spyinthesky

I feel vey sorry for those fans travelling to Stamford Bridge and Anfield

And for the second time in a row, Juric replaced Welington at Half Time

I looked on the comments section of the Leicester Mercury match reports. More or less the same feelings of desperation and disappointment as has been with us all for many months now, although I suspect that most of us have moved on to a feeling of inevitability. Mind you to lose AGAIN against both Leicester & Wolves would be a real kick in the nuts

Whatever happened to the Dubai Saints?

On the Financial front wasn't Mervyn King. ex Governor of the Bank of England, a Saints fan as is Ken Bruce's son, although no financial connection there!!!

Of course this is disgraceful and my heart goes out to the many innocent individuals in Gaza who have suffered terribly from Israel's retort to the Hamas attack. All that said, I wonder what my sympathetic response would have been in WW2, after experiencing bombing here, if I knew what Dresden and other German cities were experiencing. There also appears to be a 'fact' circulating on Social Media that the Israeli Govt knew about the impending Hamas attack and allowed it to proceed to give the green light to mass bombing in Gaza.

It was all the fault of the Nazi Jew Zelensky.

It does make you wonder if Trump was compromised during his time in Moscow and the Russians have evidence of it.

As i have mentioned before the Sunderland fans I have spoken to all reckon that Roscoe is the real deal (albeit at Championship level) when fit. It begs the question how many players have returned to full fitness after such a long time out of the game. With regard to Larios, I cant see him finding a place in the team if he ever regains a semblance of fitness.

Sad fact of life nowadays is I go the St Marys hoping that we can keep the goals against no more than 5. I find myself looking at the clock counting down the time to 90 mins + hoping there is a swift respite. Heaven help us if we went a couple of goals down early doors then have a player sent off.!!!!!!!!!

Is Roscoe (and Larios) actually training or still in the 'Recovery Position'?

I always remember speaking to an ex Manager who said that if the recruitment of new player was at least 70% successful, as a Manager you had a very good chance of making a decent team, as seems to be the case with the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth and Forest atm. Below that figure there were likely to be problems. Of course Saints arent the only team with recruitment problems but the club doesnt have deep pockets so the minimum 70% success rate in the transfer market is particularly important. I understand that when Ted Bates was Manager he personally watched players when they played at home and away to make sure they were consistent in their performances. Nowadays that really isnt possible as so many players play matches outside this country.

Fair point. I was aware that Plymouth could be brought into the equation but whilst I appreciate my comment was not geographically correvct, for my sins I have only seen Bournemouth, Pompey and Brighton as being our 'rivals' along the South Coast. I suppose it is a bit like saying which are the rival clubs on Merseyside which would then have to include Stockport County

Whilst not necessarily arguing against your choices, the fact is the club will have to sell the better players such as Fernandes, Ramsdale, Dibling perhaps THB to make up for the losses that relegation brings. Likewise if there is interest in players with a year remaining on their contract will probably have to be sold for financial reasons. KWP will unfortunately leave on a Free.

MLG But are we? They beat Swansea 4-0 versus our 3-0. They drew with a full strength Burnley 0-0 whilst our more or less full strength side lost 1-0 to a weakened Burnley team. Going back to pre season we were abysmal and lost to Oxford whilst Pompey beat them 2-0. There is the possibility that Pompey will strengthen next season whereas our better players will be off. I guess it will all depend on who is the Manager and what decent recruits will be in the team next season. I have the recurring nightmare that for the only time in my long association with Saints, we could be the lowest ranking side along the South Coast.

Cant wait. Would be great if the break was longer. Perhaps next years season ticket will include a series of sessions with a therapist.

Rosco and Larios will be back in the squad firing on all cylinders!!

I tip my hat to all those who make themselves heard at games especially this season as there has been buggar all to get excited about. I used to be like that as a youngster but age takes its toll and I have only been able to respond as I used to do at Wembley and West Brom games last season. It might be beneficial for the club to offer cheaper prices to those attending matches at the Northam end where standing is the order of the day which is similar to arrangements in Germany.

I dont think we are fit enough and that may be because their RussBall training was focused on ball work rather than fitness. Also when you look at pre match preparations and half time routines, for most Prem sides, they are far more focussed than our efforts which seem Sunday League style in comparison. Similarly work on throw ins and corners seem to have a strategy to them where as ours dont.

Trump once called his now Secretary of Health and Human Services..'The dumbest of all the Kennedy's'.. but then promoted him to a senior member of his Government,

As a card carrying Negative Nelly, I have tried to dredge up some positives from our recent forays in the Premier league 1. Saints supporters are still turning up in decent numbers both home and away....but for how long?. 2. Signing of Fernandes who is a bright spot in a desperately poor side.... enjoy him whilst you can. (Welington seems a reasonable signing too) 3. The commitment of the players. Collectively they are awful bit at least there is no sign of them giving up...yet!! 4. The improvements in/around the stadium. Think the club has made strides this year....but the major improvements need to be on the field of play. 5. Performances of the U18 & U21's. Watching clips of the games there seems to be one or two who could potentially make the grade. Like the look of Jay Robinson...but of course there is a big step up even to the Championship. 6. ????? That's it...............

Have to disagree with you about KWP although Ramsdale got him out of jail with the terrific save from his header. Saints are basically an average Championship side with a couple of players that are Prem quality. The team seem slower, very much less organised than almost all the other teams in the Prem and the difference in quality seems to be growing week by week. For what it is worth, here's my players ratings: 1. RAMSDALE 9 Three outstanding saves and no chance with the goals 2. BREE 5 An average performance 3. WELINGTON 5.5 Presume he was injured so taken off at HT 4. KWP 5 Thought he was OK but marked down a half point for the header back to Ramsdale 5. BEDNERAK 6 Won most of his battles against a tricky and speedy opponent 6. WOOD 3.5 Looked completely out of his depth which is quite worrying 7. SMALLBONE 3 I feel sorry for him but he was useless. 8. FERNANDES 6.5 Once again our best outfield player. Shame he wont be with us next season 9. TALL PAUL 4.5 Cant see what he offers to the attack 10. ARIBO 5 Like the majority of our squad, Championship standard. 11. SULEMANA 5.5 He definitely has talent but needs to learn to use it in the right way. Took his goal well. 12.UGOCHUKWU 4.5 An improvement on Smallbone but Chelsea were mugged if they paid £22m for him 13. SUGAWARA 4 Meh!! 14. DIBLING 4.5 Did a couple of nice runs but still poor in the defensive part of the game 15. MANNING ? Was he on the pitch 16. ARCHER ? Ditto MANAGER 3 Initial thoughts that he and his staff might improve on the previous Management team. Unfortunately we seem to be getting worse!!

I just wonder whether the Russians do have information on some dodgy stuff Trump got into when he was in Moscow years ago and/or if there is something Putin can offer to Trump and his family to grease their sweaty palms. All that said Trump is probably so ingrained in the minds of Republican minds at the moment that he could survive more or less all types of shit that could be thrown at him.

I am sure that Trump's core of support will follow what he does slavishly. By retreating back to fortress MAGA land, it creates a vacuum elsewhere around the world, particularly in Europe. The concern for countries in Europe is that Russia will regroup and continue to pour roubles into their war machine which, currently, exceeds all the defence spending of European countries combined. Unfortunately without the umbrella protection of the US Military we will face the same challenges that would have occurred in WW1 and WW2 without US intervention. Not a pleasant thought.

As another poster has said on here, when Bournemouth games used to get announced over the tannoy at The Dell, there was always a decent reaction when Bournemouth won. Our supporters also put their hands in their pockets when Bournemouth went through a funding crisis, so there was a degree of fondness to the team playing at Dean Court and we had no problems buying/selling/loaning players to each other. In some respects, I can perhaps understand that some Bournemouth fans might feel some dislike towards the Saints as quite a few Saints fans used to come up to The Dell and then SMS to watch higher grade football. What Bournemouth have achieved in more recent years is very impressive and a game against their current side with our best team from the Pochettino or Koeman eras would have been a cracker. A repeat of the first half at Dean Court could well result in a massacre and with the usual outcome in recent times of the final whistle heralding yet another home spanking with the away supporters in full voice, whilst those of us still in the ground trudging out thinking 'why on earth do we submit ourselves to this ritual humiliation'