david in sweden

10 years on and we still had just- half of a good season, but our real success has been surviving - for yet another year. In some ways we have had a little "statistical success" in playing 4 games v. the Manchester sides without losing, and then beating 2 good London sides away from home, (the win at Spurs gave me some personal delight), and our solitary goal v. Arsenal at SMS was perhaos the one game that eventually guaranteed our survival in what has been a disasterous end of season programme. The reality is that for a dozen or so clubs, " Prem. success " is survival, and they breathe a sign of relief until August comes around. This is not enough for those fans who demand the managers sacking after a bad run, or those who expect us to up the limit on the credit card every transfer window, and those signings we do make are either; " long shots ", or badly misplaced faith in a player who doesn't fit our formation, and is no longer playing alongside former team mates - who made him successful in the first place. Being one of the " big money clubs" doesn't guarantee success either. Every year clubs like; Spurs, Villa, Leicester and Man. Utd "splash the cash" to little effect, in the vain hopes of rediscovering some former glory that their fathers once knew. Everton's survival maybe short-lived - if the auditors can trace the £500 million they have seemingly " overspent" in the last few years. The fact remains that the "Chelsea's, Liverpool's and Man.City" will always have the wherewithal to buy the best / most expensive players whilst stealing away better talents from the rest of us - often for a pittance in comparative transfer fees. Every season "the yo-yo clubs" ; (the likes of Watford, Fulham, Bournemouth and Norwich).. conquer the Championship with apparent ease, only to end up in the Prem's bottom three after their first season. The " reality gap" between the two leagues is an enormous chasm, and not just 3 places up the ladder. On rare occasion Saints have a good run of luck; the Koeman's bought almost a whole new squad without breaking the bank, and gave us a couple of great seasons, before the lure of " the greener grass " draws them away-to an uncertain future elsewhere. Whether they succeed or not (?) they still walk away richer in the long term. As I anticipate my 64th season as a Saints fan ..... (I'm not the longest-supporting, but there are very few of us left).... I live in hopes of a good Cup run - maybe even a Final, but the wins have been far too few, and Prem. survival has almost always been in the bottom half, but the spirit in the club has always kept hopes of better future alive, although long ago I learned to be pragmatic about Saints' "successes ".

......and we can see why with their slick first-time passing and a right winger who ruled the game. The City no 3 (?) Max Alleyne ... was in Saints schoolboy side, but move to City as a a 15 year old ...and Saints got £1.5 million for him. Says it all really. Nevertheless , it is surely the best U18 Saints side in living memory.

......well he's not alone in at area - is he ?

If Forster doesn't play ....then we 'll get a whole new perspective on McCarthy as our No.1 keeper next season because as of July 2 , he'll be the only keeper on Saints' books......... .unless ?

well YES, but...considering the huge salary that FF has been on it might be sensible for Saints to see what alternative offers he may get from elsewhere before coming back with a "more reasonable " salary offer (read MUCH LOWER) in order to keep him. He may be so " wealthy" that he can afford a return to Celtic and be adored by their fans, whilst playing for much less money. If he goes to a Prem. Championship club elsewhere, he's unlikely to be first-choice, whereas IMHO he's much better selection than McCarthy who unfortunately has already been re-signed, and we can't continue with both of them. This is a " Heart-Head " question. I'd have no qualms at re-signing him, whereas we do need some new " younger faces " in the goalkeeping dept..... and PDQ. Unfortunately that is a rare commodity at this level.

.....not to be too conspiratorial ..but if AA has a contract clause based on appearances ?.... we may have saved a few quid this season. At any rate he's worth a few starts in the remaining matches.... ( Elyounoussi is the only striker to have scored for us .... in the last 9 Prem. games !)

....and even Kami Doyle, who looked very scrawny in August, has filled out a lot....and might have had a hat-trick in the Reading game.

A really good performance from a squad that has included some 15 and 16 year olds this season, ...and to think in the distant past, we used to rave about the emergence of ....a handful of good talents; (Bridge, Walcott, Bale, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana, Shaw .... albeit in a period of over 10 years.) but this current U18 squad looks really hot and very sound in almost every department. More than a dozen have had game time in the B side, and at least 5 of them are already regulars in the B side (and don't look out of place either) ... this is perhaps one of the best youth squads we've ever produced. Needless to say, the Man City game will be a real challenge but with our recent turn of form, ( 40 goals scored v. 14 conceded in the last 13 games ) ...we can hope that we might even win this game.

Dom Ballard along with several others makes this U18 squad look really impressive, as in the past we have carefully quoted " the odd name" of promising youngsters we now see that around a dozen U18's have also had B team game time often coming up against opposition players with league experience . In particular Dom has shown up well and scored for both U18 and B team and the move for others has been just a walk up the corridor compared to former years. Others who may show up well in the coming years include 16y.o. Tyler Dibling (who scored a hat-trick for the B side at Newcastle) along with other U18's; Kamari Doyle, Luke Pearce and Lewis Payne (who has played in the B side all season) and we now see the U18's winning the title in their league, whilst the B side came within goal difference of a play-off place in their league after a nightmare start to the season. Lots of positives for the future, and intersting to see who gets their Prem. debut first?

After a "nightmare start " to the fixture list in August , we came away with points against both Manc. sides and also West Ham , then plodded along and were 9th at the end of February, followed by a good Cup win over West Ham ....since when we've had one win in 9 games, and managed just 7 goals - (and not one of them by any " so-called " striker). Despite (surprisingly) beating Arsenal, and predictably losing to Chelsea.....we have (in the meantime) lost 23 points to teams who were arguably worse than us - on paper. No blame can be attached to either Livramento or Broja , who (unlike Adam. A. did well in their first Prem. season, but both looked below par after their injury breaks after Christmas. (No surprise). The long-awaited return of Stuart A. was a real disappointment and he still looks way miles off the excellent player we saw previously. I agree with those (above in this thread) that for all the positives we quote about Shane Long, he's really not Prem. standard anymore, and his goal tally has been very poor considering the games / chances he has had in the last 2-3 seasons. Our real problem has been the lack of proper investment (not Ralph's fault) and he's done the best he can given the circumstances. Neither Adams or Adam.A has really made an impression, and Broja cannot function asa lone striker unless given real support. We still lack creativity in midfield, and a dependable back four ..as both Salisu and Lyanco blow hot and cold in successive games. How we have missed " the Danny Ings spirit", and the " Walcott experiment " didn't work and you'll need a long memory to recall a good performance from either Redmond or Djenepo. It's rather depressing to look further for the answers but Ralph will need a major re-think .... and a lot of cash to spend before the start of next season.

Holmes and Watson just reminded us of the " Crime of the Century ", namely with Villa JUST managing to survive in the Prem. Grealish might never had such an enormous transfer deal if Villa had been relegated - as they should have been. At the start of a "Covid " season; with an empty stadium and no goal line technique / VAR in place, Sheff Utd clearly "scored" a goal that was missed by the Ref. (goalie clearing ball away from behind the line) and that " stolen point " was enough to keep Villa up, but relegated Bournemouth who finished on the same points tally but a one goal worst difference. You often hear of clubs winning / losing because of a last minute goal, but to survive on the strength of a goal that was wrongly disallowed is gross. How much luck can one team have? I wonder if Man City feel they've got their money's worth?. As for as " talismatic players " Saints have had a few of those themselves over the years, and who promised much, but in the end delivered very little.

Just waiting for the next Prowsey free kick, as he gets closer to Beckham's total, but the thought has occurred to me - just how can you put a realistic value on his performances - and what sort of fee should we expect .. IF he were to move ?. Looking back at stats. (to end of March)....and compare him to another oft-vaunted Prem. player. Jack Grealish age 26 Total apps. 284 goals scored 42 . England apps. 19.... goals 1 James Ward-Prowse age 27 Total apps. 358 goals scored 41 . England apps. 10 ... goals 2 Certainly JWP has converted more free kicks than JG ...and probably penalties, too. Other positives: JWP has clocked up more Prem. minutes, and covered more distance than any other player in the last 3 years ...AND he doesn't fall on the ground shouting " Mummy" whenever he gets ankle-tapped. ....and so my question is: If Grealish was sold for £ 100 million .. what price Prowsey? , (justify the difference someone). Villa are certainly a worse team since JG left, and the argument that Prowsey " only plays for Saints " is no argument at all and his achievements could be classed as greater, as they have been attained despite playing for Saints, and not because of it.

You should take a look at the managers in Scottish Prem. For some of the them "Manager of the Month " has quite another meaning.

He's a Northern fella. Watford is about as far south as he'd want to move.

Of course our woman's team is the only real success, and half of them are teenagers. Top of their league (again) they are up for promotion.

Despite the fact that we finished with all 11 players, statistically that performance was only slightly better than the stats. from our two 0-9 defeats. v. Leicester possession 27% - 73% Shots 6 v. 25. We had only 10 men for c. 80 minutes. v. Man Utd. -"- 25% - 75% Shots 3 v. 24 We played 88 minutes with 10 men - and the last 5 mins. with just 9 on the field. At least we made an effort in those two matches, but yesterday "Shambolic " doesn't come near the description - we just didn't turn-up. Thank goodness that Referee Dean wasn't officiating. Seeing Chelsea hit the woodwork twice - even before their first goal didn't auger well, and then being 0-3 down after just 20 minutes was alarmingly reminiscent of the Leicester game. We showed little fight and some of our players gave it up as " a bad day " after that. Chelsea looked like they were playing a practice match for fun, and we didn't get into the game. I'm just pleased they showed mercy on us in the second half. Finding our " best " player was very hard, but despite seeing 6 goals past him, Forster saved us from a mauling that might have ended in double figures.

.....then of course we had Gary Linekar arguing about an incident that he thought was a Leeds penalty... whilst Richards and Shearer disagreed and laughed him into embarrassment. Really . ....that man couldn't agree with himself if he looked in the mirror.

OR ...why didn't we see the goal line decision from the byline, the cross into the box looked a very close call, before Leeds scored . but then again .....look who was on VAR. We ran out of favours from him years ago.

The Don Revie 1970's team was quite formidable, 50 years ago ..(4th March 1972) they beat us 7-0 at Elland Road. Their " very physical " style of play coined a number of phrases that became footballing legend at the time. " Hard but Fair " -----was a complete understatement of their tactical approach. " Rugged " to say the least. " Norman bites yer legs " . referred to their defensive legend Norman Hunter. Apparently a gentleman off the pitch, Norman took no prisoners on the field, yet once stated that the hardest player he ever came up against was our own David ( Docker) Walker. In response to the successful Liverpool teams of the time whose fans sang " You'll never walk alone " . The Leeds' crowd were known to parody the melody with their own version which ran ....." You'll never walk again " . Tough times they were.

You see.......lies, gossip, myth or " fake news " .....take your pick. I always doubted that "scummers" storyline myself. but points (2) and (3), I wrote about (above) are much more reliable reports that can be verified by many who saw those games.

I 've heard several explanations quoted over the decades about the animosity between the clubs. 1) ..sometime in the 1950's? ... Pompey fans were angered when (in the throws of a dock strike) the Portsmouth dock authority " imported " some workers from So´ton to keep the activities going. (Portsmouth was still an important Royal Naval base at the time) perhaps naturally enough it upset some of the locals in Portsmouth. (At this time the clubs were far apart in the League.. Saints were still in Div.3 (South) whilst Pompey had won the League title (Div. 1) twice in the post WW2 era). 2) Whatever anger / rivalry remained boiled over onto the pitch in the early 1960's, when we had derby games again in Division 2. (Saints having been promoted - whilst Pompey were relegated from Div.1 ). A classic punch-up began between Pompey left back Roy Lunnis ( a tough 6 '4" ex-Marine)....and our very own Terry Paine. Despite the difference in height and weight (5' 8" TP) was never a shrinking violet in a scrap, and both were sent off at one time or another. Opposing fans carried the aggression onto the terraces. 3) As if to add insult to injury the rivalry came to a head in season 1965-66 , when Saints were promoted to Div.1 and plundered Pompey 5-2 away (Norman Dean became the only Saints' player to score a hat-trick in a League game at Fratton Park) whilst Pompey struggled on only to be relegated to Division 3 (L1) a few years later. Needless to say something neither set of fans had overlooked, as we saw in the recent League Cup match at Fratton (we won 4-0), and Pompey fans showed their " irritation " once again ....with the usual ferocity.

Coming from London, Harry obviously didn't realise what REAL derby rivalry is all about. The background goes back to grandfather's time, and some of the younger generation have inherited that memory. My father was a Saints fan in the 1930's and the post-WW2 period and said some Saints fans would go to Fratton Park on those occasions that Saints were playing away. At the time Pompey were a top class team and had won two League titles. The aggro' returned in the early 1960's when we ended up in Division 2 at the same time, and hasn't relented since. Yes 'arry.... .it was a mistake. (Someone else who ignored the lessons of history). ** The outcome has been that those few Pompey players who ever came to So'ton were never allowed to forget their origins, and any ex-Saints player who ended his career at Pompey, was seen to be ..... " scraping the bottom of the barrel ".

Buying foreign players is always a dangerous move. Of course they have talent, but we should remember that " everyone can look good in a good team. " Coming to the Premier League is hard enough, and perhaps needing to learn a new playing formation is even harder, but only the most dedicated / professional players continue to try and improve themselves more. Lemina never seemed to see himself as " a Team player ", likewise Boufal (who left us with the memory of 2 or 3 great individual goals), but rarely passed the ball to another team mate in a Prem. game. Young players (especially) moving up are hungry and try harder, but as soon as you start paying them £30 /40 / 50K week on a long contract, they realise that they don't have to try quite so hard in order to put food on the table. Many media / journalists seem to go into raptures whenever a £ 70+ million player scores - the occasional goal- whilst the seasoned Prem. strikers score goals on a more regular basis.

Not sure if Wilson, or Les Reed were responsible for the buys made after the jackpot sale of VvD to Liverpool, but beginning with Boufal and upto the purchase of Carrillo the net result was distinctly underwhelming.. Few of them gave any real benefit to the club and their combined salaries might well have bankrupted us - had we been stuck with them till the end of their long contracts. Wilson may have had some success in buying talents from the lower leagues, but the Premier League can be a minefield when seeking new players...just look at the disasterous record of clubs like Spurs, Everton and even Man Utd. who spend money like water but show little or no progress. I'm pleased for Wilson's sake, if he's seen to be doing a good job in Scotland, but his record at Saints gives him little or nothing to brag about.

OR.. .in your case, 2 interchange subs. or one kangeroo up front, AND change out the referee if you don't like his decisions.