SaintBobby

I met him in the Saints bar yesterday. Bought the book but havent started it yet. I asked him, a bit cheekily, if he was sure Stokes was onside. He replied "yep, that's why it says "winner" on my 1976 medal"

He was easily man of the match for me. Pretty flawless display. Stephens was very good too.

I see his surprising hot steak continued today with a goal for Norway, away at Latvia.

I'd class it as official as soon as they formally and unambiguously tell someone outside of the club. I'm putting the delay down to incompetence, most likley. The administrative side of the club seems a bit chaotic at the moment.

According to the guy from the Atheltic, it is official. As in the club have formally furnished the information to journalists (same with the new 4 year contract for Stephens). They just haven't announced it on the club's official platforms/website.

I seem to remember it being an opening game of the season. Maybe another record is it’s happened twice - home and away

I'd given up when we went 2-1 down. Thank God the players didn't. Good performance from what I heard on Saints player - and a deserved point.

That was great. Obviously Man Utd are the superior team, but we played well. Last 20 minutes especially gratifying.

Really disappointed wit the manager today

Extraordinary that we have made no subs yet.

Relegation battle, I fear. Probably just about staying up. 15th or so.

I’m expecting us to stick to the 4-2-2-2 system. I’m sort of hoping that Ralph increasingly has his own players, rather than an inherited squad, to make it work. On the downside, the fairly novel style - like many novel ideas - worked for a while but then opponents got wise to it. I blame the Telegraph. They had a lengthy article dissecting and praising Saints’ tactics. Our collapse in form followed publication!

I might have misremembered this, but I thought it was Argentina in the 1982 World Cup and it was a f*** up. They wrongly submitted their squad list in alphabetical order of surname. Ardiles was therefore no.1.

The issue with their pitch being terrible - postponement? Switch to St Mary’s? Switch to alternate venue?

I don’t much care about these things one way or another. I think they’re more of a pointless gesture than likely to do any good, but if it does even a minimal amount of good, fair enough. However, if rich footballers really want to do something to change culture, I wish they’d take some more meaningful steps - like boycotting Qatar or refusing Chinese sponsorship. The only actions they seem willing to take are ones that involve zero cost, risk or sacrifice. With such a low level of commitment, there is likely to be very little impact on fighting against racism and inequality.

I hear ya. But I think we might conclude that Stephens (or, in extremis, JWP) is cover for right back and Salisu (or even Djenepo) for left back. Not ideal, for sure, but it does mean there's some sort of 3rd/4th choice cover if Perraud/KWP get injured. Livramento is presumably first back up. Assuming Vetegard is off, I think we need a straightforward centre-back. Or perhaps someone who can play centre-back and defensive midfield as cover. Do such players really exist anymore? (am thinking a sort of Jack Cork utility player)

Have to confess, I'm not feeling very optimistic. I think we probably are "relegation fodder". I dont mean certain to be relegated, not at all. But probably in the bottom six or seven teams and - if we do stay up - probably not doing so with much to spare in the tank. It's hard to draw much from the pre-season friendlies. I think the squad is a bit thin though and the loss of Ings is serious. But hey, I thought the same when Koeman arrived and we'd sold a lot more than just our centre forward going into that season...

This is pretty dire

Are they showing the match on the Saints website?

I guess the issue is whether the top brass think we can mend and make do with McCarthy and Forster. If we were paying £0k per week on keepers, we’d clearly sign one. If we were paying £400k a week on seven poor or mediocre keepers, I very much doubt we would (Ralph would be told to get that wage bill down or muddle through with what he had or both). Of course all wages come out of a general wage bill rather than separate earmarked accounts for full backs, wingers, keepers etc, but if you’re spending a lot on one area, you might think muddling through with 5/10 quality is the best option.

I only watched the highlights v Cardiff, but watched the Swansea match in full. All usual riders apply, but good stuff overall. Particularly good show from Armstrong today.

All over them, for what it's worth.

I'm still so impressed that they employ such amazing fortune tellers in corporate hospitality. People who can apparently predict the future. No wonder we can't afford to sign any decent players, we have people on Nostradamus wages just chatting to me in corporate hospitality. I blame Les Reed/Rupert Lowe/Cortese (delete according to taste).

Well, who would have guessed? We are playing a decent European team at St Mary's at 3pm on the Saturday before the season kicks off. Turns out that the bloke who told me that all those weeks ago was right, despite MLG thinking he was probably "just guessing". Or maybe he is a very good guesser.

That's probably right. If we impose a lockdown from mid-December to mid-February every year and basically make it illegal to leave your home, we can almost certainly reduce flu deaths dramatically. Masks probably have an impact too. But not much of an impact.