2022/23 Other games

[Turkish]

Excellent game and performance from Arsenal. They look a great side now. Arteta has done an amazing job there. 

[The Cat]

5 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Excellent game and performance from Arsenal. They look a great side now. Arteta has done an amazing job there. 

Shows how little football fans know. Their fans on Arseweb or whatever their equivalent is called were frothing at the mouth last season wanting Arteta out. 

[The Cat]

Glad Arsenal won, would be nice to see a different extremely rich team full of multi million pound players on exorbitant wages win the league this season.

[saintant]

Unfortunately there are the haves and the have-nots in the Premier League. Just watched a fantastic game of football between two of the haves and the skill, pace, power and intensity only emphasised how far behind we are. Without the funding to sign the best players we can only put out a team that tries its hardest but we can never be anything other than make weights. Not wishing to sound like Semmens but the standard of football on display tonight compared to what we produce is night and day.

[qwertyell]

30 minutes ago, saintant said:

Without the funding to sign the best players we can only put out a team that tries its hardest

Arsenal's front three cost £7m combined. 

[East Kent Saint]

30 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Glad Arsenal won, would be nice to see a different extremely rich team full of multi million pound players on exorbitant wages win the league this season.

Arsenal have been through a period of buying expensive flops and recovery from Wenger’s slow decline . The players doing well now have taken some time to reach their current standard under Arteta as has Arteta.

[whelk]

Kelly Cates looking very fit today. 

[JRM]

54 minutes ago, whelk said:

Kelly Cates looking very fit today. 

Was surprised when found out she's Kenny Dalglish's daughter

[whelk]

1 hour ago, JRM said:

Was surprised when found out she's Kenny Dalglish's daughter

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/sky-sports-host-kelly-cates-23690337

[JRM]

4 minutes ago, whelk said:

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/sky-sports-host-kelly-cates-23690337

Sounds like she'd welcome some of your fan mail

"Glasgow-born Kelly, 45, said she is nervous about being single again as she doesn’t think people will find her attractive" 

[niceandfriendly]

Atmosphere at the Emirates was electric last night. That North London Forever song will turn me into an Arsenal fan in time. Wish we had an anthem like that. 
 

Shame the Shane Long one didn’t catch on 🙄

[SotonianWill]

11 hours ago, niceandfriendly said:

Atmosphere at the Emirates was electric last night. That North London Forever song will turn me into an Arsenal fan in time. Wish we had an anthem like that. 
 

Shame the Shane Long one didn’t catch on 🙄

north london forevah is the best anthem in world football, I listen to it before bed to increase my deep sleep.

[Colinjb]

Watching Harrison Reed look every inch the composed premier league midfielder...... Just highlights how much we truly f**ked our recruitment and handling of our young players in recent times.

[SotonianWill]

14 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Watching Harrison Reed look every inch the composed premier league midfielder...... Just highlights how much we truly f**ked our recruitment and handling of our young players in recent times.

can’t say people didn’t ask for him to get a chance either. plenty asked for him to be given one by ralph, but no even with him being the perfect type of midfielder for hass.

another one is targett, who despite the good price we got seeing us with perraud (who I don’t rate defensively) I think would have come in handy, was good for newcastle last season featured less this season but still looked like a good successor to bertrand. It was good money at the time 15 million but when we spend 15 on gunn 15 on bazunu and others, was it worth it?

 

that youth team was fairly good coming through 2012 ish when you think shaw, jwp, chambers, reed, targett. 

to have three of those players in our team now would have been great to see. 

Edited 23 January, 2023 by SotonianWill

[Ted Bates Statue]

48 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

another one is targett, who despite the good price we got seeing us with perraud (who I don’t rate defensively) I think would have come in handy, was good for newcastle last season featured less this season but still looked like a good successor to bertrand. It was good money at the time 15 million but when we spend 15 on gunn 15 on bazunu and others, was it worth it?

I think we had to sell Reed to fund Che Adams from recollection.

Targett has done well since leaving but don't forget we also had Sam McQueen coming through who the club clearly decided was the heir apparent to Bertrand at LB. Sadly it didn't pan out the way it should have done.

[niceandfriendly]

8 hours ago, SotonianWill said:

north london forevah is the best anthem in world football, I listen to it before bed to increase my deep sleep.

Play up Pompey is the best anthem in world football, do keep up. 

[niceandfriendly]

8 hours ago, Colinjb said:

Watching Harrison Reed look every inch the composed premier league midfielder...... Just highlights how much we truly f**ked our recruitment and handling of our young players in recent times.

His competition was Wanyama, Schneiderlin and possibly Cork if I recall correctly, who were all in great form when Harrison was trying to break into our team. An unfortunate case of not being able to keep everyone happy so we let him move on. Think we got a decent wedge for him at the time too. 

[Baird of the land]

2 hours ago, niceandfriendly said:

His competition was Wanyama, Schneiderlin and possibly Cork if I recall correctly, who were all in great form when Harrison was trying to break into our team. An unfortunate case of not being able to keep everyone happy so we let him move on. Think we got a decent wedge for him at the time too. 

Maybe right at the start but after that it was the likes of Clasie / Lemina / Romeu / Hojberg

You could certainly argue we should have  been priortising his development over signing the likes of Clasie-Lemina

[Saint Garrett]

There is no doubt that Reed is good enough, but at the time we got a decent wedge for him, and he wasn't ready.  Plus we had a bunch of better players in the squad. I think they also had to make a decision because we were never going to play JWP and Reed in the middle of midfield cos they're too small. 

I remember at the time, thinking we didnt need to bring in Clasie and should have just kept Reed, but when we got a decent offer, the club desperately needed the money, it wasn't a stupid offer to accept at the time. It's not like he was 18 when he left, wasn't he about 23?

[Bad Wolf]

Pompey lost too. Didn't even know they had a new manager - John Mousinho - First ever management job and previously chairman of the players' association or something.

I can only imagine they misread "John Mousinho" for someone else...

[Dman]

2 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Pompey lost too. Didn't even know they had a new manager - John Mousinho - First ever management job and previously chairman of the players' association or something.

I can only imagine they misread "John Mousinho" for someone else...

We’ll done for being about 2 weeks late on that joke. 

[Bad Wolf]

3 minutes ago, Dman said:

We’ll done for being about 2 weeks late on that joke. 

I didn't even know they'd had a new manager. Last I heard, Lee Bradbury was favourite. I don't tend to look that far down.

[The Cat]

9 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

I didn't even know they'd had a new manager. Last I heard, Lee Bradbury was favourite. I don't tend to look that far down.

Not sure how you can't know what our rivals are doing? No matter what league we or they are in it's the first result I look out for.

[The Cat]

Shrewsbury won 2-1 against Forest Green with 94th and 98th minute goals. Love those kind of results.

Sholing drew 1-1 at Lymington which is a terrible result really. Lymington are absolutely awful.

[JRM]

26 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Shrewsbury won 2-1 against Forest Green with 94th and 98th minute goals. Love those kind of results.

Sholing drew 1-1 at Lymington which is a terrible result really. Lymington are absolutely awful.

Lymington seem to be a bogey team for them this season for some reason, you'd expect Sholing to still top the league? 

[The Cat]

2 minutes ago, JRM said:

Lymington seem to be a bogey team for them this season for some reason, you'd expect Sholing to still top the league? 

Totton with 2 games in hand look dangerous. I think it will go right down to the last couple of games.

A lot depends on the Sholing v Totton game a week on Tuesday. Hopefully a big crowd for that.

[St.Jeweller]

Shane Long off the bench for Reading for last 14mins. Sky bet going 10/1 for him to get a shot on target

[Sheaf Saint]

13 hours ago, The Cat said:

Shrewsbury won 2-1 against Forest Green with 94th and 98th minute goals. Love those kind of results.

I actually watched that game on a stream because my nephew was making his debut for Forest Green, having gone there on loan for the second half of the season.

Shrewsbury were awful and didn't seriously threaten the FGR goal until the 94th minute equaliser. How they threw that game away, I will never know.

[Give it to Ron]

50 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

I actually watched that game on a stream because my nephew was making his debut for Forest Green, having gone there on loan for the second half of the season.

Shrewsbury were awful and didn't seriously threaten the FGR goal until the 94th minute equaliser. How they threw that game away, I will never know.

It’s all that vegan food FGR eat, the players need a shit after 45 minutes of second half  🙂

Big Dunc will sort them out

Edited 29 January, 2023 by Give it to Ron

[Sheaf Saint]

1 hour ago, Give it to Ron said:

It’s all that vegan food FGR eat, the players need a shit after 45 minutes of second half  🙂

Big Dunc will sort them out

Yeah, I can't quite imagine him sitting down for a team meal and tucking into smoked tofu with quinoa! 🤣

 

[Nordic Saint]

Serie A is fun this year. I thought Napoli 5-1 Juventus was good but reigning champions AC Milan 2-5 Sassuolo was even better today. It's amazing that Sassuolo have been able to keep a top class international striker like Domenico Berardi all these years.

 

[badgerx16]

Dippers concede a late goal against BHA. Karma after their spending the prior 15 minutes kicking Brighton all over the pitch.

[OttawaSaint]

Brighton just scored in the last minute to eliminate Liverpool.

Beautiful goal!

[egg]

5 minutes ago, OttawaSaint said:

Brighton just scored in the last minute to eliminate Liverpool.

Beautiful goal!

Beautiful goal, even better result. Liverpool's season has gone to shit 😂

[spyinthesky]

Just thinking that if a Brighton (or Saints) player had committed the foul on Macallister when he was running through or the awful tackle on Ferguson which was reviewed by VAR and still didnt think it was a red, there would only be nine players on the field to play out the game.
I was a bit surprised that VAR didnt rule out the winning goal for some reason.
Brighton deserved their win and seem to be in a similar position to where we were a few years back.
However they seem to be able to deal with the replacement of players and Manager than we did.

[badgerx16]

11 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Just thinking that if a Brighton (or Saints) player had committed the foul on Macallister when he was running through or the awful tackle on Ferguson which was reviewed by VAR and still didnt think it was a red, there would only be nine players on the field to play out the game.
I was a bit surprised that VAR didnt rule out the winning goal for some reason.
Brighton deserved their win and seem to be in a similar position to where we were a few years back.
However they seem to be able to deal with the replacement of players and Manager than we did.

We appointed Luton Town's manager, who had never played or managed in a top division. Brighton appointed someone with coaching and playing experience in Serie A.

[The Kraken]

15 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Just thinking that if a Brighton (or Saints) player had committed the foul on Macallister when he was running through or the awful tackle on Ferguson which was reviewed by VAR and still didnt think it was a red, there would only be nine players on the field to play out the game.
I was a bit surprised that VAR didnt rule out the winning goal for some reason.
Brighton deserved their win and seem to be in a similar position to where we were a few years back.
However they seem to be able to deal with the replacement of players and Manager than we did.

They’ve also been able to turn down a £60m offer for Caicedo, then dropped him and told him to have a few days off until the transfer window is shut.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, The Kraken said:

They’ve also been able to turn down a £60m offer for Caicedo, then dropped him and told him to have a few days off until the transfer window is shut.

Isn't that incredibly similar to what we did with VVD back in 2017? Probably identical, in fact.

He went in the next window anyway, which is what will happen with Caicedo.

[The Kraken]

Just now, S-Clarke said:

Isn't that incredibly similar to what we did with VVD back in 2017? Probably identical, in fact.

He went in the next window anyway, which is what will happen with Caicedo.

It’s similar yes. I just like that they did it, something to stem the exodus.  Same with VVD.

[S-Clarke]

Just now, The Kraken said:

It’s similar yes. I just like that they did it, something to stem the exodus.  Same with VVD.

It's a bit of a token gesture really, as it's inevitable he'll go in the next few months. Just buys them a bit more time. Good to see all the same.

It's frustrating for clubs of our level though as good teams will always get picked apart, I'd argue we had more time with our group a few years ago, but football has changed so much that clubs like ourselves and Brighton are lucky to get a season out of a good player/team now. My advise to Brighton is to enjoy where they are now, it won't last.

[The Kraken]

2 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

It's a bit of a token gesture really, as it's inevitable he'll go in the next few months. Just buys them a bit more time. Good to see all the same.

It's frustrating for clubs of our level though as good teams will always get picked apart, I'd argue we had more time with our group a few years ago, but football has changed so much that clubs like ourselves and Brighton are lucky to get a season out of a good player/team now. My advise to Brighton is to enjoy where they are now, it won't last.

Yep. As frustrating as it was seeing a lot of our players go the club did alright with some of them to not just capitulate to demands to let them go. Pretty sure we got an extra year out of Schneiderlin and Wanyama, and we held Liverpool feet to the fire over the VVD saga.

The sums have risen so it’s quite something to see a football club of Brighton's stature turning down £60m. As you say, the player will leave eventually, but hopefully more on Brighton's terms.

[Lord Duckhunter]

All the love for Brighton, but they’ve only done what we did when Poch & a bunch of players left. Replaced the manager & players whilst maintaining, or even bettering what came before. All this “why can’t we be like Brighton” is pony, they became like us under the hated Les Reed. IF they manage to continue this trajectory for a few more years, then yes we can look longingly at them. But at the moment, they haven’t got into Europe or a cup final, and haven’t been able to keep hold of players any better than we did. 

[Turkish]

34 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

Just thinking that if a Brighton (or Saints) player had committed the foul on Macallister when he was running through or the awful tackle on Ferguson which was reviewed by VAR and still didnt think it was a red, there would only be nine players on the field to play out the game.
I was a bit surprised that VAR didnt rule out the winning goal for some reason.
Brighton deserved their win and seem to be in a similar position to where we were a few years back.
However they seem to be able to deal with the replacement of players and Manager than we did.

The Mcallister one they said wasn’t reviewed by VAR because it was outside the penalty area. That’s farcical, it was a foul, a foul, a goal scoring opportunity so therefore a straight red. Another example of where VAR is misused. the one of Ferguson was nasty and was reviewed and still not given. Fabinio knew it was a bad one as well. Probably a red too.

Edited 29 January, 2023 by Turkish

[badgerx16]

Wrexham 1 goal and 2 CBs down inside 10 minutes.

[sydney_saint]

14 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

All the love for Brighton, but they’ve only done what we did when Poch & a bunch of players left. Replaced the manager & players whilst maintaining, or even bettering what came before. All this “why can’t we be like Brighton” is pony, they became like us under the hated Les Reed. IF they manage to continue this trajectory for a few more years, then yes we can look longingly at them. But at the moment, they haven’t got into Europe or a cup final, and haven’t been able to keep hold of players any better than we did. 

I totally agree with this, and for all the clamour they as of yet they haven't reached the heights that we managed to reach. In addition to the europe and cup final you mention, we've been third in January and were sincere challengers for a top 4 place, and we have also finished 6th. Sure they might finish their this season in 6th, but we are only halfway through and I would guess Liverpool and Chelsea will get better. Our scouting was so good that we had genuinely world class players in VVD and Mane (and some would argue Tadic could be included with some of his European performances). We also did something which they haven't as much, which was to blend good scouting with our own young players, with Lallana, Shaw, JWP, Targett, chambers all having EPL careers, and also other young English talent like Jay and Clyne. 

Of all the challengers Leicester were obviously the most successful. But I don't know if anyone except for them has pushed things as much as we did. Even they have fallen away now, and someone else will replace Brighton, who will sell their best players for 70-80 million, not because the players are better than the Brighton ones, but that will reflect the prices at the time. 

[Lord Duckhunter]

I genuinely think the way we handled the loss or Poch, a load of international level players & Cortese will come to be seen as one of the most remarkable transitions outside of the top top sides. It was quite remarkable, and I’d be amazed if Brighton or anyone else of our size could do the same. The only disappointment was that we didn’t have a decent cup run until we’d dipped slightly. 

[Sheaf Saint]

Bloke in the crowd at the Wrexham v Sheff Utd game holding up a cardboard FA cup with "Fuck the Tories" written on it in big letters.

TV producer must have had a heart attack when he saw it. They quickly cut to a different camera 🤣

[Sheaf Saint]

[Sheaf Saint]

 

[The Kraken]

5 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Bloke in the crowd at the Wrexham v Sheff Utd game holding up a cardboard FA cup with "Fuck the Tories" written on it in big letters.

TV producer must have had a heart attack when he saw it. They quickly cut to a different camera 🤣

It’s a throwback watching a game where one of the stands has been demolished. Although I had a search for what they’re building and I thinks it’s bloody ugly.