Saint Keef

Great news about Stuart Armstrong. I am a fan. He came in for some stick on here recently, which I disagreed with. Yes he makes the odd error but overall I think he brings a lot to the team and seems to fit Ralph's system perfectly. If I recall correctly, we paid about £8m for him. For a regular starter and a player of his calibre, that is a very good bit of business.

If a Southampton manager is passionate enough about Southampton winning games, if it means that much to him, if his team and his tactics mean we can beat the reigning champions and arguably one of the best teams in Europe, and that passion is so strong that he shows some emotion at the end of the game.......then that'll do for me. Simon Jordan Chairman of Crystal Palace. on Talk Sport criticizes Ralph for showing emotion? Is that the same Crystal Palace that were beaten at home, by the same Liverpool 0-7 two weeks ago? I bet Jordan showed some different f**king emotion after that thumping. Tosser! And to worry what The Skates might think? I don't give a flying f*ck what they might think. They, together with about 88 other football league clubs would love to have a manager like Ralph in charge. He has turned this club around from a club playing boring football, habitually struggling to avoid relegation, to where we are now, playing some of the most attractive, successful football we have seen in years and long may he reign.

If you don't mind me saying.......I really rather enjoyed that result. Difficult to single out MOM. KWP & Jack up there. I thought Stu looked sharp too. Class goal from Danny. Those on here thinking we'd be better off cancelling the game....think again.

$hit, where did I put my emergency black armband? One good thing, at least their fans won't be there singing it all night long. FF in goal? The only positive I can think is when we beat them in "that" semi-final, FF was in goal and I seem to recall he pulled off an amazing save and Shane Long was up front and score the winner.......Deja Vu anyone?

Ronald at Barca, Poch at PSG, Puel could go to Juve, Mark Hughes to Real Madrid, Nigel Adkins to Inter Milan, still time for Lawrie Mac to go to Bayern, Strachan to manage Brazil, and.......... YEH! And Pellegrino to......um ......uhh........mmmmm........Oh...........come back to me on that one.

When he first came in, I think we saw a couple of glimpses which suggested there might be a good player in there, (mind you anything was better than Cedric at that point) but as time went on he just didn't improve and more than once up against a reasonable attack he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Frightened almost.

You are quite possibly right, but Fulham, Brighton, West Brom and Newcastle have all matched them (all draws) within the past month or two, and I don't see them as having any more quality than us. I guess it all depends on who turns up on the day. If it's us then we stand a chance, if it's them, then we may struggle.

Ah ha! Our secret weapon - Shane Long. I do recall he has "previous" against Dipperpool. Did he not score a blinder against them in a certain semi-final? It's about time then, that he scored against them again! Come on Shane - you know you can do it! 1-0 to The Saints - Shane scores the winner. There you go....job done.

Sounds like a normal game at Pompey.....apart from the fans being gracious. Oh, and swap "missed our flights home......" for "Couldn't drive home 'cos someone had nicked the wheels off my car".

It's not really a conspiracy theory. Just a thought. We all know the club is not awash with money. If the right money was offered for Vesty and he wanted to go, regrettably, I think we'd be a selling club. I'm not sure what the "right money" would be, obviously a lot more than the start of the season based on his performances. Clubs such as ours and many other less fortunate clubs cannot sustain paying players wages indefinitely with no crowds in the ground and with the latest Covid Tier structure, no clue as to when we will return.. Now I'm no business or financial expert by any means but even I can see it's just not sustainable. So if a club offered lots of £'s for one of your centre backs, personally I think it would be considered, particularly if the player wants to go......as sad as that would be. The fact that Ralph has said 4 weeks which would take us to just about the end of the transfer window.......not a conspiracy theory, just thoughts, with a little bit of logic thrown in.

Matip injured again. I really wouldn't put it past them to come sniffing for Jannik in January. I may have missed it somewhere else, but do we actually know what injury Jannik has suddenly picked up that means he will be out for "4 weeks" according to Ralph.

West Brom have scored against the dippers! I feel the urge to put a black armband on and light a candle, Big Sam working his "magic"?

Haha. It's an age thing. Getting confused with the West Ham game. No, I'll be on Sky - Amazon for West Ham. Why is life so confusing? Thanks for straightening me out. You don't know where I left my car yesterday do you?

Haha......and Whitey Grandad, if that call should come, we don't want you overdoing it in the warm-up, maybe a game of Subbuteo whilst the others are warming up. I would imagine if Ralph does call for you, it maybe you will be on the bench. If you do get onto the pitch.....and score......don't worry about doing the knee slide in celebration. Just a modest wave to the (non-existent crowd) and perhaps a kiss of the badge. I'm only sad we all won't be there to witness it, but be sure of this, we will be cheering our respective Amazon Prime screens.

I just made toast and had a picture of Elvis on mine. Happy Christmas to all on here. I'm having a Christmas Pizza for lunch......... Deep Pan Crisp and Even!..... (I'll get me coat).

He's getting regular game time now and it seems to be doing him some good albeit not at Prem standard. We probably wouldn't get much for him if we sold him, so I'm just wondering if with Ingsy and Redders suddenly getting injuries, it might be worth calling him back in January as cover. It only needs Stu and Djenepo to pick up injuries (and let's face it - both have been susceptible to injuries) in the next couple of games and our options will look very thin. I'm not saying Josh is a nailed on premier league player, but to me it would be a sensible precaution.

Possibly Salisu, I hope he's ready, but if he isn't ready for 90 minutes yet then probably Jack Stephens. Of course, Ralph maybe playing a bit of a bluff game on Ings, Vest and Redders, and to be honest I wouldn't blame him if he did.

Agree with the two comments above. So what have we learned here? It appears Arsenal are sh*t whether there's VAR or not. The best bit of technology that does seem to work is the goal line technology, whether the ball has crossed the line or not.

I've just written to SKY saying I will cancel my "SKY SPORTS PACKAGE" unless they put subtitles on the bottom of the screen whenever Carragher is on. I told them I've watched Japanese mystery films without subtitles and still understood more of what's going on than when he's on. I'm considering calling their engineers out because there seems to be a fault on my set up. Basically on a Monday night, I get terrible interference on the sound, so bad that I can't make out what's being said. I've also ordered a new TV remote from them because the mute button is worn out. (although that might be Hinchcliffe's fault).

Thank you to rooney, Toussaint and Turkish for responding to my assessment of messrs Hinchcliffe and Carragher. Turkish - well spotted sir, that photo explains everything. Well played. As a kid though, I loved The Beatles, from the very same city (Dipperpool) but I understood every single word they ever spoke or sang. Jimmy Tarbuck (according to Scousers the funniest man of all time), I didn't like him, but I understood him. So......why the f** can I not understand Carragher? Here, exclusively for you Ladies & Gents is one of Carragher's sentences from last night's Monday Night Football........"Whackkk Wicckkkk chacckkkkk thaacckkk ticckkkk chockkkk macchhhhh flat back four whaaackkkk stackkkkk mickkkkkk nickkkkk tackkkkkk schlickkkkkk Sean Dyche thwickkkkk. I reckon when he had that spitting incident out of his car window (for which Sky should never have employed him again - no doubt the Scousers would have lit candles and worn black armbands if that had happened).......he wasn't spitting at all......he was just trying to clear his throat. Look, I know I shouldn't let it get to me. I know I should get out more. BUT I CAN'T! I'm now stuck in bloody Tier 4 here in West Berkshire. Anyway - to all fellow Saints fans on here, be it here in the UK or in the four corners of the World - have a great Christmas guys and a Happy New Year. (Hey - not been a bad year for The Saints has it!!!!)

Not only am I reduced to watching Burnley on a wet Monday night but I'm also having to listen to that footballing "genius" (in his own head) Andy Hinchcliffe - who never ever made a mistake in his whole career....... as a bang average player for Man City, Everton and Sheffield Wednesday. He never ever missed with a shot, or failed to hit the target: he never gave a stray pass, never failed to mark his opponent, never got caught offside...blah blah blah. My god what a bore! He must have a bloody good agent to get the Sky gig. And whilst on the subject of pundits. I know some here didn't like Ally McCoist on Amazon Prime. I admit I have never been a fan of his, but I will say this for him. I am English, he is Scottish, yet I can understand every word he says. Unlike another of Sky's pundits, Mr "Monday Night" himself....Jamie Carragher. What I don't get is, he is apparently English, yet I can only understand about one word in six that he says. I'm sure he is speaking a foreign language most of time. Practicing his Outer Mongolian language lesson whilst being paid by Sky. It's like going on holiday to some far flung country, where you only know about four words of their language. You listen to the locals talking and occasionally you hear one of the words you know. For me, that's like listening to Carragher. He could be reading out a recipe for a sponge cake for all I know. Oh well, that's got half-time out of the way - only another 45 minutes of Andy Messi....sorry, I mean Hinchcliffe.

I'm not sure they will let us know. They might keep Fulham guessing right up until kick off.

I continue to be really impressed with KWP. We have picked up a really decent full back there. Someone mentioned "resting Che for this one. Don't agree, his hold up play and strength, as well as his goals and some really good assists, he's finally the player we were all hoping he would be. AND he scored a wonder goal against City a few months ago. They will be very worried by him.

What's that then - one defeat in the last 11? Yes, we're a bit disappointed we didn't win last night, but to me, it shows how far we have come in a relatively short space of time.

I didn't know him but sounds like a decent chap from those who did. At least he lived to see us sitting on top of the Premier League. RIP.