ant

Arse, was up for this but now realise I can't make the 8th. Will update if that changes.

Bit different when people half-leave, blocking both the steps and the view of others though, surely?

I'm currently in exactly the same position.

In your mind perhaps, certainly not the real world. But fine, be my guest - launch into others using whichever prejudices you can muster or by picking upon whatever's different about them.

We missed Guly defensively after his substitution, he was doing a job and doing it well. As others have said, he doesn't offer an awful lot going forwards but on the day neither did any of our lot really.

Our away support definitely has better rhythm.

I got Juan Mata on both attempts. To be fair I'm quite happy with that.

He can speak a lot more English than he lets on. The guy's a perfectionist and won't settle for a ham-fisted grasp of what he wants to convey. It's clearly not affecting his ability to do the job and I'd be amazed if he doesn't speaky the lingo by August.

Why?

Whether or not they speak at the average person, I sincerely hope they never speak for us. I can't abide their beliefs on Europe, immigration, law, health, education, economics/tax, defence, energy/climate change, social issues... Does that cover it? I find their manifesto abhorrent. As much as politicians in this country have made a) a hash of things and b) by and large become rather disconnected, the pantomime villain portrayal has gone too far if it allows wretches like Farage to get a foothold.

No elections in Southampton city so I couldn't vote. Moving to Hedge End in July though so was glad to see the Botley and Hedge End seat remains Lib Dem and saddened that 3 of the 7 Eastleigh district seats are now UKIP. I don't really understand why people flip-flop between parties. For me, the left wing (or possibly centrist-left) values are so deeply ingrained that I could never support a right wing party with my vote. I'm not a fan of the Lib Dems nor how they've conducted themselves, but what they stand for is more closely aligned to me than the other candidates so I'm happy enough. Allegedly UKIP were the so-called protest vote, but doesn't that make it rather moronic to vote for them if they're diametrically opposed to your beliefs? Similarly this applies when judging a vote on the charisma of the person standing. So if they've got a nice smile you're prepared to overlook their proposals? Surely it's better to vote for what you believe and have the convictions to back it up. Several people I've spoken to on this have merely picked up soundbites, often originally reported with little basis in reality, and lacked the ability to articulate beyond this poorly sourced trash. They didn't have opinions of their own nor the ability to form a cohesive argument, it was all relayed 'information'. To UKIP's credit they've pounced upon an opportunity and found their niche, I just find it scary that there's such a dark undercurrent for them to tap into in the first place.

It's very easy to forget that he's only 23 years old. Tremendous attitude and his performances this season has spoken for themselves. If you believe in sports statistics he's one of the top 3 or 4 central midfielders in the division.

I agree. It probably wasn't the right time to sign Forren so another CB would've been handy, but overall it was probably better to let the squad settle.

We use the U2/Green Day version on matchdays don't we? Kicks in at about 1:41. I've got a cropped MP3 of it somewhere.

Interesting that Pochettino supposedly declined the chance to sign any more players in January. Puts a different spin on the flap some got into on here when it became clear we were sticking with what we had.

Uprising is correct. Probably the last song Muse released that I can tolerate (long time uber-fan, can't stand the newer material).

I'm up for this!

Well for one, if Lambert scores a single goal in our final matches his total will only have been beaten 4 times in the last 15 years of top flight football we've had. Two more and he'll only have been bettered 7 times in 22 seasons. Not bad for a player with no top flight experience prior to August.

Quite right, that man. The short-sleeved version was even worse.

You can do it on matchday if that's easier, although obviously the later you get there the longer it'll take to queue. I've been with a group where one had to upgrade from a kids ticket to a full adult and had no problems. Can't imagine policy will have changed as I'm sure the club would prefer you to pay more!

Funny how it took so long for people to catch onto the emergent standard of domestic German football. Jamie Redknapp stating that "Lewandowski has announced himself to the world" was particularly laughable. Agree with most of the OP but the 50+1 rule really doesn't relate to fan ownership and essentially removes the competitive nature from the league - in the long term Bayern will inevitably win out because nobody can compete financially. Ah, but Dortmund won the last two titles! Yep, so Bayern nick in and sign their best player. You have to bear in mind that their commercial revenue is roughly equal to United's and Liverpool's combined. No team can compete with that for more than a couple of seasons. You could argue that this gulf is little worse than what the PL has and I'd agree to an extent, but I'd rather see the 50+1 ruling's rough edges smoothed before we wholesale move to implement it here. Anybody that says The Yellow Wall isn't impressive has to be kidding themselves.

Can't believe a pitch invasion would even be mooted for a mid-table finish! Sounds incredibly tinpot, definitely stay in the stands.

A couple of years ago I found an interesting article discussing 'relative age effect' i.e. kids born in September to December often have an advantage over those that came into the world closer to the end of the academic year. Given that they're nearly a year older they're often bigger, more physically able and shade out the more technically skillful types. Ah, here it is: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jun/19/fa-plans-age-group-football Supposedly the FA were looking to initiate a shake-up and Spurs seem to have their share of Summer babies, but I'd be willing to bet many academies still fall prey to simple fallacies. There's plenty of reasons why players could be worth taking another look at. So long as this initiative doesn't cost the earth and we don't end up with too many 'Nile Ranger' types at the club, I can't see how it's anything other than a positive step. 16 is no age to throw a player onto the scrapheap.

Thought attendances would drop off now that we're safe, why has it gone so mad? Ah well, season ticket.

So roughly what percentage do we think the fans actually own? I see there's a few media outlets starting to trot out the skates' self-perpetuated 'biggest supporter-owned club' nonsense. No point concluding this thread - they'll surely be back in trouble in the blink of an eye. You have to wonder what sort of antics they'll get up to this weekend... They'll burn through that trust money before you can "parachute payment" at this rate.