ant

Completely agree with this. Now that Townsend's got his head down he's making a bit of a nonsense of the long-held belief that he's one-dimensional. Though I maintain concerns that he could revert to type without something to fight for.

That argument makes zero sense. Who could have seen the way forward for Leicester 12 months ago, beyond planning for another season of avoiding relegation? The money being loaded towards the top 5 or 6 is nothing new and was very much still the case in 2015-16 too. Arguably this season has shown it to be anything other than a flash in the pan. With Man City, Man United, Liverpool AND Chelsea all faltering (to various extremes) it demonstrates the frailty of even the biggest clubs. That can't all be solved by simply throwing money at the problems. Three seasons of 'top 8' establishes us rather nicely. I'm not saying that pushing on won't require redoubling our efforts, nor that it won't rely on a bigger club or two stumbling. The crucial point is ensuring that we're primed to pounce when they do.

A fair few fans going OTT over missing out on Europe (not necessarily on here - bear with me) are the exact same ones that were saying in January that we were doomed for the drop. Shows a) what a topsy turvy season we've had and b) just how quickly expectations build. All in all we had a slow start then a good run, a horrendous run, a blinding run and are now cruising over the line. The horrendous run put paid to our chances of a higher finish; end of.

30,057.

Would certainly be interested in this. Next Summer sounds reasonable.

Was hoping to be sat elsewhere e.g. Northam, but couldn't be arsed to hold off (and as designated ticket buyer for my group I'd be for it if I waited and then forgot). Just above the dugout won't necessarily be a bad thing I guess.

The transcript for that AGM's available here: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/4000947.print/ Quite a read...

10 assists, 3 goals in the league this season and last alone (30 starts and 23 cameos). Also an assist in the League Cup this season and in the FA Cup in 2014-15. Clearly not Beckham-esque but clearly also nowhere near as shabby as you inferred. He's added a lot more bite to his midfield play too. Can't think of a better recent example than him robbing Allen/Skrtel, directly leading to our 3rd goal against Liverpool.

Absolutely. I referred purely to signings due to the main thrust of the thread.

You'd think that money would be better spent on our 'black box', as it were. The thing is, if it's us and Liverpool vying for a player, which team will they pick? Some still say we should've signed Coutinho but what chance did we have? It's exactly why our scouting and recruitment is so key to our progression; we've got to get there before the bigger boys (or relying-on-historical-size boys) get so much as a sniff.

Glad you lot are finding it worth a read. The spike in traffic would suggest that quite a few Saintsweb users had a browse! As I hinted at yesterday, I'm primarily writing for myself i.e. as an outlet - but if it finds an audience then so much the better. Fair comment. And lo, for all the statistics in the world, football remains an opinions game.

For some inexplicable reason I've decided to start writing a Saints blog entitled 'Say It Saint So'. You know the drill by now; some of you will politely pledge to read it but probably won't bother, then I'll stop updating it in a month. Anyway, I thought I'd lob a link up on here just in case anybody's able to garner entertainment from my ramblings. First three posts are up: Football Chants: A Pedant’s Review Mythbusting, #1: Graziano Pelle Fantasy Premier League - Saintly Options

Yep, aways used to make me think of James Beattie when I walked past that. The full list in The Dell is Channon Court, Stokes Court, Wallace Court, Bates Court and Le Tissier Court.

MLG, the criticism of you is generally harsh and OTT but this comment is a ****take. Assuming the 'modern' era to be post-Premier League then yes, games rearranged in this manner are very much a modern problem. You know full-well that people are peeved because matches are moved willy-nilly in this division and that the European competitions exacerbate that. Nobody's purely frustrated that it's due to Europe - it's because of the cumulative effect of all rearrangements and you know that. Don't you attend matches, or do you simply never have any plans in your life to clash with ever-shifting fixtures?

Any attempt to appease will likely be much of a muchness, won't it? Giving in one area just seems to mean taking from another. E.g. freezing the overall season ticket cost, but changing the 10% store discount from annual to a one-off purchase.

Thought there'd be a bunfight at 9am this morning so was pleased to waltz on and get mine. Just before 9am, if anything. Can only imagine there's a few that don't fancy it or can't make a midweek game. To be fair it seems that they're using Royal Mail 'Special Delivery Guaranteed', which does cost £6+. Massive overkill though when '1st Class Signed For' would've given them the same level of assurance that the tickets have been received and is rarely much slower.

Is he still going to walk?

C'mon Saints, give us the Promotion XI we're really after. This'd get a bumper crowd in. Bialkowski Butterfield Seaborne Martin Mills Lallana Wotton Stephens Holmes N'Guessan Bignall Our backup options have come on a bit, eh?

It's a little more than an inconvenience at this notice. How sad it is that the people actually getting off their arses to support their team are treated as the after-thought.

Absolutely. I guess my point is that not all those that slip through our net will have been (or will be) without their merits. It's simply that in our current situation it's very difficult to give them all the playing time they'd need to develop further - short of turning out a starting XI entirely comprised of academy graduates and never releasing anybody until they reach the age of 25. As such, I think Koeman's comments make perfect sense. With regard to him coming out with them publicly, I think there's a bit of sensationalism in the headline here. Fully fleshed out and read as quoted, his comments aren't nearly as stark or harsh.

The cream of the U21 crop is long gone - shouldn't be much of a surprise that there's not really any others from that group that'll make it at the top level. One or two of the U18s may still make the grade and I don't think it's unreasonable for them not to be quite ready for first team action yet. How long did Lallana or Schneiderlin take to reach prime playing ability and market worth? Apart from anything else, we can't keep churning out top class players every single year. There will be fallow periods.

Ah, I see. No point challenging any behaviour that's 'part of football'. Seems a bit bloody backward to me.

As a kid I was quite timid at games and would wait for others to chant and then join in. So perhaps with the youngsters there's a bit of that (although irrelevant in the upper-centre of Block 42, as I'm about half the age of most around me). These days I don't give a toss - if I want to sing, I bloody well will - even if that's on my own, or accompanied by just a couple of people in the vicinity. Sadly that's increasingly the case in what's historically been the most vocal area of the ground. Granted, there were less regulars than for a league match, but at present it's the same no matter what at St. Mary's. The atmosphere's a large percentage of the experience for me and pays a significant contribution towards a matchday's value for money. How many times did we help (however small the percentage) turn a game on its head when grinding out results in League One and the Championship? How much better a day out was it for that? Almost as frustrating as this topic rearing its head increasingly often is members calling those that miss a decent atmosphere 'super fans' and saying "Well sing then". I am. We are. But seemingly 'we' are fewer and fewer. That's sad.

Some info here on Dusan Tadic's contract at FC Twente: http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/astonishing-clauses-of-southampton-star-s-former-contract-reveale Apparently these leaks have shed light on some dodgy dealings and caused Twente's chairman Aldo van der Laan to stand down.

Absolutely fantastic news. In for at least Norwich; no idea where in the country I'll be on the 28th Dec yet.