All the tinpot piece of shit clubs who aren't in Europe like Everton, Liverpool and Chelsea were in Round 2 League Cup action this week and the draw for Round 3 when the elite join, paired us with.... fucking Crystal Palace.... Again. Talk about dull and they'll be thinking exactly the same thing about playing us yet again.
It's being reported that we will be breaking our transfer record in the next few days to sign Sofiane Boufal, a Moroccan attacker who tore up Ligue 1 for Lille last season. At 23 and £21 million, it would show that Saints have not been put off by the Osvaldo debacle or the Gaston near-debacle. There is also talk of Nicolae Stanciu, who was Romania's best player in Euro 2016 but that one seems to have cooled as the Boufal rumours have heated up. Again, he's a Number 10 – winger type and to be honest, I'd be happy with him as well.
Of course we can't have rumoured incomings without rumoured outgoings. Jose Fonte is still being linked with Manchester Red Cunts and there is a growing feeling that J-Rod may go out on loan? Until someone proves they can stick the ball in the net for us this season, I'd be strongly against this.
The Europa league draw was made on Friday with us in pot 3 out of 4 and we got more or less the perfect draw when put in a group with Crystal Palace, Crystal Palace U23s and Crystal Palace Women. Not really, we got Inter Milan, Sparta Prague and the Israeli team that Celtic scraped past in the Champions League, Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Hapoel is a long Thursday night trip for the team and will be an entertaining and different experience for the fans who travel. On that score, Prague and Milan will be amazing, almost like a stag night. I guess results against Sparta will be the biggest indicator as to whether we'll get through the group or not and then there's Inter. What a fucking draw that is... From League 1 Minus 10 to the fucking San Siro. What a journey. You’ll still find fans saying we have no ambition though.
The good news wasn't finished there for the day either as Cedric the European Champion (to give him his full title), signed a new four year contract, joining all the others and basically, just leaving Jose unresolved.
Team news was interesting in that Charlie Austin started
ahead of Shane Long but other than that it was as expected. Ryan Bertrand had made it back as far as the
bench so some good news there. Having
lost their manager to England, Sunderland replaced him with David Moyes who
will do a good job but it will take time.
He’s come in and had a look around and obviously doesn’t fancy what he
has to work with much and declared that they will be fighting relegation this
season. Very honest of him but it just
fuels the belief that we have to win today.
They still have that little bastard Defoe and he’s still decent and on
the other end of the scale, they have Fabio Borini who is a diving shit house
and he’s amplified his shit house characteristics by having a shit house blonde
hair do. How would you like it Sir? I
know – make me look like a complete fucking cock. Talking of diving fuckers, they also have
Adnan Januzaj who scored a goal once for Man United so was hyped to be the next
George Best.
Like the Watford game, we start well with Targett getting
down the left and crossing into Tadic who takes a great touch before lashing it
just over the bar. The next chance fall
to Austin as Tadic plays him through but he doesn’t trust his pace against the
last defender and takes the shot early from 30 yards and the keeper comfortably
pushes it wide.
Sunderland’s first attack brings a corner on their right.
Van Aanholt’s corner is panic cleared back out to him and he slings in another
cross and Cedric is appealing for offside like a 13 year old and Kone has a
free header at the back post. As we wait
for the net to bulge he has a 50p head moment and somehow manages to head it
past the far post. Properly shit. Meanwhile, Cedric is still appealing for
offside.
We’re looking very slack at the back and most of it down to
Jose Fonte who is having a mare. A low
cross in from the right sees Fonte ball watching and Defoe is alive and gets
there first and we’re very lucky to get away with it as the ball bounces to
safety.
After the bright start we’re creating not much. Romeu is showing up well in midfield, winning
the ball back and getting us going and from one such interception, Tadic
crosses from the left having made the full back look an arse and the ball ends
up with Cedric on the far side and he cuts inside before trying a left footed
effort from 30 yards which Pickford again saves comfortably. Isn’t Tadic good when he’s out on the
left? That’s a rhetorical question. Half time, Zzzzzzz!
The referee is Lee Mason, last seen by us sending off Sadio
Mané for nothing up at Stoke last year.
Referees are shit for different reasons.. Clattenburg for example is
shit when he decides it has to be all about him. Mason is different because he’s so shit that
it ends up all being about him.
Following a foul on Redmond on the left hand edge of the box, the free
kick is swung over towards Fonte and Kone jumps with his hand up and slaps the
ball away. Deliberate yes, hand moved
towards ball yes, hand in unnatural position yes. No, it’s Lee Mason. The lino decides that Mason can’t be the only
one who is shit and when Redmond puts Austin through, up goes the flag when he
was never offside. He missed anyway but
there you go.
We are the better side by miles but there’s not really a
feeling that we’re going to score. Some neat play puts Hojbjerg in and his
shot, again from outside the box is well blocked away for a corner. Januzaj has
been quiet but we notice him as he dances through four players before Fonte
clumsily carts him up in the air on the edge of box. Shit house Borini is over it and he tries to
be clever and ends up just sidefooting it at about 5mph straight to
Fraser. What a load of shit.
Shane Long is on for Tadic with 25 to go to try and liven
things up with Redmond dropping into the 10 position and Shane finds himself
running onto the ball and tries his luck (from outside the box) and Pickford is
again equal to it. Another sub and this
time it’s a straight swap with J-Rod on for Austin who has been off the pace
and very disappointing.
Disaster strikes on 80 minutes as Sunderland break down the
right and in a carbon copy of the first half incident, a low cross (which
Targett should have cut out) and Defoe is moving whilst Fonte is not and the
striker gets to the ball first and Jose hauls him down with some of the laziest
defending you’ll ever see. You didn’t
win the Euro’s playing that that José.
Up steps Defoe and you know he’s going to score, 1-0.
Claude pulls another like for like swap with JWP coming on
for Hojbjerg as Sunderland sit back and Romeu drives forward and the ball falls
to J-Rod about 20 yards out and he smashes it first time and Pickford dives all
over it and it flies under him and into the net. Get in.
With 5 minutes of normal time left, there is time for the Alamo but we
don’t get it and limp tamely to another home draw against a relegation
candidate.
Well that was a bit crap.
Dominating possession is all well and good but if it’s in front of the
opposition defence then it just makes for a frustrating afternoon. Limited teams are usually ok at packing their
defence and we’re trying to play tippy tappy football through a forest of
players like a low-budget version of Arsenal.
We looked notably more lively once J-Rod came on with his ‘see the goal
– shoot’ attitude. The goal was a good
hit from the edge of the box and ok, the keeper made a bollocks of it but at
least the shot was from close enough to make him work and give him a chance to
make a bollocks of it. Again, most of
our efforts were from miles out because we seemed incapable of working the ball
into the strikers unless they were away from the goal. I mean, it’s good that full backs and
midfielders are encouraged to shoot but if ultimately, all your shots are from
40 yards then you’re not going to score many.
Having said that, the selection of Charlie Austin didn’t
work as he was dreadful, working in the wrong areas and being ineffective when
he picked the ball up centrally, or offside of course – he liked that. With Shane having had a couple of games and now Charlie getting a start, you
have to think that it’s Jay’s turn next and after his cameo and goal today, he
deserves the chance…. And not for West Brom or Hull either.
Also crap today was Jose Fonte. Fucking hell he was bad culminating in his
clumsy as fuck effort at hauling Defoe down for the penalty. Anyone can have a bad game but I do wonder
how he’s going to get on this season without the presence of Big Vic in front
of him or maybe it’s not the absence of Big Vic specifically but the absence of
two defensive midfielders to protect the centre backs. Is his mind not on it? Possibly.
That’s two seasons in a row where we’ve clawed it back late
against Sunderland at home. On the one
hand it must be hard for them to take especially with the keeper dropping a
bollock but on the other hand they would have definitely taken a point
beforehand. As long as Defoe stays fit
they have a decent chance of staying clear of any trouble again. Moyes is a shrewd enough manager to keep them
up and if given time, he’ll gradually improve them so they’re not relegation
contenders every season. He must enjoy
being out of the ‘Man United Zaha’s Shagging Your Daughter’ bubble.
Claude was clearly disappointed with the two points dropped
and he should be. The first half was
great for 10 minutes and then it went to shit and really, if Kone didn’t have a
50p head, we’d have been behind long before we were. I’m really not sure if this formation suits
the players we have or suits the Premier League in England. Defensively we look short handed at times,
particularly if the opposition break into wide areas quickly. The full backs are there but he wide
midfielders and the strikers are kind of half there but 15 yards infield. Attacking wise, it’s a no from me, trying to
play through packed defences with little width and if that fails, shoot from
miles out. I don’t remember a shot or a
header from inside the box. If we
persist with it, we have to hope that there is something that the players are
not getting and it will suddenly all click.
The disappointment was evident in the post match interviews,
particularly Virgil’s where the phrase ‘not good enough’ was used quite a
lot. Well at least no one’s settling for
mediocre. It was hardly the kind of
performance to have Inter Milan quaking in their boots.
Onwards and it’s international break time but Saints are
kind of in action in what was the JPT as our Under 23s take on Charlton. I really can’t be arsed with this. I don’t really think it’s the beginning of
Premier league Under 23 teams competing in the league but I do think it’s a
load of shite and a dumb idea as far as the lower league clubs are concerned
having thought about it a bit. Back to
the proper football and we’re 15th in the league and Arsenal away is
up next along with the last few frenetic days of the transfer window. We usually do nothing on deadline day but
Jeremy Pied is rumoured to be out for the season so we may be in the market for
another right back.
A frustrating start to the season continues but we had the
same last year and that turned out all right.
I remember last year writing something along the lines of ‘these gutless
twats will get us relegated’. I am
determined not to be such a drama queen this time.
PS…
As I took so long top get this out, we have started the JP
Whatever campaign and drew 0-0 with Charlton before getting beaten on
penalties. This gives us one point in
the four team group whereas Charlton get two.
What a load of shit.
We’ve also had the transfer window close and we did fuck all
on Deadline Day as usual but a couple of days before that we did sign Sofiane
Boufal for a club record £16 million quid.
A very exciting looking winger who should liven things up a bit in that
area. When his name was originally mentioned
a month or so ago, the concensus was that we’d have no chance of signing him as
he was at too goo a level and clubs like Barcelona and Chelsea were looking at
him, but here he is at Southampton, saying that it’s the best place for him to
develop. I’d assumed he was French
before we signed him and he is… but he plays internationally for Morocco which
I assume means he’ll be gone for the African Nations Cup in January which is a
bit of a bummer.
The standard You Tube compilation looks good but then so did
Agustin Delgado, Gaston Ramirez and Steve de Ridder. We can but hope he is considerably better
than those three and I’m pretty confident that he will be. So, up front we’ve sold Mané and Juanmi for
£40 million and signed Boufal and Redmond for £27 million. In my opinion we could have done with another
centre back and it’s a shame that Pied’s injury meant we couldn’t flog Martina
to Everton. Now it’s up to Claude Puel to
get us playing and winning and soon. I
also feel that we’re taking a chance by not having a replacement for Graziano
Pellè and the thought of him up front with Boufal, Tadic and Redmond buzzing
around him is one that I wish was a reality but we are where we are now so
let’s stop moaning and get on with it.
Premier League, League Cup, Europa League…. Let’s fuckin’ ‘ave it!
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