saint1977

Fulham need to turn up wherever it is - and on the evidence of yesterday (I know it was City) Cardiff would be favourites. Still, if Saints keep this up it should all be academic anyway. Vital 3 points yesterday, pretty goal but not a pretty game. Saints better first half, Brighton threw everything at it last 30. Bar Montoya’s shot, not that many clear cut chances but the back four and Gunn absorbed the pressure really well.

I rarely look at their fans site but did last night. Sunderland really getting to them. Lots of references to the failed promotion game in the early 90s - Saints had a dull end of season game v Man City in the Branfoot era and every time Sunderland scored the lower East erupted! Did Walsh get sent off as well and then wasn’t available for the play offs? A lot of ex-hooligan talk as well on there. Really are living in the (violent) past.

Plus we have Bournemouth and Wolves home - not easy but certainly you’d expect a bit more hunger from the team to win those. West Ham away not impossible to get something either. Only gimme Cardiff have is Fulham home and that’s a few games away, inbetween what they have is nasty. Chelsea today are unpredictable - Cardiff could turn them over, but the long term injuries to key players is hurting them.

May deal vs Customs union free vote is the way to unlock it. Second referendum would expose all of Leave’s lies and illegalities from last time and the electorate knows so much more about the issues now but the atmosphere would be toxic during and after the campaign. I mean possibly even more so than now! Brexiteers had their chance today but a hardcore are too greedy around No Deal obsession and might have blown their opportunity. Either May deal or CU still meets the referendum outcome. I just hate the atmosphere and what we are seeing - SNP now insisting on single market as well as CU, two main parties destroyed by extremism, Neo Nazis like Sheridan and hangers on like Farage with their supporters wearing Trump hats. May’s obsession with migration targets fuelled this atmosphere as Home Secretary and Cameron’s austerity. Corbyn is hopeless, and leading a strongly pro Remain party with a Leave fringe in the North. He looks as comfortable as a Pompey fan in full kit standing in the Northam. The stench of anti Semitic Was it all worth wrecking a country (the bitterness and hatred) and its economy (overseas investment at a ten year low) economy over to save UKIP winning a few poxy seats David Cameron? There won’t be a country left worth having sovereignty over.

Shurlock posted a picture of him at the rally of him a couple of hours ago. Although I say rally, but Pompey took more than to Wigan. A million people it wasn’t.

If they joined the Indicative vote on a customs union option, it could get interesting. Would be RIP the Tory party. The Curtice poll shows what an abysmal leader Corbyn is. Anyone else would be getting an 100 seat majority. Labour members have to choose whether they want power or lots of Marxist and anti-Semitic rallies. Leave showing what it and it’s advocates really are - Tommy Sheridan, Farage, Francois, surprised Nick Griffin wasn’t there as well. Just his company. Leave camp = racism or in minority of cases self interest eg Boris and JRM. Now those duo have shot their bolt with the absolute hardcore like Francois, Baker and even more loony, that crazy MP for Fareham.

This is the only way forward I can see as well. Gets the DUP out of picture and rightly so, can’t have the whole country held to ransom by a few far right sectarian lunatics. May’s fault for calling that election. Labour are no better, could have worked cross-party in the national interest, instead we end up with eight options. Corbyn is as useless as May. The only bright spot today is JRM and Boris being shown up even amongst their far right mates as turncoats and that’s Boris leadership race shot, however much the Barclays hand over the Telegraph to his total control. Steve Baker is actually clinically insane it would appear. Disgrace the lot of them. People talk about sovereignty but they can stick it if this what it means. Just want to get on with our jobs, rebuild the economy and financial system and keep our education systems strong. No Deal trashes all of that for a generation. Get May’s deal passed and f ucking move on

There’s something in this as he also briefly picked up when signed Gabi. Gabi was making great runs and taking first time shots. Tadic really seemed on a wavelength with him. Then Gabi did his groin at Spurs and by the time he came back Puel had abandoned the spell of exciting football either side of the EFL Final (and during it) and we were back dour mode. After that it was Pellegrino - hard for anyone creative to stay excited.

Needs to show Ralph now that he can have the same impact from the start against fresh legs. Will still be on the bench but that’s an improvement as we need all the quick and direct players in the squad that we can find.

If you mean Leave voters aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed, then yes, that’s a fair statement backed up by the demographics of the referendum result, as you put it. However, some of my family, who are strongly pro remain as they work in manufacturing and the automotive industry, some of whom left school at 16 to start a trade, would take issue with the ‘entitled middle class, white graduate’ tag. Still, if you want to have a debate on my three posts a day about all of the lies Leave told - the NHS bus, Leave.EU illegalities and Putin funding, Nissan etc, go ahead.

Hopeless is probably harsh on Harry, he has an ability as a motivator when on song, and can clearly set teams up when motivated. However, the record of clubs left in financial hock - Bournemouth, West Ham could see what was happening, Skates, QPR (Fernandes has deep pockets) and now Brum is not a coincidence. I just wish he hadn’t come anywhere near SFC

He is truly is the Boris Johnson of football - hopeless but due to their sound bites, outwardly affable nature they both have plenty of media contacts who always help him land safely out of whatever the situation is. Who else in football would get gigs like I’m a Celebrity and Harry’s game? Ditto, Boris seems to be pretty much running the DT again as his own personal xenophobic platform. Guessing the Barclay Brothers are content to let him do it

Proof here - if these figures are accurate - that Les had lost his footballing mind. Some of the wages for players who can’t get in the squad never mind the team are mind blowing. I would transfer list them all in the summer bar Gunn, Valery, Bertrand, Yoshida, Romeu, PEH, JWP, Redmond, Obafemi. Ings has probably played enough games already to confirm his transfer. Needs to be enormous surgery in the summer, irrespective of what Adrian says. Watford have turned over 14+ players before successfully so it can be done. Eliminate most of the traces of Reed, Puel, Pellegrino and Hughes. Add to the core above with pace and power. Might have to compromise and have Forster as back up - the day of the extension was obviously one of Les’s especially bad days but Ross should have flagged it to Kreuger and had it stopped. Can’t see anyone paying even half that in wages, not even the top 6 to boost the English numbers as a 3rd or 4th choice a bit like Taylor was for Saints.

Take it you’ve seen the You Tube video where Geoff Shreeves uses that exact phrase in an interview with him. Fair to say Harry was not in agreement.....

Once you lose your chief whip as PM it is simply time to go. EU having to take the steering wheel tonight as May, Tory Party and Labour Party have failed. Cannot see any future for any of those trio. Needs to be a free vote in Parliament now; longer extension with a new government, May deal or managed no deal. May strategy has failed and vote 3 more of the same, get her out. Labour needs to pull its finger out on Corbyn and get him out as well.

That’s what I read into it - that he is more engaged and open to the idea of U23 players who are standing out getting opportunities. Pellegrino and Hughes did not appear engaged at all in that sense. Doesn’t mean an 08/09 fire sale and an average age of 20 but rather that investment in new signings need to be £20-25m automatic starters and you can’t do that with too many of them, unless we’re able to sell all of Les’s unwanted crud for the prices the club would want (unlikely). So to have younger players with pace and energy to complete the squad and provide competition/options makes sense and is more cost effective. How much are we paying Moi a week? How many minutes has he played and how many goals and assists? Tyreke Johnson would probably be more effective next season. Les’s our of date rule about not paying more than £15m for players is nonsense and a mix of a smaller number of higher quality signings (who cost more) and younger players has to be better than Carrillo, Clasie, Moi, Cedric etc who are fringe quality. Keep the small core as well that are now doing well now under the first PL quality manager since Ronald and things may look better for a while.

Thanks for posting, interesting read. It's interesting that Hoedt disappeared straight away as soon as RH arrived. Although he sold Gabbi he was clearly that was not attitudinal, but about the pressing game. Cedric he seemed in a hurry to move on as well. It's poor recruitment and management, but I suspect it was a similar picture at SFC under Puel, Pellegrino and Hughes. It doesn't sound like the core pros at Stoke were listened to for far too long, I can't see Steven Davis for example putting up with that type of rubbish either or at least flagging it to the board if Reed wouldn't act or was complicit. I wonder why Kreuger didn't sack Pellegrino and Reed this time last year if it was as bad as Stoke on the training ground? Maybe it deteriorated further after the initial uplift under Hughes plus another mentally incompetent transfer window and that was enough for Kreuger to act? That's one difference the clubs' models - Stoke have tried to back their managers' whereas until recently it appeared Reed was leading most football decisions.

Thoughts with all of those caught up in whatever has happened. Dutch authorities seem to be advising on closing mosques so suggests it might be the far right again but we'll find out soon enough. When will this latest wave of extremist violence - whoever it is being perpetrated by - end?

The impressive thing is that when he's made mistakes - 5 at the back v Cardiff, persisting with Jack - he's learned from them and rectified them quickly. Just hope JWP comes back in one piece so RH can continue his great work and see us to safety. Then an enormous squad re-build in the summer.

He did apparently meet with Bannon as well so could be the case Shurlock. I always had the impression JRM was an obsessive nationalist in a technical sense rather than say Boris who doesnt try and hide his blatant racism. Tragic events in NZ do demonstrate the need to curb the far right of which Bannon is definitely part. Alt Right right my arse, it’s no different to Tommy Sheridan, Nick Griffin or David Duke. Nazis are Nazis and there is one in the White House, crucial to keep them out of Downing Street. According to the swivels on here Brexit is all about democracy. Did I imagine reading that JRM’s company has made £7m or so since the referendum?

The fact that you don’t see Remainers as Conservatives tells you where you heading and Heidi Allen is spot on - a minority xenophobic party whose members are rapidly passing away - Boris, Sheridan, Griffin, Farage, Chope, Bone, McVey, Foster, Redwood. You’ll be utterly unelectable. The best you could hope for is that you’ll retain 150 or so seats like the IDS days. Although I think even IDS would find you too far right and JRM would find you too in-intellectual to want to hang out, and prefer to be a maverick in a new centrist party of grown up Ex Tory and Labour MPs.

Brilliant post. Football very uncompetitive now and it is sickening post-Heysel that Saints, Ipswich etc bought out of competing for the title but the old stadia were very dangerous with numerous disasters in the 1980s in particular. Also the hooliganism, we get a few idiots invading the pitch now but read the thread on the Leeds away LC semi final 1979. Away games used to be very different. There’s a You Tube of the trouble Saints v Millwall 1986 (it says 1984 but that is wrong), wouldn’t want to go back to all of that nonsense at games.

When they got to the final last year this question was asked and I'm pretty sure there aren't any bonuses for Saints in them winning the CL and this was clarified at the Liverpool end. PL win, that may be different and would be surprised if there weren't some clauses in there. Question of whether as a fan you really object to them winning the league if so or whether you'd RH had a better summer kitty until the club gets an owner with the neccessary clout for our relative stature (not top 6, but better than most even with a poor 2 years).

Thanks for posting that Hypo. Happy days and my first real season as a Saints fan - and what a season it was! Was an era when all sides really could compete and the six a sides are example of something you’d never see today but underlined the emphasis on entertainment. That said, as some have noted, attendances were lower and the money did come in handy. Look how many goals we scored in 83-84 - Moran got 25 after a slow start, Armstrong got 19 (19!) and Danny 11. Shelton said in his book how gutted he was we didn’t beat Everton (calling Old Nick) as that side deserved to win something and he rated it as far more consistent than the flamboyant but home-dominated Keegan era sides that I just missed out on.

A true game of two halves. First half was even worse than Cardiff, no pressing, no workrate. Romeu unlucky with the early booking but the 3 CBs got left 3 on 3 far too often. Second half miles better with some pace on, Sims should feature more now and stretched the game out. A lot of chances were created even before the goals - Redmond twice and Long missed two simple headers although Kane was equally profligate for them. Valery gets credit for being the to convert although what Rose was doing is anyone’s guess but not our problem. JWP is becoming mini MLT and coming up very big when needed. CBs got some great blocks in at the end but Spurs were spent. PEH much better after an atrocious first half, Redmond industrious throughout although not everything came off. Full backs more aggressive second half. A word for Kevin Friend - cheat. The headbutt on Redmond by Sissoko - he is less than five yards away. Rose’s dive and booking Valery was a joke as well. Worst of all was Sims getting kicked in the head. Reminded me of one at WHL by Davies on Tadic that was definitely in the area, definitely a penalty and not given either. Still, not the only pathetic refereeing performance this weekend.