Pochettino turning heads in the Saints dugout (From Daily Echo)

ha ha
do you know he reminds me a lot of myself!

50 shades of poc.

Isn't that an ill-fitting anorak he's wearing?

Sack him Cortese!

I think how a manager looks is now an important part of the whole package. Adkins wasn't very cool and that went against him.

Started reading that lol..heres some real news guys:

Where do we go from here now that all of the children have grown up
and how do we spend our TIME knowing nobody gives us a ****

I don't wanna live here no more, i don't wanna stay
Ain't gonna spend the rest of my life, quietly fading away

Whatever you thought of the very ... odd officiating in the home leg of our Europa League Round of 32 tie with Metalist Kharkiv, the fact remains that we will need to get a result in Kharkiv this Thursday if we hope to progress in the competition. Were it only that easy - our terrible league performance to this point has put us in a position that the match against Southampton next weekend is not one that you can afford to play your second squad for* and feel good about it.

*Not that there's really a scenario that we would have done, but it's certainly not an option now

So - where do we go? Do we write off the Europa League and place all of our eggs in the Premier League Survival basket? Do we go all out to try to end the 44 year wait for silverware and give the Europa League everything we've got with no guarantee it pays off and no guarantee it doesn't hamstring your Premier League campaign? Starving for success can do strange things to your mind, and there was some chatter about going after the Kharkiv draw that perhaps we should go after the Europa League title even if relegation was the tradeoff. Personally, Premier League survival has got to be the first priority - success is going to eventually be built off of league stability, not to mention that we are not likely to be nearly as fortunate with our best players sticking with the team this time around.

Let us work from the premise that we will put priority on the Premier League and will reserve our first team accordingly. It's pretty easy at this time to sketch out the lineup for the match against Southampton:

Cisse

Gouffran -- Sissoko -- Jonas

Tiote -- Cabaye

Santon -- Coloccini -- Taylor -- Debuchy

Krul

It seems unlikely that any of these players will be expected to take any major part in the match in Kharkiv on Thursday (although some will get the frequent flyer miles, for sure)... so what does that leave us? It's not at all a cupboard bare type of situation, and it didn't take very long to sketch out a viable lineup that avoids all 11 of the players above - even if it does leave some room for concern in a couple of areas. What would our lineup v. Metalist look like, then?

Shola

Marveaux -- Anita -- Obertan

Perch -- Bigirimana

Haïdara -- Yanga-Mbiwa -- Williamson -- Simpson

Harper

This lineup does not exactly fill you with confidence for progression; for every area of the lineup that is encouraging you've got a balance in an area that could be a potential problem for Newcastle. It bears remembering, however, that a scoring draw is enough for us to go through regardless. What about this EL lineup? You've got Marveaux and Obertan in the attack reinforcing the non-mobile Shola Ameobi which is not a terrible thing... if you shape the ideas well enough. The Metalist defense could be susceptible to the speed of Marv and Gaby off of a Leon Best-style flick on from Shola, for instance. Without a direct replacement for Moussa Sissoko (you might like to try Dan Gosling here, but he is still out through injury), Vurnon Anita has looked most likely to bring the kind of passing and activity that you'd be looking for here, which in turn puts you in need to bring Gaël Bigirimana back into the fold at one of the withdrawn midfield slots next to James Perch. This particular triangle of midfielders could be solid enough... or could collapse spectacularly.

A debut for Massadio Haïdara would certainly be exciting, and with Danny Simpson on the right, there's plenty of potential on the wings... which Metalist has looked like they would be happy to concede. In my small scouting report based on their loss to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, I observed that Dnipro almost completely ignored the wings in favor of directly attacking the center of the Metalist defense. Our best chances came largely on direct attacks at the middle of the Metalist defense on Thursday. Although there is probably enough quality in this lineup, you wonder if it is the right type of quality to gain the result on Thursday. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to try much else.

**** Pete wrote:
Lambo83. Totally agree. If it was a new saints manageress....

And a Bloke reporter wrote this rubbish. He would be kicked out as sexist. Called a pervert...And made to hold his head in shame.

Looks like a female reporter wrote this, from the byline.

Still, not exactly the kind of stuff I signed up for as a Saints supporter. Can't believe I skim read it myself. I was hoping for one kind of punchline.

damoose wrote:
Started reading that lol..heres some real news guys:

Where do we go from here now that all of the children have grown up
and how do we spend our TIME knowing nobody gives us a ****

I don't wanna live here no more, i don't wanna stay
Ain't gonna spend the rest of my life, quietly fading away

Whatever you thought of the very ... odd officiating in the home leg of our Europa League Round of 32 tie with Metalist Kharkiv, the fact remains that we will need to get a result in Kharkiv this Thursday if we hope to progress in the competition. Were it only that easy - our terrible league performance to this point has put us in a position that the match against Southampton next weekend is not one that you can afford to play your second squad for* and feel good about it.

*Not that there's really a scenario that we would have done, but it's certainly not an option now

So - where do we go? Do we write off the Europa League and place all of our eggs in the Premier League Survival basket? Do we go all out to try to end the 44 year wait for silverware and give the Europa League everything we've got with no guarantee it pays off and no guarantee it doesn't hamstring your Premier League campaign? Starving for success can do strange things to your mind, and there was some chatter about going after the Kharkiv draw that perhaps we should go after the Europa League title even if relegation was the tradeoff. Personally, Premier League survival has got to be the first priority - success is going to eventually be built off of league stability, not to mention that we are not likely to be nearly as fortunate with our best players sticking with the team this time around.

Let us work from the premise that we will put priority on the Premier League and will reserve our first team accordingly. It's pretty easy at this time to sketch out the lineup for the match against Southampton:

Cisse

Gouffran -- Sissoko -- Jonas

Tiote -- Cabaye

Santon -- Coloccini -- Taylor -- Debuchy

Krul

It seems unlikely that any of these players will be expected to take any major part in the match in Kharkiv on Thursday (although some will get the frequent flyer miles, for sure)... so what does that leave us? It's not at all a cupboard bare type of situation, and it didn't take very long to sketch out a viable lineup that avoids all 11 of the players above - even if it does leave some room for concern in a couple of areas. What would our lineup v. Metalist look like, then?

Shola

Marveaux -- Anita -- Obertan

Perch -- Bigirimana

Haïdara -- Yanga-Mbiwa -- Williamson -- Simpson

Harper

This lineup does not exactly fill you with confidence for progression; for every area of the lineup that is encouraging you've got a balance in an area that could be a potential problem for Newcastle. It bears remembering, however, that a scoring draw is enough for us to go through regardless. What about this EL lineup? You've got Marveaux and Obertan in the attack reinforcing the non-mobile Shola Ameobi which is not a terrible thing... if you shape the ideas well enough. The Metalist defense could be susceptible to the speed of Marv and Gaby off of a Leon Best-style flick on from Shola, for instance. Without a direct replacement for Moussa Sissoko (you might like to try Dan Gosling here, but he is still out through injury), Vurnon Anita has looked most likely to bring the kind of passing and activity that you'd be looking for here, which in turn puts you in need to bring Gaël Bigirimana back into the fold at one of the withdrawn midfield slots next to James Perch. This particular triangle of midfielders could be solid enough... or could collapse spectacularly.

A debut for Massadio Haïdara would certainly be exciting, and with Danny Simpson on the right, there's plenty of potential on the wings... which Metalist has looked like they would be happy to concede. In my small scouting report based on their loss to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, I observed that Dnipro almost completely ignored the wings in favor of directly attacking the center of the Metalist defense. Our best chances came largely on direct attacks at the middle of the Metalist defense on Thursday. Although there is probably enough quality in this lineup, you wonder if it is the right type of quality to gain the result on Thursday. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to try much else.

To add insult to injury I see this lengthy post from what seems to be a Newcastle fan.

There's something very wrong with the world today, I'm going back to bed.

Wtf is this sh!t? I'm a girl and even I'm embarrassed at how this made print. Thanks for helping with the assumption that girls only go to football to look at the players legs.

damoose wrote:
Started reading that lol..heres some real news guys:

Where do we go from here now that all of the children have grown up
and how do we spend our TIME knowing nobody gives us a ****

I don't wanna live here no more, i don't wanna stay
Ain't gonna spend the rest of my life, quietly fading away

Whatever you thought of the very ... odd officiating in the home leg of our Europa League Round of 32 tie with Metalist Kharkiv, the fact remains that we will need to get a result in Kharkiv this Thursday if we hope to progress in the competition. Were it only that easy - our terrible league performance to this point has put us in a position that the match against Southampton next weekend is not one that you can afford to play your second squad for* and feel good about it.

*Not that there's really a scenario that we would have done, but it's certainly not an option now

So - where do we go? Do we write off the Europa League and place all of our eggs in the Premier League Survival basket? Do we go all out to try to end the 44 year wait for silverware and give the Europa League everything we've got with no guarantee it pays off and no guarantee it doesn't hamstring your Premier League campaign? Starving for success can do strange things to your mind, and there was some chatter about going after the Kharkiv draw that perhaps we should go after the Europa League title even if relegation was the tradeoff. Personally, Premier League survival has got to be the first priority - success is going to eventually be built off of league stability, not to mention that we are not likely to be nearly as fortunate with our best players sticking with the team this time around.

Let us work from the premise that we will put priority on the Premier League and will reserve our first team accordingly. It's pretty easy at this time to sketch out the lineup for the match against Southampton:

Cisse

Gouffran -- Sissoko -- Jonas

Tiote -- Cabaye

Santon -- Coloccini -- Taylor -- Debuchy

Krul

It seems unlikely that any of these players will be expected to take any major part in the match in Kharkiv on Thursday (although some will get the frequent flyer miles, for sure)... so what does that leave us? It's not at all a cupboard bare type of situation, and it didn't take very long to sketch out a viable lineup that avoids all 11 of the players above - even if it does leave some room for concern in a couple of areas. What would our lineup v. Metalist look like, then?

Shola

Marveaux -- Anita -- Obertan

Perch -- Bigirimana

Haïdara -- Yanga-Mbiwa -- Williamson -- Simpson

Harper

This lineup does not exactly fill you with confidence for progression; for every area of the lineup that is encouraging you've got a balance in an area that could be a potential problem for Newcastle. It bears remembering, however, that a scoring draw is enough for us to go through regardless. What about this EL lineup? You've got Marveaux and Obertan in the attack reinforcing the non-mobile Shola Ameobi which is not a terrible thing... if you shape the ideas well enough. The Metalist defense could be susceptible to the speed of Marv and Gaby off of a Leon Best-style flick on from Shola, for instance. Without a direct replacement for Moussa Sissoko (you might like to try Dan Gosling here, but he is still out through injury), Vurnon Anita has looked most likely to bring the kind of passing and activity that you'd be looking for here, which in turn puts you in need to bring Gaël Bigirimana back into the fold at one of the withdrawn midfield slots next to James Perch. This particular triangle of midfielders could be solid enough... or could collapse spectacularly.

A debut for Massadio Haïdara would certainly be exciting, and with Danny Simpson on the right, there's plenty of potential on the wings... which Metalist has looked like they would be happy to concede. In my small scouting report based on their loss to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, I observed that Dnipro almost completely ignored the wings in favor of directly attacking the center of the Metalist defense. Our best chances came largely on direct attacks at the middle of the Metalist defense on Thursday. Although there is probably enough quality in this lineup, you wonder if it is the right type of quality to gain the result on Thursday. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to try much else.

Think you're on the wrong website mate. And my god, how long did that essay take to write? Get a life.

In my opinion, this story has been an interesting read as I can relate to it.....come on boys...do you watch beach volley ball because of the game?.

One Heart....One Vision wrote:
In my opinion, this story has been an interesting read as I can relate to it.....come on boys...do you watch beach volley ball because of the game?.

No... I just don't watch Beach Volley Ball

Imagine how he would look on an island in the South Atlantic.

Stop being so miserable, you lot. This is AMAZING. I like a fresh perspective on things and this is certainly more entertaining than stuff about 'formations' or how Matt Le Tissier's got on at his charity golf day. MoPo is a cool guy and if he puts bums on seats then so much the better.

On a similar note, is anyone else noticing loads more fit birds among our away support? They weren't there against Stockport, that's for sure.

St Retford wrote:
Stop being so miserable, you lot. This is AMAZING. I like a fresh perspective on things and this is certainly more entertaining than stuff about 'formations' or how Matt Le Tissier's got on at his charity golf day. MoPo is a cool guy and if he puts bums on seats then so much the better.

On a similar note, is anyone else noticing loads more fit birds among our away support? They weren't there against Stockport, that's for sure.

Football isn't about looks. This isn't journalism. Just a school girls essay. This is not sport news. I couldn't give a sh!t if MP looked like Shrek as long as he got the job done. When did football turn into a fashion show??

St Retford wrote:
Stop being so miserable, you lot. This is AMAZING. I like a fresh perspective on things and this is certainly more entertaining than stuff about 'formations' or how Matt Le Tissier's got on at his charity golf day. MoPo is a cool guy and if he puts bums on seats then so much the better.

On a similar note, is anyone else noticing loads more fit birds among our away support? They weren't there against Stockport, that's for sure.

Well you see everybody is allowed to have their own opinion.

and in the opinion of most of the people who have posted here, the article is a touch salubrious and worthy of publishing in some sort of glossy magazine dedicated to 'scandal' and 'gossip'

Frankly halfway through that article I was half expecting her to go off on some sort of self indulgent fantasy worthy of a Mills & Boon:

'As thunder ripped the air outside, I felt his manly arms embrace me.....'
and so on and so forth.

please note - I'm not saying that she SHOuLDN'T have written it, I'm just saying that the tone it sets is a bit out of kilter. But then I shouldn't be surprised - this paper thinks its the Sun of the Mirror rather than just a local rag.

Christ, it's not purporting to be a serious piece of sports journalism. It's fashion overlapping with football. It's meant to be fun. Can we not handle such a thing?

But on a semi-serious level, it makes the point that Saints are becoming cool. We've never, ever been cool and we should cherish the fact we're marketable, we play good football and we're going places.

he's not latino. he's ethnic european.

RED & WHITE..RED & WHITE wrote:
What Utter Rubbish - By Tara Russell, News Reporter.

Disgusting !!!!!

There's a lot of 'pent up' anger on here.

The sun's out, we're winning, we've made it though another Valentine's Day intact and there's a new Primal Scream single on the way. We should be in high spirits.

Suggestions for future articles-
1 How Morgan's sexy accent and Corkys cheeky grin are winning over even the hard bitten fans
2 Foxy Danny's feelings on being pushed aside by the young pretender
3Fitness regime that gave Jose that fabulous six pack
4 The loneliness of left out heart throb Paulo
These would of course be accompanied by centrefold photos !

Well it's just explained why Cortese signed up Pochettino.

Never noticed before just how much they looked like one another !

Are they ever seen together........?

Next Saints game you go to lady's, don't just shout for the players, scream for Mauricio!! Cheese the men off big time!!!

Complain as much as you like about the article. It's part of the pack the soon-to-be-expanded park with women campaign to create a new revenue stream to complement the one coming in from Sky and blokes.