spyinthesky

I think he was one of our stand out players for a while but think that ship may have sailed now unfortunately. Will be interesting to see where he ends up post West Ham

Had a chat with someone who keeps a close eye on football finances and reckons that football club revenue may have hit the ceiling based on: 1. Revenues from the bigger clubs, apart from Real Madrid who have extended their stadium capacity, only rose by around an average of 1% last season, probably 5% overall if Real Madrid's 26% was added in. 2. Revenues from sponsorship has more or less been exhausted as can be seen by the number of corporate logos on shirts. ManUtd, for example, have 41 brand partnerships and perhaps a few more could be added but this is likely to be at the expense of the main sponsors. 3. Broadcasters are not bidding crazy amounts for live TV games. The Premier League is the most valuable with a record £6.7b for 2025-29 rights but whilst sounding good it was only a small increase over the previous round. If inflation is factored in the Premier League is actually earning 31% less that the 2016-2019 package. 4. Viewing numbers for live games are falling with the subscription market highly competitive. 5. The big hope that one of the streaming giants would wade into the market has not transpired despite Amazon testing the market by buying a few games. 6. Perhaps the biggest challenge is that there are too many matches especially with the beefed up European competitions and the Club World Cup. Fans are satiated and players forced to play too many games, despite being very well renumerated. When you think that most of our more established players were earning between £40k - £120k per week to win 12 points and more than 20,000 of us paid out an average of around £600 for our season tickets, it is not difficult to see how many people get disillusioned with the game. That said, it is testament to the loyalty of Saints fans that attendances home and away have been good.

But didnt Pochettino recommend Downs to us?

Perhaps there is the chance of a points deduction that has been priced in

I have a fair bit of affection for JWP. Never let us down and an average 7/10 performance a bit like like Steven Davis and then add on bit for his free kick goals. A regular 100% performer. That said, I think he is now past his prime and cant see us meeting his wages aspirations even now. A true Saint in my opinion but cant see him meeting Sports Republic's business plan which is fair enough.

Nice place to live is Harrogate. When I was a student in Leeds we used to drive over to Harrogate for a Saturday Night out at the Intercon Club in the centre of the town. Decent looking girls there and the music mainly Northern Soul and rarer Motown tunes. Fond memories of the place.

Me too. I know a few Sunderland fans and they, without exception, raved about him both from a goalscoring perspective but also his ability to defend, especially from opponents corners.

And they will be without their main attacking forward on loan from a team on the South Coast!!

The unfortunate fact of life is that rightly or wrongly, we tend to parrot what goes on across the pond. All the right wing shit that Donald J Trump and his MGA acolytes have been spouting is being recreated over here by Farage and his motley crew. I must move in the wrong circles but more or less all the people I know are centre right/centre left in their views on politics and we all seem to be without reasonable representation as reflected in recent polls.

Rally, I guess we see things a bit differently. Both Farage and Johnson make good television and, to my mind, have been dealt with on a reasonably even handed way on the political front, so much so that the BBC have been subjected to accusations of bias from all parties. On other non political programmes, such as 'Have I Got News For You' both Reform and Tories, in particular reference to their leaders, have been mercifully ridiculed. The fact of life nowadays, is that a good deal of the electorate obtains their political information from non terrestrial TV. And if there is any question of political bias on the TV, GB News is undoubtedly not a paragon of virtue,

Keep an eye out for Nige's senior adviser, a well connected and so called 'posh boy' by the name of George Cottrell, who describes dear old Nige as a father figure. At an early age George was expelled from Malvern School for illicit gambling. His Dad went to Gordonstoun with Prince Andrew and, apparently Mama once dated Prince Charles. After leaving school young Mr Cottrell served eight months in a US prison in 2016 for wire fraud but continued with his gambling habit boasting about taking £50k into a branch of William Hills and losing the lot.. His Mum is one of Reform's biggest donors sticking in £500,000 in the past year. Her son 'Posh' George now splits his time between advising Nige in the UK with part time residence in Montenegro, a country whose membership of the EU (really ????) has been delayed due to concerns about money laundering. This must be where George is researching facts for his new book....'How to Launder Money'...in your bookstores (possibly not that one in Petersfield!!) next February. Worrying times ahead dear friends and not only on the pitch at St Marys.

I have no time for Reform but the BBC was having to put up with a lot of criticism about not giving air time to the party at a time when the Polls were showing them registering highly with the electorate. From the BBC's position they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Stop the ...what..? One 'o' to many?? I wonder if Trump, turning up in his golf shoes may have suggested to the USA team that he wanted to take part as he is a born winner on the golf course and manages to find time to play most weekends in between managing the greatest cuntry on earth, since time began.

I enjoyed the game a bit more than the ones I have seen at St Marys and Hull so far this season bearing in mind that Middlesboro are a decent side. I was only thinking to myself that the Smoggies had taken off three of their more attacking players, which was a good sign, only to find that their replacements ended up causing us more problems. It may be that Saints are work in progress but then again quite a few Championship teams have quite a turnover of players this season so that is a bit of a poor excuse. I guess we have a strong squad which should be beneficial as the season progresses as really only Shea Charles would be a big miss if he was to miss games. I thought Ross Stewart did OK for his first full game and not only did he provide and aerial challenge but also dropped back into midfield to attend to defensive duties. All that said, with the way the team have performed so far this season, a top two spot is very unlikely and there will need to be a big upturn in form to make the playoffs. If we can only get 2 or 3 points from the next two games then the pressure will really be on Will Still

Indeed there are some good players out there. Bree at Charlton (scored yesterday). Brereton Diaz (scored a cracker for Derby) young prospect in League One (Ballard at L Orient scored) and another young defender, Thierry Small who is playing well at the back for Preston NE. Then there is a well regarded Manager at Charlton who is performing well in the Championship.

In all my years watching Saints I cant remember a worse striker performance than Downs tonight. What is it with our striker recruitment? Absolutely crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, should have pointed out that Tom's original name was Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon but he preferred Chris to Steve before adopting the name Tommy Robinson in honour of a namesake who was a member of the Luton Town hooligan gang. Apparently he has also used the monikers Andrew McMaster, Paul Harris, Stephen Lennon and interestingly, Wayne King. Interesting fellow and could well be nominated for honours or possible entry to the House of Lords when Reform win the next Election.

I suppose winning the Fourth Division with Doncaster & Grimsby would be looked upon as decent achievements. However I would humbly suggest that there would be lots of expressions of disappointment on here if the latter day Saints owners had appointed a Fourth Division Manager who then was involved in an immediate relegation in 1973 and a lengthy struggle in the Second Division prior to redemption in 1976 & 1978.

Gathercole has looked decent in the snippets I have seen. Reminds me a bit of Dom Ballard in so far as he has decent skills in the penalty area and knows where the goal is. He is not ready for first team football yet but has potential. However another one off our production line of 5'6" forward players unfortunately.

Poor old Chris Yaxley-Lennon (call me Tommy). He is upset that he has been prevented from getting away for a 'break' to Panama and/or Columbia as the stress of recent life has taken its toll. Not for him a short holiday in Cornwall, Dorset, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland or even Ibiza, Benidorm, Torremolinos to join many others of his ilk. I feel sorry for the poor lad as his crusades are obviously having an affect on his mental health.

Trump consistently said that 'Tariffs' is his favourite word. I guess someone must have had a word to him as he now, with some reluctance, has modified the statement. He now reckons his favourite word(s) are 'Family' (by his own admission he wouldnt mind dating one of his daughters), 'Religion' (highly unlikely that he has ever been to church on his own account, ever read the bible or can even recount the Lords Prayer) 'Love' (strictly limited to the feeling about himself) as well as 'Tariffs'.

Just a thought about the suggestion of a change in Manager. When Lawrie McMenemy took over from Ted Bates, Saints were in a relatively healthy position in the First Division. Results were poor and we ended up being relegated but Lawrie kept his job and the club went onto to much better days. Those in power generally pick up the spirit of players better than us supporters. If team spirit is at a low ebb and the players dont respond to the Manager that's when a change becomes necessary.

As a card carrying pessimist, I was genuinely excited, for the first time since May 2024 when we beat Leeds at Wembley, at the supposed calibre of player signed during the last transfer window. But after the first half shit show v Pompey and the drubbing at Hull today, I am now back to feelings of desperation. The only small glimmer of light finding its way through the darkened room where I am seeking solace away from this cruel world, is that i suffered similar feelings of despondency after the 5-0 battering at Sunderland two seasons ago. However up the Sunderland game the team had put in a couple of half decent performances. This season we have barely risen above the level of shittyness and with two very difficult games to look forward to. Instead of looking towards a top 6 finish, the spectre of fighting relegation rears its ugly head in the rear mirror. Why do I allow myself to go through this torture so may times???????

Apparently quite a few MAGA supporters think Michelle Obama is a man. I wonder who else is on the list?

Good ideas but perhaps people travelling a distance should get some sort of discount. There are 4 people who sit behind me who travel from Somerset, rain or shine, for every home game. They deserve better seat ticket prices than me who is normally home around 30 mins after a game.