foxy9143

Well Manolo says he's getting a house soon, so that's a good sign that he will still be here next year. In fact this is a great article with lots of interesting quotes from him. He seems a bit of a philosopher (perhaps Cantona-esque)...here's an example. "Football really is like the open sea. There are moments of calm, but suddenly you can be hit by a storm, you can’t ever relax." (At least he didn't say "soon I will be like the seagulls following the trawler as it leaves Southampton docks!) Anyway good read, and he says positive things about Claude Puel. http://www.football-italia.net/98989/gabbiadini-%E2%80%98saints-can-be-turning-point%E2%80%99

At the final whistle of the last game Les Reed should put all the players and their families into a 747 and take them to a private remote island for the whole summer. Confiscate all their phones so they cant reach their agents. Keep an especially close eye on Virgil in case he tries to to swim away at night. Then we might be pushing the top 6 teams next season.

Proud of the team and the management, proud of all the supporters who travelled. Hope Kat enjoyed it and wants more days like this (with a better ending though!)

I love it when a club respects and celebrates its history. The problem I have with the idea of us expecting the club to continually honour and revere our 1976 cup winning team is that it buys into this notion that we are 'small time'. Imagine if this fuss was made over all the Manchester United or Arsenal players who have ever won an FA cup with them. They'd never have any tickets for any fans if they dished the final tickets out to all their former cup winners. Just for the record I didn't make that final, I was working and we all watched it on TV in the office, but I was outside the Civic Centre the next day when the bus arrived so it is a part of MY Saints history as well. We either want to play in the big league or else continue with this nostalgic wallowing about our most famous day in history.

Let's hope he learns a few Swedish insults before his next game then.

I agree with all the praise for Romeo. He absolutely bossed the midfield today. Where I think his game has improved massively is that he seems to be avoiding bookings now, yet still tackling aggressively. This was always Victor's problem, he picked up so many needless bookings or sendings off. I think Romeo has come on leaps and bounds in that respect and become a much more 'clever' player.

I have an Italian friend who follows football very closely and is an illustrator for a couple of football magazines, and this is what he said when I asked if Gabbiabini was any good. "Before going to Napoli he as one of the most talented young strikers in Italy. Then he found Higuain his way! He is a very good player in my opinion. Good technique, maybe just a little weak psychologically speaking...but when he played he always scored" This was written verbatim from my what's app message so if you know better fine, but don't shoot the messenger.

I thought this post on the Leiceter Forum was particularly interesting. "Mahrez, Vardy, Schmeichel and Drinkwater are all on 4/5 year £100,000 contracts. That's roughly £100,000,000 promised to players and two of them (Vardy and Drinkwater) will stick around to claim every penny. This might sound hyperbolic but relegation could ruin us worse than Leeds or Portsmouth." When people are concerned about how Les Reed is running our affairs on behalf of the owner we perhaps need to bear in mind that achieving success is great, but should not jeopardise the long term future of any club. When people

Unfortunately, I think his management are to blame for this. I think they are greedy schiesters. I don't think you can say his management are to blame. He's not some young academy kid trying to find his way in the wicked world of football wheeling and dealing. He's a mature experienced pro and he should realise that his agent works for him, not the other way round. Anyway, like others, even if he doesn't get a luctartive move I suspect pride, and not wanting to lose face, has taken over now and there's no way back in our team. I just want VVD to be formally made captain so that at least one small point of uncertainty is removed.

The ref thought it was all quite amusing. I was in block 10. Late in the 2nd half when he (correctly) gave a throw in our way and received ironic cheers from the crowd he had a big grin on his face, so he had no doubt what we thought of his performance but frankly...didn't give a damn!

They were not far behind where I was sitting. Sure they were happy when their team scored, but they didn't cause any trouble or abuse any Saints fans, yet some of our folk couldn't handle it and were shouting things like "fxxxing disgrace" etc. I remember before segregation of fans we all used to get on fine for most games (apart from Millwall!).

Love this one..."Truly amazing. I'd have thought it impossible less than 12 months ago, but we seem to have found a manager capable of taking us backwards from Martinez. "

This was reported to have been said by Koeman when interviewed for the BBC a few minutes ago. "I wasn't aware of Josh Sims when I was here.." I guess that reinforces the rumoured reason Koemen is no longer here.

I think Les Reed is going to take some flack from the owner and the Chaiman because he must have appointed Black and they would rely on him for inside knowledge about someone involved in English football and for the due diligence prior to appointment. This may well reflect badly on him. It is also disappointing that Black must have known for a few days that he had been set up by the Telegraph and the fact the club didn't find an excuse to leave him in England today would suggest to me that he failed to be upfront and warn Les Reed what was going down. If Black had been upfront with the club it may have also stopped Ralph doing his 'we're white than white' interview yesterday which is now already being used to embarrass the club.

Lot of interesting stuff from our Chairman about the turmoil the club was in when he took over. He says it was secretly done in October..when did Nicola officially leave? He also says some strong things about the Allardyce situation and claims our club is totally clean in that regard. Lets hope he isn't embarrassed by that (having read the last line of #178 http://www.espn.co.uk/nhl/story/_/id/17663140/nhl-world-cup-hockey-team-europe-coach-ralph-krueger-opens-hockey-soccer-loyalty-more

And another story which I found a good read. I like the fact we have him as Chairman. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/coach-kruegers-strange-journey-to-team-europe-in-the-hockey-world-cup/article31939343/ It seems that he directly captured the Under Armour deal and he clearly is passionate about bringing through the academy players.

I went to a CopaItalia game at Vicenza a couple of weeks ago whilst on holiday. There was a huge delay at the walk up ticket window because anyone who wasn't already registered as a supporter (with a club members card) had to show a form of ID such as a passport or driving licence. Luckliy I had my D/L and then they had to enter all my details into a computer database which I was told is then held on a national database stored down in Naples. This is apparently a Government requirement for all Italian football grounds. I got in without any problem as a neutral but it just took ages. However, I actually was a neutral so I don't know what would have happened if Saints, or another UK team, had been playing there that day.

Manchester Evening News now saying that United were never planning to bid for Jose anyway. Face saving by the 'big club' who has just been put in their place by a 'minnow'? http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/manchester-united-jose-fonte-transfer-11802670

Does your son spend his days sitting in a black box in Staplewood by any chance?

I'm a little worried about Cedric. I noticed the Echo reported that Puell's 'priority' was a right back. Why? Without wishing to state the obvious, we have, by definition, one of the best right backs in Europe and a pretty decent back-up in Martina, so I'm a little puzzled by this and I really hope we are not expecting to lose Cedric.

I'm just trying to remember if we gave Grazi a similar reception when he flew into Eastleigh Airport? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3686075/Graziano-Pelle-mobbed-Shandong-Luneng-fans-striker-lands-China-girlfriend-Viktoria-Varga-13m-transfer.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

It came from Fonte and Cedric's bit if the pitch...Oh wait they're not playing!

£7m might do it apparently

Fonte and Cedric both got their 10th caps for Portugal tonight too. Saints players could be some of the stars of the Euros this summer. Fonte and Cedric both played the full 90 in a 3-0 win, and both looked very composed against a mediocre Norway team. Great burst down the wing by Cedric to set up the 3rd goal