Toon Saint

amar singh‏@amarjourno 59m #Tottenham, who may come into a bit of cash soon, are interested in signing Valencia midfielder Ever Banega according to El Mundo

Think he will make the squad and, alongside Sturridge, hopefully will get some decent game time against Moldova. Both deserve it. Wellbeck and Rooney will most probably start against Ukraine as the forward pairing, but expect Rickie to be brought on as an impact sub if we are struggling - which is highly likely.

Ha, started posting it then had to go meet my academic supervisor. Came back and pressed send and obviously realized there was another thread exactly the same. Some of us have other things going on in our lives

Apologies, aware there is now another thread on this (there wasn't when I started). Mods please move.

Taken from The Guardian '10 talking points' blog: http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/aug/26/premier-league-10-talking-points The suspicion grows that Southampton shrink as expectations rise. Drawing at home with Sunderland is not a disaster, not with so much football left to play. But it is part of a worrying trend. Last season Southampton dropped 32 points at home, too often failing to perform when the onus was on them. Those victories over Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City are remembered but there were also defeats against Queens Park Rangers, Sunderland, West Bromwich Albion and Wigan Athletic and draws with Fulham, Norwich, Stoke and West Ham. It happened under Nigel Adkins and it happened under Mauricio Pochettino. Against sides who sit deep at St Mary's Southampton tend to run out of ideas, quickly resorting to hitting high balls towards Rickie Lambert (and, now, Daniel Osvaldo), and their defence remains vulnerable to costly sucker-punches. Allowing Emanuele Giaccherini, who is 5ft 4in, to score a header from a corner was unacceptable. Pochettino says that his side approach every game the same. But there is still a problem and Southampton's increased spending means they need to find a solution sooner rather than later. Jacob Steinberg Fair comment? Obviously need to find ways to break through teams that sit back on a goal lead to protect or look for the draw, but a little OTT in my opinion - think the 'high balls' they mention are a lot more tactical than they make out, and the match-report itself was quite critical of Osvaldo's debut (much more so than any other write-up). Definitely need to work on defending those corners though, still can't believe Giaccherini scored with Wanyama, Lovren, Chambers, Lambert, Fonte, etc., in the box. Absolutely criminal.

From what I remember of his feed, he is quite an ardent Saints fan. Goes to home and away games but often gets seats in hospitality areas - swear there were a few shots of him with Lallana and Cortese at Chelsea away last year. Strange how he became involved in all of this...

Ha, I follow Josh Harris on twitter. Isn't he on the blogging scene?

He's strong, he's quick He looks like Johnny Depp Osvaldo, Osvaldooooo Clap clap clap

Ha, it's taken from the horses mouth. Watch the Poch interview: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2400963/Southampton-1-Sunderland-1--match-report-Fonte-grabs-gasp-equaliser-Saints-deny-Di-Canio-win-season.html

Not the sort of games I want Cardiff winning, but did tip them to stay up based on their home form and Citeh to finish third.

I think he will settle ok. Yes, he has a temper and pretty convinced that he will get sent off once or twice this season, but wouldn't worry about him thinking he is better than the current squad. Apart from a two-year spell at Roma, he's not been playing with world-class players his entire career. To be honest, think he will enjoy being the 'top dog' here. We've got the whole Argentine-Italian thing covered with Poch and Cortese, plus a reasonable South American contingent in the squad now. Judging from her twitter posts his girlfriend seems to be enjoying Southampton, and he's obviously been looking for properties for a while. Don't know why he marched down the tunnel after the game (wasn't there), but probably hasn't forged that same bond with the rest of the players yet. That said, nice picture of him and Cork sharing a moment on the touchline.

Love this and the lyrics have been really well re-worked, but it will take a brave man to sing it on their own enough for it to catch on.

Read before that he has excellent leadership qualities and is one of the more dominant personalities in that age group. Never seen him play so don't know too much about his playing style. Anyone know the length of his new contract?

I don't think it will be too long before Poch is doing interviews in English - although it really doesn't bother me with the current set up. Watched the post match presser for yesterdays game on the Daily Fail website, and you can see from his body language that he is getting pretty agitated with the rigmarole of the translation process - puffing his cheeks, grinding his teeth, etc. He clearly understands what is being put to him in English, but maybe lacks the confidence to reply as fluently as he would like.

Morgan didn't train during the week as he had a slight injury to his quadriceps - he was only declared fit for the game quite late on. Don't know whether he was feeling this during the game or it was a tactical change. Could have well have been a bit of both. Shaw apparently aggravated the knee injury he picked up against Real Sociedad, but think he was taken off as more of a precaution.

Very marginal. Rodriguez was in front of the last defender by a couple of nose hairs, but lino could have easily given the attacker benefit of the doubt.

Gazza Fox Jos Maya Clyne Cork S. Davis Isgrove Gaston Guly Mayuka Osvaldo, Stephens, Seager, Rowe, K. Davis on bench.

While I hope Osvaldo gets a good 30 mins, wouldn't have sent out a great message to the rest of the team if he had come in and started straight away. Squad is looking very strong when the likes of Maya can't even make the match day squad. COYR!

Haven't been to the Amex yet but apparently Brighton are one of the best for away fans. They ship in local beers form the away clubs area, change the l.e.d's around the bars to reflect the away teams colours, and have some sort of electronic ticker that lists the opposition clubs best players. No closing time for bars either and home and away fans are free to mingle afterwards. Not sure whether £200,000 would provide that, but some decent ideas. EDIT: Ergh...realised that this is meant to be used for our own away fans not to improve services for those visiting. Free coaches?

Jeez, all the cretins come out of the woodwork on threads such as these. Pretty amazing how so many try and subsume an argument about tackling homophobia under the umbrella of 'political correctness gone mad'. That really is the refuge of a complete idiot.

It's a difficult one really. I have a lot of Brighton fans as friends who kind of enjoy the banter, their favourite riposte to said chant is normally 'You're too ugly to be gay' which is also a lot funnier than the one directed their way. I'm not one to essentialise, but gay people do actually have a sense of humour. One of my friends, a Posh S/T holder who is gay, takes no offense to the 'we can see you holding hands' chant. That said, he would most definitely object to individuals/groups of fans calling out 'poof', 'pansy', 'such and such takes it up the arse', which makes a pejorative connection between a players behaviour on the football pitch and sexual orientation. In those of sort of instances, the persons/groups doing the chanting, probably don't actually think the player is gay, but are just targeting something deemed effeminate (shirking a tackle etc.) and then lazily employing homophobic language to make their point. For gay people watching in the crowd though, when other spectators are invoking their identity as a kind of insult, that must be pretty damn humiliating. Those type of fans need to be educated, sanctioned, or chucked out of football grounds, full-stop.

I think this will probably be the team too - though I would like to see: Boruc Clyne Lovren Fonte Shaw Wanyama Schneiderlin Lallana Ramirez Osvaldo Lambert We should win this one. I'd like us to thump them as can't stand PDC but think it could be a lot tighter than that. Depends how early we can get that first goal really. I'm going for 2-0. Lallana and Osvaldo with the goals. COYR!

Poor you not being able to make your witty chants at football matches any longer. Never mind those 10% of persons having to put up with 'gay' being banded around terraces as by-word for anything perceived as crap, unmanly, or effeminate. Their concerns are ridiculous.

True dat.

That's what I suspected, and tomorrow most will be fine with it. I'd much rather see the club promoting its (excellent) social media channels than using the seats as an advertising hoarding for sponsors.