....the first rule you must obey if you are to retain your sanity is to read only the official Southampton FC site. Forget the internet crap and the London biased newspapers and the Sky five's TV reports and I hope no one listens to Talk Sport anymore anyway. I reckon 99% of what you see, hear and read between now and the start of the season will have been made up by some spotty kid alone in his bedroom tapping away on his laptop or a journalist working for an agent or a best buddy manager trying to stir the pot, or fiction posted by an editor to fill page space.. Remember 99% of transfer in and out rumours are out and out lies.
Have a great summer Godders and Fran!! Plenty to look forward to besides the WC. England possibly regaining some form in the cricket, the tennis at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the All Blacks against England, and hopefully Mo Farah takiing part in the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow winning the 5000m and 10000m against the top Kenyans.
If we only paid attention to the official site then we wouldn't have known about Wanyama or Gaston so far in advance.
I've got my Panama hat out from the back of the wardrobe and have the deck chair in the conservatory ready to spend many a lazy afternoon sitting in the garden reading with the very lovely Mrs Godders bringing me copious cups of tea, sandwiches and cake. No radio, no Internet and no newspaper sports pages. I will then be able to survive the summer without getting too wound up about transfer fiction. For those of you who love a good book I plan to first reread Catch 22 before I start anything new as I haven't read it in about ten years.
Having survived the summer of 2009, no rumour, no speculation, and no fabrication by the media should really rattle the nerves of the average Saints supporter.
I'm sure you could listen to TMS in the garden, Godders. OK, not quite the same quality as in the days with John Arlott, Brian Johnerrs et al, but Blowers, Tuffnel and Boycott are still are good laugh as is Agnew!!!
And there's always Super League and the Challenge Cup!! Great sport - fast and unlike Union, plenty of ball in the hand!!
I will not miss the Saturdays when Saints play away what with me checking my phone every 2 minutes. Nice to be able to relax.
Catch 22 will be good preparation for the summer... MP would be mad to leave Saints, but if he's mad he'll want to leave Saints - in which case we won't let him...