Giordano

You've been on here and its forum predecessor for long enough to know whats going on? I'm sure you don't need me to spell it out but, for those unaware of the dark arts its called "public relations and the general principle of consumer sentiment manipulation". All companies do it in one way or another. I doubt a company headed by a member of the World Economic Forum like Ralph Krueger is unaware of its uses in our context. I think this forum has regularly been used to test out policies and ideas on a loyal vocal social media savvy highly connected IT literate representative Saints fan base. We are a great population demograph all nicely concentrated to try out stuff on. The views of a few thousand of us here on this site are easily and with high validity (imo) a great representation of the world wide views of saints fans on any subject you care to mention ~ from players incomings to player outgoings and so forth. Like a local free of charge focus group - or it may not be free - maybe beneficiaries show gratitude somehow directly or indirectly. I'm surprised if anyone is surprised at this opinion of mine. And if it is not happening overtly or covertly them I don't support Southampton Football Club! It would be commercially negligent not to access the free mine of valuable data we generate each day on matters SFC. Ralph does not strike me as commercially negligent. Agents use us, press use us, the internet uses us, maybe even SFC uses us, who knows even players. Its all part and parcel of football these days. Its not a bad thing and i do it at my workplace often also. So, we are being listened to, and our POV's taken into account, of that I'm sure though of course ultimate decisions are not always populist driven, and indeed, lowest common denominator driven decisions are often fatally flawed so it is often teh case that leaders need to take a contrarian view for the longer term good. Happy posting!

If i was FDB i would not want to follow RK footsteps at a club that arguably, objectively, has overacheived last few years. Little to gain lots to lose in terms of reputation. His Dutch and International profile would probably drop. He managed high profile Ajax so coming to Saints could only be a financial rather than a "project" reason. I personally don't see it but money talks i guess. Much more likely someone left field talent spotted a la MP (GN and the Boscombe Athletic mgr?) or someone with EPL experience and perhaps a point to prove like AVB and DM seeing as highest end candidates like Mpelligrini are too pricey and UE is off to PSG. Apologies for all the initials! My personal view is that after a number of successful years we are probably due a fallow year or two, especially given the ongoing mega investment being made by the top 5+ Liverpool and chelsea. An experienced see it before manager is better for that i feel so someone like Moyes might be the wisest choice, but perhaps in a combo deal with Neville.

Perversely, the fact that VVD is not in the big Euro shop window may stand us in good stead. But as i said before, anybody who knows anything about EPL knows VVD is a standout excellent CB.

Strange decision for Manyoo to buy this no premier league experience 22yr old CB player. I would have thought that anybody who knows anything about the EPL knows that VVD is a standout EPL CB player and he has got a year of that experience under his belt. Only reason i can think of is that with a new 5 year contract it may have a mental buy out clause way over £30M- possibly £40M or £50M ~ in which case VVD may well be SFC's most valuable player on the open transfer market.

In all honesty its #1 reason i could think of to change your agent. I can imagine a scenario whereby RK asked old agent whats best renew deal he can get and whats on alternately and the agent says £3M from saints maybe £4.5m elsewhere - then RK interviews/ bumps into in a corridor or is directly contacted by a.n.other agent with surprise surprise links to evertons owners + board who says if you sign with me i can get you £7m from Everton and a big war chest. But then again maybe im too cynical.

Interesting idea. Neville would be available, he IS young (and hungry lol), He does have current player credibility though none as a manager, is probably way cheaper than the Seville guy or De Boer BUT does know the EPL and, I'd imagine bite your hand off for the chance to show what he can do. HE would be a media darling to as SKY love him so thats good for Saints PR....Hmmm, if RK does go I'd not saying NO to meeting Neville myself and seeing if he has got the guts for the job - hes got the brains.....but probably he would need an experienced Les to do a bit more for him that is needed for RK..

Without wishing to unduly neg on your dream I think that this Italian squad will do very well to (a) get out the group and (b) score more than 4 goals in the whole tournament. And its likely Pelle will get just 1 maybe 2 of those. This team simply does not score enough. You never know though- Italy got to the Final of WC 1994 scoring just 6 goals in 6 games so if everyone else is as shot shy maybe the team organisation will be enough. Knowing Conte is off whatever after the Tournament i suspect that its likely Italy will work hard but not progress far. So, far from a triumphant acclaim of its heroes this Italian squad is as likely to get tomatoes thrown at the plane than applause,and players like Graziano as likely to be booed as to be in big demand from the likes of Juve. I like Pelle and hope he stays. Best hair in the EPL, a cool classy dude and great player! Collecting £5m for him makes no sense to me. Worth that and much more if he score 8-10 goals next year.

Damn, how did 1965 get in there ! 1976!!

Good morning fellow Saints. Just for the record there was No disrespect to anyone intended by my OP - i wrote that when i was considering whether Saints fans were still proud of who we are rather than what we have in our trophy cabinet. Trophy lust is just another exhibition of materialism. We are all guilty of that though sometimes and just because we only won it once in 1976 it does not make it a day and an event of importance that should be celrbrated, yes even 40 years to the day onwards. I think the most telling response was one that said that the opportuinity to get the players officials managers together will not recure- so, much like that day in 1965, tonight is also unmissable for a Saints fan. i was not there in 1976 but I will enjoy being there and really understanding the day & background history in personal detail. Thank you for the reality check, Saints forum posters. X

Belatedly realised I've got two stalls tickets for this on Sunday night 7pm at the Mayflower as a birthday prez. Don't really know what its going to be like, im not one for a cringefest and tbh im a bit embarrassed to attend but they were a gift so I have to go and say what a great time I had ....I think a few of the players Lawrie Mac etc will be there being heroic and telling stories and if ive had a few might get into it a lose my inhibitionms ( bit like a normal match then!) Anyone else from this forum attending? Is it naff to wear a shirt? Or de rigueur? If I had a 1976 special id bloody well wear it but i dont. Should one be a bit ****ed before attending? Will there will periodic owtsgmi filtering out the theatre? :-)

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Yeah well I don't like him, then neither, I don't like anyone who breaks Saints players legs in FA cup semi finals, especially one of our best players. I'm just funny like that :-) Someone else wondered why Heath still lingers in the mind- its because of the occasion and the expectation level. We were at our peak of our powers. It was our time. It was our time after all the years of crawling to enjoy some glory. And he scored at the death like that. I and every saints fan has seen us lose loads of times. To teams far worse than a good Everton team. But those opportunities do not come up often- everyone going to Cardiff knew we were unlikely to win for instance v Arsenal - but this was different. We had our chance, dashed. Oh, and Pilchards what's that BS about if you were old enough you would have been on the pitch as well ;-).

That's uncanny. I was at all three matches and would have picked those three players too. I'm not certain if Rush was involved in breaking Mark Wrights leg or was that Shilts? Or was he contributory somehow? Maybe im confused but i've always kind of blamed Rush for that too!

Steve, Are you implying what I think you are implying - namely that there may be touts who have bought multiple Saints season tickets in fake names purely to sell them outside St. Mary's or online somehow? I thought that SFC screening would spot that?

I'm glad you raised that because its all completely true. Everyone seems to have got pathetically "outraged" over these poxy few seats when in fact, its a pretty good deal for the scousers overall -GIVEN THAT ALL ENGLISH FOOTBALL TICKETS ARE ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUSLY PRICED ANYWAY. If you want to get outraged at least do it for the THAT reason. Football is marketed as "entertainment". And they say its supply and demand. But within our lifetimes only rich tourists + corporates will be able to afford this live entertainment. And the rich tourists + corporates don't often sing shout chant roar sway ooh and ahh or anything that creates what SKY knows makes this entertainment so intoxicatingly captivating ~ the "atmosphere". They come to watch others do that for them because that is what they are paying for in part. Look at how many rich tourists attend Anfield (and other grounds) with Ipads just to record "You'll never walk alone". Its only going to get worse if prices go up and up without restraint. The historical USP of English soccer was high octane style of play and fan created atmosphere. It wont be very soon as we become an increasingly standardized product like everything else is, bit by ticket price raising bit.

Fraser has got such presence that a "1 on 1" with Fraser is more like a "1 on a 1.5" he's that big in front of the goals.

Id be intrigued to know who else of his combination of size and skill can do the job he does as well as him in International football? And that job is actually VERY EFFECTIVE in scoring and in creating goal scoring opportunities for a pretty average Italian National team who without his goals may have been in play-off territory (though that's less about how good he is and more about how average many of that squad are). Is Dzeko better than Pelle? Giroud? Zlatan certainly is, Stefan Kiessling? Bendtner of course not, Benteke maybe when hes not injured, Diego Costa? Pelle is in and around the biggest names you know so sneer at him all you like he is still a very good player top ten in the world player imo for that role maybe top 5 compared to what competition he's got against him.

http://www.corrieredellosport.it/news/calcio/2015/10/14-4951302/le_pagelle_degli_azzurri_8_a_pelle_7_5_a_eder/ The most important Italian Sports Daily paper (Corriere Dello Sport) has given marks out of ten for Conte and the Italian squad over the whole european championships qualification. Guess who was the highest valued player in the squad? Yup. Pelle awarded 8/10 all by himself. Conte got a 9 but otherwise all other players got 7.5 and downwards...high praise indeed. They are basically saying he was Italy's best player in the campaign. Italy's best player in qualifying. Plays for Saints. I'm old school and just cannot help but be chuffed that our Southampton centre forward is rated so highly by Italy - who lets face it, know a thing or two about good players and how to win international trophies and championships....this kind of stuff can only raise Saints profile overseas even more.....the chance of a kid in Asia or Africa wearing a "Pelle" Italy shirt just went up further....in due course that will be a Pelle" Saints shirt on a stall in Shanghai, Cairo or Delhi.....

If you've not had a chance to watch our Centre-forward playing as Italy's number 9 you can do so tonight on ITV4 which are showing it live. Don't expect a great match as Italy have already qualified ~ but for those of you interested to see how Pelle plays in an Italian 3-5-2 formation it could be interesting. I'm interested in how many "flicks" and "lay offs" he tries and how many long versus short passes are passed to him, and how many crosses they put into the box with Italy compared to with Saints, and by his general positioning and movement with the pacey Eder next to him with El Sharway also swift of foot close by. My feeling is that because he plays contrary to the more popular modern style of forwards (big, relatively immobile versus smaller, very mobile) that he is generally still underrated and underestimated both home and abroad. And that's a mistake because I think he is so good at doing what he does that he is actually one of the very best in world football at that particular style of play. If you ignore what he is NOT and concentrate on what his top skills ARE, you can easily understand why many teams would want to have a Graziano Pelle in their side. If you had to name the top ten players who are most like Pelle in world football I doubt Pelle would be anywhere lower than top 5...Zlatan would be #1 but who else is 6ft 4" and as good as him? Here's hoping he scores a hattrick! Forza Azzurri!

If anyone here is attending the only topic of interest to me is ticket prices at SMS. I don't care about the beer or a train or any of that as they are all peripheral to me. If I cannot afford to watch the match at SMS by myself or with family then the cost or taste of the beer or if there is car parking or safe standing is an irrelevancy. SO, my two part question is, given the huge cost of a ticket to watch Saints play EPL games live at SMS would they ever consider "Fair Pricing" akin to the Governments "Living Wage" policy for matches at SMS, in order to ensure the average supporter can continue to support Saints live ~ and meaning it does not end up as luxury entertainment by rich people (players) for rich people (the few who can afford to attend)? If I had my way I would ensure that prices are ring fenced/frozen with immediate effect. In the same way that the club has a wage policy for its players it ought to have a ticket pricing policy policy for its supporters. Unlike the wages policy though the pricing policy could be transparent and visible to all and it could be as simple as a commitment to keeping the costs of tickets at today's rate as a higher priority than paying another player £50,000 a week, which is c £3.50each ticket from the 30,000 supporters every other week at SMS. It needs strong financial management but it also needs a strong commitment to a fair pricing policy. Without it the prices are only going one way, and the demograph of who can afford to watch ditto, and ultimately that will have its own impact on the kind of club we are and are perceived to be worldwide. Maybe we have foregone the right to have such sentiments but id hope given the kind of owners we have that the concept resonates sympathetically with them and in fact also makes commercial sense. We have a history and a tradition which can be airbrushed out or it can be cherished and respected.

Jake Jervis from Plymouth. 24 years old Forward, 6ft 3" great athlete and pacy too. Would learn a lot from being in the squad but already has got a lot of experience at lower league level. Would cost little but if you want a big back up for Pelle but with more pace and at almost zero cost and upward potential he's possibly your man. I watched him recently and hes a better standard than the league he is in in my opinion and could play Championship right now with the right coaching and team. Certainly physically hes got everything and knows where the goals are. Someone will buy him soon and he could be big in the next 2-3 years. Perhaps that someone should be Saints, we missed out on getting Bolasie who was obviously a very good player the season we got promoted at Plymouth and he even scored that consolation goal against us impressed me on the day a lot...well this guy with the alliterative name straight out of Roy of the Rovers is their latest good 'un i reckon... ..

I don' think we should "rest" Pelle. He's on fire atm and hes a big unit that needs games to keep fit. You rest him he might go off the boil and seize up. Just like Rickie. He needs games to keep limber. Don't need to give him a full game mind if we are comfortable with 20 minutes left but id rather not "practice"life after Pelle - we know its going to be ****e so practise in training not real games that count when he is still fit - we may as well face it that if hes injured or suspended we are going to play an inferior plan b attacking strategy that does not include lumping it up 30 -40 yards to the big man to head hold chest or pass it to a close by other player. We will try to do that by reverting to that multi passing team we once were that puts 20-30 2 yard passes together regularly, mostly sideways, before Jayrod or Long or Juanmi and Mane try a shot from a half yard of space they created in and around penalty area...

Fully agree with everything you have written about players but in terms of signings I do think its also worth noting that with the amount of money that EPL teams get it is only a matter of time (assuming the rate of ££ growth continues to outpace that of tv deals elsewhere) before clubs like Saints start to outbid non EPL teams on pure wages - not just with Europa League teams on the continent but even CL teams and worldwide. It could end up that that only Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern can outbid us outside of the UK in under 10 years.....which in turn means that the best players must all eventually gravitate to the UK (cos thats where the money is) - which in turn (to me anyway) means that a SKy sponsored European super league becomes ever more of a reality. And in that Sky European super league world the likes of Saints would not be mid table in the EPL with no chance of winning it but real title contenders in that new EPl devoid of our regular top four with potential for promotion to that Euro super league...which might mean in turn that the majority of that European super league is composed of wealthier uk based teams...like Saints in due course...

He scored the decisive only goal when Italy beat Malta 0-1 in the away match and is very likely to start tonight. This is the game of most interest tonight for me from amongst our current Internationals. It is unusual but not unique for Italy to pick a player like Pelle but all the same its a little eyebrow raising over there despite his goalscoring record earning him his place in the Azzurri squad...I'm so pleased for him, much like I was so pleased when Rickie got his chance. I don't count Jrods left wing experience for England as having had his change yet btw.. I'm expecting at least one goal from Pelle as both Verratti and Pirlo are also likely to be playing and Italy will not be allowed a negative 1-0 win by what is likely to be a small but quick to complain crowd if Italy play poorly or lack attacking intent and aggression. If those two playmakers cannot put the ball on a sixpence for Pelle to hit the post or crossbar with (only joking) then no-one can...having said that Italy hit the woodwork 4 times in the first match... Fingers crossed he scores plus no injuries then does same again v Bulgaria...and if he does so under the gaze of the Italian tv viewers be prepared for January interest in him from those among the big four or five of Serie A who need a target man and goalscorer...