Nordic Saint

You're absolutely right. United's only real game plan today was to cheat their way to victory by trying to win as many free-kicks as possible, until they could get a couple near enough our goal to score and trying to get our players sent off. Ibrahimovic is a master at it but they all must have been working on it in training with Mourinho like Chelsea did: the perfectly timed dives, grimaces and screams, mobbing the ref. We couldn't compete with that level of cynicism, and it is sad that in order to compete at the highest level you need to do that plus getting dodgy decisions from the officials going your way. Imagine if one of United's goals had been wrongly disallowed and ours hadn't. That's never going to happen though, is it?

We should have given everything by letting our best player Gabbiadini stay out there and win the game for us like Mourinho did with 35-year-old Ibrahimovic, even though he played a European game in midweek, and was United's best defender as well as attacker today. In a game as big as todays' was for us you lay everything on the line and you DON'T take your best player off. The whole game turned when Puel decided to give Gabbiadini a rest, which he didn't want, and when Mourinho sensibly did not decide to give Ibrahimovic a rest. He wanted to win at any cost, even if Ibrahimovic is a bit tired for their next league game, and he did. Today's should have been Gabbiadini's. He was robbed of it by the officials and our manager.

It was a great final and the atmosphere when we equalized was beyond compare. Sheer ecstasy. But, we were robbed by the officials and the media are all very much on our side over that appalling decision to disallow Gabbiadini's first goal. However, what ultimately cost us the game was Puel taking Gabbiadini off 5 minutes from the end. All Saints fan were perplexed at such a shocking decision and thought if we get to extra time who on earth can score our winner now? If he'd been left out there instead of Ward-Prowse that cross that flew across would probably have been buried in the United goal and we'd have won. It also lifted the United players spirits to see our main threat taken off. We'd have felt the same way if Mourinho had taken Ibrahimovic off 5 minutes from the end. I don't but this Gabbiadini was tired excuse. He looked more full of running than most of the players left out on the pitch and hurtled down the tunnel full of energy, frustrated at not being allowed to finish the game. If only Mourinho had taken their best player off before the end of the game and ours hadn't. If only... What might have been Nevertheless, even though he wasn't allowed by the officials or our manager to win the winner's medal he deserved, I am grateful that we had such a wonderful player playing for us today and the way he led our fight back and shook United's confidence.

My apologies. I only just noticed your thread after starting one with the same title, which admin can delete.

Anyone seen Javen Siu play yet? From this report he sounds promising: "The match got off to a slow start at Staplewood and was very much in the balance until Siu’s stunning strike gave Saints the advantage after 22 minutes. Picking up a clearance on the edge of the penalty area, the full-back shifted the ball into space and curled a sublime effort into the far top corner to take the lead." https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-02-22/match-report-southampton-under-18s-brighton

Our scouts have been watching Huddersfield defenders Jon Stanković and Tareiq Holmes-Dennis, who impressed in the 0-0 draw with Man City.

Underdog victories in the cup are always good. Unfortunately though, big Millwall games are usually tainted by violence. If they get to Wembley and lose (or win), there will almost inevitably be violent scenes. Their first though after winning yesterday was to head straight for the Leicester fans: http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/article/2/10774158/metropolitan-police-confirms-three-arrests-after-millwall-pitch-invasion

Who's complaining? Lighten up. You obviously don't get the magic of the cup, do you? You're right, Fabrice, that was a strong Burnley team that Lincoln beat. Now for Huddersfield to beat Man City and, of course, Saints to beat Man United.

Non-league Lincoln City through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, showing how far you can go when you field a full-strength team in every round. I've got a feeling Leicester might win it this year to complete a back-to back 'double'. There have certainly been some unfashionable cup finals in recent years, like Portsmouth v Cardiff, Wigan v Man City and Swansea v Bradford City.

I'd just like to congratulate the club on its excellent handling of ticket sales, right down to posting out the tickets as early as possible. Even the fan in Yorkshire who doesn't go to home games but goes to 3 or 4 away games near where he lives, who's been moaning online about not getting priority, got a ticket in the end

It was probably Koeman's career plan to go to a big club, preferably Barcelona or Arsenal, at what he expected to be the completion of a highly successful 3-year contract with Saints. I don't think any of us realistically expected him to stay here for any longer than that. If the club had made it clear they were happy with that, I guess he would have stayed until the end of this season. Would we have done any better? It's hard to say. The new contract he has with Everton has presented him with a bit more of an obstacle. He may feel he has to stay there for at least another year.

This seems to confirm it: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/revealed-referees-your-premier-league-club-should-love-and-loathe#:XhvzHTtKw3rxsA

There aren't many teams in the country that would average more than 21,000 in League One. There have been none that have managed it in the last 4 seasons. When your stadium capacity is just over 30,000, part of that is allocated to away fans and there are 24,000 season ticket holders it is difficult to build a much bigger 'core support' than we already have. We have averaged over 30,000 in every top flight season we've ever had at St Mary's so there really isn't room for expansion of our core support. The same was true of our last 5 years at the Dell. But, the move to a bigger stadium showed how quickly our number of regularly attending supporters can grow if there is room for it.

It will be interesting to see if all penalty takers and even forwards with a clear shot at our goal all aim for the bottom corners against Forster in future. This may ultimately work to Forster's advantage as it will make them more predictable (if he can get down to them in time). I still think Forster is one of the better goalkeepers we've had over the years. His clean sheet record is outstanding.

It would be quite funny if they tried to enforce Islamic restrictions on footballers at the Qatar World Cup. Un-Islamic hair styles might cull a few of them but tattoos are frowned upon so that would get rid of just about all of the rest of them.These moral codes are subject to constant revision, however, and do vary from one country to another. At one time, it was forbidden for even male footballers to expose any part of their legs. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-crackdown-on-unislamic-hairstyles-forces-footballer-to-have-pitch-side-haircut-a6977321.html

He has already had big club experience with Chelsea and won FA Cup, Champions League and Europa League winners' medals. Yet, we probably wouldn't get a massive fee for him. He's got no real reason to leave and we've got no compelling reason to sell him so there is every reason to believe he's here to stay for a few more years, which is good news for us.

And you come across as a complete w@naker who I could probably flatten with one punch...just saying. Good win today, eh?

Wonderful. Just what we needed before the final. That Gabbiadini is some player!

The point is that fans who rarely go to games seem to be the ones who are most abusive towards season ticket holders who attend games regularly and who justifiably feel more let down when our best players are sold and when the team plays badly and loses. If you're not investing a lot of your own money and time, you shouldn't really criticise those who do with all of this 'bedwetting' and 'self-entitled' nonsense, as you haven't used a large slice of your budget or spent hours travelling to and from games. Fair enough if you comment on the games and the club. You have every right to do that. But, as for being abusive towards loyal fans, no.

I seem to recall quite a number of fans though that the fact Mane had signed a 5-year-contract, meant he'd stay here longer than 2 years. I expected 3 years at least. But, experience has taught me now that if they're one of our best players and remain injury free, they're sold after just 2 years. So, are you telling me that it's pointless to have Sims as a favourite player as he is going to be sold as quickly as Shaw and Chambers were? Anyway, I would like to see a bit more continuity in our team and from what I've read on here so would some of my fellow fans while, admittedly, some others on here really don't seem to care who is in the team or even whether we win or lose.

It seems to me that the fans who go to games regularly, especially us season ticket holders, are generally more interested in supporting the players and more upset when they are sold whereas those who don't or can't go to games regularly, especially, for some reason, those living in America, seem more interested in supporting the owner and board of directors and are not particularly bothered when players are sold but do seem to get very upset by and even abusive towards those who are. Of course there are exceptions but that seems to be the general picture.

Not really. I thought that we'd keep Wanyama and Mane longer than we did. I've learned my lesson now. Van Dijk has been viewed as a player who is going to another club almost since he arrived. But there is another factor: he is obviously our best player but Fonte was a favourite player of mine for years and I always thought that his defensive partners, Lovren, Alderweireld, van Dijk got more than their fair share of the credit for our great central defence whereas Fonte was taken for granted. Anyway, getting back on track, I've decided I do have a favourite current player. I mean you've got to have one, haven't you? It's part of being a football fan. Ever: Channon Now: Sims In both cases I followed their progress through our youth system. I remember the first time I saw Channon in a reserve game I went home and told my Dad, I've just seen a brilliant player. He’s going to be famous one day. I felt the same way when I first saw Sims play. The thing about Channon is that no matter what other clubs he played for, and they included Pompey, he will always be remembered as a Saints player. It would be great if the same could be said of Sims one day or any other of our star players.

Boufal so far: http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/sofiane-boufal/leistungsdaten/spieler/232271

Yes, I'm growing to like Romeu too. At first he just seemed to be a fringe squad player but now he plays a really pivotal role in the team and it does seem that he is here to stay.