It’s late

​I’m going to write a blog about all the Saints games that I attend this season. So that’s a treat for you all!! 

The first home game of the 26/27 Championship season was against Stoke City. We had started the season away to Watford and had lost 2-1, our defence having given away two entirely avoidable goals, so pre season hopes were already wobbling. 

The teams are announced 75 minutes before kick off (no I don’t why it’s 75 minutes either!). Although it does give ample time to share your thoughts on the selection with your fellow fans on WhatsApp . This weeks comments were mainly around Taylor Harwood-Bellis not being on the squad and with just over a week left in the transfer window, that meant that he was obviously “on his way”! Otherwise the team was close to what you’d expect. 

We started positively and scored in the first 10 minutes after Flynn Downes threaded the ball through to Cyle Larin who ran from the centre circle outpacing a Stoke centre half (who looked like he had diving boots on!) and then stuck the ball through the legs of the Stoke goal keeper Victor Johansson. 1-0 and all is good until the 26th minute! 

Then Stoke bring the ball forward and pass it out wide to ex Saints player Sam Gallagher who despite being a strapping centre forward when at Saints now plays on the wing! He does what he should do and crosses the ball into the Saints penalty area aided by no Saints player being anywhere near him to stop the cross. But it’s fine as there are 5 Saints players in the box (and a goalkeeper) so they’ll deal with it. Except they decide to play “after you Maud” or musical statues which allows Ethan Galbraith, Stokes big summer signing,  to glide in the area and put the ball into the Saints goal largely unchallenged. 1-1! 

The rest of the first half and the start of the second half are fairly mundane, with Saints playing better after half time as Stoke start show that they’re happy with a point. This gets worse as they start to show they know all the dark arts required to waste time. This is best illustrated by after a delay for some serious injury like a broken finger nail, their goalkeeper has to run back from the half way line as he’s been chatting to the coaching team!! And this is meant to be being stamped out this season!! 

Something has to change and it does after 78 minutes as we take off what should be our two best chances of scoring, Cyle Larin and Leo Scienza. To be fair Larin regularly got hooked after an hour last season and Scienza was never in the game having been doubled marked and therefore nullified. So on came two new signings, Divin Mubama and Lewis Dobbin, one on loan from Man City and one we bought from Aston Villa to give some Premier League quality and so it proved albeit there was another 10 minutes of life threatening cramp and the like before we scored. 

When it came the goal was simple and a thing of beauty. Dobbin goes through the middle of the pitch passes to Finn Azaz in the “D “ of the Stoke box, first touch he plays a perfectly weighted pass the Mubama, he takes a touch and then scores in the far corner of the Stoke goal with his favoured left foot. Cue wild celebrations including Saints captain Jack Stephens collapsing in the Stoke penalty area with an attack of cramp, just to make a point! 

2-1 and we steady ourselves for Stoke raising their game and 5 minutes of back to the wall defending but instead we score a third and it’s a comedy of errors. Flynn Downes plays another lazer guided pass into the feet of another late substitute, Sam Edozie, who looks and probably is a yard offside. No flag is raised and he takes the ball into the area where upon Stoke defender Svante Ingelsson, brought on to shore up the defence, bundles him to the ground giving away a penalty and getting a second yellow card and hence a red card for his troubles. We have two penalty takers, Larin and Scienza, neither of whom are on the pitch so Mubama and Edozie have a game of “rock paper scissors” to decide who’ll take it before Jack Stephens as captain intervenes and tells them the manager has told him Ryan Manning is to take it. This is does and sticks it in the bottom right hand corner just past the dive of Johanssen. 3-1 and shortly after the final whistle goes.

So on paper a comfortable win, but in reality had Stoke upped their game and stopped all the dark arts they could have caused us a problem or two. They chose, however, to try to protect the point they had and ultimately were well beaten by the end. 

Everything Changes but You

So it is two days before the start of the new Premier league season. It's fair to say that preseason at St Mary's has been anything but quiet!

The Saints have sold Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Callum Chambers, Dejan Lovren and Dani Osvaldo has gone to Inter Milan on a Season long loan. Or other words we've lost our main striker, main playmaker, three of our starting back four and a lunatic who we were happy to see the back of. That three of those players have gone to Liverpool is also unusual and of course our first game is away to Liverpool!  But it has to be said that Liverpool have paid well over th odds for both Lovren and Lallana. In addition the money that Arsenal played for Callum Chambers was also ridiculous.

At one point it looked like it was going to be worse as Tottenham wanted to buy both Morgan Schneiderlin and Jay Rodriguez, but the club drew a line over that deal and said that they would not be sold. (Schneiderlin was deeply unhappy about that decision and it still remains to be seen, with two weeks of the transfer window left to go, whether he will still leave the club.)

To replace these players the club have used the knowledge of new manager Ronald Koeman and bought in Graziano Pelle and Dusan Tadic from Dutch football as replacements for Lambert and Lallana. From preseason matches both look like adequate replacements. We've also bought Shane Long from Hull City to play off Pelle and hopefully they will quickly form a free scoring striking partnership. 

In defence we bought new goalkeeper Fraser Forster from Celtic. At six foot seven and an England international he appears to be a good buy. We've also taken Ryan Bertrand on a season loan from Chelsea and today have bought Florin Gardos from Steaua Bucharest who is an international centre back. Finally as part of the deal that took Osvaldo to Milan we've taken a defensive midfielder Saphir Taider on loan to St Mary's. Both of the loan deals mentioned are believed to have clauses which allow us to make the loans permanent transfers at the end of the season.

So on paper we seem to have replaced all the players that left with equivalent replacements. We also have more players coming through from our wonderful Academy, so the season ahead, which could have been a complete disaster, at least now looks like it will be ok.

Where do I think we will finish? Somewhere between 10th and 13th. If Koeman gets the team playing as a team sooner rather than later we could even match last years eighth. But equally if the team doesn't gel quickly enough then below 13th could be the alternative. These may be famous last words but I don't see us being in the relegation battle. That's especially true after Crystal Palace let Tony Pulis leave today! 

A good start would be three points at Anfield!

The same old scene

So the Npower Championship starts next Saturday and the excellent news is that this season it includes the Saints!

So how do I feel about this season? Will we be this seasons Norwich (who achieved back to back promotions so start this season in the Premier League) or will we be Scunthorpe (who went up then back to League 1)? Or more likely, will this be a season of acclimatisation?

Well we have a squad with depth in it, so much so, that (as I write this) we have only made two pre-season signings, Jack Cork and Steve de Ridder. Cork was on loan from  Chelsea the last time that we were in the Championship and looked good. Last season he played at Burnley and fans were sad to see him go. We've now bought him so let's hope the good signs seen in pre-season games continue. De Ridder is a right winger, looks good and seems to have genuine pace. That seems a great piece of business as, if as expected, Alex Chamberlain does go on a big money move. then we've avoided being asked for silly money when we have to go and buy a replacement.

I don't see any obvious weaknesses in the team, in fact we appear to have a series good problems in that we have 4 quality central midfielders vying for 2 places. We also have 5 strikers in competition for 2 places and again 4 central defenders fighting over 2 more spaces. As long as Adkins can keep everybody happy then we start from a good settled place.

So where do I think that we will finish? If we have a good start then promotion could be achievable, but I expect mid-table to be where we end up.

Let's hope I'm wrong!