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Reply | So, the World Cup in Saudi Arabia then...
at 11:40 14 Feb 2025
I'll be going to the USA edition but mainly because I have family and friends there and can save some money on accommodation.
The issue is the distances between venues.
Even the "Boston" venue which the New England Patriots ground is actually about an hour's drive from central Boston.
Trying to go between even those allegedly in the same group (Vancouver, Seattle, LA) are more than a days drive apart. |
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Reply | Weekend of August 9th
at 16:17 13 Feb 2025
If we keep going as we are, we'll be able to watch us in the Vanarama Conference in four seasons? |
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Reply | Weekend of August 9th
at 12:17 13 Feb 2025
Was there not a suggestion that the TV rights package might include 3pm Saturday games?
Was that next season or 26/27?
The World Cup starts on 11 June so presumably the season will end in early April? |
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Reply | Where are we today? And where will be be next year?
at 09:42 13 Feb 2025
I would say that most of us on this platform are not sulkers or bad influencers but rather realists and long standing fans who have endured all manner of highs and lows.
And make no mistake, this season has been a low.
Football fans go through phases. Up to the age of what, 14? 15? we can see no wrong in our team and we celebrate every victory as though we've won the league and every defeat as though we're about to be relegated. That's a childish reaction because we were children.
From then to whatever age we begin to settle down, the loyalty to the club deepens but we're either a bit more balanced about the results or - in some cases - even more invested and see defeat as a personal insult to be visited upon opposition fans or even families at home.
Most of us have a period when events in our lives are more important (or should be) than football. Marriage, kids, perhaps death of parents, etc. Football becomes a distraction and still important but is not in context as is not the all consuming passion it was.
Coming out of that phase, perhaps bringing your kids to matches means you arrive at the turnstiles with a sense of responsibility. (Didn't stop one Dad I watched swear every few seconds - with some decent creativity - watched by his 6 year old more interested in a bag of sweets).
Then when the kids are gone we are older and more in control of ourselves and we see victory and defeat for the charlatans they are and can accept and forgive both.
Here though we are in a different place.
Yes, the team is probably not good enough but most of us realise that is because of poor recruiting which is driven by a poor corporate plan. Managers have been indulged way beyond reason probably because of a lack of money.
Poor team, poor results even poor tactics we can stomach and deal with.
Poor ownership is though is often fatal. |
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Reply | Officials
at 09:06 11 Feb 2025
I'm always siding towards cock up rather than conspiracy simply because keeping that many people quiet for so long is almost impossible.
There is I think a statistical analysis that shows that home clubs are generally treated more favourably than away.
There is some statistical evidence that that the "big " clubs get decisions but it's not really significant.
The problem is that "significant" can mean one "wrong" decision in perhaps 30 made in a game and if that is to allow (or disallow) a goal, it is not statistically significant but it is determinative.
For so long as we have humans as refs, it will always be thus.
Having a robot who is always right will be sterile and boring. |
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Thread | Where are we today? And where will be be next year?
at 12:14 10 Feb 2025
I think we can all see that the 24/25 season will be one that is perhaps in the top (or should it be bottom?) three ever in the history of the club.
We have a squad that cannot compete at PL level.
That squad was forced to apply a style of football that actually made them look worse.
The new manager was acquired too late.
The new manager seems to be no better than the old manager.
We have failed to recruit well (or at all).
The ownership seems to want a theme park and not a football team.
Arguably we have become a feeder club for French and Turkish lower league sides.
We have now exited the Cup competition with a whimper.
My view is that even competing for mid table next year, we are - assuming nobody leaves - at least five players short.
We need - and have done for two seasons now - one or two strikers who can score a dozen goals each. We need a holding midfield player. We need at least one centre back, arguably two. A creative in midfield would be nice alongside a couple of water carriers.
Instead we show no signs of preparing for next season at all.
Couple of close prospects have probably already escaped us. Tyler Bindon formerly of Reading now signed to Forest (at Reading for the rest of the season) and Dean Huijsen of Bournemouth. Both young centre backs of recognised talent. Under our noses and now gone.
Instead we have Bednarek who is vocal about losing wages if relegated, THB who seems to have a crisis of confidence. Welington who I have not seen play and therefore have no view on. Captain Jack - nuff said.
The best holding mid we have has just been described as unprofessional. I suspect that has not done his playing form any favours.
Our striking options are woeful.
Where is the plan? |
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Reply | Who Killed The Magic Of The FA Cup for Southampton
at 13:06 6 Feb 2025
The hard fact is that winning the FA cup gets you £2m in prize money.
In PL terms. petty cash.
When Burnley were relegated after finishing 19th (and I'd give a lot to finish 19th this season), they got £6.2m in prize money.
Why would managers risk league position for the cup when there's a disparity in earnings? |
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Reply | Who Killed The Magic Of The FA Cup for Southampton
at 11:05 6 Feb 2025
The FA Cup was - back when everything was in black and white - a chance for the plucky underdog to upset the ruling class of the big clubs.
Pretty much every match shown in the build ups is about a good little club beating a big club.
And I think that plays into the British mindset. If we have no affiliation in a match our instinct is to support the underdog.
Since 2008 only two (little) clubs have won the competition - Wigan and Leicester. The latter is now arguably a big club as well. Otherwise it's been one of the top 6.
And this year will be the same. We can huff and puff, perhaps beat Burnley, perhaps go a stage further, but eventually we'll run into a big club and because we cannot compete on resource, we will lose.
I see no magic anymore. I see a cynical exercise by the FA to get richer and in the process enrich the top 6 teams. |
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Reply | Top 3 nationalities most likely to have a bounty on Trump
at 10:58 6 Feb 2025
Trump is attending the Super Bowl because he wants to think that 80,000 people are all there to see him.
Unusual move though. Given the number of homicidal whackos and guns in the US, announcing the whereabouts of the president in advance might eb a bit reckless?
I'd add Saudi Arabia to the list.
Trump wants to send a couple of million Palestinians there and for them to pump more oil at cheaper prices. The Saudi ruling families don't have a great record for bearing criticism well. |
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Thread | Will we beat Derby's lowest points record
at 12:11 31 Jan 2025
Article in the Times today but told mainly from the effect that the record low points tally had on the club and players.
Apparently only two of that Derby team ever played in the Premiership again.
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Reply | Are Saints Fans
at 10:23 30 Jan 2025
Personally I've checked out this season in terms of expecting more points - and even we go a gaol up I expect us to lose - but I still love the club and will defend the team whenever I can.
Obviously not easy to endure the ribbing given the season we're having and workmates who support Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool.
still very interested, just waiting for next season. |
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Reply | The Rupert Lowe thread
at 09:00 30 Jan 2025
OK.
I see the thin skinned, defenders of free speech have woken and demonstrated that only one of those descriptions is acceptable.
I post about things I find interesting and in this case with a connection to the club. Clearly in this case, half of those who bothered to read the initial post have issues with the poster rather than the post. That's quite sad but message understood.
I'll voluntarily forgo my right to free speech and attempts to get people thinking for fear of being accused of whatever. |
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Reply | Dibbling on his way to Spurs ?
at 17:46 29 Jan 2025
I worked in B'muff and Poole between 1985 and 1990. A lot of those I worked with supported their local team. I can't say that they were anti Saints at all.
I do remember watching a cup match between us when they beat us at the old Dean Court and promised my colleagues that if they came to The Dell for the second leg, we woudl see matters right.
Except of course we didn't.
I thin it was a draw at our place, so we went out? |
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Thread | The Rupert Lowe thread
at 17:33 29 Jan 2025
Our old mucka Rupert is now of course a Reform MP.
He has come out with some bonkers stuff based on things he seems to have read on websites belong to anti immigration, anti woke, anti everything groups.
That is perhaps the job of politicians - to challenge the status quo.
More recently however he has proposed that the NHS is broken up and instead we are all to be forced to buy our own healthcare.
Apparently the "saving" to the country will be enormous - perhaps enough to build a wall in the English Channel. (I made the last bit up).
Well it's a challenge. |
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Thread | Sovereign citizen scam
at 12:08 29 Jan 2025
I've reported before about the activities of one Iain Clifford Stamp and his "Matrix Freedom" companies which promise - for a fee - to show you how to remove mortgage and credit card debt.
The scam basically works by your claiming that the UK is not a country (it's a company based in a backstreet in London) and therefore none of its rules are binding because it has no "citizens" and even if it did because your birth certificate has your name in capital letters, you are not a citizen.
The law quoted by Stamp/Matrix is a confused, illogical and wholly incorrect interpretation based on US state law which has been debunked in US Courts for at least 50 years.
It's a scam designed to rob you.
Don't get involved.
(We hope to have Stamp in a court room this year on a range of charges way curtail his activities, but he is persistent.) |
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