FreemantleSaint

Is it true that the early 70's team which he was a part of used to have a drink in the Fitzhugh/Corner Post pub of a Saturday lunchtime before home games?? And which of the 2014/15 Saints side would have best fitted in with the early 80's side in terms of ability, playing style, character etc?

Flowers Clyne Richards M Svensson Bridge Case Schneiderlin Rod Wallace Le Tiss Bale Lambert Subs: Niemi, Monkou, Kenna, Horne, Pahars, Jay-Rod, Beattie

I'm near St Austell and I'd be interested.

I really hope England qualify but Southampton Football Club is ten times more important to me than the England team.

If I was a United player, coming back from the international break with tired legs or a knock or jet lag, Southampton are the last team I would want to play against, with all the pressing and hassling throughout the 90 mins. Plus all the leg work when Saints are keeping possession.

I still have faith in Rickie. Who else is going to score 15 goals for us?

Great points from both Alpine and Minty I thought. I don't understand Saints fans who are ready to despense with a quality footballer like Lambert. As pace is not a part of his game anyway, he could be a Premier League footballer until his mid-thirties if he can stay clear of injuries. As Minty said he brings so much to our all-round attacking play with his excellent control, holding up and vision etc. I also found it interesting last season how much he pulled wide to stretch defences and then found our on-rushing midfielders with quality crosses. He is also of course the best penalty taker in the game at the moment, possibly even better than Le Tiss for that? I am one who is in favour of us signing a big and pacy centre forward but only as a partner to Rickie in a possible 4-1-2-1-2, or even 4-4-2 if the odd occasion demands, or cover/sub/competition if we are going to play one upfront.

I've set this to record. It's the pulsating 4-4 draw from our League One promotion season.

I started watching Saints in September 1986 so here's mine, using our current formation: Niemi Dodd Richards M Svensson Bridge Case Schneiderlin Rod Wallace Le Tissier Bale Lambert Subs: Flowers Monkou Marsden Berkovic Beattie Only Bale's inclusion is partly based on achievements at other clubs. Clyne and Shaw could well play themselves into my dream team if they can continue their first season form.

I really hope some of you guys were joking when you said we should sign Lee Cattermole or Dean Whitehead!

Rickie is a club legend and still has a big role to play in our future but I totally agree with the previous poster who said we need a Lukaku or Benteke type striker, someone fast and powerful who can get us 20 goals. I also think Shaun Maloney from Wigan would create more chances from the left, and score more goals, than Lallana has.

It was harsh treatment but it was SFC's best interests to have the next manager lined up before sacking Adkins. I would much rather we work this way than do what Wolves did last year in sacking McCarthy, floundering around for a few weeks being rejected by numerous managerial targets and then being cornered into appointing his totally inexperienced assistant.

Surprised nobody's mentioned Chris Marsden Football Genius yet.

By far our best defensive performance of the season. Excellent tactics, effort and concentration. Attacking play was a bit hit and miss I thought but enough good football to have won the game really. Just seen the post-match stats - Saints attempts 7 On Target 4. Arsenal attempts 4 On Target 1. Today gives me confidence that we can get points from all of our home games, and the last two aways shows that we're capable of getting something at all but the top six or seven clubs. Need to turn some of these draws into wins though. The next league game at Villa is MASSIVE!!

Gazzaniga Richardson Fonte Yoshida Clyne Schneiderlin Davis Puncheon Ramirez Lallana Lambert Subs: Davis, Hooiveld, Shaw, Ward-Prowse, Chaplow, Mayuka, Rodriguez

I'm only echoing what previous posters have already replied with, but I think we're very lucky to have a stadium close to the city centre, close to the club's roots and not on some soulless retail park by a motorway junction. And we're spoilt for choice for good boozers within a 20 minute walk from the stadium (including the Bedford Place pubs) with even a few within a 5 minute walk. How many decent pubs are there within a 20 minute walk of the Madejski Stadium?? And as for having a stadium in the middle of Southampton Boat Show - no thanks! What the hell has the boat show got to do with football? I'd much rather have the stadium in a rough part of town - that's where football grounds should be imo.

I noticed this book on amazon today, it's part of a collection with titles for most major clubs. Has anyone bought or seen the Saints version and, if so, is it any good? http://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Football-Was-Southampton-Nostalgic/dp/0857331817/ref=pd_rhf_pe_p_t_3

I followed Minty in following the Saints academy sides for the Echo in the early to middle naughties and totally agree that Georges Prost was not only a superb football coach but also a truly lovely bloke, shy but friendly with a nice sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye when he talked about his talented young players. He did indeed have a very serious cancer scare circa 2005 but recovered well to return the following season and, as far as I am aware, was in very good health when he returned to France. As Minty said Stewart Henderson and Huw Jennings were also both very accomodating and helpful and very good at their jobs. Before then, as purely a fan, it has to be said that Dave Merrington did an awesome job and not only produced great footballers but also did his very best to develop decent human beings and well-rounded people. Anyone who attended Youth Cup matches at The Dell during Dave's era will well remember his huge voice booming instructions which echoed around the mostly empty ground! Somewhere on youtube there is a short clip of Shearer scoring for the youth team at Northampton and you can hear Dave very clearly in that! But I have to say that the current academy and development staff also appear to be doing an absolutely first class job. As a now exiled fan I saw Ward-Prowse and Shaw for the first time in the televised Ajax game and was blown away by how good they are technically and also by their confidence and maturity for such a young age. For all that people on here knock Cortese, his concern for the long-term development of the club cannot be faulted.

I doubt this story has any truth in it. Cortese's actions in improving the academy infrastructure and stated intention to eventually increase the stadium capacity (or even build a new one) suggests to me that he and the Liebherr family are in it for the long term and I really hope they are. Although their investment has given us a considerable advantage in the transfer market they've spent money wisely on players with the right attitude and are applying sound business sense to running the club.

Our printed team sheets look pretty good!

I think he could do well as one the wide forwards in our new formation, or play just behind the lone striker.

I'd say Hoddle and Strachan were by far the best in the Premiership era. Hoddle was only here for just over a year but he took the team forward five years in terms of preparation, tactics, professionalism and a winning mentality. After the Stuart Gray blip Strachan built on Hoddle's foundations and made his side the fittest Saints team I've ever seen, they could have run for two lots of 90 minutes I reckon. The Bally 18 months was great fun but mainly built on the common sense of building the team around by far the best player. Adkins had done an amazing job so far but I agree with others that he'll need to do reasonably well in the Premiership over the next few seasons to be considered the best since Lawrie Mac (or better?).

That Bruce Hornsby track they would play during the last few minutes of the match, if we were holding on to a slender one goal lead away from home you'd be fearing the goal jingle like nothing else!

What a tit Paul Hayward is. So he thinks our first priority on reaching the premiership is not to improve our squad by buying new players and/or improving the skills of the players we've got, it's to have better press relations. Yeah, our press relations have really been weighing heavily on our minds this week...

After lots of laying (betting against) Saints getting promoted by way of having some small compensation if we manage to blow it, I stand to win over £400 if we don't get promoted. And I was still emotionally kicking every ball for Leicester last night as I will be for Saints when I listen (I live in Cornwall and refuse to watch any more games on tv) to Saturday's match. If we do get promoted I've lost £65 and won't think twice about it.