AussieDog

irrelevant really, considering he can't play against them anyway.

I thought we had 2 really good chances to score. Unfortubately Pelle is just off his top game at the moment. The through ball by Schneiderlin was sublime in the 1st half. Pelle half a yard too slow for Long's cross in the 2nd. Maybe Long would have made more of his chance if the City guy hadn't blocked him when he got sent off. Other than that I'm struggling to pick out the positives as we did so many things badly that we have been doing well all season (and I know this is meant to be the "positive" thread, but the worst decision was to disrupt a settled defence)

You don't think Ant & Dec and the majority of the crew slum it in the "jungle" do you? Lol and the contestants all get a taste of luxury once they are "evicted" by staying in the Versace 5* hotel at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast

I hope so - the crew and contestants all stay at a hotel 20 minutes from where I live for that show and I'd love to go and buy him a Malibu and coke and thank him in person for most of my best memories watching Saints!

If we were looking at worst case scenarios where virtually our whole "first 11" were out injured, then yes, we would be very weak. That's not really likely is it! The point is, we have adequate cover in most areas if we were to lose 2,3 or even 4 players (unless it happened to be an entire "unit" like our defence). For me, realistically, gk is our main concern as even if Boruc was to be recalled I' m not sure his attitude would be right - but I would love to be proved wrong. Some players would certainly be missed more than others - for me that would Forster, Pelle and Tadic. As someone mentioned earlier.... Realistically we aren't competing against City or Chelsea - it's Arsenal, Utd, West Ham, Swansea, Spurs, Liverpool and Everton ( I know that's not ALL the teams in order but I refuse to believe the likes of Stoke really represent a threat to us this season)

Although Villa are terrible....Spurs and Liverpool aren't much better and we lost to them. If we play to our potential we will win. If we turn up and give less than 100% then we may still win but I wouldn't be surprised if we lost. If we are going to be a top 4 team we need to win these types of games. Unfortunately I still can't bring myself to believe this isn't the Saints of old so I'm apprehensive about this game

Interesting that every team below 5th currently is closer to the bottom 3 than they are to us - and even 5th is equidistant. I have a feeling 4th place could be a record low total and will be up for grabs right until the last game of the season. This has to be our best ever shot at it if we keep a settled side and avoid too many injuries and suspensions.

Obviously the rules HAVE changed though, as the Europa Cup Winners never used to get a place in the Champions League - plus I think they changed the rules after Chelsea won it? Please - no speculation. If you know the answer then post it, but if you're guessing well there's not a lot of point really is there?

If Man City (or Liverpool or Arsenal) do finish 3rd and get dumped into the Europa Cup they would be foolish to not take it seriously as I think this year's winners get entry into next seasons Champions League. I know it's early days but everyone seems to believe that Chelsea have the League sewn up, which leave the others fighting for the remaining CL spots. Can anybody confirm what the scenario is if a) an English team wins the CL and/or b) an English team wins the EL? Would we still only have 4 slots next season - meaning only 2 from the league qualify -or would we get extra spots and in effect, possibly have up to 6 teams? I know that's a bit unlikely but it would be good to know the permutations.

We haven't lost to the 2 best teams we have played - we have lost to the 2 biggest names that we have played. You can't live on name alone or clubs like Leeds would still be in the Premier league. In theory, and on form, the best team we have played is West Ham and we did alright against them

Think we will change it around a bit, if only to give Stoke something to think about. Koeman appears to be a great tactician. Don't think there will be too many changes though. Target to get some more game time. Rest Tadic to save him from too much punishment. Other than that, maybe start with Wanyama instead of Either Cork or Schneiderlin. Expect 2 or 3 youngsters on the bench (Reed, McCarthy, and either Isgrove or McQueen would be my bet, but would love to see Seager amongst them)

Well I did get an echo journalist contact me when we came back for the JPT final, but our story obviously wasn't anywhere near as interesting as after wanting to hear my story he never got back in touch! We've only made it back 4 times in 8 years so we're obviously part time plastics Funnily enough the first time I brought the missus back for a game, we suffered a 2-1 defeat to QPR but it obviously didn't put her off!

Should I feel unlucky? During my trip over I "only" got to see the Newcastle and QPR league wins (couldn't get tickets for Swansea) - oh, and the cup game at Arsenal

Seager had a bad/disrupted season with injuries last year, but the year before he was banging them in for the U18's and getting rave reviews. Hopefully his injury problems are behind him, because it's about time we produced another goalscoring hero! I'm sure I've missed a few but.... Le Tissier Shearer (although not really prolific with us, but you could see he was going to be. Shame he buggered off to Blacburn so soon, but one of my best ever memories was his hat trick against Arsenal) Moran Channon Chivers Paine Mind you...we've had a few who looked great for the ressies but never quite made it in the first team Maskell, Foyle, Puckett, Juryeff, Blochel Think I'm showing my age...

Budgie Golac Dennis Steele Ruddock Case Hurlock O'Neill Worthington George Osgood May be a touch lacking in pace.. Don't think we'd win the league but it would be fun to watch

Peter Shilton Mark Dennis Ivan Golac Mark Wright Dean Richards Alan Ball Matt LeTissier Kevin Keegan Rickie Lambert Mick Channon Ted McDougall Subs Tim Flowers Gareth Bale Adam Lallana Steve Moran Jose Fonte Morgan Schneiderlin Steve Willaims Ask me tomorrow and it will probably be different - seen way too many great/favourites over the past 40 years!

I'm always telling the missus that English takeaways are better than Aussie ones, so any recommendations for best fish&chips, Indian, Chinese, and pizza places within 20 miles of Southampton please?

Excellent! I can tick another stadium off my list, it should be relatively cheap, and it's a 4th game I can see on my trip back (assuming I can get tickets for Swansea away which might be a bit tricky) - oh...and I think it's a game we can win too (unless Arsenal change tactics and don't play their reserves)

My enthusiasm ebbs and flows, especially being so far away now, but get me anywhere near Southampton and it all comes flooding back. It's been a bit of a struggle to stay positive this summer, with not knowing what's going on and the fact that most of the players coming in I had never even heard of ( I love it when we get academy players bursting through the ranks as that epitomizes Saints to me). The Liverpool game was encouraging, but I will be getting my infusion of Saints in September when I come back so all will be well in my world after that

My enthusiasm ebbs and flows, especially being so far away now, but get me anywhere near Southampton and it all comes flooding back. It's been a bit of a struggle to stay positive this summer, with not knowing what's going on and the fact that most of the players coming in I had never even heard of ( I love it when we get academy players bursting through the ranks as that epitomizes Saints to me). The Liverpool game was encouraging, but I will be getting my infusion of Saints in September when I come back so all will be well in my world after that

Maybe the 15 year old's mum had a better offer from Liverpool....

I Don't think you would get away with salary capping individuals, but you might be able to salary cap a club? It would certainly level the playing field a little.

along with Sammy Lee?

On the assumption we don't sign anybody else, then we will do as well as Derby did a few seasons back...if we're lucky. I don't believe that will be the case though, so I wouldn't even hazard a guess until I know the squad when the transfer window has shut. I'd be disappointed (and expect a hammering) in the first few games if we didn't sign anybody pretty soon though.

I pretty much agree with all of your sentiments, with a couple of exceptions. Firstly, I don't think the majority of players moving have any sort of guarantee over a first team place. They are moving to become small fish in an even bigger pond with the POTENTIAL to become superstars. Most of us would do the same - especially with the "comfort" of doubling, tripling or even quadrupling your salary and being financially set up for life. The other point is the Board COULD do something about it. Say NO. What are they all going to do, go on strike? I don't think so, and I think the majority of them know better than to not give 100% because of what it says about their character and their chances of a move to a top club when/if they let their contracts run down. That's just my personal opinion, and I'm still drinking from a half-filled rather than half-empty glass (or maybe that should be a quarter filled glass, as my optimism is getting stretched further than it has ever been before), as I can't believe we would have invested in the management and coaching team, along with the 2 signings to date, like we have if there wasn't a plan in place. One other point, and I know I mentioned it in another post when I said about Pochetino being an under-achiever, but maybe the consensus in the post season review was that, as talented as the players were, THEY under-achieved last year, and that now was the time and opportunity to rebuild. Of course it would have been better if those plans had been shared, but I can imagine what the season ticket sales would have been like if they had asked people to spruke up their hard-earned cash on the belief and faith that we could totally dismantle and rebuild a team a few weeks before the start of the season. I guess that is the biggest problem I have after some of the statements that came out at the end of the season, as I would rather be kept in the dark than lied to (although I would much rather be told the truth!).