rshephard3

Good one.

BBC and Sky both reporting 9 months to a year.

This to a word. Why the guy behind me today was fully supportive of Mane while whinging about Tadic today is beyond me. Thought Mane had as ineffective a game as anyone on the pitch. Again.

There could effectively be unlimited availability for Saints fans as there is a huge away area over 2 tiers (For large followings) as Arsenal are never going to have 55k there. General sale just isn't general sale. I got to the point where I thought it's almost like Arsenal and Southampton would just rather not have fans in the stadium! It's a league cup game FFS, just make it a free for all once it goes general sale. You shouldn't even need a login, just a website transaction.

Does anyone else think needing 1 per customer number blah blah is a little bit overkill when the tickets are going on general sale? Surely a 5 ticket limit but a bit more freedom to buy for unlinked mates and sell the remainder of the allocation would work fine. I was amazed when I called the ticket office and they told me that an allocation of over 5k would definitely go to general sale but would still be strictly linked friends/1 per customer basis. It's taken me about 3 visits to website and the usual phone call to a computer says no numpty in the ticket office just to get a few lads to a football match.

Summed up perfectly.

You'd buy as you sold wouldn't you. Then you're in some kind of bargaining position with players coming in and out. That ship has sailed so venting hate at MS at this point seems unproductive.

It's one hell of a lot of decades since contracts meant anything in football. I can understand your stance with the first few departures this summer but the context of the rest of the summer needs to be taken into account here.

I do take that point for sure. I just feel that from his reaction, he was clearly not informed that the club was going to go public with the MS is absolutely not leaving line.

Do you think Morgan would look out of place in the latter stages of the Champions League? If so, we fundamentally disagree.

We owe him the respect he's shown us in 6 years of unwavering service from bottom of League 1 to 8th in the prem. The club can't match his ambition so he leaves. No, I don't want him to leave but we don't always get what we want. Put it this way, if I worked for a company for 6 years helping it to build up from a lowly base then watched poor boardroom management come in and sell a huge amount of talent around me, I'd start taking those calls from recruitment agents.

We have 2 options don't we. Get some more cash in for him or keep him and watch him drop in value, get demotivated and end up on the bench running down an expensive contract. This Club should stand up to the players rubbish only works before a precident has been set with the rest of the first team stars. We can't expect MS to just hang around on the off chance we replace 5 quality first team players on a like for like basis can we? He's just broken into the France first team setup and is currently at a club with a squad fit for a relegation scrap.

Personally think the club owes Morgan more than some f**k wit Yankee chairman going public with his version of events after being here for all of 30 seconds. He's the best all round CM in the Prem and has seen everyone else who holds the first team together leave. This was absolutely predictable. What a miserable summer at SFC.

This. He masters a role that so few players can master.

That was his 26th birthday, what a mad 5 and a half years he's had. My BRFC mate told me about him before the game and I remember being devastated that we let the lower league clogger score the winner against us! Really hope he gets some games at Pool, truly inspiring story.

February 2008, FA Cup 5th round. Bristol Rovers away. The worst I have ever seen a Southampton side play live. It was that evening I remember truly realising what was happening at the club and I now benchmark pretty much everything football related to how I felt after that game. I'm not proud of it but that was the last time I booed the team off the pitch. And I remember the players clapping the away end after the final whistle and the utter deserved abuse that ensued. Bad old days.

I fear you're spot on. This summer is providing plenty of evidence of a totally broken market. I can see why the likes of Stoke & WHU choose to fill their clubs with 30 year old plodders in the knowledge that they will maintain mid table prem football and not have to make wholesale changes every time a transfer window comes along. Ours is a risky strategy as every summer you're replacing about 4 first teamers. Even when a golden season comes along you can't truly compete beyond 8th place. Ah well, wouldn't swap Saints for the world, just a slightly demoralising situation I guess.

Exactly this. Huge show of intent from the club if they pay him what they need to in order to keep him here this summer and beyond. Would be the biggest loss of the summer if he were to go IMO. Very rare talent.

Wonder if this was before or after even the referees agreed he's now just another self important hyped up overpaid footballer.

For some it is that simple, but for others it isn't. I will renew always but increasingly for social reasons rather than football. As far as I can see, English top division football is dead and probably can't be revived. The ultimate dream for the huge majority of top tier fans is to finish comfortably clear of relegation. That does not make for an exciting competition. We all hope to consolidate in the Prem for the sake of the club but to what end?

Absolute legend. I feel pleased that Southampton have played the major role in such a fairy tale of a career. Beyond all the corruption, gold Bentleys, diving etc there is still a place in football for a lad to go from beetroot factory to a WC with England and CL football with his boyhood club.

#bringbackthedon

Realised Cortese's role in the rise of SFC over recent years and done everything they possibly could to keep him at the club, even if that meant offering a huge kitty over the summer for Pochettino to build on success rather than pander to the "Big Clubs". Losing the most business savvy hardest negotiating Exec Chairman in the league was always going to end in tears IMO. Really hope I'm proved wrong, absolutely loved the past 5 years & just hope this isn't a massive step in the wrong direction.

This. With Cortese out of the picture, people like Daniel Levy see clubs like ours in their 'rightful place', bend them over and bully them for their assets. The players all clearly loved working for Poch too. Shame.

#itshappening #bepartofit