SaintBobby

We finished 15 points behind Everton last season. I think that is too big a gap to make up tbh. Not impossible, but I'd say Everton are 90% likely to finish above us.

This is seriously what we're whining about now? We might become the new Arsenal. Sigh.

I'd imagine that last year's top 7 will be the top 7 again. Sure, it's possible that one or two of them will implode, but far from likely. I'm more interested in targeting a points total than a position. I'd hope for 60 points, which would be a very big improvement, although probably not enough to climb into the top 7.

I'd imagine that last year's top 7 will be the top 7 again. Sure, it's possible that one or two of them will implode, but far from likely. I'm more interested in targeting a points total than a position. I'd hope for 60 points, which would be a very big improvement, although probably not enough to climb into the top 7.

Good luck to Jay I'd say this is an amazing piece of business by Saints. £12m for a player who looks like he may never fully recover from his injury is absurd.

On Alaves v Saints comparisons. Getting the former to 9th and a cup final is enormously more impressive than getting the latter to 8th and a cup final.

Feel sorry for him. Until that horrific injury he looked on the verge of something special. Now, he looks like an average Championship striker at best. Maybe a change will do him good. Hope so.

We missed a penalty at home v Man Utd by inches, not by a million miles.....HTH

#QTWAITN

If we sell players, we should almost always sell to the highest bidder. With a very slight discount if selling to a club who aren't a meaningful rival (i.e. way better than us, way worse than us or foreign).

8pm today

Big ask to finish above any of them - unless one or more of them has a truly dire season. However, to be 15 points behind 7th and 40 points off top might be thought a bit poor. The fact that our league position this season might be a respectable 8th does disguise that a yawning chasm has opened to the top 6 or 7. A chasm it looked like we are closing in last 2 years, but is now huger than ever.

It does look like Puel is going. A bit harsh in my view. I'd probably rate this season as 6 or 7 out of 10. Probably 7 if we do finish in 8th spot. But if he's losing the dressing room, that is more important than the growing, but low end, fan unrest. I'd take Silva in a heartbeat. I know previous appointments have been long odds outsiders, but it's not obvious to me that is a defined strategy. Just because Puel and Poch were largely unknown to the bookies doesn't mean the next manager will be.

Saints were actually guaranteed a top half finish before a ball was kicked in the Leicester v Spurs match. Hate to contradict MLG, but the 0-0 draw with Man Utd was sufficient to guarantee we finished in the top ten (barring perhaps an insane GD swing). It would be great to finish 8th and a decent achievement. But hard to celebrate too much. Our first season going backwards in the league. The gap to 7th is huge - let alone the top four. If we go backwards in terms of points next season as much as we did this season, we would be heading for near-certain relegation next year.

Wasn't David Hirst another record flop?

Really good win, especially with so many of our top players missing.

You were making a reasonable point until this highlighted bit.

The OP is right. It's feeble and dire. The only defence can be that they need to move from this slightly tacky and crap stage in order to get to some NFL-nirvana land, in which the Red Arrows fly over the stadium every time we score and Beyoncé does the half time entertainment with a special effects show costing millions. If we can't get to the top of that mountain (and I'm not even sure I'd want to), we shouldn't be ****ing around in the foothills.

Isn't the whole thing about getting more cash out of the current fans? I'm a season ticket holder from London. I spend a lot of money in Southampton, but not that much at St Mary's. I probably spend £1,000 a year on staying at the Premier Inn or Jury's Inn just down the road (about 12 overnights a season), about £2,000 a year on food/drink in Southampton (c25 matches at anywhere from £25-£200 a pop). The club takes hardly any of this £3K per annum (maybe 10% max of the food/drink stuff). Ok, readily accept that I'm not a typical fan - either in location or expenditure. But if those gas towers were converted into somewhere I could eat, drink and stay overnight, and owned by SFC, the club would get a lot, lot more money out of me every year,

Gabbiadini/Tadic? Ok...a no. 9 and a no.10...but maybe?

He's just behind Kane, by 1% when I voted.

Good or bad? I say very, very good. But open to other thoughts.

Good win. We seem to have moved from having a solid defence and toothless attack a few months ago, to having an awesome attack and a porous defence.

Get in

A game of inches. The amazing effort makes defeat harder to take.