CylonKing

Chinese sports company trying to break into the UK market. Biggest sponsorship deal in the clubs history according to the OS - https://southamptonfc.com/news/2019-05-13/southampton-football-club-ld-sports-new-front-of-shirt-sponsor

And don't forgot the underhand way in which Liverpool conducted the VVD transfer dealings by meeting with the player first and getting caught but not receiving any punishment for breaking the rules. If they had approached the club first and gone through the right channels, it wouldn't rankle quite as much but it is the cheating way they conduct themselves without any reproach that sticks it to the smaller clubs. And as for The Gurning One, the best thing we can do is beat them tomorrow night and f*ck up their season! The perfect way to get revenge.

Agree with Saintwbu's post completely. A good summary. Can see why the goal was chalked off by VAR but felt it was harsh. I was a supporter of VAR before hand, especially with the shocking decisions we've had against us in recent years, but this was my first match where I've attended where VAR is used and I felt it sucked the life out of the game. Really not being implemented very well at all. Anyway, thought we played pretty well, especially the second half. Leicester posed us barely any threat and when we did get turned, we had good coverage from our defense. Vesti in particular looked strong and commanding. Most players had decent games actually, some missed passes and shocking shots, but overall thought we deserved the win. Finally, thought the referee was abysmal. Every time one of our players went for the ball, the Leicester player would throw himself to the ground and get a free kick. It was really embarrassing to be honest and is slowly chipping away at my love of football. Still, a decent night in Leicester, which included a full 3 course curry for £15.90 for the both of us at Nawaaz on London Road, highly recommended for the 12th January when we are next back there. Won't be £15 a ticket for that one, I'm sure.

Is Charlie Austin related to Danny Dyer?

Sh*tarse boring game. We looked well off the pace and didn't cause Derby any issues at all. Not going to take too much out of the result but did notice a few things. Why do we take so long with our throw ins? No pace or urgency at all and lets the opposition get into position as Betrand or Stephens amble over to take a throw in, where we usually lose the ball. The same with goal kicks, we ended up making a right hash of them as we tried to retain possession. We really need to step up in the next matches to be ready for the new season, we looked well off the pace.

Shall be at the match seeing as it is just down the road. Really looking forward to it.

Nope, still no pride or link to the English diving team. Displaying all that is wrong with Football in this country on the world stage. Have been looking forward to Derby v Saints so much more than any England match. I've realised that I'm not really a Football fan but just a Saints fan.

Welcome to Saints Jannik. Glad Pierre convinced you to come. Looking forward to seeing you play next week when we trounce the Sheep Sh4ggers. Is it just me or does anyone else feel that something special is on the cards for the up coming season? I'm getting the urge to consult the odds with Mr Winstone currently!

Apologies if this has alreadybeen posted, couldn't see it anywhere. http://www.nairaland.com/4561437/hilarious-letter-wife-sent-husband Was funny, but got funnier and relevant towards the end.

Go on then, I'm in! (Saints Forever)

Stern John - 19 goals that season! What we'd give for someone like that now. 2 excellent finishes. Good trip down memory lane that - cheers.

Actually think our tactics to begin with were spot on. Leicester barely threatened our goal in the whole match, particularly in the first half. Taking off JWP and Long destroyed everything good we were doing at the time and meant we had nothing at the front to scare Leicester. I would've personally took off Tadic and brought on either Redmond or Sims and then sacrificed Romeu for Austin with 10 to go. Think Hughes played for the point last night when most of us would've rather we'd gone for it towards the end instead of sitting back and settling. In the circumstances, I think Hughes was the right appointment at the time but we need someone new next year. Someone with the right level of knowledge for the division we're going to be in. How about Ian Holloway? ;-)

Great evening in Leicester involving lots of drink. Boring as hell match to watch but exciting in terms of nerves and the hope eating away at you. Thought Yoshi and Hojberg were excellent - Yoshi marshaling the defence, talking and directing the players around him, as you would expect a captain to do...oh! Hojberg did lose the ball a couple of times but usually trying to go forward or to do something different to the norm. He looks up and tries to pass forward, covers very well and looks a class player in my opinion. Thought JWP was also looking good and was unlucky to be substituted for Davis, who did nothing at all. Tadic was woeful and should've been the first player taken off, completely invisible for most of the match. Long was very good, chasing down, pinning Leicester back a bit. Taking him off for Austin was a huge mistake. Austin did nothing for us at all apart from a very tame shot on target that the keeper had no trouble with at all. Also thought that Bertrand and Cedric looked out of sorts and barely ventured forward down the wings at all. Think they'd been told to hold back by the manager so that we had more than enough cover for when we eventually lost the ball. On this evidence I think it is looking pretty poor for us in terms of staying up. Still, that hope is eating away there!

Sorry folks. The loss on Saturday was my fault. On 65 minutes I popped to the kitchen to grab a celebratory beer while listening to the match. If I didn't get a premature beer, all would've been fine. It won't happen again.

Don't worry folks. I'm going to this game and I've not seen us once lose live this season yet. Admittedly I've only been to the WBA games. Still, it is a 100% record.

You are quite right Saint86. Les was wrong to sack Puel if it was due to fan\player pressure if he believed he was the right man for the job. We'll never know whether there was something else that was the reason though, but likely that Les bowed to outside influences. Which in turn, led to us hanging on too long to Pellegrino as getting rid too soon cost us a decent manager previously and the board\Les were too scared to make the same mistake again. I think Puel only had one issue last year in terms of squad and that was the loss of both Fonte and van Di ck. Had we replaced Fonte properly and VD stayed injury free, I think the defensive spine would've held and we would've attacked more, making the end to last season more entertaining for the fans. So yes, another of Les's faults is that he's not effectively replaced our defensive line... and still hasn't.

Not sure this is fair as Puel is proving to be a much better manager than people gave him credit for. Yes, our performances at the tail end of last year weren't great, but he still had a successful season with us. I personally think that the only managerial mistake Les has made is this season; a) in appointing Pellegrino (who lots of fans wanted) and b) not acting sooner to rectify the mistake, but I understand that the club wanted to give the manager time to try and sort it out. I don't like the hiring and firing that now goes on in the football leagues. I like loyalty and stability, but that is my personal opinion.

Looking forward to watching this on the Beeb with a couple of beers. Think it'll be an easy win... which way, I'm not going to say! ;-)

Whilst I'm not enamored by the appointment I think he is our best option available to us on short notice. If he can get the fitness levels up and instill some passion and drive whilst retaining the players respect I think he'll do well. If he does keep us up, no reason why he shouldn't be given the job longer term either. I see parallels with the Strachan appointment many years ago; a manager sacked from another team with a reputation of doing well for a few seasons before falling away a little, coming in to a struggling team and getting us back to basics, look how well that turned out last time so I'm optimistic that we may see some improvements over the coming games.

1. Alex McCarthy 2. Mario Lemina 3. A beautiful home shirt that was 50% off recently 4. The FA Cup run 5. Only lost 1 in 10 of our last competitive games

I personally think that the club feel they have the right man after doing the due diligence in the summer and appointing him. I think they feel that the VVD saga has undermined the manager and they feel he needs to be given a fair crack of the whip and do not want to be the club that panics and gets rid at the first sign on trouble. I think the club believe that stability is the key to moving forward and want to move away from the last few seasons of managers leaving after a season or 2. I understand the sentiment and actually think it is the right thing to do, if you have the right manager in charge. The big question is, do we have the right person in charge of the team? I want to believe that we do however as nothing is changing in the way we play and we are not seeing much progression I seriously doubt it. I really do not believe there is anything sinister or underhanded going on at the club in terms of relegation and a fire-sale to clear debt or recoup monies.

I think it is a very important point that nta786 has made. It should be the VAR ref highlighting to the referee any decisions and not the on-pitch ref requesting something to be looked at again. That would mean only the key decisions would stop the game and only if an offence had occurred. The game would flow much, much better in that instance.

I have seen him play live twice now (once as a sub) against West Brom, so not the best benchmark, but from what I have seen I think he has been a decent buy. He has won a lot of headers from balls pumped forward, the main problem being that he is so isolated and no one is willing to take a chance on running onto a flick on that the ball usually goes to an opposition player. Last Saturday he flicked a brilliant ball on from a goal kick between 2 defenders but the 'supporting' player didn't move. Any kind of run towards the ball would've resulted in a chance. He has also got into goal scoring positions and either been unlucky in that the opposition have got a last ditch deflection or our ball into the box has not been good enough. When he has had a chance, it has been on target and forced a good save from the keeper. His movement is very intelligent and he is a handful for defenders. In the box, he looks very dangerous to me and I can see him getting a few poacher type goals in the next few matches. He also has good vision, as proven by the good assist for Tadic, who very nearly fluffed up the chance as the ball bounced off his foot and onto his knee but luckily he managed to retrieve the ball and score a good goal. I personally think Guido will be like Pelle for us and will be a good signing, from what I've seen so far.

Forgot to mention, when chanting 'Oh, Alex McCarthy', it does sound a little like 'Oh, Alex the Donkey'. :-)

Ohhhh, what a good thread idea! Manager: Has to be WGS. As someone else has pointed out, he got our team to be the fittest in the league and we benefited from it with lots and lots of late goals. Also, always value for money in interviews and a firm fan favourite. Was gutted when it was announced he was going for health reasons. Niemi: My wife would kill me if I didn't pick him as one of the four. Probably the best keeper to pull on the Saints shirt in my supporting days. Everything you could want in a keeper, did the basics perfectly and hardly ever made mistakes....Fratton Park the exception. Made saves that he had no right to make, great reactions and had a real air of authority and respect about him. No nonsense player. M. Svensson: Would shore up our defense and be the perfect foil for either Stephens or Hoedt as the ball player of the 2. Great vision, wonderful tackler and such a tough player with pace. Would score his share of goals as well. Pahars: Clinical finishing, pace and a joy to watch. Pahars at his peak was one of the best players in the league. Le Tissier: How could you not? The BEST player to ever grace the top division in England (in my opinion). Had the skill and vision to set-up goals and score them. There is no way you couldn't include him to be honest. As someone else has already said, build the team round him and off you go.