Bermuda Saint

wrote this about JWP on this forum... 06-09-2014, 10:40 PM I have seen the future, we all have, I just didn’t understand the importance of this young man. JWP is the new Mr. Saint, the one that will lead our new generation of academy products into the light of the poaching CL clubs. If he can fulfill his potential, continue his progression into the English national team then he will be the next to be tempted away. JWP must be given time to mature, he doesn’t have the luxury of honing his skills in the lower divisions like lalla, spidy, clyne. Etc…..he will have to prove himself against the world class players. Tough task, but his academy coaches, English Intl. youth managers, Mopo and Roko have seen enough to put this boy in the starting 11. I have to trust their judgment, the fans need to get behind him and support him because he could be the leader of our next golden generation. I hope Mr. Saint is happy here and doesn't want to leave, his desire to excel has pushed his talents to new heights! next on the banner?????

We are hamstrung by poor signings. Hoedt, Carrillo and Elyounoussi have pretty much been disasters, Lemina was decent but has a poor attitude, Forster was oddly given a new contract on high wages when he wasn't in great form and then continued to decline. Vestergaard has been average at best. Boufal has shown glimpses of talent but never nailed down a starting spot. Elynoussi and Forster doing well at Celtic should make them relatively easy to shift. WHY have these players been disasters? Almost everyone 2 months ago looked like a waste of money. Saints fans were willing to write off almost the whole team. Yet those same players are now on a run of form only bested by Scousampton! did we buy new players?? no! they were always good, but needed a coach that could elevate the team (Poch, RK and now RH). If you have a crap general, you will be massacared on the battle field! We could buy a $50mill or $100 milliion player and it still go wrong (Mancester Untited) without a coach to elevate the players and play. We now have a coach that can elevaate the whole team! he makes write offs look like winners again! I have seen so many palyers slagged off for not being good enough for Saints, yet they are proving many expert opinions on here that they are good enough!! So why can't some of our recent loans come back and reinvigorate their career here with a coach who has a plan. Moi and Foster have shown they are good players (look at Celtics results). It backs up our original reason for buying them, but they came into a war with useless Generals, when RH came in they were shell shocked and lost all confidence (our fans just piled on the pressure). So as usual, I have a far more forgiving nature, far more respectful of these kids football ability (having played all my life) than mine! I have seen us malign Mane, JWP, Cedric, Ings, Obe, Bertrand, SD, Berdn etc. just to see them prove us wrong. Maybe we have a few of the outcast loans that can prove us wrong again!

this is it, he brought a high pressing game that we haven't had since poch! it takes proper training to pull this off, we haved worked on this for months, I think we have the best press in the league now. Players had to change their mind set from Peul and Pell, from possession based to quick ball to the forward channels, it looked awful and very Sam A like at first, kicking the ball forward and loosing possession constantly!. Now the strikers are expecting it and the threat we have with the press in their third is telling. Fullback are pacing themselves better, Bertrand and Cedric were exhausted the last 20 min when pressing in the beginning. The dump it forward, now looks like what RH was trying to instill (see previous write up on RH style before he came here), It is attacking football meant to win with limited resources and skill. I am becoming a fan of it! We had good enough players, they just had to fully buy into RH style which seemed like kick and chase football, but is so much more when you look at how RH has refined it to maximize attack, increased off ball pressure to regain possession and stay compact through the middle. Took awhile for me to understand and like, so too for the players. Now we are all on board and excited about where this can take us!

it an opinion based forum, in which we can voice our opinions, right or wrong! I am going to give my opinion, you Ralf haters are a joke!! you player haters are a joke, you pontificate daily on here like you are footballing gurus! you voice your opinions and are constantly wrong because you know better than the manager and players, and are constantly proved wrong! We have a tough spell and everyone and everything at saints is crap! you spew crap (my opinion). Why this piece, because when the chips are down you plastics call for blood in the street, you are over reactional and dangerous to our club!! you can post all the negative drivel you like, just reread what you write and try to learn from your mistakes, try to learn form your wrong opinions, don't throw out negatives to your own team when you constantly get it wrong! it will hopefully cause you to paused and rethink before you throw a tantrum!. Will we continue to learn how to be a better supporters of Saints? Not writing off RH, JWP, Redmond, our back 4, etc..... every player is looking now saintly!! may it LONG continue! March on Saints!

Big loss Saints! We were all over Bournemouth! They were very lucky to win. If we could have finished some of our chances, we would have won easily. Great pressing, causing Bournemouth to cough it up many times in great areas. We simply outplayed them! Out hustled them! Out shot them! They just put their few chances away! Lucky for them . Many are blaming Ralf or Vest.....not my choice as to where to place blame. Ralf has created an exciting team that is playing exciting football (from the same players we had last few years), he has improved the team greatly......he does his job - DONE! He can't kick the ball, track the man, play the smart ball", score the goals...…..he has managed/coached/taught…..! The players need to execute! We have the best pressing game in the league (better than the poch press). The way players are intelligently squeezing the ball into dangerous areas is almost perfection! This will leave the defense exposed on a fast counter, a symptom of our press we cannot avoid! This leads to the criticism of Vesty, too slow, poor heading...etc. Once again armchair coaches feel they are better than our manager in determining the team make up. They see more in 90 min than RALF DOES ALL WEEK! I am not a Vesty hater, I do think he is a bit slow but that is it. His passing, desire and composure is very good, in my opinion. I try to see what Ralf sees..... and I do. If blame has to be handed around it could be laid at the feet of Holb and JWP. Lets start with JWP, one who I always thought was going to be Mr. Saints. Placed in the team over the years to many peoples dismay (he a donkey, not a PL player), yet he made the England team and is consistently the hardest worker on the team. His sublime skill level is not there, but his industriousness, passing, tracking, etc are all quality level. His shooting today let the team down. He had great chances to tie or win the game, but it just didn't happen for him. He not prolific, so I shrug and say good try, but bad luck! Holby on the other hand I am trying to like, as he has the enthusiasm and desire to play hard, I just see him not reaching certain skill levels. When he came from Barca I was hoping he had the composure on the ball like most of the Barca players. He tries to keep/shield the ball, but he seemed to slow in mind and feet to dance or shield a ball consistently. His passing was poor. He said he had a change of mind a few season later and seemed to improve in that crucial role of defensive midfield, shielding, composure and passing. He stood up to be counted, and was given the captaincy. But now that the whole team performance has improved under Ralf, he is starting to stand out as a week link. It is not his desire, sometime he has too much. I squarely blame him for the 2nd goal, he half assed tracked the man back, probably because he was running back from being too far in advance position. He had two chances to stop that goal, but did the ""I am running behind trying to catch but not really...someone else will do my job? He just looked too knackered to get back. His poor decision to advance forward too far! I still support HolB because he plays for Saints and with Saints passion!! I am ****ed off at the result, not the manager, not even the team. We battered them! Cut them open, danced in their box, stole the ball from them at will, camped in their half! All positive thing. So Bournemouth countered a few time, put their chances away beautifully, clinically! King is a legit forward who is wanted by the big clubs, we are still developing ours. Football is such a cruel game! I am not try to bash our players, I hate it when we Saints supporters do that as denigration of a player never led to good things. It is an opinion base forum, but how players are so quickly written off by supporters is ridiculous. Many have never played pro ball, or studied and learned all about football, yet they know best? Some have made terrible remarks about players only to admit they were wrong. But instead of learning humbleness they continue to slag players anew? Please watch the game, even several times, watch when things go wrong, who and how. Watch again next week, study what we did right and wrong. Then you can make an informed opinion, one that maybe accepted by the forum readers because you speak with wisdom. I like the Manager!, his style of play, his desire to win, his improvement of the players, his recruitment policy. His style is exciting and dangerous, my kind of Manager (Marcelo Bielsa next please!). I will take the good with the bad. Bournemouth and Liverfools exploited us with clinical finishing with the few chances provided. I still hold my head high, we still give a good game, still can wear the colours proud!! This is because of the manager and Saints players who are not the Galacticos of football, but give their all to give us an entertaining game. This is the key to surviving as a Saint amongst the big boys! I hated like most the drab Pello and Peul styles, it was a quiet few long years for me. But now I can chant back Scousehampton fans, Manfu fans etc. knowing we give a good game even if we don't win! Bless up our SAINTS and supporters, we will be on the edge of our seats all season, isn't it exciting!! Please punish Pompey!! March on Pompey, Saints March, trample, or stomp on!!

I am happy for the money Scousehampton, everyone can see you have continued your raid on little Saints, most of the fans of clubs outside of the top 6 see this as travesty to the game. Big Bully *****s building a team off Southampton's good scouting. They just say they are glad it not them!! AS for VVD going to Liverfool, GREAT!! at least he will have to work for his place in the top 6, not just be given the title. If he went to ManC, that would have been harder to watch, jumping around at the end of the season as PL champions, given the best manager and teammates we have ever seen, just too sickening for that pompASS (pompous) ****! I said it in the summer, he should not be near our team, cant trust the *****. Football is all about fine margins at our level, his attitude on the field and off will have been a detriment to our club. The first half of the season proves it. No great surprise we are putting in a better team effort since he left. We have good players, just not a good team, VVD killed the team spirit, ****ed on the passion it takes to create team spirit! now he has gone I see it returning. We are becoming a Team again! so as a TEAM (including us, The fans, ten's of thousands strong) we will all pull together!! (please punch the ****ing boo boys). Saints go marching in!!!

Well Done Saints!!! 75 mil WHOOOOhOOOOO!!! we are the transfer kings!!! who will be our $100 mil transfer player? We have to be the best a finding these gems that most of us never heard of, no big established names, we try each year trying to guess out new replacements for the one we have sold on for big$$$$. I say NEXT!!, who is NEXT, without those players leaving over the years we would never have seen Toby, Mane, VVD, Cedric, clyne, bertrand etc. so bring in the next surprise! Will they stay, who cares! I will stay! right down to the non league, SAINTS is me, cant say we don't have thick skin. been battling in the survival league for years, for many we celebrated PL survival with glee, today after a little bit of success we want to be pompous, how dare players leave us, how can we loose to lesser teams? get over yourselves, if Manu, Liv and Chel, who have all had dismal seasons recently with all the money and world class players and managers can get it wrong, why are we crucifying our Saints for a slip up, a miss-step? We have financially done a miracle and have a future as a football club. Let's see what 2018 brings, good or bad. I will be there to cheer and groan our journey together, only to leave our path together when i die. So bye VVD, hello Mr. X, we are FOREVER SAINTS, MACH ON!!!

What a pilchard you are! VVD is a disgrace, he went behind our backs to move to the club we hate the most, he is refusing to play, yet keeping his pay smugly as he tiptoes the rules, training but no playing! How can you trust him! every mistake he will make i will wonder if he did it on purpose. Does this man live in Southampton? can you see him at the training sessions or driving too and fro from the ground? where are our supporters who will bleed for this club! not asking for violence, NEVER, but rattle the mans cage (it is probably a penthouse), !@#$ off signs, some choice banter! a tossed rotten egg (like him). We are way to soft, Lalla, Fonte and vvd deserve our best efforts to make them feel like the ****s they are! would love to see the Liverpool bus "held up" like MANU had a while back. Where are my hardass shipyard mates, you all turned into sunnyside tourist? If I had the money I would let him see out his contract, 6 years of VVD bashing, would make any other sleaze movers think twice. Saints MARCH ON, and over, anyone who want to screw our club!

well said , too many people go to some strange theories or conclusions, wait and see, you don't have a billion dollars so don't try to guess how they will spend it. Kat was ok, Reed seems the one doing the football decisions with his board. They are still here so business as usual, we MARCH ON!

What an arsehole. Troll MarkPFC

Good Luck SFC!! give them Manchurians a good go!! great to be at the EPL final, now bring home the silver ware!!! March on Saints Army!! oh and SING, support us throughout the game, sing because we are there, show no nerves, Sing even if we are getting beat, have another pint or two and just SING, today will be a good day win or loose!!

WELCOME MARTIN CACERES!!! welcome to the SFC family!! We have an experienced defender that has been an International and played at the highest level. I hope you bring that beast mode to EPL, your speed and defending skills are some of the best in the world. You are a no nonsense defender that will revel in the brawly EPL. I fully expect you to establish yourself as a first team starter, for if you cannot show your qualities over a young learning CB then ya should not be here!! but no worries, Les and company have a good eye for quality, lets hope we unearthed another one, lets show we can find the gems in the unproven youth and in the Mature "out of contract" still have something to give. This is probably not our preference in a new CB, I am sure we have one lined up for the summer ( a real gem of course), but when the chips we down they seemed to have found a good CB that could prove to be a master stroke. March on Saints, with Martin in step!

Nice to see what we have in the Stable, a lot of good young players. That's as positive as it gets! I don't usually put down our players, they are part of my team! but no stand-outs, no one with something special in their skill, physically or speed. Arsenal had a few gems in their young players, they were far better than our young players. Arsenal pros of Welbeck/Waclott destroyed our poor back line, there was too much pace and experience. I have to agree not many are ready to step up into the first team and some should step out of the first team. Gardos to slow, not good reading or man tracking. Martina was ok but still showed his imitations of not being able to beat a man, he almost always checks back if challenged and kills forward momentum. Clasie is ok, nothing special, but not bad enough or good enough to change a game. PEH was the man whom I lost faith in....should not be in out first 11, should not have played out that last game. The reason I picked him out of the rest of the ****e on the field is because I had high hopes for him. He came to SFC with the reputation of having something special (pep G said he had something special), his composure and ball movement looked very good, not great pace but a good engine. But the FA game he seemed to take on the leaders roll and it failed miserably. So much of the play broke down through him. He tried to make things happen but couldn't pull it off, he destroyed the rhythm of the game. OK, one bad game, but its not! several times this season he has been poor on the field, head down in tight spots and then a panic pass! I could see CP was very angry with his play, CP was hoping the play would go through PEH, but it kept breaking down through him. I will never boo a saints player, but for someone who i thought had the potential to be great, he really let me down in that game. SAINTS GO MARCHING IN!!

To compare Adkins diamond tries to what Puel does is where you go wrong, Puel has a much stronger grip of the concept, it strength and most importantly to overcome it's weakness, this man has been perfecting this in the top tier of the French league and European competition.

Puel has humbled many who thought they new better. The slagged off players will humble many negative posters. It is ok to be wrong, but to not learn from your mistakes is the real sin. Each manager has come and imposed their style, each time I have learned something. Peul is no different, his variations on the diamond, compact paying game will be a joy to watch, saw quite a few Nice games before he came and liked their style. If he can produce that kind of football, Barcelona, man c style!! I will learn even more. We can now see how the team is coming together Puel style! As they shed the Koman skin and embrace the new. The Manager,senior team, young players, results, cup draws.......all good!! And Boufal still to come! Can't even the most pessimistic fan crack a smile and sing "Saints go Marching in!!!!!!" Look out top 6, wez a comin.

He is the most interesting man in the world. Have a Dos Equis, relax , admire his "interestingnesssssssssss"

Love this appointment, fits into our philosophy perfectly. A defensive mind coach that has his forwards defend from the front and play attacking, attractive football. That's what we like to do! His ability to work with young players and bring out the best in players. All with hard a work ethic and strict discipline. Even if this appointment goes bad I applaud the board for the fortitude to stick to their " Southampton way" of doing things. More up and coming coach with progressive ideas please, more up and coming young players that have the potential to be great. This is the reality of our club. To be the stepping stone club, the one to give future stars a place to shine. We are good at it and is a sustainable model when done right. If we continue this success, we may no longer be a club that players want to leave, but for now let's embrace where we are and how well we are going it. MARCH ON SAINTS!

"Guan already confirmed we've made an offer for such a player (..."like steven davis but with more physical presence"....) to take him on loan for the season" could this be him? wants to go to a bigger club like Manu, could we be the stepping stone (loan for us) to showcase his quality. Steady player at Benfica for 5 years, we put a lot of scouting in Portugal, he would be a very good fit, very steve davis like but an upgrade on all attributes.

I would agree with this assessment. Was hoping we were after him last year, glad to see the Black Box has a long memory, unlike myself. Always a very highly rated young DM that never got the chance with Chelsea. Expect us to do more business with them over the years. They have and continue to buy the best young talent in the world which they will sell for a profit if they can't break into the first team (which is most of them). Great Buy. March on Saints !!

Toby who? Not that ***** that had his career resuscitated by our SFC, but then jerked off to Tottenham as soon as they lifted their skirt. There are so many good CB out there that you never heard of, probably never heard of Toby till we bought him. Move on...or a a saint, March on!!! We will have a new CB that will make you forget about the turncoats.

Excellent, another nimble move by SFC! Gardos injury was not planned, replacement not budgeted, main targets not yet acquired. BlackBox to the rescue!!, and out pops another beauty! Caulker! perfect! enough doubt about the player to get a good price and the doubters on their pulpit. The BB doesn't take the easy road. If this one turns out to be another career making moment for a player then we must all bow the the mighty BB team. With Gardos injured and no longer able to prove if he was first XI material, we draft in a replacement to kick his tires, test him out, give him a chance to prove he can be a part of this team, even England if he has the belief. But the loan means we have other ideas that were being executed. The replacement of Turncoat Toby (the ***** shafted us! and RK! and taught LR and the negotiating team a lesson on contract execution. We had a clever plan in place, only for the player to stab us in the back, there is no contract that can force honesty in a player ) is I hope a 12mill player that we were willing to spend on Terd. VVD looks like the first choice, exciting player, but we have to be patient as Celtic has CL. Not good for the faint of heart because we could get him very late. We have had good relations and fair trade with Celtic, they drive a hard bargain, but are trustworthy. If by some chance we miss out or this is not our first choice (he is!) then that approx. 12 mill can get a Quality CB, but we will have to watch in terror as the Negotiating team enact plan b or even c late in the game. To many good promising CB in the world in our price bracket to not have an exciting player come in. This is the Big One they promised to get, lets see how they deliver, then judge after u see them play. With Caulker it gives us a safety net to have no fear in CB negotiation. I am more intrigued by the tease from SFC that if a very special player becomes available, we will be interested. I was hoping this is after the VVD or CB purchase. This I hope is the real transfer of the season. I think each year we pick a few targets from the BB that are perceived too good for us, make an inquiry and see if we can pull of a world shocker late in the transfer frenzy. It was wishful thinking, but maybe this year is different, maybe our stature is high enough now to tempt them to join. Man this is going to be an exciting year, teams are pulling new talent in from around the world, ours look good so far. RK chance to stamp his way of playing style, with his team. The pressing game that poch relied on to improve our results slowly faded out in the first half of last season. Will RK modified press and quicker attack show itself this year. This year it is his team and his philosophy on how to win games, I look forward to learning how he unfolds his master plan to have this team reaching beyond its perceived place in the league.

yes very nice to see Fonte get his praises and accolades after years of being not good enough for SFC by many a football watcher. Jos was better, lovren was better, Toby was better etc. yet the rock turned out to be the one our coaches and managers saw as the key man and stuck with from the beginning. Way back to "Pardew the screw" to "Danny knock you on your fanny", the one the club has stood bye was Fonte. Now he has the captaincy and a true leader of the team. But at the end of his career. We must be thinking of a successor. Is he on the bench? Mya, Gardos? in the academy, Stevens , Turnbull? SFC have a delema that keeps getting worse each year. We are unable to hold onto our CB that do well for us (all players not just cb). A problem we have done very well with and have a good handle on. Knowing how to actually keep it sustainable will be the ultimate test. We have Fonte for a max of 2 years before he will be to old to keep up physically, logically thinking, then we must get a cb that will take over for him as the leader of the back line. Will be able to get top notch CB that will build a career with us and not be swayed by the big boys. The reality is if we stay in the top 7 we will be raided every year. Loyalty is a rare thing in the PL. So we have VVD as a strong rumor, excellent! looks the right fit! like what I read and what he has done. The RK factor must be exploited, his CB knowledge, previous players and connection are a gold mine to be used as long as he is here. I welcome the forging of ties with the EDV, great footballing nation, know for producing technical players for the world market. SVB (Van Beek) is another I hope we can get next year ( another year of first team with FEY) , along side VVD, the dutch will be strong in us....luke....we may have the future Dutch Intl CB pairing. If the both do well can you see them staying...NO....So we will continue to look for a CB. Stevens Or Turnbull may be the next time we see a CB commit their career to us so we have a few years to bridge till then. But I am opomitic SFC will get it right , just like they got the FONTE ting right so many years ago! March on Saints !

I did not mean this thread to be a promo for Bermuda and its beaches (which are beautiful) but the little British island territory is getting some attention. With the best sailors in the world will convening in Bermuda for the 35th America’s Cup in June 2017, maybe a FIFA world cup is on the cards, just need hire Harry R to bung up the selection committee. Who cares if we are only 21 sq miles and have one crappy football stadium. Maybe they can play on the golf courses. here is another one: Watford-Napoli-Udinese's own Bermuda triangle Watford's summer plans, led by the ambitious Pozzo family, have seen them enter the Italian world of transfer dominoes. I wish BR and Potch would get lost in the Bermuda triangle! I would encourage anyone to see this jewel of an island, but with SFC in Europe, I would spend any extra coin on following our team around Europe!! It is all about the Saints after all!

My chuckle for the day! Benali the legend! go on lad, stick it to him! http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/row-zed/liverpool-boss-brendan-rodgers-trolled-5994176#rlabs=1