kyle04

+1 on Pickford. Good with his feet, intelligent distribution and decision making and probably the most agile keeper in the world at the moment. With Maguire looking more dominant as each game progresses we have a pretty reliable defense developing. Lets face it , it really is coming home this time...

The performance couldn't have been any worse with JWP playing, but we would have had much better set piece delivery, which generally was woeful with Mount the main culprit. Still if GS thinks an unfit player who most likely won't kick a ball was a better selection choice what can you say... With every player match fit JWP dosen't get in, (although the slow negative style employed last game would have suited him), but with players not quite fit he may have been worth a go...

Fuck me the crusades were nearly 1000 years ago (and were ultimately a failure), it's not as if people are dressing up as SS guards. Since they were perpetrated by Europeans (mainly French) at the behest of the Catholic church, who exactly in a European sporting tournament is going to be genuinely offended ?

It's not just this game either, England have looked poor for a number of games recently. I didn't understand Southgate picking players in the warm up games who weren't in the squad other than to protect some from injury, but includes injured or non fit players in the squad anyway (Maguire, Henderson etc). This is tournament football, not a along term building process, players who are both fully fit and in form need to play (Sancho, Grealish for example). Still, a draw v Czech would see us finish 2nd, and facing Spain/Slovakia/Sweden in R16, a win and we top the group and likely face Germany/Portugal

Sterling playing the worst football of his career and stays on the pitch = Southgate is a cunt of a manager. We are going no further than R16 no matter who we play. Fucking league 1 standard by both teams, France et al must have been laughing watching that, what a shambles.

Seems like that's where we're heading, but with a handful of non-elected non-entities controlling the agenda, a deranged blend of operation Yewtree and the Spanish inquisition. Still it distracts from the important issues in the world right now, makes you wonder if the Govt is behind the hysteria after all, instead of being seen to react to every historical indiscretion discovered by these heros. I wonder how many white sportsmen and public figures are "waiting for the knock", furiously sanitizing their social media accounts, like flushing bags of coke down the toilet with the police about to kick the door in.

Bollocks. This mindset of if you're not with us you're against us (and hence a racist) is a dangerous divisive road, and one that the FA are certainly aren't qualified to pass judgement on. The BLM stance embraced by the FA seems to be creating more division, and to label people who question aspects of it as racists is in itself lazy steriotyping. It's called free speech pal, if you want to suppress that that makes you worse than any "racist".

It's clear there's something not quite right about this issue, many people feel uncomfortable about the BLM "movement" and stand to be labelled racists by those who clearly know better. Like Turkish and his exotic fruit/gammon combinations, I bought a jar of Levi Roots sauce long before this whole thing happened so that proves I'm not a racist, and I thought Neville Staple was the 2nd best member of the Specials so there...

Each to their own but pineapple just dosen't work for me with gammon, although parma ham and melon is a perfect combination - go figure ! If Turkish et al prefer fruit with their gammon, they should be free to indulge without discrimination , but sadly the world isn't quite ready for this at the moment. On a less serious note, I think the injustices that black Americans have endured over the past decades is a world away from the UK. Segregation , think about that alone, an inbuilt racism inherited from the slave era, entire communities imprisoned in soul-less "project" housing, routine police harrassment and murder, tens of thousands of black kids trapped in gang or drug culture with no future and no hope, their only release being death or prison. If this is the UK then yes take the knee and we'll bow our heads in shame. A few social media wankers calling you a monkey because you missed a goal may hurt but not as much as a baton in the ribs or a bullet in the guts because you twitched while being frisked. Dear me...

Gammon's very nice as long as you don't over cook it, then it becomes a little dry, not like bacon which goes nice and crispy, but even that can burn if left for to long under the grill, so be careful out there.

Ah yes, when tokenism goes horribly wrong....

Where's Ron Atkinson, just for balance ?

Despite my negative feeling towards the club, I say give RH 3 months next season then re-assess. Hopefully we should have fresher players, Romeau back, who I think we have missed a great deal, and others like Tella, Salisu, Diallo improving. RH clearly has a vision of how football should be played and in all likelihood won't change this. Clearly this group of players haven't been able to deliver this for much of the season, as many simply aren't good enough or physically spent. Thats not the fault of the manager, although where he's failed has been his inability to change tack when things aren't going well. Too few substitutions far too late in games is a recurring theme. I dont know how many goals we've scored in the last 10 minutes of games but it can't be many. We simply can't ship out 6/8 players and spend 100M rebuilding the squad. We have very little talent that would sell well, and a potless owner. Of the players we have I think only Verstergard and Armstrong have improved, and Tella, KWP look promising. The rest have been average (JWP, Bednarek, Bertrand,Ings, both keepers) or poor (Redmond, Walcott). Can't make up my mind about Adams but at the moment dosen't quite look good enough.

Aside from the odd season here and there, it's always been this painful being a Saints fan (45 years for me), a seemingly endless saga of mediocrity , millions wasted on shite players and managerial pay offs. Hope and pride rekindled briefly earlier in the season, only to slowly crumble when our standard level of cuntishness returned. Our squad just aren't good enough to produce a successful season, meaning finishing above the bottom 6 (?). We've had the clown, the dinosaur, now the idealist in charge and overall not much has improved. You would think that, older fans especially, would know this and accept it with weary resignation. I think the FA Cup semi summed us up - a very rare chance to achieve something special. We didn't manage 1 shot on goal.

Walcott never really did fulfill his potential, and has slowly declined over the years. I've seen nothing from him at Saints that would make me want to sign him, although he is part of a piss poor team, but his general play has been quite awful. It would be so like us though to spunk away money on more dead wood, and watch him spend most of next season either benched or injured.

Have to agree, although it's been a strange season with most teams showing erratic form overall, the League Champions shipped 7 at Villa, Chelsea 5 at home to 2nd bottom team, but 9 in 2 seasons running is a record that will stand for a very long time. Our pattern of play dosen't change it seems, and most of the players have regressed this season, with the exception of Vest and Armstrong who IMO have played consistently well, albeit normally with a shambles surrounding them. I don't think there's more than 6 players who I'd like to see next season, but we're unlikely to get many new players in, we have no money and virtually no assets to sell. Our woeful defense hasn't improved (only WBA have shipped more goals). I do like RH, but with seemingly enough points on the board (?), if he can't try something a little different for the remaining games then he never will and next season will be a struggle, if he's still here. As for a potenial replacement, Jose anyone ?

... well we might see Jankewitz on sunday, brought on in the 92nd minute when we're 6-0 down

The semi-final could be embarrassing, once the 2nd goal goes in (circa 15 minutes) the floodgates could open. Theres been too many shit shows for RH to be considered a good manager I'm afraid, although I think Pep would struggle with this squad.

Thought Armstrong was superb today, does that bloke ever get tired ? Good professional display against poor opposition, we'd make a pretty good Championship side !? Difficult to fault anyone but I think Nlundulu is playing the wrong sport. We have an outside chance of a major trophy, who knows, this may kickstart the team into some decent PL form as well.

I think only the bottom two sides are worse than us right now. The stoppage time play summed it up really, still trying to play out from the back (slowly), and ran out of time barely halfway up the pitch. We look like a team of strangers who haven't trained together at all . Excuses are running out fast for Ralph, we don't expect to be world beaters but this level of shite is unacceptable. Every team has the same problems with injuries, fixture density etc but our players seem to have regressed to league one standard of performance, particularly Redmond, who today couldn't even control the f****ng football let alone do anything useful with it. The 2nd half display was the worst I've seen for a long time, considering the limited nature of the opposition. I don't expect to win against Bournemouth or Burnley either.

Thought our long ball tactic worked well today, not too much fannying around at the back with their high press. Tella looked a real handful 1st half. CB's solid, KWP looks a real player and Armstrong continues to impress with JWP a composed performance. Pleased for Adams, great strike injected confidence in him. Diallo looked very nervous 1st half and nearly cost us, but improved as the game went on. On the negative side our decision making on the break was poor, we should have had another couple of goals at least. Redmond , the latest fall guy here, continues to frustrate. I really don't think he has much of a future at this level. Sheffield are not as bad as some seem to think, they played some decent stuff at times but, a little like us, lack that clinical edge and do not have the quality but they battled well to the end and we did well to compete with their physical approach. Ings out for a month according to RH however which, despite erratic performances of late, is a blow. Another win should see us over the line.

Does a penchant for soft fruit qualify..?

... the ocean is currently under investigation for it's role in facilitating the slave trade. Allowing slave ships to cross over it is seen in many circles as colluding in the barbaric slave trade. Representative lawyers are seeking landmark damages claims against the ocean, which, if successful, could result in a torrent of copycat claims and could potentially bankrupt parts of the ocean, with the Atlantic most at risk. Lawyers for the Atlantic ocean are declining to comment....

Nigerian generals who don't send you the money they promised. It's just bad form - is that racist..?

Given the events of the last 2 months with injuries/VAR/generally being a shit team , "on paper" we have no chance of a positive result, and yes, at the moment we are shit, the only oasis was beating a mid table reserve side in a cup we have no chance of winning. Ralphs style of play has clearly unravelled, the players simply aren't good enough or fit enough to sustain it for anything like 90 minutes lately. The team are mentally weak and lacking in confidence and on-field leadership. We can't hold onto a lead, can't chase a game when a goal behind, and can't defend for our lives when under the cosh. We are losing to shit teams and getting hammered by good ones. 0-3 Chelsea, dodgy penalty and a sending off