Can't moan about the Hammers getting in for fair play as I remember we hoped for it once. Rules is rules.
20150526-jose-fonte-southampton-post-season-reflection-2469722 Fonte's view of the season. Need to improve every season and says Saints have to finish higher than 7th next season. Disappointed we didn't get 5/6th, so now supporting Arsenal next weekend.
I find it surprising that an Allardyce team tops the fair play table, but then again they've not really competed since January. Getting to Europa via fair play actually means starting European competition on July 3rd in the first qualifying round. Contrast that with Villa/Saints only having to start on July 30th for the third and last qualifying round. Think I'd rather not be in it than play those four extra games that would mess about with pre-season.
Amazed at how close our win and loss total is. Had in my head we had only lost about 8-10. Still got the first half of the season Saints glasses on, I think. Still, shows how good we were to finish seventh, despite picking up less points since April than any team bar Newcastle. Would have been great to just have got that four extra points that would have seen us fifth, and above Spurs and Liverpool. Would have crowned our season, Europe or not. Nervewracking cup final coming up. Can't have Trickster back on here every Thursday night with Europa updates. Would be criminal if our Euro manager doesn't get the chance to take us on that journey. Definitely the best equipped manager we've had in recent times to navigate that particular road. Well done Saints!
Superb season IMO. Best finish even after a couple of rough spells, so might realistically maintain and improve next season. Sure we can't go on improving our position every year but I don't think we've reached our peak yet.
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/...5-club-by-club-season-review-southampton.html From EPL site, Echo reporter says Fonte most important player this season. No surprise there.
http://wall.saintsfc.co.uk/Article/1222191-A-look-back-at-Saints-memorable-campaign Good to see the goals again and Ronald's thoughts on mayo
http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/arti...n-key-summer-signing-southampton-2476447.aspx Koeman suggests that Forster was our most important signing this season...though he does go on to list others, including Morgan staying. Hope we get FF back sooner than reported.
http://wall.saintsfc.co.uk/Article/1230488-TOP-FIVE-The-best-skills-of-the-season From OS, top 5 skills of season. Got to love Wanyama....like watching a tank going through skittles.
1] Tadic: Must admit, when I saw him draw in Lovren and then back heel the ball neatly on a plate for Clyne, I thought genius, and that was just in the first game. Dusan plays with his head up like no other. 2] Long: Saw that he meant that straight away. When players do that and don't mean it they don't stay balanced. That was brilliant and totally unexpected from Shane. I've enjoyed his contribution a lot this season. 3] Wanyama: Ah, Victor's diddly-dee. Twinkle-toes indeed Whispering Dave. We were back in our pomp and brimming with confidence. And beating Arsenal, which is always satisfying. Except we didn't just beat them. We made them look ordinary, at times. Not quite as good as the League Cup 2-1win at the Emirates, but close. 4]Djuricic: Yes, remember that roulette and quietly thought, Hello, have we got another Tadic..? Which was praise enough. 5}Djuricic: Missed that one completely. I thought he'd done a conventional wall-pass return, but it went behind his standing leg. Neat. And a lovely interchange and finish, to be honest. A goal that got completely overlooked because it wasn't one of the 1st half 5 and the game was gone for Villa. Sadio was electric all game.
The best skill could easily have been Sadio's first half performance against Villa, he was an absolute delight to watch. EDIT: I did love watching Victor dance around Arsenal players again though!
Good analysis TSS. The only thing I would add is that just prior to the brilliant wall-pass back to Mané, Djuricic had run forwards in the box and back again, dragging two defenders away from Pellè so he was completely unmarked to receive Mané's cross. Those who are happy to let Filip go are missing something I would say.
