West Dean FC Legend

I've already posted this twice elsewhere. They should just give him a house to live in with his family and then his friends, players, coaches etc. can see him most nights or afternoons to make sure he is getting on okay. There is literally nothing they can do about it as the players and coaches are just being kind and thoughtful friends. Unless of course the FA want to imprison him or something?

I'm with you - had my arm broken - wide break on my unla - in men's football, done on purpose, player and touchline folk laughed, ref said it was 'goalkick'. I carried on playing! My mate who broke his arm before said if I had broke it I wouldn't have be able to play or drive, so I got halfway to work the next morning then turned around and got my dad to drive my to the doctors - and the doctor sent me straight to hospital - I was in plaster in for nine weeks and lost my job in the Refinery at Fawley. When I was off I never got a collection either - like the bloke who fell of a table on a Thursday night at a strip club did! Broke my nose once, and my fingers about four times. Dead legs, foot stamped on, kicked on purpose, countless times....oh well.

🤣 I'll take that as a compliment. When I was playing down at the pitches opposite Lordshill [versus Parkside Eagles] I made a save diving at clean-through player's feet and hurt my arm, chest and face - all my mates thought it was a stupid save to make in that standard of football. One of my best mates said I did it because my face was made of 'hay' and he has called my 'Hayface' ever since - I'm 64 now. Sorry post all about me and nothing to do with the game - luckily I don't post much!

Just a different point - perhaps a lawyer would only have to prove it was incompotence by the FA that has seriously affected our build up for the new season. I mean the FA know the new season is approaching, they know teams appoint coaches and get players as early as they can for specific prices, plus clubs release players, to fit their plans, which included the coaching staff. If the FA due to diddling around and being slow and unable to check out the problem and come to a verdict in a reasonable time, so when they come up with some tremendous punishment it seriously affects this - that is unacceptable. Or maybe I'm being too 'professional' and 'logical'? 🤣

I hear you both - I have mentioned it before but I did graphic design/promotional work for a fairly large UK sport, I designed logos, used by the leagues - and still are in some cases - for teams, promotional logos, game day promos, online stuff you name it - I worked my socks off and really enjoyed it, I found it fun. I even designed shirts that were used by teams during the seasons, very proud of that. Now the leagues, every team, use AI and most fans either don't know, care or some even 'love' it. Guess what, I write and paint too - so that means I might as well fall out of hotel window 'accidentally' as if I lived in Russia.... Still hopefully Saints might sign on a 'real' player or two. Personally I'm hoping for a player who scores regularly and when he signs on our collective mouths drop open in amazement!

To be fair we signed on a few players that we thought were going to be utter crap but once the management side of things got settled they turned out to be okay and we also signed on players we thought woud be brilliant and errrr...... I know it's easy to say but this lad and anyone else we sign on who is new, well it depends on how they get on with the coach, the players, what they think of the area, the stadium and tons of other things. Also of course their personality. So this player could be absolutely the most amazing and important signing this season, or just a waste of time. We can all speculate and that is fine - but it'll be kick-off time and a run of games that'll inform us.

A tee-shirt I'll make next season Next Season | David-Design

Fair points and I didn't watch every game so you definitely have a more valid opinion than mine. When winning 1-0 away from home with 10 minutes to go I completely understand a professional team doing this but what frustrated me was this just seemed to be the tactic regardless of the game - like I said 4-0 with minutes to go - still did it - 5-0 down still did it, but having said that it is a predominant way of playing the game in football nowadays. This is why Tonda is definitely not a man who should be banned from the English game. Okay his teams do pass around the back and so forth - but most teams do as we know - but boy he really attacks and gets things going if the game allows it or sometimes needs it. I mean Saints lost two games 9-0 and neither opponent eased off or thought 6 or 7 was enough - but I feel if a Tonda Team was 6-0 up with 10 minutes to go he would try to get 8. Perhaps I played too much local league football? Teams were 7-0 up against my side and still trying to hammer another 4 or 5 past me in goal 😂

BBC say they are closing in - it wouldn't be a shock to be honest. I know there's some debate on Bazuna and it caused a tiny bit of arguing but this opinion of mine - and it is only just my opinion not fact and not correct probably - but I do not rate Martin at all. Even when we went up that passing back and forth across the penalty area and passing back and forth inside the opponents half and then going back to the halfway line to pass it back and forth no matter what the score - we could be 3-0 up or 3-0 down we just did that - drove me insane. It was so friggin' boring. My wife - who has not much interest in football - once caught it on a game on TV with Saints, stared at it for a while and genuinely said 'Is that it?' she wasn't being sarcastic or taking the pee out of me either. Also didn't he moan that the team didn't play exactly how he wanted to in the play-off final? The one we won 1-0? Anyway just thought I'd use one of my three posts to see what others think - I mean it does not affect us to be fair does it? So plenty of disagreements I'm sure but perhaps less anger 😂

Thanks for that - you can tell I was an electrician for a while 😂 I would say that if they broke those rules, in Premiership football these clearly has an effect on your squad/managment and therefore it must affect results - therefore Burnley can easily claim what they did. Whether it is a much as that who knows but you can definitely argue that without such an advantage Everton may not have stayed up and Burnley might have - you can't prove it but you can't disprove it either. Anyway tactics - oh never mind them - who cares?! 🙃

Interesting response from Everton, ummm not saying they didn't do it, just saying it wasn't fair. Errrrr....the rules were there, it is your job to know them, you can't make excuses afterwards. So you are guilty of doing what you were charged with: The club said in a statement they were "clear in the belief the ruling is fundamentally flawed in both law and fact". "This ruling sets a dangerous and unworkable precedent for English football, given it is constructed on a principle that a club can be in breach of financial rules at any point in a financial year," the statement said.

That's interesting. There's seems to be a school of thought that Bazunu would be 'okay' for League One. This means I could have played professional football in goal instead of Salisbury and District, Southampton Junior, Wiltshire League, Commercial Houses...I could have earned money playing football....darn it.

To be fair it's not just Saints, or us fans, just think about modern football, really good, impressive, goalies who have a 'presence' are a great commodity. I know Peretz is not some sort of 'football god' but think about other team's goalies who come to mind when it comes to 'his performance can win you games' in any of the divisions. Forget about former goalies or others on the books, think of a goalie at any club, especially our rival clubs, that we could play against that will win them the game just because of the way he plays. It is a lot rarer and more valuable than you might think. In my opinion.

Well that's good news - us old farts who played in the 70s in local crap football - my mates, they were all miles better than me - love him, he doesn't take any sh*t and is big and tough and gets in the way of players - if it was just him as an attacker or players like him it wouldn't be good - but he is something we missed up front for a long time. The way things are looking we might have to thank Middlesbrough for this squad, players seem to be knuckling down as if to say 'F**k you!'

Not that I know or anything or I'm an expert, I'm certainly not, but this seems to me to be a deliberate, pushed through message by the club to us the fans. I like him as a goalie - and if it is a message or statement by the club, I like that too!

Bad news everyone. Looks like we might have lost our Champions of Cheating title. West Bromwich Albion are now being investigated thoroughly - not sure what they did to Middlesbrough but lots of talk of them being 'huge cheats'....oh well we can't even win that challenge.

I agree, these lot who bugger off the minute things get tough or difficult I dislike, I mean imagine what they would say if they lost a big match and half of us said - 'No supporting Saints anymore they don't win enough'. We have all stuck by this club, some over decades, myself included, when basically since being a Football League club they have won one divisional title [I doubt anyone is still alive when the won that], broken the record for a home defeat in the top division in the ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE, and nearly equalled the record for the lowest points total - but here we all are, even if we annoy each other or don't agree on lots of things we are still here. Yet the very rich football players who earn more in a month than a lot do in year are straight off the minute the club gets relegated.

Eeek - you last line is a bit scary - I mean a few of us almost got abuse about pointing out Bazunu is not very good, from the supporters, let alone the 'know everything better than you do' people in charge at the club. I have said it before and I'll say it again, you only need to have played in goal at any level of football to see his positioning and 'goalkeeper' style is like someone who has never played in goal before. It is mystifying to me. But of course I am a 'melt' apparently, I'm not angry.

Just popped on the Ugly Inside - I don't go very often because I'm not extreme-right-wing and angry - and somewhere is saying another EFL club has been accused of 'spying' this season? Anyone got any info' on this? If it is true - and with evidence - this is really going to stitch up the EFL, if they find out there is more than a couple alongside Saints what will they do?

Even if you have it on a plain rectangular background it doesn't have to be huge, just slightly bigger than the number and then give the number a red or white border depending the colouring.

Thank you - I honestly get the p**s taken out of me a lot due to my design work and art - but I have genuinely designed team shirts and they have been used in British League competitions by some big clubs within that particular sport. I used to love doing this - then AI came along.....

Did these last season - still waiting for the phone call from the club....🤣 Saints Shirts - 24--25 | David-Design To be fair though and honest, I have had shirt designs used in British Hockey League by proper teams - I was well chuffed with that. Leeds Knights first season I copied the old 1970s Leeds United FC shirts, loads of their fans didn't even realise it!

It's funny reading this conversation, I went to school in Stockbridge, so right in the middle of Hampshire, in the 70s and I hated Leeds United because all my school-mates supported them, some had school bags with the cub badge on and wore white kit for PE. Why? Because at the time they were a good team and beat everyone, that's the only reason. One mate told me how Yorkshire was the greatest county because Leeds were brilliant, Yorkshire CC were brilliant, the rugby team at Leeds were unbeatable too - he lived in East Tytherley and he still does! Then I moved to Swindon for a long time - so I have a 'memorable' connection with these two clubs and I have supported Southampton my whole life - perhaps all of this is my fault? But I did get 'Club Secretary of the Season' one season and runner-up in my first season, in the Swindon Sunday League when I stopped playing, so I know how to do admin at a football club properly.

If Saints were to be kicked out of the final wouldn't it be hliarious if all the Saints fans just kept their tickets so that supporters from that other team couldn't go - but I suppose they'll auto-cancel the tickets and the money just goes back into the fans accounts? Imagine if that could happen though - thousands of fans singing Saints songs whilst Hull City played Middlesbrough - I would watch it just for that!

I have been saying similar all over the Middlesbrough supporting posts/articles on SM - I am stopping now it's too much I'll be honest - but this statement is so true it is almost a parody. I agree with it entirely and have said as much - I mean whomever gets into the Premier League, no matter how they do it, their fans will be celebrating like they have just won the World Cup for the fifth time in a row if they finish 19th on goal difference. I mean what a crap league - we have no chance of winning or even getting in the top four unless we have millions and millions of pounds to influence the bigger clubs and even then.... Genuinely it is uncompetitive- and that's before we get onto VAR....