Ted Bates Statue

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jan/15/secrets-of-hasenhuttl-southampton-success-set-plays-and-self-criticism Considering that Dave Watson has seldom been spoken of in glowing terms in his time here, credit where it's due. Perhaps the most intriguing observation in the article however, is that JWP only practises twelve free kicks a week. Quality over quantity indeed.

Looks like Ralph has been reading the forums.

Any takeover without plans for a monkey chicken petting zoo is going to struggle. DaGrosa realised this before fully committing and has since turned his attentions elsewhere.

So here we are having played our last game of 2020. It's fizzled out for us somewhat over the Christmas period as we have arguably dropped points against lower ranked opposition. However, they say the table doesn't lie and in the annual table we stand 5th with 56 points. https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/jahrestabelle/wettbewerb/GB1/saison_id/2020 For comparison's sake, this is our 4th best annual performance, behind 2016 (63 points), 2014 (62 points) and 2002 (58 points). Encouragingly, we have only played 35 games unlike others where we have played a minimum of 38 (40 games in 2002)! Maybe given our recent form it's no point expecting much from Liverpool, Leicester and Leeds but if we take our last 38 as of today including 2W and 1D at the end of December 2019, this has been one of our best long-term runs of form in the Premier League. Only Spurs are able to go above us with their game in hand, so it's really not been a bad year for us. We compare highly favourably against the likes of Chelsea, Spurs, Everton, Arsenal 🤣, Wolves and Leicester - all of those sides have been flavour of the month at some point in the last twelve months, all having spent a shit-ton more than us. Perhaps it says as much about them as it does us, as no team aside from Liverpool is really putting a run of results together. It would be really good to make it count and have a strong second half of the season after a few years of dross. Here's to 2021 then. If we are going to get more of the same 2020 shit, I'll happily take Saints being one of the pace-setters in the top division, if nothing else. 😇

It probably feels like that to some, when you consider the criminal lack of a sell-on clause, not to mention who we replaced him with!

The Hindus still use the swastika without controversy, so, yeah I guess people can get their head around it.

It's certainly a good chance to achieve European qualification, one of those seasons like 2015/16 when all the usual suspects seem a bit off-colour. Of course I would love to see us make history, after years of dross but there's no point getting ahead of ourselves. When Leicester won the league one of the things Ranieri did very well at was keeping his team grounded, insisting that the team were aiming for 40 points first. Don't forget we've been in this position before, with more points at this stage in the league, with a bigger points cushion, on the cusp of going top of the league and about to face Arsenal and Man City. What happened next? Boruc tried a Cruyff turn and we lost both games. And that was the end of our last PL title challenge 😂 So yeah, 6th or 7th would be a very good achievable result but it's so congested in the top half, we could end up anywhere in the top ten. Our best chance of glory is in the FA Cup.

On Radio Solent it was a decent amount of noise. Compared to the typical quietness from the non-Northam stands on a normal day, I wouldn't have guessed there were only 2000 in attendance.

I'm not asking. Thought I made that apparent when I pointed out why I think the 4th official will be exonerated. Anyway, interesting point on what is acceptable in other countries, so what are your thoughts on the Suarez - Evra incident being blown out of proportion? Not the most contemporary story out there but I wasn't paying attention at the time. I believe his defence was that he was new to Europe at the time and that what he said was perfectly fine coming from Uruguay... I imagine most football supporters assumed guilt on the basis that a) he was playing for Liverpool, they went OTT in supporting him and b) he already had form for being a deviant on the pitch. But mostly (a). I don't recall any suggestion of injustice on here.

If someone uses a word in their language, that sounds nearly identical to a highly derogatory word towards a person from a group that have historically been heavily discriminated against using that very same word, it shouldn't take a genius to realise that there could be trouble ahead. This is not a new phenomenon. Notwithstanding the above, I perceived no intent in yesterday's incident, and therefore certain that the 4th official will be exonerated. It would also be interesting to find out why the red card needed to be issued so early in the first place. Language is a funny thing and isn't it amazing how just a couple of letters here and there can be the difference between causing massive upset. That's etiquette for you and it's been around forever, constantly evolving. Most of us figure it out somehow, although I can never remember what cutlery I'm supposed to be using. Still, we get by.

Half the F1 drivers don't take the knee at the photo op before the race. At least that was the case in the summer, not sure if they are doing anything at all before races now.

Like us, Hull had 20 points from 11 games in 2008 and they ended up finishing the season with 35 points, escaping relegation by a point. So yeah, hopefully we will be safe too

If only the Millwall supporters could have done the same. I should imagine they also booed during 'clap for carers' and the remembrance poppy rigmarole every November. Or perhaps they knew better than to try it on for those occasions. It's all virtue signalling isn't it? If they are so concerned about the political offshoot of BLM, maybe they would like to offset any worries over calls to 'defund the police' by offering to pay for the disproportionately enhanced policing that invariably accompanies their matches. Over £600k a season of which they pay £15k, so why should the taxpayer have to pay for their babysitting? As an aside I'm under the impression that Saints actually pay for most of their policing costs, although couldn't find anything on it. https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/foi-media/metropolitan-police/disclosure_2018/june_2018/information-rights-unit---policing-costs-for-premier-league-and-championship-football-matches-for-201718-season

People used to see asbestos as a necessary evil - worth it for the fire prevention, but not so good for the plebs who had to install it. Once it became clear that companies and individuals could get hauled over the coals in the legal system for not giving a shit about their employees, that all changed. Funny thing, that. I expect it will get phased out as Lord Duckhunter says, starting at youth and amateur levels as they do with other heretical developments like sin bins etc. It is weird to think about but most would agree the game is played best on the floor anyway. Relevant Martin Samuel article in the DM (archive link to circumvent advertising bombardment) https://archive.is/wip/JVcZZ

True, although considering the last two years - a handful of games at Bournemouth without much impact, and a whole season without playing - I would classify that as a massive nosedive in comparison to the promise he showed with us. Good to see him get a run of games with his first club, which will hopefully build his confidence again.

2-0 Newcastle😂 I note Clyne is back at Palace again. I wouldn't have called it for his career to have gone the way it did.

Whoosh

Useful to know. For all the statistics awash in the game, this sort of exercise is roughly as insightful as whatever floats around in Garth Crooks' head. Given the low rating of even the best players, the demographic of people who fill out these ratings must mostly consist of either irate 'big 6' fans frothing at the mouth, or trolls who rate everyone 1 out of 10 for the hell of it. Apart from the comments from all the supporters of the team in 2nd place bemoaning the biased media coverage, I like the comment that suggests that "All this proves is loads of people that support Southampton vote" which cannot possibly be true as there aren't loads of us (despite our catchment area) and we definitely aren't the ones voting for Redmond, or for that matter, Armstrong as a DM.

That will be a good one if we actually achieve something noteworthy this season. No need to thank the fans for their wonderful support 😂

Portsmouth have thrown a 2-0 lead in the FA Cup. 15 minutes left, live on BBC website.

I've been admiring this table since the start of this week but didn't want to jinx our chance to go top 😉 Looking at our form through 2020, we have been consistently good since the turn of the year - only behind Liverpool and City. We actually have 46 points from 26 games but the website hasn't updated yet. We are staying up! https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/daterange/fromdate:2019-Dec-30/todate:2020-Nov-05/type:home-and-away/ Form since lockdown puts us in 2nd. https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/daterange/fromdate:2020-Apr-01/todate:2020-Nov-05/type:home-and-away/ Most surprising of all, assuming the tables are correct, we have taken 58 points from our last 38 games - and this period includes 5 matches of our horror run of 7 games from last autumn which culminated in that match... yes, I'm talking about the defeat to Marco fucking Silva's Everton. As a comparison, we scored 56 under Pochettino in his only full season, while with Koeman we amassed 60 and 63 points in his two seasons. https://www.twtd.co.uk/league-tables/competition:premier-league/daterange/fromdate:2019-Sep-30/todate:2020-Nov-05/type:home-and-away/ Anyone got any better links for comparing form over a date range?

Yes. Also if we win, we will need to STOP THE LEAGUE because any future results from all other matches that take place henceforth will be fraudulent and illegitimate. It actually makes a lot of sense, the more you think about it.

Adam 'Nostradamus' Blackmore was happy to call that one about a minute before JWP took it - gave it all the hype.

I've already been stung from my 'cheeky insurance bet' for us to Definitely Not Win against Burnley.