John B

But it is getting closer and no doubt one day it will happen

The answer is if you are playing in the PL you get in PL players not youngsters with little or no top class experience and expect them to perform. The squad as everybody is commenting is poor compared with others in the recent past whereas other teams are improving We were poor last season and have lost Tino Broja Redmond and Romeu who were possibly four of the better players but have got better options now at CB. We are unfortunate with Lavia Our attacking quartet is now dire the worst in my opinion we have ever had in the top division since 1966 so the outlook looks pretty bleak and recruiting decent reinforcements looks very difficult So lets hope however that the youngsters gel and perform well but constantly slagging off players and the manager does not help as they all probably know their short comings. In isolation a 1 0 loss at Aston Villa is not that bad a result but having no meaning ful shots on goal is Hampshire CCC which has invested in top class players and has a top class attack hopefully can win the championship for the first time since 1973 and Saints will not go down in 2023 like they did in 1974

Bowlers usually win County Championships

What is the situation with Kyle Abbott'sand Ben Brown's injuries any one know

In fact if I remember correctly we lost five of the last six days of that season to the rain

I have been supporting the Saints for over 60 years but unlike you I do not whinge I just accept that the manager knows more than I do about what tactics he wants to use and what players are best suited to it.

It baffles me that so called supporters continually undermine the manager who has a difficult job with so many young and inexperienced players and very little in the quality of attacking players. It is not as though we have standout attacking players sometimes they are OK sometimes they are not Whats more it is not an eleven aside game anymore as he has the manage the use of substitutes so that the team is able to function fully over the whole 90 mins. he no doubts know what players are fully fit and and can play the whole game and those that cannot

I think if Man U had our attacking players I doubt they would be flying I think Man U have spent 150m or so on two attacking players recently whilst we spent about 10m on Airibo and Mara It is the quality of our attacking players that is holding us back

I follow Reading a bit as my daughter's step daughter is a fan But nothing changes much with Shane Long in today's win v Stoke in this sentence from the match report Flint did make amends by nodding down a corner for Wilmot to turn home via a deflection off Yiadom, minutes after Shane Long wasted a great chance to double Reading's lead by firing Tom Holmes' cut-back over from six yards.

How many points do you think we will get by the end of October Saturday 10th September PREMIER LEAGUE Southampton15:00Brentford Friday 16th September PREMIER LEAGUE Aston Villa20:00Southampton Saturday 1st October PREMIER LEAGUE Southampton15:00Everton Saturday 8th October PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City15:00Southampton Sunday 16th October PREMIER LEAGUE Southampton14:00West Ham United Wednesday 19th October PREMIER LEAGUE AFC Bournemouth19:30Southampton Sunday 23rd October PREMIER LEAGUE Southampton14:00Arsenal Saturday 29th October PREMIER LEAGUE Crystal Palace15:00Southampton E CAPTURE

I have no idea why everybody thinks it was a great window when we have A Armstrong and Adams as our principal scorers I do not dispute that the players we have brought are not great but without a top goal scorer I still think we are going to struggle

Yes if we cannot score goals

A bit of reality there FF well said but getting what is wanted with regard to a goal scorer to SFC is not easy

Moi will probably start but what do you think the finishing 11 will be

I do not disagree with what you are saying but there are other clubs in the PL which have had good transfer windows too so the competetin in the PL is going to be intense A remarkable summer transfer window closed on Thursday with a number of new spending records set - including the most expensive ever deadline day signing in Manchester United's £82m purchase of Anthony. That deal helped set a new Premier League spending record of about £1.9bn - smashing the previous record of £1.4bn in 2017 - and dwarfing the rest of Europe.

But that would be not allowed would it not as I thought we could only have 11 players on the field

Seems pretty enjoyable at the moment and if we get in a striker things maybe even more enjoyable

He was not poor he was better than Stuart Armstrong who was completely ineffectual What do you expect Mo to do which he did not do today

Elyounoussi was not dire his through pass to Adams was top class

I agree I thought the team was OK but without a top class striker we are going to struggle The Man U goal was excellently taken by Fernandes what a difference he would make to our team

At the moment I think we have every chance of being relegated unless we get in another 2 or 3 high class players

Yes but in those days we had a top manager and were a top 10 PL side and pushing for Europe or may even have been in Europe which we are no longer doing. We are a team full of kids and more likely to be relegated than get into Europe

I think his point is that he doubts that Ramos will come to SFC as we are not a top team and any CF coming here is not likely to score many goals. If he was to stay at Benfica and score goals top PL would be after him in the near future which is a position I could agree with. He just seems to be more experienced than players we have signed in recent years who want to play in the PLto gain experience and move on

The bowling was not much better on Sunday but was helped by the Essex early order trying to score quickly and getting themselves out Apart from Organ there was no one who bowled tightly in the last 20 overs Having the Championship openers coming in at 7 and 8 proved to be a good tactic as both Holland and Organ batted really well All the other batters apart from Middleton performed well enough although some of their dismals were driven by mild panic and I was pleased that Donald contributed a decent innings before embarking on a very rash run. But I really enjoyed the game in the sun over 500 runs almost 100 overs and the result in the balance until the 95 th over was well worth the £11 my brother paid for my ticket

A Hampshire treble then shame there is no europpean qualification as we could do well against teams from other european countries