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Reply | So, the World Cup in Saudi Arabia then...
at 21:55 13 Feb 2025
My ex in laws lived in Saudi Arabia, it is not Quatar or Dubai they are zealots, in Western terms their laws & punishment etc are medieval, they are still chopping peoples hands off for stealing and other offences and beheading people in public, they are not going to let a few hotels sell alcohol .
The only time you will be on the lash is when you get 300 of them. |
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Reply | So, the World Cup in Saudi Arabia then...
at 21:13 13 Feb 2025
Saudi Arabia is one of the most strictest in the middle east, I would hope that they will be suspending the beheadings etc in the main square during the duration of the World Cup.
It is illegal to drink alcohol in Saudi Arabia |
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Thread | Ticket Exchange/ Sell Out
at 11:04 13 Feb 2025
Only 38 tickets left on the main ticket page, but 620 have been put up for sale on the ticket exchange, that is a massive amount, seems like some have just given up |
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Reply | Sulemana . Let's get behind him.
at 10:54 13 Feb 2025
In fairness Sulemana has shown a bit of a revival in the past few games, but he has not shown consistency , he undoubtably has pace, but its about using it, he was superb at Man Utd, but he has been patchy in most of the other games, occasional glimpses of brilliance followed by drifting in and out of games. |
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Reply | Are Saints So Hard Up
at 09:39 12 Feb 2025
A good point, walk down he high street and shops are closing down all over the place, the way we shop is changing, its all done online and sent to your door.
Whilst I agree that we should have a shop open 6 days a week at the stadium from the perspective that we are a premier League club etc, the reality is that to have a club shop in the city centre probably loses a club of our size money, when you take in rent, rates and wages, you have to sell a lot of merchandise to make it a going concern.
I went to the club shop a few weeks ago as i was passing by, I was in there about 10 minutes and i was the only customer in that time.
In the time I have supporters Saints, we have never been a fanbase that buys merchandise in big numbers, we spend our time running down the club and there fore don't want to be seen supporting it, it was like that in the 70's & 80's, it got better in the 1990's but if you went to the Dell the number of replica shirts per head, was far lower than going to a similar club like Leicester or Middlesbrough etc.
Only Saints fans could spend their time saying boycott the club shop and then complain when due to a lack of business that it reduces its opening hours lol 
We complain when the club gets things wrong and money is wasted on players and we complain when those not involved with the playing side of things get things right and make money on their side of things.
I try and apportion blame where it lies, whilst the playing side of things is a shambles at the moment, those not involved on that side of the club, have done things that have been a success and made money, the fan zones aren't my sort of things, but they are extremely popular and seem to be profitable, rejigging our retail business is another side of things, football is a very seasonal things in retail, the start of a season when the new kit is out and Xmas are it's busy period, the rest of the year its a lot less busy.
From a vanity point of view, we should not be closing the shop, from a business perspective it is almost certainly a good move.
Sorry for being sensible |
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Reply | Bournemouth Sold Out
at 09:21 12 Feb 2025
Why ? He has had little to do with us directly, he is the one man in Sport Republic who actually has a track record of success in football, we could do with him. |
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Reply | European matches and ticket advice please.
at 09:19 12 Feb 2025
I went to Goztepe when we played them a couple of years ago, it is in Izmir which is on a big bay with a port, not exactly a tourist destination, but it was pleasant enough and cheap as chips back then, although inflation has made Turkey more expensive these days.
Goztepe fans seemed to like having a connection with us and made a big flag for the occassion, they should welcome you |
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Thread | Are Saints So Hard Up
at 16:56 11 Feb 2025
That they have to close the club shop at the stadium on every day bar a Thursday, Friday & a Saturday.
This post has been edited by an administrator |
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Reply | European matches and ticket advice please.
at 16:48 11 Feb 2025
Look at how many the club you are going to average, if they are not near capacity then it should be easy to get a ticket from their website or even bowl up on the day or the day before if you are there early enough |
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Reply | Are Things Far From Ok In The Southampton Camp ?
at 14:55 11 Feb 2025
I'm not sure who I am expecting to lead either, perhaps Adam Lallana is the only leader, as he was Captain before I think, I have said on numerous occasions that we lack leaders and organisers and the biggest surprise is that we don't bring one in
I would agree that Tall Paul has not had the best of luck at Saints, he arrived to play under Nathan Jones and within a week or so Jones was sacked and Selles took over who played a different style that didn't suit him and then Martin who he definitely didn't suit .
He is a tryer, but I don't think he would get 10 goals in a season, his finishing is woeful, as was shown against West Ham when he missed a couple of sitters and in general he doesn't get on the end of enough balls through to him,
6 starts and 8 sub appearances and 2 goals isn't a great total,
Armstrong is a different kind of striker, this season he has played out wide a lot.
I am being clinical on both players here, I truly hope that Tall Paul does score a lot of goals and is a success, but I suspect when we go down he will want to go and play abroad again rather than the Championship |
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Reply | Trains Cancelled On Saturday
at 12:41 11 Feb 2025
You are right, you can get a train from Brockenhurst to Southampton, its getting to Brockenhurst and Southampton which is the problem.
Seems like there are direct replacement buses from Bournemouth to either Southampton Central or Parkway as well as to Brockenhurst |
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Thread | Trains Cancelled On Saturday
at 10:25 11 Feb 2025
It is a replacement bus service between Brockenhurst & Southampton, so there will be the potential for chaos for the Bournemouth game |
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Reply | Crowd For Bournemouth
at 10:22 11 Feb 2025
Its strange that the capacity appears to be about 1,000 lower than 10 years or so ago,
Some of that is due to the fact that they had to increase the number of media seats, so about 9 years ago took out a lot of seats next to the tv gantry in the Kingsland and put in media seats which have never been used. But that probably only took out 150-200 seats tops.
Next would be the security netting etc, 10 years ago they just had one small piece of netting in the Kingsland, that drastically increased in the past few years and now there are two distinct double security fences surrounding the new away corner.
They have changed some of the Executive boxes, but again that would only see 30 seats lost.
Back when we were hitting 32k, we also utilised the seats right at the front, but again in certain areas we don't do that anymore |
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Thread | Crowd For Bournemouth
at 10:00 11 Feb 2025
Less than 100 tickets left and the ticket exchange is open so probably there have been tickets sold on that as well, so technically a sell out |
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Thread | 5 Things About The Burnley Game
at 09:57 11 Feb 2025
1 The Red Wall, I went in there and found it a little underwhelming, there was no cohesion in the singing etc, there seems to be 2 or 3 sections, all singing at different times, I was told this is the norm in League games as well
2. How many songs have we got, I counted 3 on Saturday, the most popular being the Liverpool cover version.
3. Closing the Kingsland probably takes about 3-3,000 off the attendance.
4. I am concerned about the manager, his team selections and substitutions are woeful and I think he is fast splitting the squad into factions
5. A reasonable crowd given the circumstances, ticket price, the season we are having, closure of the Kingsland, the Weather. |
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Thread | Did The Premier League Kill The Game As A Working Man's Sport
at 09:02 7 Feb 2025
This was a a suggestion on the home page article, "Who killed the magic of the FA Cup for Southampton".
I would suggest not !
The game was dead on it's feet by the mid 80's, a combination of football club owners who did not give a toss about the fans, having to watch games in decaying old stadiums, often on open terraces with no roof and the actual danger of attending matches when football hooliganism meant that anyone was fair game for a punch in the mouth, had seen attendances plummet from the 1970's.
Take 1988/89 even the big clubs were struggling
Man Utd Average 36k 10 yrs earlier average 56k
Liverpool Average 38k 1979 average 46k
Chelsea Average 15k 1979 average 24k
Spurs average 24k 1979 average 34k
Arsenal 35k 1979 average 36k (They were champions in 1989)
Saints average 15k 1979 average 21k
Football was dying and dropping, hence the Premier League came in and changed the face of the game .
So did the Premier League finish the game as a working mans sport, I would say no, it was already in the morgue when the Premier league came along, so the Premier League might not have reinvented it as a cheap working mans sport, but it saved it as a sport and made it a game that everyone followed albeit many on TV and the lower league clubs benefitted from this as the average person was now taking an interest in the game as a whole.
So the Premier League was the saviour of the game, but that came at a high cost as we now find out 33 years later.
I write this through gritted teeth as i am no lover of the Premier League and what it has become, but without it the game might well have died.
Discuss
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Reply | Juric wanted players - these owners didn't deliver
at 21:56 6 Feb 2025
Im not bothered that they didn't sign any one this window, I would prefer that they just get this season done and dusted and rebuild in the summer, when they know who has gone and where we need to replace |
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Reply | 10 Greatest Players In Saints History Ranked
at 09:00 5 Feb 2025
Not sure that Ted Bates would be one of our greatest players, but is certainly in our top 2 managers and overall perhaps number 1 in the list of people who have had the biggest contribution to the club. |
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Reply | Adam Armstrong
at 08:58 5 Feb 2025
Armstrong can play on the left as well, if Dibling plays on the right he is better, but Juric seems to want to play him as a striker.
I agree about Sulemana, lets see what he can do, my point is that although he has done a little bit in the past few weeks as has Onuachu, both have also been just as bad as they were in the past in others, there hasn't been consistency
Yes we should have kept Armstrong, the only reason I can see for him leaving is 1 to save money and 2 to give him shooting practice and up his confidence for next season.
Our problem is that there is no director of football, we have had no one running the football side of things with any experience for the last 10 months, Ankersen get a lot of stick, but Saints have never been his remit he has concentrated on Goztepe and he is the only one of the owners who has experience in football |
| | SaintNick
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