melmacian_saint

Not the first time Chambers has no idea someone is behind him this season...

Rose you dirty bastard.

I try to forget that...but you are right. For a manager under pressure, they sure are scoring for fun! haha

I don't think Norwich had scored two goals in the same half this season?!?!

They are a defeat/draw and Northampton win on Saturday from pressing the panic button. However, I very much agree with several on here. Being in the worse 3/4 in a league is one thing, somehow the worst two seems way too bad for them to match. Or is it?

I'm not even British but this sounds like a very ignorant thing to say! The Falklands WERE British, and were effectively part of the UK when Argentinas basket case military dictatorship decided to invade. And of course, the majority of the population is/was British and so wanted to be! Crimea might have been Russian, but it is a state of the Ukraine and has been for a while, regardless of the majority of the population being ethnically from somewhere else. I am also pretty sure that a Crimean independence movement have had plenty of time to ask for and successfully obtain a referendum on either independence and then on alliance with Russia. It's very different when you do things yourself, or you are dragged along by a bigger power essentially as part of a global game. One is effectively legitimate, the other really isn't.

We can. However, that half of the EU can't, and nor can Germany. If Germany can't, then the EU won't. Same goes for all issues China, and their ever increasing partnership with Germany, which of course reflects our trade/diplomatic agreements with the Chinese. Of course, they mostly benefit one nation around this continent...yeup, you guessed it!

How many cities bigger than Portsmouth (the city, not the metro area because that would just embarrass them) have their highest-ranked team lower in the football pyramid than them? I can't think of one, Plymouth is the closest I can think of but they are effectively above them in the table (and should finish that way)!

That's to do with the fact that the main way into central Southampton is a two-lane road. Speaking of, imagine the Northam bridge with an extra 3000 cars around the place?! Instead of a slow convoy it would be static for hours.

Most people would be extremely surprised to know the amount of people, employed in aviation or not, that own full-scale cockpit replica flight simulators at home. It really is not rocket science. And if we're simply talking about having a Flight Simulator installed in a computer, we'd better start investigating the whole world. Nonsense IMO.

That's the way it's going though. Until some TV deal collapses anyway, which given the brainless talk that comes out of the PL corridors should be coming soon me thinks.

I see your point but I still would. Just like with Southampton City or Southampton Hampshire

In all fairness, how many times this season have we seen our defenders (CBs, FBs and Keeper) play dangerous passes towards our more defensive midfielder? Many times and we got away with it far many times. It's a tactical option which is risky in a high-tempo game like the English one, and when a team is sitting pretty on the scoreboard, defensive possession is one of the first set of movements where the players become complacent. It was Fonte but it could've been Lovren, JWP, Shaw or Clyne or especially considering his feet game yesterday Boruc! One goal is not a problem. But when someone else does exactly the same thing a minute later, that one is not an acceptable mistake.

Fonte should not have passed it but I still think JWP could have been more on the ball (literally) when that happened. Until then it was the easiest game and win we've had since being promoted again and yet we almost managed to blow it. Norwich did not string 3 passes together all afternoon (they never do without Leroy Fer) and apart from our gifts had a dreadful shot wide. I've said that Chris Hughton is a terrible manager but falls in that "likeable trap" that seems to fool both directors and fans alike. Norwich are not great but have a better squad that can play much better football than what he manages to get them to play and everything about him transmits negativity. They suffer for goals because that's how he makes them play, Wolfswinkel and Hooper would be setting the table alight with another man on the bench. Paul Lambert would have had this same Norwich team fighting it out with us for a top 10 place. Norwich however have a tradition of being soft and paying the price for it, like being relegated from the PL to L1 just like us without even going through real financial trouble. Any other club would have rightly got rid of Hughton at the end of last season after what was nothing short of a horrible 2nd half of the season. They will go down if they don't. He really is clueless.

I'm ok with his ideas but please, please, do NOT change our name to Southampton Saints or Saints FC.

Do you fail to see the concept of a youth and a U-21 team? We need keepers for these, so if you put it like this you must include all our current U-21/U-18 squads and their players when talking about all the positions. Cropper is the U-21s keeper. Isted and Britt are/were in the U-18s, and Johns rotates between both (mostly the U-21 these days). 4 keepers for two squads is not a lot, it is the right number. Most of them are also either playing above their age level or already "outside" the age level boundaries altogether, and you can't have them around in youth contracts anymore. Plus we haven't signed Isted. He was already with us and has simply been promoted into a professional contract. Very different from signing someone who is unattached or came from another club today. Sorry if I'm being precious but I found your post very misleading. You seem to want to discuss the first team options, but use the youth keepers as back-up for your argument.

Loaned to a club challenging for promotion and a national trophy. If anything, great move from the club in the fact that when we find a loan for a young player looking to kickstart his career, we find a bloody good one.

I'm also not very sure about this idea of not having enough players to put in a shift at both competitions. Any stats wizard in this forum can tell us how many players we had in 02/03 that had more than 10 PL appearances compared to this season. We were known to have large squads in those days (see Kevin Davies missing out on the squad list for the Final), but I can't help to think that the numbers shouldn't be very far off. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Anyone?

Whilst I agree with Les' point about nurturing them in-house, I can't help but look at the two most prominent examples in European football when it gets to talent: Spain and Germany. And forget your super-powers, have a look at your Bremens, Athletics, Sevillas, Valencias or Leverkusens. They all produce homegrown talent, AND they all have a B team that competes in the football pyramid in the country. If anything, it combines both the nurturing, in-house preparation side and the open, competitive environment that many claim is an issue with British young talent. In Spain, these are allowed to go as far up as the 2nd Division (i.e. the Championship). While I think this is too far up, most compete in the closest non-professional/semi-professional level (the 2nd Division B, read League One). In Germany, I'm not sure how far up the ranks they are allowed to go but I believe most compete in the Regional leagues. I think this would probably be the best scenario for our clubs. Perhaps we could establish a "ceiling" just before the Football Conference, and allow B teams to compete up to level 7. Or maybe at county level, as this would have less implications for the national pyramid. Whatever we do, I believe this model is the one we should follow. Not create closed, reserve-only leagues where competitiveness is hindered considerably by the objective of most teams, which is little more than squad and player rotation, or the similar nature of the opposition they face every week.

Was looking at his girlfriend's pics. She must be older than him?

I think time is important for him. He clearly looks either too anxious or not very focused, which seems to lead to the poor passing decisions or the times he gets caught out. He also relies heavily on his fitness and that doesn't seem at its best. It's clear that he wants to impress but he is probably thinking about it too much and not getting down to business. If I think he will be a world star? He can certainly make it to those CL regulars, and that really is where the money we paid for him comes from. He is young, a good prospect and at his position the signs and aspects for improvement are clear and can be easily identified. Passing and time on the ball can be improved and learned at 21-22. Focus on that (as we seem to have done with others players and their issues very recently) and he will start showing his potential. He's had a good run already and it's about making sure we develop on his mistakes. I'm much more worried about Ramirez, who has not shown much improvement on what we saw he was lacking, and apart from the odd tricks and the occasional impact sub moments really hasn't had much of a run of form.

I think Wanyama is always a bit too anxious. That's what makes him get passes wrong I think. Trying to get his form back musn't help either. Being completely honest we never looked out of control. Still not over though!

I'd like to stress how terrible this pitch is. The ball struggles to role.

We insist on playing him too out wide and too deep in midfield for some reason. I was expecting us to get him further forward with Wanyama on the side but nothing changed tactically. Of course, Wanyama now sits deeper than Cork and the team looks very far apart.

Wanyama was very far into ours though. There was no one close enough to press and they were breaking away.