There was talk at the time that JWP turned us down for Forest, no idea how credible the source was though
Yeah I thought you were mad wanting us to go down when we did. I am now more on your wavelength. I watch us for enjoyment, not (clearly) because we win trophies.
Yeah I know how you feel it’s a case of be careful what you wish for. The PL is completely soulless compared to the championship!
Those are the sort of games you need to win if you want to survive. We know that from years of PL experience in the last decade or so. Thought both teams were poor and the only moment of quality in the game led to our goal. Sugawara best player on the pitch from a Saints perspective, but yeah a real lack of quality overall and if we play like that against a mid table PL side we would’ve got thrashed
He certainly doesn't appear to be PL level on the left wing. But I won't write him off until I've seen him play centrally at this level - though I'm not sure it that should be the main striker or a support striker.
I'd be utterly astounded if jwp turned us down tbh. He didn't really want to leave in the 1st place, and has kept in touch with Russell Martin since. Think it's just likely we weren't in for him
Yeah there's more games, more competitive in general, better fans, and no VAR. Can't beat it. The only worry I have with it is it all these ridiculous 12:30 KO's they seem to be having this season. Not sure I fancy waking up at 4am for an away game at Middlesbrough.
That's a fair point actually. But Martin doesn't seem keen to do that for whatever reason so I'd rather he didn't get much game time. Would much preferred Cornet to come on today.
Well, I hope I am wrong, but hasn’t he gone RW when he has come on? Out of interest, why would you have gone for JWP, not necessarily over Cornet as we could have loaned anyone, and where would you play him? Starting 11?
There was talk at the time from that West Ham ITK guy I think that he turned us and someone else down for Forest. Presumably as Forest are a better side and won’t be involved at the bottom, and maybe I guess some pride about returning one year after leaving where it hasn’t worked But yeah no idea how true it was or just us being linked and him not coming = he turned us down
I'm assuming you watched on TV? Barely heard them for large chunks of the game and we were far from silent. Not trying to pick an argument here but to say our fans were silent is just completely incorrect.
I wouldn't have pushed the boat out to get JWP. For example, if West Ham had insisted on some huge obligation to buy clause, I'd have said no thank you. But once he became available as a straight forward loan, he just became a no brainer to me. Lallana's minutes will need to be managed across the season. Downes missed more football last season than was ideal. Fernandes and Lesley are raw, and could easily (and understandably) suffer dips in the form during the year. Smallbone and Aribo aren't good enough. Whereas JWP is proven, injury-proof, and will always offer something (ie FKs) even in the lowest of times. Adaptable enough to play in more than position - eg he started last season much further forward for WH than he did with us, and duly chipped in a few open play goals. He was even our top scorer the last time we were in the PL.
Where were you sat out of interest? I barely heard the away and thought the Northam was easily the best it’s been so far this season. The acoustics in St.Marys are…interesting.
Thought it was pretty poor first half but second half was decent imo. My throat is sore as **** which is always a good indicator. I don't think the new setup is great for atmosphere though. We simply don't have that many people who want to sing and there's often different songs being sung in different parts of the stanc.
Sitting in the Chapel, I barely heard either the away fans (except for the final two minutes) or the Northam. Both sounded very quiet to me!
We should have left the ground as it was. Pockets of noise in different stands was better than what we have now imo.
On a related note (and I feel dirty for saying it) I cringed like **** at Newcastle when I heard a small group of people trying out a version of allez allez allez but having heard the lyrics today I actually quite like it. Mentions the club's history, no mention of Pompey, and Markus gets a mention.
