Saint Pete

No, it's not the club's fault that the FA have taken so long. But I feel they could have been far more vocal in applying pressure to speed things up. Can't help feeling that a bigger, better connected club wouldn't have been meekly sitting back waiting for the FA's open-ended process to play out, so that we end up with a decision and potential ban looming right at the start of the season. They would have at least been making it known through media channels that the club are keen for matter to be resolved quickly and feel it would be unacceptable for FA to drag their feet on it all summer.

What I do think we could and should have done is pressed the FA at the end of the season for a clear timescale for when a decision would be made and publicly push for it to be as soon as possible to try to avoid the situation we are in now where a ban could be dropped on us right at the start of the season. I think that should have been totally unacceptable given the facts were all known already.

I'm afraid I'm pretty cynical about the reasons. The facts were all out there at the end of the season so they could/should have charged him there and then. But it wouldn't have had the impact in terms of media coverage or of the ban itself if decision was made on the eve of or during the World Cup. It's pretty clear this is being timed nicely so that the ban is dropped a couple of weeks before season starts and the FA get a nice wedge of media coverage on how they are making an example of Tonda/Saints to ensure better behaviour in the future. I fully expect a meaty ban, so anything less will be a pleasant surprise!

So the FA have taken nearly all summer just to decide he should be charged? Fab. Purely coincidental that they have got to this stage just after the World Cup is over and there is a bit of a lull in football news in the media?

I would be happy enough to see Stewart back with us next season as he's a good player but can't see it happening somehow after the extension wasn't done at end of season. If it is to happen, it needs to be soon as others have said above.

I'm with you totally on the yellow cards. I saw several games where there was a total refusal from refs to apply the rules on what should be a yellow card. The ones that spring to mind immediately are Paraguay-France, England-Argentina and then the Final. In fact, pretty sure all Argentina games were subject to the same! Would be interested to know if there was an instruction to refs not to book players so much generally or if it was more selective than that. No-one likes to see matches decided by yellow/red cards but refs have to use them in the modern game to avoid teams like Argentina taking the piss like they did in this tournament.

He obviously had immense talent, but I think what characterised him most was his massive enthusiasm and passion for the game and that he was very much his own man prepared to do his own thing, not what everyone else expected. Hence how he came to sign for us when ballon d'or winner! And then joined Newcastle when in Div 2. Great character.

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2020/04/29/when-southampton-signed-the-two-time-ballon-dor-winner-kevin-keegan-and-no-one-knew-about-it/ Very interesting read on the signing of KK and his time at Saints. Amazing times.

The word legend is overused these days but he was a genuine legend of the game and an iconic figure. And from a Saints perspective a key part of the most exciting period in our history, and definitely we will never make a better, more astonishing signing than him! RIP.

I hope in time people will remember the Mexico-England game as much as if not more than the semi-final exit. That was a bona fide classic of a match and for me the game of the tournament, which showed how exciting international football can still be if played right. A truly great England performance given the environment they were playing in and everything that seemed to be against them on the night.

Great fun to watch tonight and it's always nice to beat the French. But you have to take account the circumstances, at times I thought Fifa must have outlawed tackling altogether since the semi finals! An England-France final would of course have been an altogether different game, no doubt with a lot less goals!

I wasn't defending him, he could and should have done more to stop what happened, but the players shat the bed as well once getting in front, no mistake about that. We have failed in games like this over multiple World Cups and Euros and it ain't just down to the managers although I know our fans love to think our players are great really and it's all down to poor coaching/tactics.

Can you imagine the uproar if the England team paraded a political banner on the pitch openly baiting the opposition like that? There would be international outrage, calls for expulsion, suspensions, etc no doubt! As it's Argentina, sure it will be quietly swept under the FIFA carpet though so that the Messi love in can continue in earnest for the Final.

I can of course see why Tuchel is getting lots of stick for this and agree that much of it is deserved. But it's a mistake in my view to put what happened 100% on the manager if we want to improve in the future. I don't know if folks saw the stat given after the game last night that England had just 12% possession between taking the lead and Argentina's winner. That is crazy and the change in the game was immediate after we scored and before the subs started. To me, it felt like the players didn't have the belief that we could kick on and win that game after getting in front and that is at least as much mental as it is tactical. We stopped doing the basic building blocks of our game; passing to each other, keeping possession, building attacks, closing down crosses. All of it fell apart. It reminded me of a Golf or Tennis major where someone not used to winning gets near the finishing line and the basics of their normal game and technique crumble. Basically, the players choked and that is not all down to the manager. I don't think Tuchel was stood on the touchline after Gordon scored shouting "Everyone, retreat into your own box, let them have all the ball and don't close down crosses!" Those things happened because our players froze and didn't have the belief to continue playing their normal game. In the moment their belief should have soared having gone in front, it was the exact opposite and they went into their collective shell thinking of the finishing line. So disappointing as I don't believe this Argie team are great by any means but we made them look amazing in that last 35 minutes. That said, Tuchel's changes did nothing to help and if anything resulted in us retreating even further. And I agree with comments about his squad selection which has hampered us throughout the tournament, plus his refusal to play certain players he selected that could have helped us, eg Mainoo. But simply sacking Tuchel and putting in An Other without dissecting the reasons for the failings of the players described above won't result in us winning this type of game in the future.

I don't see it as cover/understudy, I would think the idea is he will alternate with Larin in the same way as Stewart did. From reading about him, it sounds like he has the right attributes for that, just needs to step up his goals output a bit in the same way as Larin did when he arrived.