SaintBobby

Obviously there are people in the stadium now - coaching staff, stadium staff, medical staff etc etc. If people can gather in pubs & restaurants now, without face masks, surely we can move to some sort of attendance at games by Sept 12th, even if it’s only a few hundred/thousand carefully sprinkled?

FWIW, which probably isn’t a huge amount, I’ve been told that if matches can go ahead with reduced capacity, then priority will go to season ticket holders in hospitality. So many variables - what % of capacity will be used etc - but I thought I’d pass it on. A season ticket in the Channon suite/Saints bar costs £1,920 btw (including 3 free drinks and lunch voucher per match)

All things equal, the fact that it’s only seven weeks until the new season strikes me as ideal. Real momentum can maybe be rolled over, but also you have to figure some rest is needed too.

Relax, little one. You seem to be in a permanent state of upset and distress. Don’t get upset. Smile a little.

Villa probably just about deserved to stay up. Assuming they sell Grealish, I guess a lot hinges for them next year on how they reinvest that cash.

JWP could end up towards the very high end of the total club appearances table. No one is ever going to break the Terry Paine record though, I guess (820-ish?)

A lot of confusion seems to be going on in your head. Try to relax. Deep breaths. Maybe a glass of water. Bless. Just bless.

Kind of hard not to give Adams MoM, but I went for Romeu, who was excellent. With Hojbjerg edging to the exit, I hope he becomes a first team regular again.

Worst case scenarios absolutely are in play. Saints aren’t going to say “we can’t possibly do anything but let you run down your contract, tell us what you want and we will accede to it”. Any, as long as people realise they shouldn’t pay too much attention to tedious internet bores who name themselves after great sportsmen, we should be just fine...

Very satisfying end to the season. Next season can’t come quickly enough.

Vestergaard is just terrible

Strongly suggests PEH sold, no?

It's all a game of bluff essentially. And who blinks first. The worst case scenarios never/rarely happen, but you get to a happy compromise by keeping them in play. Let's hope we get £25m for him. Would be very good business.

Of course, I want us to win. Like every game. 8-0 would be great, with Ings getting all the goals. But given a choice between (a) winning 1-0 and (b) losing but Ings getting the golden boot, I'd probably choose the latter tbh. I'm not overly exercised about whether we finish 11th or 12th.

I think I'd be okay with a 3-4 defeat if Ings got a hattrick. Yes, yes, I know - every place is worth £2m or something. But in the absence of silverware, I'm more interested in a Saints player getting some golden footwear, to be honest.

I'm sure he is not coming back. He was simply the wronf type of signing in so many ways.

That's the nature of a negotiation though. You don't negotiate from your worst case scenario, but you do need to risk your worst case scenario. If we accept the Everton offer and he stays, then maybe we make clear he will be trainign with the kids and not selected to play for the full year. Potentitally we lose £25m. Potentially he loses a chance at a meaningful career. A lot of it is who blinks first. All sides have a lot to gain and a lot to lose. On the logic that the worst case scenario is we get zero, you might as well accept £1 now.....

Another article on Armstrong - this one is pretty lengty... https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/1464488/dundee-united-stuart-armstrong-southampton-scotland/

Sure, just price in any delay/staging

I’d say Saints hold a good few cards. Not need to hold our nerve. If Spurs don’t match Everton’s offer, he has the choice of going to Everton or staying at Saints. In practice, if Spurs get within an inch of the Everton offer, you might accept it if you want to help facilitate the KWP transfer. But, as a rule, if you do have two offers on the table, you don’t accept the lower one. Especially if it’s much lower.

Thery could be in big trouble next season. I have then earmarked as one of the three to go down, even though we don't know exactly who is coming up or going down thsi year yet!

Agree. The 40 points meme is really annoying. You can get relegated on 40, but it's vanishingly unlikely. On restart, my view was that we might even be able to lose all 9 games and still stay up. That would be cutting it VERY close obviosuly (especially as it would mean Bournemouth would now also be on 34), but it could still turn out to have been enough. Sure, we were only mathematically safe after beating Man City, but that was the difference between 99.999% and 100% basically.

In the weirdly unlikely event that we get: Man Utd 6 West Ham 2 and Leicester 2 Man Utd 0 then there would need to be a playoff between Leics and Man U if you need to separate the two of them to determine Champions League qualification (which you probably would need as it looks probable that Chelsea will get more than 2 points from their last two games)

Not really, unless Man Utd thrash West Ham. A 1-0 Leicester win suffices if Man Utd only win by two or fewer goals. They’d need to win 2-0 if Man U win by 3 or 4 goals. They only need to win by 3 or more if Man Utd beat West Ham by five or more...

So many different and contestable factors to consider: age, injury record, contract remaining, whether he wants to stay or go, impact of the pandemic on finances of possible buyers, how desperate Saints are for cash, presence of other goal scoring strikers in the squad who could go some way to filling his boots (eg. if Adams & Obafemi had both scored 8-10 goals, you might be a little more relaxed about selling). I’d say most of these factors tend towards a very high asking price. £70m+ plus. I’m hopeful he’ll stay as I don’t think the teams who might want to buy him can afford the sort of price we’d accept. If he has another stellar season, it might be harder to keep him - especially if we are mid-table again rather than, say, top 6 or 7 and qualifying for Europa.