Saint86

They didn't stick around long enough. But a good effort (for their short stint) none the less!

Apparently they're planning to shut down the Hamble and Hythe terminals (amongst other sites nationwide) from next weekend. Dread to think what that's going to do to fuel supply/prices (and energy prices generally), as well as harming businesses. Feel its very ill timed with everything else that is going on.

Was in Leeds weekend and it was stunning weather - probably not the case this weekend....And on current form its hard to see us winning either...

I would personally Play rice, JWP, and Bellingham in a midfield three and let the opposition deal with it. Bags of energy, drive, and defensive steel without being overly defensive. If england want to play a pressing game that can recycle the ball and feed the big man / tricky wingers - then that would be a good engine room. In front of Rice, JWP, Bellingham you'd have Grealish, Kane, sterling. Would be a tasty side. But it all depends on Southgate's style of play. I think it was Egg above who was saying that JWP might just miss out and i am inclined to agree sadly. I suspect he'd get a place if he was at a bigger club though. As for KWP, i think he should be in the squad based on his versatility and all round game. Think he offers a tremendous amount and we're very lucky to have him at saints. Weakest area of the team remains Central defence. No great picks there and all of them are much of a muchness. For wing backs/full backs we really do have an embarrassment of riches. Would have Watkins in the squad as a No.2 to Kane.

Yeah but what he said was bollocks let's be fair 😅. Outside of the whole branding point (which was wrong), wealthy owners (foreign and domestic) have been distorting football for almost as long as I can remember - it's not particularly new. Look at the early history of the first football league teams and you'll find start up teams with rich owners coming in and starting/funding clubs / poaching players etc. I also don't see the issue with owners having clubs in different countries that will never play each other competitively. Its the equivalent of owning multiple comolimentary businesses - which is standard practice. If people hate it then why do they still follow football? And ditto, why do you still follow saints as we had a billionaire owner funding us through league 1, the championship, and our return to the prem. I loved it when we were signing up lambert, fonte etc... but we only managed that because we had rich owners. Can't have it both ways!

Some good clips in there.

For ability and physical prowess I would say bale had it all on paper, and his performances at the top level lead me to say he probably is the best Britain has ever produced... But he also seemed to have an attitude that he really wasn't fussed half the time - which highlights both just how good he was (that he could just then it on to such a level), and also frustrates because there is no doubt he should have taken over from Ronaldo and Messi for me... but apparently he couldn't be arsed and would rather have put his feet up in the sun playing golf and taking his frankly obscene wages 😅 But let's be honest, that's fair enough 👍. Also he has had a lot of injuries in his later career.

Imagine KWP will be in the ear of any player wanting to go to spurs. And not in a way that is positive for those north london bottlers.

I thought the club's debts were taken care off as part of the takeover, hence the cheap price?

Very good timing 😅

Slight point of concern, I'd be surprised if Diallo is happy with his current involvement tbh. He's had very few minutes this season and you wouldn't blame him if is considering his options. Say he waits for JWP to be sold/injured etc, his contract will be running down by then and we'll be nearing the time when we should be selling him to maximise his value. Awkward one really.

We scored the own goal in the second half did we 🤣

No shame in this, the team have given it everything, a bit of luck and no mistakes and we'd be in it or winning. But how often do you really manage that? Saints fans in the ground though have been a real dissapointment based on the BBC coverage. Maybe the mics are in a bad spot, but it's sounded like a city homegame most of the match. Chants of "your support is f'ing shit" and fans leaving with 15min to go. Players deserve better backing than this. Ditto people raging at the players here when they run their socks off vs one of the best teams in the world.

Saints fans in the ground need to step it up here!

Ominous typo 😆

Clear pen wtf. His arms up over his head and he's blocked a goal bound header.

The important thing is not to go 1-0 down to a Hodgson team - for no other reason that this place will be unbearable afterwards if the game has followed that kind of pattern 😅

Yeah agreed, KWP has been better than Livramento the entire season for me. Bar maybe a couple of stand out performances by Livramento I don't think its ever really been in doubt. Livramento is good, but he shouldn't be a starting choice over Perraud or KWP on current form. I think at the start of the season he was played for 2 reasons - one because perraud had to bed in to english footy, and two because Livramento was (and is) a great marketting ploy for our shop window business model - there is no better way to sell yourself to young players than to be able to point to players like Livramento and Broja coming in and making an impact in the premier league. I personally think the club will be delighted to have all 3 of them here, all signed for a good price, all young (ish), all on reasonable wages, and all with potential resale value / profit. The chelsea situation is interesting. On the one hand, it suddenly looks quite unlikely that they will be able to take up that first option on Livramento now (transfer ban / financial situation) - so we can potentially sell him for a lot more. But equally, they'll probably be forced to sell a lot of first team players (like Lukaku) to balance the books - which means they'll either see Broja as a critical player for the intermediate future - or a cash cow to be milked. Eitherway, i think its probably more unlikely than ever that we'll sign him now

Lol right, you're the one "squealing" that our owners didn't invest significant money over January 🙄

Its almost like you think we're also owned by the richest sovereign wealth fund in the world... or in fact anyone with significant money to waste on a football club 🤣

Fixture congestion showing for us at the moment i think - i.e. we're lacking time to prepare between matches. Typical that in this instance it was caused by Newcastle skiving off a match so they could make new singings, and then two of their main signings score their first goals against us. I'm sure Ralph's pre match chat did nothing to motivate the Newcastle players mind...

I have always felt with Howe that he is alright provided he can keep spending money. At Bournemouth he spent big (relative to their level) and got an immediate bounce from new signings, and that carried them along quite well. But i don't think he was anything special at developing players, and i don't think his teams are particularly great at defence or controlling games. Newcastle is a great job for him. He plays attacking football (which they have been crying out for), has come into a club which can have vociferous support where the fans are right behind the team, and he's got to play fantasy football. But i don't think he's a great manager who is going to be with Newcastle long term - also they are a shocking fanbase and probably the most toxic one in England when it starts to go wrong or not meet their expectations. That day will eventually arrive for Howe and i can't seem him managing it successfully. But bottom line, Howe was never the right manager for saints because fundamentally we have no money ^_^.

Repeat after me - build it and they will come.

Nothing special about Newcastle other than they are very athletic. Expect a lot of direct passing and bruising tackles/headers. We'll need Salisu, Romeu, Adams, and Broja to stand up to them and cause them problems.

Watched the motd highlights only. But every single attack on there involved an unmarked coutinho receiving no pressing and doing whatever he wanted. Bizarre tactically from us of all teams. We were due and off day however, and you would hope his was a fluke for both us and villa.