Saints vs Arsenal - 2000 April 4th

[Midfield_General]

7 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

I've seen Newcastle and Villa fans suggesting going weaker in the European comps (when they were in them) to concentrate on the league, so they could qualify for Europe next season. Make that make sense.

It's why modern professional football is fucked. Most of the people involved at the top end are simply parasitic capitalists out to make as much money as possible out of businesses that happen to be football clubs, so getting the money for being in a particular competition every year is far more important to them than silly secondary concerns like the sporting glory of actually winning them. So they make decisions that reflect that, and put forward convincing-sounding justifications for those opinions, which some fans end up nodding along with. 

While that's sad, if you put yourself in the shoes of those businessmen or agents or whatever who don't give a toss about sport and purely see the opportunity to make millions for themselves or their families, you can sort of understand them doing it, from a purely selfish point of view. 

What's weird though is like you say when the fans start talking like that as well, even though they don't actually see any of that money. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Midfield_General

[St Louis]

I want us to go strong for this, as surely we do have a chance, albeit a slim one. We arent some League One/Two team who are just here for a fun day out and play teams like this once every 100 years. We were in the same division as them (and have been most seasons) until last summer. Only 10 months ago we drew 0-0 at home to Man City and lost narrowly (1-2 to an 89th min Odegaard goal) to Arsenal themselves.
We are probably the best team in the division below them on current form, and definitely have more momentum/confidence than when we last played them, and I dont think our team is much weaker than it was back in May to be honest (certainly not mentally).
I dont expect us to win, but surely we do have a (slim) chance and have to go for it big time. Unfortunately, I think Flynn Downes is eactly the sort of player we need in the middle of the park for a game like this (grit, determination, drive, aggression - we cant be soft and let them play their game), so its such a shame he's missing this one, which makes our chances slimmer.

Edited 8 hours ago by St Louis

[RedArmy]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

 

It's not just us, I've seen Newcastle and Villa fans suggesting going weaker in the European comps (when they were in them) to concentrate on the league, so they could qualify for Europe next season. Make that make sense.

 

That’s exactly what we did in 2016 and there were dinlos on here defending it. 
 

 

[Football Special]

1 hour ago, St Louis said:

I want us to go strong for this, as surely we do have a chance, albeit a slim one. We arent some League One/Two team who are just here for a fun day out and play teams like this once every 100 years. We were in the same division as them (and have been most seasons) until last summer. Only 10 months ago we drew 0-0 at home to Man City and lost narrowly (1-2 to an 89th min Odegaard goal) to Arsenal themselves.
We are probably the best team in the division below them on current form, and definitely have more momentum/confidence than when we last played them, and I dont think our team is much weaker than it was back in May to be honest (certainly not mentally).
I dont expect us to win, but surely we do have a (slim) chance and have to go for it big time. Unfortunately, I think Flynn Downes is eactly the sort of player we need in the middle of the park for a game like this (grit, determination, drive, aggression - we cant be soft and let them play their game), so its such a shame he's missing this one, which makes our chances slimmer.

Funny looking back, id expect Welington and Stewart to feature again from that line up. 

[TheAlehouseBrawlers]

Only a handful of tickets left for this almost all in the usual Chapel block. Arsenal sold their allocation, clearly a big day out for them….an FA Cup day on the beer on the sunny south coast, what’s not to like?

[Mboto Gorge]

2 hours ago, Football Special said:

Funny looking back, id expect Welington and Stewart to feature again from that line up. 

Scary to be reminded that this was a premier league lineup. Really reminds me of why we only got 12 points 

[Stripey McStripe Shirt]

2 hours ago, Football Special said:

Funny looking back, id expect Welington and Stewart to feature again from that line up. 

Who is J Sanda? Am I suffering from dementia?

[Football Special]

3 minutes ago, Stripey McStripe Shirt said:

Who is J Sanda? Am I suffering from dementia?

Shame on you , he's a Saints / Sports Republic legend 

[Football Special]

59 minutes ago, Mboto Gorge said:

Scary to be reminded that this was a premier league lineup. Really reminds me of why we only got 12 points 

Its very poor, yet somehow nearly drew with Arsenal