The Saint has returned!!!

Its been a while, a combination of a loss of faith and an excess of work has kept me away but I have returned.

Saint's start to the season has been so mixed that I haven't known whether to laugh or cry!! For the neutral it has been a joy. Before the weekend our games had contained the most goals in the football league. But from the weekend there seems to be a hope. Dailly has made such a big impact since coming in. His experience and quality seems to have rubbed off. Even Alan Bennett who started the season looking like a pub league player against an average Palace attack, has become a confident, composed player against a far better Cardiff front line. We just need to end our defender injury jinx and we should be fine.

Couple this improvement in the defense with some good finishing by the strikers and we have a recipe to push for promotion. My first impression of Stern John was that he was pretty lazy, lacked pace and presence, but like Rasiak, he just scores goals!! Can't ask for more! Below is the goal from Sunday, great ball through by Idiakez.

Bournemouth 1 - 2 Saints

Today at the Fitness First stadium Saints continued their preparations for the new season with a solid, rather than spectacular performance. Goals from Kenwyne Jones and Bradley Wright-Phillips gave ten-man Saints victory. Saints were reduced to 10 men when Powell was involved in some "hand-bags" with one of the Bournemouth players. It seemed like a telling off would have sufficed, but the ref thought otherwise. It was good to see Claus complete 45 minutes and Jones looked in fine form. As I said before though, it was a solid rather than great performance.

A selection of photos are at:
http://s185.photobucket.com/albums/x69/ph11be/Saints%20v%20Cherries/
or here's the slideshow:

There was no sign of two triallist that had joined Saints for their first three pre-season games. Today, George Burley said that he was trying to arrange a season-long loan deal for Vignal from Lens. But he said that they would not be pursuing interest in Hungarian international centre-back Tamas Vasko. It still leaves a hole in the centre of our defence which urgently needs filling.

Still, pre-season has been encouraging thus far, with a Saints opening with a 4-2 win over Eastleigh and then 12-0 and 4-1 wins on the tour of Norway. So if Saints can strengthen the defence in the couple of weeks, a good season should ensue.

The whole potential takeover situation has become a bit tiring and after the club released a statement to the LSE announcing that there were three interested parties and talks were ongoing, I've decided to just wait and see and not get my hopes up. Takeover or not, this season looks like it is going to be fun!!

Bye Bye Baird, but Hello Hammill

So Chris Baird has eventually left for Fulham. It's a shame to see him go, but if he really wanted premiership football then fair play. It was interesting to see him snub a move to Sunderland in favour of waiting for one to Fulham. There are probably two good reasons though; Lawrie Sanchez and Mrs Baird (apparently she doesn't want to leave Hampshire). Plus we could do with the £3m we received to bolster the defence. We still need at least two centre backs and maybe another full back.

Looking at a full-back is exactly what Burley is going to do, Saints have taken Gregory Vignal on trial from Lens, where he would be available on a free transfer. He first came to England when he signed for Liverpool back in 2000, when he was one of the most promising french prospects, despite winning some cup winners medals, he struggled withg injury which led him to be sent out on loan to Rangers. He then opted to join Pompey (under Perrin), but was released when Redknapp returned. He sounds a good prospect and hopefully he can impress over the next week or two and can win himself a contract.

Another missing piece of the puzzle was a winger, someone to add pace, creativity and a cutting edge going forward. Hopefully this may have been filled with the arrival of Adam Hammill on a years loan from Liverpool. The 19 year old winger, who can play on either flank, played most of last season at Dunfermline in the SPL, where he helped them to the Scottish cup final. Hopefully he can proved an excellent addition to the midfield and add some really quality.

In takeover talk, something may or may not happen tomorrow or at the beginning of next week. But that is what's been said nearly every week for the last couple of months. The talk this week has sounded more believable with many people in the know (ITK) all agreeing on a big story, but not letting anything slip to the rest of us. Although, it has been commented that the proposal of one of the possible interested parties would rock the whole footballing world. To be honest this probably sounds to good to be true, which it usually is for Saints. Anyway, getting bored of the whole saga, lets just hope the whole thing is sorted (either way) sooner rather than later, so we can get back to concentrating on the football!

A musical tribute to Adam Hammill from the Dunfermline fans:

Takeover fatigue

Following all the "inside information", rumour and speculation surrounding a potential takeover of the club has really taken its toll. All the talk was of Paul Allen sweeping in with his billions and lifting saints to the next level. But this all seemed to go cold, after a great deal of rumour about what went wrong (if anything). All seemed to have gone silent over the last week, until new rumours have surfaced suggesting something may happen next week. Not Allen, but someone who would may be at least as good for the club! But again this is "inside information" with no source named to back it up. Could all be more rubbish/optimism. Have to wait and see I guess.

In actual news Saints managed to complete the signing (eventually) of Marek Saganowski. The fee reported to be about £700k is an absolute bargain in he is half as good as he hinted at with his performances at the end of last season. He should be a real asset!! On a sadder note, Cranie and Best have left (out of contract) to Pompey and Coventry. Saints will get some compensation for them as they are under 24, this might be nearly £1m between the two. I will be sad to see Cranie leave as I thought he had provided good cover at the back, although didn't get as many chances as he probably deserved. Not to bothered to lose Best, whilst he was improving, he also seemed lazy (almost as bad as Rasiak) and was offside quite frequently.

It was also reported today that Chris Baird will probably be off to Sunderland for £3m. This will be a great shame as Chris had a fantastic season past, and was clearly the undisputed player of the season. But with the finances at Saints the way they are currently, £3m is a good price and hopefully Burley will get most of it to invest in 2 new centre backs and a midfielder. If we can sure up our defence and get a tough midfielder in, we could have a great season coming. I actually feel quite positive at the moment, takeover or not.

Behind the scenes, Glynn Snodin left as first team coach to rejoin Curbishly at West Ham, he was replaced yesterday by the returning Jason Dodd. He's southampton through and through and should bring back some fight and leadership back. Never know, if we don't some defenders in, he might get to make his 400th league appearance for Saints (currently on 399)!!

Upstairs and there are some battles going on in the boardroom. Brian Hunt stepped down as a director, but he was not replaced by another non-executive, but by Andy Oldknow the commercial director. His appointment upset the remaining non-execs who stormed out of the board meeting and have left the board completely split. The makeup of the board is now totally unrecognisable to that promised by the 'Football First' manifesto the new regime unveiled this time last year. I just hope that this doesn't mess up any new potential investors and that hopefully someone will come in soon and sweep away all the rubbish. It would be nice for Saints to have a stable, liked board for once.

Fingers crossed for next week!!

Fixtures

So the fixtures were released on thursday and Saints seem to have landed themselves a tough run-in. The final four games (in reverse order) are Sheff Utd (H), West Brom (A), Burnley (H) and Charlton (A). Let's just hope we have enough of cushion and we don't manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The season starts on August 11th with a visit from Crystal Palace, followed by the League cup 1st round match at Peterborough (13th) and a trip to Norwich in the league (18th). A link to the full list is on the right.

Obviously no more takeover talk over the weekend. Still clinging to the faint hope of PA interest, below is a video about Allen's second largest yacht, the Tatoosh. Bling bling!!

It's becoming like a circus!!

So, its been yet another crazy week at the Saints. Ridiculous really! The week started with optimism, with hopes that a takeover would be imminent. But this has not transpired. The national press quoted a spokesman for Paul Allen's Vulcan investment company as say he had never had any interest in investing in the football club. The daily echo, then followed this up by stating they had been receiving emails to that effect for the previous fortnight. The story then got carried on The Saint (the club radio station). At this point the prospects of an Allen takeover looked extremely bleak indeed.

At this point there were still many people claiming to have inside information, say that talks were still ongoing with Allen's people, but they had not been smooth. These statements were backed up when Radio Solent reported that an inside source said talks were still ongoing. At this point the Echo put out another story saying pretty much the same thing. Information coming out now, from relatively reliable sources, suggest that the talks had been in difficulty, but the board were trying to rescue the situation. The reason for these problems has not become clear. Whether it is to do with members of the board, the sale of Gareth Bale, or related property issues is unknown.

This is all a bit of a downer compared with this time last week!! One thing is for sure, talks with someone are still ongoing as the company is still in a bid situation. Who with is also a mystery, rumours of a Souness-led consortium or business men from the far east are all vague.

What is clear from all this is that Saints need some investment. Transfer activity seems to have frozen in the last week. Reports suggesting we had signed Saganowski have dried up, as has talk of an approach from Guthrie and no more word on Baird's potential exit. This could be because Burley has been away on holiday, or it could be because the takeover talks in a delicate stage and assets can't be offloaded or acquired.

I am not one of the people who are panicking and demanding swift action, but it would be nice to see that this is going somewhere and progress is being made. In order for Saints to really compete next season we need to sign a couple of big, strong centre backs, and along with the potential signings of Saga and Guthrie, we should be able to challenge for the automatic positions next season.

Lets all just keep our fingers crossed for some good news soon!!

Potential Takeovers

So still no word on a prospective takeover and so I've recently become addicted to following the Saints Forum, where the PA takeover thread provides great entertainment, frustration, hope, disallusionment etc etc. At the time of writing the thread had 95,964 views with over 2000 posts. There has been lots of speculation, with a few people claiming inside knowledge (some more credibly than others!). The general consensus is that Paul Allen is in the process of a takeover attempt, but this might also be dependent on him acquire much of the surround land to create a new development. This is what may be slowing up the proposed move. If this is true and is eventually completed, this is hugely exciting prospect, not just for the Saints, but for the city as a whole. A benefactor like Allen, redeveloping some of the old industrial area would surely breath life back into a large part of the city.

Over at the Forum, the stock market is watch constantly, and attempts are normally underway to locate/track Mr Allens three super-yachts. The fact that the share price has been at a constant high of about 62p for a week or so is very promising. I have personally tried to contact Mr Allen's people through his press office, but have had no response. I guess if it was a complete load of rubbish they would have said that and be done with it.

So, hopes are high that a takeover will happen, although the timing is anybodies guess, could be monday, could be september (or later). A waiting game is required here, the patience of a Saint!!!

In other news, Chris Baird handed in a transfer request after clear interest from Fulham. Saints rejected an initial bid of about £2.5m, and since Baird requested to be transfer listed. You may ask why, if a takeover is imminent? But it may be the case that he knows no more than us, and he wants the chance to play top-flight football next year, while at the peak of his career. He would also be joining his former international boss Lawrie Sanchez, who is clearly a huge fan of Baird. I personally can't really blame him for requesting a move and wish him all the best for the future. But I still can't help feeling a little disappointed by his decision. He had a great season last year, and Saints really made progress. I might have hoped he could have repayed the fans (who voted him player of the year) with one more season. Never mind! Unless the board are trying to delay selling him a bit longer, hoping that a takeover will happen and we can persuade him to stay.

So keep the faith all, keep your fingers/toes/arms/legs/EVERYTHING crossed, that we get some good news soon and the club can really start to build for the future.

Looking back and to the future

Ok, so I've been lazy at updating, sorry. Now the apologies are out the way, the reflection and hoping can begin.

So Saints' excellent end to the season was so disappointingly ended by the worst footballing team in the championship!! A real pity that Derby made it to the premiership by beating the two most attractive footballing teams in the division, Saints and West Brom. Saints' problem this season was that we were too weak as a team. We didn't really have any tough players, haven't for years!

Despite the penalty shoot-out defeat to Derby I came away really proud of the team and the way they played. Now we have to take all the positives from this season and look to build on them. We have a young team and some great players. Bale has gone, which is a real shame (especially as its to Spurs), but good luck to him and we still produced some great performances without him last season (like the playoff 2nd leg). It doesn't look like we should lose too many more players (for non-financial reasons) in the summer. I hope Baird can be persuaded to stay and we can get young Best on a new contract.

I did say non-financial reasons though. The club obviously lose the parachute payments next season and will need some new financing or a major reduction in costs (bye-bye players). So if there is to be a takeover who might it be? Well, in the last few months there's been mention of a consortium fronted by Graeme Souness and a possible bid by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. No news has been coming out of the club recently, as it is in an offer period, and so cannot legally release information. I guess it is a case of wait and see, and HOPE!! New investment into the club would be fantastic. I don't want an Abramovich to come in and spend £300 million, but to secure the clubs future and develop the squad for a strong title push next year.

To succeed next year Saints need to bring in at least one big, strong centre back, a midfield bully and a creative spark. If we can keep Best, Rasiak, Jones and maybe even Saganowski (unlikely!) we have a pretty good strike force.

2007/08 'should' be a great year for Saints, new investment (hopefully), a real push for automatic promotion and watching Derby struggle miserably in the Premiership:)

Wolves 0 Southampton 6 !!!!!!!!!

I'm a believer again!! Whilst annoying to see what saints can do and think where we should be in the league, I again believe we can still make the playoffs. Saganowski got a majestic hat-trick, Surman finished brilliantly from a great ball by Wright and it was nice to see Leon Best finishing off a brilliantly worked move by Surman and Dyer. At the back the goalkeeping was brilliant, if he plays half as well against Luton, then hopefully Davis won't get a look in. Roll on Luton!!

Can't be bothered to describe much more when the video does it so much better. Watch and enjoy!!

Wolves 0 Southampton 6 !!!!!!!!!
Uploaded by ph11be

Something to improve the mood!!

After an awful last fortnight, culminating in a atrocious home defeat to Colchester, I felt that something was needed to lift the mood and remind us all that Saints can play, win and still push for a playoff place!! Come on you Saints!!!

Saints 5 - 2 Barnsley


QPR 0 - 2 Saints


Saints 1 - 0 Ipswich


Thanks to SFCHighlightMan on youtube for the vids

Saints 2 - 2 Cardiff

Apologies for an extended absence, work, illness and disillusionment with saints have kept me away.

Last nights match probably signaled the end of Saints season. I was convinced of that last night, although in the warm light of day, may its not completely over. As I've said every match for the past month, the next two games are crucial. Actually, the next 8 games are crucial, plus hopefully another 3.

I felt team selection for yesterdays game was a bit strange. Up front, Bradley W-P contributed little (apart from a tap-in), surely even Rasiak would have given us something more, or even young Leon Best who's back from loan bang-on-form. In midfield we lacked a natural passer of the ball in the middle, which was evident throughout. Pele and Viafara are too similar to play in the centre together. It needed a Jermaine Wright or Guthrie (or even Idiakez?!) to get the ball moving. Skacel, as usual, gave little to the side, and we looked much better with the introduction of Nathan Dyer. He put himself about, got stuck in and showed some real pace and skill. Surman had a solid game, without being spectacular. Up front Saganowski looked good and it was a huge surprise that he was replaced, instead of Wright-Phillips!! At the back, Bale did little apart from a couple of driving runs. Baird and Claus were solid, and Powell seemed to improve after taking a few blows to the head. Goals wise, the first was a piledriver from Baird after the ball was rolled across to him from a freekick. The second was a tap-in for Bradley after a good header from Saga.

Thought the overall performance was poor, and at no point (even half-time) could I see us ending victorious. We lacked creativity going forward and solidity at the back. If we are to stand any chance of making the play-offs, let alone promotion, we'll need a big improvement.

Saints 0 Derby 1

What a disappointment!!!! Convinced saints were going to win and begin a concerted promotion push. The game started well enough, with Saints creating some good opportunities. New signing Marek Saganowski, looked bright and went close twice within the first 3 minutes. The first drew a good save from the derby keeper and the second flew just over from a difficult position. He obviously couldn't keep it up but turned in a promising performance, and it was a little disappointing that he was substituted when he was. Saints should indeed have been 4-0 up by the end of the first half after creating several good chances, but each time the keeper would make a save or the luck wasn't with us. In particular Rasiak had a glorious opportunity with space inside the area, but his placed effort crept millimetres past the far post.

The second half was less dominated by the Saints, but Derby still offered little in the way of attacking. They turned in a solid, physical display, lacking in skill and flair, i'd say they were the Bolton of the championship! Then as time was getting on, predictably Howard got in to score an undeserved winner. A frustrating match, with some improved attacking play from the home side, providing evidence that the return of the more creative midfield players will strengthen our challenge. But we really need to start putting away our chances when we get them. The result leaves us looking back over our shoulder now, trying to make sure of at least a play-off place.

There were injury worries over gareth bale, who spent the end of the first half limping badly, recovering a little for the second half (although still lacking some zip) and Rudi skacel, who seemed to have a back problem and briefly left the field, before later having some treatment.

Man of the Match: Chris Baird for another superb defensive performance. Although he was run close by Jhon Viafara.

Weekend Preview

Team news: Kenwyne Jones is still a doubt after picking up an injury on wednesday. If he doesn't make it, then it looks like new signing Marek Saganowski will make his debut, making it an all polish attack. Another injury doubt from midweek was Kelvin Davis, although it is thought he should be ok, and his injuries could have been much worse. Idiakez could be in line for a return to midfield after his strong showing from the bench midweek. This could be for Powell who is definitely out, with Pele dropping to centre back. Alternatively, Baird could slot inside, with Ostland or Makin stepping in at rightback. Whoever plays, it seems that Saints are starting to get some key players back, and it feels like the squad is looking quite strong now and will only get stronger with the future return of belmadi and surman.

Derby's lineup is harder to predict with Billy Davies rotating his squad successfully, with even Matty Oakley (now derby club captain) not guarenteed a starting place on his return to st mary's. There is a reasonable chance they will give debuts to some of their new signings from january, James McEveley, Tyrone Mears and Jon Macken.

Championship weekend predictions

Friday
Cardiff - Barnsley 3-0

Saturday
Colchester - Birmingham 2-2
Palace - Ipswich 3-1
Hull - West Brom 1-1
Leicester - Luton 2-0
Norwich - Leeds 4-1
QPR - Burnley 0-0
Sheff Wed - Preston 1-1
Southampton - Derby 3-1
Stoke - Southend 2-0
Sunderland - Coventry 1-0
Wolves - Plymouth 1-1

Saints best day in the last two years!!!!

Yesterday turned out to be the best day for the Saints in a long while. A 2-1 victory over sheffield wednesday moved saints to within one point of second place in the championship. But possibly more importantly, the transfer window came to a close with Gareth Bale still a Saints player:-)

Last nights match was a good one for saints in more than just the result. There were plus points all round. Baird was again brilliant putting in a man of the match performance. Rasiak's trickery with flicks and back-heels galore in the first half, idiakez looked good and hungry coming back and the pressure of more competition up front seemed to work as kenny put away a couple of beautifully taken goals, taking him to 11 for the season. The only apparent downside was that he later picked up a thigh injury which makes him doubtful for saturdays huge game at home to Derby. If you missed the match, check out the goals and reaction below, notice rasiak's backheel and kenny's dancing:-)

On the Bale front, it appears that he snubbed a £10 million + 18 month loan-back deal with spurs (despite saints allowing him talks) in favour of a possible move to man utd in the summer. I'd be sad to see him leave any time. But maybe when we're in the premiership we can tempt him to stay a little longer with a big money deal.

Bring on Derby!!!!

Comings and goings

David Prutton completed his move to forest today, joining on loan til the end of the season (when his contract finishes). Arriving at St Mary's today was Marek Saganowski, on loan from Troyes. Hopefully he can add some experience to the young Saints attack. He wasn't signed in time to play against Wednesday, but he will be available for saturday's big game with Derby.

Team news for tomorrow is that Rudi Skacel is back and Dyer should also be available as the midfield injury crisis seems to be starting to ease. I don't know why Claus didn't play in the cup game (any help??) but hopefully he'll be back. I fancy saints for a comfortable home win, maybe 2-0.

Other results in the championship tonight were pretty damn good for saints. Apart from Derby who managed a 1-0 win at home to burnley, all Saints rivals who played failed to win. Preston went down 1-0 to colchester, birmingham lost 3-1 at HOME to southend (they seem to have the measure of the big teams, but noone else). With Stoke and Sunderland also failing to pick up maximum points. So a win for saints tomorrow night would lift them to within one point of third place preston and second placed birmingham (who have two games in hand). So this really is an important one to win, we really need to capitalise.

Prutton eventually on the move?

Mr Prutton may eventually be departing the saints. The midfielder spoke to the manager and explained that he needed regular first team football at this stage of his career, which burley clearly doesn't feel he can promise him. Following this Prutton has been given permission to speak to other clubs, with Forest looking good favourites. Prutton's old club have been interested in resigning him for a while and are in need with a couple to signings to strengthen their push for promotion back to the championship. But prutton's hometown club Hull expressed an interest earlier in the transfer window and may also try and get in on the act.

In the balance

Saints' season is in the balance over the next week or so. They need to pick themselves up after the disappointment of being dumped out of the fa cup, and concentrate of the far more pressing concern of promotion. The next three days are crucial as Saints battle to keep the services of Gareth Bale, with reports that Man Utd are readying a new bid. Then comes a string of important matches, with the saints hosting in-form Sheffield Wednesday (on wednesday night) and top of the table Derby on saturday, followed by a trip to West Brom. If Saints could win all three or manage 7 points, it would leave them in an excellent position for a concerted automatic promotion push. Do badly on the other hand, and we could be resigned to a play-off slot (at best).

Saints drop out

Saints crashed out of the cup today despite taking the lead at the city of manchester stadium. An early goal from kenwyne jones gave saints the perfect start, but city equalised almost immediately through Darius vassell. Goals from Joey Barton and DaMarcus Beasley then guided city to a 3-1 victory. Whilst Saints didn't just lie down, but couldn't quite get a hold of the game.

Claus wasn't playing with Ostland, Barid, Powell and Bale making up the back four. McGoldrick was again selected on the left-hand side of midfield. Was this the right decision? I was surprised. We need these midfield injury problems to clear up soon, otherwise our automatic promotion bid could go the same way. Looks like Nathan Dyer might be back soon and the possible loan signing of the polish striker, might give us something else up front. But why oh why has more effort not been made to strengthen the squad. Guess we'll see come may.

Stats section coming soon...

I'm currently working (slowly due to work) on a stats section to SuperSaints. This should have league tables, form guides, player stats, top scorers, fixtures and results. If anyone has any good ideas for particular things you'd like to see included, please comment below.

Watch this space.....

FA Cup preview

As the Saints roll into Manchester tomorrow for their FA cup fourth round tie, they must fancy their chances against a Man City side who have hardly been setting the premiership alight. Despite the difference in division, only 12 places separate the two sides and I think Saints have a good chance to keep their cup run going. The FA cup history between the two sides and Saints away form this season both suggest there could be plenty of goals in this one. The two previous cup meetings between the teams supplied 5 and 6 goals and Saints away matches have seen goals flying in left-right and centre. I would personally fancy a 3-1 Saints win, with a couple from Rasiak and a Bale freekick.

Saints will likely have the same squad available as in the previous game, with the addition of Makin and possibly Dyer, who might make the substitutes bench after coming through 45 minutes for the reserves midweek. Bradley Wright-Phillips will be vying for a starting spot against his old side, after he scored from the bench in the last game. I would personally stick with Jones in a 442, with Bradley being a very handy sub. I think Dyer shouldn't be rushed back, but if fit enough should be on the bench incase saints need to change something.

Todays other fourth round ties didn't provide many surprises. It was lovely to see Pompey dumped out by the other half of manchester. Lovely second goal by Rooney, they really won 4-1 but had two goals shockingly disallowed. Well done to Bristol City and Blackpool for holding higher division sides, good luck in the replays.