JRM

If even starts trying to buy Bertrand / Van Dijk / Long etc he'll become even more hated than Redknapp

I like the sound of Avram Grant at 33/1 , could be worth a gamble

I f&cking hate scousers http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/koeman-should-sack-southampton-come-11422790

Weren't Zurich also relegated last week? Shame that Lugano didn't win, I'd love to visit there although the Italian Swiss might not be so welcoming since Cortese departed. Would be good to have a couple of domestic preseason games as well this year, Reading / Swindon away but most likely we'll do U.S. and Holland

Now this is a great kit..... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/scottish/ayr-united-kit-launch-criticised-after-club-release-images-of-topless-model-with-new-strip-painted-a7049646.html Hopefully Ralph copies this method for our kit launch

There will be big queues out of HMV when this gets released although it might be better as a B side of the 'Southampton in Europa' re-release .

I'd have to say Greece is not for the faint hearted, went to Athens with England in 2001 , it was fine most of the day in the main square but nearer the game they had a good go at attacking a bar with England fans in nearer the ground and smashed every window of away fans metro back into town after the game throwing bricks , probably has changed a fair bit now though

I'm pretty sure when we reviewed last seasons group stage we calculated Saints would have been in pot 3 same as Augsburg who had the closest co-efficient to us. Let's hope if it comes down to it we are ahead of West Ham. Loads still to be decided but can anyone rank the teams already qualified for the group stage in order of co-efficient?

Another key factor compared to last season is we can have a proper pre-season and can start planning now to resource for the first half of the season without the uncertainty of qualifiers. The club should do a mini season ticket for the 3 group home games.

Yeah will make a big difference. I agree we'll be 2nd or 3rd pot of seeds so would get one big (ish) name , I'd like Bilbao or Milan. Nice and Lille would be handy to get to, Hertha Berlin or Schalke would be good as well. Hopefully get a minnow as 4th tier game. Hearts or Aberdeen if they somehow make it would be good.

that would be my choice, along with Hearts and Hertha Berlin in the group stage. Really interesting historic links between Southampton and Bilbao from the teams kits (which they got from us) and refugee children during the Spanish civil war coming by boat to Southampton, there was a feature on that in the SeaCity museum. Plus they gave an award to Matt Le Tissier. Not sure how long it would take, but how good would it be sailing from Portsmouth to Bilbao, I'm sure the locals would turn out to wave us off

19,500 i think they said, but it looked a bit more that that to me (big queues at the ticket office pre-match). Northam stand did a good job generating some noise, shame there wasn't a few more fans in the Chapel end as it looked very sparse down there. Programmes seemed to be selling well, i'm sure the night will raise a lot of money for charity. Really enjoyed the evening, was a feelgood atmosphere certainly helped by our good end to the season. At one point it was risk of being taken over as the Lambert show with all the songs about it, but his performance showed why he's not going to come back - league one for him now i think. The delayed kick off was very frustrating, sat in the middle of the Kingsland there were no announcements explaining it, and if there were I certainly couldn't hear them, match kicked off 25 mins late in the end.

The crowd at Stoke last night was 16,254 so not exactly sold out, it was £10 a ticket and £5 for over 60s / kids. I think we'll definitely have a higher crowd than that. Still some seats available at the front of blocks 43 and 44 for anyone who wants a prime view of the Lambert / Le Tissier penalty shoot out, Kingsland and Itchen stands will be full and the Northam has sold well now, blocks 40, 41, 42, 43 all almost sold out with 44 selling well, the chapel has only had a couple of hundred seats sold it in though.

Nice sunny day here at the moment, should help with the walk up if it stays like this and hopefully get over 20k which is a good turn out all things considered. Once you've removed away fans and corporate hospitality there are only about 27k saints fans at normal games, and in our league one days it was a lot less than that. Has anyone invested in a Kelvin Davis mug or scarf from the club shop yet to mark the occasion? I'll buy a programme, doubles up as a donation to charity so good to support the event.

No Charlie is a "Meltdown" veteran who has spent the last two summers wallowing in the press attempts to paint the club in a bad light. I remember having run ins with him on here and it must be a source of annoyance to him that the last two meltdowns have actually seen the club progress upwardly. Just remember stories like this - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2540218/Liebherr-dream-wrecker-How-3bn-heiress-whos-never-shown-football-ousted-man-Saints-fans-believe-again.html

I would disagree with this statement, look at the Liverpool line up tonight, full strength not resting players and will be enough to beat a Chelsea team missing a few players in my opinion unfortunately. Klopp will want European football I think.

Switched off about 10 mins ago what on earth was that nonsense. Not a fan of West Ham, just like the skates when it comes to banging on about history and support, selling 52k season tickets in Current climate in London is easy, but they didn't get anywhere near selling out the away end down here in Feb I'm pleased we avoided this and gave the Dell a proper fans send off on the pitch.

Palace fans don't seem overly bothered about the game, just want to keep everyone they can fit for the final http://www.holmesdale.net/page.php?id=106&tid=160324&page=1 one of them makes a good point that Saints will be wanting Man Utd to win the cup if we finish 6th or 7th so it's in our interests to disrupt their build up as any injuries or suspensions for them will help our cause.

Starting from Clapham Junction I think on Southern rail line going via Selhurst and West Croydon for additional pick ups and takes about 3 hours so must be going down past Horsham / Barnham route and along from Chichester so shouldn't impact usual services. They sold out the train quickly but from what I understand one carriage is being used for club officials and another for the squad on the way back . I would never pay that price but like the idea of it for novelty factor.

Palace have taken the full 3100 allocation but still haven't sold out, guess they've got an expensive trip to Wembley the following week and they've already brought loads down once this season in the cup. http://mobile.cpfc.co.uk/news/article/ticket-details-for-southampton-v-palace-3068198.aspx They do make a fair bit of noise so should be a good atmosphere. They are bringing down a classic steam train special service so anyone who likes steam locomotives get along to Southampton Central. Potential comedy entertainment post match, Plymouth v Skates is on sky at 6pm

Liverpool will definitely play a weakened team at West Brom last game of the season with it being just a few days before the final on the 18th , and Chelsea will give them a good game midweek, but can definitely see them beating Watford this weekend. 60 points might just be enough to pip them to 7th spot, especially with our better goal difference.

the 17 year old i was talking assures me that some of these players have "huge followings online", i'm out of my depth in understanding this, but it this a bit of a coup for Southampton to be hosting the match? Good to read that the Saints Foundation get some money from this.

Someone was telling me about this last week, have they really sold out 32000 for a game at St Marys that I knew nothing about featuring players I've never heard of?! Quite funny if that turns out to be biggest crowd of the year!

it says Dembele has been charged, but not Lamela. Disgrace. Dier should have been out. They have got off lightly, and Poch clearly has no remorse about the behaviour of his players.

It won't sell out, but I don't think the club were ever expecting it to. The way they are selling tickets stand by stand shows they are minimising overheads reducing number of stewards and catering staff required, however they are impacting sales as they are currently holding back some of the best seats in the ground (kingsland centre) which will sell well once available. If we finish the season well and the weather is good we might just get 20k.