Saints v Stoke match thread [including League Cup tie]

Which brings me to a thought I've had wandering about my head for some time, to explain the recent competitiveness of the Premier League in the last couple of seasons. From the start I'll just say that I don't think the PL is in any way as competitive as the Championship or lower leagues for the simple reason that there are no clubs with huge financial muscle out there, so the level of player they are able to attract is fairly similar.

Having said that, the PL is becoming a noticeably more level playing field [sorry] and I'm almost certain it is because of the injection of recent TV money. People might say that that only hands more to the bigger clubs anyway, and that's certainly true. But at some point we reach the law of diminishing returns. Specifically, you can pay 250K-500K per week to one or two individuals, but they will only be marginally better than a whole swathe of guys on 100K and up. There comes a point where the big clubs aren't significantly big enough to stop the smaller clubs making inroads into their success because no one team can attract enough huge stars together to be significantly better. Real Madrid and Barcelona are obvious exceptions here, but they exist in a largely uncompetitive league and this is the PL I'm talking about. It's a different animal.

The truth is that a star player like Di Maria can't do it all on his own. He's just one of eleven. He may make the difference, but if he doesn't play at the very top of his capabilities he's no better than an 100K a week player who is. And that's where good management and coaching comes in.

Saints are in that second tier of clubs in the PL, who are benefiting from the TV money, excluding their own smart management methods. They can't attract a team of players like Di Maria, but they are now able to attract enough players who, very well managed, can be just as effective, and maybe this time, over the course of an entire season.

 

Want Gardos to start against Stoke on Wednesday.

 

I think we'll see something like:

-------------------Forster-----------------

Clyne-----Gardos----Yoshida-----Targett

---Davis------Wanyama------Schneiderlin

---Long---------Pellè----------Mané------

 

Koeman hinted that provided there are no enforced changes, that he may rotate 2-3 player maximum. Very happy to see Gardos come in as I like what I've seen so far. Bringing in Yoshida at the same time, changing both CBs away from home would be a huge risk and one I would not be welcome to see. We want to get through this round.

 

Stoke fan reckons the crowd will be 15K-18K.

 

Train tickets from London to Stoke-on-Trent are an extortion. It's a miracle any Saints fans not booked on coaches or driving are going by train.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZXqSTWvr1k&feature=youtu.be

Matchday uncovered if you are a fan.

 

You are a Fran. Ta for the link.

 

A great deal of truth in this well reasoned argument. I hope the PL becomes even more competitive.

 

They always manage to come up with a little extra something during those Match-day Uncovered videos. I'd forgotten Prowsey was doing the Saints twitter feed, so it was nice to see him and his reactions. He's itching to be part of it again.

 

I appreciate that, ta. I gave myself a fair bit of time to think about it, St.G.

 

If you're not careful someone will start on about metanarratives and whatnot again. I agree, it would be great if the PL became more competitive, and the best way to help that happen would be for a sixth club to win it, especially if that club represented a new way of running a football business.

 

That's a fair point on last Saturday's MOTD, which even the two pundits were more generous, Always happy to correct a view where needed.

 

This is going to shoot massive holes through my point, but the thought suddenly came to me one day when I was talking hi-end hi-fi to someone, about a year ago. She was considering buying her first turntable based hi-fi for about 25 years, saying that after a certain amount of money is spent, in order to get a similar significant improvement in fidelity one has to spend multiple times more, until you reach a point where you have to spend thousands upon thousands to get a very small improvement.

This is very true, and is an old point in hi-end technology in every area. Good quality simple hi-fi has always been reasonably priced, but to get into the rarefied atmosphere of true hi-fi it takes a fair few bob. The law of diminishing returns is often spoken about in hi-end hi-fi circles, so when we changed topics and started talking about how well Pochypoo's Saints were doing it suddenly dawned on me that the law of diminishing returns might be playing a part in the Premier League. There you go. Argument shot full of holes..!

 

Forster

Clyne - Fonte - Gardos - Targett

Wanyama - Schneiderlin - Davis

Tadic - Pelle - Long

 

Win after extra time and penalties please, wear them out for Sat, but not yourselves I need another clean sheet from Bertram and Clyne. (my only regret is I went for sneiderlin and Da Costa instead of Pelle and silva)

 

Wonder what the odds are for S'oton, Brighton and Bournemouth wins in this round of the League Cup - might be worth a punt.

 

I have a substantial vinyl collection all in pristine condition because they have only ever been played on a high end system however there comes a point when even spending the extra money cannot enhance your enjoyment. The frequency range of my hearing has plummeted as I have got older so even though I might spend the money on a super amplification set up any improvement is lost for me. My top frequency is around 11 kHz anything with a higher frequency I just cannot hear.

At the beginning of A Day in the Life from Sgt Peppers I used to be able to hear the alarm clock but not anymore.

I was using one of those CDs for setting up your Hi-Fi system and was clicking up through the frequencies and just kept going well beyond the range when I could no longer hear anything when my granddaughters started calling out for me to stop that dreadful sound. I could hear nothing!

I sometimes wonder whether the same thing happens with football. I remember the Cup final games, being second in the league, watching great players in Saints' shirts etc. etc.. Today it is the same but it doesn't have the same excitement for me yet all the young ones are jumping up and down with joy.

For all the good players in the side today I can name an even better player we've had play for us in the past.

 

Btw...Francis Benali is guest on Morning View on Sky.

Just shown form table...guess who is top

 

Burnley?