Saxon

Managed to call them up Friday lunch time and get one, brilliant, thanks!

I think there are still a couple left for anyone interested but you'll have to be quick.

Just in case this has changed for anyone, I am still after one.

Cheers

Hi,

I didn't get a chance to purchase a Brighton Ticket until this evening with Saints+ and they have unfortunately sold out.

If anyone has a spare they no longer need I would gladly take it off of your hands.

Cheers

Team sheet taken off the Facebook page. I wonder if they gave a wrong team out.

 

EDIT: It's back.

They had Romeu's picture for Romeu and Tadic.

I really like our current crest. I like that it was designed by a fan, I like how instantly recognisable it is and I like the fact there's no other crest that shares the same basic shape as ours (that I know of). If it ain't broke, don't fix it as they say.

This.

Don't change it.

And didn't it win a cross-fan poll or something for a newspaper? I seem to remember a thread on that a while ago...

Yeah who needs goals anyway?

 

6th lowest scorers in the prem, 5 of the last 6 games with no goals, 17 goals at home all season (2nd worst), 4th worst home points tally.

 

The final position masks a very dull league campaign.

Definitely the bit that is being glossed over.

I am happy with 8th and a cup final, who wouldn't be, but it is the underlying problems with attack throughout the season which are of concern. Puel did have an entire season to remedy them and sure he did have injuries, and I am impressed with his use of academy players (especially Stephens first team performances - hope this continues next season) however I am in two minds about what to do next. Perhaps he does just need another preseason and some more signings and a chance for the other signings from this year to settle in a bit more. Plus, next season we won't have such a bad schedule thanks to European football (which was also disappointing this season overall).

I would say, keep him, and review again at Christmas. I think his cup final achievement has earned him that much. We also don't want to start a reputation for impatience, as this turns away prospective managers. If we have struggled up to Christmas then I think that is fair game to think about replacement then.

That said, I suppose if there was a very attractive manager who was interested in us now and we could take advantage of that early this summer, there is also an argument to being a bit more ruthless to try and regain some of our momentum from the recent seasons. Hence the dilemma. But I certainly wouldn't advocate trying to change managers unless there is a stellar alternative.

Either way, its going to be a very important summer and some difficult decisions will need to be made, with less obvious answers.

Really?

 

A man who failed comprehensively to keep Sunderland up, when Fat Sam, Di Canio and Poyet all succeeded.

 

A man who took Man Utd from Champions of England to 7th

 

A man who took Real Sociedad from Champs League contenders to 16th

With a full season as well mind.

So now we have facts rather than opinions to judge the season , and we can look back on this thread to see how the season panned out, and see who was happy with 8th.

 

Facts

 

First full seaso in English football, Poch 8th and no cup final

 

Fist full season in English football Koeman 7th no cup final

 

Claude 8th plus cup final .

 

As my old man used to tell me, you can't argue with facts. Opinion is opinion, but facts are facts. Well done Claude Puel, we'd have all taken that in Aug

True, and it is a fortunate result, but it was with the worst home record of the last 5 seasons in the premier league, and is the worst overall record of the debut seasons of the last three managers.

I am in two minds very much, things need to improve, but i am not sure how and what and whether Puel should be part of it. I don't like high managerial turnover, but at the same time, if there is an attractive option, it's worth keeping options open.

A Man u fan said if he goes to a big game without a ticket he waits to buy from the touts about 15/20 mins into the game.

 

He can then buy a lot cheaper as touts are just wanting to sell.

 

HTH

Was going to suggest this, if you wait right until the last minuet they'd rather get something than nothing. You risk missing the start, or being late to the pub if it doesn't work outm but you should be able to get a much cheaper ticket.

For those that can't make it or can't get a ticket, the skysport NOWtv thing is £6.99 for the day, so it's worth that for a proper HD experience rather than a dodgy stream that keeps cutting out.

We'll have a bright start. Have a **** Christmas and gradually get better towards the end of the season like we always do.

Very prescient.

This one also works

We won't get relegated may come back to haunt you.

Wish I could share your optimism. A GK who is often rooted to the spot and always likely to concede the first shot on target, a defence with uncertainty over their futures, a midfield with little bite (Romeu aside), and a pitiful and toothless attack seems pretty ripe for a relegation struggle to be honest.

 

I have been of the view, end of season and review it, and ideally I'd like to see that, unless we can attract an outstanding coach now (which I doubt), or things continue to plummet (which seems a more likely prospect after the Christmas-New Year fixtures, and displays).

We already have 24 points and we have a much clearer fixture schedule in the new year. If we win 5 more games we won't go down, 5/16, I think we can manage that (plus draws and so forth etc). I don't see it personally. We might come in low, but we won't get relegated. We also had the roughest turnaround for Christmas fixtures compared to any other team this Christmas (we had the least amount of time between matches). I am massively disappointed with our Christmas results for darn sure, but its Saints, its Christmas, we always take the bl**dy holidays off, every year! But we'll bounce back in the spring, I'm sure.

I will admit, it would be good to maybe strengthen with some sensible additions if there are a couple going in the transfer window, but I don't think its essential. We just need some form for our strikers. At least JayRod is at last starting to look much better in his movements, so hopefully he'll get his scoring back on track soon enough.

Come on chaps, chins up for heavens sake!

I don't see what the harm is in giving him the season at the very least We won't get relegated, no way. We still have the league cup to come, and we're in the same position (points wise) we were last season. SO let's just see what happens. Puel won't have as many fixtures in the second half of the season either so will have a better chance to get us on a good run.

My personal opinion, he should be allowed until next Christmas, give him the summer and then we will see where we are next Christmas (likely without the pressure of EL games).

Besides sacking the manager too early will not look great for attracting new managers.

It is so good that you can now get the solent commentary on the saints website. Much prefer listening to that than fussing around with awful streams.

Hopefully we can continue our winning run. Maybe this will be the year we can get somewhere in a cup, can only hope. I feel more confident with Puel than with Koeman tbf!

Agree very much! Puel needs support from the fanbase, not vitriol! If we crate a positive atmosphere, then we are much more likely to get the results we want!

We had the exact same run of results after three games last season.

We are putting the ball about better, and we have good possession, and our passing has improved somewhat since the awful passing from the opener. However we are obviously lacking someone to put the goals away.

If we get someone able to do that, or someone finds some form then we'll be fine. The season for us always takes a little time to get started proper as these days we have so many internationals, and we always seem to have important players coming in late in the window. Add in the fact we have a new manager and we all need to remember that it will take a little bit of time for us to get there.

There's no need to panic at all yet, we can see what needs to happen and if you look objectively, you can see that we have a solid base to the team, the players just need some confidence and we just need to start delivery the goods a bit more.

Chuffed for Rodriguez, regardless of the nature of the goal, hopefully that can help spur him on.

Its awful, it would be good of the club to show some support to Puel. It doesn't have to be public, he may not want that.

Heart goes out to the people of France.

Many people believe it's due to the whole North African French colonial thing as a lot of the attackers and people arrested prior to attacks have been of Algerian descent etc, but it's just speculation.

 

Yes, they have a serious immigration problem (one walk around the northern districts of Paris will show just how bad it is) but again, it's not that different to somewhere like Hamburg.

I believe the attacks by and large are committed by French nationals or set-up or orchestrated by French nationals.

Happy to be proved wrong, but I think that statistic may have been from the previous season (2014-15). Harry Kane alone played more minutes than our 3 (?) academy players together last season, I think Spurs would have easily beaten us, maybe others as well. Unless it means Saints academy players who played for any PL club, in which case add Lallana, Shaw, Ox, Walcott, Baird, Surman and a few others.

Yeah that's a good point! Maybe they did mean across all other clubs combined?

Interesting to hear that we led with the most number of minutes played by academy players in the PL last season. If that's true that's excellent, though it does further highlight the challenge for youth players to make it in the first team of PL clubs, as we were all moaning last season that they weren't playing enough! So I'm surprised that we were the highest!

Some of these reactions are goddamn hilarious

 

Jesus Christ chaps, kit designers really can't win with you guys.

 

Standard bland striped home shirt - 'Quite nice, bit boring though, template as well, bit lazy and we look like Stoke'

 

Brand new uniquely designed striped shirt with a few distinguishing features with a new template just for SFC (Guy in Bar Raised vids confirmed this on twitter, it's not an old template) - 'vomit inducing, won't be buying'

 

Can't win

 

Personally, I think its the best shirt we've had since returning to the Prem.

Agreed with this. Its a grower. I think the players look very smart in it. Once the sales hit I shall definitely partake! I like the small details (we march on on the collar, the striped band on the shorts etc). Our best since the return to the prem (with the home-made version a close second).

Nike and Adidas are absolutely taking the pee with their "single style" off the peg approach and clubs should tell them where to shove it.

My absolute biggest bug bear with modern kits. Just cannot understand how the clubs do not make more of a fuss about it. The latest Nike kits... I mean you have to be kidding me right?

I'm not entirely sure UA and the likes of Macron are much different, but as they have fewer teams the kits still look more bespoke than the awful Nike Wrong Socks kits or the tedious Adidas Everyone's Armpit Stripes This Year kits.

That's a very fair point. But for them I am less talking about the template issues and more that the actual kit designs look more like football kits than the stuff coming out of adidas and nike.

Quite optimistic about the Under Armour kits tbh. Over the last few seasons the quality of the kits from Adidas and Nike have really gone downhill IMO. I can't stand the brand theme that all clubs have to adhere too. Look at the Nike kits for the Euros! They're atrocious! They are all literally the same kit, a main colour and a sleeve colour with a stripe down the side of the kit. That's it. No identity whatsoever, all you can know for sure when you see a kit, without seeing the badge, is that its a Nike kit... there's no other distinguishing feature other than the colours. How do they get away with it? And then charge so much money! The adidas kits all just look boring as well, none of the templates are interesting, just differently coloured panels (and too many panels in weird places). I'm glad we're out of that now.

Umbro and under armour (and tbf so do Macron) actually still seem to make kits that look like football kits. Adidas and Nike just pump out a couple of templates for most teams with different colour combinations (so everyone looks the same and part of team adidas or team nike, thus losing their identity) or they come up with some atrocious futuristic rubbish for the huge clubs, like the new united kit (seriously what is that hexagonal business?).

Rant over. Spurs kit last season, whilst not the most amazing, was definitely very decent, and, the key part, looked like a football kit.

As my father has it https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

I'll go for the same.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach

Looks like Unai Emery will not be heading to the Premier League - I'm told a move to PSG is close

I don't anyone would be unhappy with Blanc if he came here! His teams play nice football as well.

Emery for me. His huge EL experience would come in handy this season, plus its always good to have a manager on board who rates the competition. I think he could be good for us.

If not then I think FDB would be worth giving a go. Howe I think would definitely be good for us, but I think at a time like this we need someone with a bit more experience to steady the ship. Howe would have been who I would have said if it was a more amicable departure with Koeman, next season, were he to go to Arsenal for instance.