The Kraken

And you're absolutely welcome to it, mush. But freedom also includes freedom of speech and expression, so don't be surprised that many outside your borders look in with increased amazement at the backwards nature of the culture there and make further comment on it. Having been to more than 40 of the states in America in my lifetime, I consider myself pretty experienced in the way of life of America and its citizens. And I'm still genuinely amazed at the level of vitriol and anger that many of the residents will retreat to when it's suggested that the love of guns that infects the country (and of course the amount of dim-witted imbeciles in charge of those guns) is the primary reason USA has such a tragically high death level from firearms. The "I want my grandmother to have a handgun to defend herself" argument is quite possibly the saddest yet most consistent line I've heard trotted out, yet it's one that gets laboured time and time and time again. On the flip side there are many Yanks I've met who aren't thick and ignorant, and who rightly agree that guns are massively out of control and need to start to be reigned in. Sadly those on the other side of the argument refuse to even budge on the fact that their arsenal of weapons is in any way unsafe. And so it will go on; simply too introverted, too ignorant and too resistant to change to realise the benefits of an alternate way of life. But yeah. In the mean time we'll stick with our version of pointing out the downright obvious, if that's alright with you guys of course

I'd suggest it's about as enforceable as using a mobile phone while driving.

They actually do give penalties for intent, yes. If you have to hurdle a slide then it can be given as a foul. I've not seen it yet so I'll wait to comment. But your premise is wring, if the player has to significantly alter his course to avoid a tackle that doesn't play the ball, it's a foul.

Fair play to Tony Pulis about the penalty:

Hats off, St. George. I considered it impossible that Sarnia Saint could be replaced by someone even more dim witted, ignorant and lacking in self awareness. But you've proved me well and truly wrong, I humbly admit my error. Chapeau.

No pal, just making use of free shiz.

It sure does

Pretty much agree with all of that. There was a lot of anger at the loss of so many players over two summers; a sense of "why do no other clubs lose so many players?" Well no other clubs of our size had lit up the Premier League since we arrived with a free flowing style of football and then finished 8th and 7th. The players at clubs who finished lower than that were, quite simply, not as good as our players and therefore not as attractive to the bigger clubs. So they kept them. It's the downside of the relative success of finishing higher up the table, the better we do the more our players are in the shop window. And unless we start lashing around wages of £70k, £80k, £100K a week then more often than not, we're not going to be able to fend off those approaches. As CBF says, I'm perfectly alright with that. It will mean that some years will be less successful than others and we'll finish in the lower half. That gives a stable platform to rebuild and improve; again I have no problem with that approach. It's when the club start devaluing the cups that I would have a problem. Koeman really doesn't do that, so we're in good hands for as long as we can keep him.

Right, I've missed this argument. But it sounds juicy. Can someone sum it up in short size lumps that a fool like me would understand? Or, better still, point me to the actual original. This sounds fun.

Agreed all round. I thought the transfer fee for him was incredible, I wasn't overly impressed with him. A terrible injury though that you'd wish on no-one, hope he recovers well.

How does it work Lungs; do I need to find a builder first? I did look into it at the turn of the year, and had a builder lined up. I got the Totton branch to come out and measure up etc. and price me up. Since then I decided I didn't want quite the design and my builder told me couldn't do it, and still can't. I've been reluctant to go back to the Totton branch lest they think I'm mucking them about. But I still want the same type of kitchen they planned (minor changes to make), so there's already something to work with.

Pretty sure we sold 23,000 season tickets in 2003/2004, so the policy for how many the club will sell has clearly changed. That 03/04 season was also, by some distance, the highest average attendance at St. Mary's.

Apart from the Clasie comment, there's actually little to disagree with what he said. Yes, we need to give a greater chance for them all to bed in. Your Tadic over Lallana says it all, you're absolutely f*cking crazy if you truly believe that. Tadic can't even get a game for us these days; Lallana is an absolute ***t but a really good player. Take your rose tinted shades off, lad. You've made a tit of yourself arguing against that list.

More often than not I disagree with your view, but I reckon you've finally cracked it lad. I was worried when, pre-game, Koeman said we'd be more direct. When we actually went through with it, I was shocked. And all that against a sh*thouse side who (despite the long ball rubbish we employed) we still had over 60% possession against. Poor. Koeman got it wring. The players were even worse, dreadful. Our midfield almost didn't exist.

Yes pal, I'm in Highfield.

What are the staff discounts like compared to trade? Trade "discount" seems to be about 60%-70%; I've got a mate of a mate at Howdens who offered staff discount but I never looked into it. Thinking of re-doing the kitchen now so I might give it a go.

Yep agreed. Take Everton and Tottenham last year; two clubs who have bigger fanbases than Saints (despite what MLG may say about the matter). Spurs averaged 27,000 for their home Europa Cup games, Everton 26,000. OK both clubs are in Europe more than we are so they don't have the novelty factor. But it sounds as if our average for the first 2 home Euro games will be around the 30K mark, which is pretty bloody good. August attendances are always the lowest of the season by historical trend. The fact is a lot of fans don't care much about the Europa League and it's available to watch on TV. Anything around 30K is pretty damn good as far as I'm concerned. Anything below 25K would be disappointing, but it sounds as if we'll comfortably exceed that.

I can't have Sky as I'm in a conservation area and can't put a dish up. BT Sports is fine though; £50 a month for phone, internet and BT TV with BT Sports 1&2 plus Sky Sports 1&2.

When I first saw it I thought it was ok. Seeing it first hand, it's horrible. Not a fan of the shade of green at all. Also, and I'm sure the club must have researched this so it's probably not a factor, but the shirt does seem to blend in to the grass, it seems to make it more difficult than it could be to instantly pick out a player (at least it did for me).

It's not only the BBC; BT Sport show quite a few games. I know this as I've been caught out many times by clicking on to it in expectation of a decent game and ending up quickly disappointed.

The Dell held 15,000 for a number of years. Their skip currently takes around 21,000, it used to be more. So they had a bigger stadium than Saints for quite some time (they could never fill it though, obviously).

Without wishing to p*ss on any chips, I found Waikiki to be disappointing. I've been twice (with work, oddly enough) and I find the westernisation of Waikiki has ruined it somewhat. It's still pretty beautiful but doesn't really feel like a tropical island. Honolulu is just plain ugly. Some of the other small islands are amazing, though. On Oahu it'll be fairly simple to see all of the major sights. Hanauma Bay is pretty remarkable, and the north shore is good. Waimea is ok but overrated IMO. I actually took a helicopter trip on my last day there, now that was incredible. Don't make the mistake of really exploring by car and going to the south-west of the island, where it's not touristy. The poverty is unbelievable; literally people living in shanties and many who have made a house out of a knackered car. Quite humbling.

And that's certainly been a fundamental failing in the past. From the Royal Pier website: How very true. Hopefully whatever manifests out of this will all be worth it. I'm always surprised we don't make more of the cruise liners with decent places to see them, bars and restaurants that overlook etc. That whole road down by Dock Gate 4 has been refurbished and the area is on the upturn (Oxford Street is lovely) so hopefully that can spread onwards to the waterfront. Ocean Village and Town Quay were, unfortunately, poorly thought out executed and just didn't work. It all needs something to get people there and keep them there.

Goodness me, the predicable retort. "You're getting worked up". Yep, I definitely don't miss this place. Is that really all you have? Dear me. In any case, my last of 3 posts. All of points I addressed, in response to your original question "Isn't that what the Royal Pier Development is going to be?". The whole point is that Portsmouth have already done that. Has Southampton? No. I have no posts left, you tell me the thing what Southampton does better than Portsmouth (other than a massively better football side and a 100000000% better stadium and fanbase)??

Is it? I think the whole point (which you might have missed) is that Portsmouth already have those things. They've had them for many years. We haven't. Their council and city planning aren't perfect by any means, but they are light years ahead of Southampton. So I guess my question would be; when do we catch up? If the "Royal Pier Development" is your idea of us catching up, then f*ck me, God help us. So'ton as a city is massively behind where it should be. It is affluent has perfect transport links and on the coast. Yet it is ugly, has nothing to do apart from go shopping, and is massively behind the times in terms of evening entertainment and social engagement. Basically, we make very little of the wonderful location and resources at our disposal.