Super_Uwe

Lol, I know what you mean. The Villa game was always going to be an odd one. No-one really knew how they were going to perform after relegation was sealed. It wasn't like us to concede two goals like that, but as Koeman alluded to before the game, there wasn't really anything all that positive to gain from the match (we were expected to win whatever happened). It didn't surprise me one bit to hear about Villa's goals to be perfectly honest. All we can do now is try our best to win the last three. If we do, that will be 63 points for the season and a Premier League record once again, and possibly Europa League action next year. Two wins and a defeat from the last three and we will have gained 36 points from our last 18 fixtures, which is a very respectable effort.

Looking forward to seeing the new kits for next season! I watched the video, it made me chuckle hearing all that corporate speak:lol: That was deeeeep.

You're entitled to your view, but I honestly feel we have got a fantastic strike force at the club, and Pelle is a big part of that. We have got all bases covered IMO; obviously there is a chance that one or maybe two of the forwards will leave in the summer, but other than that we really can't complain.

Another good result, since the Norwich game away I think we have more or less picked up an average of 2 points a game. I'd hoped that we would get near last season's total of 60 points, but we have given ourselves a fighting chance now to do that. Great to see Long and Pelle get another goal each. Pelle's hit double figures in the league for the second season running, that isn't bad going at all (bearing in mind he's had a serious blip mid-way through both campaigns as well!).

The main issue I had with Burley at the time is that he came across as pretty insipid and care-free whenever he was interviewed. Now that isn't ordinarily a problem in itself, but in Saints case they seemed to concede far too many "soft" goals during his time in charge. Rightly or wrongly, I was never able to separate the two to be honest. Likewise, the fact we just about scraped into the play-offs in 06/07; as a fan, that seemed to me to be the limit of his ambition that year. But he joined us at a time when our expectations were very high, and so I accept he did an OK job for us.

I am pleased to see he is doing well at Boro. The club (ours, not Boro) clearly doesn't have a massive axe to grind with him either, bearing in mind the various messages of goodwill on social media over the past year or so. It is a shame it never worked out with Saints, but that is the way it goes. Just a shame that both him and Osvaldo have been such duds considering the amount we spent on them; not the sort of thing we can afford to do too often!

It's a long time ago now, but I'm fairly sure my season ticket in the Chapel for our first season at St. Mary's was around the £500 mark? So if you are renewing an adult ticket there, they aren't actually all that more expensive than they were 15 years ago. Quite an eye-opener. To be honest, my main concern for season ticket holders is that the TV scheduling is going to get even worse next year. Aside from the fact I can't afford a season ticket, it would do my nut in having to put up with rearranged fixture after rearranged fixture. It's much more of an issue than pricing in my opinion, especially for Saints fans who live further afield.

Don't know why, but I love the fact he went for Juninho Pernambucano as the best free-kick taker:) Can't disagree with him to be fair.

Haha! You're quite right. Amazes me how many people slag Pelle off for not being mobile or quick enough. Did we buy him to be a lightning quick whippet to run the forward line? No, we bought him because he is a good solid "old school" centre forward who had a decent scoring record, was well-known to the manager and was available within our price bracket in 2014. If he left in the summer, I would happily shake his hand and say good luck to him because he has done a good job for us.

Lol, thanks for the advice there:lol: Anyway, I was just replying to your point about the PL getting some of tax exemption. Whether you vote Yes or No is not really the point, I'm saying that the whole thing is much more complicated than the Yes or No campaigns are making out. I work in the translation industry and many colleagues who work for agencies here are of course EU nationals who provide native tongue expertise and are currently free to work here as citizens of the EU. Maybe if we vote to leave they will still be allowed to stay in the country as if nothing had changed, or maybe they will be forced to apply for work permits? I don't know and neither do you. And the same point I guess will apply to Saints' EU players, until something definitive is decided after the Referendum?

Yeah, but that's the thing...I don't disagree with the fact there would be a good case for exemptions for the Premier League based on the amount of revenue it generates, but I'm sure there are a whole host of industries out there who might be inclined to ask the same thing. It is far too complicated at the moment and I don't see an easy solution to it either I'm afraid. And therein lies the problem with the whole EU question...

Genuine question - if we do decide to leave the EU, what implications will that have for our fellow EU players in the squad? Will players like Fonte be treated like a UK national as they have been working here for a long time, or will players like Clasie, Soares etc have to go through some long-winded work permit process to stay on? Or we will just "turf 'em all out"?

I have been thinking about JWP and Targett being outsiders to get into the England squad for the summer. I would have to say it is very unlikely still, but our club is obviously well regarded within the England setup these days, and if they both keep their performances going until the end of the season, then you never know.

I actually think the TV scheduling is a bigger threat to regular fans who turn up each week than the prices. Sure, matchday prices for Premier League games aren't cheap any more, but they haven't been "cheap" for a long time now. It's not like it's something that has happened all of a sudden. It was really noticeable how much Saints were trying to flog some last minute tickets for the West Ham game; I think they knew there was a lot of frustration among fans at how yet another game had been rescheduled. Many people have busy lives now, and there are lots of different things to keep us occupied. If you keep on moving the goalposts and asking fans - and season ticket holders in particular - to rearrange their lives to fit in with fixture reschedule after fixture reschedule, often at short notice, then people will get fed up of it. And I think that will happen sooner than any mass boycott due to ticket prices being too high.

Sounds like a good deal for all parties then. Just one of those things, I guess the club will have learnt from this experience. Shame he's been such a dud for us, but there you go. At least he is still on good terms with the club.

Sir Rickie will always be a Saints legend! But sad to see how his career has gone down the pan the past 18 months. His confidence must be shot to pieces, I genuinely thought moving to West Brom would be the best thing for him, but to not even get a look-in there really is sad. Talk about rise and fall. I had posted a month or so about us hopefully exploring the opportunity of getting him in on a short-term deal, but to be fair to the club they have brought Charlie Austin in the meantime. Can't really see any need now of course.

Delighted for the lad. Would love it if he could establish himself as a regular, nothing better than having a few players who have a local connection to the club. I wonder as well whether he's reacted positively to Koeman's comments the other week about the academy players. Could just be coincidence of course but it's great to see him take his opportunity.

A great result to cap a very good week, topped off by signing Charlie Austin for the price of a packet of crisps! Now we are right back in contention for one of the European spots. It is going to be very tough but we have nothing else to distract us between now and the end of the season, so you never know.

Lobbed on for the last five minutes up front last night for Liverpool:lol: Well, maybe he did make the difference in the end...

The funny thing is that Long is not all that far off scoring every other game this season:o So with a bit of luck, he could get close to 15 goals, which isn't bad going at all for a striker. Good old football...

You just know he's going to do well there now...

I quite agree with you. I don't "like" our current strategy, but at the end of the day I can understand why we are doing it as at least we are able to exert an element of control (unlike Villa who IMO hadn't prepared for losing Benteke and Delph this season). I was reading Danny Wallace's autobiography the other day, and he talked about the time when he was pondering a move to Man United and the fact that he had come to realise that the chances of teams like Saints winning the top prizes were so slim when compared to the big teams in the league. It has always been this way, the difference now is that the money involved at the very top level is so much greater, and so clubs like us cannot afford to compete with the wages of the highest payers. The problem this season IMO is that the new signings haven't come in and made the desired impact. I am sure the management team would have expected Jay Rod to have more game time too, but he has had a tough year with injuries again. So all these little things have built up and led to the current situation which is not great but not disastrous either.

Another bad result at the weekend but by all accounts we didn't shame ourselves. Problem at the moment is that we are in the habit of losing games as a result of costly errors. Once you get into a rut it is hard to get out of it. I'm just looking forward to Forster and Rodriguez coming back some time before the end of the season, along with a fit-again Pelle. Hopefully we can get one or two new faces in to liven things up and get things moving in the right direction.

I like what he says in that article. It may come across as direct but I don't think he is lying there, Targett and Reed are the only two who have shown ability to be part of the first team squad on a regular basis. Maybe individual players just don't have the hunger or desire to be the best they can? Who knows. Maybe RK is hoping that by putting this out there he will get some of them to really knuckle down, stay behind and do extra training etc. It's not like the first team is playing great at the moment, I am sure if one of the academy players was really knocking hard on the door then they would get some sort of opportunity.

I feel a bit more concerned after Saturday's game, we do seem to be playing pretty much our strongest team week in week out, and the results just aren't coming. But I am hopeful it will change, especially if we can get one or two new faces in to freshen things up in the January window. I came across the report from Newcastle away last season the other day, and that 2-1 win gave us 42 points after 22 games. So that meant that we only picked up 18 points from our last 16 games. And our overall record since then is 42 points from 36 games, which is proper mid-table territory.