franniesTache

This year is my 40th consecutive season of watching Saints and from those years of experience i can tell you exactly how it'll pan out for saints. The most Saints thing in the world would be for us to achieve a recording breaking points figure for third, then proceed to lose the first round in the play offs on penalties despite being the better team over both legs.

What goes unsaid is as important as what is said right? If only our fans could learn to read between the lines with what the club puts out into the public they'd see so much closer to the truth

What i find interesting is that when Danny Rohl left you heard shedload of noise from inside the club about how the wrong person was going. When Paul Mitchell left the noises from the club were of massive panic. When Joe Shields started talking to Chelsea there was real anger behind the scenes, but with Wilcox the noises seem to mostly be a case of "we haven't heard about this and a shrug". That reaction alone makes me not as worried as other people about him going.

Out of interest what has he actually achieved?

Something other than the fact he was a season ticket holder at portsmouth, born in a PO postcode, a matchday mascot for them who said andy awford was his favourite player, and said their 2010 fa cup win was the best day in his life? I mean if that's not a skate i don't know what is? Lovely bloke is Al, got a ton of time for him and i think there's a bigger case to call someone like him a legend than any player that's played for the club in the last 30 years. Proper southampton, committed, and never makes a song or dance of it, just always there. And yeah like you say that period would include friendlies and even closed door covid games (allegedely)

Come on now mush you know we all have standards I heard that one of us was learning the words to songs from the woman behind him last night, and helping her understand how to read the tv's to get players names as she didn't know any of the Bristol City subs How was Al Scarf?

I think the Gabbiadni song is the result of the lack of real "heroes" for the younger generation. Lambert aside we've not really had any notable players in recent years, even the skate ward-prowse didn't actually achieve anything when he played for us, so those nippers who only really started supporting Saints post the last promotion to the premier league don't have much more to look at than a lost League Cup Final and a last minute win at Swansea to stay up. I guess it's probably similar to if those of us who've been round the block had watched the Saints of the 90's without Le Tiss.

Been saying all season our support is as bad in quality as i can remember in my life. You really can't argue about the numbers, but it feels like those numbers have been bused in straight from red lodge. It's really depressing the lack of quality there, especially as it's the nippers that seem to be leading the charge of the shite brigade. Traditionally the nippers are the ones trying to do something different and new, instead it seems now they're just proving they have the intelligence of a wet breeze block and the style of a meth head offering tricks to buy drugs

Rovers played in Bath because City fans burnt down their ground tbf. Now that's proper rivalry, none of this shouting scummers stuff or singing about fathers guns there. Just burn the fucking thing down 🤣

It's really weird how popular this game is, we've played at Anfield loads in my lifetime (usually losing) and didn't even sell out our allocation for the league cup semi final there. But a fifth round FA cup fixture, midweek, in a game we'll probably get tonked and everyone's losing their mind trying to get tickets to. I genuinely don't understand the mad rush, it's not even like it's a novelty for us.

One thing i'll find interesting is how many of those that have bought tickets will actually turn up. I've noticed this season when big allocations, or unpopular games are released you get a lot more people buying tickets to immediately move them on on social media. I guess the fact we're getting smaller allocations in the league means it's more incentive to do this so people can qualify for the games it'll be hard to get tickets for. This lad for example bought tickets half an hour after they went on sale and is already trying to shift them, doubt that's travel arrangements or work https://x.com/jchann14/status/1755600557807665154?s=20

I'm giving it a miss, probably in the top percentage of away fans for games i go to but i've been to Anfield loads and can't get the time of work easily. Way more bothered about Brum and Blackburn to be honest.

Yeah the Northam creche decamping to the IN has pretty much ruined it too, we moved out of blocks 1/2 because of the dinlows turning up and singing their shit noddy songs and waving at the away fans. That's why my preference would be an age limit there, only sell tickets to over 25's and hope these numpties fuck off back to the northam. We absolutely get involved in the atmosphere, but it makes no difference because the god awful city clone songs, songs about the skates (or at aways) songs about libraries take over. And there's only so many times you can call someone an embarrassing little prick before you give up. Better to boot them to a different part of the ground and have our own thing

No i stand in the Itchen North, i moved from the Northam because i started to find the people in the Northam embarrassing and annoying, I have absolutely no desire to be anywhere near those people in Northam, and at away days it's specifically those kind of people that I wish didn't go. If they make the Northam into a "kop" it'll mean they enforce sitting elsewhere in the ground, that will mean i either have to stand somewhere that i'd rather hammer nails into eyeballs than be in, or sit down in a sanitised version of my current place. The idea that it will improve atmosphere is rubbish, it'll just create a single noddy filled space and kill off the other pockets that have their own cultures and reasons for being where they are. Unfortunately a huge amount of people in the northam can't understand why people wouldn't want to join them - maybe because they don't find cringeworthy songs, awful bantz and waving other teams flags as embarrassing - and think it's a fantastic idea Edit to say: The ideal for me would be to make both the itchen north blocks 1/2/3 safe standing and the northam 42 round to the kinglsand north safe standing, then put an over 25 age limit on blocks 1/2/3 so that the annoying creche that moved to the itchen north would fuck off back to the northam and the itchen north could have it's old culture back

I'd put good money on the fact the people like that are the same people constantly singing about the skates, doing the noncey adam/stuart armstrong song and singing about libraries at away games. They will also be the people who stand in a Northam "kop" carrying on with their stupid "Bantz" and generally embarrassing the city (most likely a city they don't even come from). It'll be an utter noddy fest if it goes ahead and i'd much rather keep those dins contained in the Northam so i can avoid being even remotely close to them

If anyone ever wanted a prime example of why a Northam "kop" will never work then look at this, some of our absolute mouth breathing noddies took a luton flag in for the watford game. I'm not sure about you but i'd rather deep clean my ballsack in caustic soda than stand next to this level of red lodge every game, properly embarrassing shit that sums up just how shit our support has become https://x.com/SFCAlfie1885/status/1754987673603723682?s=20

Yeah that's not really a rumour to be fair

And this is exactly the reason a "kop end" will never work for me, i'd rather pour caustic soda into my own eyes than stand in the Northam with dins doing this personally Go one step further and half the away end dressed as librarians and the other half dressed as Michael Jackson and sing librarian girl at them. Then the librarians can respond with "dewey system, we only use that"

You'll never play like Kyle Walker Peters You'll never do whatever Kyle can do You'll never score like Kyle Walker Peters He's going to get saints into the top two And we'll dance, and drink and screw And there's nothing you can do... Oh KYLE da da da da Walker da da da da PETERS

Done it loads of times, to the tune of Raspberry Beret by Prince His name is Kyle Walker-Peters, Brought him from Tottenham but we should've paid more. His name is Kyle Walker-Peters, England's best full back who we all adore. Edit to say: Ah balls you said E Minor when Raspberry Beret is in D, so you'd need something like Paranoid by Black Sabbath or Come as you are by Nirvana to be in E Minor. Although Franz Ferdinand Take Me Out is in E minor is of the right era for a lot of our fans and the chorus could work I say, don't you know? Walker Peters on his own He will, TAKE US UP Final edit: Just realised Elanor Rigby is in E Minor (i mean so is Seven Nation Army but god alone knows we've used that one waaaay too much) So, Kyle Walker Peters Picks up the ball and he runs down the wing Southampton sing Kyle Walker Peters Wearing Saints famous red and white He's dynamite Ohhh We've got Kyle Walker Peters A hero for the scum

Why are we completely incapable of coming up with anything new?

Well that's one of the three i heard had a price on their head gone, be interesting if the other two are still here by the end on of the window

That bunch are one of the main reasons we avoid drinking anywhere near our own fans as much as possible, it's deeply embarrassing to be associated with yokels like that to be honest. Funny thing is they want to play at being a bit green street but can only do it because football is a lot more sanitised now, if they'd tried that even back in the 90s it would've been done once then learnt the consequences. Apparently he had some mental health issues, you still see him about but he seems to have grown up, lost the indiana jones hat and is acting more normally these days

If you're who i think you are you are then you definitely know all of us lot from various aways mush and not a soul would want us as influencers 🤣

I think it's harsh to pin this on younger fans, plenty of younger fans don't want to look like confused yokels with the intelligence of a house brick. My opinion is it's more of a social media problem than an age problem, it's just that many of those that want social media validation happen to be younger