Lighthouse

Chamberlain's mum was on Solent telling us he wouldn't leave about a month before he actually did. As much as I like Shaw and his head is in the right place, Chelsea will turn him in the end. He probably has ambitions of being England's LB for the next decade, everyone knows he will have a better chance if he is playing Champions League football, no matter how well he plays at Saints.

in 2008 Pompey finished 8th with 57 points (and losses of £23m for the previous financial year I think). 5 wins, 4 draws, 3 defeats would see us top that. Ordinarily I wouldn't care but that should keep us mildly entertained for the rest of the season.

Not sure I get the pessimism, West Ham have improved but they really haven't done anything special. Villa are sh*t at home, Swansea are sh*t away and Norwich are just sh*t in general. The draw at the Bridge is probably their most impressive result but even that was just a park the bus, 0-0 job. If we won at Hull, we can win here. especially without Carroll.

Chamberlain is not going to leave Arsenal for Saints. You would also leave us with just 3 CBs when we need 4.

We need another 'keeper. Christ knows why we gave Davis a 3 year contract extension, he isn't good enough and we already have coaches covered. Is Gazza worth 'keeping? Sure he is young but I can't say I've seen anything to suggest he will become a Premier League 'keeper. No better than Bialkowski was. A left back. Probably 2 if Shaw leaves. Centre halves are fine. If we sign another, Yoshi and Jos will leave and we will be weaker overall. We have a good balance. Another AM, I think JWP needs a season on loan. Another striker. Osvaldo can p*ss off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAufNvv3eHU&feature=player_embedded I liked this video as you don't see many 727s around these days.

So you don't want to be fighting relegation and you don't gain any excitement from being mid table. Would you argue then that the Premier League is basically redundant as far as we are concerned?

I guess we will have to disagree. I wasn't really following Saints in 1999 but I don't think I would have remembered that season fondly at all. I'm sure people have great memories of Delhurst and the Everton game but that's probably about it. I also think a lot of people look back on that season with rose tinted spectacles about out team and how plucky and determined they were. I don't think people who went to Charlton and watched us get spanked 5-0, or 7-1 at Anfield particularly enjoyed it. I can't imagine the 1999 version of SWF being full of hope and togetherness after that. If we stayed up in 2005 I'd still have viewed it as a sh*te season with a couple of crucial goals at the end to keep us up.

Don't worry. Nolan will be telling Clattenburg what to do, so he wont be able to get any decisions wrong.

I'll be off to the Norwich game in a few weeks, knowing I've got a decent chance of seeing an excellent Saints performance and entertaining game of football and hopefully a convincing win. I'm fine with that. I sat through a 0-0 on a wet Tuesday night in High Wycombe a few years ago. F**k the grandkids, I'll take a boring, 3 points behind Man Utd in February season thanks. Highlights for me were: - Osvaldo's goal against City - Watching our academy outplay 1 billion Dirhams of talent in said game. - Lallana's goal against Hull - Winning at Anfield - The last minute equaliser at OT - The Arsenal performance - Lambert, Lallana, JRod and possibly Shaw making their England debuts. - Lamberts goal against Scotland - One or more Saints possibly representing England at the WC

Well yes, evidently not

If that's what you want, fair enough but I disagree entirely. Finishing 17th would mean going through the whole 2004/05 season again. Wigley, Redknapp, Davenport, Bernard, Jackobsson, Folly, Van Damme, Delap, the last minute goals against Everton, Arsenal and Boro. That 3-2 against Villa, 1 away win all season, that 4-1 at Fratton Park. The only difference would be it's Kevin Phillips scoring on the last day instead of Ruud Van Nistelrooy. You would happily sit through ALL of that sh*te again for a cup win? If you are enjoying the games, they aren't pointless. That's the ENTIRE point of watching any sports. You don't get paid a £50k bonus if Saints win the Cup, You're not going to put it on your CV. If you are enjoying the games, that is the point.

Yes it is. Baj, Justmike and few others on here could pretty much vouch for it (although if they are reading this please don't post who I work for on the internet) Even if it wasn't, there are a LOT of people out there in a similar or worse position. I used to think you were a decent poster Mash. Controversial at times but at least able to put forward a sensible argument worth debating. Belittling other posters for not forking out £100 to go to an away game, when you have no idea if they even have a job or not is pretty f**king poor if you ask me.

I'm a self employed, zero hour contractor who has had 3 days of work this year. I don't have £100 so spend on going to a football game. You can f**k off.

What have I made up? If we had beaten Sunderland would people care about this game? It has no bearing on the FA Cup afterall, we could lose 50-0 and still beat Brighton in the QF, so surely it would still be a pointless game in the eyes of many? Putting aside the FA Cup for a minute, nobody is disputing all the fans want to win that: Is this the future of Southampton in the Premier League? We get to 40 points in February, then play the last 10-15 games of the season behind closed doors at SMS (but for maybe 1000 away fans) because our season is over and nobody cares about 9th or 7th?

I know, I'm being facetious but I can't help but wonder what people are expecting from the future. Next season will either be a) Battling out for the league title and the Champions League b) Like this. Upper mid-table. c) Bottom half, flirting with relegation d) Hopeless and relegated. So what are people hoping for. How about you Mash? I'm not being rude here I am genuinely curious what people expect and hope for. a) Wont be happening, sorry folks. b) Is apparently boring and pointless c) is the same but with worse football d) means watching another dire season like 04/05 Is it literally all about the cups? If so, save yourselves £600 on a season ticket, enjoy the games at Bristol City and Northampton and pray that we don't draw a trip to the Etihad next January.

I went paintballing yesterday. I wont be telling my grand children about that either but I found it quite exciting. It's really quite saddening seeing some of them comments on here recently. I remember being on the pitch after we beat Walsall on the last day of League 1 and the delight shared by the whole stadium at being back in the Championship, so we would have a shot at getting back into the big time. Now we're here and suddenly the place is full of brats saying the last 12 games of the season are pointless because we don't have a cup final to tell our grandkids about. I fully understand the frustration, if I went to Sunderland on Saturday I would be livid and demanding my money back. However there are still 12 games left to play in the best League in the world, playing excellent football with no pressure or threat of relegation. Last year we would have killed to be in this position. Clearly I am in a minority in my opinion, I'll leave it on this note; be careful what you wish for. Maybe in the summer we can sell, Lallana, Shaw, Morgan and JRod and go back to fighting relegation. We will have to go back to the 6-1 spankings and losing at home to Sunderland, QPR, Wigan and West Brom like we did last season but maybe the excitement of the League table will keep a few more people happy.

Online stream. HTH

I'm one of these weirdos who watches football because they like watching football. I get a lot of funny looks when I tell people this at St Mary's. The up side though is that I am looking forward to this games as much as any other this season. Getting one over on West Ham after our dreadful performance at UP last year will do me quite nicely. As far as the League goes, a win puts us 3 points behind Everton and Utd (assuming they lose at Chelsea and beat Palace respectively). Both have to come and play at St Mary's too. Having our best ever Premier League season and finishing 6th above Man Utd is pretty exciting for me, even if there are no trophies on offer.

Here Why is there 'shame' in playing someone who wasn't actually responsible for the defeat? I wasn't ashamed of Jos today, just the dismal display of apathy by the manager and team in general.

He did alright at Arsenal, Newcastle (despite the error) and in a large number of very good performance last season. He's not perfect but we aren't going to find much better players to be 4th choice at Southampton. Supposing we signed a player like Astori and sold Jos. Yoshi would be 4th choice and I'd bet my arse he would want to leave.

In what way was Jos to blame for today's result?

Players who are up to it, IMO: Boruc Clyne, Chambers, Shaw Lovren, Fonte, Yoshi, Hooiveld (he is good enough to be 4th choice) Morgan, Cork, Wanyama JRod, JWP, Lallana, Davis Lambert Leaves us needing a GK, LB, AM and ST in the summer. Gives us a healthy squad of 20, plus a few young players like Gallagher, Gazza and Reed.

It's not an opinion, its an explanation. We didn't sign any players because the ones we wanted weren't available at a price we were willing to pay. If we had signed a player we don't need or paid more than he is worth, that is panic buying. It's astonishingly simple.

Currently 6 points behind Everton and we still have to play them at home. 3 behind Man Utd who have just failed to beat Fulham. I'm not saying we will beat these teams but we're not all that far off. Yes, beating Man Utd would be 'just a day' but it would be an excellent day. Not a cup final but I would enjoy it, regardless of it's effect on the League table. The difference being I wont be judging the validity of our entire season by that one game, which is what some people seem to be implying about our cup run. My point is that I'm happy watching us win as many games as possible, playing excellent football with some very talented players. I would absolutely love to win the FA Cup but I wont consider this season a waste just because there isn't a big shiny thing locked in a room somewhere at the end of it. That's my point.