Papa Shango

Written a new piece on Pellegrino and the state of the club in general, give it a read http://thesaintshub.com/pellegrinoout.html

I would recommend trying some volunteering or activism for causes which are close to your heart. Gives you a chance to make like-minded new friends whilst doing something rewarding. There will definitely be a lot of people out there who share your view of the world, just a matter of finding them. I felt very similar a few years ago, but have probably never been happier with my life than I am right now so don’t give up hope. Don’t be afraid to make big changes and never feel obligated to keep people in your life who adversely effect your mental health. Oh and I’m 30 next month, so you’re still a baby really. Best of luck!

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quick thoughts and player ratings http://thesaintshub.com/saints0-0swansea.html. Encouraging stuff I'd say.

Sums up my thoughts too. Great post.

Convinced if he was going to go, it would have happened weeks ago. We always like to get our major outgoings done as soon as possible. I'm expecting him and everyone else worth keeping to stay.

Noticed he was limping quite badly in the second-half.

Quick preview of the game from me http://thesaintshub.com/2017leaguecupfinalpreview.html 1-0 AET my prediction, Yoshida from a set play

Written about some of the pluses and minuses or Puel's reign so far, check it out http://thesaintshub.com/puel.html

He's a distant relative of mine. Saw him play a reserve game for us and he made a mistake which led to a goal. Was decent in his early Cov days.

Agree with this. Nowhere near as bad as people are making out. We played a lot worse than that on many occasions last season. Obviously there's still a lot of work to do, but there were plenty of positive signs. In the spells we looked good, we looked really good. People making too much of this new formation too. It's not THAT different to what we've used before. We are worse this season primarily because we've lost Mane, Pelle and Wanyama and haven't properly replaced them yet, not because of the system we're playing .

Sorted flights for all 3 games now. Not able to book immediately after they were announced, but still did ok price wise. Prague £90, Milan £120 and Tel Aviv £240. All Thursday - Saturday, can't wait.

Never really been a 'whipping boy' has he? In all the time he's been here he's had less stick from the crowd than almost any other player. Even when he's gone through bad spells he's always had his name sung loudly.

Us being 7th this season says more about the strength of the league than it does about us. Don't think anyone would argue that the side we had in 13/14 was significantly better than the one we have now. We might have been 9th when Cortese left, but that side had so much more potential. The injury crisis we had in December that season basically finished us, but we were only one or two players away from have a really really good side. Nobody would have left in the summer of 2014 if he was still there, and we'd have probably strengthened further. The big names might have wanted out a year later, but who knows how much further along we would have been by then? Reed and co did good business prior to last season, but do think part of the reason we did so well was because of the foundations that were put in place beforehand. Everything was geared towards the long-term. Think the new board have done well to stabilise things and we're on a really sound financial footing, but don't see much room for growth in the current team. Our business since Paul Mitchell left has been poor. With that in mind I would like to see a greater emphasis placed on bringing in young talent with potential. Also think Koeman should have less influence in who we bring in, especially considering he'll probably be gone within the next 18 months. Although we have done alright signing RK's mates, think we're limiting ourselves by not looking at a wider range of options.

Alderweireld is a better player than Lovren, but I thought Lovren had a better season with us in 13/14 than Toby did last season. Love Virgil, but think he's been at a level just slightly below the other two. I'll probably vote him player of the season, but he's not without his faults. He's quite error prone. Can only imagine the reaction if that had been Yoshida losing out to Arnautovic for the Stoke goal yesterday. Ditto both Chelsea goals the other week.

I still buy fanzines at away games whenever I see them. Most are pretty good. A lot of them have switched or are planning on switching to online only content (the West Ham one I picked up last month is in it's last season of print). Would certainly be difficult to launch a successful one in this day and age, but if you offer something original and of high quality then I believe it could still do well. Stoke and Barnsley have relatively new ones going, so might be worth asking them for advice. You need to be different and having good contacts would help a lot. Man United's Red Issue did well right up until it closed last year because they managed to break so many big stories. Best of luck with it.

Agree with this. Pochettino and Adkins went to pretty much every U21 game when they were here, including long distance midweek away games. Koeman can't even be bothered to attend most home games. Think he's only been to about 4 or 5 since he's been here. Calum Chambers looked nowhere near ready prior to 2013/14, but Pochettino coached him into a good player. Koeman has been incapable or unwilling to do the same with some of the current crop. Might not be any ready made stars like Luke Shaw, but a few who could be solid squad players with the right guidance.

Put £25 down when he was still at 40-1 a few hours after Mourinho was sacked. Think it's almost beyond the point of no return now. Barring a change or ownership or something else dramatic happening he won't be here at the start of pre-season.

This. He's surviving on reputation alone right now. As for new manager. Jorge Sampaoli or Eduardo Berizzo would be names I would look at. Agree with Verbal Kint's criteria. A training ground manager is needed, someone who can make the players we have better.

Kind of annoys me how Gaston always gets lumped in with Osvaldo in these discussions. Osvaldo was a bad egg who never really wanted to be here. Ramirez is a decent lad who has genuinely tried. Not like he was some Bebe type figure plucked from obscurity either. He was regarded as a future superstar by many before he came here. Most thought he was well worth the money at the time. Obviously he hasn't fulfilled his potential, but to say he's done nothing for us is ridiculous. Trailed off slightly in the middle of his first season, but was out of this world at times. Did really well as an impact sub in 2013/14, often changing the game. Was shipped off to Hull when we had very little creative cover and replaced by players like Elia and Djuricic who weren't as good. This season he hasn't been given a chance but has done alright on the rare occasions he has played (changed the game at Liverpool). Obviously we all expected more when he signed, but I wouldn't put the blame all on Ramirez. He's been a bit unlucky with injuries and I don't think he's been given a fair shake at times either. Don't hear many people constantly complaining about us spending a bomb on Shane Long, who is good for about one good game in four. It happens. BTW the Pardew/Cortese stuff is one of the rare things I'm genuinely ITK about. They would argue with each other constantly, but essentially what it boiled down to was Pardew wanted complete control over everything and Cortese (rightly imo) wanted to implement more of a director of football type structure. One story I heard was that they needed to recruit a new physio and Pardew wanted to bring in someone he knew. Cortese said he'd give him an interview, but Pardew argued that as the manager he should be able to hire him no questions asked. Cortese reminded Pardew that he didn't know anything about physiotherapy and therefore wasn't qualified to make the decision. There are a few other stories along similar lines that I know to be true. No secret affair or any of that ********. Pretty much what you'd expect.

Thought I'd put this out there. Thoughts on Koeman's work this season and his future http://thesaintshub.com/december2015roundup.html

Wrote some stuff on our far too brief European adventure, plus recent transfer dealings and other stuff http://thesaintshub.com/august2015newsroundup.html

My thoughts on some of the recent dealings http://thesaintshub.com/201415transferroundup.html

Honestly can't think of anyone who would have been a better fit. Ticks pretty much all the boxes. Wouldn't have wanted a big name just for the hell of it, but having someone with his level of credibility was needed to reassure both the players and the fans. His philosophy on football runs close to ours too. We had a great season away from home last year, but I can't remember too many times we were as expansive as we were in the 2nd half today. Early days obviously, but a promising start.

He didn't go at the very first opportunity. All the big clubs have been after him since he was 15. He could have easily refused to sign a contract last summer and moved for considerably less. Everyone in football knew how good he was years ago.