SaintBobby

That can't be right. Saints were 6/4 to win from the outset.

The answer to your question is NO. I hope this helps. I cannot think of a single alleged Cortese mistake that has been "overlooked". Most of his supposed crimes have been gone through on here in forensic, methodical (and, indeed, tedious) detail. But, in any event, success forgives a lot. Even if you think he's a ***t for putting himself on the programme, so what? In my business, if we have someone performing well, we cut them some slack. If they're late for work one morning, they don't get fired. But in anye event, none of the thigns you list have been overlooked. They've been done to death on here. The fact that you think charging for parking deserves an exclamation mark says it all really.

Really good performance. Very gritty and strong. If I had to find a negative, it would a be lack of pace and occasional lack of creativity. The second of these sounds mad though when you look at our three goals. All of which were exquisite. MOTM: Lallana with a very honourable mention to Hammond.

It does seem a bit preposterous. I hope it's tongue in cheek by NC. To my mind, it's a little embarrassing rather than "legendary". But it is a pretty trivial matter.

I certainly wasn't trying to throw any abuse around - just trying to put forward a robust argument. Reasons to be cheerful, in addition to the L1 stats: 1. Martin is a season older and a fair few games better. Not a great starting option IMHO yet, but better as back up than a year ago. 2. Jaidi surprised us last season by being able to play so many games so well, with only a handful of errors (I can only remember one massive gaffe - Brighton away). Yes, he's a year older but we weren't relying on his pace last season anyway. 3. Hard to imagine Richardson will be as disappointing as last season. At least he doesn't start crocked. 4. Even if Cork starts in centre midfield, he provides quality cover at centre back or right back. 5. I remain unconvinced about Seaborne, but at least he now has some experience at covering left back. 6. A reasonably settled back four now has another season under their belt of playing together. 7. Perhaps most importantly, we are very likely to sign a new quality centre back. Yes, I'd have preferred this to be done in June - but the world doesn't work like that. Even if we don't finalise a deal with Jemal or that QPR bloke, I'd expect the no. 5 shirt to be assigned by August 31st. The more I think about it, the more I'm increasingly concerned about lack of firepower up front rather than solidity at the back.

I also think Saints are a bit overated on those spreads. I'd say the value is to buy Hull and definitely Ipswich and sell Reading.

7th or 8th is a guess, of course. But if your stats are as glitteringly fantastic as ours were in L1 and given that the leap from L1 to to NPC is not totally and utterly enormous, I think you can fairly assume we'd be "fine". Maybe 10th. Maybe 12th. Be a pessimist and say 14th if you like. Still doesn't constitute a "worry" in my view. If you think we're 20th or worse, then that's a worry. But what actual evidence is there for such a proposition? And how brilliant wld we have to be in L1 before you accepted those stats had "carry over"? (if we had kept 46 clean sheets in L1, would you still say "bah, these are just stats...the NPC is a totally different level"?) When tested last season against Premiership opponents, our defence also performed well (Bolton, Blackpool, Man Utd). Of course, this is no grounds for laziness or complacency. We should seek to improve every area of the team if we possibly can. But you're the one putting forward the hypothesis that we need to be concerned or worried, so I think the onus is on you to provide the evidence. I might as well say "I am deeply worried about our ability to score from the penalty spot next year, goalkeepers in the NPC are better than those in League One." Someone might then point out that we haven't missed a penalty in "open play" for more than two years (and have, I think, only missed one in a penalty shoot out). I can just reply "meh...that's just a bunch stats...they don't count...I'm still worried and I hope the coaches who work on penalties aren't just putting their feet up and being lazy". The argument just becomes circular. In fact, it's not even an argument. It's an irrebuttable presumption. It seems impossible to even conceive of the evidence you might want to stop worrying about our defence. There is nothing that exists in the real world that would be good enough for you. Of course, you may just turn out to be right. But not on the basis of any rational evidence that presently exists.

They are so f***ed, that for £125 I'm surprised you can't secure a slot in the starting XI.... Only a matter of time...

A 3.5 for me. I'd say 10th-14th. The "independent" surveys I've seen have us to finish 10th (FourFourTwo magazine) and 16th (The Times). Despite the perceived wisdom that this forum is full of pessimists, I still think polls/surveys of fans tend to overstate Saints. If fans are saying we will finish nth, i reckon we'll finish (n+6)th. The bookmakers, however, do have us in the top 6-8 teams...and that's where the money is.

L1 isn't a perfect benchmark. But it's a pretty good benchmark. If you're absolutely top grade in L1, you're likely to be okay in the NPC. By way of example, Matt Le Tissier scored 69 goals in a single season for Vale Rec before moving to Southampton. That's not a perfect benchmark for being a great player in England's top division. But it is some kind of benchmark. Players who start scoring hatricks regularly for the youth team. Not a perfect benchmark. But some kind of benchmark. Maybe they don't have the stamina, the pace, the guile or the fitness to make it as a mature pro. Plenty haven't. But at some point, you have to say "these stats are pretty good". In direct answer to your question, I am saying "we don't need to worry about this season". That is, in fact, almost exactly what I'm saying. That does not imply that the NPC is as easy as L1. Nor that we are bound to be the best defence in the NPC. Nor that the defensive coaches should be paid to put their feet up, read stats and do nothing else. We should always seek to improve ( until, I suppose, we reach a point where no team can score a goal against us ever). I'm genuinely trying to work out what is "la-la-land" about this analysis. I think we probably already have about the 7th or 8th best defence in the NPC. And we are likely - although not certain - to improve this through a further signing. That just seems to me to be a real world perspective.

Seems to me that pre-season has been okayish. From a ticket sales (rather than match preparedness) point of view, it does seem that a 90 minute friendly against ONE reasonably well known European opponent generates more fan interest than a match against PL opposition or the Liebherr tournament format. I think had we played, say, Bilbao or Bremen or Betis or Eindhoven at SMS yesterday, we would have got a decent sized crowd (15k +)

I remember seeing some Opta/Prozone or some similar stats at the end of last season. I'm afraid I can't remember all the details, but the numbers for our defence were utterly immense. In addition to so few goals conceded it was something like: 1. Fewer shots on goal allowed than any other league team 2. Fewer shots on target allowed than any other league team 3. Fewer corners conceded than any other league team 4. Fewer goals conceded from set pieces than any other league team 5. Fewer penalties conceded than all but one other league team 6. Best pass completion rate of all defences in the entire league 7. Highest % of defensive headers won than any other league team 8. Highest number of tackles won in our own half than any otehr league team 9. Fewest number of direct free kciks conceded than all but one other team 10. Fewest red and yellow cards of any defence in the league I'm afraid that I can't remember the stats chapter and verse - one or two of these might be wrong and I may have left one or two out. But it was very much something along these lines. If I've exaggerated, it's not by a great deal. In other words, on virtually any metric you care to name, our defence last season was absolutely stunningly brilliant. If these sort of stats aren't considered to count for anything at all - but instead, we're supposed to base our defensive approach on the gut feel of a few posters on a web forum, we are on a one-way trip to la-la land. It seems to me that the only real worries in a formidable defensive season are: 1. Jaidi is a year older and a year slower 2. Neither Martin nor Seaborne have looked "immense" - but both may be improving still and opinions differ 3. Richardson had a poor season compared to expectations All we really need to do is sign a new, quality centee back. But it wouldn't be a total disaster if we have to make do with the present bunch of defenders.

In my view, our early games are slightly tougher than average but not insanely so (as the OP suggests). I wouldn't read too much into whether we're in the top or bottom six at then end of August. The difference between 6th and 19th place is likely to be about 3 points, which could well be down to a dodgy offside decision or a bit of luck. I'm expecting us to finish about 8th-12th, so if we get 6-9 points from those first five games, I'm happy. 4 or 5 wouldn't necessarily be a disaster and 10 or 11 wouldn't mean we're on track for promotion.

I'm in... Does anyone know if Vermaelen is back to fitness?

Strange. Sort of feels like a good pre-season, but we've failed to win a single (90 min) match....

Saints 0 Rochdale 2. I thought they were a very well organised and disciplined team. And it's always nice to see the underdogs do well :-)

Sigh....

alpine saint?

We were generally favourites at about 5/1 or 4/1 (i.e. a 20-25% of winning the league) We were a standard 4/6 to be promoted by any means (i.e. a 60% chance to go up). The bookies seem to have got it about right, but if anything slightly underestimated Saints. HTH.

It's a very ropey service, but well worth getting. I listen to about 15 away games a season on it.

Encouraging stuff, thanks for the update. Prefer the views of local fans/experts to basing my opinion on youtube highlights for sure.

Can someone confirm, for certain, that Saints Ale is simply Worthingtons with a different label? Not saying it isn't. Not saying it's bad if it is. Just asking. Generally, the quality of beer on sale at SMS is not something that troubles me much. The club can only basically sell drinks between 2pm and 3pm and 345pm and 4pm (or evening equivalents) on 25 days a year. That's a total of "beer being on sale" for about 40 hours a year, compared to a pub which sells beer for about 4,000 hours a year. Expect the latter to be more focused on quality, value for money etc etc etc etc

Puncheon leaving - or being in the midst of leaving - doesn't strike me as a "sticking your neck out prediction". My own guesses (but some of these might be in hope rather than expectation): 1. Hammond will be replaced as team captain - probably by Fonte. 2. We will sign one or two new players before the end of the transfer window - a centre back and (less likely) a centre forward 3. Chamberlain will stay 4. Adkins - if he fails to sign a suitable new centre forward - will experiment with a revolutionary new coaching method and play 4-2-3-1 (I'm only half joking on point 4)

If this anecdote is remotely true, your neighbour should be fired by the company he works for for breach of confidentiality. It's an on the spot sacking for any printer to dish out anything like this sort of info.

I'm appalled. I have to pay more for my season ticket and replica shirt and all so Cortese can have a salary, the greedy b*stard. Isn't he rich enough already?