alehouseboys

Modern footballs, pah. You can't beat the good ol' 1970/1974 World Cup Adidas Telstar. A straight forward black and white 32 panel leather ball, a joy to behold. And you've never headed a ball until you've had several layers of skin removed from your forehead by the abrasive, coarse-sandpaper-like texture of a Wembley Trophy whilst playing in the street.

Because some of ours just have to have a scapegoat. Vest has gone from zero to hero (and rightly so) so step forward some other mug. He’s not on best form but that’s temporary, give him some slack. Great result, performances improving each week, what’s not to like?

...and one very good one.

It will likely be a pretty level playing field financially, but the best players will be more tempted to a lifestyle living in Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Turin, Paris, Munich, Berlin and London rather than the North West. Bottom 3 every year, Man U, Man C and the scousers. How we'd chuckle...

Surely all this kind of speculation and uncertainty will hamper any potential takeover at SFC? If there‘s a possibility that the product they thought they were buying into may soon change and potentially impact on things like TV revenue and sponsorship, then probably best to stand back for a bit before committing.

FAO Monk and Simo - couldn’t reply earlier as out of posts but for future reference, Adblock is your friend. That was a flawless, add-free stream for me today. And darn sweet it was too!

Ignoring the scoreline - this has been a good stream so far, not far off HD quality http://sportinglive.co/17th-chelsea-vs-southampton/

In an ideal world, with Walcott going straight in, he would have had a week on the training field with all the first team, he's likely only trained with Ings, JWP, etc. yesterday. Tough place to start, and then drops straight back out again next week for the Everton match. Not expecting too much, a point today would be a very good result. ".....LA-LA-LA-LA THEEE-OOOOOOOOO!"

Bit late to make his debut tomorrow? Shame.

Looks to me that most fans are against this, thankfully that includes many of ours. What was shocking though, was having looked at the thread on the UI, Nick Illingsworth seems to have given it a wide berth, he normally can’t wait to gush over all things Liverpool 🤔 https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/263839/liverpool-and-united-back-project-big-picture-overhaul-of-english-football/#25

Ingsy has most likely got one good payday left with a transfer, we’ll probably have to break the bank to keep hold of him. Agree about Grealish, you can see he models himself on Beckham, should become an England regular on this form.

Someone at the PL League has described it as a "takeover attempt, rather than a rescue package" so it will be interesting to see how this one pans out. How anyone other than the 'Big 6' can support this is shortsighted. Maybe (hopefully) this will finally see the likes of Liverpool, United, Spurs, et el fook off to some mega European/Global League. But I guess then step forward the next 'Big 6' (Newcastle, Leeds, Villa, Evert..........) and repeat.

Well this thread is about tributes to Steve Davis and his 120+ caps, not generally about his Saints career. He's been a professional footballer for 16 years, an international for 15 of them. Numerous top managers, players and fans are heaping praise upon him, you don't agree, you're entitled to your opinion. Hopefully in another 5 years or so we can heap the same sort of praise on JWP.

Maybe once he’s put in a stint to football that Davis has then yes. And, unless you’re more than qualified to voice an opinion over the likes of Poch et el then some of us will just appreciate the contribution he’s made to the game and doth our cap.

.....Tiff Needell, Chris Packham, saint22.....

Their manager is a Saints fan, assistant manager another ex-scummer and now they're sponsored by and have their ground named after an 'SO' business with long associations with Southampton FC. That must sit well with the toothless down there.

Grealish is exactly what we need in the England attacking midfield area, very good player when he stays on his feet. Feel dirty saying it but I quite rate Mount too.

A great signing for us and fantastic servant to the game, especially when you compare the peanuts we paid for the fella against the £millions we've squandered on dross in recent years. I'm inclined to go with those that know best. Mauricio Pochettino: "The talent of him I compare to football people like Xavi and [Andreas] Iniesta. You put him in the same level as this type of player because of this capacity to play football, be a playmaker, the intelligence to read the game, his capacity to run. I think to compare Christian Eriksen to this type of player too, they make your team better. Lots of good informed comments here: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12019/12098581/steven-davis-mauricio-pochettino-says-northern-ireland-star-was-his-andres-iniesta

You can stick me in the ‘OK with it’ Theo camp, particularly if true we’re paying maybe less than half his salary. Would have been better a couple of years back but now good cover for 2 or 3 players and if he’s still got it in the tank, ‘appy days!

Let’s hope the Covid Police are questioning the scousers for letting in more than 6 (stolen from elsewhere)

.....but little support. I’d imagine Nicky Banger’s gonna like this signing, now there’s a trip down Mammory Lane

And the forensic investigation into how it all came about should now begin.

There's been an obscene amount of money sloshing around in the PL for too long, it's not unreasonable to expect them to help out the lower leagues in their hour of need. This will no doubt come tough for many PL clubs at this time with no fans attending (and little prospect for the foreseeable future), they've still got contracts and extortionate wages to pay to overpaid players to contend with, it's the bread-and-butter staff that will suffer. But if they can find a way to make the obscenely wealthy Big-6 pay more then I'm all for it. Anyways, a certain little third division club on a small island 17 miles east need not apply, they've already had too many handouts and fleeced us taxpayers for their wrongdoings in recent years.

Sofi Hellish-Black Star

We have to be realistic, even if someone comes in and pumps in £millions, we'll never compete with the 'big clubs' on a regular basis. We'll have good periods, and when the big clubs then decide to take our best players will drop back and go again. But if we have the finances we'll bounce back and have another go. The big clubs generally come from big cities. Southampton is a medium-sized city with a medium-sized football club, compared to the other 80 or so league clubs in this country we are one of the bigger ones but the real big 'uns are are another level. I've been following this club for nearly 6 decades so I guess I kind of accept it.