positivepete

So, true. Laws of the game could be reviewed in many sports with the adoption of technology, offside certainly being one of them. As we are aware, it is the football authorities that slow down the obvious advantageous use of technology, especially in the stadium.

When VAR was being developed and first trialled in the Dutch League, the proposal from Hawkeye was to use the “challenge system” similar to tennis. That would make it more interesting I think. Interestingly in tennis the system has developed to an extent where the challenge system is no longer needed, and in many tournaments line judges have been replaced by Hawkeye and the line calls are made by Hawkeye and relayed to the umpire.

Very highly rated by Northern Ireland fans

Got my season ticket. £80. AFC Totton is great value!

Potter will be free in the summer.

West Ham away. 1-0 down at half time, won 3-1. It was my grandchildrens first away game and I had to explain that it was 29 years since we had done that.

Knowing most league officialdom, they will probably get fined and pojnt deducted for fielding an unregistered player!

James Beattie to Eastleigh? As new manager …

Thanks, Steve!

Getting very frustrating now! @stevegrant any more ideas other than clearing the cache every five minutes? cheers pete

Erikson would be a marquee free transfer signing!

It was a guess before I am accused of being in the know. I have however, met him before, so my comment on his relationship with Saints was from my personal experience.

A very touching video. Brave for the player and the club to put out as he clearly has been - and probably will continue to - have problems following such a series of set backs. let’s hope he gets strength from the show of support on here and elsewhere. all the best, Sam.

He has announced he is leaving. https://www.brentfordfc.com/news/2021/december/a-goodbye-social-media-message-from-rasmus-ankersen/

Rasmus Ankersen is leaving Brentford. He had a close working relationship with Saints during his time at Brentford. Also involved at Midtjylland. Coincidence?

In a recent press conference he did make the point that he wanted to be allowed 5 subs because with 5 subs, he felt the team could keep up the intensity required.

Forsters inability to dominate his area when crosses come in has alway baffled me. He is a giant and could easily clear the players out of the way. Collecting crosses takes the pressure off the defence, and McCarthy has shown he can do that. Both are capable of making really good saves, so quite why they both have poor records is either they are both poor, or we really don’t defend well as a team. McCarthy might just edge it with the ball at their feet, but they are both poor. Romario for me.

I heard that following a Spanish League ruling Barcelona can’t sign any players until they get their wage bill down below a certain figure. I am not sure whether they have been able to officially sign Aguero, Depay, or Garcia yet.

A piece in The Times today on the birth of European Football and the part played by Southampton (and Sheffield United) The naked launch “It is only 12 inches high, solid gold, and it means England are the world champions.” Whoever wins tomorrow’s kickabout will get a prize twice the size of the trophy handed to Bobby Moore on the same site in 1966, yet few could tell you the name that is on it. They sing about Jules Rimet still gleaming, yet Henri Delaunay is almost forgotten. Rimet is credited as the godfather of the World Cup, but Delaunay, his deputy at Fifa, secretary-general of the French federation and the founding head of Uefa, is said to have been the one who pushed hardest in the 1920s both for a global tournament and one for European nations. The latter only came into existence in 1960, five years after his death. Delaunay had been a referee but retired after a ball struck him full in the face, breaking two teeth and causing him to swallow his whistle. The Anglophile Delaunay later wrote of how a big influence on him becoming an administrator had been the “primitive scene” he saw as a teenager at Crystal Palace in 1902, when he was among 75,000 fans at the FA Cup final between Southampton and Sheffield United. He created the French version 15 years later. It is amusing that this match should have been Delaunay’s motivating force since the report in The Times says it was notable mainly for its roughness, “random kicking and indiscriminate passing”, and a dodgy last-minute equaliser by Southampton. That led to the referee hiding in a broom cupboard after he was chased out of the dressing room by a naked and angry William “Fatty” Foulke, the United goalkeeper. It is tempting to think, therefore, that the path to tomorrow’s final all began with an overweight yet underdressed goalie being enraged at an offside decision. No wonder they call it the beautiful game.

We may also need a different central midfielder. With Perraud instead of Bertrand, we won’t be able to use a full back as part of a back three in possession as we started to last season when KWP went forward.

Trust me, there have been a lot worse England performances at major tournaments over the past 10 years or so. Having been lucky enough to travel to South Africa, Brazil and France to see England in “action”, I was glad that there was lots of other things to make those trips worthwhile.

The difference between a customer and a fan is simple. As a customer, if I get poor service I go to another outlet. As a fan, I am not going to go to the next nearest club in the PL, Championship, or League 1. The vote will likely be that I will not renew at all. A loss for me, more than for the club. It was the failure to understand the distinction between fans and customers that the owners of the clubs who were going to go off to the super league failed to grasp. Southampton FC were against that proposal, but in the way they have treated a section of fans, they have failed to understand that they themselves are showing the same disdain for fans, by treating them as customers, and treating them poorly. The club has severed their relationship with 500 already high paying fans, and severed the relationships that those fans had with each other in a number of cases. as I said before, very sad.

In this case, we have been paying more for a better view for years, and like Whitey, I had paid full price, firstly for my son, then for my granddaughter as there were no concessions in this block. The bigger point here is that this block contained a substantial proportion of “customers” who held tickets for 20 years or more. After 10 years we were promised a bonus for staying loyal, that never happened. Now the club wants to reward us with very expensive padded seats. The reality is, as Whitey said previously, a lot of groups who have sat together for many years, paying the top price in that stand, for a good view, will be split up. I personally think that is a poor way to reward such loyalty, and the fact that the plan was executed without first consulting the affected fans possibly tells you all you need to know about what the club thinks. Just as a matter of comparison, I moved into that block when my seats in the corners were closed. The club offered to relocate me anywhere I chose at the same price for that season. The club seems to be going backwards in fan relations, to the extent that being a fan is not a consideration. We are merely numbered customers. Very sad.

I have been in contact with some other regulars who have had their seats since the stadium opened. Again, they are reluctantly going to move, in fact they even considered giving up their tickets altogether, and these are people who went to every home and away game, in the UK and overseas. I fear the club have upset some of their most loyal “customers”, with what increasing looks like an own goal. To be fair we have seen a few of those on the pitch in past few seasons ....

Not much sympathy there really. A polite take it or leave it.