BARCELONASAINT

I agree that at present we have not seen who Will Still really is and i put that down to inheriting an awful squad of players that could only play Russ ball. The time to judge him will be in about 5 games time and if there is no sign of improvement and the players adapting to how he wants to play the game then thats when we really should be starting to ask is Will Still the right person to drive us forward.

I don't believe for one moment that he told his back 4 to boot the bloody ball up in the air in the hope that Archer might win it every time our defenders had the ball. I don't believe he said to the players pass the ball to the opposition every time you have it and more importantly bypass the midfield and play like some poor Sunday league pub team. Will Still was quite rightly furious with that first half performance and what the players did in that first 45 minutes.

I am as disappointed as anyone with yesterdays result and the general start to the season. However i am willing to give Will Still until 10 league games into the season before i start to judge him as a manager. He now has the players he wants and now everyone is back from the internationals he has a full week to work with everyone and the new players start to bed in. He clearly was not happy with yesterdays first half performance and that was on the players! The majority on here were in full agreement with the starting lineup and going 4 at the back. It was the players that started that first half that played like the ball was a hot potato and just hoofed it forward and could not string two passes together. I actually felt sorry for Azaz and Fellows who were starved of any real service with the rubbish we played in the first half. The second half was better and the new guys that came on looked decent in the short time they had on the pitch. I am expecting a very different performance away to Hull next week!!

Jesus that was an absolute shocking first half. Pompey are taking the piss, they are head and shoulders better. Our players look like rabbits caught in the headlights.

I've woken up this morning with that horrible sick feeling in the pit off my stomach, it's either absolute dread that we don't win today or the amount of red wine i drank last night!

factor in the weather and a soaking wet pitch and slippery ball and it has disaster written all over it!!

Isn't that idiot Westwood banned from St Mary's after his antics pissing over the seats??

Spertsyan just scored for armenia v Ireland. Big second half coming up for Republic now!

Rivers, you summed up everything i have shared with my son and you made me reminisce about the games i went to with my own father. I don't mind admitting i had tears in my eyes reading your post. I hope for your dad and every Saints fan we smash that lot down the road!

Really, you would not see it as an upset if Saints with the spending power we have just shown lost to that Tin Pot lot down the road??

This is one of those horrible games where we as Saints fans have everything to lose and only bragging rights to gain. The TV and the pundits will be hoping for an upset and the Pompey fans will be hoping for an upset and will be thinking they are playing us at a good time. A team badly scarred from being relegated, barely up and running this season with some very questionable performances and players that have no appetite for a fight. Now i would have said all of that is true BUT the close of the transfer window changed something IMHO. We have shipped out so much dead wood and those with no appetite and have replaced them with very decent players not affected by last season. We should beat Pompey and we should beat them easily, our squad is far better than the tin pot lot down the road. We just have to be mentally ready for this one!

This lad could be the best of the crop and i think Saints have made a very astute signing with the potential for his value to sky rocket. If we get a couple of seasons out of him we will do very well.

My son wrote this article on Leo Scienza last year which i thought some of you might find interesting with a deal now looking imminent. You’ve probably never heard of Leo Scienza, but he turns 26 this September and his story continues with a dreamlike trajectory for those who aren’t interested in giving up on that childhood ambition of becoming a professional footballer and reaching the top. Five years ago, he arrived to Swedish fourth division side Fanna BK from Brazilian youth football. After 18 months in Sweden and a reported 12 goals in 22 games, the winger was signed by FC Schalke 04’s reserve team, which operates as an U23 team in the German lower leagues. Two seasons in Germany’s regionalised fourth tier reaped 15 goals and 17 assists in 59 appearances. Despite a mid-season friendly appearance for the first team at the start of 2022, six months later, with his 24th birthday approaching, Scienza had to move on. It seemed that he was getting his big break into first team football at a fulltime professional level with a jump to second tier FC Madeburg, but he managed just 222 minutes over 11 appearances. Instead, he played most of his football at a much lower level than he had done so with Schalke: Madeburg’s second team in the German sixth tier. He was unapologetically rampant, scoring 13 and assisting 7 in just 10 games. With 822 minutes played, he was averaging a goal involvement every 41.1 minutes. It wasn’t enough for a second season with Madeburg, though. He was on the move again. Last season, he had consistent minutes at his highest level yet: 34 games in Germany’s third tier with newly-promoted SSV Ulm. The coach’s faith was repaid with 12 goals and 15 assists as Ulm secured consecutive promotions. Scienza wouldn’t be around for the next chapter of Ulm’s fairytale, though. He was fulfilling his own. At 25 years old, barely a year after rampaging through the German sixth tier, he became a $600k signing for Bundesliga’s Heidenheim. He’d finally made it to a European first division and his first 3 games have brought a goal in continental football, scoring in a 2-1 away win in the UEFA Conference League, an assist in the German Cup, and a 2-0 away win in his Bundesliga debut. It really is never too late - or as many hopeful players say, 'God's Timing is Perfect'. leonardolenz 51 w Pra cima Leo @leo_scienza

Thank god it's 7pm, i'm exhausted!

no i had the really big tits