SaintBobby

This has to be a myth, surely?

A write off, sadly. Could have been great, but can't see him returning.

Born in Berkshire in 1972. As very young boy only really supported England. Liverpool were all the rage in the early 80s. Even in a Berkshire school, most boys seemed to support them. Wanting to go against the crowd I asked my Dad which First Division team was easiest to get to, so - hint, hint - he could take me to some games. "Not sure, it's probably Chelsea or Southampton. Think it's Southampton," he replied. He was wrong. It was Chelsea (or QPR). So, I'm a Saints fan because my old man is f***ing useless at reading a map...

I'd say it hand on heart. But if I had to use my head....

I'll select on form as well as talent. Right now, that means Elia and Mane would be in and Tadic benched. Even though I think Tadic is probably our most talented player. Impossible to make a shout on a "fit" J-Rod just now, I feel.

Great win, but it was a stonewall penalty. We got a bit of (deserved) luck there. I'm a big Fonte fan, but he seemed to have a very poor last 5 minutes or so. (Maybe he was just exhausted, which would not be wholly unreasonable)

I kind of suspected he was going to be a good attacking winger, but I was really delighted to see him win the ball in midfield and also in our own third. Looks very promising....

Nah. The analogy doesn't work and isn't even true. "One mistake and your (sic) out of the tournament"? No. Spain 0 Switzerland 1 (2010)? West Germany 0 East Germany 1 (1974). Italy failing to beat any of Poland, Peru and Cameroon in the first group stage (1982). And these aren't just one-off mistakes (an example of that would be Italy missing a penalty in the 1982 World Cup final), they are dire results. In tennis, no one has ever won a major tournament without making several mistakes along the way. I don't really know what you mean by insisting none of our players take their eye off the ball for even a second "literally". If all of our players decide to look at the ball for every second they are on the pitch, we will lose a lot of games. I assume you meant "metaphorically".

I'm not sure it's like the L1/Championship promotion push tbh. I don't think there's any way that we can catch either Chelsea or Man City. So 3rd is our highest vaguely realistic target, I think. Plus, there's a ton of teams just behind us. All of whom are pretty good and all of whom have more money and deeper squads than us. I'm reckoning we'll end around sixth, which would still be a great achievement.

Tough call. I'm a "go for the cups" man, but the squad is a bit broken at the moment. If anyone is only 85% fit, I'd probably rest them, but with that rider aside I'd put out a strong team. Cork should definitely start. I wonder if Tadic/Davis get a rest?

Lambert is the obvious, probably right, choice. But at some point, we might make a £20m+profit on Clyne. If we don't (or until we do), we have England's best right-back in our team. That's pretty tasty.

Not in doubt. Done.

If we win v Newcastle, will we set any records? 1. Three away wins in a row (I accept that isn't too remarkable) 2. Three way wins in six days. 3. Three wins in televised games in six days. Similar records might also apply if we keep a clean sheet v the Geordies...

Quality thread. Made me chuckle to re-read it....

The Saints bar/Channon suite tickets are £27 each Seats in the Liebherr lounge (sit down meal) are £84. These are on sale to corporate season ticket holders now and on general sale from Monday. HTH.

Yep...should have spotted the sarcasm....

Isn't it really just a reflection of our amazingly good defence record so far. Given we are conceding less than a goal a game, then if we score first, we are pretty likely to win...

^^^^^ The truth, gentlemen ^^^^^

Why do you say that? I thought they had a reputation for quite the opposite, tbh.

You are the same chap who said "guaranteed loss this" after a few mins into the Ipswich game, right? I suggest you steer clear of punditry and stick to whatever day job you have....

"These are the matches"? It's one match. We obviously need to win more than we lose to make the top 4, but I'd make us slight underdogs in this match.

With some injuries to key midfield players, I'm wondering if we can re-sign Frazer Richardson and play him as a "front sweeper"?

So many weird stats going on. Over Xmas/New Year, we played 3 home games in a week. Not sure that's ever happened before either?

My reading of the rules is that 4th place will get a CL two-legged qualifying game, unless BOTH of the following happen: 1. An English team wins the Champions League but fails to finish in the top four (Arsenal, basically) AND 2. An English team wins Europa League and fails to finish in the top four (Spurs, Everton, Liverpool?) If both of those happen, then the 4th placed team gets Europa League, as we are only allowed a max of 5 teams from England in the CL. A full, more detailed (and, no doubt, better informed) analysis has been written up by Redslo on his blog.

Jack Cork is pretty much fit again, no? Every cloud.....