Simon3737

Sounds like I missed out on watching that one. Is it on YouTube or Snapnonsence? Lol

Keep the manager. Sack the players.

I’d watch!

There aren’t many journalists brave enough to ask the probing question “tell us how impressed you are by the facilities at Staplewood”. He’s the next Paxman!

Are we playing 343 now?

Yes, this seems ridiculous. Surely, throwing flares or smoke bombs is a very serious criminal offence that should be given the maximum penalty we can give (plus the police should arrest perpetrators). There were pictures a few days ago of a young boy injured by a flare being thrown at a football match. The club’s penalty for setting off flares and smoke bombs is literally lower than the penalty for lighting a cigarette. I’m pretty sure that my lungs would be less damaged by passive smoking from standing next to a cigarette smoker than from a smoke bomb being set off next to me!

I can’t see Mr Gao aspiring to become an anti-immigration West Midlands MEP!

I can’t see that particular model working. I think the domestic top leagues will prevent it. Keeping the Europa League seems especially ridiculous. If in 2024/25, Chelsea win the Premier League, but finish 8th in their Super League group and get relegated, while Arsenal finish 2nd in the Premier League (but weren’t in the 2024/25 Super League), then I assume the following would happen: - Arsenal would get promoted to the 2025/26 Super League to replace Chelsea (who’ve just won the Premier League ahead of them) - Chelsea would be put in the 2025/26 Europa League - If Chelsea finish 20th in the 2025/26 Premier League, but reach a Europa League semi-final then they’ll get repromoted back to the Super League and relegated to the Championship at the same time. Are UEFA or Jeff Bezos (or even the upcoming sporting mega-company LD Sports) really going to force such nonsense on us?

Although I wish this wasn’t true, the fact is that the money in the Premier League is BECAUSE of the Big-6 clubs. The vast majority of Premier League viewers, TV subscribers, advert watchers etc support a Big-6 club and this is why all the advertisers flock to them (financially, it is no longer that important that very few of these supporters actually attend live matches). If the Big-6 broke away to form a European Super League, then the money would rapidly drain out of the Premier League. In a sporting sense, I think this would be a good thing as the gap between the Premier League and Championship would shrink drastically and the Premier League would become very competitive (like the Championship is now). Although, winning the Premier League would become a realistic ambition for a team like Saints, it would be seen by the media and Big-6 fans as equivalent to winning the League Cup now. It would just be seen as qualifying for a place in next year’s Super League. For example, I spoke to a few Arsenal fans before the summer who all said that they weren’t bothered about winning the Europa League to celebrate winning a trophy. They just wanted a Champions League place. They’d have been just as happy with no trophy and finishing 4th. I think they’re all mad btw, but that’s how Big-6 supporters think now. If we had a Super League, the gap between the Big-6 and the rest of us would grow exponentially. I expect a ‘Big-6 club’ would get relegated from the Super League every year or two and they’d spend a year back in the Premier League when they’d inevitably run away with it Celtic style. I don’t think it would be competitive (like trying to bounce back from relegation to the Championship now). I think the gulf in money will just be too big. My hope is that a Super League won’t happen. The Premier League as a massively successful money making machine and brand and I think advertisers will be nervous of destroying it by creating something untested. I also think there’s an away fans problem. Some Big-6 fans are happy to make 5 or so foreign trips to watch their team in Europe, but I doubt many would go to 17 away games. Anyway, that’s what I think...

FWIW: ———————————Gunn———————————— ——Valery——Bednarek——Yoshida——Bertrand—— ——————Romeu—————Hojbjerg——————— ————JWP—————Boufal———Redmond———— ———————————Adams——————————— Result: 1-2 heroic defeat (Shane Long last minute equaliser followed by Liverpool getting a lucky winner in injury time)

I think the problem is that it’s not as simple as working out who are 2 or 3 best centre halves are and picking them. It’s about the best combination. Ralph mentioned that he likes Stephens because ‘he’s a talker’. I assume that’s why he always picks one of Yoshida or Stephens. I think we need our 2 or 3 centre halves to be a combination of an organiser, a good passer, a big strong tackler/header and someone quick. Ideally we’ll get 2 players who encompass all of these qualities (like Claus & Killer or Fonte & Lovren - or Van D*** on his own), but otherwise we need 3. In the longer-term, I hope that a Bednarek Danso combination will become the answer.

Agree with this. Add yesterday’s weather into the equation too and I think that explains why we were so bad. No need to panic (unless the year turns out to extremely rainy and windy).

Agree with that. I think Ralph’s style makes us literally a ‘fair weather team’ unfortunately. And Burnley’s old fashioned grit style suits a wet weekend in Burnley perfectly. I agree that JWP can’t play a holding role, but I don’t think Lemina is the answer. He’s not exactly a hard working roll your sleeves up type battler is he. He’d have been useless today.

Designs logos for football shirts!

I was just thinking that we may as well keep them as insurance. We may have an injury crisis (or, however unlikely, they may even improve in training and deserve a place). Why not wait until January to sell them both?

I think Lemina and Carrillo will definitely be sold/loaned abroad as they’ve been openly frozen out. The League One/Two transfer window is also still open and I assume Hesketh will be loaned out again or sold. He isn’t even listed on the OS player list anymore (neither is Sam McQueen, but I think he’s got a bad injury atm so not sellable anyway). This leaves us with 23 over-21s and means every player left can get a squad number (I assume these will be announced before Burnley). I don’t think there’s much point in Hoedt or Moi leaving now. They seem integrated in the squad and we couldn’t replace either of them before January anyway.

Is there any way that we can blame this delay on the FA’s Les Reed?

They should do the train animation with the final carriage remaining empty just for a laugh!

8 former Saints in the Squads for the Champions League final!

I think it’s definitely a fitness thing. I believe Ralph will keep us up, but I do worry that our players will be exhausted from the high intensity style by the last month of the season and our results will suffer - just like Pochettino’s first half season. I’m sure Ralph will get them back to Keoman standards of fitness after a pre-season.

Why didn’t we tell Vestergaard to man-mark Crouch as soon as he was subbed on. Surely a perfect match.

Thanks!

My barber’s sister’s dentist told me that Nelly Gao has hated Cedric ever since he spilt some of his Diet Fanta on her shoes. True story!

I blame Eric Black!

Agree with this. Targett has improved, but he’s not great.