What’s your unpopular opinion on Saints?

[CB Fry]

27 minutes ago, Dman said:

Sulemana would have been on the radar for the top clubs by now if he'd signed for a decent, solid and stable club like Brighton or Brentford (instead of teh basket case that is Southampton FC). 

If Sulemana was any good and scored/created goals helping us win and stay up then we’d have been less of a basket case.

[Gloucester Saint]

3 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

If Sulemana was any good and scored/created goals helping us win and stay up then we’d have been less of a basket case.

Yeah, those aren’t the figures to attract Barca, Arsenal, Real, the Milan’s, PSG, City, Liverpool 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamaldeen_Sulemana

Senegal’s answer to Franz Carr.

[St Louis]

22 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Gonna get pelters for this, but...

I don't hate Pompey.

Mine is kind of similar....
Whilst I DO hate P*mpey (and I'll never forget them pelting us with rocks as we left Fratton in '04), but.... I would still prefer (and have FAR more respect for) someone who lives down this end of the country if they supported Portsmouth, than if they 'support' Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, etc from their armchair.
My biggest bug bear is people who don't support their local team (or team their Dad supported, etc), I instantly dont look at them the same way, whereas I would respect someone who said they supported Portsmouth if they live that way.
However, I do take great joy in asking the plastic Liverpool fans "Are you looking forward to the World Cup this summer, who are you going to support?". The confusion in their face is priceless

Edited yesterday at 10:29 by St Louis

[St Louis]

Oh, and I also much prefer the whole football experience of us being in The Championship (rather than Premier League)... no VAR, proper clubs with proper fan bases, no 'big 6' (or 8 or whatever it is now!), no SSN and mainstream media fawning over the only (big) clubs that matter, no turning up expecting to lose most weeks. I prefer the feeling of us being one of the better teams in a lesser league.
It's a weird paradox to be in though, as I also want us to win all remaining games to get in the Playoffs, and then win the final at Wembley to put ourselves through it all again.

Edited yesterday at 10:15 by St Louis

[Sheaf Saint]

14 minutes ago, St Louis said:

Mine is kind of similar....
Whilst I DO hate P*mpey (and I'll never forget them pelting us with rocks as we left Fratton in '04), but.... I would still prefer (and have FAR more respect for) someone who lives down this end of the country if they supported Portsmouth, than if they 'support' Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, etc from their armchair.
My biggest bug bear is people who don't support their local team (or team there Dad supported, etc), I instantly dont look at them the same way, whereas I would respect someone who said they supported Portsmouth if they live that way.
However, I do take great joy in asking the plastic Liverpool fans "Are you looking forward to the World Cup this summer, who are you going to support?". The confusion in their face is priceless

Fair.

I had a mate who grew up in Hedge End but supported Man U. Every time he got ribbed about it he would reply that it was because his dad was a lifelong fan. My response to that was always: "and if your dad was a lifelong fan of Scunthorpe or Grimsby Town, who would you support then?"

Needless to say, he never had an answer to that.

Edited yesterday at 10:20 by Sheaf Saint

[Tamesaint]

Our academy  is overrated 

[Chez]

We are not the Scummers. As Darren Anderton knows, that lot down the road are the fucking scummers.

[Ted Bates Statue]

Roerslev was not premier league standard when we signed him and on the basis of his performances prior to his injury, not Championship standard either.

[Pamplemousse]

1 hour ago, Ted Bates Statue said:

Roerslev was not premier league standard when we signed him and on the basis of his performances prior to his injury, not Championship standard either.

Hard to assess, lots of players under Will Still didn't look particularly good

[Give it to Ron]

Ryan Manning is a good squad member

[Golac's Cunning Stunts]

it is harder to play against 10 men than it is to play against 11

[franniesTache]

As a team we are completely irrelevant to 99% of the teams in the leagues, and that is absolutely fine.

Claude Puel was a very good manager for us and even the "boring football" tag wasn't correct.

JWP is a skate and will never be a legend.

Our away support is pretty cringeworthy these days.

Silence at a game is preferable to a lot of the songs that are sung (stared in a chapel, songs about libraries, most songs about the skates).

To many of our fans take football WAY too seriously, it should be a laugh with your mates not an exercise in stat counting.

The way away tickets are dished out is completely wrong, it should be season ticket holders + x aways first, then members + x aways, until it gets down to general sale.

As a fanbase we have a losers mentality & will put up with glorious loses far too easily.

The fans singing about championship again ole ole ole last season are part of the problem with what's gone wrong at the club, if we don't show ambition & standards why do we expect the players to?

David Armstrong is one of the best players to ever play for the club and should be held up on the same level as many of our legends

[bpsaint]

24 minutes ago, Golac's Cunning Stunts said:

it is harder to play against 10 men than it is to play against 11

Why does it feel like that’s only the case when it’s Saints playing against 10 men.

[Give it to Ron]

We will finish between 8-10th that’s where we should be as we are not playing like a top 6 side. 1 injury away to keeper to be in poo or 1 of the 2 strikers.

[RedArmy]

8 hours ago, Dman said:

Sulemana would have been on the radar for the top clubs by now if he'd signed for a decent, solid and stable club like Brighton or Brentford (instead of teh basket case that is Southampton FC). 

I think he benefited massively from having Doku on the other wing, who is much better than him, and it freed up some space for him to look better than he really was. 
 

Annoyingly we were linked with Doku first. 

[Appy]

Yoshida and Romeu are not the club legends they’re made out to be, they’re held up as good players because they stayed and we got progressively worse and worse. 

[Turkish]

1 hour ago, franniesTache said:

As a team we are completely irrelevant to 99% of the teams in the leagues, and that is absolutely fine.

Claude Puel was a very good manager for us and even the "boring football" tag wasn't correct.

JWP is a skate and will never be a legend.

Our away support is pretty cringeworthy these days.

Silence at a game is preferable to a lot of the songs that are sung (stared in a chapel, songs about libraries, most songs about the skates).

To many of our fans take football WAY too seriously, it should be a laugh with your mates not an exercise in stat counting.

The way away tickets are dished out is completely wrong, it should be season ticket holders + x aways first, then members + x aways, until it gets down to general sale.

As a fanbase we have a losers mentality & will put up with glorious loses far too easily.

The fans singing about championship again ole ole ole last season are part of the problem with what's gone wrong at the club, if we don't show ambition & standards why do we expect the players to?

David Armstrong is one of the best players to ever play for the club and should be held up on the same level as many of our legends

Amen to all that, especially these two

[USaintA]

Francis Benali (great bloke) was shit and I was glad when he finally left.

[SouthWalesSaints]

Like in life people enjoy moaning more than being happy. Saints fans are worst for it. 
 

Like I love my family, I love my club. I wont say anything negative unless to another “family member”. 
 

Not enough people add to the atmosphere and moan about it being quiet.  

[Patches O Houlihan]

I once had a pint with Ralph 'the hockey guy' in the Pitcher & Piano and he didn't come across as a twat

[Cabrone]

Alan Shearer wasn't anything special for us.

[bugenhagen]

5 hours ago, Give it to Ron said:

We will finish between 8-10th that’s where we should be as we are not playing like a top 6 side. 1 injury away to keeper to be in poo or 1 of the 2 strikers.

Yeah, if Stewart is out for a couple of weeks 😉 we are a different team with Archer coming on around the 60+ minute… you could see how poor we got last game. The difference is huge when it is Stewart or Larin coming on…

[rallyboy]

You don't need to get shitfaced to enjoy football and some fans prioritise drinking over the actual match.

Though using alcohol as a sedative for the last couple of years is understandable.

[pimpin4rizeal]

Perfect for this thread.

I actually think Nathan Jones is a decent manager and think his personality is awesome think we appointed him at the wrong time could have done a decent job if appointed in one of the championship seasons and given time . Also the man is just TV gold you need characters like him by far the most entertaining press conferences in my time supporting saints 🤣

[Zorba]

7 hours ago, bpsaint said:

Why does it feel like that’s only the case when it’s Saints playing against 10 men.

True. It seems like every time we go down to 10 men, we let 9 goals in!

[Winnersaint]

15 hours ago, Give it to Ron said:

We will finish between 8-10th that’s where we should be as we are not playing like a top 6 side. 1 injury away to keeper to be in poo or 1 of the 2 strikers.

Agreed.

[AlexLaw76]

Chris marsden’s ‘goal’ was nothing special at all. 

[Kenilworthy1959]

Saints made a massive mistake in sacking Chris Nicholl, a manager who never fought a serious relegation battle and achieved solid mid table finishes of 14th, 12th, 12th, 13th, 7th, 14th and two semi-finals. How we would love some of that failure now. What was even worse was that proper consideration was not given to who would replace him.

[Chez]

4 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Chris marsden’s ‘goal’ was nothing special at all. 

Yeah, it looked a lot better from the away end (side) than on TV. Special for him though. 

[franniesTache]

20 hours ago, Appy said:

Yoshida and Romeu are not the club legends they’re made out to be, they’re held up as good players because they stayed and we got progressively worse and worse. 

this reminds me of another one actually,

The word "legend" is massively overused by fans because we are so starved of real legends. Since Le Tissier we have only had one, Ricky Lambert, that fits the profile.

[hippo]

Koeman underachieved with the squad he had.

[sandwichsaint]

5 hours ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Chris marsden’s ‘goal’ was nothing special at all. 

It was if you were there.

[Lord Duckhunter]

22 hours ago, franniesTache said:

To many of our fans take football WAY too seriously, it should be a laugh with your mates not an exercise in stat counting.

The old snap dragon summed it up. It’s a pub crawl with a game chucked in the middle. 

[sadoldgit]

1 hour ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

The old snap dragon summed it up. It’s a pub crawl with a game chucked in the middle. 

Or a nine - nil defeat followed by a nine pinter?

[Turkish]

7 hours ago, Kenilworthy1959 said:

Saints made a massive mistake in sacking Chris Nicholl, a manager who never fought a serious relegation battle and achieved solid mid table finishes of 14th, 12th, 12th, 13th, 7th, 14th and two semi-finals. How we would love some of that failure now. What was even worse was that proper consideration was not given to who would replace him.

Remember when Nicholl was sacked he said it was not because he failed it was because he failed to bring success. That's pretty much it for me. As a fanbase we expected success after McMenemy so whoever followed him was always going to be in for a tough task. Under Nicholl we were pretty much a midtable team but great entertainers, playing so brilliant football. Yes there were some bad runs, 88/89 20 odd games without a win but we were never really in a relegation battle. Just like the mid 10s, rather than build on what we had things got progressively worse for the next 10 years with fans conditioned to think all that mattered was staying up every year.

Edited 7 hours ago by Turkish

[AlexLaw76]

3 hours ago, Chez said:

Yeah, it looked a lot better from the away end (side) than on TV. Special for him though. 

he literally ran in a straight line and scored 

[franniesTache]

1 hour ago, sadoldgit said:

Or a nine - nil defeat followed by a nine pinter?

Which reminds me of another...

Ralph should've been sacked immediately after the first 9-0 as a point of principle that that level of failure wasn't acceptable at the club

[Chez]

55 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

he literally ran in a straight line and scored 

You could say the same thing about Maradona's goal of the century. 😉
Doesn't Chris nutmeg Matt Holland at the start? I honestly can't remember and not sure you can even tell on the video.

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

If only Branfoot had made a sub five minutes earlier, taking MLT off.

[Gloucester Saint]

36 minutes ago, franniesTache said:

Which reminds me of another...

Ralph should've been sacked immediately after the first 9-0 as a point of principle that that level of failure wasn't acceptable at the club

I get why you’ve posted that and in principle I’d agree. In practice though, Ralph kept up a largely shit squad which Les Reed decimated in tandem with no investment from Gao for 3 years more than should’ve been the case. He’d lost his mojo and tactically exposed by summer of 2022. Pity as peak Ralph would’ve torn Rasmus and Shields a new arsehole which the pair of them deserved. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Gloucester Saint

[Appy]

4 hours ago, franniesTache said:

this reminds me of another one actually,

The word "legend" is massively overused by fans because we are so starved of real legends. Since Le Tissier we have only had one, Ricky Lambert, that fits the profile.

Yep, been a lot of cult heroes or close to legends, but players like Fonte, Lallana, JWP, Schneiderlin etc left before they could become legends or the way they left. 
 

Lambert is a legend, especially for my generation of fans. 

[coalman]

Ramsdale is overrated as a keeper. Arsenal were right to replace him as quickly as they did.

[Oh no Mick Mills]

1 hour ago, franniesTache said:

Which reminds me of another...

Ralph should've been sacked immediately after the first 9-0 as a point of principle that that level of failure wasn't acceptable at the club

As embarrassing as that was, we ended up finishing 11th that season.

Our most successful season with Ralph in charge. 

I think we won 7 out of our last 9 and at times ayed some pretty sensational football.

We somehow did this with Stephens and Bednarek and McCarthy in goal .

 

 

 

[coalman]

If we'd backed Ralph the same way we've back his successors in the transfer market then Saints would still be in the Premier League and competing for European places.

[Appy]

22 minutes ago, coalman said:

If we'd backed Ralph the same way we've back his successors in the transfer market then Saints would still be in the Premier League and competing for European places.

Unfortunately the one window they actually backed him, they spent fortunes on children from Man City. 

[trousers]

I'd have loved to have seen what Hasenhüttl could've achieved with decent financial backing, given the minor miracle he performed with zero backing...

(Cue the Saintsweb contrarians... )

Edited 2 hours ago by trousers

[The Kraken]

34 minutes ago, Appy said:

Unfortunately the one window they actually backed him, they spent fortunes on children from Man City. 

I’d argue they backed themselves rather than Ralph. He was a dead man walking by that point, that summer they had insisted he appoint a deputy of their own choosing. The same deputy who got appointed manager after the Jones disaster.

Its speculation on my part but I reckon Ralph had little involvement in the signings made that summer, they mostly came from above with him rubber stamping them at best.