Saint86

I.e turkish , kracken etc. However fair play to hypo, he has come out and praised the team and guly...

10-13th for me. Deal with I

A quote from this has made my day and should cheer some of the negative amongst us up - "Jesus christ. Why have a pop at Stoke because of this? There are any number of variables that will determine whether or not he's a success in the premiership yet. He could well turn out to be a class player but he could well turn out to be an expensive flop. He hasn't even kicked a ball yet. 'makes our efforts at transfers in our promotion season (which we are only just recovering from) look very small time' Is that really what you think? We got hold of Beattie, Etherington, Sorensen, Abdoulaye Faye all of which were/are quality players that have all contributed not only to the success of keeping us up that year but the subsequent successes we've had since. I hardly think you can call them small time. Fair enough Tonge, Soares etc. didn't live up to expectations but quite how you can judge our transfer activity as small time because a handful of players didnt work out for us seems largely unfair. And are we only just recovering? We've made giant strides at improving the infrastructure of the club, largely because we've been able to maintain our status in the league and in my opinion, no season was more integral to this than the first season. And another point while I'm at it, we were underdogs. We were extreme underdogs. Southampton on the other hand are coming back into the league with a bigger fanbase than us, a bigger stadium, a bigger club reputation, a respected academy, a better promoted squad than we had. It will be easier for them to get players in than it was for us and it beggars belief if you can't see that. And really who cares? Good luck to the guy and good luck to Southampton. I hope he does live up to his price tag, as long as its not against us. I swear sometimes people are just looking for an excuse to moan about something."

That match was on bbc , not sky, and was obviously not in the prem? Or is hat a city player they have superimposed in the background

Perfect in fact!

Very well said!

I liked Dean Richards, killer and Claus (at the time) and martin is a useful player. I really think we will be fine. Sign the right players and come mid table. If that goes to plan, the team will develop and we can push on and challenge for top half and Europa as Newcastle did. All about surviving this year. We are capable of scraping for that as it stands and with the right signings - pacey winger and good cb - we will do more than that. I am ****ed we didn't go for hoilett though. Guessing that was wages related. I appreciate peoples views, they are from older and wiser heads than mine in terms of football experience. However I truly think that with a class winger and cb we have a team easily capable of midtable this year.

I am loving this and can't wait! Even if we get battered by City and Arsenal (I fancy us against Man Utd). I can see the points made by some that we are underprepared however a lot of you seem to be panicking and it is providing a real insight into your lives and how you see saints. Itsmaking me depressed for you!! We almost didn't exist 3 years ago - stop - let that sink in. Are next four matches are against the 2 wealthiest teams in the world with superstar squads and i fully expect us to give all of them a good bash. Even if we get hammered by city I am still looking forward to this. It is about a group of players and youngsters that have come up through the depths of the football league and have developed and grown together. I agree that they are very inexperienced at top level, but I also do not feel that this means they will fail. I think we have some real quality players, especially in midfield with Lallana, cork and Morgan (I do not think that Davis is a guaranteed start if we played 4-4-2). We also have Lambert, billygoat and JayRod up front and that is a decent and English attack. We will cause problems going forward. Perhaps not overly against Man City, United and chelsea, but once you remove those teams I really think that the defensive side of the league is not that scary and that we will have no issues scoring. Defensively, the idea of Silva, aguero, nasri and Dzeko playing pretty football through our defence terrifies the life out of me! But that is why we practising the 4-2-3-1 (or 4-3-3) formation. People need to stop panicking. WE ARE NOT GOING TO PLAY IT EVERY GAME - It is to compete with the world class midfield. I don't think the club are that worried by the average teams in the league and fancy us to hold our own with the standard 4-4-2 or even with the new formation. Our weakness is our defence - lets face it - WE HAVE 2 CB's. and one of these has the concentration of a drunk Portuguese squirrel on recent evidence. But they will address this with a new signing and I suspect that Martin can be recalled if required. The other issue for me is GK, we need someone to really push Kelvin. I hope he proves me wrong, but I suspect he will slip us a few goals, and I have nightmares of him trying to dribble round say Torres in the area ';.;' You all know he does this far to much!!!!! But all in all, lets look on the bright side. Worst case from first 4 games - zero points - Over the course of a season, the man utd, arsenal, and man city games would idealy produce 3 points, but zero would be expected. (6pts would be a wigan wonder run with their bags to the wall for survival). Therefore if we get zero from these 3 games it is just mentail negativity and panic that will set in that should be ignored as its just 3 of the hardest games and it is all down hill from there! Mini Disaster - 1point (assumed to be wigan) - if this happens - meh? I will be slightly disappointed. Goal - 3points - the standard points tally i reckon most saints fan will have? As above, the season gets easier once you get past the first 4 games so a bad start isn't going to be a massive disaster. Above average - 4points - fancy us to knick something from Man Utd Dare to dream - 5/6pts? why not, its just 11 vs 11 after all? Reckon we can get something from any of those games on a good day? I get the worries about us not being ready, but frankly, if Wigan beat us at home we are in trouble anyway, and they really are 3 of our toughest matches in the first month. We will be ready for anything after that, in fact, the average teams will probably be refreshingly easier to play against as the players only comparison will be the likes of silva, rooney, van persi etc. Still going to be optimistic and pitch for between 10-15th - I think you forget how many prem teams get knocked out by championship squads in the cups. If we survive I will be happy!

Portsmouth game for me. Its like someone turned the "do not concentrate" button to overdrive inside his brain!

Lock this thread and ban the above pompey supporter?

To be clear - are you suggesting that a striker, a RB, a GK and a CM can't play in a 4-4-2?? or a 4-2-2-2 for example? or a 4-5-1?? Can they only play in a 4-4-3? I don't think you should base us dropping the 4-4-2 on that evidence mate.

Don't panic and carry on ffs! We have had one bad beat - against a top champions league team - may I remind you all that we were League 1 only two season ago. We outplayed Ajax for 45min and that was their last pre-season friendly when they were at the end of theirs. We let in one goal against a team that beat Man UTD away in Europe, and that was a Jose "SIT" (shot in foot) Fonte Moment. We comfortably beat Wolves so we can assume we are better than a **** premier team at any rate, and we played city of the park in the first 45 with our strongest 11. My main worry is that we don't seem to be able to score goals - with the exception of Puncheon and Sharpedo. I still think we need a new CB because we don't have any cover (this is no disrespect to Danny S but we didn't see him last year so very hard to gauge his strengths at this time). We are expected to get nil points from from Arsenal, Man UTD and City. So please can we not have pandemonium on here if that happens. Anything above that is honestly a bonus and I hope and believe that we can nick some points here and there. As for the comments about a formation being forced upon us. Firstly, one quote that is missing from that article is nigel saying "i was awestruck by how well we played in the first 30min against Bristol" - does that sound like a manager who doesn't like the formation. He also points out and defends HIS stance on the new formation by detailing how no one like the diamond when he introduced it at first and states that this formation is just a new way to play and a new weapon in the armoury. He also adds that this is an addition to their existing repertoire not as a replacement. And in truth I believe him as he is using it to compete with the possession football of the top sides - i.e -Ajax, Arsenal, Anderlecht and sie Italianos. We will be okay, it will be a struggle but I'm going to stick with my pre-season estimate of anywhere between 10-15th, have not seen anything to worry me yet and unless we lose 7-0 to city I won't change my mind.

According to blue moon it is £50 for their fans also. They are moaning about it themselves. Also, only 5 teams sold out the away end last year.

Shawcross - bless the tablet x

We r linked with Shaw Ross quite heavily at the moment. Rumours abound for the last few days and accelerated since stoke signed that new chap

I would have thought it is top 10 actually. We are against much higher quality with many players who like and do shoot from range. No point defending the box if you are going to let in 25-30 yarders every couple of games. Personally I think the deep midfielders/defense don't close them down. But good luck with that approach against city, united, spurs, chelsea, liverpool etc - or just newcastle and cisse. Saints will have to address this and I really hope it is higher than 40th on the priorities list.

Cool cheers for the heads up guys

What's this chat about "do not forget to your seat backs" ? Me and my bro are thinking of going tonight but not liking the ominous sounding seats?

Wait what? Go back in to school and discover fractions and percentages. Then post statistical analysis - may be more readily accepted.

The Victorians used to cane the kids at school and what a disaster that was. Oh wait they conquered the work and pioneered engineering, health care, modern sports,democracy and education. Physical discipline is bad!

2004/5 was on the back of the cup final and Europe the season b4 so we had a good fan base. I think that this is a good marker to be in the similar region and assuming away fans attend we will be 75-80% full with minimal extra tickets sales. I think we can expect do get good averages this year which will increase with success and with Pompey dissapearing down the drain in the coming seasons.

Y don't you just follow the team.

I'm not sure of that. On pre season basis yes, but you have to factor in Cork and Davis, I can't believe we signed the latter to sit behind a 17 year old. However I agree with you and the majority of this board that we have another real gem here. I have been impressed by him every time I have seen him play and I do think he will be fighting for a starting spot or be on the bench in most games.

I agree, it is the same argument I make to my girlfriend. Minus pepper pig world