Midfield_General

You'd also think that we could offer him and his team a better salary / package than Cov can probably afford.

Tallest players to play in the PL: Costel Pantilimon: 6 foot 8 - shit Lacina Traore: 6 foot 8 - shit Stefan Maierhofer: 6 foot 8 - shit Nikola Zigic: 6 foot 8 - shit Paul Onuachu: 6 foot 7 - shit Peter Crouch: 6 foot 7 - good feet for a big man, and quite likeable, but, utlimately, pretty shit Thus the theory is disproved

Our crest should be a tasteful photoshop montage of Benny Hill, Rishi Sunak, Scott Mills, Chris Packham, Sir Christopher Cockerell, Ken Russell, Charlie Dimmock, Matt Cardle, James Lance, Howard Jones, Ollie Locke, Jona Lewie, the drummer from Coldplay and Adamski all sat on the same New Forest pony

Did you deliberately make it completely wrong to make the point? If so - point well made.

Looking back at that, it's also telling that only two of the signings we had actually made over the summer - Sugawara and BBD - were deemed good enough for a place in the starting XI on the opening day, even in a side as poor at that one. Our other new signings at that point - Wood, Taylor and Archer - were on the bench because they were not considered good enough to dislodge any of those Championship level players in that awful, awful team. Even then we weren't done, as we added more dross like Cornet, Fraser and Gronbaek over the course of the season, again none of whom were considered good enough to consistently deserve a start in the joint worst PL team of all time. Then there were the wages being wasted on invisible men like Lallana who just weren't physically up to the demands of a PL season. With the exception of Fernandes and Ramsdale, the signings we made were such a colossal misjudgement by Russell Martin and everyone else involved that it goes beyond incompetence and borders on dereliction of duty. It's mind-boggling that Dragan allowed his money to be pissed away like that.

Also why would you waste your best centre-half, Aribo, in midfield? /Juric

Oh come on - the Stewart signing has been a disaster but I don't think it's in any way fair to suggest that he hasn't wanted to play. Injuries have destroyed his career. He's spent two years trying to get fit. I'd imagine that all he wants is to be fit and able to play regularly without his body breaking down on him.

I’m not sure that’s how contracts work (unfortunately).

He didn't resign, he was very much sacked after a 4-0 defeat and 8 games without a win. He was going at the end of the season anyway, but they've been so bad recently they got rid early.

Let’s hope so 🙏

This is this season's Championship team of the season. Notice Josh Sargent picked at CF, who most on here turned their noses up at as a suggestion for us next season. It's not exactly full of world-beaters, just decent players who've been used sensibly and effectively by their managers. We're more than capable of attracting players of this quality, and we should have the resources to do it. Our challenge is that we need a) someone competent to identify them and bring them in (hopefully this is Spors and his team), and then b) a competent manager to play them to their strengths and not ask them to do things they're not capable of doing (hopefully this will be a solid, pragmatic manager with an encouraging track record for the level we're at). It should be reasonably simple. The problem is that SR don't do simple, or at least they haven't up to this point. There's so much riding on Spors being good at his job and sticking around, and on Dragan having genuinely learned some lessons, and everyone just focusing on getting the basics right.

As we've been told - if it ain't broke, break it. 'It' apparently being own own nose, jaw and spirit, it would seem.

Yeah, any joker can come up with a plan. It's a) how you implement it, and b) what you do when it inevitably stops working that actually makes the difference between success and failure. As per the well-known but spot-on quote from Mike Tyson: 'Everyone got a plan 'til they get punched in the face'.

The Championship has goal-line technology and the EFL already uses VAR in the play-off finals for the Champ, L1 and L2, but in October the CEO of the EFL said that they weren't going to introduce VAR in the Championship league competition: https://archive.ph/SBbI6 Although apparently they were looking at a trial that IFAB were doing of an alternative option called Football Video Support (FVS) which uses fewer cameras and operates on a challenge system similar to tennis and cricket: https://talksport.com/football/2409991/efl-referee-var-carabao-cup-premier-league-championship/. No idea what happened to that though as that was in December and haven't heard of anything about that since. If they do insist on trying something it would be interesting to see that FVS trial taken forward as a direct alternative to the current VAR system used in the PL. I've always maintained that a challenge system makes way more sense for football, if its done properly.

He was a right back. 'The Norfolk Cafu', according to Norwich fans. The point about defensive record still stands though.

What was the comment, from whom to whom?

AI as in Artificial Intelligence? If so, that’s another cracking source, and certainly the way I’d imagine football clubs are valued in the City to prepare them for acquisition. Just type it into Google, see what Gemini reckons, there’s your price. EDIT: My mistake, it seems it was ChatGPT not Gemini: https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/ai-predicts-the-value-of-southampton-fc-as-simon-jordan-drops-sale-claim/ Keep it coming lads, this is gold

Well that’s me convinced, I certainly can’t think of a more reliable source than the things that Matt Le Tissier says on Twitter

Cheers 👍

This is an interesting headline from the Echo, given Lallana's past. "SAINTS midfielder Mateus Fernandes has revealed Adam Lallana's advice, which could help him play for the biggest clubs in England." https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/25123554.southamptons-fernandes-reveals-key-advice-lallana/ Can anyone with a subscription share the full article?

Joking aside Chris, I was surprised that that name was in the frame, although it does tally with what Mike said after the Sholing meeting in February. I should hear more later - I'll keep you posted, keep an eye on your PM's.

A new takeover thread, hooray! Let's dust off the Saints takeover bingo card so we can all play over the summer. To kick things off: - Yacht spotted in Ocean Village - Barry the Briefcase - Earlobe identification (hopefully the advance of AI will make this process more efficient) - Posts that start with "I can't post it on here but I have it on good authority", people using each other's real first names to demonstrate they are on the inside and saying "I've PM'ed you Brian" - One or two people who actually know a few things drowned out by loads of absolute fantasists making stuff up and pretending to be important - Micky Fialka mounting a late bid from his bedroom in his mum's house What have I missed?

Still reeling, 18 months later, from the BOMBSHELL revelation that Alpine and Glasgow were one and the same Absolute scenes

Just grind out the most boring point imaginable please lads Then you can all leave

Because we haven't had a decent ginger since Svensson and we have a duty to get our numbers back up