Patches O Houlihan

So apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health ... what have the Romans ever done for us?

Our stadium doesn’t have a stupid sponsors name. Our kits are still broadly speaking the right colour The owner is not involved in embarrassing business pursuits or practices

They have made some spectacular screw ups. BUT - Saints finances are in pretty good shape, they haven’t racked up a load of debt, and they have spent plenty on players (just the wrong ones at the wrong time) You don’t have to have a long memory, or have paid much attention to other English clubs to know that it could be a lot worse.

For anybody who sticks all the way through it there is a section at 50:30m where he's speaking about Tyler Dibling. If the Saints marketing department can get a few snippets of that to go viral then that's another £20m on Tyler's value.

I like heavy metal as much as I like Saints football this season...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4ge5jl62nro

I think this chap speaks for many of us Man City for home games is a bit of a trek though 🤔

I don't know about you, but I feel all of these emotions roughly every 10 mins watching Saints currently. It's not so much a stage process as a Saints smorgasbord

So you're more than happy with Aribo and Smallbone bossing the midfield. Put any old back four behind them and they'll do the business. 4D football the AlexLaw way... as long as you play four at the back and sack the manager every seven weeks job's a good'n

Does any one know how to access the BBC Radio Solent commentary when you aren't in Hampshire? Tried BBC Sounds, Freeview 714 & 715 none of them work. Any help much appreciated - I have walls to paint and am masochistic enough to want to listen to the sounds of a hot knife through butter while I do it

It would appear that Ronnie Edwards is kicking ass at QPR. Their fans are all now closet Saints fans on the basis they might get to keep him, if we miraculously stayed up. They can't believe we loaned him out. Read the replies

I think it might be a case of 'be careful what you wish for'. Dragan has put more money into Saints than anyone ever has. Yes there have been some poor choices/decisions, but also there have been some unfortunate circumstances. He has had two well respected Directors of Football sign for Saints, and then get poached to a huge job very quickly. We were in the conversation for Gakpo. Yes there has been some crap recruitment but also some wins both on the pitch and financially: Lavia, Fernandes, Ramsdale, Downes, THB, financial benefit of the sale of Meghoma/SAA, sale of Livramento. Dragan's money with the assistance of a replacement Paul Mitchell would be great for us.

Is anyone else already bored of seeing this?

Or maybe it was actually because she was secretly a transfer deadline day Sky reporter tormentor over an extended period 🤔 🍆🤏

Eggsaccally!!

I suspect he has been signed to improve our defensive high press, and catch opponents offside

RM knew that it was important to try to keep SAA onside. But he also made considerable noise in the media about the immense physical pace, power and size of PL players compared to the Championship. We all knew that Will Smallbone would struggle with the step up - partly because he is not combative, but also due to his relatively slight build. Now compare SAA to Will in terms of physical stature. Sam is quick and has good skills with the ball at his feet undoubtedly, and I have loved watching him play, and would hope that he would sign a new contract and stake a claim for a solid first team place in the Championship next year. BUT He and Megahoma arrived with a wiff of ABK style FIGJAM* about them, and likely would only sign for one contract. He got pushed off the ball plenty in the Championship. Right now he's just not built to stop Mo Salah or a similarly powerful PL winger/LWB in full flight, and may never be. Maybe we don't want to gamble on him having the required growth spurt AND be willing to sign a new contract AND deliver on that early promise. Maybe that is just too many risks. Plus if that ~£7m of profit allows us to keep Fernandes next season (or Ramsdale) then for me it will be worth it. F**k I'm Good Just Ask Me

Ramsdale is contracted until 2028, and understandably doesn't have amazing stats this year. If we could somehow keep him, he would almost be a cheat code in the Championship if we played the right style. Would love to be able to hold on to one of Dibling or Fernandes

This got me thinking! Should be easy for an AI to work out right?! Nope - well not the ones I normally use anyway. I'm not frustrated enough yet to crunch all the numbers myself but here are few nuggets to be getting on with. Note I haven't looked at cup games. From 20/21 through to today Saints fans have witnessed 54 League Wins. But 26 of them were last year. We got 12, 9 and 6 wins in our previous 3 PL seasons, and 1 this season for a total of 28 League Wins. If you had been a 'super loser' plastic fan who changed allegiances every season, and supported the least winning team in each of the top 4 leagues over the same period then you would have seen these figures: League 2: 37 League 1: 34 Championship: 36 PL: 20 Looking at this I suspect your lowest win rate would be a super survivor in the PL. Everton have 54 wins in that period. Wolves have 55. If you discount teams relegated from League 2 and thus not having all the seasons in the top 4 English leagues there is a strong argument that we would be joint bottom, or if not in the worst 5. It feels even worse of course because our record winning streak in the Champ was topped and tailed by a losing spell with some embarrassing humpings.

We'll score 5 easily - how many VAR allow to stand is a different matter entirely

So to confirm you want the executive team that recruited Cornet, BBD and Archer as our strikeforce to build a brand new 23 man squad from scratch that will win the Championship. You, know I have this bridge you might be interested in buying... 🤔

He set up our goal... ... agree he should be a last 5 mins 5th sub at best

Who are you playing instead? Surely we have a choice of Downes/Les, Aribo/Les, Aribo/Downes. I would rather Downes be playing, but I would suggest Downes/Les is stronger than Downes/Aribo. (Have assumed that one of Dibling/Fernandes or our new Dane would be playing the attacking midfield role)