franniesTache

That Nicholl side that played the 4-2-4 formation and fast attacking passing football was an absolute joy to watch, and definitely one of my favourite periods of going, crazy to think we went from that to Branfoot ball really. And lets not forget Branfoot was managing the youth team and highly thought of behind the scenes, then promoted to a job where he was inept and backed by owners who didn't listen to the fans, it's almost like things have always been the same. Also know what you mean about groups of nippers, our group would've been 10-15 of us, all going by ourselves for the first time, and often we'd play football together in the morning, or help out with a mates paper round before deciding on the day to go and traipsing up to the Dell and queuing outside the Milton to get in. A lot of my mates i have now were mates i made on those terraces 30+ years ago, and i always find it a bit sad that there's a generation or three that have completely lost that, and going to games for them is a military operation of planning and costs a packet (though i swear the milton was £1.50 then not £2, but i could be wrong)

I was lucky enough to be there from Matty's debut right through to his testimonial - standing on the opposite side of the milton to @Turkish though as our spot was on the right hand goal post under the CLC part of the advertising on the roof - and to this day he's the best natural footballer i've ever seen in person. I'm sure i've said it on here before but everyone focusses on his goals but they forget he also turned Ian Dowie into a 15 goal a season striker (mainly by hitting him in the face with the ball so it went in) and his passing was just absolutely breath taking. I can also remember his less than energetic "warm ups", where when other people were running around he'd stand 10 yards out of the box and hit the crossbar with the ball, and i reckon he probably did hit 9 times out of 10. His close control was also just so much better than everyone else, there was a game early season against nottingham forest and i can vividly remember him being surrounded by about four players and he just sort of walked through them dinking the ball round them, faking them off and completely confusing them. Also funny to think too he started out as a "tricky winger", playing number 11 and running at people. What i wouldn't give to see another Le Tiss in my lifetime, but i honestly think he's a once in a generation and most of us will never get to see a player like him again.

Tbf they did get the reward which access to the earlier games in the season, and that then guarantees access to the later ones and smaller allocations. Despite how much people moan on here the system is pretty fair, and as someone who does a lot of aways (currently have 23 on my account with charlton, millwall and oxford bought but not done, from this season and last) i can tell you you recognise the hard core that are at most games.

Mandated watching on the bingo bus this video, alongside crips that are kept in the fridge, panda pops that are kept warm, bingo that's rigged, and facepaint and jester hats.

We are obviously going to lose because it's saints, because we're a mess behind the scenes, because a load of our fans have built it up in their heads, and because Nathan Jones. I think i'm probably out on a limb here but i actually quite liked Jones' manner when he managed us. He took no shit and a lot of what he said was true, especially the parts where he called out some of our more entitled support who actually deserved to be told a few home truths. Also yeah his football was shit but it wasn't anymore shit than most of the other managers we've had since, so i'm not sure why the hatred for him is so much higher

So that means it's not going to happen then

One of the few times i can admit a source is this thread. So i know A LOT about Gao and what his plans were for the club, that's because i know someone who worked directly with both him and his daughter when he was here. Gao if China hadn't stopped the money going out would've been incredible for the club, his plans were financially sustainable and would've put a lot of money into the club in the long term. Aside from investment into the team he wanted to invest in the city, in particular developing the area around st marys, but also investing in thing like the local universities too. Alongside that he wanted to set up satellite academies around the world - starting in China - and also set up "schools" abroad that used the clubs knowledge to teach others how to train, discover and manage young players. There was also a desire to have a "football business" operation in China that effectively trained chinese business people in the business side of the game (at a cost obviously) and train/accredit agents too. What was really interesting about Gao is that one of the reasons he was selected by katharina liebherr is because he was a devout buddhist and with her families christian beliefs she thought that made him more trustworthy and would care more about the wider city of Southampton and not just the club. Unfortunately the China decision on money pretty much torpedoed all of the plans (and also the job of the person i knew), but he could've been incredible for both the club and the city

Franny scored one of the "best" own goals i think i've seen, a diving header that beat our own keeper at the near post, think it might've been "for" Oldham or maybe Bolton but i could be wrong. The worst part about that was the absolute fucking imbecile Branfoot on signing them and selling Shearer saying that they'd score more goals in a season than Shearer would in the rest of his career. I genuinely think if we're talking worst then he's the worst manager by a country fucking mile. A few of my friends went pro and they were just in a completely different league to us, control, fitness, positioning, reading of the game, if they wanted they could literally just keep the ball away from you as long as they wanted and make it look easy. I even played against bartosz bialkowski with him playing on pitch, and even him as a keeper playing on pitch was the best player there by some distance, and he wasn't really trying too. Another controversial one for keep but Kelvin Davis in his first couple of seasons was as bad a keeper as i can remember us ever having, he had a habit of being chipped from distance and always seemed to be out of position. Obviously he did improve but he was so bad he ended up having a row with Saints away end at Sheffield Wednesday away one game

God i've seen some shit play for saints in my lifetime, but none, absolutely none, are worse than Lee Todd. Genuinely looked like a make a wish player, except the wish was to be picked for a sunday league team, and yet somehow he ended up on the pitch for Saints. Big shout as well to the useless Russians (?) we had under Nicholl, i remember Gotsmanov being so bad either the Ugly or On The March nicknamed him "Getimov" instead, and his compatriot Cherednyk was even worse if memory serves correct. Like others have said Paul Moody and Alan McLoughlin were utter garbage, and around the same time we had players like Frankie Bennett, David Lee, Craig Maskell who were the epitome of dross. Also special shoutout for the least talented footballer in terms of touch, skill, or reading of the game, that i think i've ever seen. Paul Wooton. If ever a footballer deserved the description of "agricultural" it was him. Oh and this won't be popular these days, but if you'd asked this question 15-20 years ago the name of a certain mr Francis Benali would've come up a lot.

Only posts round midnight though

Why would you put aside the fact that he's said he's a pompey fan, he's said their result is the first he looks for, he's said that it's his dream to manage them one day and they hold him up as a legend. Do you really want to go into a derby at fratton with someone that's said that as our manager?

It's completely embarrassing and plays to the egos of the poor sods on it. I actually think these things genuinely show the contempt that football clubs have for their fans, they think so little of us that they assume they can get away with a pat on the head and subdue the entire fanbase. Which to be fair is probably actually true now, because gone are the days of the difficult cunts that held the club to account like we used to have with SISA. Say what you like about Illingsworth, Perry etc. they gave a shit about Saints & Southampton and they did something about it even if it pissed off the club (which it often did) and risked them getting banned from the ground (which it sometimes did). This modern lot just suck up instead as if it'll somehow make them important/famous

The Fan Advisory Board is something each club needs to have based on the football league charter, it has absolutely zero power and is a marketing piece for the club/league. It's also fucking useless as these are the people that the club "consulted" on the god awful northam wall bollocks because they knew they'd get no pushback

Surely you're not talking about the Russian arms dealer nicknamed the merchant of death? I thought he was in prison in the US for supplying weapons to terrorists?

I think the original poster is spot on but my choice is to switch to watching the Baller League instead because those guys COOK! And it's not that deep