Turkish

We deserve to be relegated for having grown me in our end waving signs asking for shane longs shirt.

I remember that well. In the run they’d been boasting about how they had 100 at the last England away game (Slovakia?) and no scummers anywhere, those they had seen had sh*t themselves and disappeared. They were Going on about what they were going to do in Southampton at the next game. A very small, sorry looking lot hid all day and like you say got escorted by double police through st Mary’s, loads of saints out that day. There have been loads of other times when they were meant to turn up, the Saturday night before the cup game in 1996, a few London away games, last game at the dell v Brighton there was a rumour they were in the victory and heading up towards the ground which was bullsh*t, can’t remember where that started from but I remember hearing it. I heard a great story a few years back from a proper old school Chelsea skin from the 70s. Said they (Chelsea) came to Southampton in large numbers for a game in the early 70s and a a group of Pompey were waiting at the station, when they got off they asked if they could join them, they were promptly told where to go and chased all through the station into town. He said They could have beaten linford Christie that day I think I’m right in saying the did turn up a few times in the 80s though, Southampton common one bank holiday, an u21 game at the Dell and when we played Millwall at the Dell mid 80s. They are all before my time though.

Hi mate. I see a few others have already pointed out they're not appreciative of your hard work here. Some didn't even watch it! However I did, but can you do us a favour a point out the bits that show the great st Mary's atmosphere and whst bits you're proud of, because from what I saw it looked like you talking bollo*cks and then singing into your camera for a bit. I'm sure im missing something,

Or that he clearly has talent, remember that Sunderland game.

Looks like we did.

but apart from being able to head, tackle, mark, organise and lead what other qualities does a good defender really need?

I'm surprised the five pledges weren't discussed. This is after all one of Ralphs biggest gambit to appease an unhappy fan base and right the wrongs of the last two years. After the disappoint of the semi final defeat and a must win game fast approaching now would be the perfect time for Ralph to release the pledges in a well timed shot in the arm to the club as a whole. Not only would it galvanise the beleaguered fan base it would not doubt inspire the players to go on the winning run needed to secure or status as a premier league club.

Is that the five pledges in Ralph's pocket?

Why are you moaning? You got to watch mahrez and vardy.

Where did you see that? So that's Lemina, Boufal and Gabbiadini all causing problems and Carrillo not even good enough for the bench

Personally i'm not interested in who the other team is or who plays for the other team. Would I rather see us play a Man City with De Bruyne, Aguero, Kompany, etc or with them all out injured? Without them every day of the week, because we'd have more chance of winning. And damn right, give me a season of games where we've got a great chance of winning every week, rather than going there with the attitude as you put it "no shame in getting dicked as we aren't expected to win anyway" As a saints fan there is far more pleasure in seeing saints win 1-0 against Stoke than losing 5-0 against Man City, but hey, the stadium was nice and I got to take a nice picture of Sterling when he took a corner and Aguero, isn't he amazing, it's an honour to breathe the same air as him. Like I said, you're a consumer, in your posts it's all about value for money, the quality of the football, even if Saints getting smashed you've still enjoyed seeing other players run rings round us, then to cap it all claim that it's deluded to think Saints fans might actually enjoy seeing games where we've got a decent chance of winning more often than we don't.

Seems to me given what you'll miss about the premier league all you're interested in are the other teams anyway. Pay £700 to watch some of the best players in the world, go to quality modern stadiums and get to see plucky little saints get a draw against some of the worlds biggest teams. It's all about who the other team are, who is playing for the other team and where the other team plays. You ain't a saints fan mate, you're a premier league consumer.

He would have had to have said he didn't see it in his report. If he sees it and for whatever reason decided not to give a free kick then the Premier League cant use retrospective action. Quite how he missed it from 5 yards away is another matter which shows an incredible level of incompetence, or he's a liar. I think it's the latter to be honest.

The days when people complained that 8th, 7th, 6th, 8th and cup finals was described as nothing to be proud of The days when people would proclaim they wanted "Champions league or nothing" The days when the league cup was beneath us The days when we could qualify for the champions league because they said man would never walk on the moon/climb Everest the constant wailing and *****ing that we weren't "pushing on to the next level"

19 minutes. The Cortese klaxon in over drive today

You did, twice It was nice that it only took you 15 minutes to reply to me, it's almost like a klaxon goes off whenever there is a post about your pint sized hero. You do know who put that AC Milan rumour out there don't you? None other than your diminutive, Cuban heeled, chum. The king of his own PR and you saps sucked it all up.

He can't he's already got a job. After tracking him for years when he was with us he's now CEO of AC Milan Oh wait.....

I always felt that achieving 8th place under Rupert lowes leadership was a massive underachievement and not something to celebrate. At that point we were the biggest club in Britain below the imaginary line from London through Birmingham up to Liverpool and really should have tapped into our huge catchment area to grow the brand. We also had great young players like Walcott, Bale, Jones and Jake Thompson chomping at the bit to break into the first team with Brett Ormerod and Paul Telfer blocking their paths. It was also a sad time in the history of our fans as an undercurrent of racism was sweeping the terraces of st Mary's demonstrated by try shameful scenes in Cardiff with fans mocking Scottish people, a people and nation who has been subject to years of oppression by the English, by wearing ginger wigs and kilts. Thankfully it seems those dark days are behind us, on the terraces as least. All in all the 2003 season will be viewed as a dark period for out club both on and off the pitch. a lowly 8th place finish, failure to play some of the most outstanding talent this club has ever produced, failure to tsp into our huge catchment area and most of all the disgraceful behaviour of so called saints fans.

The club are better at spin than Shane Warne. The recent article on Cedric was revealing. We got all this bullsh*t all summer about Van Dijk we were being strong, wouldn't be bullied by Liverpool, weren't going to sell to them. Turns out both Cedric and Van Dijk were negotiating moves away and they got blocked as we were being sold to Gao, of course the club then sold Van Dijk to Liverpool at the earliest possible opportunity in January, they couldn't wait to get their hands on the cash. All the stuff about tapping up, making a stand all bullsH*t. You can't trust a word that comes out of them, full of bol*ocks. All they've been interested in is making money. When you've got someone whose wiki page even says one of his greatest achievements in football was signing Chris smalling for nothing and selling him for £10m you can see why he's been promoted to the height of his imcompetence

The example of Nick Griffin isn't a particularly good one. He may be a complete tool but the panel and the audience that night was so rigged and bias he never stood a chance. Every time he opened his gob someone was shouting him down not letting him get his point across. It's one thing to debate between a handful of people with different views but when it's an entire audience and panel there with the sole reason to make him look stupid then not really a great example of freedom of speech. Just to clear before I get the likes of Verbal accusing me of being a racist BNP supporter, Griffin doesn't exactly need help to make himself look stupid. As for the rivers of blood speech, of course in a democratic society it should be discussed, the problem is that as usual it'll have the lefties up in arms shouting it down, accusing anyone who makes a valid point of being racist and not actually discussing it. People are happy for freedom of speech and debate as long as it's only something they agree with.

I would say our biggest weakness is struggling to score and being easy to score against If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a moveable force meets a resistable object watch a saints attack v defence training session

I’m really enjoying seeing 4 former saints players given Man City a run around smug in the knowledge we’ve made a £40 odd million profit and retained the net spend trophy again.

Scott Marshall wins that hands down Honourable mention to Richard Dryden.

The problem with them both is that they are both young and inexperienced. They'd both be much better playing alongside an experienced player which most clubs do. It's only our mental DOF who seems to think we can build a successful team around a load of youngsters who have no top flight experience. Stephens has only been in the squad a year and Hoedt has only been a regular first team player since he joined us. We've got two young players learning the position at the same time. Centre back above anywhere else on the pitch it's all about organisation, communication and leadership, you usually have one leader of the two who organises the back four, we don't have that, we've basically got two rookies in the position. I think that partially explains the reason why Hoedt appears ponderous. As for Stephens, he's a nice footballer but a terrible defender. I'm not convinced he's a natural central midfielder either, it's one thing to look comfortable bringing the ball out of defence with everything in front of you, quite another to do that in the hustle and bustle of central midfield with challenges coming in from all directions. He could probably do a job there as a short term fix but I cant see him being a long term fixture there.

A big problem for me is the spine of our team. Completely lacking in experience. You're meant to build your team around its spine and look at ours, only Romeu has played more than 100 games in a top flight league, he's the only one who has had more than one full season as a first choice player. The others have all been squad players or in the case of Stephen not even that. McCarthy - 20 first team premier league games before this season Stephens - no where near our first team squad until last January's bungled transfer window Hoedt - squad player for Lazio before joining saints 74 first team appearances in 4 years as Lazio and AZ. Less than 20 a season Lemina - before joining saints 84 appearances over 5 years and 3 clubs, in and out of our team too Hojbjerg - in and out of our side since he joined, 56 first team games in 3 years before joining, 39 of these whilst out on loan. Romeu - 63 first team appearances before joining 40 whilst on loan, a further 86 whilst at saints so the only one to have made more than 100 top flight career appearances and had a season or more as a regular starter. Its absolute insanity that we have a spine of a team that inexperienced. We've basically got a spine of our team which is only just getting used to playing regularly let alone being the basis of a team expected to compete in the too half of the premier league. You'd expect one or two, Hoedt to play alongside a seasoned centre half for example but to have two inexperienced players alongside each other there is just mental.