Ted Bates Statue

Makes you wonder, doesn't it. Have they been furloughed or what? Do they not realise that flexible furlough is a thing now? I've not known our side to be so heavily weakened for such a prolonged period of time. It's amazing that a month after apparently admitting our facilities have been partially closed due to covid, we are still having problems. I wouldn't be surprised that some of our supposedly fit matchday XI players are carrying injuries and trying to cope as best as they can.

That half red, half white Slavia Prague kit looks nice. Would look even better with a Saints badge on it.

It's so weird when people cite compulsory media interviews as a means of judging a manager. Pochettino barely spoke English when he led us but he did his talking through performances on the pitch and we respected him for it. Unfortunately for Puel, apart from a few matches before Gabbiadini got injured, his football was for the most part pretty boring and that was apparent right from the start.

In games where he has been injured, I think it's been a constant string of defeats with the exception of Chelsea. I know he is important to how we play but the difference in results is like night and day.

Not to worry - I'm sure they'll reschedule it to be played after the cup final

Radio 5 commentator on the Man City v Arsenal game claiming not to know the meaning of 'ominous'. "It's a big word", apparently. For the health of certain posters on here, I won't be divulging her identity.

Bring back the Pellegrino days when we hardly ever dropped points.

Jermaine Jenas. Which result is he talking about?

Yep everyone was drooling over this guy as our new Tadic. Happy to hold up my own hands and admit to trying to add Ings and Vest to the list of shit players not good enough for us.

Wolves up from 47% to 67% possession. FFS!

Apart from getting Sheffield Utd this is the best draw we could ask for. Mind you, if we were to slip up I could well imagine plenty of us turning on Hasenhuttl amidst the wrist slitting. Hopefully that will just remain a figment of my horrible imagination.

Website was initially claiming 'VAR check - goal not given' 🤢

Adam Blackmore on Solent reiterating that if Dagrosa had anything like the money needed to buy us, he would have kept his mouth shut and bought us already. Confident we will get sold once the pandemic ebbs away.

Yes, it surely can't be coincidental that all of our covid affected players (Ings, McCarthy, Armstrong - don't think I've missed anyone else?) have struggled to return to previous levels of form.

Bring it on!!!

No, that would be Dave Merrington.

I miss the days when we would ask for a different referee just because Clattenburg hurt Adam Lallana's feelings.

Funny you should bring that up. When I read about that in the news, one of the thoughts that sprang to mind was that it reminded me of the lunacy of reading this forum pre-Liebherr takeover. Earlobe analysis, yacht watch, the axe of administration hanging over us all season, and "It's definitely happening on Friday... no I meant next Friday." Rupert Lowe must be grateful that we only sang about swinging him from the Itchen Bridge and didn't actually bother to storm St Mary's.

Probably getting a bit too big, considering it's now one of the longest threads on the board. Maybe worth retiring this to Golden Posts and starting a new thread - "LOL at Pompey" would be an appropriate title.

Big shame to lose him, it seemed like he was preferred by the club over Targett and he would have been ideally placed to fight for Bertrand's place. We're fortunate to have not had to worry too much about that position since Shaw came through.

I don't know, but it must be the same reason why we blast out music to an empty St Mary's so loudly that you can't even tell what song it is any more.

Wasn't his transfer fee in the 10-20 million range?

I presumed he spontaneously combusted around the time we finally finished 17th.

We're not even halfway yet and Everton, Chelsea, Leicester, Spurs, Liverpool and the Manchester teams have all topped the table at some point (possibly not Man City?) and been considered as title contenders. Plenty of twists and turns in this title race to go. It would be a very good season to get amongst that group, although I'd personally settle for a Cup Final win