saints_is_the_south

2 spot on (Fulham & City) & another 3 correct results. Here's my next 8 FWIW. Spurs (H) - W 2-1 Cardiff (A) - D 2-2 Everton (A) - L 2-1 Chelsea (H) - D 2-2 West Brom (H) - W 2-0 Sunderland (A) - W 1-0 Arsenal (H) - L 2-1 Fulham (A) - W 3-1 14 points taking us onto 38 points at the start of Feb.

Just got 2 myself, back row of block 4. Hope enough are sold so they think about opening up the ends for us.

That reply is virtually word for word the same received earlier in the season after we took a smaller allocation for Norwich. They've a point and it was a fair answer I felt. What I am more interested in now is this £200K away fund, and why the club feel it was appropriate to spend it on decorating the away end at St Mary's and on the fun fair ******** against Fulham (I struggle believe that the two combined cost them anywhere near £200K either). I believe every other club in the PL is using it to reduce ticket and/or travel costs for their own supporters. To me the way SFC have used this money is unacceptable, and quite frankly a disgusting insult to those that travel the length and breadth of the country following the club. I feel at the very least we deserve an explanation for this.

Based on current form, Clyne is for my money by far and away the best English right back out there. Walker is woefully short of form at the moment and Johnson is just well, Johnson. Clyne should be in the squad, not even a debate and should probably be first choice as well. Though AL did alright tonight and hopefully he'll get more chances to show what he can do, he deserves that at least. Think Jay is quite a way down the pecking order with everyone fit but who knows , if he can put away another 10-12 goals before the end of the season then he could make it. Lambert simply has to go, you need different a variety of different attacking options and he gives England another option they otherwise don't have. Shouldn't even be a contest with Carroll, Rickie is a far better all round footballer. His penalty taking ability could come in handy at some stage too!

Osvaldo has already said on Twitter on more than one occasion that he is loving life in Southampton and could not understand these rumours. Him and his Dorris were out shopping for a sofa the other day so one would assume they've found a place here now.

Perhaps Saints need to write to the Premier League about the blatant penalties not given to us at Norwich & Stoke. The penalty at WBA was clear as day, the contact may have been minimal but Mulumbu was clumsy and tripped Shaw when he needn't have. When the incident was reviewed by pundits on MOTD & GOS they were all in agreement that it was a penalty.

If he ever gets a song, sadly it'll be either "Nathaniel Clyne *clap clap clap* or "There's only one Nathaniel Clyne". Tried yet again getting the Stones Gimme Shelter Osvaldo chant going again last Saturday to no avail.

Yep, that as well has just been another kick in the teeth to those who travel away. When the club(s) are treating fans with the contempt they are it really is time to start asking is it all worth it. The getting up at stupid o'clock, not getting back til late and the £100+ spent in between on travel, match tickets and money for the day. Or have a nice lay in on a Saturday morning, get up and down the boozer for midday and spend a fraction of the cost that you would usually on an away day. Our group hasn't even bothered with Arsenal this year when last season and London games in years before were 'unmissable' for us.

It's things like this and the Sunderland debacle that make not bothering and just going down a boozer in town to watch games more appealing all the time. The two clubs clearly haven't even bothered contemplating the affect on fans when making this decision. How much would it have taken for them think about things like when advance rail fares go on sale, and try to make the decision before then? Nowt but common sense and some respect for the supporters.

Not seen this posted anywhere: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2478388/Roma-conceded-goal-107-shots-Southampton-rival-defence.html

Oct 26: Fulham (h) 2-0 W Nov 2: Stoke City (a) 1-2 W Nov 9: Hull City (h) 2-0 W Nov 23: Arsenal (a) 1-2 L Nov 30: Chelsea (a) 0-1 L Dec 3: Aston Villa (h) 3-1 W Dec 7: Manchester City (h) 1-1 D Dec 14: Newcastle United (a) 0-2 W 16.

Lyon were playing in the CL/EL when Lovren was there. Cagliari are a mid table Serie A side who's aim is to survive every season. Lovren would be one of the best centre backs in Italy if he were there. This is a fair piece on Astori, agree with all of it. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1727555-why-manchester-city-transfer-target-davide-astori-is-the-italian-titus-bramble The boy sure grew up with a lot expectations and potential (as many of the youth products that come out of Milanello do), but for most regular Serie A watchers like me he's failed to live up to that. He's 27 in January, at that age he should be coming into the prime of his career but he's far from that. Of course if we were to sign him he'd get my full support and I'd hope he could live up to potential he showed when he was younger. But for the money Cagliari want I think we could do a lot better looking elsewhere.

I do hope not. Vastly overrated and overpriced. He really isn't worth all the hype. Anybody who has watched him regularly over the past 2 seasons will tell you that.

Got 6 ST numbers if anybody would like to use them. PM me.

Saints currently have the 2nd best defence in Europe this season across the top 5 leagues with an impressive 0.29 goals per game being conceded so far. Stat taken from this blog on Roma's (with the only better defence than ours) start to the season. http://www.whoscored.com/Blog/tj-zbzqc5e2qta6it-by6w/Show/Team-Focus-Garcia-Brings-Defensive-Resolve-to-Reconstructed-Roma Keeping some pretty fine company there!

I've tried getting the Rolling Stones one going since Norwich away but not 1 person has joined in.

Tough game this against an excellent footballing side but an opponent that should suit us. Having said that, Swansea were one of the poorest teams I saw at St Mary's last season and other than the goal Gazzaniga gifted to them I don't recall them having another effort on goal. That was one tense afternoon, the start of our season really and the roof properly came off when Morgan scored. I think we'll edge this 2-1. Swansea play again Thursday and by the time next Sunday comes they'd have played 6 games in just under 3 weeks, whereas we'd have played 4. So we should be a bit more fresher than they are and the more Osvaldo gels into the team the better I think we'll get.

Which if you read my post is exactly what I said. They will have bad results and 'shock' defeats here and there, but over the course of the season they will win more games against the "rest of the league" than they don't.

No. But the teams that finish in the top 4 will, with a few exceptions and odd shock results here and there beat those teams and win the majority of their games against the "rest of the league". Since our return to the Premier League we haven't won enough games against the sides you'd expect us to have a better chance against and relied on wins against the big boys to keep us up last season. We had a very favourable start and whilst we've had a good one, it could and should have been even better.

We need to beating the likes of West Ham & Sunderland at home and Norwich away to even have a hope in hell. Let's not get too ahead of ourselves. Whilst we won on Saturday we didn't create a great deal against the team that will probably finish bottom of the Premier League. Top 6 is more realistic but still extremely difficult, top 8 far more realistic and very doable. Think it will be between us and Everton for 7th actually. Confident that my pre season prediction of 8th will be correct.

He's played 4 fecking games you absolute berk!

Non mi piacciono le partite, definitely = I do not like the games. Plausible that he doesn't like them because he gets very nervous of course.

NC can't keep in touch with the goings on in the ticket office too often. Quality it is not, shambles it most definitely is!

Article/interview on Cortese in the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera today. Link here: http://www.forzaroma.info/2013/09/28/cortese-la-rinascita-del-southampton-parla-italiano/266804 Translation: Cortese, the rebirth of Southampton speaks Italian "I speak two or three times a year. It's always dangerous when the chairman speaks too much, the manager and players have the public role". Nicola Cortese, 45 year old from Catanzaro di Lido, rampant career in the world of Swiss banking decided to venture into the maze of the football world whilst maintaining a low profile. For 4 years he has been at the head of Southampton, the English club of the Premier League where Pablo Osvaldo has taken refuge after the poisons of the Romanisti (Roma fans) & Romans, but his figure still retains something of a mystery. Few are aware of the fact that this Italian with Swiss mentality ("here now I consider myself English") sits in the office as "chairman, general director, sporting director, I am like a Galliani (CEO of AC Milan) across the channel". In 2009 Southampton floundered in the 3rd division and on the verge of bankruptcy: as a consultant to family of Markus Liebherr, Swiss industrialist, Cortese purchased the club for £12m (less than the cost of Osvaldo) received a clean sheet to work on the management and strategies of the club, "whose image was destroyed". Today Southampton is a club bursting with health. Nobody dares to question the leadership of the man in charge with Calabrian roots and the owners are left to collect the profits, the equivalent of €2.5m for the first 6 months of this year. "In effect - confessed Cortese with a hint of complacency - I feel like the moral owner of the club". The original plan was to return to the great heights of football in 5 years ("When I revealed this people laughed"). In reality, after 3 seasons Southampton are in the Premier League and today it's organisational machine is a point of reference in Continetal football. "I had to rebuild the company from the ground up. In 2009 there were only 90 employees, now almost 250. The academy was dead, we relaunched putting our youth at the centre of our project. This year, in a game we deployed three 18 year olds in the starting 11: in the Premier League it had never happened". And in the opening months of next year also the new training ground will be ready. "The decisive factor was a visit I made to Milanello (AC Milan's training base). The red&black college has become a bit of a point of reference for me, I felt a family feeling, the place had charm". To achieve his miracle, the chairman made in Italy has focused on a so called 'Southampton Way', a way of being and a style of those who work for Southampton. "Here the hierarchy only exists on paper, I don't want them to call me chairman. Our club isn't made up of just 11 players, after 4 years we have many talented individuals not just on the pitch. Southampton Way means focusing on quality and being the best in everything we do. We do not want to follow others, we want them to follow us". A fan of AS Roma ("Because when I was at Trigoria (Roma's training base) to sign Osvaldo I mentioned this"), Cortese lives for football but is not crazy for it ("I love my work but not the matches, when we play away I stay at home"), which has strictly a management conception ("I don't work in a club, but a business that produces football"). Obvious that his eyes appear magnified about our miseries ("It makes me sad to see how low Italian football is, I believe that it lacks respect, ideas and humility") but one day someone might call him to help heal the woes of Serie A: "I have Italian blood and I go on holiday in Forte dei Marmi. But I do not know what the future holds".

The Guardian is my favorite pod of the week, always my first listen. Philipe Auclair (the French chap on this weeks) has a lot of love for us, mentioned us a few weeks ago too. Most of the decent journos like us TBF, ever since we came back up to the PL many have been clamouring about the way we play football and were all very glad to see us stay up.