot.

Can you clarify this please? I thought premier league rules stated that, normally, a loan has to go through 2 transfer windows, but that it can be recalled if both clubs agreed to it and if the PL agreed to it. I read the PL handbook about it at the start of the season but can’t recall the clause. Edit. I found the clause. V.7.4. subject to any conditions imposed by the Board in the exercise of its discretion under Rule V.4.2, the minimum period of a Temporary Transfer shall be the period between two consecutive Transfer Windows and the period of a Temporary Transfer shall not extend beyond 30 June next after it was entered into, save that the Board may, in its absolute discretion, permit a Temporary Transfer to be terminated before the commencement of the second Transfer Window (subject to such conditions as the Board deems appropriate);

I sometimes think back to how different the matchgoing experience would have been with a stoneham site. Certainly the best part of St Mary’s is the location compared to the city centre. Best memories of Saints games are meeting for beers around midday then walking down to the ground from the pub. Not quite sure what the Stoneham solution would have been, something akin to the Madjeski I’d guess.

Not just an error, but using one bogus article to accuse other fans of making up stories against the club. Quite an unpleasant accusation, but I’m unsurprised there has been no retraction.

Correct. I went corporate for the last game of the season and Pearson came in post game, it wa clear he’d been given his marching orders at that point and was less than happy.

Salisu said earlier this year that the time is not yet right for him to play for Ghana. https://footballghana.com/i-will-play-for-ghana-at-the-right-time-mohammed-salisu

😃 sorry for going all MLG. I know it’s a terrible trait in anybody, and shouldn’t be encouraged as it’s fucking annoying and gets away from the point. So, my point anyway (which isn’t about MLG nor Lancaster Gate) In principle, I agree somewhat with Ralph. Mike Dean has a history of poor decision making against Saints. No question. I’m not going to defend him personally, I think he’s a bad ref. That said, I think Ralph is right to get done in this instance, and I think a line must be taken. I do think that referees in all of football are treated with far too much scrutiny, and are all too easily blamed by managers, fans and pundits. I struggle to think of another sport where verbal abuse of referees by players on the pitch is just accepted. I struggle to find another sport whereby the pundits spend so much time analysing the performance of the officials, and blaming them for them outcome of the game. And I find it difficult to watch a continual stream of cheating on the pitch by so many players, encouraged by managers, and the same bunch of ‘professionals’ bleat about officials before in any way addressing their own deficiencies. It’s an easy cop out and too many fans go along with it. So there. Referees aren’t perfect in any way at all, but football has allowed such an easy way out of blaming the ref, a d we are all complicit. I don’t like bringing up rugby, cricket or whatever sports, but they seem to get on without so much cheating and so much blaming of referees, and they just accept that there must be some sort of respect for the official. I don’t like the culture of football that seems to override that. Rant over!

Not to go all MLG (but I will), Lancaster Gate hasn’t hosted FA HQ for a very long time now.

He was always going to get done for his comments. It was very obvious. Not that he may not have had a point, but as a PL manager he stepped over the line.

Yeah, the UK version required me to upload my vaccine by the QR code scan. So while I’d like to think there’s some checks there, I’m not totally sure. The whole 2 day test seems completely unchecked to me. You only need to give a booking ref, so unless there’s a nationwide database that collates private tests (very doubtful but maybe?) there’s zero checks on actually doing the test in the first place. I’ve seen on another forum people stating that they’ve entered bogus Randox booking codes and been fine to travel. It just seems like a mess. For travel to Europe it seems a little bit more regulated. I had to upload vaccine documents and locator forms to the BA website and those needed to go through an approval process before getting confirmation to fly. Not so rigorous for me coming back this way though, no uploads required via the airline itself and no checks other than self declarations of where I had been.

The UK passenger locator form requires you to upload your vaccine certificate. Or at least it did when I did mine recently. But it strikes me the whole thing is a sham, and I reckon anybody with a bit of photoshop skills could get around it all quite easily, the electronic and manual checks are not exactly vigorous.

I never really stopped. It’s really no skin off my nose at all to put a mask on for a few minutes while walking round a shop. I’ve been to Portugal and Spain recently and it’s just a given that you wear your mask when going inside a shop, everyone does it. Like you say it is simply not a hardship, I don’t really understand why there is so much opposition and pseudo-science to it.

Tactically inept cabbage head would be a decent forum name.

Well Steve Bruce has been let go, so we’ll see soon enough if Howe is his replacement.

Yeah, i rewatched the BBC interview which is the one that your quote came from I think, no worries with that one. Just the extra quotes I found (not sure who they were to) that will IMO land him in bother, like you say it suggests a bias from Dean given the history of his appalling decisions against us.

"I knew when Mike Dean was on the VAR that the referee would go and have a look at it," "I always have a bit of a problem when we know Mike Dean is on VAR because we don't have a good history with him, to be honest." I mean, both fair points, but yeah he’ll get done for that.