East Kent Saint

Said to be having talks with manager this week (BBC gossip summary) so make or break then .....

He's gone to Billericay ! (another vanity project club)

signing a long contract is just one of the new ways of clubs trying to prevent players running down their contracts and leaving for a reduced fee with 1 year to go or on a free when it finishes. So a tactic to keep the transfer value of the player high . It does not imply anymore that the player wants to stay at a club for years as we used to think ! Perhaps Sakho will be part of the deal so he can get his international career back on track (before moving on in 2 seasons time of course)

He needs to go now to get a BIG payday before the Sky bubble bursts , Saints should survive the bubble due to sensible management , Man C could implode if the mid east goes wrong . Petrol/Diesels being scrapped is another nail in the mid east coffin . Who predicted Trump , Brexit , 2008 crash ?? Get top dollar now and buy in a a few on normal contracts to weather the storm . (says mister glass half full as I haven't finished it yet)

As Morgan found out , just because you look good playing for Saints it doesn't mean you will even get to play for a BIG new team ...... so financial gain but career suicide ? Matt Le Tissier knew which side of his bread was buttered , unlike er that bloke who went to Arsenal for £500000 whose name is on the tip ....

Barcelona are ready to offer £80m for Liverpool and Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho so £70 for VVD afterall = good business !!!

The days of clubs stopping paying players and holding on to their registration so they cannot play for anyone else are long gone . That's what led to the Bosman ruling and the transfer of power from club to player . Obviously players were tapped up in the old days and brown envelopes changed hands at motorway service stations but now the shady world of agents has taken over , clubs are businesses rather than "clubs" the football world has been shown to be corrupt from FIFA down . We now pay £50 to watch a match and £50 a month to watch it on TV so whole new world but will it last ? So sell VVD , take the flak Les and lets get on with the season .

We have to remember that Southampton is not the place that attracts people to live in the UK . SFC is a good mid table club BUT can never offer £10M salaries or be " the place where everyone wants to go". Sky are already having to mark down their sports packages so I can see (as with F1) that the golden goose is for the chop and we will have to get back to local football clubs and start again . I will always remember matches at the Dell and Ron Davis/Terry Paine etc as the reason I support The Saints !!

Well said Jay !

Fonte did not look so good in the Confederations cup , gave away penalty (that was not given ) etc

I wanted him to recover and play well for Saints but he never played as well and seemed to develop an attitude ( that may just be his family) even so I would like to see him do well at WBA but won't hold my breath due to their managers style of play !!

Even B Sam complains that he only had half the transfer kitty he was told he'd get before he signed up . Previous managers have said the Sunderland club was toxic and needed a radical shake up , though they never said exactly what was wrong , only that the whole stable needed clearing !

12 of his players phoned in sick for the last game of the season , now that's what you call losing the dressing room !

We go to the match to have a good day out and be cheered up by what we see . The day includes trip down, lunch , beers, anticipation, good result for our team and for them to play well and look like they are enjoying it ! Roll on next season whoever is in charge etc.

A strange feel to an end of season game , alot of fans seemed to be resigned to us not scoring . The crowd did make a show of supporting the team until they scored then it went a bit quiet !We didn't stay for the lap of honour , after watching Koeman etc last time waving etc to the crowd after saying he was staying then jumping ship days later !! The match looked OK to start with apart from the final third bit , loads of crosses into the box but not to anyone in particular , Forster , why was he not challenging Crouch ? you would think he could get a punch in to clear it . I thought the ref and lady lino poor , she didn't keep up with play , gave wrong throw decisions etc. Ref fell for their play acting all match. "Barry" seemed unlucky with his one on one as Butland,seemed to me, to slip and hit the deck to block the shot and the rebound hit "Barry's" foot to go out rather than him missing (so to speak). Not sure if Austin was offside for his "goal" but the pass was delayed so long I would not be surprised. Offside is so dificult these days , where we were in line at a free kick players were constantly going in/out of an offside position but eventually played on by the defence . Only careful study by video replay could sort some decisions out (imo) Our weakness seems to be the slowing of attacking play once we got the ball in their half , their defence regrouped and the final ball saw us outnumbered by big experienced defenders ! Boufal just disrupted the plan , players were looking to link up with him but he was always somewhere else and then seemed to want to play behind our midfield ! On to the worst part of the season ie who is leaving and possibly who may come in who we may of actually heard of before .

Pluto was declared to be not actually a planet by the sky boffins , for reasons that escape me !

Fonte may have looked OK when the WH team was set up to defend all game but we all know he came back from the Euros with a new head on and that led to his departure I very much doubt he would have played well if he had stayed at Saints .

Kat didn't waste time closing another business (printing ?) that ML had been keeping going so I imagine she has no problem selling Saints to maximise return to the family either . Unfortunately this is the football world since clubs started to be floated on the stock market to get further investment.

This is because the club has been up for sale for the last year or two , if not on the open market , then is has been prepared for sale . So no major investment in players or managers etc until it is sold and judging by the owners of say Cardiff , Leeds , Orient , Hull etc , being sold may not be the answer we ,the fans , are hoping for !!

To be fair to Lovren the analysis today say CP took note of the full backs getting forward so attacked the flanks to expose the 2 centre backs which is what happened so Klopp is in fact the guilty party !

I only saw it on MotD but we did have some good movements and Tadic could of had 2 goals , City were OK but their extra bit of skill(such as De Bruyne chip for a headed goal) tipped the balance. City have been found wanting in several games this season but our failure to score made it easy for them .

The Chapel's job is to applaud the Saints subs when they warm up along the touchline , apparently . I thought the OWTS was good on Sat although B'mouth booing when it started up was a bit rude !

I enjoyed the game , obviously I would have been much happier if one of our chances had gone in , was our offside goal offside anyone ?? couldn't see from the top of the Chapel !!! Is Bertrand OK ? he seems to get caught away from the left back spot plus his forward runs not so productive .

The announcements and chat are much improved in clarity so well done , the music however is too loud to be comfortable , hence the conversation comment , used as an indication of how loud the music was yesterday. Not much needs to change , just turn the volume down slightly when playing music and don't ever play "My way" again who ever is singing it ........

Too loud (music) in Chapel end , almost painful , no conversation possible !!!!