Saint Keef

I don't do Twitter and all that stuff but my son (a Saints fan living in Cambodia) sent me this quote from (apparently) an official Saints Twitter account last night and I think it's brilliant so thought I'd post it here. It took me a few seconds to get it... Apologies if it has been posted elsewhere on here. As of last night.....and indeed tonight.... "Southamptons A and B team 1st and 2nd in the league!" ......if you don't get it as I say, it took me a while, take a look at the Premier League table tonight. It may change tomorrow once our "B team" have played Man City.

I can't remember who posted it here, but after 2 games (which we lost) that person was asking for Ralph to go and to get Big Sam in. I commented at the time and suggested we see where we were after 10 games.......never thinking we'd actually be top. Just thought I'd mention it again and hope your mattress has dried out by now! On a more serious note, I know Ralph recently signed a new deal. We need to extend that contract asap - and give him a pay rise - just to keep the "sniffers" away.

It seems we don't do scrappy goals anymore. And that save by McCarthy was MASSIVE!!!!!

So we can't be at the ground to watch and celebrate this together, but for those of us that are keeping the candle burning on this website, we share the lows and the highs together and so from me to everyone on here and Saints fans everywhere - CONGRATULATIONS! It may only be temporary but damn it feels good.

It was never going to be a good time for Danny Ings to get injured for us. Perhaps better though, that we already have 13 points in the bag rather than being stuck around the relegation zone on 3 points. If Theo stays fit, that could be a very good and timely bit of business for us. A goal for him on Friday would do wonders.

A shrewd call to make him captain as well. I think his game has improved enormously since he was made captain, and he seems to be handling the extra responsibility well and seems to have galvanized the players around him as well. He seems level headed, polite intelligent and his interviews are very good. If he can become a regular England starter then maybe Southgate will recognise this and hand him the England armband as well. That would surely be a feather in the cap for Saints. One would imagine his value has already soared in recent times as well.

Imagine JWP and Grealish in the same England team. Grealish can keep falling over on the edge of the penalty area, something he does very well, thereby completely fooling the referee into giving a free kick and JWP can bang in the free kick. It's a World Cup winning formula!!!!

I think if, two weeks ago, someone had offered us a 2-0 comfortable win against top of the table Everton and 3-4 away, against a "high flying Villa , albeit with a dodgy last few minutes, all resulting in us being third in the table, most of us on here may well have bitten their hand off. Well done Ralph. Well done lads. Fingers firmly crossed on the injuries.

Theoderant Walcott Stuart Underarmstrong Shane Pong Michael Odourfemi

I'm not a big gambler - the odd football bet only. I notice that BETFRED are offering 500/1 on Saints being Premier League Champions. All other bookies seem to have us as 250/1. So I have chosen BETFRED and for those interested, here is their full list of their prices as of today (28/10/2020). City and Liverpool are clear favourites but injuries and European commitments seem to be hindering them considerably at present and neither look dominant. I have a feeling it may go elsewhere this year. Anyway....to put Saint's price in context, here's BETFRED'S full list. It will be interesting to see how it changes as more games are played. So.....who's going to be brave enough at £500/1? Another couple of wins and that price will surely drop. Man City 5/4 Liverpool 6/4 Tottenham 13/2 Chelsea 18/1 Man Utd 28/1 Everton 33/1 Arsenal 40/1 Leeds 66/1 Leicester 66/1 Aston Villa 100/1 Wolves 200/1 Southampton 500/1 West Ham 500/1 Crystal Palace 750/1 Newcastle 750/1 Brighton 1000/1 Burnley 1000/1 Sheff Utd 1500/1 West Brom 2000/1 Fulham 5000/1 .....I think I'll risk a couple of quid on us.....haha

They could have had Wesley Hoedt too if they'd asked us nicely.

OK a question....If you could have a pick of any Premier League manager to come to Saints instead of Ralph, who would you choose? To be honest, I can't think of any who would do a better job the he is currently doing. I personally think we are very lucky to have him. He seems a perfect fit for a club of our size. I don't think, based on our budget etc that the managers of "the big six" could do any better than Ralph is doing. They rely heavily on their clubs spending enormous amounts of money. Klopp, Guardiola, Jose, OGS, Arteta, Lampard - See above - Need masses to spend to be successful (I think given time, Arteta may be the exception) Nuno Esprit Sanchez at Wolves is a very good manager and could move on to bigger things. Carlo Ancelotti - proven manager but not a Saints 'fit' Bielsa at Leeds - early days in the Prem - time will tell how good he really is. Dean Smith at Villa - early days having struggled last year. Seems to have spent wisely this year though. Brendan Rodgers, Scott Parker, Steve Bruce, Sean Dyche, Roy Hodgson, Chris Wilder, David Moyes, Slaven Bilic, Graham Potter - No thanks. (although Moyes seems to have found his feet again and I think Potter could do well with a bigger club) Ralph Hasenuttl - Yes please - All day long. We are currently playing some of the best and most stylish football we have seen for a number of years and he seems to know exactly how he wants us to play. And results at the end of last season (post lockdown) and so far this season are pretty damn good. And please permit me one further question - No premiership managerial sackings this season so far. Who of the above is your money on to go first. For me there aren't any obvious ones yet........Possibly Parker as he has issues wit the owners,and if Burnley are sold, as has been muted, maybe Dyche, based on league position and the utter boring, negative football they produce each week.

Basil Fawlty as owner and Manuel as Head Coach (well.............. he is from Barcelona!!!!)

Well that totally pi$$ed on Sky's chips. Unbelievably biased build up and commentary. How many times can we say Calvert-Lewin in 5 minutes? How many times can we refer to the 0-9 anniversary? Or the "annihilation" of us by Spurs. Or Southampton's "darkest day". Give it a rest Sky. Anyway - brilliant result. Fortress St. Mary's! ......Captain Marvellous (JWP) my MOTM ......Goal Machine Che Adams........King of assists Danny Ings......bloody hell, I even thought Kevin Friend was decent. I know, it's all been a dream, no doubt I'll wake up in a minute.

Yeh you're probably right. It was just some crazy mad moment I had. It's the hope that kills us.

I know it's a big "if", but if we win tomorrow, we would go above Man City, West Ham, Chelsea and Palace.....and depending on other results elsewhere possibly others too. Now there's an incentive.

Personally, I think if it was Covid, they would have said. Quite a few footballers and other sports people have gone public about it (our own Stuart Armstrong) and as serious as Covid is, it's no big deal to be up front about it. If it was an injury, again why the secrecy - just come out and say it. His whole signing wasn't reported in the normal fashion and seems to have been clouded in mystery since. If it was an injury or even Covid I think they would have still announced his signing as per KWP. Theo and Dialli. A press embargo has been mentioned above. If it was an injury or Covid I can't see that being the case. Shy? Homesick? Didn't want to move in the first place and got "pushed" into it by his previous club and/or agent who saw lots of £ signs? Saints haven't stumped up the money for him yet? Work permit issues? Just a few thoughts.

According to the BBC VVD had said this on social media. "I'm ready for the challenge ahead." I suppose that's the challenge of earning several million pounds a year for NOT playing football. What a brave soldier he is. Get real VVD.......Arrogant ******. Unless of course he's going to work for the NHS during his absence. Anyway VVD I hear Barcelona is nice this time of year and good for recuperating.

One game - one assist. He was brought in to replace Boufal. How does that compare to Boufal's ratio? No doubt some here will know how many assists provided in the seasons he was here. I think I can remember a couple but I'm afraid my memory is not good enough to remember against whom.

Che's through ball to Danny Ings for the first goal was inch perfect as well. If they both stay fit we have the makings of a very good partnership up front.

So we've now played 5. Two of the "big 6" and three of the "lesser" sides and we are 10th in the league with 7 points. I think the realistic ones among us would have accepted that at the start of the season. We are again competing after a poor start to the season. Fitness levels have improved and we are are scoring late goals rather than conceding them (a sign of good fitness, belief and attitude). We outplayed Spurs in the first half (admittedly we crumbled in the second half) and outplayed Chelsea in the second half.....and on their patch too. Yes there are still issues in defence, but even the "big" teams are struggling to keep clean sheets having spent a damn sight more than us. Today was a great result. Pleased that Che is off the mark for the season - that will help him too. Very pleased overall.

It's easy to knock Harry McGuire.......so here goes. £80m? To be honest, you'd be lucky to get £8m for him at present. I honestly prefer Saints centre backs to him. Someone above mentioned call up Jack Stephens. I know Jack has his critics here, but at the moment, he is no worse than McGuire and in some respects possibly better. The talk at Man U was trying to find a partner for McGuire.....at this rate they will be looking for a replacement for him. He looks an utter liability and one of the reasons Man U conceded 6 at home in their last game. I can't make my mind up about Southgate, a great result on Sunday, but tonight? Easy in hindsight, but as soon as McGuire was booked after 5 minutes (and he was a bit lucky that it wasn't a straight red) I would have been considering replacing him. He looked like an accident waiting to happen. At half time, me as a mere armchair viewer (tonight) could see this wasn't Harry Kane's game. With Danny Ings on the bench, I would have rolled the dice then. Danny does the closing down and chasing back of 2 men. Just what you need when you are down to 10 men. So either take of Rashford and bring on Danny with Kane or take Kane off for Danny. Good to see PEH got his normal yellow for a clumsy tackle. Good to see Vesty come on - that won't do his confidence any harm albeit a cameo appearance. Finally - we need to nulify Mount at the weekend. He looked like England's best player tonight.

Totally agree. The falling over thing is just too much. He did it for 90 minutes at St Mary's last year, but each time, the ref gave a free kick. It the refs got wise to him and didn't "buy" the fall every time, he would stop doing it. Something else I've noticed. Other Villa players have started doing it, possibly to a lesser degree, but still going over way too easy......a couple of them have also copied his weird hairstyle. He's obviously has quite an influence on the Villa camp.

Still, if Ings and JWP don't play, they can't get injured! That's with my selfish Saints hat on.

Chelsea have blown hot and cold so far this season. Still look shaky at the back. Seem to struggle defending set pieces. If we can get at them then who knows.