stu0x

Sporting played Maritimo last night. Dost touched the ball 13 times during the entire match apparently. And scored 3 goals. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I think you're being a bit naive. I don't believe that Vardy was actively intending to put Virgil out for 6 months. But you're crazy if you don't believe that footballers don't 'leave a foot in' or 'go in hard' or 'go over the top of' another player to 'let them know they are there'. All of the above are widely used 'football terms' used commonly by 'real football men' all the time during commentary/match analysis. They are also all just euphemisms for intention to assault someone (or, at best, recklessnes, which still counts). If you intend to assault someone, but didn't intend to injure them *really badly*, you are still just as much to blame if they do end up really badly injured. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Until you see that City are starting a front 3 of Aguero Jesus and Sterling... So we either play 3-5-2 and get absolutely destroyed on the counter as soon as Bertrand and/or Cedric venture forward, or (more likely) we play 5-3-2 and try and 'do a Huddersfield'. Which means we'll be lucky if we get one or two half chances during the match. Good job we've got Long rather than Austin to make the most of them then... Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Couldn't agree more. It's not just the strikers. Everyone from defensive midfield forward is a square peg in a round hole. I wonder if it's coincidence that we are utterly bereft of attacking threat... Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

He was a penalty box player who finished well and converted chances regularly for lower PL and Championship clubs, albeit he was never renowned especially for his heading ability or hold up play unlike a traditional number 9. He preferred the ball into feet and used his strength and decision making to create space in front of goal. He was also notoriously injury prone. For some unknown reason the club decided to ignore all of this and retrospectively claim he was the replacement to our 'real' #9 who we let go and failed to replace, and then play him predominantly deep, on the left of a 3, or both. On the odd occasion Puel played him as a centre forward he generally did well. For what it's worth, I don't think Austin should be completely disregarded, I think he and Gabbiadini would complement each other quite nicely as a striker/inside forward combination. But even if we are to get the best out of him, he's never shown sufficient consistency in form or fitness to be relied upon as the main option up front over the course of a season. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Bas Dost. Same player I wanted us to sign in summer '16 when Pelle went. He was making kissy faces at us back then as well, but apparently we didn't need him because Austin was our Pelle replacement (despite the fact he's not the same type of player, we already had him, and he had basically been injured most of the time we'd had him which should have been an indication of his reliability). We desperately need a proper number 9. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Which doesn't make any logical sense at all. Anyone can name a litany of players who never 'made it' it the premier league, for whatever reason. Maybe they just weren't suited for it. Maybe they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe they were never good enough. But the fact that one player came in from overseas and settled immediately (and we'll put aside the fact that it's far too early to write Lemina up as an unqualified success) in no way proves that any player of any quality shouldn't need any period of adjustment. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

You mean like Henry, Drogba, and Ronaldo? They were bang average Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Seems like sportsmania is dying/dead. No currently active coupon codes and full subscriptions still haven't been reopened. They've deleted their Twitter user and the Facebook groups that the login page points to. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Outstanding, directly addresses a real weak point in the Stevens/Yoshida partnership. If Virgil stays we should have an absolutely dominant centre back partnership. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

With progressive ideas and breadth of tactical knowledge like that, you should apply for the England job, you'd be a shoe-in

This, in a nutshell. You can't keep selling the family silver and replacing with possible hidden gems. Eventually you end up with a drawer full of tin. Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Because a 3-4-3 diamond would be suicide for us. We don't have the quality of players to accommodate for its weaknesses, and would get hammered in the turnovers. 3-4-3 with a double midfield pivot, on the other hand, would seem to suit our personnel very well.

No, it's because he's 'worth' a lot more than that but they know they will get him for that much from us.

He will be in our match day squad (possibly/probably even starting) on the first day of next season, after Cedric is sold for 12-15mill.

Outstanding. Expected time just went from 'Fifteen Minutes' to 'Over An Hour'. So thats my chances up in smoke then.

I love the way the 'Estimated Time Left' on this queue increases rather than decreases...

Have you looked at a map? Noticed how Southampton is all the way down one end of the country? Like, *all* the way? It's entirely understandable that someone who lives in the North might manage to go to a large number of away matches without having made the *significantly* longer trip to St Mary's. If you're in Yorkshire for example, a good half of the away matches in a season are realistically achievable without wiping out your entire day in the process. Southampton is not, certainly on a regular basis. Regardless, the whole thing smacks of 'all supporters are equal, but some are more equal than others'. The way the eligibility has been calculated for major matches this season has been unnecessarily beauracratic, ultimately to no effect. Look at the debacle of Inter away, where we had significant numbers of fans shelling out for flights and hotels without actually knowing whether they'd get a ticket or not? The club trotted out this stupidly complicated tiered process and in the end we gave tickets back because we couldn't sell them - at least partly due to the fact that for some, it was so late in the day by the time they were eligible that the trip became unaffordable. And yes, I was one of those at the San Siro. And no, apparently I'm not a good enough fan to see my club at the cup final. If it ends up as anything but a complete sell out, the club should be ashamed of itself. Ultimately, their priority should be to get as many supporters there as possible - not to shill as many pointless memberships as they can.

Remember that video full of utter guff and nonsense that UA and the club made for this season's kit launch? UA banged on about how the history and culture of the team were so important to them, and before they did anything else they did loads of research to learn all about what the design of a team's kit actually meant to them, which the important bits with historical cues were, etc. And then they unveiled #braraised, which not only was a desperately poor generic marketing gimmick (particularly in light of the design itself), it had no relevance to the history and culture of Saints or the red and white. If they actually *had* done even a modicum of the research that they claimed, you'd expect something looking very much like this to be nailed on.

Liverpool desperately need a left back. We have 3. Start gearing up for the Bertrand to Anfield in January rumours. My only worry is, if they offered £20mill plus, the club might go for it.

Hoes that Pilchards? Smell the atmosphere.

En route to Heathrow for the 1205 into Linate. Forza Southampton FC.

You didn't join the Army to earn as much as a professional footballer (or if you did, you've got mental health issues). Society isn't 'fair'. Soldiers and nurses and teachers get paid a pittance and the people who earn the most are the people who do what's worth the least, from an ethical/moral perspective. That's how it is. There is no perfect social utopia.

Given the current state of our fullbacks I could quite easily see a situation where Yoshida is in to cover them and Gardos to cover the centre backs. Or we could even see a 3 man defence of Yoshida Virgil Fonte with wingbacks. If Koeman was still here I'd expect to see that rolled out but not sure if it's Puel's bag.

He's not most people though is he. I mean, leave aside the fact that he's a professional footballer. His trade is not what makes him exceptional, it's the fact he's in the top 0.01% of what he does, and is compensated accordingly. The most successful other sportsmen, as well as musicians, actors, tv presenters, barristers, solicitors, doctors, surgeons, businessmen, financiers, developers, etc etc etc, are paid similarly and have similar (if not significantly bigger and more opulent) houses and cars. In fact Shane Long's place isn't really anything to write home about. Is it 'right' that someone gets paid so much to play football? Well that's a different issue entirely. But Long isn't well paid because he's a footballer. He's well paid because, relatively speaking, he's a very very good footballer.