Maggie May

Oh well.

Blown it.

Anyone else read this as Ted Bates Amnesty?

Carlos Roa?

Lads, cheeky tenner on top 4 finish?

Two FA Cup semi finals and a League Cup final in the last five years suggests we were almost within touching distance of silverware. I think attempting to achieve respectable league placings and decent cup runs each year is absolutely what we should be aiming for.

Love this guy

A Saint forever

Haven’t lost to United, City and Spurs this season. What a year.

Ralph unbeaten against Pep and Conte this season.

Not watching the game but ex Spurs player Michael Dawson says it wasn’t a foul on SSN.

Nice. Ange will be ready for the Prem by then.

Not taking anything away from Juninho but I would be interested to see the calibre of teams he was scoring free kicks against. I’ve delved into his top 13 strikes video on YouTube again and they’re mostly against second rate Ligue 1 sides (especially considering this is nearly 20 years ago) and international minnows like UAE when playing for Brazil. For JWP to be this consistently brilliant in a Premier League that has evolved leaps and bounds in quality since Beckham’s era, I would say he’s up there with the greatest ever.

Wolves are our bogey side so not surprised by this.

You must at least be a bit rattled by the rumours to then come onto a Saints forum 😉 Cheers for your input!

“Bro-ja, Bro-ja” outKast - Hey Ya

Exactly. A similar start to his Saints career to Jay Rodriguez when it comes to goals scored at this stage of the season.

I raised this suggestion a little while ago and was shot down by someone who said it wouldn’t work as Tino’s strength is running from deep.

As I’ve said previously, Lyanco was taking goal kicks. That’s enough for anyone to suggest McCarthy wasn’t fit enough to be on the pitch, let alone the manager.

The problem with Le Tiss is all his “research” is based on what he’s read on the internet or Facebook memes. I doubt he’s piling through thousands of pages of verified peer review studies, spending time in vaccine research labs, in Covid wards, or interviewing scientists on their findings.

Oh god, not Benteke

That said, I still think his throwing under the bus of McCarthy was inexcusable.

I’m torn over Ralph. I wouldn’t have expected us to get a point at Arsenal away (one of our bogey fixtures every year) but definitely something from Norwich (a win) and Brighton (a point at least). We did achieve that point against Brighton, but it should have been three thanks to a dreadful individual error. The Norwich defeat was embarrassing but those two howlers from McCarthy were some of the worst I’ve ever seen. If those results weren’t down to errors, we’d have five more points than we do now, putting us around mid-table. Perhaps confidence would have been a lot higher against Arsenal if we had. I do feel for him in that sense. But yes, we do need to be putting our chances away when we dominate and should know how to hold onto wins.

All that is irrelevant when Ralph himself comes out and publicly blames McCarthy for dropping points. It brings me back to my original point. He must’ve known McCarthy was injured if an outfield player is taking goal kicks. To me, that’s a player that’s not fit enough to be on the pitch when one of their key roles has been hindered enough for a defender to do for them. To leave him on and then single him out for blame doesn’t look good. There are ways to make examples of players - this wasn’t justified.

Ralph blaming McCarthy could be a major flashpoint of this season. It’ll either give some players a wake up call or it’ll divide. What I can’t grasp is this: if Lyanco was taking goal kicks, surely Ralph saw this? If a goalkeeper is unable to deliver balls upfield because of injury, you’d fathom, from a managerial perspective, that he needs to be subbed off, regardless of whether the player communicates it or not, no?