Whitey Grandad

But it wasn't. Do you think Saints' fans would have behaved the same? Or Norwich. Or Leicester...

Are you too young to remember the Heysel tragedy? Rioting Liverpool fans in the stadium lead to the deaths of 30 supporters, mainly Italian and Juventus fans. This results in a ban on English clubs participating in European competitions for five years during which Southampton would have gone to the UEFA Cup. Everton can feel particularly aggrieved. Liverpool think that they are above everybody else and every other club and that the league regulations on tapping-up don't apply to them.

As they said on TV, a London final 2500 miles away.

Indeed. New stadium, innit.

Technically Spurs's budget for new players this season has been £0

So, since it will be two ‘English’ teams in the final which way will the commentators be biased?

It wouldn’t have made a lot of difference. The value of the club depends on its assets and it would have depended on what value was put on VVD at the time. We had either a valuable player or ‘cash’ in the bank. The rest is down to negotiation.

Yeah. 3-0 is a dangerous lead Llorente made a big difference and gave Spurs an outlet ball that they didn’t have in the first half. Barca just weren’t up to the intensity that they faced.

I think in both matches it was the big leads that affected the mindsets of the losing teams. When you know that the other team needs to score three goals you change the way that you approach the game. You tend to become more defensive and less aggressive and then when the opposition get a couple of goals back you end up dropping back on your own penalty area. Remember February 2001, Saints away at Tranmere? I was at a referees meeting and the young chap in front of me received three texts during the first half as Saints went three ahead. Before I left the meeting Tranmere scored one. When I reached my car they had scored another. Before I got home they had equalised. I was just home in time to see the. Score their winner.

We sold him because it was a helluva lot of money. The few months delay because of the ‘tapping up’ probably made us and extra £20m or so.

Nah, it hardly ever happens

I hate Liverpool so I’m afraid it’ll have to be a Tottenham. Not to mention that I was born within kicking distance of White Hart Lane and have two brother-in-laws who support them.

Football, bloody hell.

You couldn’t write a script like this. If you came up with a story like the last two nights then nobody would believe you.

That was sensational. In some ways better than last night.

Spuds in trouble now. 3-0 aggregate

Er... Really? That's like getting married and then finding out that the person you'e been living with for the last couple of years has changed.

It's like kids at a school rtace. Everybody must get a prize.

They'd get sued for all they were worth. The builder signed a contract and then walked away from it. Straightforward breach of contract.

Quite so. For every thumping profit made on a VVD or a Mané there are plenty of losers to offset against it.

Wasn't there something about this around the time that we played Midtjylland away?

Have they won anything yet? Just checkin'

Well said sir. It is a duty/responsibility of the refereee to keep the game flowing by appropriate use of ‘advantage’.

Have we forgotten Dani Osvaldo? Easily overlooked.

Yes... but... If Mané and Van Dijk and the others hadn’t left then that could have been us celebrating at St Mary’s.