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Ian Thumwood said:
I see Franny Benali has made the Commentatorballs section of Private Eye this week.
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- Doing The Lambert Walk said:
Oooh, what for?
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ChilcoSaint said:
Link please
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I'm not technically smart enough to supply a link, so I'll use the age-old trusted method of typing out:
"A very unique football stadium, as you say, like many others around the country"
Attributed to Franny, when he was being a co-commentator/pundit on Radio 5 Live, probably during another Saints win.
 
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I watched this interview with Les Reed the other day and thought I'd share it. It's interesting overall but quite an odd one.

The weirdest part is around 20 minutes in when he talks about Saints making the switch from Adkins to Pochettino. Almost all of what he says is obviously not true.
He says the change was made in November. It was actually January.
He says he was taken by surprise, that Cortese asked him what to do after the meeting with Adkins and because it was an international break they could go through a full recruitment process. But the change wasn't made during an international break, Poch was appointed the same day Adkins was sacked and his first game was only three days later.
He then says the first thing Poch did was an 8 day (ish) training camp in Barcelona where he impressed the players with his Barcelona connections. As said above, Poch was appointed on a Friday and his first game was on the Monday so this is obviously nonsense as well. But the oddest thing is I'm not sure this even fits with his own version. An international break lasts about 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure that isn't enough time to do a full manager recruitment process AND take the players away for a week-long training camp (given you're not going to fly back from Spain the day before a game).

Some of it is still interesting, although he's obviously blowing his own trumpet and given that everything he says about Poch's appointment isn't true I don't know how much else can be believed. The bit about needing more approvals when Gao took over for example. That sounds plausible but is he just making excuses and/or covering his own arse?
 
Puck said:
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I watched this interview with Les Reed the other day and thought I'd share it. It's interesting overall but quite an odd one.

The weirdest part is around 20 minutes in when he talks about Saints making the switch from Adkins to Pochettino. Almost all of what he says is obviously not true.
He says the change was made in November. It was actually January.
He says he was taken by surprise, that Cortese asked him what to do after the meeting with Adkins and because it was an international break they could go through a full recruitment process. But the change wasn't made during an international break, Poch was appointed the same day Adkins was sacked and his first game was only three days later.
He then says the first thing Poch did was an 8 day (ish) training camp in Barcelona where he impressed the players with his Barcelona connections. As said above, Poch was appointed on a Friday and his first game was on the Monday so this is obviously nonsense as well. But the oddest thing is I'm not sure this even fits with his own version. An international break lasts about 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure that isn't enough time to do a full manager recruitment process AND take the players away for a week-long training camp (given you're not going to fly back from Spain the day before a game).

Some of it is still interesting, although he's obviously blowing his own trumpet and given that everything he says about Poch's appointment isn't true I don't know how much else can be believed. The bit about needing more approvals when Gao took over for example. That sounds plausible but is he just making excuses and/or covering his own arse?
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Sounds plausible due to Chinese state investment rules at the time. There was difficulty getting money out of China
 
Just spent the weekend with another Saints fan who thinks that re-signing Romeu was a waste of time, in trying to ensure that I took the opposite opinion I countered that it was in fact an inspired signing as he had a positive impact throughout the club, bonding the players together. Not sure if that is the case but the more I think about maybe his signing and our improvement it attitude and form is indeed more than coincidental?
 
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milton archer said:
Just spent the weekend with another Saints fan who thinks that re-signing Romeu was a waste of time, in trying to ensure that I took the opposite opinion I countered that it was in fact an inspired signing as he had a positive impact throughout the club, bonding the players together. Not sure if that is the case but the more I think about maybe his signing and our improvement it attitude and form is indeed more than coincidental?
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Romeu is being used as a threat to all the other players - "If you don't play out of your skins, every match, you'll be put in a room with Romeu, with just your shin pads for protection" <laugh>
 
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StJabbo1 said:
C&P please Ian, for those without a subscription.
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I'm not technically smart enough to supply a link, so I'll use the age-old trusted method of typing out:
"A very unique football stadium, as you say, like many others around the country"
Attributed to Franny, when he was being a co-commentator/pundit on Radio 5 Live, probably during another Saints win.
 
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Saturday 25th April 2026. Emirates FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley Stadium
Manchester City FC v Southampton FC. 5.15pm

Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistant Referees: Lee Betts & Matthew Wilkes
Fourth Official: Farai Hallam
Reserve assistant referee: Blake Antrobus
Video assistant referee: Tony Harrington
Assistant VAR: Edward Smart

(The FA have the date wrong in their Official message)
 
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