spyinthesky

The central defender I recollect who dealt with Ron the best was Billy Baxter at Ipswich Town. I found this remarkable at the time as Billy Baxter was only about 5' 9" but, like Ron, had a real good spring.

Two players who I have enjoyed more than most in my long time supporting the Saints. However I wonder how both would have fared in modern football where physicality and fitness is paramount? Le Tiss may have been compromised by enhanced pressing whilst Big Ron may well have suffered from taller defenders (whereas the average height of centre halves in his day were around the 6' mark) Of course this is all speculation. All I can really say is that I am so grateful to have seen both of them (pus Sir Michael de Channon, Terry Paine and Kevin Keegan) in their prime!!

During my long association with the Saints, we have generally been good at home and pretty poor away from the comforts of the South Coast. It is interesting this has form been turned on its head this season. We have earned 17 points away from home with a positive 16-14 goal difference. This would have been 19 points if we had beaten Arsenal at the Emirates, which should really have been the case. The 17 away points puts us in 5th place in the League table. However the 11 points won at home puts up in the bottom three with the worst goal difference accentuated by the 9-0 hammering by Leicester. Our system seems to better suited to playing away and we have all had to endure some pretty dire performances at SMS over the past 3 seasons. Let's hope we can look forward to more entertaining games at SMS and additional points on the board.

I agree. However both he and Valery were adversely affected by the system of play we had until recently where the right back position was cruelly exposed by lack of cover in front of them. Introducing Armstrong into the side has greatly improved the balance

1. Forster.....Celtic 2. - 3. - 4. Reed.......Fulham. 5. Jones......Gillingham.. 6. Hoedt......??? 7. Elonouyssi.. Celtic. 8. O'Connor....Gillingham. 9. Carillo.......???? 10. Lemina....Turkey. 11.Hesketh....Lincoln 12. Barnes....Eastleigh. If only we had a couple of full backs to send out on loan to complete the set. Approx £75m invested in that squad!!!

For most games these are hardly used these days, apart from big games. Originally there were 47 Boxes and for several seasons they were all taken at around £50k per box per season. Recently the take up has been low and some boxes have been reconfigured. However it appeared that most of the Boxes were occupied on Saturday which was a good sign. Anyone know if there were special deals on offer?

Note that Everton are planning to build a new stadium at the Bramley Moore Dock with a price tag of + £500m. Undoubtedly this will have an affect on transfer funds

Any idea what the situation is with our loaned out players? I guess Hoedt, Lemina, Carillo, Forster and our Norwegian/N African who's name I can never spell, are on season long loans and only the latter two have any real transfer value and neither would feature in the current squad. Harry Reed seems to be doing OK at Fulham and could be worth recalling if the loan deal allows, as we are not overblessed with midfield cover. Jake Hesketh is at Lincoln and probably wouldnt feature in the current line out, similarly Jones and O'Conner at Gillingham are in the same category.

Wonder what the view is of Cedric's performance today in amongst plenty of creditable individuals performances throughout the team? He hasnt been in the greatest of form but believe the change of formation ie providing more midfield cover on the right side of the pitch has helped significantly,

Difficult choice for Manager Wholesale changes? Perhaps: Gunn ??? ( Valery, if fit) ??? (Danso (if fit or Vokes) Yoshida Vestegaard (unless he off to Bremen) Romeu Slattery (unless he is still in the doghouse) Boufal Long Adams Djenepo Cant see too many of today's starting lineup being involved unless their fitness levels are suitable. Certainly not many options at full back.. Crowd .. Approx 10,000?

I really want him to do well but cant see anything that justifies his transfer fee

Always different views. Talking to Palarse fans after the game they thought the Ref was definitely biased towards us.

Where I was sat it seemed a definite offside but VAR seems to show it was marginal Thought the Referee allowed the game to flow and we benefited for the most part

Probably will get shot down for this but thought Ref had a decent game as did VAR (again)!!!

Agree we cant afford to be doing anything to upset our majority owner or our High Profile sponsors (Messrs Lander & Co)

Going to back to the days when I was out and about in town there were plenty of players enjoying themselves The drinking culture was arguably far more prevalent than now

There have some pretty bad performances at SMS over the past 3 seasons and this up with the worst of them. Even with VAR in our favour we were woeful. West Ham arent a great side but were in a different League to us, which will be the case next season. I'm not sure this side would do well in the Championship and without Ings, Ward Prowse (who isnt the greatest but did OK today) Bertrand and Romeu we would struggle to make the top 6. I have been a Saints fan longer than most but this team reminds me of the dark days of Branfoot. Dark times and I can fully understand why very few people are daft enough to buy a ticket for home games. Us season ticket holders have to sit and suffer

Question is, what influence does RH have with signings.

My Xmas list for New Year would be: A decent Centre Half - £20m+ (lose any of our current mob apart from possibly Bednerak?) A left footed midfielder/attacker - £15m ish (possibly lose Armstrong?) with a bit of pace A tall forward, good in the air - £5m/£10m (lose Shane Long?) (not necessarily a starter) Cant see any of this happening unfortunately despite the fact that we have approx £75m of 'Talent' out on loan ie Forster/Elonouyssi/Carillo/Hoedt/Lemina

Good shout. i would do the same

Everton have just announced season ticket prices for 2020/1 which they intend to keep unchanged for the 5th successive year. Prices are: Under 11 £99 11-18 £149 18-21/ 65+ £299 22-24 £380 All others £420 Apparently there is a high % of younger fans taking advantage of these prices and I reckon it is good policy to encourage the next generation of supporters. I reckon prices around this level would help lower the current age profile at SMS and hopefully add to the atmosphere diluted by the pipe and slippers brigade like me!!.

I am likely to be shot for this but I have sympathy with whoever plays right back in our formation. Most clubs who have decent attacking left backs will push them up and often double up on our right back position. I like Djnepo but he is not good of protecting his right back and I was hoping that Ralph would bring on Romeu sooner than he did to put more protection into midfield In my view 4-3-3 is our best formation but, of course, 4-2-4 paid dividends in the first half. Anyone think that was a stone wall foul on Shane Long on the edge of the box? Norwich were given a free kick for a similar but less obvious foul soon after.

Good point. However we dont have the midfield creativity to play the ball on the ground. My view is that we should have invested in a forward with a bit of physicality, height and ability in the air which has been missing since Pelle's departure.

My view. Wrong team selection and we were absolutely shi*te first half. Reminded me of the Branfoot era. Too many passes backwards, possibly due to lack of forward movement. Great save by McCarthy (with his feet) from a volley. If we had gone 2-0 down then 'goodnight vienna' I feel sorry for Jack Stephens. I think he cares more than most but he made two major mistakes, one of which gave Watford their goal. Playing two in midfield is a mistake. We need 3 in midfield plus two upfront from Ings/Redmond/Djnepo/Boufal. You could feel the relief form the hardy Saints fans who were blasting out 'Oh When the Saints' at the end. Despite all the euphoria, I reckon these are two poor sides who will be down in the Championship next season.

One of them is to limit the pay of a company's top earner to 10 times the salary of the lowest. Will cause quite a problem for most companies and begs the question that if a cleaner at SMS is on £15k a year how are our superstars going to be able to manage on an annual salary that is the equivalent of a couple of weeks of their current wedge??