More 'Shit Kit Shenanigans' A visit to the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham for the last game before the momentum killing three week international break which no one really gives a shit about or wants. This international break has seen a first call up for Kuryu Matsuki to the Japan squad and so he joins the likes of Cyle Larin, Finn Azaz and Ryan Manning as players who we desperately need to come back fit from the international break.

A visit to the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham for the last game before the momentum killing three week international break which no one really gives a shit about or wants. This international break has seen a first call up for Kuryu Matsuki to the Japan squad and so he joins the likes of Cyle Larin, Finn Azaz and Ryan Manning as players who we desperately need to come back fit from the international break.

"And then, they tried to stop me!!!" Unlike the last two visitors to St Mary’s, Bristol City are not top of the table but they have made a decent start to the season in the Championship and there’s no doubt that this is gonna be a tough game. It always seems to be a tough game against Bristol City. They left with a point here last season which kind of killed our automatic promotion chances.

Azaz-az-az For the second home game in a row, we entertain the team that is top of the table. Millwall last time around, Swansea this. Three wins and two draws have the Swans dreaming of being this year‘s Coventry, and staying in the top two all season, though the more realistic among them will expect the usual mid-table finish which they've produced in the last four or five years.

Welington, away in the distance, has a go. I have to be honest, I didn’t see a world where Lincoln would be above us in the English Football League standings, but a four-point deduction for ourselves, and Lincoln having four points from their opening four games, and here we are. Lincoln have made a decent start to life in the Championship, though it is noticeable that their one win was against Bolton, who they comfortably finished above in last season‘s League 1, when the Imps racked up more than 100 points.

With two wins in a row under the belt, Saints head to Birmingham full of confidence, looking to take another big stride up the League table catching up with all the smug bastards near the top. Standing in their way are a Birmingham City side, who have started the the season in solid if unspectacular fashion with a win and two draws.

He is the Man Top of the table Millwall rock up at St Mary’s this afternoon, no doubt looking to leave with something, as they did last season. The Lions were the team who did well last season when I wasn’t necessarily expecting them to and we should’ve been facing them in the play-off final, but for differing reasons, neither of us made it.

The Inevitable Departure of James Ward-Prowse To be honest, I knew this day would come from about January 2023, when in my mind, I accepted that Saints were going to get relegated at the end…

No Idea Where This Pass Went Carabao Cup Second Round and West Ham at St Mary’s, which is a game that is absolutely impossible to predict, given that both clubs have agendas considerably more important than this one. Tonda Eckert will want to win to give his fringe players more chances of minutes on the pitch in later rounds, whilst Nuno Espirito Santo will want to win because he is not used to winning games since he rocked up at the Dildo Dome last season.

Nuno in his pre "Baldygate" years. Carabao Cup Second Round and West Ham at St Mary’s, which is a game that is absolutely impossible to predict, given that both clubs have agendas considerably more important than this one. Tonda Eckert will want to win to give his fringe players more chances of minutes on the pitch in later rounds, whilst Nuno Espirito Santo will want to win because he is not used to winning games since he rocked up at the Dildo Dome last season.

Southampton recorded their first Championship win of the season after two late goals secured a 3-1 victory over Stoke City at St Mary’s. Martin Starke is joined by Steve Grant, Glen de la Cour an...

Divin Givin It The Big One The first home game of the season is against Stoke City this afternoon. It’s weird how from one season to the next you get this fixture quirk where you seem to play the same teams very early in the season. Watford away was the fourth fixture of last season and Stoke at home was the third.

Mubama in Wonky Stripes The first home game of the season is against Stoke City this afternoon. It’s weird how from one season to the next you get this fixture quirk where you seem to play the same teams very early in the season. Watford away was the fourth fixture of last season and Stoke at home was the third. It was this game last year that told us that Will Still was maybe not all that he was cracked up to be as we were deservedly beaten and our squad suddenly looked very much not fit for purpose.

The home of Southampton on BBC Sport online. Includes the latest news stories, results, fixtures, video and audio.

Even a Saints Goal Looks Shit in That Kit And now the talking can stop and the football can actually start and then we can talk about that, rather than the narratives that the media have been peddling for the last week or so. That narrative as of course been Saints Spygate hangover with virtually every man and his dog positively foaming at the mouth in the hope that it will adversely affect us.

YouTube video by Total Saints Podcast

And now the talking can stop and the football can actually start and then we can talk about that, rather than the narratives that the media have been peddling for the last week or so. That narrative as of course been Saints Spygate hangover with virtually every man and his dog positively foaming at the mouth in the hope that it will adversely affect us.

Shea Charles looks set to leave Southampton for Fulham in a deal worth up to £30m. Is it good business for Saints — and, with the Championship season about to begin, how big a hole does his depa...

I full expect this to be used as a massive stick to hit me with at the end of the season and in fact, as the season goes on. Notoriously difficult to predict - 11th to 20th are probably interchangeable for example but you've got to put everybody somewhere. So here, we go 1. West Ham United — Nuno Espírito Santo…

Protect Our Centre Forward At All Costs And so for the first time in my football supporting life, the League cup First round is the first game of the season, no doubt a situation brought about by the dicking around with the football calendar that is going on this year to accommodate the big international break at the end of September.

Only Tonda Found Humour in Blackmore's "Two Germans and a Cockney Went Into a Bar" Joke. And sorry for the first time in my football supporting life, the League cup First round is the first game of the season, no doubt a situation brought about by the dicking around with the football calendar that is going on this year to accommodate the big international break at the end of September.

Life at Southampton has carried on over the summer whilst everyone has been looking at the World Cup. There's a new season that is less than a month away. In fact, just before the World Cup started, we got the released list from the club. None of the names were particularly surprising apart from one. The unsurprising ones were the ending of the contracts of Alex McCarthy, Oriol Romeu, Will Smallbone, Joe Aribo and Charlie Taylor.

It was with great sadness that I heard the news of Kevin Keegan‘s passing at the age of 75. Everyone knew that he was very ill from the statement released a month or so ago detailing his diagnosis of stage four stomach cancer, so this was not really a massive bolt from the blue but it’s always a shock when one of the immortals goes.

Gianni Shows Shiny Object to Baby In the Beginning, Back in 2022 At the last World Cup in 2022, if we ignore that it was in Qatar for a second, the tournament was the correct size with 32 teams and in the correct format.  Half the teams went out in every round and the top 2 from each group progressed - as it should be. 

What a Shame it Was At That End of the Ground Normally there wouldn’t be much to write about between the season ending and the transfer window opening but this is no ordinary year. Friday 22nd May - Sunday 31st May - Tumbleweeds And so the play-off final happened between Hull and Middlesbrough. The game itself was absolutely murder to watch, with zero quality from either side and the winning goal was courtesy of a goalkeeper mistake.

  We'll Always Have Wembley It has seemed to be a case of when, rather than if, with regards to Russell Martin being sacked as manager of Southampton.  Any doubt over him being sacked probably left town after forty seconds of the game against Spurs at St Mary’s. If you wondered what a final straw looks like – that was it.  Before kick off, the Spurs…

It’s the final Total Saints Podcast of the season, and unfortunately, there is still only one place to start: the fallout from Southampton’s failed Spygate appeal.Martin is joined by Steve Gran...

Yeah, About This Wednesday 13th to Sunday 17th May - the Howling Shitstorm Days With crushing predictability, once the result of the second leg against Middlesbrough had landed and Kim Hellberg had finished crying in his press conference, more stuff came out in the Daily Mail and it was the picture of the spy in question, standing in plain sight with his iPhone wearing an outfit that did not remotely blend in with the background.

The Look of a Man Who Meant It Here we go then for the second leg. It’s actually a relief that there have only been three days between the first and the second leg, so I haven’t had to keep my head down too much with regards to avoiding hearing all the shite. Some of it has been unavoidable, however.

It’s been nice to have a week off in preparation for the first leg of the play-off semi-final at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough. I’m sure everyone wanted a nice quiet week off anyway, where the only focus is on training and getting ready for the first leg of this season defining semi-final. That was how it was going until Thursday, when a story broke in the Daily Mail, that a Saints first team staffer had been caught filming a Middlesbrough training session.

FFS Tonda It’s been nice to have a week off in preparation for the first leg of the play-off semi-final at the Riverside Stadium in Middlesbrough. I’m sure everyone wanted a nice quiet week off anyway, where the only focus is on training and getting ready for the first game of this season defining semi-final. That was how it was going until Thursday, when a story broke in the Daily Mail, that a Saints first team staffer had been caught filming a Middlesbrough training session.

The Championship is heading for one of its most exciting conclusions at the top of the table, with three teams fighting for the last automatic promotion spot and three teams fighting for the last play-off spot. Five of the games kicking off at Saturday lunchtime have something huge riding on them. We are playing in one of the games that doesn’t as our game can only potentially have a bearing on whether we finish third, fourth or fifth, which will of course make a difference to whether we are at home or away in the first leg of our play-off semi-final and what days and times the semi-final will be played.

Last time here - A Baz Assist The Championship is heading for one of its most exciting conclusions at the top of the table, with three teams fighting for the last automatic promotion spot and three teams fighting for the last play-off spot. Five of the games kicking off at Saturday lunchtime have something huge riding on them. We are playing in one of the games that doesn’t as our game can only potentially have a bearing on whether we finish third, fourth or fifth, which will of course make a difference to whether we are at home or away in the first leg of our play-off semi-final and what days and times the semi-final will be played.

He's Some Boy that Cyle Larin And so it comes down to this, Ipswich town at home. Win this and we take the race for automatic promotion down at the last day, anything else and it’s all done and the game of against Preston just becomes about where we finish in the play-off positions. Ipswich are in a situation where if they win at St Mary’s, then they are up, barring a ridiculous swing in goal difference on the final day, where, Ipswich are at home to Queens Park on the fucking beach and completely unreliable Rangers.

Caspar is all of us Wembley. It’s been a while. Actually, it hasn’t, just the two years since we were last here in the play-off final. Last time here in the FA Cup was 2021 when we played a semi-final in front of 4000 people. The fans weren’t the only ones who didn’t turn up that day as we lost one now to a League 1 side.

YouTube video by Total Saints Podcast

Janny B Shows the way Wembley. It’s been a while. Actually, it hasn’t, just the two years since we were last here in the play-off final. Last time here in the FA Cup was 2021 when we played a semi-final in front of 4000 people. The fans weren’t the only ones who didn’t turn up that day as we lost one now to a League 1 side.

It's a Young Man's Game - Not Today! In the aftermath of the breathless last-minute win against Swansea, we now have the visit of Bristol City to St Mary’s, as the automatic promotion bandwagon gathers ever more pace. City seem to have it all together at the start of the season and under Gerhard Struber, were up near the top of the League for the first couple of months before it started falling away a little bit until they got to January and sold two of their best players, causing Struber to kick off against the board and as we have seen thousands of times before, not just at Bristol City but other clubs as well, that only ends one way and the manager departed.

This Boy Has Had a Good Week This season’s Swansea are the same as the last few seasons Swansea, in that they are the very definition of mid-table. They’ve not threatened the playoffs or the relegation places all season and sit comfortably in 14th place with a record of two won, two drawn and two lost over the last six games.

The Return of Manning and Downes This season’s Swansea are the same as the last few seasons Swansea, in that they are the very definition of mid-table. They’ve not threatened the playoffs or the relegation places all season and sit comfortably in 14th place with a record of two won, two drawn and two lost over the last six games. They tend to beat the teams at the bottom and tend to lose to the teams at the top and those last six games have borne that out with wins over Leicester and Portsmouth and defeats to Wrexham and Coventry.

The Archer is Back It was back in October 2025 that Saints visited Blackburn and the managers in the dugouts on that day were Will Still and Valerien Ismael. There will of course be two different managers in the dugouts today in Toda Eckert and Michael O’Neill because the two previous managers were largely shite. Blackburn away was a bit of a turning point because I think most people realised, if they hadn't already, that it was never going to work with Will Still.

Will Still watches his Substitutions Take Effect. It was back in October 2025 that Saints visited Blackburn and the managers in the dugouts on that day were Will Still and Valerien Ismael. There will of course be two different managers in the dugouts today in Toda Eckert and Michael O’Neill because the two previous managers were largely shite. Blackburn away was a bit of a turning point because I think most people realised, if they hadn't already, that it was never going to work with Will Still.

Score, Get the Ball, Win the Game You have to go back to the ninth game of the season to find when we played the away game against Derby County at Pride Park and a lot has changed since then. Saints are of course a completely different side and a different proposition to what they were back then, and Derby would argue that they are also.

Left to Right - Manager of the Month February, Manager of the Month March, Next Game You have to go back to the ninth game of the season to find when we played the away game against Derby County at Pride Park and a lot has changed since then. Saints are of course a completely different side and a different proposition to what they were back then, and Derby would argue that they are also.

Deadpool: Watching Through His Fingers Wrexham away in a battle between sixth and seventh in the current Championship standings, with Saints having a game in hand but Wrexham have a one point of advantage. Win this and they will be four points ahead of us, thus negating the game in hand, so that will clearly be their target. Whilst a draw would not be the worst result in the world for us, we will certainly be going out there with the expectation of winning, particularly after the Arsenal game.

Phil Parkinson. Those Were the Days. Wrexham away in a battle between sixth and seventh in the current Championship standings, with Saints having a game in hand but Wrexham have a one point of advantage. Win this and they will be four points ahead of us, thus negating the game in hand, so that will clearly be their target. Whilst a draw would not be the worst result in the world for us, we will certainly be going out there with the expectation of winning, particularly after the Arsenal game.

The ever rising Isle Of Wight punk trio Grade 2 are back with their fourth album and it's another run of melodic punk anthems as tight as ever

Things Went Rather Well In this season, when the main goal is, of course, to secure promotion back to the Premier League, an FA Cup quarter-final was not really on the bingo card. There has been much talk this season about getting back to the Premier League and, subsequently, much discussion about what we like about the Championship and what we dislike about the Premier League.