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Many thanks, GB. The figures on the official Southampton FC Facebook page, should be proof enough to invest more in our overseas supporter base. Our fan base outside the U.K is now up to 83.2% - at the start of last season that figure was only 36.8% - that's from a total of over 600,000! A club we should be competing with, Aston Villa, have a full-time Digital Marketer just looking after their Chinese fan base. This is a time when Premier League followers all over the world are looking for a team to follow. IMO we should be trying to get the SAINTS out there at every opportunity..we actually have a vision, principles and a positive message to sell, unlike most clubs. Not to mention we're 2nd in the table! At the moment I volunteer at least 30 hours a week and have done for over a year now, in order to connect and build our Southampton fan base by using my digital media skill set. I run 11 of our international groups, covering 7 different languages and reach an audience of up to 300,000 people in a week! I'm in the process of attempting to formalise a position with the club, so any positive words below would definitely help Alternatively I'll need to take an unrelated job in the field (have turned down two already to focus on this), which means a lot of this work will go to waste as I won't have the spare 30 hours required - as well as extra for much needed expansion into growth areas. It's the same area that Liverpool have identified as essential to their future success (once they work out how to buy decent players) and have invested heavily in. Here's former Commercial Director and current CEO, Ian Ayre on the topic: “Central to our international brand strategy is the club’s revolutionized digital output, which is interactive, inclusive and localised to specific markets and accessible in local languages.” “We have worked very hard to make fans in overseas markets feel engaged and we have done this through digital and social media.” A couple of links for those interested in reading more: Praise for Liverpool's global social media efforts Asia - Liverpool - Social Media Liverpool and other clubs This is from an interview with Ralph in March of this year: but he is looking further afield to address what he describes as a "huge gap" between where the club is commercially, and where it should be. "I believe the potential is unlimited," he said. "This league is going worldwide. One of the areas I hope to be able to help the club in is growing outside of Southampton," the 54-year-old told local media. "Growing the company outside of England is something I am very active about. Finally, from an interview with Jim Lucas in April, 2013: "We’re keeping a particularly close eye on how to implement a multi-lingual social presence. We already have a Japanese-language Twitter feed with over 4,000 followers, and we’re planning to start a Spanish feed in the near future. We’ve also identified our Indonesian and Malaysian fan-bases as ones we should look to cater for. I think there’s a real opportunity for clubs to bring their global supporters closer together with well-run multi-lingual Twitter and Facebook accounts." In summary, I'm putting my hand up to do what's been mentioned above by the club and what Liverpool and other clubs are already doing. Anyone that knows me, knows I'm not driven by money and I'd be more than happy to take below market rate for this job! If anyone knows someone within the club, especially RK, I'd love to hear from you. Otherwise a positive message below would definitely help my cause I can't perform on the pitch for the Saints, but I'm more than happy to do everything I can off it, to help us grow into the future.

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For those interested - our Brazilian supporter group just hit 8,000: Southampton FC Brasil There's quite a lot of knowledge and love for the Saints on there. I'm in the process of trying to set up their first ever live events for the Villa game in both Rio and São Paulo - definitely keeping my iTranslate App busy! I think South America, and Brasil specifically, is an area Saints should certainly focus on. We have a unique connection between club and country and it's one area that Liverpool are yet to really expand their global tentacles to: LFC Official Supporter Groups. One of my absolute highlights of the last 5 months of travelling the world was setting up a Southampton day at an academy in Brasil (Cuiaba) and handing out all sorts of Saints gear that I'd taken over from Oz. The kids absolutely loved it and from my contact with the coaches since, it appears they're pretty much all Southampton fans now and still talk about 'that Saints day'. Who knows, I might have even inspired the next GDP..After the penalty comp I was also able, with the help of a translator, to relay the story of Charles Miller to 25 of the Under-14 lads. They loved the story and I spent the next 10 minutes trying to answer various questions about the Saints and Charles Miller. Some pictures and my report (in Portuguese) from the day: Saints day in Cuiaba

Nice little page setup at Facebook.com/SaintsFCUSA - growing by the day. Some good pub suggestions on there as well. COY#GlobalSFC

How about for footballing reasons? There's no like replacement for Pellé at the moment. Jay Rod will improve the starting XI, but he's not likely to play up top. With the FA Cup starting for us on the 3rd of January it could make sense. What are the alternatives? Pay overs for someone of similar talent or throw Gallagher in the deep end? It's likely that Graziano will have played every game by the time January 1 comes around..to me a 6-month loan would make sense. Rickie wasn't to know how the Liverpool time would play out, but one thing's for sure, if he turned down the opportunity he would've been asking himself "what if" for the rest of his life. It didn't work out for various reasons, but he didn't turn into a bad footballer overnight. Bring Rickie Back!

Love the idea of the continuous OWTS when the team is looking a little flat. Would also love to hear more for Fonte, especially post game when he brings the lads over. Have been to every away league game this season and I'd say our support has been impressive throughout. Outside of Arsenal in the LC, Hull was probably the standout #WeMarchOn

You're our written version of the #TrueGeordie! Two of my favourite football pundits. Being completely sincere when I say that. Keep up the great work, we love it in Oz!

Easily the best tune I've heard. The only nay-sayers are people saying it's a copy of another club's song. No ****. People that work for a living in the music industry can't even come up with their own songs, why should football fans need to all the time? It's definitely an upgrade on the current Graziano song, and for that reason alone it should be taken on. Oooohhhhh Grazianooooo

Cheers Jim, All links working now.

Our international supporter groups are gaining some serious traction at the moment. I'm hoping the club can recognise this sooner rather than later. At the moment I run 12 of our international supporter groups in partnership with 45 Saints supporting fans in their relevant countries . I pass on my digital marketing knowledge, identify and train new admins, create engaging content and keep an eye on the day to day running of the pages, amongst various other roles - while they help to provide Saints content in 8 different languages and assist in organising live events where possible. Very involved and time consuming, but I'm extremely passionate about it. Last week the 12 groups had a combined reach of 161,000! An impressive amount of eyes reading up on Southampton! This is certainly the time to capitalise on the incredible growth of the Premier League around the world, as stated before, it has direct links to our future expenditure. Aston Villa are one club that's seen the writing on the wall. They have a full-time digital media manager just for their Chinese fan base. KENYA FACEBOOK: Southampton FC Kenya 10,500+ THAILAND FACEBOOK: SaintsFC Thailand 10,000+ BRAZIL FACEBOOK: Southampton FC Brasil 7,000+ INDIA FACEBOOK: Southampton FC India AUSTRALIA FACEBOOK: Southampton Australian Supporters POLAND FACEBOOK: Southampton Polska ARGENTINA FACEBOOK: Southampton FC Argentina HONG KONG FACEBOOK: SaintsHK CANADA FACEBOOK: Southampton FC Canada USA FACEBOOK: United States of Southamptonfc NEW ZEALAND FACEBOOK: Southampton FC New Zealand Supporters BEST of the BEST Fan Content FACEBOOK: Global SaintsFC

Here's a possible song for G.P that was posted a few weeks ago: Ohhhhh Graziano Italiano From Feyenoord Now he's at Southampton watch St Mary's rock and roll. Give him half a chance and he'll stick it in the goal Ohhhhhh Graziano..

The August 2013 figures are listed. Another way to look at the figures is that the rise in 12 months in the States is almost 700%. If we can go close to replicating that by August 2015 then we'd be doing really well.

Participation rates at grassroots level for football in India have been climbing rapidly for some time and it definitely has the potential to be another mainstream sport in the country, right alongside cricket. I know that Liverpool have organised trials and coaching clinics throughout parts of India through Facebook.com/IndiaLFC At a minimum they'll pick up tens of thousands of new supporters and will also be in the box seat to find a potential star of the future. Liverpool's move into India

Hi Monkou, I actually penned a series of stories for the Matchday Programme last season under the title #GlobalSFC, which highlighted Saints fans (or groups), from 16 different countries and their stories of support. Was definitely planning to feature one of our Indian Saints this season, but was never contacted in pre-season. From all correspondence last season they were thrilled with the content, so it's a strange one. Am more than happy to keep building our global fan base online though, only problem will be when I need to return to a 'real job', been travelling the world for over 3 months now which gives me plenty of free time at the moment:) The change in figures on the official Southampton FC Facebook page over only 12 months, should be proof enough to invest more in our overseas supporter base. Our fan-base outside the U.K in that time has risen from 36.8% to 81.4%. That's from a total of over 500,000. A club we should be competing with, Aston Villa, have a full-time Digital Marketer just looking after their Chinese fan-base. Their page on Weibo, China's version of Twitter is now in excess of 200,000! We don't have anyone focussing on our fans outside the U.K at all...This is a time when Premier League followers all over the world are looking for a team to follow. IMO we should be trying to get the SAINTS out there at every opportunity.. Just my $0.02

Hi guys, Figure I'd be in a reasonable position to reply to this. I run the majority of our international supporter groups in partnership with Saints supporting locals, including India. This covers over 60,000 'fans', 13 countries and 8 different languages, but, the country I've been most impressed with, in regards to their football knowledge and more importantly knowledge of Southampton, is India. One of the things Ralph mentioned and that others have touched on is that we have a definite position, not just in England, but around the world, as people's "second team". The global Premier League market is unfortunately saturated by the 'Big 6', however, I feel there's a position for us to offer an exciting alternative. Our playing style, our fans, the academy, community focus, digital media etc. It's part of a club with principles that people can connect with from all over the world. We're already beginning to steak clear ahead of other 'mid-sized' clubs in the PL globally and fans from all over are starting to recognise and enjoy the Saints. *Only read the below if you're interested in India and how it relates to the Premier League. It's a post put up by one of the local moderators earlier this year and the replies give you an insight into the knowledge of Indian PL fans and their thoughts on Southampton F.C. More recent interactions can be found by heading to Southampton FC India If nothing else it's worth checking out their logo! Made by an Argentinian Saints fan #GlobalSFC 'We are well aware that most of the PL fans in India support the four big clubs ( Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea) , and it's very understandable why that's the case. That said, we have been told that our beloved Southampton FC and "The Southampton Way " has many admirers in India? Are you an admirer of any aspect of Southampton despite primarily supporting any other club? If so, what club do you support, and what makes you appreciate Southampton?' Bharath Vishal, Alankrith Shankar S, Vasuki CG and 64 others like this. Varun Soni I support Arsenal, i admire Soton's academy, their work ethic, and some of their Athletes, their gameplay is refreshing and its good to see a giant in english football return to the top flight and make a name for themselves again Unlike · Reply · 3 · 12 April at 22:08 Agniv Roy I'm an Arsenal supporter and I appreciate you hardworking saints mostly cause of your academy and the trust that you guys put in, in young talents like Oxlade Chamberlain/Theo Walcott/Gareth Bale. Hope you guys hang around in the league and qualify in to the Euro competitions, that'll certainly help you guys to develop better! #ComeonyouSaints! Unlike · Reply · 7 · 12 April at 22:41 Alankrith ShankarI support Bayern but some of the smaller epl clubs like Spurs, Saints have always seemed to catch my cause they play attractive football. Happy that Saints have started to gather many followers in India now! Unlike · Reply · 1 · 28 April at 05:58 Kiénjál Vághèlá I love Spanish football in which possession is important, and the #SaintsFC are also playing that way, especially in defense. The chemistry between Lambert & Jay thrilled me this season so far. I watch the whenever i gets my self free for. Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 21:53 · Edited Bharath Vishal I SUPPORT SAINTS!.....and not any big club....i really like how Southampton.....and truly cried when we won against coventry! #COYR Unlike · Reply · 4 · 14 April at 15:39 Shubhanshu Chawla Aah an outright supporter! Lovely. I remember the match against Coventry so cleearly like it was yesterday. We won 4 nil. Waited all game for SIR Rickie of Lambert to score and he finally obliged in the end. The pitch invasion of St. Mary's gave me genuine tears of joy. Like · Reply · 15 April at 01:01 Southampton FC India Hi Bharath. Have sent you a friend request. Would be great to have you on board the Admin team of Southampton FC India! TF Unlike · 1 · 17 April at 18:27 Southampton FC India thnx man.. Unlike · 1 · Commented on by Bharath Vishal · 19 April at 02:56 Southampton FC India hey!.....thank you for ur support! Like · Commented on by Bharath Vishal · 28 April at 15:06 Rahul Radhakrishnan Im an Arsenal fan and i really admire the way Southampton play. There is so much creativity and Energy. The squad is young and experienced. i love Players like Lallana, Jay Rodriguez , Ricky Lambert and Luke Shaw. Love the work Pochettino has put in. Nigel Adkins did a wonderful job in getting Southampton to the Premier League and Pochettino just raised the bar. The saints now play without fear. Certainly hope you guys make it into Euro competitions next year. #ComeOnYouSaints Unlike · Reply · 3 · 13 April at 16:59 John Selwyn Shimron I have supported Chelsea FC for the last 14 years. I studied in Southampton and watched Southampton come up to the Premier League beating Coventry in 2012. Southampton is my second home and I have been an admirer of the strong youth system and have been to many youth games and championship games alike. I even got to watch Southampton vs Chelsea in the FA cup in late 2012. Unlike · Reply · 2 · 13 April at 02:59 Prudhvi Raju I'm a Chelsea fan. Priorly I use to see saint's game because of Luke Shaw (he's a massive Chelsea fan) and Lambert. The way they play had drew my attention. The problem sonton has is they starts the match with extreme intensity leaving other team clueless. I don't know why they will let everything go in the 2nd half. I want this team in Europe..!! Unlike · Reply · 2 · 13 April at 02:15 Parth Gada I am a Liverpool supporter but actually loved Southampton since it progressed to the championship. The academy is beautiful and not only is it producing amazing talents of the likes of bale, Walcott etc it has sustained the quality in its own squad. I really had doubts about their future in bpl after Adkins was sacked but the way potechino has changed the system is spellbounding.I am a huge admirer of his pressing game and the quality of the passes of the team. The likes of Lambert,Rodriguez, lallana and shaw are amazing to be in soton despite having a tight budget.All in all I love Southampton! Unlike · Reply · 2 · 13 April at 00:54 Jacob John when they got promoted to the premier league no one gave them a single chance,that was me too. But the way they proved everyone wrong and stayed in the league was amazing. I believe they have the potential to play in Europe and they are also attracting big names( i read in an official article that lovren is in top 40 European footballers.). Next is their youth academy,which i think speaks for itself. Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 23:42 Nipun Jain Liverpool....unwavering trust in grooming young talent Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 23:38 Jason Santus Dias Fans.... The saints song, ths football..... Whn Sfc play, i realize why i love the game so much Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 22:36 Sishir Chalasani Your the best upcoming team , in few yours you ll be in top 4 . #Hardwork Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 22:34 Vivek Singh The way they pass the ball, the way they create chances, and especially their academy. Has to be the best one in England..nurturing and introducing brilliant players from time to time. Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 22:26 Siddhant Kulkarni Southampton has the best academy in UK...n they have given us the football fans some great players over the years Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 22:20 Santhosh Krishnan I admire their approach to the game. Big 4 or not, the way they play is very positive. Their fan support is fantastic as well, on par with the best in the league. Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 22:15 Devi Krishna Prasad The Saints are fearless in their style of play. They stick to their high tempo game independent of the opposition! Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 21:55 Elroy Rodrigues Love the kind of football they r playng under pochettino...j rod ..lambert n lallana ... lovren n luke shaw hv been brilliant too... Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 21:55 Raj Haldankar I admire Southampton after Man.Utd Unlike · Reply · 2 · 12 April at 21:48 Kinjal Saurabh Wonderful academy and youth set up. Good quality football and focus on English talent. Not many English clubs can boast that. Thats why I have always loved Saints. Katherina seems to be in this for the long run, so I suppose a good owner is also there. All this is gonna show in the longer run. Unlike · Reply · 3 · 13 April at 01:04 Vikram Ynwa Gerrard Chatterjee I'm a southampton supporter and I'm proud... Unlike · Reply · 1 · 18 April at 18:16 Asim Rahman i love liverpool .................................but i sure have a softspot for southampton fc .....its a very good club ..................... Unlike · Reply · 1 · 17 April at 04:42 Varun Dixit They have the best young talent among all of the EPL teams .....Love watching the likes of Lallana,Rodriguez and Luke Shaw in the saints team Unlike · Reply · 1 · 16 April at 20:34 Shiharan Majumde I appreciate your thought , I believe soton is a great club with own great philosophy to built talent and praise for them to finish as high as possible. Unlike · Reply · 1 · 16 April at 02:40 Saurish Armando Christian Perez Your club produces the future players of England..... Like · Reply · 23 April at 00:50 Ankit Sawant The Academy is brilliant. Last 5 years have been amazing! #Saints Like · Reply · 13 April at 20:58 Aditya their academy is brilliant, and they've played some incredible football this season.

"The place was rocking and rolling" is often used to describe a cracking atmosphere. 'Tis not a comment on his rock and roll looks, like jasonb's effort. Rolls off the tongue and is better than what's previously being sung..do do do do Graziano.

Seems a more appropriate place for this post. From the Tadić thread: saintsforlife7 I came up with something similar for Pelle: Ohh Graziano Italiano From Feyenoord Brought him to the club for the centre forward role Give him half a chance and he'll stick it in the goal Ohh Graziano... Follow up: The slightest of changes. Only to the 4th line. Tune works and should be sung. At a minimum it's miles better than: do do do do Graziano Ohh Graziano Italiano From Feyenoord Now he's at Southampton watch St Mary's rock and roll. Give him half a chance and he'll stick it in the goal Ohh Graziano...

The slightest of changes. Only to the 4th line. Tune works and should be sung. At a minimum it's miles better than: do do do do Graziano Ohh Graziano Italiano From Feyenoord Now he's at Southampton watch St Mary's rock and roll. Give him half a chance and he'll stick it in the goal Ohh Graziano...

I speak to Patty often and he's keen for feedback, both good and bad, so keep it all coming!

Need to get yourself to Facebook.com/SaintsFCThailand 6,600 Thai Saints on there, compared to our 2,200. They sometimes meet at Molly Malones. Group is made up of about 80% locals and 20% expats.

While I was lucky enough to be at Anfield to see the opening match of the season, my normal partners in crime were heading off to the pub late on a Sunday night. They knew they'd be badly outnumbered, but that wouldn't put them off. Like the fans at the ground, they showed up the Liverpool supporters with pride and passion for our club. Anyway, here's the view of our budding young journo, 19-year-old Patrick Mustafa. Intro by interim-Melbourne Rep, John Paron. Hi All, Please take some time out of your busy lives to read this brilliant article written especially for us by our resident up and coming journo, Paddy Mustafa. For those of you who were at the Imperial, he was the young bloke sitting next to me. Just let me add how I was so proud of everyone in Melbourne when we did not lose our cool when baited by those Liverpool supporters who came upstairs looking for trouble. Proud to be part of the SAS and a big thanks to Paddy JP THE BEGINNING: It has been a summer of frustration, confusion, discontent and ridiculous accusations at St. Mary’s. I don’t feel the need to recap about the players and staff who went for big money and to ‘better’ Clubs. I don’t feel the need to point the finger at the players or at the board. Enough has been said about all that, enough has been said about our hopes of surviving in the Premier League. Not enough was said about the quality replacements that were brought in (staff included), not enough was said about the quality which stayed on at the Club, not enough was said about a strong pre-season. It is finally time to speak about the positives of Southampton Football Club. However, Southampton and its fans beat me to it. When Nathaniel Clyne smashed home the equalizer at the Kop end, a group of 50 people in a small Melbourne pub rose as one to out-sing, out-class and out-support 200 Liverpool fans downstairs. As I jumped and celebrated with the rest of the real S.A.S (Southampton Australian Supporters), I couldn’t help notice how loyal the fans are to the Club. Fans turned up in Adelaide, Brisbane and even Townsville had a representative. Down in Melbourne, a scouser even asked if he could sit with us because he would rather sit with, and I quote, “proper football fans, not like the plastics downstairs”. Had Liverpool had a summer like we did, perhaps only 50 to 100 would have showed up in Melbourne and less across the country. Had we had a different summer, the same number would have supported the team across all the venues around Australia and the world. More of the same please S.A.S, we are fast becoming the most respected supporter group in the country. When you’re a fan though, you need a team to support. I would gladly at whatever time, whatever place and whatever circumstances watch Southampton play after their performance at Anfield. Southampton were absolutely magnificent in the second half; they played with the same speed, skill and swagger as the previous team of last year. Unfortunately they still seemed to have that knack of missing chances and not getting points when they deserved too. I must say, while I have been impressed with who the Club has brought in to replace those who left, I was nervous about how we would perform against quality opposition. Players need time to gel, to understand each other’s game style and so on. I’m sure Ronald Koeman would have liked a few more weeks with all the new signings, but that’s football. I was blown away at our performance, perhaps a little surprised. Not that I thought we weren’t capable of that, the players of old and new seemed to click so quickly. I can’t wait to see where we are in a couple of weeks. More of the same please. Dusan Tadic was brilliant on debut, along with Ryan Bertrand, while new signing Graziano Pelle impressed upfront with his physical dominance. Fraser Forster didn’t have much to do all day, but his presence in the box will surely help Southampton in defending set pieces. Both goals which Southampton conceded had elements of poor defending, so the debut of Florin Gardos cannot come soon enough. Clyne, who will benefit from being the permanent right back, showed exactly why most people have tipped him for an upcoming England selection. The midfield quartet of Ward-Prowse, Schneiderlin, Wanyama and Davis struggled early, but completely dominated the second half. Never has there been so much optimism after a loss, especially when we didn’t deserve to walk away with no points. There was no prolonged and bitter sulking, all we want as fans is for the West Brom game to come as quickly as possible. So I wrap this up with a salute. A salute to Southampton Football Club and its fans, who didn’t give up on the Club and its dream when all seemed lost. We witness something special last season. This season I think we are beginning to witness the birth of a prolonged era of high performance and success. On the basis of the performance at Anfield, 54 points could be equalled, or bettered. Keep the support strong and on to West Brom! Paddy Mustafa

I feel this could go back and forth forever, but Lallana doesn't exactly have the same emotional attachment to Liverpool as Lambert. Nor the physical attachment either, in the shape of a Liverpool tattoo. However, Lovren was physically attached to Anfield for quite some time..his head at least.

Leaves for the club he loves after 5 years of incredible service for Southampton. Doubt he'll play tomorrow though..

Possible tune? LaLa Lallana's an arrogant muppet and Lovren's a bellend wooaaah wo Lambert's a legend and we all still love him, but the other two can f**k off wooaaaah wo Lala na f**k off, Lov-ren f**k off.