cambsaint

The middle of the league has concertina'd, and with a few games left every point is now very important. The difference in money between finishing eighth or ninth and fourteen or fifteenth is very considerable and amounts to onre reasonable player. Puel and Saints need to realise this and start playing more effectively and scoring goals. His interviews are stultifyingly boring and tiresome- are his team-talks similar? Some of the football we've played has been as well.

Some ridiculous over-reactions about the defeat today. A team of above average players assembled for very little money was well beaten by a team of world-class players assembled at massive cost. I thought tht as well as Kompany, De Bruine (apologies sfor spelling) was class, started most of the dangerous moves and also to my surprise completely stifled Redmond. One positive I thought Jack Stephens looked very good for a very young centre-back, I just hope he progresses well. Central defenders usually mature much older. I can only watch on TV, but apart from some abysmal Europa Cup games, this is the only time I have seen us completely outclassed. We have to accept that our realistic ambition is to win division two ie 6th to 12th in the Premier League, and try to win a cup and qualify for the Europa Cup. Only massive investment can change this. Realistically we punch above our weight, a relatively small City admittedly with an affluent catchment area, a medium size stadium and a club that had always been a lower division club until the sixties and was virtually bankrupt a few years ago. I think it is too early to pass judgement on Puel, admittedly a moderate start ,but he must be allowed to form his own team, if no better at the end of next season then we should probably look elsewhere. (I remember our most successful manager was hardly greeted with praise in his first season and Mike Channon took at least a couple of years to mature into a genuine international class player. Of course money has changed everything.

He looks ungainly and inflexible this season. I discussed this yesterday watching it on TV and I said I thought he had back problems, as he was so slow to get down to the ball. He is of course an absolute man-mountain, when he stands next to most players he dwarfs them. I don't recall him looking so slow and ungainly last season. in fact he used to be a good shot-stopper and in the England set-up. I think a leg problem would prevent him from playing but a niggling back injury would have the effect of slowing him down. The only other reason I can think of is that the analysts have realised that he is slow to get down to balls close to his feet and he is being deliberately targetted. However I think there is a physical reason for his lack of form but he is just fit enough to play. We'll know if he has an op in the close season. If not then he is just too big, inflexible and slow.

The guide dog would probably have got the decision right!

Goal difference is nearly always a very accurate indicator of final position. In the late nineties and early noughties when many seasons were a battle against relegation it was very accurate, and I usually knew how anxious I should be by our goal difference. Since I have discovered this it has been very accurate at predicting final positions. However there are a couple of teams this season that may prove to be an exception.

It is clear from this correspondence the football clubs need to take disabled and partially mobile fans more seriously. At the moment Saints class disabled fans as those receiving a very high level of benefit. This leaves a large number of fans with lesser disabilities that qualify for a blue badge, eg severe osteo-arthritis, mild angina and heart conditions and many others. Those over seventy may well not wish to be involved directly in the hurly-burly of many away fans, while being forced into sitting with them. This is not meant as a criticism, when I was young the same problem was usually solved by older fans choosing to sit in the stands and younger ones choosing to stand. It is an unintended consequence of all seater stadia. It should be easily able to be solved, either MK or The Emirates-I can't remember which, had a section at the top for disabled and an enabler. If clubs won't take it seriously then perhaps an association of less able fans should be formed to take legal action, this would have great sympathy in Parliament and the courts.

Not all disabled fans need wheelchairs. There many conditions which make it difficult to walk distances or stand for any length of time. I have a blue badge and can limp around.

Had exactly the same problem at Arsenal last year. I'm completely unable to stand for more than a few minutes. Arsenal steward understanding but could only ask if anybody would move. Several able bodied male louts refused, but a very kind man and his wife moved for my son and I and I had a front seat. From my experiences of Norwich, which I didn't actually attend as the club forgot to post my tickets and as I am very immobile didn't want to have to mass around getting them from the club. (In the event as Norwich supporters didn't turn up it would have probably been OK.), the club can ensure you get front seat tickets. Don't forget that after the recent bus ruling, club employees and the club probably have to make supporters move to accommodate disabled supporters. The High court ruled that a bus driver must make a passenger move from a disabled seat instead of just ask. The reason was that a woman with a push chair was occupying the disabled space and refused to move. After the ruling as I understand it (I'm not a lawyer so may be wrong) the bus driver must make a person incorrectly occupying a disabled seat move). This ruling probably has enormous implications for all football clubs.

If Foster has a problem, it is that a man of his immense build cannot get down quickly to balls on the ground near him. He is usually an excellent shot stopper otherwise. Perhaps he is being targetted with low ground shots. Davis= the criticism is laughable, although I can only watch on TV, this gives one a more analytical and probably better view than at the ground. Saints have been on TV many times this season and I and the match analysts have a very high opinion of him.

Clutching at straws I know, but perhaps VVD's injury is healing better than expected. Only logical reason I can see for not getting CB cover in.

Living over 150 miles away, and having not been to many games in the past few years due to three serious illnesses inc prostate ca, although son and I have had memberships and being a fan from early sixties and made most games work permitting until I moved away for a new job, I regret that I shall presumably miss this one. Its a pity as Wembley has good blue badge facilities and I could actually get there. I have fond memories of watching the last League Cup Final with my late father, he didn't go to many as he couldn't stand and worked most Saturdays, (another reason I can't go to matches as I can no longer stay with my parents- I used to make a handful of home matches every season when they were in Winchester). I'd love to watch this one with my son but haven't got much hope of doing it. And I agree that it is very unfair that away matches aren't taken into consideration as that is the reason son has membership and I had apart from this year when I had a knee replacement, which meant there wasn't much point,as I have only just become mobile again.

The tension in the second half reminded me of 1976, waiting for the whistle. young Sims run was brilliant for such a young player and Long remembered how to score In the words of Claude--"Fantastique" repeated about 10 times in a minute or so.

Perhaps not great biy definitely "Fantastique". He was obviously delighted in his interview as I lost count of the number of fantastiques he said.

The old memories that stand out for me are the transformation of the streets around Highbury from working class to million £ ++ houses for the metropolitan wa88kers. In about 67 when we even saw a lady in apron and hair scarf polishing her doorstep red after a match while avoiding Arsenal thugs by going a roundabout way to Finsbury Park. In 64 my cousin took me to Burnley, and to a rural Winchester lad it looked like the dark satanic mills of a Lowrie painting, as did Blackburn in 67. Not sure that they have changed much except the mills have closed to be replaced by warehouses. For a birthday I and my son watched a European Cup tie in the Eternal City Rome, my favourite city in Europe. IMO nowhere can beat it, and superb public transport. I rather liked Blackpool FC where an uncle retired to in the early sixties. Stoke before the evil witch ruined the Potteries was an interesting place from an industrial archeology point of view, with the pot banks, coal mines and steelworks all nearby. Norwich and Ipswich are quite interesting places, Norwich more so, but if you look above the modern shopfronts in Ipswich you see some excellent architecture. In the sixties the Dell would probably have been interesting for away supporters with views of the docks and ships funnels as you walked to the Station. Also much closer to the City Centre than most. An interesting post, but in my away going hay-day you spent too much time avoiding the home team's thugs to enjoy many views.

Badly bruised heels and feet can take a long time to heal and are very painful, as I can personally verify. When young and fit I bruised a heel and couldn't walk properly let alone run or play any games for a whole uni term Even with the intensive care and physio a pro footballer will get a badly bruised foot may take weeks and the foot is very complicated with many small bones that can break easily I'm amazed Vardy got away with it as on TV it looked like a deliberate hack, with no chance of getting to the ball !

I certainly don't think he's out of his depth. It may be that either other clubs find the diamond too easy to defend against, or that we don't have the right players to make a success of it. I will however be very upset (to say the least) if we don't bring a specialist striker in this window. We need a short term fix for a striker and a central defender. The long term can be dealt with in the summer.

The cost of going to matches must have made it difficult for a lot of younger fans. How many school kids can go to Prem matches on their own these days, unless they have very generous parents. In my day almost all of the noise came from under 25s. More mature family men are unlikely to sing themselves hoarse especially in an area like Southampton where the catchment area is mainly ABand C (horrible way to categorise people, I know) but I avoid terms like working class as everybody who can afford football is a worker, or retired. Now I'm an unfit seventy year old when I get to games with my son, I'm certainly not going to do more than a couple of verses of "Oh when the Saints" for old times sake. I see quite a lot of more mature fans on the few occasions I get to away matches, (unfortunately I no longer have any family living in Southampton I can stay with, like I used to when my parents were alive.) A lot of the atmosphere at the Dell in my youth used to come from the stands stamping their feet on the wooden floor as well which is gone now, mainly because of the appalling acoustics of two open ends. "

Yorkshire is only twenty miles away. There are some nice pubs in Bronte country west of Colne! Its proximity to Yorkshire is the only good thing about Burnley. Surprisingly my cousin and his friends who lived in West Yorkshire near Skipton used to support Burnley rather than Leeds or Bradford. I went there with him in about 64 (before the Mills closed) and it was amazing to a Winchester lad, just like a Lowry painting.

On TV it looks as if he finds it difficult to get down to low shots near his body. Has this weakness been spotted and is he being targetted. I know he can be a marvellous shot stopper as last year at The Emirates he saved a shot from Sanchez that was little short of amazing and the equal of anything I saw Shilton do. I was sitting right in line with the shot and couldn't believe he had saved it. I suspect he is short of confidence, but should come good, Remember the old saying form is temporary but class is permanent. Goal keepers like batsmen at cricket get no second chances. I detest the crowd getting on the back of players, but its regrettably not a new thing at Southampton, I can remember Sydenham getting a lot of stick back in the sixties and there seems to be a disappointing tendency to get on players backs. Even Channon got a hard time when he was young. I worry that Redmond's confidence could be destroyed as he is still very young. Support the team

Realistically we cannot keep him anu longer than he wants to stay. I am sure he will interest Real Madrid, Barca, as well as the usual PL suspects. If we are lucky we will get about £50 mill and he will earn over £150K a week. We obviously cannot keep him at those levels. Remember that Levy is struggling to keep a £80K a week ceiling, so we must be realistic, be grateful we had him for a couple of his formative years, in which he has become one of the best if not the best CB in the PL We must also thank him for doing the decent thing and signing a long contract so he won't go on the cheap. I can never understand why fans get emotional about players moving on. The players have about ten years to maximise their income and cannot be blamed for placing themselves and their family first. Most of those who criticise players such as Lallana would move a for a couple of thousand a year let a few million. I hope he will stay this season, and we may be fortunate as he doesn't have to go for the first bidder but can wait till the club he reall fancies come in for him. I expect he'll be in Spain next season. As for loyalty, never expect any loyalty from an employer these days. There is no marality left anymore.

Last night on 505 one of the ex-footballer pundits said: "They're not going to win the league at this point in time. Firstly it is impossible to win the league at about 20.00 on a Friday in August, and if he meant "this season" why didn't he say that. "At this point in time" is a very long winded and extremely stupid way of saying "now", and I just cannot understand its attraction to the semi-literate; even more annoying is that occasionally otherwise intelligent people use it. One of my other pet hates is :"I've seen them given." A particularly silly way of describing a close decision, that usually comes down to the opinion of the referee. A semantic pedant, and I'm very glad to see that I'm not alone.

I opened this thread as I thought it was reminiscing about when we hammered Wolves 9-3 in sept 65. The highest number of goals I have ever seen in a league football match.

I really don't know why supporters always blame the club. If a player really wants to go then unless he is an honourable individual like Schneiderlin who I expect had an agreement he could go next window, then it isn't really worth keeping them. Mane has a particular talent, but I don't think he's a team player. Pity he's going because he was very exciting to watch when on song, but his body language often left much to be desired. I'm sure we can recruit another good player, perhaps not as individually talented, but more of a team player. It appears to be a very good price though.

Shame there were no other bidders I bet we put him around. If so we could have told Levy that after Alderwiereld he is persona no grata at St Marys and told not to bother. Just hope that we've got the balls to demand 100% cash up front.

RIP I'm surprised he was only 70, just two years older than me. I really wonder if heading those heavy sodden leather balls has led to so many old players dying relatively young.