franniesTache

So it would appear our fans actually outdid themselves with how shit the away support can be at Watford, by actually singing about libraries in a pub before the game had even started. Seriously what is wrong with these people? Surely given it seems a lot of us hate this crap maybe it's time to start openly telling these dinlows to shut up? https://x.com/paul_sorrell/status/1751584090669691025?s=20

Always thought of him as this generation's Jimmy Case, came in with bags of experience and talent but was never a "star". Comfortably pound for pound the best signing we have made in recent times though and made the team tick in a brilliant but understated way. Was always surprised he was never made the captain as he was exactly the sort of player you'd expect to be captain. Also on the times i met him he came across as a just a genuinely good, and very level headed, bloke.

Still think we sacked Puel way too early, he was a successful manager for us who was forced out by players egos. Yeah he was negative in the Europa league but some of the football at away games in the premier league was as good as i can remember. We sold out what we took, but we only took half the available allocation. For me it's still one of the best Saints away ends i've been in, properly good support all game and those goal celebrations... Up their with Spurs in the cup in 88/89, Derby away in the play offs and Fratton for the 4-0 as the best Saints end i've seen.

The Newcastle Wor Flags lot are now doing noncey "corteos" to st james park and banging drums. So they're exactly the same as Arsenal's Tarquin army. Truth is you know our most embarrassing elements, like the Saint Rob bloke who's all over social media, will start trying to do our own "ultras" thing via this. I mean they all did the f*cking "poznan" at Arsenal away.

Everton must have been flying in recent years given they have away fans down the side and with crap views, and Wolves too, man those two must be challenging for the title every season. I find it hilarious how they make those videos of themselves stood in a tunnel to make it look huge and intimidating, then you see it from another angle and it's only about 20 nerds dressed in black with a drum 🤣 Can't imagine how shit our version would be, a bunch of spotty kids in the underpass by six dials singing pompey get battered whilst holding a flag with a skull of it... it would actually be more embarrassing than the palace nigels and their macaroni and pva posters 🤣

Like who? Every single club that does it at the moment are doing the ultra's bollocks, Ipswich, Boro, Palace, Huddersfield, Arsenal all come to mind. By all means try and organise a better atmosphere but the minute you give yourselves a name and wave stupid flags around you're on route to a drum and a prick with a megaphone.

"Big crowd flags – like you see in the leagues of Spain & Italy! And why not? Think big! Run a group of supporters who have a passion for stadium atmosphere? Free to commit time outside of matchday to meet and plan new ideas – new songs, flags, player entrance music – anything, we will discuss it! Sign below – lets meet." Sounds a lot like noddy ultras nonsense to me

I cannot think of a better argument for keeping the away fans where they are than this shite, the last thing we need is tinpot fancy dress ultras, and if they have to happen then keep them the f*ck away from us in their own little bit in the Northam

I think Parson's is post rationalising a decision that's already been made for marketing rather than being dishonest.

Don't doubt he's mentioned it. But i know for a fact this decision has absolutely nothing to do with him.

I find it hilarious that the club are putting out the marketing line that this has anything to do with Russell Martin when he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Also love that Parson's has basically admitted the fan consultation is pointless, and they're going to do it anyway.

You seem to be massively missing the point here, i haven't said i'm against it, i've said i have no interest in moving over to it. In fact I also said that it's good for the kids to have their own area. What i'm skeptical of is people saying "well the itchen north will link up with the northam", I don't think that's true, my point was that a lot of us don't want to go to the northam (kop or not) because they don't really like the people in the northam. Which then begs the question, where are these extra 3k people coming from? The Itchen north probably doesn't hold much more than 800 people, and a lot don't want to move so not there. The kingsland north is less than 500. Back of the chapel? God knows in the 20's at most. So what's that leaved? Displaced from the chapel blocks the away fans move to? Kingsland/Chapel who don't want to be by the away fans? That's where i think the idea that we'll suddenly have a big wall of noise falls down. I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up with a thin spread of "noise" across the safe standing at the back, then a quieter front few rows of people sitting.

Except that's not true, take a look at away games, they're pretty much unbearable because of our dinlow element. Every other song is a song about the skates or libraries, everything is sung at half a million miles an hour, people force "limbs" so they can film them and share them on social media. I know plenty of decent old school saints who are on the cusp of giving up away games because the happy bus lot make it so bad. Now i know part of that is me being old, you can't escape that, but the fact we have a split between Itchen North and Northam currently gives me a choice at home games of avoiding the worst parts of that. To think that some of us will move over because we want to make noise is completely missing the point of why we are where we are in the first place. Most of the people I talk to have absolutely no desire of standing with the fans in the Northam, because we don't really like them. More power to those nippers for doing their thing, and it's great that they've got a place to do it, but don't act like it's a place many of us want to be, and don't be so naive as to think we'll suddenly magic another 3k people who want to be there either.

Funnily enough it's not the stuff like the band that i find noddy (i actually really like the band as they remind me of the Albion band days). I mean i do hate the goal music but i'm not the target audience there. When i talk about noddy i mean the zebedee like, drunk on dark fruits, singing about pompey and stealing man city songs ones you get in the Northam. The kind of people who think football culture is tik toks and wearing your 'Spoons breakfast down the front of your replica shirt, or throwing over priced beer around in the concourse and thinking that's an "edgy" atmosphere. It's those people that make me want to be nowhere bloody near the Northam end (and ironically those lot that moved from the Northam to block 1/2 of the itchen that made us move out of block 1/2. I also think that's the bit that the club have completely missed, they think because people want to make noise then they all want to be together. Which is like saying because Mr Blobby released a single he's the same as Stevie Wonder. The focus group won't make a difference to be honest

90mins of a bunch of kids singing about the skates at 100 miles an hour sounds like hell on earth to me. Got bugger all to do with being close to the away fans it's more that a large chunk of our fans are like the inbetweeners pissed on dark fruits. If our support wasn't as down the drain as it is right now it would be more enticing, but honestly it's just a bit embarrassing to be associated with a lot of them right now Edit to add: Also I think this probably increases our chances of having some god awful "ultras", a c*nt with a drum and embarrassing banners. At which point the Chapel is going to look very attractive indeed

We sit in the Itchen North and i have no interest in the slightest in moving to the northam, mainly because the noddy crap that lot come out with is exactly the reason i moved from it in the first place. Safe standing will be at the back of the Northam, due to regulations on how much of the ground can be safe standing as a percentage they cannot make the whole end safe standing

if only someone had predicted this

It makes me laugh how these people sit in their bedrooms stuffing their face with crisps, getting angry at the circle of trust family, as if getting it wrong will land them in prison

We did try "One tide, you've only got one tide" and "we've got more tides than you, we've got more tides than you" against Plymouth but no one else joined in.

Think is we need slow and repetitive, listen to our support and the million miles an hour stuff ends up sounding like a modern art experiment because none of the blocks are in the same time, plus nothing ever catches on ronud the ground anymore because everything goes to quick. Also repetitive sounds amazing in a big group, think about United doing the United Calypso, that rolling song basically stops the other side making any noise at all. I don't think it needs to change, maybe an 'S' on the end of tide, given we're one of the few places in the world with two tides (which is why we became such an important dock) it seems fitting to reference it Southampton has Western Bay, hence the reference to it in the song. The reclaimed land where Western Docks and West Quay sit was originally a bay, and was where the Mayflower sailed from (and also where the french landed for the sack of southampton in 1338) for once a song actually makes reference to our cities history and past

A few of us have been moaning about our lack of songs and constant references to the blue few, but not really offering alternatives, so how about we try and get this going as an alternative? Obviously might be beating a dead horse here but i genuinely think a re-work of Dock of the bay would be class, it's about the city, it's postiive, and everyone should know the tune (and at the very least the chorus). Plus it'd be completely unique to us and give us a song other clubs can't nick I left my home in Hampshire Headed for the Western Bay 'Cause I've got something to live for Love Southampton till my dying day. So, I'm just gon' sit on the dock of the bay Watchin' the tide roll away, ooh I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay Wastin' time 2,3,4 (and repeat) https://x.com/Pugilist_fin/status/1742579808066748615?s=20

We did that but were ending up in rows every week, because each week a new group of inbetweeners high on dark fruits would turn up and try the same old sh*t. In the end it was just easier to leave them to their noddy behaviour. Shame really as the Itchen North was decent and now it's another shitty noddy fest

To be fair the issue was never age, there were plenty of nippers in the Itchen North when it was good, the issue was that people moved from the Northam and acted like the same mouth breathers they'd been in the Northam. Pre-Covid we actually had two different cultures, the Northam with it's rent a seal mob singing about pompey at a million miles an hour and shoehorning Saints players names into which ever song United/City/Liverpool/Rangers had sung the week before. And then we had the Itchen North who were undeniably a bit moodier, re-hashed a lot of the stuff from the Dell and started new songs based on old songs from the 80's and Soul music from the 60's. Post covid every red lodge window licker decamped from the Northam to the Itchen North thinking it was all about "surging" at away fans and wearing casuaclone fancy dress, what was good was ruined, what was unique was diluted, and it's now just the Northam lite. Sadly those nippers that moved over didn't get that, and it would've been a lot better for the club if they'd stayed put and made their own thing in the Northam (the same way the Milton, Under the East, the Arches and the west benches all had their own cultures). But that wasn't going to happen, and it's why those of us that we coming up with new stuff pre-covid left blocks 1/2, we didn't want to sit with those lot in the Northam, and we don't want to sit with them now.

We haven't deserted you, we just moved away from block 1/2 and into block 3, because block 1/2 was turning into a creche (also IN arising was nicked from Man U, though the Ings song was 100% ours)

Talking to mates that went to norwich it sounds like our away support actually hit rock bottom, with the football in a library shit being sung six times in the first 20 mins and most of the rest of the game being about pompey. In fact i was told we sung about libraries so much the Norwich fans sung it back to us to take the piss when they scored, and we responded? By singing about f*cking libraries again...