foxy9143

I think the 90 in 90 on the official site is gonna need an extension

still hunting for a stream....anyone help?

I agree. Stephens had his arm up above his head and the ref was entitled to say it was in an unnatural position and thereby stopped the header becoming a danger. Gutted but a point’s a point.

I think you are underestimating the fact that we have a Chinese owner, and it is perhaps reasonable that he wants to show off his new acquisition to his Countryfolk. If you look at the Charlie Austin "behind the scenes" video you will see Mr Gao hugging and bantering with a couple of the players like a besotted fan. Whatever we think of the takeover, it has happened, so for me if this trip helps to solidify his interest and investment in Saints as a football team, rather than a simple investment project, I will be happy.

At the end of the day, you must be over the moon to point this out.

Fair comment, but how do we get him to go if he refuses to leave? Tommy Forecast?

Evidently this is a Paul Mitchell spot. "It's no secret that they've been following me for a long time. They have followed since I scored my first hat trick for Sarpsborg in 2012. In the Adeccoliga. Then I was 17 years old. They know me almost better than I know myself. - I told them (the club's scouts) that it was a little creepy. You've "stalked" me for six years now, joked the 23-year-old.

Oh that's great. A guaranteed broken metatarsal on the Kosovo foot then.

Karma about to hit Daniel Levy? https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/may/31/real-madrid-mauricio-pochettino-tottenham

Sadly it looks as if the sorpressa, wine and mooching will have to be around a different architect's villa. If this translation is correct then Mr Gao did not lodge his bid for Vicenza by the deadline of 11.30 today. Just the Diesel clothing owner "Update of 13:40. Confirmation arrives, the reality linked to Renzo Rosso is the only one to have presented the offer for Vicenza Calcio." http://www.biancorossi.net/2018/05/28/ore-12-scaduto-il-termine-per-la-presentazione-delle-buste-51555/

Well Vicenza drew their second leg relegation playoff game to win the tie on aggregate. That means they stay in Serie C next season and if mr GAO wants to buy the club he will have to fork out an extra half a million.

Haha nice bit of football trivia! The history goes back hundreds of years to when the city was starving and the population had to eat their cats. But it is indeed the nickname used by Vicenza Calcio fans. In fact my good frien has a cat and a knife and fork tattooed on his arm. Vicenza is a great city to visit, halfway between Verona and Venice, so if this comes off we can look forward to a great pre season friendly each year.

I have a friend who is a Vicenza Ultra and he says that the other main potential bidder is the Rosso family who own the Diesel clothing brand. It may be an interesting opportunity to see what financial clout Mr Gao has got . If it come off some people may like to know a bit more about our new partners. I have watched them a few times as I go on holiday to Vicenza a couple of times a year. There are various similarities between where we were when Marcus bought the club and where Vicenza are now. A sleeping giant is probably too generous to them but they were a long established Serie B team who dabbled with the top flight occasionally. Guidolin managed them at one time. They get around 12,000 at most home games and the fans have a the same fatalistic attitude as many Saints fans. Last season a fan from a visiting club was badly beaten by police after a game and the Vicenza Ultras arranged for his wife to stay in an apartment near the hospital and generally helped the family until he was discharged. The stadium is run down, reminds me of the Dell, but at least the club own if which is quite rare in Italy where often the local council owns the stadium.

A report here that GAO and Lander Holdings are going to buy Vicenza Calcio. Vicenza has had a fall from grace in the last few years, they slipped form Serie B straight through Serie C and are in a play off game to prevent relegation to the 4th tier for the first time in their history. They have a delapidated but large stadium and a passionate fan base. The6 also play in red and white. http://www.biancorossi.net/2018/05/25/una-societa-legata-al-southampton-lalternativa-a-rosso-51439/

I would be happy with Hughes. In his interview after the City game, when asked if he would sign I believe he said "ask me on Wednesday". It is now Thursday evening, Hughes goes on holiday at the weekend, when do we start worrying that we are messing him about and he will, or has, rejected us? There seems to be an assumption amongst many supporters that he will come here if Saints snap their fingers but he has to consider his family, and his assistants, who all presumably live up in the North West. He knows will get a job somewhere, his stock will be high after saving us, so I hope we are not trying to screw him with a lousy deal.

This is what really annoyed me about the Koeman and Puel era. A club like Southampton has two realistic things to play for each season. 1 Stay in the Premier league 2. Get in the Europa League Our hierarchy (e.g. Ralph) banged on about wanting to achieve European Football, yet on the occasions we managed it we did not capitalise and try and push for a decent campaign. Why bother to try for 7th if we aren't going to give it a good bash in the Europa League? That is the realistic pinnacle that this club can hope to achieve so it was criminal to throw away the rare chances we had to put together a decent Europa League campaign.

I thin we are still waiting for the "5 Pledges". They were due out in February and I'm sure when they are finally released our fortunes on the pitch will improve markedly and our 'brand status' will shoot up the table.

My moment was throwing away that Chelsea 2-0 lead. That is when I started to mentally adjust to accepting Championship football. The Board and the new Owner must learn from this, and if they are still here next season Kruger and Reed must never forget how they felt that moment when Everton scored last week. Being so close to relegation was completely necessary and due to complacency. There will be many an inquest into this season, but I will start, with why did we sell the World's most expensive defender ever, and then waste a third of the profit on Carillo and then not even replace the defender?

I'd like the view of someone who travelled, but on TV the pitch looked absolutely dreadful. I realise it's the same for both sides but many times in the first half Saints seemed to get caught out with the weight of their passes because the ball only travelled half the distance along the ground than it would on a decent Premier League pitch.

According to this the players are having a "scheduled day off" today so Hughes won't meet them until Thursday. https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/southampton/prospective-southampton-boss-mark-hughes-wont-meet-new-players-until-thursday

Whoever the manager is , just get them appointed NOW. Everyday counts. There should be a sense of urgency and I don't feel it. The new guy has to start evaluating players, training them to his system, getting them to an appropriate fitness level, and it should have started yesterday. The DT reported that Hughes is representing himself in contract talks, which if true I find quite refreshing, but it should also mean there is no need for dithering and delay. Perhaps Les Reed is quibbling about letting him have a car park space at St Mary's?

Will we have a different manager for the cup games then? Seriously, imagine if Hughes kept us up and won the FA Cup.... instant McMenemy level legendary status!

West Ham then. Why? Is it money or a different more high profile job?

I think maybe people's view of his overall game may be influenced by the free kick he took frpm just outside the box in the second half. I was thinking "come on Prowsey this is perfect for you, show the doubters you really are a dead-ball specialist". Into the wall. We really do need some magic at the moment, and a beautiful curling free kick into the top corner by our academy hero would have given everyone a lift....(and lifted us up to 14th)

Good summary ....agree 100%. That take done by Boufal was sublime. The ball was a long high cross field pass which come down out of the air, he took it and killed the ball stone dead, turned and ran forward in one movement.....but the ball somehow slithered out of play. The guy has ridiculous skills. He should have had a Pen in the second half. It happened just in front of me and he was barged in the back and fell over, no way was it a dive of any kind so a clear foul which would have been given anywhere else on the pitch. He was getting a battering up front and I was actually relieved to see him come off and be preserved for Wednesday where his value will be much greater.