ant

Careful now, that's the sort of extrapolation that led to signing Brereton-Diaz.

That was a golden chance to stumble over the lowest possible bar. But of course we spurned it. This is one of the most gutless 'top' level sides in history.

RE: season ticket holders not bothering, it's my step daughter's birthday today - and it's only because she's a little 'un (and will be in bed by the time I leave for the match) that I'm not staying home/prioritising that. Rightly or wrongly, this season has made me re-examine my relationship with football a bit.

I was shouted down last summer for suggesting we should disregard sentimentality, thank him for his service and look to sign better. Seemed patently obvious that whilst he'd played a role in the Champ, his days at the top level were numbered. But what do I know?

Not sure that's entirely fair. It's pretty much twice what they can fit into, say, Snows Stadium. And if you constrain matches to smaller grounds it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. With the League Cup being priced increasingly less competitively, these matches are a good, inexpensive route to give young fans a taste of the big stadium experience. It's also 1.5x more than attended for the youth cup match when we beat the skates 7-0. Should that not have been played at St. Mary's?

Enough games left to give them one each, with another to spare. Presumably that'll be a Sammy Saint & Mary Saint joint effort. Or Gorman & Dodd, back to get us the magic 3 points and seal their redemption. 😅

Digging deep here, but at least Ted Bates doesn't have to see us in this state. I believe we were 8th in the Prem on the day he passed.

To my mind the reason Pep praised Russell is because Martin was/is a bit of a Guardiola acolyte. Some of the main issues with that are: Pep has City's squad at his disposal (which in itself became too reliant on Rodri); The philosophy was never particularly well-suited to us as a club; Being closely tied to a philosophy is inherently fallible, as what wins out is cyclical. Just as tika taka was stifled by the gegenpress, possession-at-all-costs football is struggling against raw physicality & quick turnovers of play. Successful managers fall from grace when they're incapable of out-maneuvering the new guard; when City couldn't buy a win, even Pep had to admit their football needed to evolve Martin talks like an innovator whilst advocating tactics that have been and gone.

God, yeah - weren't a mass of IP addresses tracked back to some PR company? Or was that even earlier, on Saints Forever?

Adam Leitch's account of the day is still available on The Echo site. Lost count of how many times I've read it! https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4000947.stormy-ride-for-rupert-lowe-at-saints-agm/

Not unless you attach them to his arms.

Penalty decision made like the ref was looking for the first opportunity to give one.

FOUR at the back, playing deep; Central midfielders providing genuine cover for the defence; Playing on the counter, utilising Sulemana's pace. It's not been pretty, but it has been pragmatic. Why the fuck has it taken so long to try this setup? We'll still contrive a way to lose this particular match - and probably by a good few goals. But against some of the shitter sides we'd probably be good for the odd point.

Liverpool won't be bothered much beyond 3-0, given their other fixtures. You'd imagine their brightest & best will be taken off at that point. Do you get an appearance bonus for 5 minutes on the pitch?

Sacked by Tranmere after accruing just 3 points from their last 10 matches? Actually, yeah - he sounds right up our street to be fair.