The Kraken

Even today's Echo is running with the "record Premier League attendance" line for the 32,070 that came through the St. Mary's gates. I guess these games never happened: 18th Jan 2003, Liverpool, 32,104. 1st Feb 2003, Man Utd, 32,085. 22nd Nov 2003, Chelsea, 32,149. 29th Dec 2003, Arsenal, 32,151.

Fair enough; I've only really seen him in European games and other TV games but I've been very impressed. I knew he was quick, but didn't realise quite how rapid he is. On TalkSport on my drive home today Adrian Durham (who was at St. Mary's on Saturday) made a point of saying how good Shaw and Clyne were, and that he wouldn't mind seeing them given a chance with England.

MOTD2 showed Halsey's position and it's true, his view was obscured by another player. That said, the linesman was about 15 yards away and had a perfectly good side view of the foul, yet didn't even flag for anything. Shocking officiating.

From back at the Dell and through to St. Mary's we've consistently had a good pitch. We probably benefit a little from the weather compared to the northern clubs, but hats off to our groundstaff down the years. Nerd fact; the St. Mary's pitch is a slight rarity in the PL as it was designed and built to be level. Most other pitches have a camber in them to allow for drainage, but we have a fairly hi-tech drainage system which negates the need for a camber and allows for a completely flat playing surface.

As you say, clubs watch players all the time. Your average PL team will have around 10 or 15 scouts going to games every single week and building up dossiers on a huge number of players, so this is hardly news, just column filler.

Katarina was there on Saturday apparently.

The official figure for that was actually 29,508. But if you speak to anyone who was there (which seems to be half the city) they'll tell you that there were many more than that inside, and your figure is more accurate.

31,044, against Man United in 1969.

I've heard that suggested before, and I think it makes more sense than a free for all video system. I'm just not in favour of video at all, perhaps its not the most logical of viewpoints but I'm totally against it, and I don't think my viewpoint can be reversed. I thoroughly believe that something should be done about the abuse of referees by players, mind. I just don't think video referral is the way to achieve that. Goal-line technology is a good thing, and I welcome that. And I'd welcome any other technology that doesn't require the game to be halted. But video; not for me.

There was a game where the announcer said we'd broken the record, and gave the attendance figure which was actually 1 lower than the record. 5 minutes later they announced the attendance figure as 2 higher than previously announced!

I care so little that I'm going to make a post on a thread discussing it, just highlighting how little I care. Though it is odd.

Very true. How often do we see pundits on Sky and MOTD go through review after review and still have differing opinions of an incident? I can't see any other scenario other than my belief that video replays would lead to a total and utter mess, and completely detract from a game that relies upon a natural flow.

Nope. Our highest is 32,151 from our previous spell in the PL. we've had a number of games higher than yesterday's 32,070.

Yes, for some incidents there is a break in play. For others there aren't, and introducing breaks would IMO distract from the game too much.

Not nearly enough IMO. And its a massive can of worms as to how you put the limit of which decisions are to be reviewed or not; i think it would be open to abuse. I'm totally not in favour of it, I never will be in favour of it, and I think FIFA have got it spot on by only allowing technology (goal line) that works in real time and doesn't rely on a delayed referral syste.

You'd actually be surprised how many sides haven't sold their allocation this season. Even traditional decent travellers Sunderland and Newcastle haven't sold a full away section and returned tickets to us. Reading came up 700 short for one of their closest games of the season (they brought less than they did for the corresponding fixture last season in the Championship). Its really only the traditional biggest 8 or so clubs that have taken the full away allocation and filled it.

I'm absolutely not in favour of video replays being used in such a way. Other sports have natural break points to analyse the video, football doesn't and IMO would be ruined as a spectacle if there were stops in play to check the TV. What i am in favour of is video evidence being used retrospectively to punish really bad fouls, and also for diving. McManaman deserves at least a 3 game ban for that challenge; the stupid thing is that had he been booked, then there would be no further action as the referee had already been deemed to have taken action. Which is crazy; if the ref agrees that he got it wrong should have given a red and not a yellow (and vice versa) then there should be a process for that to happen.

26,419.

Don't think it'll get that high; we'd have to sell 32,000 tickets for each remaining game just to get to an average of nearly 30,900, and we've very rarely got above 32,000 all season. Probably will end up around where we are now, maybe a little higher, around 30,700. Still a decent effort.

Yep. We'd just as well play the reserves for our final 9 games, it's pointless to put out a full strength team as we're already relegated. Woe is us.

Of the 6 English players we put out yesterday (Clyne, Shaw, Cork, Lallana, Rodriguez, Lambert) I would say Jack Cork and Adam Lallana are the closest to earning a call up. Lallana has obviously been called up before but has gone backwards in the pecking order since his injury. If he starts finding the back of the net again then he might force his way back in, but I imagine not until next season at best. Cork simply has to be close. Cleverley has hardly set the world alight (despite being given many chances), Carrick is getting older as are Gerrard and Lampard (and to a lesser extent Scott Parker and Leon Osman). At 23 years old, Cork still has many years of top flight football ahead of him, he did well for Team GB in the Olympics and I can see him getting involved. If he doesn't then I think the national side are missing out. Clyne is very good, but it's a tough ask to force his way in ahead of Glenn Johnson and Kyle Walker. Johnson is still "only" 28 so has got at least 2 or 3 years left in his legs as an attacking full back, and with nearly 50 caps he's obviously an established figure. Kyle Walker is having a very good domestic season. So Clyne (and Saints in general) will probably have to do something very special. Shaw, well the sky is the limit. But I hope England don't rush him. There's an under 21 tournament this summer which he'll probably get the nod for, hopefully that won't have a detrimental effect on his pre-season. As for Lambert and Rodriguez; I can't see it for Rickie. He's better than welbeck and others that do get called up, but I don't think he'll ever get the nod. Plus Saints base a lot of our game around him, England wouldn't do that. As for JRod, perhaps too early to say but for me he's got a long way to go before he's talked about for selection for the national side.

Which of course is entirely fine, and I respect your opinion while of course disagreeing with it; I am just of the opposite opinion. Next season, then absolutely I could see the logic, just this season it was a needless risk IMO in so much that we didn't spend similar sums on areas of the pitch I deemed more in need of strengthening. And as I said earlier, Lallana was being primed in pre-season for the number 10 role, which IMO plays to his strengths much more than playing hm out wide. We didn't spend anywhere near as much money in other areas as we did on Gaston (or on Rodriguez, for that matter). It took us significantly into September before realising we had a problem with our goalkeepers, and then we had to sign a keeper who was plainly not fit and not ready for first team football at that time. We went after Astori but got scared off by his £12M price tag. Yoshida was a bit of a gamble, and while I think he's done pretty well this season I'm not sure if I see him (or Jose and Jos) as of good enough quality for a top ten Premier League side, which is where we obviously will be looking to progress to. If we stay up this season (looking ever more likely) then it'll be very interesting to see what our summer transfer priorities will be. I still think an imperious CB is very much a requirement, and the goalkeeping scenario is an interesting one. I hope Boruc stays with us, but we'll have to see I guess.

Dear me. Are you that much of a plank that you have to try and distort my actual opinion? Of course I was pointing out that a so called "worker" has scored more than Ramirez. The reason this is quite clear is that you mentioned both Cork and Morgan as workers, yet i only highlighted Morgan. Because its quite impossible to forget that he has scored a few goals this season. Sorry if it makes you appear a bit daft, but that was clearly the point being made One this one I will admit culpability; it's what happens when you rely on wiki for stats. Nonetheless the point still stands; worker bee Morgan has scored as many league goals this season as flair player Gaston. And once again a silly statement, that someone else came out with. Of course we wouldn't have signed Dembele. Or Lloris. I've already said this. But don't let that stop your angry rant. They were simply used as examples of signings made for similar money that we paid out for Gaston, and how such areas of the pitch were IMO more in need of work. Never mind, I'll remember instead that I should just pick a player who didn't get signed for someone else, as that's clearly more relevant. Indeed. I love it too, as I always do when Saints players do well. So pretty much all Saints fans get to clap, really. Happy days.

He said he was on £2M euros a year, net. Plus a £1M net signing on fee.

Quite right Baz. For this season I look at Norwich who brought in Michael Turner and Seb Bassong for less than half what we bought Ramirez for. Neither are top 8 type players, but they're solid enough to pretty much ensure Norwich another season of Prem experience and the chance to establish roots and push on further. We could easily be above Norwich right now had we adopted a similar policy IMO.