Never say never. We were in the PL when Pompey were sloshing around in lower leagues, then they were with us briefly and we sank. Now everything is reversed, so it would be a brave person to say that we would never be in the same league. We have had auditions with Brighton, Bournemouth, Reading and West Ham for our rivals, but none really touched the spot, so I am going for Barcelona.
Were you thinking about this at 4.00 am this morning only I noticed the time of your first post today?
Couldn't sleep today...was also working out how safe we are after yesterdays results. Would have been better to count sheep than points.
It is aches and pains that keep me awake rather than worry although I am desperate for Saints to be above West Ham.
My grandmother was a very strange old lady who would not go to sleep at night until after three am. Her argument was that old folk die in their sleep at three am and if she made it past that hour then she would live for another day. Mind you she was always tired and very argumentative as well as being extremely bad tempered.
I don't like Gus Poyet and we seemed to build a bit of rivalry with Brighton in League 1 and the Championship so I guess I would go for them at the moment, particuarly if they can get promoted. Pompey will always be our arch rivals but we are so far apart now, our only hope of meeting them in the foreseeable future would be in a cup. They could become our feeder club or the club we send our players out on loan should Bournemouth get promoted to the Championship. So it will kind of turn into the one way envious relationship that Bournmeouth seem to have with us.
How many times do we need to discuss who our rivals should be? This whole debate is pointless, rivalries form organically over time, you can't just pick another team and carry on like nothing has changed.
Well, if we are talking about the FA Cup, they would have to win their first two games, possibly against higher opposition, let's say a 15-1 shot, and then get drawn against us in the third round, that's 63-1. So we can expect to get drawn against them in the 2678 FA Cup third round.
Yes you can. Portsmouth were never seen as our rivals until the late sixties early seventies. Prior to that fans would watch both teams and support them both equally. The current rivalry has been created and we can just as equally create a new rival.
Maybe so but the rivalry between the cities has lasted much longer than that and that is the basis for the footballing rivalry. If you could pick any team no matter what the history then it's awfully coincidental that we 'picked' pompey isn't it?
There is no natural local rival...suspect our rivals will be on a season to season basis if one team is between us and our target...for example, avoiding relegation (hopefully not) and league position. Even then there will be no animosity. West Ham will have to do for now.
Rivalries will develop over time and will get bigger the more teams play eachother. This is why I mentioned Brigton. We had a race for the League 1 title and a couple of tasty games with them last season. If they were to get promoted then we would conitinue this fledgling rivalry. UTD's hated other has always been Liverpool or Leeds yet when Leeds were relegated and Liverpool not putting up much of a fight, the rivalry shifted to Arsenal during the late 90's early 00's, which has moved on to City now. The rivalry with Leeds is always there and will be again should they play them or get back up but for now they are not really a rival in the footballing sense.
Despite the clear mathematical proof, we all know it's actually a dead cert that we'll draw them next year don't we. That's the F (football) Factor that screws up perfectly good number play all the time!
the rivalry btween soton & pompey can b dated to medeaval times. there r records of brawls between rival gangs of apprentices from the 13th century. u cant manufacture or replace that sort of history
It doesn't bother me if we don't play Portsmouth again. We haven't exactly made a habit of it down the years. Pompey will forever be the true rivals, unless perhaps the Cherries undergo some massive investment of hundreds of millions. They are the closest clubs, and close proximity tends to be the reason for rivalry. Our rivals in the coming seasons will be the closest one in the same division, simple as that. At least none vie for supporter attention. Saints have the field to themselves.
Cardiff is only 87 miles from Southampton, that's a couple of hours by car. It will be nice to have a bit of revenge on them next season for the tough time they gave us last year.
