Surrey Saint

Went to St Marys College. Mate had a trial for Southampton Boys with Ted Bates. Grandad took me to my first game in 1962 He'd supported them for over 50 years. So have I now.

'Oh dear. It's all going to go horribly wrong.' My pre-season feeling every August since 1962.

OK I'll bite. - Bill Shankly of Larry Lloyd. . . . . Or maybe of Ron Yeats.

D'accord

Went to Championship play off this afternoon with my CP supporting son (yes he 'ought' to be a Saint but born and brought up in South London, - what can I say?). CP support outstanding, 35000 singing throughout. Be good to see a Saints/CP game at Wembley some time,; noise would be terrific. CP team will need a lot of work to stay up; son reckons only three of current squad Premier quality. What did we have this time last year? Five? SRL, Lallana, Cork, Schniederlin, Puncheon (maybe)? Fonte maybe? Have to agree with others that, as things stand, Palace are a good bet to go straight back down.

Brilliant! However, as I recall (but years since I read the play), aren't there a lot of dead bodies on stage at the end of Coriolanus?

Madness.Other words fail.

Vegard Fl. Vaagbo ‏@RBFlemma Am told Southampton is a more likely destination for Vegard Forren, but this story will most likely take yet another turn

Terrific news.

Yep, still can't get in.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach Bale, Adebayor, Friedel & Dembele all have not travelled with #Spurs to Slovenia for various reasons. All will be back to face #SaintsFC.

First game for me this season. Thought we were nervoous and lacking in confidence first half, too many mis hit passes into empty space, too many ill weighted balls. DF looked out of his depth, unsure what to do when he had the ball. Second half much, much better. Clyne a constant dangedr on the left, Yoshida strong and used the ball well and our midfield came in to their own. Would it have been quite so easy had Ireland not gone off? Maybe not but I have no doubt we'd still have won. Impressive to see the team knocking the ball around for fun in the last seven or eight minutes. Clear confidence had returned.

'Saint Harry' Ha ha! You couldn't make it up! Oh . . . wait a minute . . .

Bit sad really. What am I going to do all day now? No more tapping the F5 button. Work I s'pose.

Meanwhile . . . . nothing new on the Ramirez situation? I'm going to miss this thread when the window closes. In fact I'm beginning to get nostalgic for the excitement of late last week already.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach Gaston Ramirez's move to #SaintsFC could be dead once & for all, it seems. Chasing things up as we speak.

Her indoors call from downstairs, 'Have you got a life yet?'

Drums fingers on table languidly, yawns, refreshes page. Repeats endlessly . . . .

Anyone know who this is? Feint Zebra ‏@feintzebra If Gaston Ramirez signs for Southampton, I will defecate on the Kop goal-line at half time against Man City and eat it.

There is something I'm not understanding here. Why would Green want to come to us? What can we offer that WHU can't? I'm assuming he (understandably), feels his talent is equal to CL or Europa League standard. So why take a chance that he might - and only 'might', achieve that in a years time with Saints? He'd surely be better setting his sights on a team qualified for a European competition in the coming season. This is of course an assumption. He may be persuaded that the chuminess of the dressing room and the 'Southampton Way' is what he has been searching for in the past 15 years of his professional life.

Excellent blog. Just voted.

How might my personal expectation mean 'we might be in trouble'? It's an opinion for goodness sake. I am a fan; that's all I am. I have no influence on team selection or the way the team plays. The title of this thread is to do with a guarantee of minimal expectation. Well, I don't want that. How sad is it to accept a 'just good enough' final position before a ball has been kicked? I expect my team to win (otherwise why go to games, why support at all?), that's the name of the game. I get disappointed if they lose. I feel good when they win. Next year I daresay we'll maybe be given the runaround by the Manchester clubs and possibly by the north London ones. I expect us however to win 14 or 15 other games minimum and pick up a few draws. I might be disappointed. So what? Rather risk that than insuring against possible disappointment by accepting the hypothetical 'guarantee' of just avoiding relegation.

Shoot for the stars and we might just get the moon. Too many sides want 'safety'. Where's the fun in that? Let's not mess about, let's expect to be winners. Top 8 finish minimum and FA Cup winners.

Dear oh dear what a poor effort. What is he talking about? Once upon a time I taught English to 11 - 18 year olds. If one of my Fifth years had offered me this blogger's effort I would have given it him back with the request that he rewrite it giving thought to construction of argument.

I'll be in Italy