ericb

The thing with those relegation battles for me was that the fans felt united and got behind the team far more, these days it feels like a lot of our support go to games expecting to be entertained and if it doesn't happen they boo them or leave early. Also the atmosphere was a million times better to what it is now, we had a variety of songs, not just OWTS, Fathers Gun and (currently) the Hojbjerg one, and all the sides of the Dell would join in when our backs were against the wall. Away from home too our support was head and shoulders above what it is now, we'd make a racket all game (often with fewer numbers too) and there were far less of the replica shirt wearing oddballs, couples and people who want to sit at games. Anyway like i said times have changed and i can't see them changing back sadly, well not unless we go down anyway.

One of those days where it felt like everywhere you went in london after the game there were Saints fans, remember stepping out of Covent Garden station and immediately hearing Oh When The Saints, and the tube was full of people in Fez hats for Kachloul. I'm not going to lie i loved those relegation battles, different era i know but they just felt far more exciting than now.

Absolutely spot on and completely sums up my feelings too. To be honest i actually want English clubs to go out of Europe as early as possible, the perfect thing would be to lose a Champions League spot (or two) as it means less money pouring into the league at the top and more competition for the league as their "star players" move to places that do have Champions League football. I also find it deeply, deeply strange how you have Saints fans on social media (and to a lesser extent here) congratulating players that have left, or worse still trying act like it's in someway something positive for Saints. Modern football fans are f*cking strange to be honest.

Nah mush you're wrong what you should be hoping for is that we finish 8th again, because that's more important than a cup final win, at least that's what i've learnt from people on here...

We have a scary level of tin pottery, "wacky" fans these days. The premier league has done untold damage to our support and it gets worse every season. Sadly that seems to be true of most clubs in the top flight, but off the top of my head i can think of the weird clown nonce who suddenly appeared, hat **** and his merry band of friends that only sing three songs. Then the facepaint, replica shirt over a hoody and jester/santa hat brigade. God knows why it's so f*cking sh*t in the premier league but it's really annoying it is.

Austin has definitely been told he can look for a new club, I'd also heard Long too. Both of these were on Saturday so recent news. Also heard we're going "balls out" for a quality striker.

Pretty sure Brighton, Man U and spurs all made members this season. And I’m sure West Ham would’ve if it wasn’t the last away of the season. Bournemouth sold out to season ticket holders with something like 8/9 aways as the allocation is so small. So realistically the only one it’ll help you on is spurs. Though if spurs is early season it probably won’t make a difference as it’ll be done on numbers from the season before. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll renew, mainly to get access to away games, have to be honest going to St Mary's is a chore these days and our home support is f*cking terrible.

Nope nothing at all, i mean i can't think of single ex city boy, stock broker, super rich person with offshore tax havens, that are supporting leave. None whatsoever. Because i mean if i could then it would be elitist right?

Good to see that privately educated, ex city boy Rupert Lowe, who once described the Northam as a lunatic fringe, and thought all football fans were yobbos is now positioning himself as not being "the elite".

Would be pretty happy if the top three from the Championship now came up to be fair, Norwich is a great away day, Bramall Lane has one of the best atmosphere's in the league, and Leeds (as much as it pains me to say it) deserve to be in the top flight as it's where they belong. All three clubs would improve the league to be honest. If one of them fail though Bristol City would be the other one i'd want up.

Of course Newcastle will be hard, they're playing well at the moment and Rafa is a damn good manager, plus our record in the north east is f*cking atrocious. But we're playing well too and we've got a decent amount of confidence, plus we're not mathematically safe yet. Personally i wouldn't be surprised at all to see us get a score draw there, though i do think the key is to start Sims.

More or less identical to what i heard, mostly around the fact that the club have a lot of high earners and managers in the ranks and they need to clear the decks a bit. Also heard PM was unlikely as he has better offers on the table so fits to the United bit.

Nope, not surprised at all, but there's a hell of a lot more to the story than that. The mad midget definitely didn't run us particularly well.

Interesting to see the Echo article on it mentions again that the clubs finances were in a bad state when he arrived, of course according to the Cortese fan boys here that couldn't possibly be true

Hopefully whatever they release will look really good over my grey hoody, and i can pair it up with my Lonsdale trainers and Bench "distressed" jeans. I'll look quite the part whilst i sing songs at confused minimum wage staff in Weatherspoons all over the country.

Such a shame the club were trying to force him out in the summer to make some cash really

I've definitely seen a rise of racism at football in the last 2/3years, there was the nipper at Arsenal away who racially abused Bertrand even though he was one of our own, the nipper at United away who called some fans infront of him the P word, and have also heard smaller incidents on trains and at other games. Not sure it's a football specific thing to be honest, it feels to me that racists in general in this country are feeling more emboldened at the moment and the stigma isn't what it was. Personally i'll always call out c*nts that feel it's right to do it, but i also get why many prefer it to be dealt with my authorities and not got involved. As for Rose's comments he's entitled to them and probably knows a fair bit more about it than many of us on here who've never had to go through it.

It's got f*ck all to do with political correctness, i can't stand people who use the "PC gone mad" b*llocks to cover up their own racism, xenophobia, homophobia or little england mentality. The reason people don't like it is because our fanbase is more middle class, older or families at St Mary's. Away from home you still have a decent percentage of lads who are up for it (and usually p*ssed from a day on the beer) and outnumber those lot, but at home we have a very different mindset (nothing wrong with them btw) and they're far less likely to make noise or get on the oppositions back. In many ways Saints Web is the Chapel of Saints forum's, lots of passive fans, a fair few weirdos who idolise players or think they're football managers, and the new kit thread is the equivalent of the messes who wear tight fitting football shirts to games.

Honestly why are people so offended about songs about a players parents (or kids), they're paid enough to deal with it and it'll definitely get their backs up. Jesus i can remember the Archers singing about patrick kluivert being a drink driver/murderer when he played for Newcastle, and plenty of other players getting just as bad. The point is you want to wind them up and make them not feel welcome, we know the stuff about rat face's kid gets to him so f*cking use it. Some of these players are more fragile than they look so f*cking go at them. Booing when they touch the ball does nothing, getting under their skins does a lot more, hell even cricket players say stuff about the oppositions family/wifes, but our fans are too precious to do it.

1. Lovern and Lallana have both buckled under the abuse at St Mary's, lovren was actually taken off because he couldn't deal with it. 2. Maybe but i'm sick of our weird happy clapper fanbase that seem to hero worship ex players, including ones that have actively f*cked our club over, it's genuinely embarrassing to see some of the love ins and sums up modern football. 3. Yeah we'll always lose players you're right, we always did. But it's about how they go. As long as i've been going some players have got dogs ear abuse everytime they've come back, others haven't, if you can't see the difference between the way rat face, lovren and vvd acted and the way other players have than you're seriously naive. St Mary's in general is far, far too nice for visiting teams, the few times we've actually shown up and had a go at the opposition players (and support) it's generally worked to our favour. In the past players said they hated coming to the Dell because of the abuse they got, and it definitely won us points we wouldn't have had otherwise, god knows what happened to that support because now people seem to think we have to be liked by everyone and barely raise a peep, let alone hurl abuse.

Reading about the mess at the promoted clubs with the cost of getting promoted makes you realise just how f*cked the game is

Nope, but it's not like they won't spend high even if they haven't sold high. They are equally as bad as the others.

I know Man City look corrupt as f*ck but i'm not really sure there's a massive difference between them, liverpool, manchester united or chelsea. They've all effectively just bought their success in recent years, hell Liverpool spent more than any other club in 2018, spending £177m on just 4 players. The idea that they've "earned" their success is utter bullsh*t, they've bought their success, it just doesn't fit the media story to say that a team can jump from finishing 8th a few seasons back to challenging for the title by simply spending an absolute shedload of cash. Instead they have to make out that plucky Liverpool have built a team through hardwork and picking players completely out of obscurity. I mean this is a club who've been accused of (or charged with) tapping up on multiple occasions and have outspent the teams around them more than once. I'd expect of all the supporters ours would be the last to fall for the media claptrap, but it seems some actually have.

That was my first game watching Saints, i mistakenly thought that was what football was going to be like but it was all downhill from there!