spyinthesky

To my mind he was the standout player in the U21's last season so it is good that he seems to have made a decent transition to the senior side.

Quarshie did the same v Wrexham

All Trump is concerned about is winning the Nobel Peace Prize but he is stretching the deal out a tad having promised all and sundry that he would sort it out in 24 hrs.

Quite a disappointing performance from the U21's against a team that are likely to struggle in the National League. Truro just about deserved their win. We seemed to pass forward into congested areas and our control and passing weren't at a very good level. Spectacular OG for our first goal then Will Armitage did well to get himself in a good position to score with a header from a corner for the second. Otherwise we were fairly flat going forward. One of the Oxlade-Chamberlain family came on for Truro.

I am pretty certain that Portsmouth was once in the County of Southampton. I remember seeing a photo of a 'proper' Pompey fan who 'hates Southampton' sat in his bedroom with an old map of Portsmouth on his bedroom wall showing 'Portsmouth in the County of Southampton' I guess he didnt realise the irony!!

No mention of the two penalty shouts for Saints or the dreadful tackle on Fraser by McClean and then a push on Fernandes.

Latest thoughts on squad which currently numbers 30 + Bella Kotcha as per Saturdays programme. GOALKEEPERS Youngsters To leave? Bazanu McCarthy + Loan? Moody RIGHT BACK Sugawara + Loan? Sugawara/Bree. Bree LEFT BACK Manning Taylor. Welington CENTRAL DEFENCE Stephens Sanda Quarshie Wood Edwards Harwood Bellis (??) DEFENSIVE MIDFIELD Charles Sesay Smallbone. Downes ATTACKING MIDFIELD Fernandes + Transfer in? Matsuki Aribo. WIDE PLAYERS Robinson Edozie. Fraser B-Diaz. Armstrong Dibling(?). FORWARDS Downs Stewart Archer That would leave a squad of 22 + 4 youngsters and 7 off the books plus a chunk of revenue if Dibling goes.

Good player in his day and his performance in the 6-3 win over Man Utd at The Dell was very noteworthy. Apparently he is now a presenter in an Israeli political show, with a right wing bias. He has also lost all his hair!!

Any one 'in the know' have updates on these four? Is Bella Kotcha actually training or at home counting his Euros? Looks like Edozie is back in the room after his transfer to Belgium seems to have fallen through. I guess Dom Ballard will be off on loan again or sold as he is not in the 29 man squad in yesterday's programme. Any snippets on who Joe Aribo is talking to?

Perhaps we should look to raid Sheff Weds now that they are down on their luck. Apparently they have a very good French right back who used to play for a Premier Club based on the South Coast who's ex Chairman is a relative of their star centre forward😆

Any one 'in the know' have updates on these four? Is Bella Kotcha actually training or at home counting his Euros? Looks like Edozie is back in the room after his transfer to Belgium seems to have fallen through. I guess Dom Ballard will be off on loan again or sold as he is not in the 29 man squad in yesterday's programme. Any snippets on who Joe Aribo is talking to?

Question is, if Dibling is not sold do we have funds to buy in a midfielder, right back and GK?

Just a thought, when we were last in the Championship we scored a last minute equaliser in the first home game v Norwich (albeit with a dodgy pen) in a 4-4 draw with Norwich

My random view of the 'experience'. * Our sponsors P&O were offering up free ice cream before the game. Well done. * The pre match fireworks were a waste of time in the sunny Southampton weather. * The Referee was poor. Why disnt he send Maclean off for the brutal foul on the wee man and then shoving Fernandes? * Give Wrexham fans their due, they keep up their support throughout the game. * Our fitness levels have improved significantly under Will Still. * Bazunu 8/10......could not be faulted and deserved credit for the crucial save near the end. * Sugawara 6/10...a middling performance. * Welington 6/10...got forward a bit more than Sugawara. * Edwards 5/10... I think we have the making of a decent there but struggled against the robustness of Keiffer Moore and gave away a silly pen. * Capt Jack 8/10....One of his best games for us. A couple of important clearances and the winning goal. A proper Captains performance. * Quarsie 7/10........Still a bit raw but a committed performance and his pace and long throws could be beneficial. * Robinson 7/10.....Did well after his move up from the U21's. If we had bought him in for a couple of million I would have thought this represented good value. He will have dips in form but a star in the making (hopefully) * Charles 7/10.......A steady performance with more to come (hopefully) * Downes 6/10......Didnt reach the high standard as previously in the Championship. Lucky not to get a booking for a number of fouls early on. More to come (hopefully) * Armstrong 5/10.. Plenty of effort but a bit unfortunate with a couple of chances. Not a central striker unfortunately. * Wee Man 7/10......I was concerned about his selection in the middle of the park. He did OK when moved to the flanks and put in a decent shift. Subs * Manning 8/10.....Fantastic free kick and cross for the second goal deserves a top mark. * Downs 5/10....Yet to see anything of note from him from the Brighton game or his cameo today. Hope for better. * Stewart 5/10....Too little time to make an impression. Like to see him lead the line and provide more aerial presence. * Fernandes 5/10. Similar remark. But we all know what a good player he is and hope he stays. * Archer 5/10.. Yet to impress me. Hope I'm wrong. Just so nice to win a home game but the trip to Portman Road will be a decent test.

I watched second half of Chelsea v Leverkusen who had Nathan Tella in their team but pretty anonymous. Chelsea looked really good with a large squad full of expensive buys and decent youngsters. The gap between the Prem and Championship grows larger by the day. If we do go up and allowing for the fact that money would have to be spent on our squad it would be another struggle.

I may have said this before but having had a chat with someone 'in the know' at SMS, the club are prepared to sell Dibling for the right price but really want to keep hold of Fernandes. Of course this depends on Fernandes and his agent accepting this strategy. It will be interesting to see if Fernandes plays tomorrow.

Interesting that no mention of the Ladies team. No problem for me but may be for others.

Re the local company debate. Just to provide a little historical context, The Peninsular Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1837 by Arthur Anderson & Brodie McGhie (both of Scottish descent) and three years later the company merged with the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company (P&O). In 1840, the merged company started the first Deep Sea operation out of Southampton with freight & Passengers using the SS Tagus. Arthur Anderson has a road named after him in Southampton. So, to my mind, this means that the P&O company have strong links to the city, especially as the cruise side of P&O have used Southampton for their Office and Shipside business for decades. . There has been some confusion, expressed by one or two on here with P&O Ferries who are now owned by DPWorld. However P&O Ferries was originally part of the wider P&O Group back in the late 1960's and the company went onto to purchase European Ferries who owned Townsend Thoresen who many of us older members of this group will remember running services over to France from Southampton.

Romeu was indeed at the training ground last week so we can all speculate on the reason

Away from the actual game, it seemed rather odd that around 20-30 Brighton fans were in the Itchen Stand and had to be escorted to the away end in the first half. Seems rather strange that they were able to access this amount of tickets in the home section.

I think Wrexham will look for consolidation this season and maybe a crack at the play offs if things go well. Birmingham seem to be well fired up for a second promotion. It certainly is going to be an interesting season.

There is a good chance that Dibling could turn into a very decent player in the future if he can play against the ball as well as with it. However with a potential £40m+ in the bank and with Jay Robinson turning in arguably higher levels of performances than Dibling, albeit at a year or so older, then the transfer may be the best for all concerned, provided any money released to the transfer fund will be spent on decent players.

Sorry if this has been mentioned earlier but has there been any report on the morning game v Brighton, which I understand we lost 1-0 eg who played etc etc

Looks likes a second bid is likely from Everton. It seems fairly certain that a bid of around £30m would seal the deal. That said, it seems that Everton are also looking at Fellows from WBA to fill in their quest for a right sided attacker.

Looked Ok to me. All pitches are so much better than the standard when I started watching as a nipper.