Sorry, not getting it. Is Maya referring to a particular tragedy or in a general way to those that have suffered over the past 5 years. Have realised he means the Tsunami. Sorry.
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/14339173.Pelle__I_d_be_stupid_to_leave/?ref=rss Pelle says he is happy here as it is a nice club and he likes the EPL...so isn't trying to leave while he is under contract. Of course that doesn't change what might happen if Saints would rather let him go for money rather than nothing or a good offer comes in, but makes a nice change not to have someone agitating in public (whatever is going on behind closed doors). Please score today, Graziano....we are all rooting for you.
Hope your right Alan..... Southampton striker Graziano Pelle has been backed to return to top goalscoring form by former Saints star Alan Shearer. (Southern Daily Echo)
Sounds as if he is....although a certain twat beard did not do any favours by stating pretty much the same. Then a couple of weeks later signed for Liverhampton. It will be a while before a lot of fans will take what some players say at face value as a result in my view.
On a different note, I need to issue a forum-wide apology. I was a massive critic of the fee we paid for Shane Long - I thought that we had massively overpaid for a below-average player. But he has proven me wrong this season. He is much, much better than I gave him credit for. His hold up play for a relatively small guy is unbelievable. He has become one of my favourite Saints players to watch, and he was absolutely immense again against Stoke.
Whilst I can't be so glowing in my praise, I have to say that I have never understood why he has always been at smaller clubs and often peripheral in their squads. I've always rated him to be better when I've seen him play. Opinions can be swayed though, and if the likes of WBA and Reading found he wasn't worthy of being ever-present then who was I to dispute them. They should've known, one would think. So it was a bit of a surprise when Saints paid £12M [I would have thought £8M a perfectly fair price], but he has more or less lived up to his price tag. Good, pacy, down to earth player who doesn't stop until he's completely exhausted.
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/13/southampton-steven-davis-stoke-leicester Steve Davis talking about how Leicester can be an inspiration and how important the Liverpool game is to keep our pursuit of an Europa place on track.
Long needed a chance and a run in the team. He was secondary to Pelle, but grabbed his chance and shown what he can do. He is more than a straight striker....he causes havoc amongst defenders and creates chances both for himself and others. Love the guy....especially with Mane being a bit off at the moment, he can inject pace into the team.
http://eplindex.com/75866/ronald-koeman-deserves-credit.html A blog suggesting that Koeman deserves more credit than he is getting for maintaining Saints in the race for a Europa place in his second season. The rise of Leicester has overshadowed our season, so that Saints fans compare us to them and see us as underachieving when in fact we have consolidated ourselves as a good midtable team with hopes of higher in coming seasons. Some fans seem to have decided that we are stumbling through the season with Koeman occasionally tripping over our right formation by luck. I see him as coping with injuries and suspensions that happen to all teams and learning about the players at the same time. He finds our inconsistency as much a mystery as we do, but other teams bigger than us have the same problem. If we miss out on Europe (perhaps a good, though undesirable thing) but finish 7th or 8th, I will see this as a decent season with playing and management teams learning a lot about each other (and also alert Les Reed and Ronald to where we are lacking). I have high hopes of coming seasons....if we can get RK to stay.
I really like Ron, the stability he has brought to the club has been priceless. As for our dips in form this season, well if we can get him to commit to an extension on his contract & keep him off some bigger fishes radar, well I'd be pretty happy with that.
He also gives us a bit of stature. We love our club and admire what has been achieved, but it doesn't have a big name. Having someone of Koeman's class as a manager makes people ignorant about us sit up and take notice.
Might sound daft, but I think he has suffered as a result of his pace. I think managers look at how quick he moves, and so use him as a wide/utility player, rather than as an out and out striker, meaning that he hasn't always played on the shoulder of the last man, where he is most effective. Having said that, if he were more clinical in front of goal, he would be worth double what we paid. (I believe the only season he led the line, at Reading for a season, he scored 20+ goals, in the Championship.)
Does anyone know how J-Rod got on in the U21 game today? I saw they won and he played an hour, but nothing more ............
