vectraman

It'll be interesting, two new managers both unproven in the premier league, both teams with new players, and Saints without our first choice left back playing a new system which is not fluid yet.... If I was Watford's manager, I'd be giving our left back a severe workout with a pacy forward and right wingback combo. Targett looked very vulnerable to pace last season, and fonte may not be there either to help out. Mind you I've no idea what Watford's players are like - they were certainly poor back January on a cold wet night! Prediction 1-1.

I agree. Messi, Ronaldo, Aguero, Suarez etc are World class. Fonts, Cedric are good international players, but not worldies!

I had that pleasure - Villa in the league cup I think. Pouring with rain, ink on the printed tickets run and barcode reader couldn't read them☹️ Queue built up behind us.....

It is all about money. Player wages is key. Pay big, they will stay for a while, then they move on for more money, and I guess some also will want the champions league to challenge themselves, but mainly money. Saints signing players on long term deals is great, but only in as much as they know they'll get more for them when they leave. Forster/vvd/Bertrand will all leave, and I'm sure the club have said sign a long term deal, and we'll all benefit when you go. I'd imagine that Davies and jwp are on much smaller wages, and although good pros, no one is going to be beating the door down to sign them up. Supply and demand.

Yeah, we are definitely short of a pacey forward to compliment alongside or as cover for Long. Pace is the killer at the top level, and we sure will miss Mane's pace/trickery and goals. Austin if he is fit will be at least as good as Pelle, he is experienced in the Prem and was very good in a very poor QPR side. JRod would be brilliant if he was back to his pre-injury best. I guess we'll find out soon, but glimpses of him last season looked likely to prove that this won't be the case, sadly. I guess as long as he trains hard and keeps believing it is still possible - fingers crossed. I like others have mentioned, believe that it would be worth taking a punt on Berahino. Ticks all the boxes pace wise, can definitely finish, and is proven at this level. We can't keep on gambling that every foreign signing will adapt to the Prem, so a proven player I feel would be wise - plus he is young and can still improve

Didn't work with Gaston Ramirez?! Hopefully this young fellow will be a success. I'll actually wait and watch him playing for us in the Premier league before making any comment about him. As I'm sure with almost every Saints fan, I'd never heard of him until today! It is a bizarre place on Saints web, only here (surely?) can be people be positively excited BECAUSE we've signed somebody nobody has heard of, with no premier league experience, for only €15 million !! And based on a you tube video he is Morgan S's replacement, all without kicking a ball. Weird! But I hope turns out to be true!!

Interesting! Saints 7th and 19th?

I think you and I are definitely on the same wavelength! If they made my £650 season ticket £400 I would be more than happy 45,000 capacity and reduced season ticket prices - count me in! But would that be the case? If it as a bigger ground and discount tickets to watch the cr*p games - you know, WBA , Stoke, boro, burnley, Sunderland, palace, Everton,Watford etc etc you would immediately make season ticket holders worse off. My point is, you spend big money expanding the ground, how do you recover it against the dull teams? Let's be honest, that's what those teams are, small away following, non star filled. Hard sell required without making season ticket holders worse off.....big ask? Especially with Europa league enforced Sunday games and crappy tv enforced Friday / Sunday pm / Saturday lunchtime games.... Not criticising you in any way (up for the beer btw!)

You have answered your own question. If it is not full, it is wasted money. We can all name the sell out games, what about the rest? Lower prices, or not full, either way makes no commercial sense? How can that be small time thinking, it's business thinking, we do not have the catchment for a bigger stadium for the majority of games! Commercial suicide is you thinking!

Correct. We don't fill it for 60% of games now. Why expand it at huge costs for very little gain?

Translated as - Bloke doing his job is trying to get the best deal possible for his client. Unfortunately the football business 2016...

I'm sure the cement works are where they are eg by the river, as it is easy to get ships alongside to unload bulk raw materials and transport finished products. Difficult to get ships up the M27.......!

Not really. Romeu in my opinion is a better defensive midfielder option than Clasie. He really needs to kick on this season - hopefully a full preseason will help and he'll hit the ground running from the start. As he currently stands, I wouldn't be bothered if someone offered £12 million and he was allowed to leave. Romeu could fill his shoes, and we could spend the cash on a decent attacking mid like gylfi siggurdsson! Clasie, as far as I can remember, never did anything game changing, is small, which if your Messi doesn't matter, but as a tough tackling enforcer does, and had little presence about him. Hopefully this season he'll prove me wrong and become the player Saints hoped he would be.

Welcome to Southampton Claude, good luck with the adventure! I'm looking forward to seeing if our new recruits have a more Gallic influence from now on - the end of the Dutch inspired era? The next few weeks should be exciting with (hopefully!) some new signings coming our way, but no more player departures. Another exciting season to come

The problem lies firmly with the loathsome FA. All they want as England manager is an insipid yes man. Do as he's told, don't make waves blah blah. Hence Harry Redknapp would have been the popular choice, but he didn't fit the FA model for manager, so Hodgson got it. Don't expect an exciting new manager appointment, it'll be another yes man ☹️ Nothing will change, same old faces will be in, the new manager won't have the balls to drop the Rooney's etc (or won't be allowed - poor for the huge Nike deal you see). It's all about money, even with National team. Nike are welcome to sponsor England, I won't be buying their insipid design, overpriced tat anyway. Poke it, just like England can poke it if they think I want to travel to London to watch World Cup qualifiers. No thanks!

If the next number is less than 6 then it will be tres magnifique! Although realistically unlikely!

Just extending Pelle's contract would be far better for Saints than selling him and buying in some unknown unproven player, wouldn't it? No risks involved to keep a 15 goal a season striker, no brainer to me! I don't care if his performances are increasing his value, there is no point in selling him, he gives us options up front. He may have is crap games, even crap months, but when he is good he is very good. Put him up front with long and play two up front. Works for Italy......!

Pretty spot on. The difference when Bertrand came back from injury and replaced Targett was huge. Bertrand pacy and position ally very aware. Targett slow and unaware. Can learn awareness, can't get pace. Everton showed what pace would do to him when they smashed us at home . His move to left midfield was okay, good crosser of the ball, didn't do too badly. But not as good as Tadic in that position either. This for me is the issue with some obsessive fans about promoting youth - it only works if you are improving the team by doing it, and from what I have seen, none of our youth currently would improve any position in our first team.

Me too. Some crappy win an iPhone ad keeps popping up. I'm already on one!

Now we know why Kane was taking all the set pieces!

Henderson for Rooney is a bit barmy. Not a Rooney fan but has been our best player in both games. I bet Henderson won't be.... Other changes are fine, Bertrand is our best left back, Clyne solid (but Walker shades him), Vardy and Sturridge better than Sterling (not difficult) and Kane. 2-0 win for England. I hope!

I predict a total forum meltdown, But the board have got things pretty much right the last two meltdown pre seasons! Mark

I thought yesterday's game was pretty much as I imagined it would be! Sunderland set themselves up to be 'difficult' to break down, I'm sure they would have taken a point before the game started. Saints always seem to struggle to break teams down who want to play in this way. A game of few chances, and bar a 5 minute period in the second half where both teams went end to end with each other, a game of limited excitement. A bit like the Stoke game earlier in the season... We didn't play badly, just played with little threat. I guess you could say Sunderland defended solidly... Some earlier posts berated Martina as being not PL quality, I really don't know what game they were watching? He certainly (IMO) put in a solid display, got down the right channel well, and looked okay. A definite 6.5/10 performance, certainly not awful. Romeu was busy and effective, Davis & Clasie also. The game had 0-0 written all over it at half time, it was a bit of a dull affair. Neither team created much, and to be honest, neither team looked like they would. Our crossing I felt was of poor quality in general, too close to the keeper with corners, or hit too long (Bertrand had a couple of really poor ones in the second half). Generally the wing play wasn't incisive, always had an extra pass in there, which allowed Sunderland to pack the box out. Quick break and Saints are not normally used in the same sentence.... Mane a couple of times wanted the ball played long for him, but no, we always would go sideways, and continue are laboured attacking. He wants the ball played over the top so he can use his pace to get behind the defence. He can't do much if we don't give him the ball. Sometimes I wish we would go direct, cut out the faffing about playing it from one side at the back to the other, and get forward more quickly. We clearly are missing Long, he adds a dimension to our attack that Pelles style doesn't - pace. Different types of forward, we didn't help Pelle yesterday at all, he had little support, which makes him look poor, Mane plays too far away from him. We are not a bad side, we need to realise that no premier league team is going to be a walkover, and you've got to really WANT a win. Our hunger seems lacking in that direction at the moment. Other teams at the bottom and top need the points, we are in that horrible 'comfortable' zone where there are no must wins games. It looks to be showing as well, we seem to be struggling to get really motivated....

It is easy to be successful when you are spending somebody else's money, not so easy when you have to live within a budget. It is irrelevant of course. We are now, not 2 years ago. Confucius say:- He who keeps looking backwards cannot see where they are going..... Mark

You have reminded me of the point I meant to make but forgot! We have become (other than against Arsenal) a one half team. We can only seem to string one decent half together - usually the first. Man U, Leicester, Bournemouth, Norwich, West Ham great first halves, disappointing second halves. Why? We just don't seem fit enough. Certainly not as fit as under Pochettino's management spell. We are nowhere near fit enough IMHO. Watch Bournemouth play - they go flat out the whole match. We don't. Why?......