rshephard3

Too early? At 22 years old? How long could you possibly justify his huge wages without him playing for the first team? We may find he leaves and smashes it in a few years. We could equally find he's worth £2 million if he sits at Saints seeing out his contract for the next few years. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but is never worth a damn. We can find better quality, more gifted players for lower transfer fees and wages. If he had a good season last term then I must've missed that. Cash in and move on. Who cares if he bangs in a few goals back in Italy. I personally think there is a very good chance he's at the peak of his value right now and I'd happily see him on his way. A player of his reputation really should be able to hold onto the ball for 3 seconds and realise the pace of the game around him. IMO this hasn't been the case since he's been at Saints.

This isn't correct. Demand and supply in any market means that unlike you suggest, if the club dropped the price by just £1, more people would come. Noone would consciously think.. "Oh that was my marginal £1 difference so I'll attend" but through simple economics we know that a price decrease will always lead to a demand increase. My friend and I were discussing exactly this on Saturday and we came to the same conclusion as the OP. Some people have been priced out of watching Saints. Ticket prices are rising when real wages are falling so this should not be a surprise to anyone.

All I can say is good luck with your ticket/appeal. This is just another example of pathetic jobsworths on a power trip. Other examples of such ridiculousness include bottle tops on bottled drinks (causing every one ending up dribbling down the stands) and forcing seating at the front of the northam/blocks 1 and 2 despite thousands of Saints and away fans standing further back in the stand. It's fine to stumble around having drunk 6 pints in half an hour before kick off then shout agressive abuse whilst spitting over everyone around you and diminishing the enjoyment of those around you. But a sip from a mates hip flask and it's ejection from the ground. It sometimes feels like everyone involved in football is doing their very best to ruin the enjoyment of the very people who make it tick, the fans. As a side note, if a half decent selection of lager at a reasonable pub price and a couple of decent large screens in the concourse were available, maybe people would be more inclined to stick to the petty rules and have a drink there. Instead they begrudgingly see it as a last possible option and know they'll get bummed on price and quality when they get there.

Fair point on the headless chicken thing. Chaplow worked hard but never hugely impressed with the ball. I really would love Ramirez to come good. I believe we have a fantastic midfield with all sorts of options. Only a matter of time before we start turning teams over. On another day we'd have beaten that West Ham team 3-0 and everyone would have been full of praise for us.

In honesty, Puncheon was frustrating in his inconsistency but on his game could cause good defences problems. I'd probably be indifferent between those two. I think we need to hold onto Rodriguez. I like his very unenglish traits of taking players on, having the balls to try a trick and always looking for a forward pass. To be fair on Ramirez the same could be said of him, he just makes it clear he doesn't gave a damn if he loses the ball and considers it someone elses problem to win the thing back.

He's consistently better than Ramirez. Saints fans so badly want to have a love in with a multi million pound South American but the fact is that he's been dog useless since coming to the Prem. Rodriguez didn't have his best game yesterday but the whole team would have looked much higher on confidence if his excellent pull back had been converted by our new superstar. He is working hard and just needs something to go his way. On endeavour alone I'd rather see him start than Ramirez. We're not good enough to afford a number 10 that doesn't break sweat and loses the ball more often than he retains it.

Does out of your depth now include managing the large majority of games for a side finishing comfortable mid table, well clear of relegation in your first season back in the prem for the best part of a decade? Wow. If that counted as out of your depth then Holloway drowned the moment CP secured promotion! All IMHO of course. The comparison to the start of last season is far too harsh on Adkins and far too kind to MP for any number of reasons.

Surely the security code should be 4-4-2. Or, in the interests of the 21's century 4-5-1* *with 2 of the central players dropping back when opposition has the ball and 2 going forward when in possession etc

Agreed. Barnsley last night was an impossibility for most people.

And Fulham. And West Ham. Have some faith

Absolutely. As much at fault as Hart. Was a woeful effort defensively from the non scoring centre forward (albeit playing out wide tonight)

That's what she said

And 6 pounds ?

@Southampton FC Roy Hodgson confirms he both watches football and has a pair of testicles by bringing the best performing, highest scoring English centre forward into the international fold

To make a fraction, the . Would need to go before the figures. I assume you know that. Your current rating is pretty accurate, however. 5 out of 100 was roughly equal to the ratio of good games he had to bad.

Or Hammond. Chaplow is loved for running around a lot and 'getting into players' without ever actually being particularly impressive with the ball. IMHO.

Correct. Now Mourinho has said he wants him in the mix he is about as unrealistic as you can get.

I personally think he's more than happy at Saints and will stay for sure. I also think he's head and shoulders our most influential player. But I would be surprised if Sociedad could get nowhere near his wage demands. Does anyone know roughly what we pay Morgan? Circa £35/£40k p/week maybe?

Cardiff talking to Tom Ince after £8 million bid accepted. Interesting move if it goes ahead.

I wonder if they are just playing games or actually want to sign him. They've highlighted the position they want to strengthen and promptly put in a bid about 8 million short of a reasonable valuation of him. Wouldn't be surprised if they ended up using Evra for another season but taking Shaw this summer to ease him into things. Hope this doesn't happen but Ferguson (who will still be making the big decisions) won't want to see Utd miss out on another good young Southampton left back.

IF this is the kit, I note 2 things: 1) It turns out I actually liked the last 2 Saints shirts. 2) For the first time in years and years I'm not going to buy a Saints shirt at the start of the season primarily because it looks like a really ****e club Rugby shirt. It also doesn't help that it has no stripes. No block stripes, no pinstripes, no nothing. Hopefully it is a training shirt and a basic, striped shirt is in the pipeline without chavvy gold stencil toss all over it.

I agree. But Ronaldo's and Bale's excel exponentially between 21 and 25, he might just be the next big thing. Regardless of the fee, I just don't think he's an unrealistic target.

Wanyama isn't an unrealistic signing. He's 21 and wouldn't get into a first team in the top 5 consistently. So his next best bet would be to go to an interim club before that level with a focus on youth and aspirations to finish in the top half, there aren't very many options if he wants to stay in the UK are there?!

Probably what most of us are thinking, that since he was given captaincy he's been utter tripe and one of the weakest links in the team. Mr Southampton/academy lad come good sentimental stuff aside, he's a player who has been integral in getting us to where we are but not one who will have much more than a squad role if we want to step up again. IMHO.

McDonalds: Ba da ba ba ba.. We're Lovren it.