melmacian_saint

This. Ter Stegen is headed to Barcelona with Valdes leaving at the end of the year....

Fulham, Cardiff, WBA.

True, but I remember Fulham were on TV last season too (even it at lunchtime) and they still had a big support. From TV most away supports still look fairly strong in numbers in the PL so far, not sure if it's a SMS thing..

I must say I've been surprised with the small away supports at St.Mary's this season. Apart from the big teams, the numbers have been extremely small. Look at Swansea for example. One of the biggest supports last season, this season really small. Same with Fulham and Stoke who. I seem to remember Hull fans made a good effort. West Ham and Sunderland (expected though!) fairly disappointing. Villa are a healthy exception, I think more people came this time if anything. Same for Palace fans who came in good number. Is it harder to reach Southampton or have our match day tickets for away fans gone up considerably?

Are we really that short at CB, that an Academy player can't offer enough cover? Assuming a departure that's 3 CBs plus an Academy player as the fourth. I think that's fine. I think we still need a LB. If any players leave us this summer it could most likely be Shaw and/or Clyne. I don't think Schneiderlin, Lallana, Lovren (not this first season anyway) or Rodriguez. That, and a substitute goalkeeper. Maybe look around at the 2nd-tier national teams of Europe, like NI-Steven Davis, though not sure what good prospects would exist in such predicament? Maybe fish from one of the relegated sides at the end of the PL season. There are some quality keepers on that bottom half and I'm sure a few would be happy with coming over should the possibility of more PL football become something to lure them.

Also one question that does seem to intrigue me. Have clubs in the English pyramid, professional ones in particular, ever been "fan-owned". That is, as associations of members who elected their chairmen and its board? Because every single piece of historic evidence I seem to come across suggests football clubs were companies (mainly Limited) from very, very early on? Even at non-league level.

Posted this a while back and not the same and don't think it will be as bad but the PL clubs are showing many of the signs that led to the decline of the Spanish league. Floating in money, many had extravagant nouveau riche shareholders (which came from a move towards a Private Limited Company model in the professional leagues in the early 90s) and managerial changes were (in some ways still are) extremely often even in teams that weren't doing very badly. Eventually you had expensive, good-on-paper teams full of imports from other leagues (mainly from South America) that really didn't add that much, ditto for coaches (Spanish managers were never really in charge of signings or other club aspects than tactics and team selection/training , the trend in England shows a similar behavior with head coaches being appointed rather than "managers"), and a national team that was underachieving despite the success of the league where some of the stars were indeed Spanish (read England today). Eventually some odd relegations happened (read Celta Vigo, Zaragoza, Betis, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Real Sociedad), debts accumulated and when the call came a vast number of clubs crumbled Pompey-style. Of course a lot of it came from the overall economic collapse of the country, with clubs (and in many cases owners) excessively reliant on loans from regional credit unions that failed spectacularly as a result of the housing bubble. But I feel a similar analogy can be drawn with TV money and the investment that it drives. In this case I'd think the risk is smaller in a macro perspective, but much higher in an industry/sector perspective as the TV income dependance is significant as a result of the "global" repercussion of the PL and the technological development the means of live, free broadcasting are ever increasing, and live broadcast sports will become a mass market. Eventually, much like music players and downloading, it will be either that (possibly still illegal, but hard to control and certainly the loss revenue for professional football leagues is getting bigger by the hour??) or an iTunes-style 0.99p per football match process (eventually it will be more worth it than charging TV memberships). This could drive all other revenues (and ultimately costs) down (including the absurd player wages), meaning that some of the perceived "appeal" maybe lost, and the whole model based on attractiveness for global players and other tycoons will be lost (for local ones it is still a great source of income!). One could suspect he will be getting what he paid for in many ways (though eventually match ticket prices may show the similar severe discrimination pattern as a high-priced, quick-selling good concert vs. perhaps free, not-so-well-known concert, maybe in the same league!?). The point is, unless he is a fan with strong sentiments for a club/league (a mere niche segment, shall we call it) those Watanabe sans in Japan will probably eventually realize they are only marginally more pleased with paying to watch a match of the PL live on TV (not the match itself!) than paying to watch something else via the same mean. It's like broadcasting concerts and charging a membership for it. Bar from a few, it really isn't a money spinner (many suggesting it could be though? I'm sure it won't be as much as football charges today) A warning if there ever was one, not that Scudamore will care. Meanwhile the football agents (i.e. the football bubble version of the property developers of the pre 2008 global recession) rejoice. Not for long.

Well that is not true. And he only got back into the side because of a long-term injury to Fonte.

Don't you just mean that hindsight is a beautiful thing?

Swansea for all the noise have only won last year's cup. I'm not counting the Welsh trophies as they are an FA club and in those trophies matches are mostly vs. amateurs.

I'm sure Everton fans have had the time of their lives with Moyes' stability. They even qualified for the CL play-offs at one stage!

You're right, it was a club we all love, but being incredibly honest it was a mess that couldn't see further than May of each year, stuck with a golden generation of loyal academy players but who really wouldn't be that great elsewhere. All this combined with a 19th century ground that in all fairness was 75% responsible for those key results in a season.

That little FA Cup advertising clip they've been showing at home matches since the New Year just looks so ridiculous now...

What? The little old bargain-boys of Southampton that almost did a Wimbledon post relegation? Or maybe Coventry is a better example...

Unnecessary. Like Fox, no shame in not being good enough. Rather have him around than Osvaldo headbutting anyone who dares to dispossess him and playing Billy Big ******** with the rest of his teammates. Having said this, I did not expect him to start again for us and not in a game like this. Our defensive line was left shattered way too many times by his aimless midfield incursions to sweep the ball away that just ended up with the whole of defense compensating for him while he was too slow coming back. Being honest, he was a loan signing in the CCC and back then we just seemed to want to get over the promotion line as the short-termism of our signings from that season except for Cork show. Should we not have signed him permanently? After all he had been unsuccessful at Celtic who aren't in a better league than us and probably aren't a better team. The loan was going well so maybe a simple extension to the end of the season would've been enough. Then again we desperately needed a CB on the books so it was sensible to go for a guy that was doing fine even if his performances were hyped by his goal-scoring rather than mainly by his defensive ability. We're now in a difficult position where his value is not high enough to sell him on, nor any club at his ability level will be prepared to pay his wages as it stands. Given he was successful in Scandinavia we could source there but really how many clubs could take him on? FC Copenhagen (he was there on loan but they didn't keep him in the end)? Any Dutch club (he never really had a good season or reputation at home)? Quite hard and I'm afraid even a loan will be difficult to find.

Very true. The amount of times the defensive line was fragmented even before Sunderland got into the final 3rd was ridiculous. It is also false that Hooiveld was first choice at any point last season other than before Yoshida arrived. He only paired Maya after Fonte's long-term injury in the FA Cup tie vs. Chelsea.

By winning the Cup we go straight into the group stage. Once there, we can rotate the squad as much as we like. If anything, it helps. Worth mentioning that if Sunderland don't win the League Cup, 7th place could mean Europe somewhere obscene in late July.

If think there should be a rule whereby all home matches until the quarter-finals of the FA Cup are included in the ST package. Same for the League Cup. Maybe then people will start turning up.

Fool me once shame on me, Fool me twice shame on you. Pochettino is a good manager and he has brought a lot of personality into the team. However, I get the impression he is a bit full of himself and his constant depreciation of cups and Europa Leagues while being fairly open about his league,CL and other big time ambitions suggests to me that he is mainly driven by the number of news headlines he is part of. While you get the likes of Mourinho that use their staff (i.e. his unique individual player-manager relations) and transform mentalities, I think Pochettino is just happy to keep his authority and therefore will only get involved as much as he believes he should. I'm not talking about his relationships with players, but more in terms of the message that he sends across. The top managers absorb and transform everything that goes in and out of the main entrance. For instance, in his mind, it's like "Mourinho FC" are playing rather than Chelsea. Pochettino is more about "the manager of Southampton FC is Pochettino. This is what he does: (insert style of play, characteristics, overall good results etc.). His contacts are...". His rationale is if Mauricio wants to be great, he needs to get Southampton FC to do this/that, just like a Norwich, Swansea or Sunderland would do if there were to employ him and he is to achieve his goals. That's why I think he needs to review his approach a bit more. And Sunderland made as many changes as us to their side, but did that change their attitude? No. When clubs prioritize competitions so clearly, particularly in terms of attitude, it suggests someone wasn't up for it. Poyet, for all his rather arrogant and unpleasant character, seems to be more worried about having "Poyet AFC" out than MP did. That is difference. And that shows in the attitude of players. Their side was not better than ours. Steven Davis MOM, without him I doubt we'd even have gone for it in the last few minutes.

Hooiveld has gone absolutely awol of the defensive line so many times today.

Shaw anxious. Just too late.

The Holt-ization of Lambert is complete.

We're going to need a very isolated incident to score here.

Oh FFS just get a f... shot from outside the box Saints!!! Possibly the most frustrating thing about the whole club this season. No shots whatsoever. Pull the trigger!!!

Rodriguez is not a bad player but he just comes across as so stupid sometimes.