Saint86

As depressing as it is to say it, I literally couldn't care less about England or the Euro's currently. Southgate is appalling - I think tactically the worst manager we've had in my football supporting lifetime - and he's being wasted on a side with some of the best players in world football. Its embarrassing. The writing was on the wall / should have been sacked after Croatia 2018, should certainly have gone after that Italy fiasco/surrender at Wembley, and then again after the nations league pre world cup. How he got another world cup and now euros is just mental. There are some absolute dinosaurs at the FA. He's not had one convincing knock out game whilst in charge ffs. The sole blessing perhaps, is that at least with Southgate in charge its almost certain we won't win 😂

I thought a fair few were singing "your defence is terrified"... i don't know if i've now screwed myself over thinking i hear that... but when i watch it back some of the videos, that's often what i can hear 🤣🤣.

I ordered mine on Monday and it arrived yesterday afternoon. You've still got a another 2days, will be fine i reckon!

Some of the comments are golden, had to crack a laugh by the time i got down to these, the guy was playing them like a fiddle. 😂😄

I was also thinking 2-0 to saints, possibly 2-1 i guess.

Cynically, i do think the prem next year will be a hard one to stand up in, whereas the year following that 3 strong sides will get relegated, and the 3 that go up will find it easier 😛. Looking for silver linings. We're beating Leeds on Sunday though so will be irrelevant.

Have I missed it, or are people keeping quiet re predictions for the final? I'm of the opinion that its madness we're being allowed to go into it as even slight underdogs as i'm comfortably off the opinion that we're better than Leeds and have the measure of them. We know their threats, we know how they're going to play, and we're frankly just a better coached and better managed team with a lot more to offer tactically. Yes its a cup final so anything can happen, and yes we're got injuries and will miss Che, but there is no way Leeds should be the standout favourites for this tie imo... Also seen a lot of posts from their fans dismissing our fans, and some even being shocked when they asked united fans about the cup final and finding out we were "quite loud"... I was at the league cup final, and if our fans give anything like that level of support we'll certainly do the side proud for our part. Leeds have chatted a lot of smack about saints this season. Going to be funny if we leave them behind in the Champ come Sunday.

He wants to buy into the club... So come July 5th...

The reality is that about 95% of this forum voted to sack him in one poll this season. Its as laughable now as it was back then! Hopefully, win or lose on the weekend, the playoffs and developing bond between the fans/players/manager etc. will carry us into next year with some momentum.

And this is why you use post shot expected goals minus goals conceded 😎

As a possible away kit, i don't actually hate this - or something like it (although it does feel like it belongs more in Rugby league etc). Gives me vibes of the old Dimplex diagonal away for some reason...

"Post shot expected goals minus goals against" is where its at these days...

I think I am right in saying that they've just been relegated to the equivalence of the conference / national league in this country. I could imagine the fanbase is pretty demoralised!

Perraud (far better than Bree or Manning), ABK, Onuachu, and (obviously) Alcaraz, would all be getting game time for us next season in the champ if they were here. Depending on what happens with Bednarek and TBH, i can see Lyanco in this system as well. We'll have further outgoings this summer (players out of contract being the most obvious one), but the above are a reasonable set of players to return for championship team.

Ipswich have done something similar to what we did. Built a good team in League 1 with room to grow. They've then rocked up in the champ with simple enough tactics but players that know each others games inside and out - they've got a solid enough defence, and then clever attackers. If they keep the team/management together, there is nothing to stop them likely make a few good acquisitions and adapting to the prem. Sure, they might have a rocky start (like we did), but the squad and fan morale will carry them a long way. They're better that Luton and have more momentum than them going up, so i wouldn't write them off at all. If we do get promoted, i think it will be a much tougher prem next season than this season. But bizarrely, i think our style of play will suit the prem more. Equally, we've got some good players on loan at other clubs that can come back in without transfer fees, and you'd like to think we'd have a good shot THB and Downes as well. I actually think we'll be alright next season regardless of whether we win at Wembley or not.

Manning got destroyed at LB at the Hawthornes, and that was in a back 5. Stephens will be fine whether he is left or right.

There has been some Martin-Warnock conversations post Leicester me things 😂

Why, and do they? I think we are a better side than them - even with injuries. And on the experience front - We have Macca, "Janny B", Stephens, KWP, Downes, Aribo (including a European final no less), Armstrong as likely starters - not to mention the likes of Che and Fraser who we might well see tonight. Saints have got a lot of experienced heads. Saints are a more of a cup team than anything else imo - As a fanbase we're used to being the underdog and being up against it, in going for results in one off matches and causing upsets against the big sides - and we've been to Wembley far more than Leeds have in recent years and our fans are used to these sorts of games and performing in them. That will rub off on the players. Leeds didn't even play well to get to 3-0 against Norwich, Norwich were literally appalling. Confident if we get past West Brom (which worries me more), we'll see to leeds at Wembley.

Incredible how bad Noriwch are in this one. Just given the game away. 3 mistakes for the goals.

Its a good point and one that is hard to defend against. At what point does "no smoke without fire" apply to saints and the frankly unprecedented staff churn under SR? There has been grumblings previously, particularly re scouting and the academy staff - and that does beg the question of whether or not it relates to the ownership's vision for the club - if it does that doesn't bode well for those particular sub disciplines within the business. At least the first team seems to have a good atmosphere and morale these days - credit to Martin and wilcox on that front tbf.

Rasmus and sports republic came in and undermined a quality manager in ralph, wrongly sacked him imo, spent £160M to make us worse, got us relegated, completely destabilised the first team with 4 managers in half a year, tore up the club's backroom setup including the academy, general coaching, and scouting - and in the middle of all that, Rasmus stood up and gave a TED talk with the backdrop, "it if ain't broke, break it". There is little to build a defending argument on for Sport Republic currently, and i am not likely to be doing much defending of them until we've finished above the relegation zone in the premier league with a manager that once again looks capable of establishing us in the top 10 with proper funding. To date though, they've done little but damage our club.... and we look to be going into another summer with a mess in the background - academy staff once again leaving and no DoF. The one thing i will say about Sports Republic is that they are at least committed and they do seemingly have a plan... they've just got the execution very wrong so far.

I don't disagree - fluffing up the cup game at the start of the season also didn't help get them some early games. And on Rothwell - that was just a weird signing. Alcaraz is 3 times the player he is at least, and he is our own player - a young one we can develop, and one that made a point of staying over the summer. Maybe it was all about money and the loan fee, but its bitterly disappointing not to have kept him at the club and used him - particularly in Stu's absence.

I personally agree with you. But I think the point that was being raised, is that for some, it does matter. And that they would rather see us playing our own (longstanding) academy products rather than signing kids a bit older to fill quality gaps from our academy graduates. Don't get me wrong, i am disappointed we haven't seen more of Dibbling and Ballard etc. But equally they have only just turned 18this year. I would imagine we'll see more of them over the next couple of seasons - particularly if we don't win 2 matches before the end of may!!

Really? And shaw is the last one you remember? Not, i don't know.... 😛 As shocking as this is for some of our fans to understand (and not even aimed at you specifically), it feels like it needs to be repeatedly stated - Saints went down to the championship in 04/05, then suffered years of financial issues, and coaching talent drain - particularly in the academy (Fulham being one club that took advantage and then turned out players like Sessegon and Carvalho). On top of that, we struggled to then recruit the best academy players or pay them competitive salaries... because, you know... we were a 2nd / 3rd tier side in dire financial straights that almost went out of business... Academy kids join the club from about the age of 8 or 9 upwards. We made it back to the prem season ending 2013? So those first post prem batches have only just turned 18/19... Or put another way, the much maligned Cortese started to pump a lot of money back into the academy, training facilities, coaching etc. once we'd made it back to the prem... Fast forward 10years, the first 18/19 years olds are rolling off the production line. And we know that the age group just below this is pretty impressive (they finished runners up to City's u18 all stars and a few have been poached...) But for those 18year olds to have straight away been first team quality, that would mean we would have had to immediatley step our game back up to being one of the best academies in the country... Forget the brain and talent drain or needing to build our academy, forget also that other clubs poured money into their own academies during the time we were down.... But No No... Our fans have spoken, and they want to know why our academy kids aren't once again (and basically immediatley in youth player development terms) some of the defacto best in Europe. Unsurprisingly, we've offset the absence of top quality youngsters coming through by signing some - lower wages, different mentality, and higher profit potential. Its bizarre to me that you've also stated we don't give youngsters a chance, because as lighthouse pointed out - we very clearly do (Lavia and Tino being two very prominent examples). Also, Bazunu basically goes under the radar in this discussion... but he has the 5th most minutes for players under 21 in the champ, and that is limited basically because he is injured. Similarly, THB has the 9th most minutes under the age of 21... But if we're discounting them (not from our own academy), then i assume we're also discounting SAA and Meghoma as they also aren't our academy players? You also mention Tella above, another good example of the infill players we've purchased. and i think he also highlights something else - players rarely break through at the ages of 17/18 these days. Smallbone's breakthrough season was last year (aged 23), Tella's is the same (23). Harry Kane's breakthrough season was in 2014-15 managed when he was 21 / 22 and managed 2500minutes. The season before that he managed 500minutes, and the season before that he managed 530minutes for Leicester in the championship (aged 19/20...) and Kane is a world class player - I am not sure any of our curren 19-20year olds have world class ceilings... 😄 So to come full circle, what I think you're basically complaining about, is that we haven't put the just turned 18 years old Dibbling or Ballard (who has a few months first team footy in league 1) front and centre in this most critical of seasons - at the same time as the coaching staff and manager not thinking they're good enough? They're the best of the first really promising age group coming through, sure, but is it really realistic for them to have been getting loads of minutes this season, at such a young age? Not sure it is. And outside of that, the club very clearly puts a lot of focus on having a lot of young developing players maturing into the side - but doing that successfully takes years.

Saints fans caught being negative and toxic... shocker... that and actively looking for and focussing on the negatives 🙄😂