ericb

Fair enough but you are making a massive guess that he'll make that step up and not get injured. Van De Vaart on the other hand is proven at the highest level and can walk in to most top teams. Just to reiterate a point i do think AOC has the potential to be a very, very good player but so far he's only proved it in League One and a handful of cup games. It says more about the insanity of the football transfer market to me than anything else.

£35m means he's more valuable than David Villa (i think), now that is a truly crazy price tag if you compare the quality of both players. Likewise pricing AOC at £10m is more than a little mental as it puts him in the same bracket as someone like Rafael Van der Vaart (depending on which story read anyway!). Now as much as i like AOC and think he's decent who the hell would value him the same as Rafael Van der Vaart!?

True, but then Barcelona and Spain play that style and have looked immense. I personally have an issue with so many people thinking that passing the ball around is a bad thing. If you listen to the people who have masterminded what Spain have achieved in the last eight years with their football they say the most important thing was to teach simple ball control, and to have every player comfortable on the ball and patient to move it. That's not to say it's the only way to win - Greece have showed that on the international stage, as have Chelsea on the league stage - but surely it's better to not slate the method for being too "tippy tappy". Or maybe that's just me? Since i think it's something that the England team, and English players, seriously lack.

Yup cause no team has ever won a world cup and a european championship from passing football or "tippy tappy". Nope i could never imagine the opposition calling what's happened to their national side in the final of a major tournament Death by a thousand passes. Nor could i imagine a team trying to nullify this game by kicking the opposition off the park. Still good thing we'd never go for that in this country, since we've got a winning attitude here that doesn't involve stupid things like passing the opposition to death and learning to control the game.......

I still think Nicholl's teams probably played the best football of any Saints team i've ever seen (although i started going early mid eighties they're the one's i remember best due to age). Pretty incredible to think that we got rid of him for Branfoot for ****s sake, still has to be one of the most insane decisions we ever made and certainly the point at which the rot started for me.

If there are tickets left it goes to show how many of our fanbase are plastics, only looking to go to "big" games. Pretty sad if you ask me that they're not willing to get behind us in games that really matter.

Had to google that to find out what it was but it's now entering my lexicon of **** taking!

I speak Spanish (fluent), Portuguese and a little Catalan. I can also understand French to an extent (i have to concentrate like hell mind) and can read Italian (mainly since it's so similar to Spanish). Nothing particularly special about speaking another language mind, hell even Beckham can do it!

if you think Snodgrass will drop down to league one again you must be crazy, he's good enough for the prem in my opinion and wouldn't be interested in delaying that no matter how much we threw at him!

I'd have quite liked a mid table championship club just to see how far we'd progressed in recent months. Failing that an an away day at a new ground would've been nice too, preferably a London one since they tend to be a good laugh when we take a lot. Still going to the United game but i'm not massively fussed about it as i think we'll get beaten. I just hope we play well and don't have any injuries.

Ticket prices for football in this country are too high in general. I'd like to think that should safe standing ever be introduced that tickets would be fairer. Of course i'm probably living in cloud cuckoo land but it's a thought. As with most things, in regards fan culture, the Germans have it pretty much spot on when it comes to pricing with some safe standing seats being as little as 8 Euros. Of course we're the idiots for this really since we just suck it up when clubs charge well over the odds for games, and the fact that fans at premiership clubs are willing to pay in the region of a grand for a season ticket doesn't exactly help!

As i pointed out in another thread free forum software is incredibly easy to find and there's no reason what so ever to have to pay. Especially not any amount as ridiculous as a fiver per member.

absolutely spot on with the ticketing policy for this one if you ask me, not only in restricting it to one per season ticket holder (of which i'm one myself so no vested interest there) and in have a linked game. My only, tiny, complaint is that they didn't allow for those that had been to more games (say 5 or so) to buy there tickets in the second spell, then reducing it until the point they went on to general linked sale. All in though i'm very happy with this a good decision from the club and hopefully it means there won't be too many of the plastics/day trippers.

completely agree with the people saying United's away support is probably the best in the country, loud as ****, good songs, always stood and hardly any wear colours (the whole men in black thing). I think most clubs would give their right arm for an away following as good as that and the only times i can think of we're even close is at Pompey, a few northern games and midweek London games. Mind you at Old Trafford their support is joke, soulless stadium full of football tourists and people carry megastore bags in my experience. Shame we don't have the terrace culture we used to, and that's new with St Marys, since the Dell had it back in the day. Even after the end of the terraces i remember evening games in the Archers being quality. Only way i can see it coming back in all honesty is a return to terracing, we've made it all to nice and comfortable at SMS.

I'm a season ticket holder so will be able to get my seat (well one in the Itchen North due to the block 42 exodus). But i agree with those that say season tickets holders shouldn't necessarily get the second ticket. I prefer the idea of season ticket holders getting theirs, then on sale to linked ticket buyers [preferably for two games] on the database, then open up to a second for season ticket holders and those on the database. That way we might see less of the plastic mancs and/or day tripper that pressure people with season tickets. And let's be honest if you're a season ticket holder you'll probably already have had a fair few of these little scrotes texting you. I've had chelsea and spurs "fans" thinking they'll get tickets from me, responded to with a simple **** off any spares are for regular saints fans that can't get tickets. Personally i'd rather use any plus one to guarantee those that pay on the day normally get tickets instead of helping people that go only for games like this [/rant]

You clearly don't go much do you (i guess the clue is in the name!) since it gets sung by the Northam pretty much every game.

You know that'll be the case, and it'll show the world that we're still a smallish provincial club. That's not to say we can't get bigger, but the way so many people that have stayed away suddenly get in contact with me to get them tickets now this draw has been made shows how we think about ourselves in terms of size. Also i hope we don't go quite when/if we start getting beaten. Since United's away support is some of the best in the country. Not forgetting too that there is history between us (i'm fairly sure old sour faced always wants to beat us more due to the damage we dished out to them when we were in the prem).

A third one in the rather we weren't in cups camp here. There really is only one goal this season, get out of this league, and everything else is a distraction. Last season i loved the jpt, and was pleased for the game against the blue few, but then with the minus 10 i wasn't expecting to go up. This season given the resources and players we have we should be challenging, so anything that distracts from that is a problem.

I can't listen to the ****ing song anymore, all i can picture in my head when i hear it is one particularly obnoxious fat fish ****er in a green and white hooped jumper dancing around and singing it at us. That after all the hassle of getting there on the train too. Mind you i did have to laugh when the fat (hmm a theme going on here) came out of his hole near the ground to give us abuse and ended up disappearing inside sharpish under a hail of "encouragement" from the saints fans. One of the reasons i didn't want them to go under is that i want revenge, yup revenge, for that day. The worst day of my footballing life by a mile.

Firstly i've got to say this three post thing is ****ing ridiculous, i really don't understand why a forum needs to be charged for? There's so much free hosting and building software for forums that can handle massively more traffic than this place! It really stops a proper right to reply, or even just clarifying points (i put a post in the winchester moron thread that got misunderstood by a few and could never reply to it, then weirdly it got locked) Definitely agree that in recent games Jaidi has been a total rock and it's amazingly important to have someone like that in this league, and as you say his headering is immense. I just think going forward that Seabourne has the talent to be a far better player. Mind you as someone here sagely put it's not about a team, it's about a squad, and as we all know there's plenty of games where a lump is what's needed!

Seabourne is a far better center back than Jaidi in my opinion, he's quicker, reads the game better, can pass three yards and isn't just a lump. What he's missing is the position and awareness that comes from experience (if we were in a higher league we could loan him down the divisions for that!). Would be a real shame to see him go, but no surprise he'd be going to a higher level. I think he's going to be a very decent player in years to come.

I'm torn on this one, i'm born and bred southampton and for my sins still live here (though i do want to move as i find the city a bit of a cultural hole in all honesty). Now i don't want to claim that anyone isn't a Saints fan, but (and i'll accept any ****storm that comes with this), i don't really like the idea of people who live in towns with league teams and no real link to Southampton supporting us. To me it just damages the local team from the place they're in since their money would be far better spent on their local team, hell that's what makes english football so special. How many other nations can claim such levels of support throughout all their leagues? There's also the worry for me that should we ever get successful it would really damage what the club is about to have a load of plastics around the world wearing Saints shirts and claiming to support us (though weirdly the overseas supporters now just confuse me in a pleasant way, i mean being born here inflicts this on us but choosing it from the other side of the world..... well fair play you must be a masochist!). It really has been a source of pride to me that we are one of those clubs that really represents their city (local nationalism?) Mind you just to be a complete hypocrite no matter where i'm living when/if i have kids they're having no choice whatsoever in the fact that they're Saints fans!

That's weird since i'd say it's the other way round for me (and i'm an old fart) i don't know anyone that refers to them as scummers. Only really hear skates, dirty skate ****s, blue few, fish ****ers etc. Doesn't surprise me that your skate mate doesn't take offence to it though since i don't know many saints fans that see scummer as an insult, in fact i can remember an Ugly Inside (the fanzine not site) cartoon about being proud to be a scummer many moons ago. I'd say he probably sees scummer as more of an insult as it compares them to us. As for using scummer more i don't think we should, we're one of the few clubs with a slightly more original insult for our rivals and they're even known as it now by other clubs.

I went to my first game aged 5 back in the early/mid eighties. Coventry at home and there was pretty much no one there. My main memory of the match was the box that i was standing on (despite the stand being empty) and getting hit by the ball in the pre match warm up. Guess it depends on the kid though since i've had one infront of me before who just played his DS the whole game, total waste of a ticket that another saints fan could have, and this was in the days when it wasn't easy to get tickets.

If you're moving here BHA i might go across to the brighton forum, they seem a decent bunch, have good taste in music and don't have a right wing imperialist nutjob jumping into every thread to talk about Thatcher. All i need to do is convince them to support the right team