SaintBobby

Terrific three points. Am just daring to look up the table a bit, not just down it

Harsh. We've played well.

Appeal that?

If only we had 6 of the Burnley players in our team - the sort of footballing legends that Turkish, for one, is clear are far better than the current Saints players - I'm sure we'd be safe already....

Robbed. But great point and truly excellent performance.

How does the company liquidate then if needed?

I guess at some stage, he'd take a haircut. But that probably presumes a death spiral in a post-relegation world.

If I was Gao, on purely selfish terms, I'd probably hold out. I want £200m. Not £100m. Or £125m. I also have a large tranche of cash in a real UK asset. If it falls in time to £100m or even £50m I still have a good retirement fund in Western assets. Everythign else I have is dependent on the CCP's behaviour.

I met him in the Saints bar yesterday. Bought the book but havent started it yet. I asked him, a bit cheekily, if he was sure Stokes was onside. He replied "yep, that's why it says "winner" on my 1976 medal"

He was easily man of the match for me. Pretty flawless display. Stephens was very good too.

I see his surprising hot steak continued today with a goal for Norway, away at Latvia.

I'd class it as official as soon as they formally and unambiguously tell someone outside of the club. I'm putting the delay down to incompetence, most likley. The administrative side of the club seems a bit chaotic at the moment.

According to the guy from the Atheltic, it is official. As in the club have formally furnished the information to journalists (same with the new 4 year contract for Stephens). They just haven't announced it on the club's official platforms/website.

I seem to remember it being an opening game of the season. Maybe another record is it’s happened twice - home and away

I'd given up when we went 2-1 down. Thank God the players didn't. Good performance from what I heard on Saints player - and a deserved point.

That was great. Obviously Man Utd are the superior team, but we played well. Last 20 minutes especially gratifying.

Really disappointed wit the manager today

Extraordinary that we have made no subs yet.

Relegation battle, I fear. Probably just about staying up. 15th or so.

I’m expecting us to stick to the 4-2-2-2 system. I’m sort of hoping that Ralph increasingly has his own players, rather than an inherited squad, to make it work. On the downside, the fairly novel style - like many novel ideas - worked for a while but then opponents got wise to it. I blame the Telegraph. They had a lengthy article dissecting and praising Saints’ tactics. Our collapse in form followed publication!

I might have misremembered this, but I thought it was Argentina in the 1982 World Cup and it was a f*** up. They wrongly submitted their squad list in alphabetical order of surname. Ardiles was therefore no.1.

The issue with their pitch being terrible - postponement? Switch to St Mary’s? Switch to alternate venue?

I don’t much care about these things one way or another. I think they’re more of a pointless gesture than likely to do any good, but if it does even a minimal amount of good, fair enough. However, if rich footballers really want to do something to change culture, I wish they’d take some more meaningful steps - like boycotting Qatar or refusing Chinese sponsorship. The only actions they seem willing to take are ones that involve zero cost, risk or sacrifice. With such a low level of commitment, there is likely to be very little impact on fighting against racism and inequality.

I hear ya. But I think we might conclude that Stephens (or, in extremis, JWP) is cover for right back and Salisu (or even Djenepo) for left back. Not ideal, for sure, but it does mean there's some sort of 3rd/4th choice cover if Perraud/KWP get injured. Livramento is presumably first back up. Assuming Vetegard is off, I think we need a straightforward centre-back. Or perhaps someone who can play centre-back and defensive midfield as cover. Do such players really exist anymore? (am thinking a sort of Jack Cork utility player)

Have to confess, I'm not feeling very optimistic. I think we probably are "relegation fodder". I dont mean certain to be relegated, not at all. But probably in the bottom six or seven teams and - if we do stay up - probably not doing so with much to spare in the tank. It's hard to draw much from the pre-season friendlies. I think the squad is a bit thin though and the loss of Ings is serious. But hey, I thought the same when Koeman arrived and we'd sold a lot more than just our centre forward going into that season...