Saint86

Prescient.

Yeah for sure. I think tino is getting played partly as a marketing stunt, and partly because we are confident that he will develop well. Kwp is the better player and was dropped for to many matches early on for him to have been happy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if his agent put out a few feelers earlier in the season.

FC dallas would be nice.

https://theathletic.com/news/fifa-announces-new-loan-rules-to-clamp-down-on-player-hoarding/wuM4m5NzCPic/ Could well impact on broja if the fa follow suit for domestic loans (would cap Chelsea at 8 International and 8 domestic per season. Reducing to 6 and 6.

Don't think we should be afraid of city. We've shown in the past that we are more than capable of taking points of them, and we were robbed at the etihad earlier this season. Fancy that with a rocking St Mary's and a little bit of luck, we might have a Saints win incoming. At the very least I don't think we are going to lose.

Hopefully they disappear from out society as quickly as possible.

Saints win incoming. We aren't going to lose anyway.

I am surprised we are so strongly linked. I guess we will offer him clear first choice football. But then so might others, and some (Newcastle) will frankly blow saints out of the water wage wise.

They should just take their medicine and be demoted. They cheated the books and WW got relegated in their place - That should be put right. They deserve no sympathy as a club until then.

I think its very unlikely we're signing Dean Henderson this window (given United's keeper backups).

Absolutely incredible goal. To get that power and flight from a dead ball, tremendous strike!

Maybe, I don't necessarily disagree I suppose. But I also think you've got to assume that some of those teams are going to pick up (i'd guess most of us would predict that to be Newcastle and then one of Watford or Burnley - who have 2 games in hand). I do think the safety total will be around 34points, and certainly nearer to it than the 28 some posters have mentioned. Time will tell I guess - I suppose to reach that amount it means that the teams above will have to drop points to the bottom 4 which will drag them back into it. Eitherway, on the basis that we'd need about 2-3 wins and a couple of draws - i think as Saints fans we can basically look forward to a stress free end of the season now, with hopefully a cup run and maybe an outside chance of a top 10 or top 8 finish.

Yeah, but it upsets the project. They'll have to buy another tier of players (on top of the trippiers/woods of this world) to get them out of the champ. And then they've got to work their way up the league. By which point FFP will bite to a degree - ala everton/villa and hamper their ability to ever really break into the top 6. If they stay up this summer, then they can just whack down a couple of hundred million on a bunch of star players (all in it for the "project"), and immediately buy themselves a top 6 squad. To be clear, i think we're in a pretty good spot to go back to our "underdog punching above our weight" routine now. Debts under control, stable backroom and scouting setup, good manager, young squad, and a clear identity - but we don't need teams like Newcastle buying their way above us 🤷‍♂️

Personally think 34 points will be around the cut off point this year. Teams like Everton and Leeds would be in trouble in teams below them weren't so bad. Norwich are gone. Burnley look to be in real trouble now with only Jayrod as a recognised striker available until afcon finishes. Watford have the ability to cause teams problems and score goals - so they could potentially go on a run. Newcastle - they've made signings - but trippier and woods doesn't take them from losing at home to Cambridge (at nearly full strength) to staying up - especially as tripper started that game. They play watford this weekend, and i think burnley away as the last game of the season. Could still see them going down and would love that to happen.

Could be interesting move for him - teach him a bit of rough and tumble in league 2. He's got the technical ability but needs to get wiser.

Last game of the season is Burnley Newcastle - would be proper spicy with Carroll and wood playing.

They always were. I saw some of their posters not caring about buying success (Woods) with "blood money" because they put up with 10 years of ashley. Tell that to the children of Yemen or even Khashoggi's family. They are owned by the man who ordered so much suffering, yet they have embraced it happily like they are some giant club that deserves success, whilst also paradoxically not realising that it is largely worthless if you just buy it. The soul of their club is fundamentally dead. All on the back of what is frankly blood money. Absolutely detestable fanbase. I have never wanted a team to be relegated so much before 😅

Hopefully he is winning over the doubters on here! JWP as well!

Familiarity with the playbook? 😆

Might sound really negative, but after the effort of the Swansea cup game, i'd take a point tonight. At full freshness i'd expect us to go for the win, but nothing is guaranteed with saints and we all know we drop points when at full strength - So as it is, tired players, a few injures and absentees, i'd take the point right now.

KWP is our best RB or LB. No debate to be had 😅

I thought the comments were quite reasonable. A bit of mutual respect over the 4-0 and how Southampton fans applauded them at the time. Should be a good tie. I have some friends who are coventry fans and they're all pretty decent footy fans. They were a similar club to saints - the only real difference being that they got their (absolute dogshite) owners and we (thankfully) got Marcus. Could very easily have been reversed!

I'm not sure you can argue Chelsea's academy setup has gone wrong. They have superb talent on their books - the very best break through to their first team (like mount and james etc), then they have other top players like Broja, Gilmour, and Gallagher - players which other premier league (or European teams) develop for them? If they prove themselves good enough they go back into the chelsea first team... or chelsea sell them. Even players like Livramento have buy back clauses - which effectively mean that if an academy product ever becomes a top level player that they'd want in their first team, they effectively then pick them back up on the relative cheap. I would say its functioning fairly well tbh.

Absolute class for us tonight, and to be honest he has been for the past few games. Leading the team by the scruff of their necks to get results in the past few matches.

Very professional performance from the team in difficult circumstances - and very impressed by fitness levels. We were pressing their box after playing with 10men for nearly 90min whilst they were going down with cramp. Some key players really stepped up tonight, not least JWP and Romeu, Diallo and ME also with some key contributions and a lot of threat from Perraud deep into injury time when really he ought to have been knackered by that point. As for this thread, hilarious. Honestly so much slating of the players/manger, and writing them all off midway through a game - like it was their fault we were down to 10men. They didn't stop working all night and would have been very easy to lose that game. Superb effort to get themselves back into it and take the lead in ET as well. Shows a lot of togetherness and spirit from the team - they are certainly playing for the manager and each other. Also good to see their heads didn't drop even for an instant. Promising performance. We do need to stop practicing with 10men though...