New Forest Pony

I once sold Alan Ball an ice cream one Sunday back in the late 70s when I worked in the Riverside Stores in Lymington as a teenager 

The Ex Saints are playing a match on Friday 13th at 6.45pm at Winklebury Stadium in Basingstoke against Cardiff Academicals Veterans (who’ll be featuring a few of the Cardiff Saints in their team). The Ex Saints will be captained by Glenn Cockerill and will feature James Beattie Franny Benali Jo Tessem and Pele amongst others. Entry is free with donations to the Saints Foundation and the Basingstoke Saints will be playing a 7-8 a side game as a warm up. Come along and see some of our heroes from better times, enjoy supporting some fellow Saints fans and help raise some cash for a great cause. 

1 hour ago, Appy said:

Is Piroe that good? 
 

How many people desperate to sign him here have actually seen him play? 

I saw him play 20 times last season. Yes he is that good. A proper finisher and goal scorer. As I’ve said on this forum before he scores the chances Che and Arma miss. I’d have him in a heartbeat. 

People moaning on here about Piroe and Grimes not being good enough for us. Although I’m a Saints season ticket holder I live in South Wales and watched the Swans 20 times last season so have some opinion on them both. Piroe is a proper goal scoring finisher who scores the chances our current “strikers” miss. Grimes is a proper midfielder in that quarterback role. Tidies up keeps the ball and consistently makes accurate passes. Only downside is that he doesn’t shoot enough. They both know Russell and both would flourish in our team. 

5 minutes ago, Baird of the land said:

Personally i'm wondering if Piroe is just wants to see out his contract and then move abroad like (Gyorkeres and Bereton-Diaz).

But yeah that feedback doesn't fill me with joy if we are in for him.

I saw him play 20 times last season. He might not be the quickest but he’s a genuine honest to god goal scorer. He scores the chances Che and Arma miss. 

Apologies if someone’s said this already but with Hamer going to Sheffield United I can see Coventry being interested in Matt Grimes. I know we’ve got the additional pull of Russell but hope we don’t hang about before they start sniffing around 

1 hour ago, Saint Fan CaM said:

I have a horrible suspicion they’re cut from the same cloth! Hope I’m wrong - this appointment is huge for us.

They’re chalk and cheese. Martin appears to be both a thinker and a decent human being 

4 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Normally a player in a kit unveiling means they’re staying. Interesting that it’s JWP and Mara. Two players I would be supportive of staying.

Or, it’s a case of if JWP wasn’t in it we’d all know that he was obviously leaving.

Swansea had Matt Grimes modelling their new away kit last week and I think he’s more likely to be playing in our kit next season if we’re lucky! 

2 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

I know someone who has played with him and knows him well who reckons he would be a good buy for us. One of the best midfielders in the Championship and is more attacking than JWP. Also a top fella. 

Couldn’t agree more. I saw the Swans a lot last season and he properly knows how to control a game (although he could do with shooting a bit more often) I genuinely believe he will be excellent for us as part of a rebuild. 

12 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

Any idea what sort of player Fulton is like? I've never heard of him. 

More of a tough midfielder in the Romeu mould rather than a ball player like Grimes. Martin also played him as an emergency striker when they had a few injuries up front. Reliable rather than spectacular. But would add a bit of hardness to a weak midfield 

3 hours ago, Convict Colony said:

Pure speculation but I guess we might be interested again in Liam Delap this summer and given his poor season would be attainable with man city maybe not as committed.

Didn't watch him this season but I expect playing styles of stoke and Preston (guessing this was the 2nd team) weren't exactly the high possession style he was used to with city and the championship a culture shock.

I would guess Wilcox has a very comprehensive list of who he wants from city and when we lose a forward wouldnt surprise me to see him bring in Delap to replace one of them.

Wonder if there is a young left sided CB floating around their squad as well. 

Players might not be good enough for city but they are good enough for a premier League team or a championship one.

Will also be interesting to see if Wilcox rates Larios, Edozie and Bazunu as much as Joe "been here 5 mins" Shields did.

Checked their forum earlier and they defo think Delap and Borges (apparently not a pep player, bad first touch) will leave.

I watched Delap playing for Preston against what I guess we must now call “Russell Martin’s Swansea” earlier this year and he was exceptionally disappointing that night. I know it’s just one game but he really didn’t live up to his billing 

3 minutes ago, New Forest Pony said:

I’ve seen quite a bit of Swansea this season on non Saints at home days and Martin is an interesting character. They were good before the World Cup break then poor afterwards before picking up well over the last few weeks. He’s very attached to five at the back possession football (which might fit with the Wilcox philosophy) and would continue to irritate fans who hate to see us pass the ball sideways. The recent improvement in the team has come from him finally switching to a back four. It’s still not direct though but very much build from the back. I’d certainly have him ahead of several of the others mentioned. And regardless of that I think we should definitely take a look at Ryan Manning (who’s on his way) particularly if we lose Perraud. 

Also rumours that Leicester fancy him if/when they get relegated 

I’ve seen quite a bit of Swansea this season on non Saints at home days and Martin is an interesting character. They were good before the World Cup break then poor afterwards before picking up well over the last few weeks. He’s very attached to five at the back possession football (which might fit with the Wilcox philosophy) and would continue to irritate fans who hate to see us pass the ball sideways. The recent improvement in the team has come from him finally switching to a back four. It’s still not direct though but very much build from the back. I’d certainly have him ahead of several of the others mentioned. And regardless of that I think we should definitely take a look at Ryan Manning (who’s on his way) particularly if we lose Perraud. 

On 16/04/2023 at 10:07, Pamplemousse said:

I guess we should also focus on who we bring in. You'd like to think that we'd try to sign a goalscorer, so here are the top goalscorers

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/championship/top-scorers

 

Out of that list (obviously have to discount Tella as he is technically ours) Joel Piroe I'd like to try and see us sign, although Rangers and Burnley are interested so he may have better options than us. Gyokeres would be fantastic but Coventry want £20M for him!

FWIW I’ve seen quite a bit of Swansea this season and Piroe is a proper goal scorer. Cool in front of goal and takes a lot of his chances. Genuinely surprised no one was properly linked with him back in January given the hype around the likes of Semenyo 

I saw Smallbone play for Stoke last night in their 3-1 win at Swansea. He had a really good game. Played box to box excellent defensively, very calm in what was an unnecessarily bad tempered game. Played some good attacking passes and moves. Not sure he’s Prem standard yet but considering it was only his 23rd birthday (and yes I do know how young Lavia is) he looked like he’s definitely improving and playing with confidence. 

I was at the Swansea Burnley game yesterday and thought he started very brightly definitely looked better than when he was last with us. However I also felt he faded significantly after a few robust challenges and spent too much time whinging to the ref. He’s certainly improved but I think he still seems raw. I don’t think he can be a major element in keeping us up and will probably benefit (at least personally) from staying at Burnley for the rest of the season. 

F**king long climb that!

Still have sweaty flashbacks from the 2009 Etape on that one!

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Pellegrino out

We want Pellegrino out

I just don’t think you understand

That we’re going down

If you keep the clown

We want Pellegrino out!

I'm moving out to Japan with work for the rest of 2016 so wondered if there are any other supporters out there. I'm in Fukuoka for a couple of weeks then settling in Tokyo from mid-September. I was out earlier in the year and watched the England-Wales game in the Footnik pub with a bunch of ex-pats but it would be good to see if there are any other Saints fans established in Tokyo already who either get together for games and/or a few drinks and Saints chat.

We haven't done a double over anyone either have we? I was thinking yesterday that I don't think we've taken six points from anyone and with Palace, Spurs and City to come, that's not going to change because they've all beaten us.

Swansea - but they are the only ones

He stands at nearly six foot three

Charlie Charlie

He'll lead us to the Champions League

Charlie Charlie

He'll score all the goals we'll ever need

He wears the shirt of Harrison Reed

And he's Charlie Austin

Southampton's goal machine!

Seriously. Direct Free Kicks being scored by us. The last few games we've had chances in positions Rickie would've snapped up and we've been no threat at all.

Sorry to hear that - what a pain. However I could well be interested. Where are you?

Brilliant. You were sitting in front of us for the game and it was lovely to see him so excited!

I'd love to hear a bit more rock and roll coming from the terraces.

 

We know that he likes Pink Floyd but I find their tunes aren't so chant-worthy. He also likes The Rolling Stones and I've had a couple of ideas based on their songs.

 

To the tune of Miss You:

 

Na na na na, nananah, Na na na na, nananah, Osvaldo! and repeat.

 

And (my favourite) to the tune of It's Only Rock and Roll:

 

[video=youtube_share;JGaBlygm0UY]

 

I know, Osvaldo scored a goal, and I like it! and repeat.

FWIW I think "It's Only Rock n Roll" works really well - with the advantage of being simple

Needs a bit of work but something on the lines of

"Osvaaaldo - he's gonna score a goal and we like it

Osvaldo - he's gonna score a goal and we like it - like it- yes we do!"

Alternatively change "he's gonna score a goal" with "he's scored another goal" or "he scores us lots of goals" or similar and it with him or a variation.