Top 4 or FA Cup?

Yes I agree. Ron has often said that footballers like to play every 3 days so the physical tiredness argument doesn't wash for me. I still think the pitch itself could take some of the blame, the rain was pouring down and it looked pretty boggy out there. Vic was haring down the wing after the ball and it looked like the pitch tried to keep,him from moving. But the same thing could have happened to anyone at any time in the game; it's amazing that Shane Long kept going for 90 minutes the amount of running he did.
Injuries happen to footballers and we have less strength in depth than most of the teams we are currently competing for league position with. That is the underlying cause for this debate about the importance of the FA Cup. Personally I feel we will still go 100% for both competitions, but we need to strengthen the squad in a couple of areas in this window.

 

Lol. I dare say he would enjoy it but he would defiitely choose the same as many of us are. Ask yourself which would he be sat there being smug and taking the plaudits for:
The man who took a team from L1 to the Premier League and won the FA Cup?
The man who took a team from L1 to the top 4 of the Premier League and into the Champions League?

I would lay money he would choose just being in the position that we walk out in a CL group game away at the San Siro over an FA Cup victory at Wembley.

I used to love the FA cup. I still do but there is no competition between qualifying for the CL vs winning the cup. I used to watch every game on TV. top flight league and cup. I don't watch every game these days and only watch Southampton.

The last FA cup final I actually watched was (had to check on wiki through the finals to see which I remember watching.) Liverpool v West Ham and before that the last one was us against Arsenal.

Prior to the Everton (Rideout header) win in 1995 I had watched every final. since it has been here and there and in the past decade or so it has been rarely interested at all.

The FA Cup these days is similar to how the league cup was 20 years ago. We want to be a big club and for a big club its a nice trophy to win but not a priority.

I will not accept any suggestion of 'remember the year we came 4th'. That is old Saints thinking. That is suggesting it will be a one off never to be repeated and that does not fit into the way this club is being run and has been run since 2009. Cortese would've banned you from the ground in disgust. Krueger would spend an hour or 2 trying to convince you that your pessimism/cynicism was unjustified and how the Southampton Saints hold the key to world peace and harmony.

Get with the plan. If we get 4th we WILL qualify. We WILL use that platform and cement ourselves into the 5 or 6 that every year WILL contest those 4 places. We WILL qualify more often than not.

Yes some players will still leave however some that would've will stay. Where we would've had to pay Man City wages to stand a chance of attracting top players outside of a CL place we may be able to attract them easier without having to pay as much in wages.

Kruger WILL enjoy being positive and think its all so easy. Get with the plan

 

I understand all that Impsaint, but Big clubs want to win things. I want us to win something. This season - I would take the FA Cup thanks and then look back at our progress under new ownership

Season 1 - JPT win
Season 2 - promotion from league 1
Season 3 - promotion from Championship
Season 4 - survival in Premiership (with some stylish play)
Season 5 - stylish play delivers 8th (best finish)
Season 6 - Win FA Cup and finish top 6, qualify for Europe and foundation laid for next step

That is good progress. CL would be magnificent and I do want it to happen this season, but when I read that question earlier this week, I just thought that a Cup win would be fabulous and another great page in the history. I'd like to win at Wembley in May please.

By the way, I'll be delighted either way. I'll be delighted with this season if we have a few issues now and something goes wrong and we finish 6-8th; it will still have been great.

If we qualified for CL (be it 4th or 3rd, but more so 4th), we could still lose some players. we get two bids of 25m plus for two players, the Board may ask Ron if he can do the same again with 50-60m and we build and progress again.

One thing is for sure, this team will break up or change as we bring in new players anyway... sadly.

I love your positive thinking about next season and we WILL qualify time and time again, but that will be very tough. There will be some big teams missing out for us.

 

Our attention goes back to the Cup this week, I've just got my tickets Think this will be a tough game with Pardew so far losing on every visit to St Marys, he'll be wanting that to change. Nice to have a weeks gap though so hope we see a strong team!

Reckon we'll get a good crowd again for this one? I expect Palace to sell their allocation and will be very noisy with most of the Northam.

 

Same as the Ipswich game, I'd love to see Saints win but I'd rather see us lose than have to face another midweek replay.

 

Got my ticket for the game. Please no ****ing replay this time. Win or lose.

 

Would rather have played Palace before Pardew, so I am expecting a decent game that we will probably win. However, CP are doing well at the moment. Be good for the lads to have had 2 days off and 4 training days.

 

Whether we are still in it or not this may be of interest
http://www.thefa.com/news/the-fa-cup/2015/jan/fa-cup-final-ticket-prices-2015-2016

 

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/201415-cup-nears-sell-out-2214478.aspx?

 

Just looked at oddschecker...as you'd expect odds massively in favour of Saints, but the favourite bets pie chart is 100% Saints. I know it's early in the week, but I have never seen that before. It isn't actually impossible for Palace to win.

 

Ron answered this today. He said if it was the end of the season, he would say a CL place was more important than the FA Cup. But during the season, winning is everything as it is good for team spirit, so he will try and win every game.

 

I agree with this - you play to win every game set before you picking the best team from the players avaliable.
To my mind finishing 4th is equal to winning the FA cup - finishing 3rd (or greater) is better then a FA cup win, but we should not pick one over the other until the descision is made for us by results on the pitch.
I am looking forward to the game against Man City - we will win to finish second, anf play Chelsea in the FA cup final, beat them and stop them winning the triple. Why not.

 

No matter all of the disagreement on this thread. Can we all agree that we hope this thread is still alive come Monday morning? Be nice to keep it going until near the end of the season...

 

No, Lawro reckons we'll breeze it.

Incidentally, Lawro has a new reason for explaining a result/outcome: in the Tottenham v Leicester tie, he says it will be a draw, because that's what both teams least want.

 

People all say they don't want a draw, but it beats losing.