Saintandy666

For sure. We had to endure some proper drab ****e for a few years on our way down. He was an exciting player to watch in many ways - could have got more goals I suppose... but the run in the JPT was worth it all alone and then some.

Nice for the club to not forget and try to erase where we have been the last decade or so. Nice touch. I like it. And used to love Waigo.

This season is a complete non-starter I reckon. We'll limp on to somewhere midtable or so. But we are 9 ahead of the drop, and we have enough quality that we will pick up points here and there. We aren't in danger. As long as we pick up another 10 points from the last 17 games - which we will do at a minimum. http://www.sportsclubstats.com/England/Southampton.html

Given we are 12th, is this stat that unsurprising?

To get it under way after a great win! No time to rest or feel smug about wins over the Christmas period. Why is it at 5.30?

Yep - the league is the best, not on quality of top teams, but on the league competition. We could be like Spain if you want, where the money is lopsided and the clubs at the bottom of the league struggle for sponsorship and existence. I like the competition in English football - shows how much depth we have here.

Absolutely don't want to see them knock out an English team. Our coefficient is dropping, and we are one crap European performance, with a decent Italian one, away from losing European spots. And that means harder for Saints to get into Europe ever. I'll be supporting the English teams, because we need a good year to ensure Saints have the best chance of a European run anytime soon.

I think go for the 9 at Palace, Stoke and Villa - everything else is a bonus in my opinion. Though knowing us, we'll lose at Villa, but beat Man City or something along those lines. Saints scores first: Stoke (H) W - 2-1 Man City (A) L - 0-2 Villa (H) W - 3-0 Palace (A) - D 1-1 Spurs (H) - W 2-1 Arsenal (H) - L 0-1 I make that 10.

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It'd be nice to have some academy products involved. Any news of whether there are a few about to break through?

Would be nice for Pompey to have a little FA cup 'run' to the 3rd round this year, and then to draw them and trash them. Would like to have a real derby again!

Omg - that was the so bad and I had buried it.

It was a pretty awful game on the whole, and neither team deserved a victory. Got a bit better at the end, but have to say on the whole am happy with a point away to Liverpool - and actually quite happy with how this season is going. I think we are in a good position to continue being the 'best of the rest'.

Not sure what Liverpool can do to achieve their aims. It's so difficult for any club to break into the top 4 and get regular champions league football. Their 2nd place year was a one-off - Suarez just single handedly dragging them up there.

What a completely absurd thing to say? Football crosses all backgrounds, and I especially do not see what his sexuality has to do with anything.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/2015guide/labourtargets/ Pick 100 seats everyone off this list. That's what Corbyn needs to do to win, whilst defending Tory-Labour English marginals. We can assume the SNP won't collapse. I look forward to Corbyn's credible and electable plea to the people of Kensington.

Tbh, Corbyn may well perform well in PMQs to his own base and elsewhere, but it doesn't really matter. William Hague bossed PMQs for all the good it did him.

A good Tory quote (from Ian Gilmour) was 'The wise conservative travels light'. All these things are simplifications, but I think the right of politics are willing to sacrifice more things and be a bit less ideological in the pursuit of power than the left are, who tend to squabble amongst themselves a lot more over small differences.

I think you misunderstand what I mean when I compare the two. I wasn't originally saying their politics are anything alike, but that they both operate from analogous positions within their party. I pick him out as he is a essentially a good pure thatcherite, and not on the moderate wing of the party, and like with the Corbyn, the base thought (presumably) he was the top person to beat Blair as IDS appealed to them. He was the result of the activist base voting for a leader that makes them happy rather than having a bit of pragmatic compromise as they eventually did with Cameron. But as I said in the original post, I'm wondering whether the Labour party will move from their IDS to a moderate reformer like Cameron, giving the massive change in the parties membership and the lack of pragmatism built into proper left of centre politics.

I've been thinking though, and for a while I was on the page that Corbyn is Labour's IDS, ideologically pure etc etc. But traditional labour politics has none of the pragmatism of conservative purity. Add into that that out of the 600k voting, only 60k voted in the Miliband face-off in 2010 (there was a 'selectorate of 180k'). So the base has gone to the left, but the PLP hasn't. Regardless, let's say Corbyn goes on 5 more years and the membership slips that way as well. With 1 member one vote firmly in place, is the Labour party really going to elect a Chuka Umunna in 2020?!

We're never going to be able to compete with the likes of Liverpool and Man U for sponsorship, but you'd think we could get a little bit higher up to at least the likes of Stoke or so on?

Makes you appreciate just how good the premier league is in terms of quality of players.

The oscillation by this forum between 'we are ****' to 'we are great' never ceases to amaze me.

Didn't make the trip out, but my experience of the Dutch people has always been very very positive. So not surprises!

Didn't stoke have a good run of it for a while a bit back?