Whitey Grandad

On my metric is was the worst ever, and that’s all that matters to me especially as I am the one forking out the money to watch us play. You might have different views.

I found the football more entertaining, certainly. Personally I don’t care about league position. Usually the better we play the higher we finish but I accept that for some people playing ’better’ can mean something different to me.

Two season tickets since Branfoot for what it’s worth. Value for money is relative. I was not thinking of Saints as compared to other teams but rather Saints from one season to the next.

Don’t be so petty and childish. You’re better than that.

In terms of entertainment, yes, by a long way.

The fluke is finishing in 8th position on 46 points with a goal difference of -7. Once again, you only ever look at the league table. Not how we got there. I look at things differently to you. I look back over a season of home games and think “Did I get value for money”. I don’t sit at games watching our league position and to be frank, I don’t care about our league position.

Going back to this point, don’t you think that Puel’s decision to exclude Fonte from every European game would have had a strong influence on Fonte wanting to leave? And if Fonte had played don’t you think that we might probably have done better?

Once again, you are banging on again about finishing 8th, which was a fluke. Equal on points with Bournemouth for what it’s worth.

No

I was querying your assertion that Koeman did worse in Europe than Puel.

Not at all. Bringing in money is the fundamental purpose of a professional football club. Bums on seats.

I’m struggling to see where the next point is coming from but if there is to be one it has to be at Brentford surely.

That’s a weird supposition.

I was there too. We scored nil in Midtjylland and nil in Milan. Koeman got us into Europe. Puel got us out of Europe.

Maybe Fonte and Van Dijk didn’t want to play for him

Away games are of no use to the club financially.

That was one game. Yes it was awful but Puel’s offerings were no better. Yes, I was there at Midtjylland, where we scored nil, and I was also at Milan, where we scored nil.

How do you work that one out? And don’t forget that Puel had nothing to do with us getting into Europe.

Yes I do, and I was ever-present throughout all those. You are only looking at the position in the table. It’s called bottom-line management. You might as well watch our games on Teletext. Or not bother going to the expense of paying for a ticket and just look up the results in the next day’s paper. Branfoot was indeed bad, but at least we had Le Tissier to entertain us and even Shearer for a while.

He’s frustrating because just when we get some impressive results he’ll go and change our starting formation and then leave it too late before making corrections. Starting Smallbone in the Watford game was bizarre. If he wanted to give him a run out then it should have been later in the game if circumstances allowed. Yesterday he started with Long and Tella up front with Borja and Adam Armstrong on the bench. At Burnley we had nothing to offer up front and five at the back and paid for it defensively. When he’s good he deservedly gets the credit but he seems to insist on changing things around just for the hell of it.

He really is.

In theory I think that should have been a red card. Somebody got given one at the Dell (?) for throwing a coin back into the crowd.

No, it’s not BS. That was the worst season at home, ever. Some others got close but that was the worst.

I’ve just watched that game and my mind is not blown. I saw nothing comparable with yesterday’s incident. Unless you mean where Pickford had the ball blasted into his face from close range. If the shot had been placed either side or higher then he would not have been able to do anything about it. The save he made by diving across to his left was good though. Eze hit the ball on the volley from ten yards out, which is closer than a penalty would be, yet you would not normally expect any keeper to be favourite against a penalty. If you’re expecting any keeper to be saving a shot from that close routinely then you’re going to be disappointed.

Something in between? A settled team for a start. Our best team being selected for every game. A game played with intent and enthusiasm and passion and not centred on retaining possession just for the sake of it. Something worth paying money for.