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Reply | Yesterday Mr Sunak brought our club into disrepute by his association with us.
at 12:12 7 Jun 2024
I think I would generally agree that the noise generated by a number of "minority*" groups has been allowed to become too loud and they are obscuring many elements of our history or culture or future.
*By minority I mean less than say 25% of the adult population.
My own children are basically ashamed of our history and do not wish to be associated with it which in turn means that they have little pride in our country. I think that is quite sad.
I've made the point the past that without the fighting men and women of the Second War, the freedoms they enjoy now may never have come to exist. They care little for that argument. |
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Reply | These Are The Six Positions That Southampton Need To Fill For Premier League Sur
at 10:16 7 Jun 2024
Who we keep, who we need and whether they'll come is going to be determined in part by how RM wants to play.
Is he going to keep with his "possession" based game or will we see a rather more progressive plan given our poor defensive record?
My assumption is that possession is here to stay (unfortunately because it robs the game of pace and excitement and interest - a bit like VAR).
If so, a keeper with "good feet" is needed and that is not any of the present options. A decent left back would be useful. Is Luke Shaw available?
at least two midfield players and then a finisher - not necessarily somebody to "lead the line" but a six yard box finiahser. |
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Reply | Yesterday Mr Sunak brought our club into disrepute by his association with us.
at 10:10 7 Jun 2024
His decision certainly indicates either shocking lack of judgement or demonstrates that his priority is to keep his job as PM.
I suggest that either of these reasons are not what we need in a Leader.
He should be able to weigh the various factors in any decision and consider carefully the impact upon those at the centre of the action, the UK, the Government, his position, and finally him and his political party. In that order.
In my opinion he got this priority wrong yesterday and put himself and his party ahead of everything else.
Do we want somebody leading us with such a skewed sense of priorities? |
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Reply | Man City Launch Legal Battle
at 10:51 6 Jun 2024
There are many models available but money talks.
The UK fan base of the "big" clubs probably contribute relatively little to income.
For example Liverpool last accounts show "matchday revenue" at around 13% of total revenue, dwarfed by media and commercial revenues. If they were in a ESL, they would probably make much more revenue even if 50% of their fans decided not to watch home games. (Which they won't).
Personally I think it's just too difficult for a team to be in an ESL and the PL. We've already seen how the big clubs warp the rules to suit and any sort of process which puts players into Man City of the PL and Man Blue for the ESL, will be broken within weeks.
I think the clubs will have to choose one or the other. And that will be a decision based on money and not what the fans think. |
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Reply | Worst ever Saints team?
at 10:42 6 Jun 2024
George Lawrence.
He was brilliant until it came time to deliver the final pass or cross and then the wheels came off. |
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Reply | Man City Launch Legal Battle
at 08:54 6 Jun 2024
No, I was referring to real weapons which hurt people not Grealish who threatens much and delivers very little.
Been doing a bit of digging on this.
First, there is a case for saying that City, with their financial muscle, should be able to compete with the very best teams in Europe and the world. Realistically that means Europe and a European Super League is in my opinion inevitable. Perhaps 10 to 12 teams.
Second, if that is the case, then Newcastle, Chelsea and Liverpool would also be contenders for a place. Perhaps even Man U in a season or two. Arsenal? Their model is not really built for that, nor is Spurs.
If however City lead these teams down that path by going to war with the PL, then it would be better if the PL showed some mettle and refused them entry to the league and the FA followed suit and refused them entry to the cups. It's either that or allow a wholly unbalanced competition in the PL (or find some fantasy football calculation to limit the value of the team that City can put out in the PL which is unworkable.)
For so long as the dividing line for the debate is money, I have no particular issue because money is not prejudiced. I do have an issue when the owners of City (and Newcastle) suggest that the PL - and by extention the football supporting public in the UK - is racist and wants to "punish" them because of the nationality/ethnicity of their backers. That is a sordid attempt to bias the hearings and by getting their retaliation in first, allows them to cry "foul" later, when they lose.
Unfortunately this row is going to hold up the financial settlement with the EFL and the PL clubs will not want to send money that way if they might need to go out and but a few hundred million of talent. The GE means that the football regulator has been forgotten and there is no way for the EFL to force the payment of any money from the several billion that the PL clubs get. If the legal cases are delayed because of City's selfish stance, then the whole football pyramid will suffer and some clubs will go to the wall.
|There will have to a compromise but it will be money based because that the only language the PL speaks. The fans are collateral damage here and will not be considered to have any significant weight in the result.
This action is however, in my opinion, going to see the end of the PL as we know it, the start of the ESL - (first competitive match there in August 2027) - a rearrangement of the English pyramid and increases in season tickets that dwarf anything we've seen so far.
I would not want to be a supporter of the English clubs in the ESL.
And why?
Because a regime with a dodgy human rights record but with literally mountains of cash, want to convince the world that they are good guys so long as you look only at their money.
For that reason, they are prepared to destroy a part of our society that has been there for generations. I'm all for evolution and reform where needed, but this goes beyond. |
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Thread | Worst ever Saints team?
at 08:30 6 Jun 2024
I put up a thread asking you for your best ever Saints team. Those players who you have enjoyed watching and would like to see together via a time machine.
Is it too cruel to ask for a team of those who made you cringe or cry out in frustration? |
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Reply | Man City Launch Legal Battle
at 13:58 5 Jun 2024
They do have a point in that the rules did change mid season and some (not all) of the charges were a result of that.
However the first charges go back to 2009 and the repeating of breaches of the rules is not going to help.
This is also classic legal warfare. One side is looking to mount a huge attack (the PL on City) so the "weaker" side make a pre-emptive strike to try to unbalance the PL. It's just tactics.
If City really thought that that the rules target them and nobody else, their case is hopeless.
If City think that other clubs have been or should have been impacted, then why did they not ask them to join in?
Ultimately the sovereign funds has allowed City access to unlimited funds in order to buy success and now don't like be called on it.
What we will see next is:
1. A threat to leave the PL and go into Europe - which without more support is doomed.
2. A threat from the owners not to buy British weapons
3. A plea for arbitration, i.e. another three years in the long grass. |
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Reply | Best Saints team you've ever seen.
at 09:57 5 Jun 2024
The cohort of young players which included Nick, also included me. He clearly "made it", I did not.
Consequently I played in the same team as Nick a number of times. He was solid, dependable, always available for a pass, protective of other players and generally always geeing up other players and being unselfish himself.
When he made the first team, he was the same.
This is not about the "best" players but rather those who appeared for us who we enjoyed watching and who we think brought a little extra to the team.
For me, Nick fits that description. |
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Reply | Best Saints team you've ever seen.
at 16:51 4 Jun 2024
No point being the best of you're watching from the stands?
I'm going for a 4-3-1-2 formation.
So I need three midfield players.
Central defensive mid - Nick Holmes
Alongside Steve Williams and Alan Ball. |
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Reply | Football Cops
at 16:44 4 Jun 2024
I've only watched a few minutes of the "show" so perhaps I've missed some good bits.
I was however at West Ham's old ground a few years back. I was with a mate who was a WHU fan and his daughter who would have been 12/13 at the time.
The game was OK but WHU were losing to an early goal. A group of "fans" behind us were feffing and jeffing at the ref, the opposition, their own players, managers, all of them.
My mate eventually had enough and at half time politely asked the middle aged thugs making the noise if they wouldn't mind keeping the language moderate for the sake of his daughter.
Their response?
"You ain't a fan unless you swear at the ref - if you don't like it f**k off!"
So we left. My mate, a season ticker holder at the time has not bene to a match since. His daughter is now 25.
Why do these people think that they can do this?
Why do we put up with it? |
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Reply | Best Saints team you've ever seen.
at 16:05 4 Jun 2024
Based on how they played for Saints.
Not necessarily the best, perhaps the ones you enjoyed most or who you thought were entertaining or committed or anything else that makes them stand out for you.
Nothing is off the books (but Mark Dennis - really - he was always a red card waiting to happen). |
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Thread | Best Saints team you've ever seen.
at 14:46 4 Jun 2024
Pick 11 first teamers and two subs based on ALL the players you've seen turn out for us. Mix and match players who are alive, dead, played once or played hundreds of times.
Aim is to have the best team we could have ever fielded.
We'll start with keeper and a back 3/4/5.
Later midfield and forwards - unless you want to do them all together.
For me (all more than 100 appearances)
Keeper - Shilton
Right back - Soares
CB - John McGrath
CB - Mark Wright
Left Back - David Peach |
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Reply | Saints May Have To Cash In On Star Defender
at 12:43 4 Jun 2024
I seriously doubt were going to see our double barrelled centre back reserves back in the first team, next season or any season.
We should perhaps be looking at the other PL teams for a CB toward the end of their career who wants one/two more seasons.
John Stones? |
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Reply | Is Adam Lallana The True Definition Of JUDAS ?
at 12:41 4 Jun 2024
There is a very obvious missing sense of proportion and reality here?
Professional players will play for whichever club offers the best terms to suit their circumstances.
"Loyalty" to a club is a myth that long ago failed to have any relevance in the game.
Expecting loyalty is always going to end in disappointment.
And equating the alleged lack of loyalty with a story that many people believe is true, i.e. the an individual who played a part in the death of the "son of god" (and thereby sparked countless wars and attempts at genocide) is just wrong. |
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Reply | Potential points deduction
at 15:50 30 May 2024
No, I think they're all obliged to file at the same time, but some don't.
It seems pretty clear that City and Chelsea and perhaps Newcastle have leaned on wealthy owners who have responded with inflated "sponsorship" deals which are way over the market rate.
Liverpool, Man U, Spurs have all had - by their standards - average seasons because they have been unable to recruit top names.
Perhaps the best example of how to have a good team and stay in the rules is Arsenal.
The PL will find a fix. Literally a fix. Clubs like the above will all get a free pass whereas "smaller" clubs will be sacrificed. |
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Reply | Jack Stephens
at 09:31 30 May 2024
Sometimes teams need a player who may not be the best technically, tactically etc but whose presence lifts the other players.
Certainly at amateur level where abilities are often way apart, having that unifying type of player who will run for 90 minutes, tackle, encourage, cajole and generally drive the team is a valuable asset.
I would say that the same applies in the professional leagues but with diminishing importance as the leagues get "better".
Jack is that sort of player and when the team stuttered toward the last few games in the season, I can see why RM wanted him on the pitch. He wanted somebody who believed where others may doubt.
Most Saints CB's over the years have been good for at least one error in top division games. The present crop are no different. It is therefore perhaps unfair to point out JS errors and not those of Bednarek and THB and others. Even KWP (who I think is perhaps our best player) is prone to error and his positioning sometimes is truly shocking.
The question really is can you carry a player in the PL who is perhaps - on occasion - a little less effective than others? Can you devise a system in which that player can perform the role above without reducing the overall quality of the team?
JS may well find himself compromised by being played out of position. Not good enough for either CB or midfield.
I think RM was looking at how John Stones plays that sort of advanced CB position. Stone is lucky in having such good players around him and usually facing teams who are scared of being too adventurous. We do not have that luxury.
My overall view is that if JS is first on the team sheet then we need a different tactical system. |
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Reply | Potential points deduction
at 09:19 30 May 2024
I think Leicester, Everton, Forest and City all have potential points deductions waiting to be applied.
That puts the PL in a bind.
They will not blink to throw the first three under the bus but they know that tangling with City will be a long, expensive and damaging affair.
What would the other leagues think if the PL applied say a 30/40 point deduction that saw City relegated?
What would happen if City decided to leave the PL and set up a European Super League (inevitable in my view)?
What message would be sent to other oil rich sovereign funds looking to buy reputation in Europe?
I can already smell a whiff of compromise and perhaps even corruption in which the PL "reset" the P&S rules and forgive all past transgressions. |
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Reply | Reality v Russell
at 09:14 30 May 2024
I have to agree with Mr ifonly here.
The ball played into Smallbone was decent enough but the Leeds defender made an error in trying to shut him down quickly and he was forced into shifting the ball on quickly.
You can argue that he saw AA and the opportunity and it was a touch of genius. You can argue that it was instinctive, that AA called for the ball, that the inspiration for the goal was AA spotting the opportunity and Smallbone was just a conduit. Frankly I don't care.
What it was not however was a demonstration of how possession based football creates a platform to score from. |
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Reply | Reality v Russell
at 15:37 29 May 2024
Last season is done and frankly nobody cares about its statistics, cherry picked or dug raw from the mud.
The fact is that we struggled against the top two home and away and in the PL, they will be among the weaker teams.
We therefore need to prepare and with a transfer budget limited by the present finances and P&S rules; a forward line that looks a little lightweight; a midfield that is missing a true defensive element and a defence that suffers from constant fiddling, we need a plan - fast.
Possession based tactics, even if a platform to other plans, is not going to be the cake walk it was against 20+ teams in the Championship. Can't see PL teams allowing that to happen. Quite the opposite.
We need to become a team which can hold the ball when required (not 25 yards from our goal please) but can also shift it forward quickly if we see possession tactics adopted against us.
It's a big shift and I really hope RM does not start believing his own publicity and think that his "way" can continue in the PL without changes. |
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