JRM

Yeah we didn't sell out, combination of high prices, Sunday game, we'd been at Wembley year before, no one gave us a chance , we were in bottom 3 at the time. Not unique to Saints, Chelsea struggled to sell and allowed season ticket holders and members to buy up to 4 each, for some reason Saints capped it to one per customer number I think.

Exactly. Next best thing to being at the game would have been to watch it with a few pals in a beer garden, make a day out for it.

I'm pleased for him to get the goal and add to his number of England caps, up to 5 now so just 3 more to equal Le Tissier international appearances. Hopefully he can feature in a Cup final for us and the Euros for England, career defining moments, on course to be a club legend.

Yep, As a traditionalist who grew up watching semi finals in 80s/ 90s on neutral venues, big occasion on tv the thought of a behind closed doors Wembley event shoe-horned to fit in around the Premier League tv schedule does taint it somewhat. Still a massive game for us , I'll be buzzing on the day, but it's just a reminder of how shit football has become. Pubs back open at least by then.

I've not seen enough of him to comment really but he looks solid, ideal if we're trying to hold onto a lead and bulk up the middle of the park. They beat an England team with plenty of Premier League experience in it.

He looks alright to be fair, wonder why he's had so few 1st team chances when he's clearly rated at this international level.

Think Mali v Chad is off on Sunday as Chad disqualified, they'll probably arrange a friendly instead.

3 games this international break, (group stage) Then back end of season to complete knock out stage of tournament.

I think a lot of the embarrassing results this season can also be put down to the first team squad not being as large as other clubs + injuries. First team now have insane 9 substitutes. We have been taking mostly u23s to fill those slots moving them out of u23 teams, plus u23 pool of players reduced with many being out on loan. U18s have made up the numbers in the u23 games and the cycle continues. Also correct many of the players are not good enough, but this doesn't help.

JWP, Armstrong, Vestergaard, KWP all had good seasons, but I think whoever scores the winner in the cup final will have to get it by default. Big fan of Armstrong, hoping he can avoid any issues this international break , he's been injured and caught covid so far on those. Big fan of his, we're a much better team when he is playing.

I've read a few articles on that which strongly hint if a semi final is chosen as a test event it would be limited to locals and not allocated to fans of clubs involved, that would be even more of a piss take than just having it behind closed doors (which is also a joke, by mid April we'll be down to almost zero deaths a day with the 'vulnerable ' vaccinated. ) Just let those who are happy to take the risk back in the ground ffs. Best bet I'm hoping for at the moment is pubs getting big screens outdoors to show the game but that will probably be discouraged by the authorities.

Yes JWP, Callum Chambers and Luke Shaw were all together from 8 years old and all went on to play for England, Oxlade-Chamberlain also came through a year or so earlier

It must be a great sense of embarrassment to the club for our academy teams to be performing so abjectly, they've been disappointing virtually every time I've seen them with little sign of things improving. The amount we spend on academy development compared to a club like Burton , losing to them should be a wake up call.

If he does go hopefully it is to Man City and they pay a bit extra to at least give us a chance of replacing him. If he can sign off with a winning goal in the cup final that would be fitting. I can see Saints trying the loan market again next season and doing things on the cheap, depressing really.

I listened to the draw on 5live, they kept saying "no disrespect to Southampton, but" then went on to basically say the winners of the Leicester v Man Utd game were virtually in the final

Didn't we even make Liverpool issue a statement saying the are ending their interest in him 🤣 They probably had to do it to avoid further punishment, anyone able to find that?

Can't say I'm looking forward to the draw! I'm sure they've already fixed it for us to get Man City anyway, they always get easiest draw.

Yeah the voucher had an expiry date of October i think.

So for our current injured players is this correct? Out for the season Romeu, Smallbone, Obafemi Back start of April Ings , Walcott Hopefully have them on the bench v Burnley, then feature against WBA ready to be involved in the FA cup semi final a week later

Has anyone seen a full list of players called up? I've seen Vestergaard, Bednarek, Ward-Prowse, Armstrong, Adams confirmed so far, not sure on Diallo and Djenepo. Won't leave Ralph much to work with. 3 international games squeezed into 2 weeks at this stage of the season is ridiculous. Guessing our next opponents Burnley will be able to give most of their first team a rest during that time.

At least United's wealth was generated by success of the business which was invested back into resources, they also put a lot of emphasis on youth team production "cant win anything with kids", Man City's owners just treat the whole thing like a computer game. Other clubs have to take financial risks trying to keep up.

Completely agree, they can hardly call it a 'competition ' when the odds are weighted in the favour of some teams so heavily, not by club produced wealth but external funding by a benefactor. It makes a farce of it. Our match day squad of 20 (starting XI plus 9 subs) can barely have cost £100M if that?

Yes his movement on and off the ball was excellent, Ralph should just get him to sit and watch replays of that game to remember how good he can be.

He's a very fragile player and it's been clear his confidence has been very low at times, hopefully this will help him pick his head up and prove the talent he has. I remember at Spurs in the cup replay last year he picked the ball up outside our own box, drove forward and laid on a perfect ball to Ings to go on and score, he can do it but is so frustrating at times.

No internationals, following week is league cup final, we're due to play Man City but already rearranged and taken our beating in that . We should rearrange any game for after semi not before.