JackanorySFC

Along with the poster earlier that has a mate that watches Serie A a lot, I have an interest in European football and Serie A in particular. Last year I watched Bologna play Juve at Stadio Renato (scene o my favourite England goal, Platt vs Belgium) and the player that stood out miles above anyone else was Gaston. It reminded me of the performance Lavezzi out in the first time I went over to watch Napoli, he was that good. Ever since I have kept an eye on Bologna and they are seriously struggling without him. He was one of the stand out performers last season (I was watching Bologna purely to see how he was getting on along with Napoli due to Lavezzi) and genuinely one of the brightest talents in European football. In the games I've seen him (everyone except West Brom) he is clearly the most talented player in our side - and by a distance. His touch and vision are on a different planet, he will lose the ball a lot, as he takes chances. I personally don't mind this but don't expect Jack Cork esque 5/ 10 yard sideways passes (which I don't have a problem with, our build up play needs that patience in it), he (similar to Suarez in a way) looks forward whenever he gets the ball and finds the gap behind the defence for a striker to run on to. The sort of thing you can't coach. He has impressed me with his strengh and ability to win the ball back, funnily enough he was seen as "dirty" in the Italian league and picked up a lot of bookings, the robustness of the Prem allows him to use his strength more without the ramifications of continental football. I am certain he will be the difference between staying up and going down, I rate him that much. We have a lot of ignorance in this country about the way continental sides/ players play. This is one of the reasons, in my opinion, why our national team continues to fail and our club sides get battered in the UEFA cup. We need to be more patiant with players and accept they will lose the ball now and again, I like a side made up in the Big Mac way of roadsweepers and violinists, Gaston will be sold in the next 2 years at (my guess) a substantial profit, I expect after Uruguay do very well in Brazil, enjoy him why we have him - I never expected little old Saints who I grew up supporting would sign someone as big as Gaston, and I intend to enjoy watching him play. Up the f***ing Saints.

Hope what your saying is right LGTL, could be different in different parts of the country when you hear what VFTT says though? Would be a shame as School football is a cracking leveller, if you played a decent level at weekends you'd have serious amounts of pride to play for at a school game against your weekend team mates. Also pride in your part of the City doing well against another - oh, and of course getting to leave school an hour early for away games! Remember playing a Hants Cup game against a school called Cove (I think) up Fleet way, was had a tasty side but they had this lump playing for them, full grown beard, hairy chest (had his top off smoking before the game) etc, quite a sight when your 14! Managed to beat them 1 nil though. Also remember playing Toynbee at their school and the game being abandoned due to some ex pupil riding a Moto-X bike onto the pitch during the game and doing donuts, and playing a skate team at home in the Hants Cup and loads of loons from my year that didn't even like football rocking up after school as they were hoping for a tear up! Happy days....

Due to being incredibly bored with the monotony of the doom and gloom vs happy clappy rubbish this board has been drowning in lately, thought I'd start a thread on that age old Southampton lad passage of right - the chance to play for Southampton Schoolboys. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/10037604.Southampton_Boys_name_unchanged_squad_for_Trophy_test/ Just saw the above link in the Echo and it reminded me of Southampton Schoolboy trials at held at Redbridge School, I got put through with 4 others from my school but didn't make the cut despite scoring a hat-trick in my trial game (not bitter at all...). In my year group only Brian Stock went on to make a career out of it although the goalkeeper Gareth Barfoot played/ still plays decent semi pro standard as did Dean Higgins. Strange how things have changed, back then St George's didn't have a particularly decent side but they have 3 lads in the current Schoolboys team. The best sides in Southampton when I was a nipper were Wildern (my school, and largely because of Stocky), Toynbee, Bitterne Park but the best side was definitely Weston Park Boys. Always used to be up there in the national tournaments. Anyone play for Soton school boys? My brother (who posts here) did and won a trophy at the Dell. The absolute pinnacle for a nipper growing up in the City then. However these days with lads on contracts at 7 years old I wonder if the clubs allow them to play for Schoolboy/ Tyro rep teams?

This Dig geezer is clearly a skate, he's even more blatant than my alter ego on POL! I'll indulge someone else though that questioned Gaston's resale value. Last season, along with Napoli I kept a close eye on Bologna, I went to see them play Juve and kept tabs on them purely because of Gaston in the same way I've kept an eye on Napoli ever since watching them play Lazio and seeing Levezzi tear it up - he stood out just as much! Basically Gaston was one of the top players in Serie A last season, based on his performances at club and country level we got a fantastic deal for him at £14m. He is young, strong, possesses a powerful shot, can head the ball, great first touch but his biggest attribute is his vision. When he begins to get on the same wavelength as some of our strikers he could be the difference between going down and staying up. He isn't the quickest though. We will make a profit on him eventually, I hope we keep him for a while before cashing in though as he will definitely entertain us!

Cracking post fella, really informative and actually reminded me of why I visit football forums when I get a chance. Was at Athletic Club's ground last week, brilliant location slap bang in the middle of town and looks like a proper dive from the outside (couldn't go inside as the tours/ shop etc were shut due to their 4hr lunch break). Athletic Club are a huge club though, basically a national side (Basque) so would need a hell of an offer to get him here, also with the cultural differences, time to adapt formations/ players and the unwillingness of fans in this country to go anything other than 442 it would be tough to convince him.

Redknapp is a moron that I don't want anywhere near this club. I hate him for a s*** load of reasons. I will personally hand my season ticket back if he comes back, I won't set foot in St Marys whilst that c*** is associated with our club. Cheating with the skates to buy the FA Cup Relegating us Being the most blatant media whore in football The way he destroyed the confidence of our young players culminating in Mansfield away His willingness to accept praise when things go well and deflect blame when things go wrong The acceptance of a load of morons on this site that "you can't deny he's a top top manager" despite a pretty abysmal managerial record including almost bankrupting 3 clubs The ready made excuses he will have in place when he takes over I genuinely hate him. Oh, and by the way what a bunch of fickle bed wetters a load of you are eh? Nigel an Nicola between them have overseen back to back promotions and free flowing, attacking football not seen at Saints for years. Yeah we're shipping goals but man up and get behind our club eh? Retards saying Lallana should be dropped, we should sign Harry etc are the sort of disgusting "win at all costs" post Euro 96 morons that think because they won the league on Football Manager they know it all, you make me sick and ashamed to be Southampton. I've been to every game home and away this season and despite some frustration at the end of the game on Saturday the reaction of the fans has been decent, unfortunately boards like this expose the bed wetting wimps that need some sort of platform to promote their warped views. Man up and get behind the lads. Up the Saints!

Not as much as that I believe, it was around 2,300 individual pledges and about a million from HNW individuals. No way is it anywhere near 5k by now, they are begging people to chip in £10 each on POL! As soon as I receive my prospectus I'll be pulling my "investment" as well.

I'm a pledge maker, fully £100 deep member of the PST, personally I'm pretty pleased this has finally happened as I could do with that £97.50 before Christmas - got a weekend in Liverpool to pay for too! Serious the timing is a nightmare for them, not a case of finding £900 but a lot will NEED the £97.50. Will wait for the phantom prospectus first though as I could do with a laugh. If anyone wants to know why I pledged well it's pretty simple - I hate the ****s with a passion, nothing will hurt them more than getting so close then realising their support is full of big mouthed pub bores with empty wallets looking for the first opportunity to bass the buck and bail out. Liquidate then in Feb please. No mercy. Up the Saints!

As Dan says it's easy just to use a kids ST or match day ticket. Yes there is a sensor that displays an amber light when a concession goes in but only 1 bloke checking 4 turnstiles that is rarely looking anyway. Every game I get a little more annoyed I have an adult ST as I keep seeing the 16 y/o responsible for checking the lights picking his nose not even looking.

The Guardian lose huge amounts of cash (the Scott Group are "profit seeking, not profit reliant"), has shocking circulation figures but excellent online traffic (although very hard to monetise as 90% of traffic is overseas). If any newspaper dumps paper and ink it will be them. Guido Pawkes tweeting about it now so I suspect there's some truth in it. Telegraph Media are doing well, News Int have the cash cow that is the current bun, Desmond is a p**** but makes money (somehow) out of the Express & Star, the Mirror Group are a car crash but have a terrible online presence and the Mail Group have maintained strong circulation figures and remains (rightly or wrongly) the voice of middle England. I believe local papers will be the first to go, rumours are the Pompey News will go weekly soon. Advances in tech will ultimately decide the fate of newspapers, plenty of people say "I love the feel of a newspaper" but when 4G kicks in and tablets get better and more affordable and mobiles even better, future generations will use emigrate further away from traditional media. Right now though, as a country we read way more newspapers than any other country on Earth per capita and have a far wider choice. Both a good thing.

Plenty of decent places for a drink out East. Some great old fashioned boozers in Wapping (2 stops and 2 mins from Canada Water which is on the Jubilee line) either side of the tube station. Captain Kidd is my personal favourite, has own brewery, cheap lager (£3 a pint ffs)/ ale and used to hang pirates from there! Old fashioned cobbled streets and wharf buildings round there, class. Bethnal Green a decent shout too, Mile End has some good boozers just off the High Street and even around Tower Hill on the Minories loads of good bars and easy access to Upton Park on the District Line. Not forgetting Shoredich and it's "gentlemans bars" (after the game for me personally). I'd avoid around the ground personally, no real trouble there, been to both the Queens and the Anne Boleyne a few times and the trouble with them is they are packed and s*** holes, far better boozers to check out in the capital in my opinion.

Weird, has not been on the online booking system at any point pre or during the season. We had to go to the stadium and specifically ask for our seats and still do if we have "guests" with us. I'm block 2 and always plenty of seats around me. Genuinely think the club (and more importantly the fans) are missing out here as, being right next to the away fans and not with the mongs in the Northam, it's a pretty desirable location that I believe would be snapped up pretty quickly.

I think the points/ games attended system is absolutely fair. We were told in the summer what the score would be, I've done every away game and it's the same faces as previous seasons (and certainly will be at West Brom in a few Mondays), the idea that a load of people have suddenly decided to do away games is simply not true. Even Arsenal was easy enough to get a ticket for, those moaning are clearly terrible at organisation. This way is loads fairer than the old system, I couldn't get a ticket for Cardiff in 03 despite going to every home and 15 always (inc all Cup games), I didn't moan I just rocked up to Cardiff with a wallet full of cash for a tout. Our support is weak, man up, stop moaning and get up to the Hawthorns and get ya chances of future tickets up so you can stop boring me with sob stories about Tranmere away!

Dunno mate, have to say I have a serious dislike for him for a few reasons. The main one being in his own autobiography he mentions "almost swerving my Bentley off the road" when "only" offered £55k a week by the club that developed him and made him an England regular. Oh, and I've always had a pathological hatred of him that I can't shake due to thinking (wrongly in hindsight) that Bridgey should have had the England left back spot. Would say Terry comes across as a nastier bloke and is clearly slightly mental (I'm referring to him wearing the full Chelsea kit inc shin pads for the Euro Cup final so he could be photographed) but Cashley is pretty despised in the game. Top left back that would never sign for us in a million years btw.

Agree with Jamo, hear the odd racist shout at St Marys over the years, but it is always some toothless 50+ year old in a denim jacket and a tatt on their face straight out of Winch nick on his own scaring the **** out of the replica top over a McKenzie hoodie wearing 17 year olds at the back of the Northam that like to bait away fans for 90 minutes then melt into the evening after the game... anyway I digress.... I remember one hilarious report in one paper (I think, shamefully, it was the Sun but I could be wrong) where a black member of some committee or other watched a Millwall v Brighton game at the Den and wrote at how shocked he was that racism was so obvious. No one sat near him (in a half empty stadium with spare seats everywhere) and the crowds were chanting "Seig Heil" throut the game (was actually Brighton fans singing "Seagulls". This is the kind of idiotic rubbish that taints football fans, in fact I'll google it now - must be link somewhere... *hold on* ha ha, brilliant stuff, full article + apology here, this is what we as football fans have to put up with from no nothing do gooders that hold us in contempt: http://www.millwall-history.org.uk/Press_Coverage5.htm The issue of people like Olly Holt of the Mirror and his obsession with the "Rooney Rule" because of not enough black Managers in football infuriates me, hate positive discrimination and "black" (not that I give a **** what colour someone's skin is as long as they can do the job) Managers have been given chances in football but have made a pigs ear of it in Barnes & Ince's cases (Ince was on Football Focus last Saturday and came across as a punch drunk moron in the Merson mould saying "you know" 15+ times). Houghton has done a decent job, never even considered his skin colour, and that goes back to what Jamo says: certain "pressure groups" make big issues out of non issues to make their roles tenable.

Spurs, our big rivals! Can't wait to sing "who the f*** are Tottenham Hotspurs" at them lol! Also, don't miss out on an opportunity to belt out "are you watching Glen Hoddle"!

Randomly a mate of mine actually fitted Cortese's new bathroom early this year. Didn't like the "trendy" square toilet in place and got it replaced with something more "traditional". Has done a few jobs at NC's place, says his missus makes a decent brew and he gets paid on time so (sorry to not have anything bad to say) a perfect customer.

lol funny as f***! Top wind up mush. Personally I'll be first off the landing craft leading a beachhead assault on Sandbacks at the first hint of that disgusting saggy faced t*** ever returning to put the boot into our club after doing his best to destroy it before. On the subject of fans dinners, seemed before the feedback was universally positive, the only sniping coming from the losers jealous because they weren't invited. Probably the same people that don't get invited round their "mates" at News Years as they can't hold their ale and rant about mental conspiracy theories like Princess Diana, 9/11 and Cortese ruining Saints just for a laugh or sommit (not seen any more plausible reason put up by these hateful psycos).

Think you've answered your own question there Steve. The recent bluster about 80% of pledges paying up is exactly that, bluster. Makes their negotiating position stronger than if they get a 40%+ drop out which I personally predict. It could actually get rather embarrassing for a lot of "pledgers", all well and good giving it the big one in the pub and joining a syndicate, anyone that has collected for a stag do/ holiday/ away day from a large group knows there are always a few with good intentions but a nightmare to get to pay up! As for the full pledgers, finding £900 that you have to accept you will never see again when you can just anonymously say "sorry, give me back the £97.50 as I can't afford it due to X reason" will be just too big a temptation. A lot has happened since the first big waves of pledges were made, and it's become quite clear that PFC is a bottomless pit that needs wiping out and starting again in the lower leagues run properly.

Best not be, seeing as I am one of the "bestest" that made a pledge (ready to withdrawal at the last minute whilst laughing at their feeble attempts to get me to pay up) I'll insist on seeing all the details of where "my money" is going to be spent. What % of take ups did they expect? Wasn't it based on some lazy Pareto 80% take up/ 20% drop out number? It's been a long time since the original members pledged, a lot can happen in that time, boilers break, Car repairs, daughters get pregnant, redundancies at work etc. Think my excuse will be a simple "decided to take up kite surfing in an attempt to join Team GB in their assault of Brazil in 2016 and sponsorship is hard to come by". Will email now asking, no actually demanding transparancy and see what response I get!

Same here, over 200 posts and reached vary levels of "likes". Throw in a few comments about being the "bestest" and obvious stuff after games agreeing with others about certain players performances and having a go at the ref/ other team taking "us" far more seriously than others in this division, before throwing the odd upper cut about disappointing crowds, over paid players and getting rid of Appy. Ain't rocket science, waiting for Fratts to pick me out, seeing as I've been registered there for a number of years I look forward to his feeble attempts and getting rid of a few innocent Skates as "cannon fodder" before he gets to me!

Cheers! Up the Towers (feint Wire ref there;))!

Just drove past Millbronx Towers and see the roof has been painted red & white. Didn't notice it before today, is it official or did someone have a few (dozen) spare tines of red & white dulux? Personally think it looks quality, hopefully someone'll do the same with Redbridge Towers - Good advert as you come into the City from the West. The people of Thornhill need to up their game and get busy to upgrade the view on the way in from the East!

I listen to Radio 6 at work (bit of Blondie on at the mo) and podcasts on the train to work. Normally football related (the Ramble, Guardian football, Times "the Game" etc). I am still scarred from having to accept lifts to work from my old dear in my late teens and having to listen to Wogan on the way to work, Radio 2, cords, facial hair, a sensible car and real Ale are not for me Actually didn't mind Moyles, probably as he was the last link to being 14 years old for a 30 year old like me and wasn't scared to slate a guest or have a rant about something completely off topic.... Grimmy just sums up "image" trendy tight jean wearing w@nkers that mince about Primrose Hill pretending they can have a drink with other equally effeminate metrosexual weaklings.

Ramirez head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch, absolute no brainer. 4 world class through balls, what vision that lad has! Strong on the ball and exceptional first touch. Can't believe I'd live to see saints sign someone as obviously World class as him!