Pre Season Friendlies 2025/26

[coalman]

9km doesn't seem that much for a professional athlete unless you're running intervals or fartlek.

[Turkish]

10 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I've heard the Rangers players have just come back from a day in an Escape Room rounded off with a Chippy Tea.

Hope the chips were cooked in vegetable oil and pea fritters instead of fish 

[Weston Super Saint]

11 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

I've heard the Rangers players have just come back from a day in an Escape Room rounded off with a Chippy Tea.

I'm amazed they got out.  

[Turkish]

8 minutes ago, coalman said:

9km doesn't seem that much for a professional athlete unless you're running intervals or fartlek.

You’d hope so as someone of pretty average fitness would be easily able to do that and play a 60 minute training match the next day 

It won’t be a 9k jog surely? I tried a runnng drill apparently Newcastle do the other day and it was brutal about half that distance but lots of quick intervals 

[Suhari]

2 hours ago, trousers said:

I like the cut of this Still fella's jib... #breathoffreshair

 

Train hard, fight easy was something of a motto for me in my younger days.

So good to see these comments from William Stilliam. I want to see my team compete: constantly. And to do that they need to Work Fucking Hard.

I'm getting a good feeling for this season.

[Doctoroncall]

1 hour ago, Saint86 said:

Just seen Stephens' howler for the goal. FFS - surely he has to be more of a 4th-5th choice CB rather than a captain and starter?!?!

Sanda is an absolute monster of a unit, and JQ looks good from what i've seen - lots of passion and effort for the friendlies as well.

Ok, not a defence of Jack, but he had no support when receiving the ball. However, this is when experience should kick in - why go back in the danger area? Why no urgency moving to the ball? No safe option - get rid, and start bollocking your team mates. 

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

Our fans, actually most football fans, are not exactly ‘Brains of Britain’.

Whether he turns out to be the answer or not, he is clearly a bright lad and how many of those saying that online have worked overseas at a top level in their industry during their late 20s and early 30s?

 

We had loads of people loving that PE teacher video from Nathan Jones. 

[Convict Colony]

That bagdadi seems explosive 

[ChristopheVAFC]

5 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

That bagdadi seems explosive 

A player who can make all the difference this season!

[Matthew Le God]

 

 

[ChristopheVAFC]

Dear friends,

A few hours after the very first match between our two teams in their history, I want to tell you how I felt:

I sincerely wanted this match to be played in front of an audience so that it could be a celebration between the supporters of the two clubs. I've been hoping for the last few weeks that the decision would change, but unfortunately it didn't. I guess we had to respect the decision of Will Still and Sport Republic... I remember your friendly match last summer with Goztepe and the good exchanges between supporters...

Beyond the fact that the match was played in front of an audience, it's a shame that it wasn't broadcast on television or even live on paper. It's another decision that we have to accept, which I think is a shame...

As for the two matches, I wouldn't worry about the scores, really, what matters most to me is that our two teams were able to take advantage of the opportunity to work on their game, their new habits, and get things right so that they're ready for the season ahead.

There's work to do for both our teams and I have no doubt that Will Still and Stephane Moulin will give it their all to make it work.

I hope that in May 2026, we'll all be able to celebrate, and why not a double league title?

Allez Valenciennes, and Allez Southampton!

[hypochondriac]

1 hour ago, coalman said:

9km doesn't seem that much for a professional athlete unless you're running intervals or fartlek.

I'd imagine it's more about the 9k run and then a game the following day. 

[coalman]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

I'd imagine it's more about the 9k run and then a game the following day. 

I dunno.... 10km used to be a tapering run the day before an ultramarathon and I was in no way what you would might describe as a professional athlete.

[bugenhagen]

Oh, the obsession over 9k… we all know it’s not about the length, but what you do with it. 

[hypochondriac]

13 minutes ago, coalman said:

I dunno.... 10km used to be a tapering run the day before an ultramarathon and I was in no way what you would might describe as a professional athlete.

Well yes but firstly we don't know the pace of the run and any type of long distance running is a pretty different thing to a professional football match. 

[coalman]

23 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Well yes but firstly we don't know the pace of the run and any type of long distance running is a pretty different thing to a professional football match. 

That's why I questioned whether it was fartlek or intervals. Another data point is having trained with a national squad and being in no way good enough to represent that squad I can also say the prevailing sentiment of the people who were up to it would have been "so what?"

[Dusic]

3 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Today is not the day to be looking at structure, technical quality, shape or anything like that. None of that is really a thing at the start of pre-season.

This was basically a massive gym work out in intense humidity.

The structure and quality will build over the coming weeks.

Agree to an extent but clear at the moment that Still's approach is to utilise width but only Edozie can regularly beat a man and his end product is questionable.

I think we have a good squad overall but out wide in attacking areas we don't really seem to have enough and ideally need a new option that we don't yet have.

Of course pre season is about fitness initially and every incoming manager says the team has been worked hard and needs to be fitter but we now have 3 games left, two against superior opposition and it will be interesting whether some preferred wide options emerge from that because clearly onus will be on them to create chances and they didnt against L1/2 level opponents today.

BBD in particular seems to have struggled against poor opposition, Fraser has been played centrally, Edozie is erratic, Dibling is supposedly now injured and many think Armstrong should be moved on. Its definitely the weakest area of the squad.

Edited 18 hours ago by Dusic

[Suhari]

1 hour ago, bugenhagen said:

Oh, the obsession over 9k… we all know it’s not about the length, but what you do with it. 

Spoken like a fellow short-sprinter.

[The Kraken]

2 hours ago, CB Fry said:

I've heard the Rangers players have just come back from a day in an Escape Room rounded off with a Chippy Tea.

Fish supper up there isn’t it?

[Midfield_General]

4 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

Captain Jack 

 

 

What a leader though. 

What a ruddy bloody leader. 

[gio1saints]

The Athletic did a nice article today on the six different types of running fitness tests most commonly used by teams. None were 8 or 9km so does not sound like a structured fitness test kind of run. And, frankly, running 8-9km for a pro footballer should be a walk in the park ( it probably was with RM but that’s another story) a warm down. TBH I did not like to hear it after the relatively bad performance v tier 3 VFC. It sounded like a convenient excuse, nicely lined up. I want to buy the idea of our players playing in “ exhaustion” territory like never before - but running 8k thursday befire without explaining context is not that. 

Edited 18 hours ago by gio1saints

[Dr. Kucho]

2 hours ago, Turkish said:

You’d hope so as someone of pretty average fitness would be easily able to do that and play a 60 minute training match the next day 

It won’t be a 9k jog surely? I tried a runnng drill apparently Newcastle do the other day and it was brutal about half that distance but lots of quick intervals 

Do you mind sharing that running drill Newcastle did? Or posting a link where I can find it? Cheers.

[S-Clarke]

49 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Agree to an extent but clear at the moment that Still's approach is to utilise width but only Edozie can regularly beat a man and his end product is questionable.

I think we have a good squad overall but out wide in attacking areas we don't really seem to have enough and ideally need a new option that we don't yet have.

Of course pre season is about fitness initially and every incoming manager says the team has been worked hard and needs to be fitter but we now have 3 games left, two against superior opposition and it will be interesting whether some preferred wide options emerge from that because clearly onus will be on them to create chances and they didnt against L1/2 level opponents today.

BBD in particular seems to have struggled against poor opposition, Fraser has been played centrally, Edozie is erratic, Dibling is supposedly now injured and many think Armstrong should be moved on. Its definitely the weakest area of the squad.

I don't get me wrong, I totally agree that we're lacking useable quality in and around the wide areas outside of Edozie and Dibling.

I'd expect (hope) at least 2 attacking/wide players in before the window shuts. We can't go into the season still relying on Fraser and Edozie to provide left sided width, squad players yes (Fraser at a push) but we need genuine starter quality imo - we're down numbers in the wide areas anyway, and when you consider most of our attacks were driven by KWP down from right wing then I do get the nervousness!

Still plenty of time though and I don't think we can read anything into these games, the squad will be entirely different come September.

[benjii]

11 minutes ago, Dr. Kucho said:

Do you mind sharing that running drill Newcastle did? Or posting a link where I can find it? Cheers.

It's the called The Byeeeep Teest Liiike.

[Turkish]

49 minutes ago, Dr. Kucho said:

Do you mind sharing that running drill Newcastle did? Or posting a link where I can find it? Cheers.

Doesnt looks much but soon catches up on you objective is to get each rep as close to 15 secs as possible first are quite easy after that not so much 

Edited 17 hours ago by Turkish

[Gloucester Saint]

3 hours ago, hypochondriac said:

We had loads of people loving that PE teacher video from Nathan Jones. 

But that was before the clearly unsatisfactory professional football levels levels of fitness seen under Martin. Got away with it 23/24 due to the strength of the bench to change the games late on but no such option next season so players have be both better and fitter to earn those late winners.

[Charlie Wayman]

Thanks to those who posted the friendly matches highlights. Worth watching even if there are too many titred old faces hanging around the place. The long awaited clear out is taking time. Hopefully Still is using these games to assess the whole squad before getting out his pruning shears. 

Not sure I can see an identifiable system of play yet from Still, seems all a bit kick-and-rush with players playing their own games largely on instinct.

Surely though we will not be starting with the likes of Bree, Manning, Stephens, Armstrong and Fraser

[Convict Colony]

11 hours ago, gio1saints said:

The Athletic did a nice article today on the six different types of running fitness tests most commonly used by teams. None were 8 or 9km so does not sound like a structured fitness test kind of run. And, frankly, running 8-9km for a pro footballer should be a walk in the park ( it probably was with RM but that’s another story) a warm down. TBH I did not like to hear it after the relatively bad performance v tier 3 VFC. It sounded like a convenient excuse, nicely lined up. I want to buy the idea of our players playing in “ exhaustion” territory like never before - but running 8k thursday befire without explaining context is not that. 

Still mentioned the other day that they did the run as he wanted the players still feeling fatigued when they came to the 60min game so he could see how they can perform when their body is jaded etc.

[leeham_69]

16 hours ago, Saint-Reece said:

Captain Jack!

what better way to celebrate a new contract than by repeating the same comprehensive fuck up he always gifts us

[gio1saints]

18 minutes ago, leeham_69 said:

what better way to celebrate a new contract than by repeating the same comprehensive fuck up he always gifts us

Well it’s NOT always him but I totally agree with the sentiment. Horizontal passes across your own penalty area and especially in between the goals are a NO-NO in the Gio book of how to play football. But they still happen. God even the World Club Champions think it’s a good idea! 

Good players can pass the ball and retain possession. But not 100% of the time. Every rondo they practice in training eventually breaks down.
 

This modern obsession with rondo style football- in your own penalty area / own six yard box sometimes - is just some kind of crazy mind virus. No fan likes it and as for the players- is it a machismo thing ? Is it trying to turn football into a bungee jump or a parachute dive for the sake of it? Can we score from our own six yard box by showing how clever we are at keeping possession? Does outwitting the CF in your own six yard box directly lead to plentiful goals? No it does not. Being clever in the opposition half and solid in defence leads to goals. Try telling that to kids today and they won’t believe you( with acknowledgements to Monty Python). 😁

[leeham_69]

Spot on Gio, but for me the simplest and purest fact to highlight from your response is this:

11 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

Good players can pass the ball and retain possession.

Jack... ain't that.

[gio1saints]

54 minutes ago, leeham_69 said:

Spot on Gio, but for me the simplest and purest fact to highlight from your response is this:

Jack... ain't that.

He is not the best CB in the league. - but depends on who you are comparing him too. For the Championship he is plenty good enough imo. And as third or fourth choice he’s excellent. 

✅ Summary — Championship Centre‑Backs 2025–26

Who is better than JS out if these : 

 

Birmingham City: Marc Roberts, Nico Gordon

Blackburn Rovers: Scott Wharton, Dominic Hyam, Ashley Phillips

Blackpool: Marvin Ekpiteta, Andy Lyons

Bristol City: Tomas Kalas

Derby County: Matthew Clarke, Curtis Nelson, Callum Elder

Ipswich Town: Luke Woolfenden, Cameron Burgess, Jacob Greaves, Elkan Baggott

Leeds United: Diego Llorente, Pascal Struijk, Max Wober

Leicester City: Wout Faes, Conor Coady, Caleb Okoli, Harry Souttar, Jannik Vestergaard, Ben Nelson

Middlesbrough: George Edmundson

Millwall: Jake Cooper, Japhet Tanganga

Norwich City: José Córdoba, Shane Duffy, Ruairi McConville, Kellen Fisher

Oxford United: Michal Helik

Preston North End: Jack Whatmough, Jordan Storey, Lewis Gibson, Matthew Olosunde

Queens Park Rangers: Liam Morrison, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke‑Salter

Rotherham United: Richard Wood

Sheffield United: Anel Ahmedhodžić

Sheffield Wednesday: Ben Heneghan, Jaden Brown

Stoke City: Aden Flint, Morgan Fox

West Bromwich Albion: Kyle Bartley, Torbjørn Heggem, Nat Phillips, Caleb Taylor, George Campbell

Wigan Athletic: Steven Caulker, Tendayi Darikwa, Joe Bennett, Ryan Nyambe

[Lee On Solent Saint]

2 minutes ago, gio1saints said:

He is not the best CB in the league. - but depends on who you are comparing him too. For the Championship he is plenty good enough imo. And as third or fourth choice he’s excellent. 

✅ Summary — Championship Centre‑Backs 2025–26

Who is better than JS out if these : 

 

Birmingham City: Marc Roberts, Nico Gordon

Blackburn Rovers: Scott Wharton, Dominic Hyam, Ashley Phillips

Blackpool: Marvin Ekpiteta, Andy Lyons

Bristol City: Tomas Kalas

Derby County: Matthew Clarke, Curtis Nelson, Callum Elder

Ipswich Town: Luke Woolfenden, Cameron Burgess, Jacob Greaves, Elkan Baggott

Leeds United: Diego Llorente, Pascal Struijk, Max Wober

Leicester City: Wout Faes, Conor Coady, Caleb Okoli, Harry Souttar, Jannik Vestergaard, Ben Nelson

Middlesbrough: George Edmundson

Millwall: Jake Cooper, Japhet Tanganga

Norwich City: José Córdoba, Shane Duffy, Ruairi McConville, Kellen Fisher

Oxford United: Michal Helik

Preston North End: Jack Whatmough, Jordan Storey, Lewis Gibson, Matthew Olosunde

Queens Park Rangers: Liam Morrison, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke‑Salter

Rotherham United: Richard Wood

Sheffield United: Anel Ahmedhodžić

Sheffield Wednesday: Ben Heneghan, Jaden Brown

Stoke City: Aden Flint, Morgan Fox

West Bromwich Albion: Kyle Bartley, Torbjørn Heggem, Nat Phillips, Caleb Taylor, George Campbell

Wigan Athletic: Steven Caulker, Tendayi Darikwa, Joe Bennett, Ryan Nyambe

I would suspect a great deal of the players listed above are well aware of their limitations as ball playing defenders. Sadly for us, Stephens believes himself to be some kind of hybrid version of Beckenbauer, Moore and Maldini.

[Weston Super Saint]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

He is not the best CB in the league.

He's not even the best CB in Southampton.

[Ken Tone]

1 hour ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I would suspect a great deal of the players listed above are well aware of their limitations as ball playing defenders. Sadly for us, Stephens believes himself to be some kind of hybrid version of Beckenbauer, Moore and Maldini.

That's the thing about Stephens. He is a competent championship CB but he thinks he is much better than he is, and gets carried away, believing he can do things in possession that he can't    ..... hence the frequent risk-taking cock ups. 

[Charlie Wayman]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

He is not the best CB in the league. - but depends on who you are comparing him too. For the Championship he is plenty good enough imo. And as third or fourth choice he’s excellent. 

✅ Summary — Championship Centre‑Backs 2025–26

Who is better than JS out if these : 

 

Birmingham City: Marc Roberts, Nico Gordon

Blackburn Rovers: Scott Wharton, Dominic Hyam, Ashley Phillips

Blackpool: Marvin Ekpiteta, Andy Lyons

Bristol City: Tomas Kalas

Derby County: Matthew Clarke, Curtis Nelson, Callum Elder

Ipswich Town: Luke Woolfenden, Cameron Burgess, Jacob Greaves, Elkan Baggott

Leeds United: Diego Llorente, Pascal Struijk, Max Wober

Leicester City: Wout Faes, Conor Coady, Caleb Okoli, Harry Souttar, Jannik Vestergaard, Ben Nelson

Middlesbrough: George Edmundson

Millwall: Jake Cooper, Japhet Tanganga

Norwich City: José Córdoba, Shane Duffy, Ruairi McConville, Kellen Fisher

Oxford United: Michal Helik

Preston North End: Jack Whatmough, Jordan Storey, Lewis Gibson, Matthew Olosunde

Queens Park Rangers: Liam Morrison, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke‑Salter

Rotherham United: Richard Wood

Sheffield United: Anel Ahmedhodžić

Sheffield Wednesday: Ben Heneghan, Jaden Brown

Stoke City: Aden Flint, Morgan Fox

West Bromwich Albion: Kyle Bartley, Torbjørn Heggem, Nat Phillips, Caleb Taylor, George Campbell

Wigan Athletic: Steven Caulker, Tendayi Darikwa, Joe Bennett, Ryan Nyambe

All of them.

Edited 2 hours ago by Charlie Wayman

[Harry_SFC]

25 minutes ago, Ken Tone said:

That's the thing about Stephens. He is a competent championship CB but he thinks he is much better than he is, and gets carried away, believing he can do things in possession that he can't    ..... hence the frequent risk-taking cock ups. 

Stephens seems to have had this label on him saying ball playing defender yet he's probably our worst centre back at it. When do you see Bednarek giving the ball away across his own box. He doesn't because his awareness is so much better. 

[23rdSaint]

1 hour ago, gio1saints said:

He is not the best CB in the league. - but depends on who you are comparing him too. For the Championship he is plenty good enough imo. And as third or fourth choice he’s excellent. 

✅ Summary — Championship Centre‑Backs 2025–26

Who is better than JS out if these : 

 

Birmingham City: Marc Roberts, Nico Gordon

Blackburn Rovers: Scott Wharton, Dominic Hyam, Ashley Phillips

Blackpool: Marvin Ekpiteta, Andy Lyons

Bristol City: Tomas Kalas

Derby County: Matthew Clarke, Curtis Nelson, Callum Elder

Ipswich Town: Luke Woolfenden, Cameron Burgess, Jacob Greaves, Elkan Baggott

Leeds United: Diego Llorente, Pascal Struijk, Max Wober

Leicester City: Wout Faes, Conor Coady, Caleb Okoli, Harry Souttar, Jannik Vestergaard, Ben Nelson

Middlesbrough: George Edmundson

Millwall: Jake Cooper, Japhet Tanganga

Norwich City: José Córdoba, Shane Duffy, Ruairi McConville, Kellen Fisher

Oxford United: Michal Helik

Preston North End: Jack Whatmough, Jordan Storey, Lewis Gibson, Matthew Olosunde

Queens Park Rangers: Liam Morrison, Jimmy Dunne, Jake Clarke‑Salter

Rotherham United: Richard Wood

Sheffield United: Anel Ahmedhodžić

Sheffield Wednesday: Ben Heneghan, Jaden Brown

Stoke City: Aden Flint, Morgan Fox

West Bromwich Albion: Kyle Bartley, Torbjørn Heggem, Nat Phillips, Caleb Taylor, George Campbell

Wigan Athletic: Steven Caulker, Tendayi Darikwa, Joe Bennett, Ryan Nyambe

Well, for starters, Blackpool, Rotherham and Wigan aren't Championship clubs...

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, 23rdSaint said:

Well, for starters, Blackpool, Rotherham and Wigan aren't Championship clubs...

Not sure why he's put Leeds in that list either. Feels like a very filtered list to try and make a point.

The fact is that Jack Stephens is incredibly limited, even by Championship standards, and comparing him to poor L1 players, or limited/squad NPC players isn't going to change that fact. If he's first choice for us next season we will not be promoted.

Edited 2 hours ago by S-Clarke

[SW11_Saint]

12 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Not sure why he's put Leeds in that list either. Feels like a very filtered list to try and make a point.

The fact is that Jack Stephens is incredibly limited, even by Championship standards, and comparing him to poor L1 players, or limited/squad NPC players isn't going to change that fact. If he's first choice for us next season we will not be promoted.

I’m not sure our promotion hopes rest solely on Stephens… 

I also have a hunch Will Still will be pretty ruthless - if people aren’t performing their place will go to someone else - in a way that RM never was. 

[Master Bates]

Brereton-Diaz to be kept out of Girona squad?

[Football Special]

11 minutes ago, Master Bates said:

Brereton-Diaz to be kept out of Girona squad?

Still has said he'll take a smaller squad I think so will be interesting to see who doesn't make it on the plane