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. Either that or it’s to create an extra weak in the calendar after last year shambles where some teams ran out of midweek slots to play all their games.

Regardless of how it came about, or maybe because it’s a novelty, I think it’s quite good to start with this game and make no mistake, it is the start of the season and we do need to get off to a good start.

Colchester United are our opponents today and the most significant thing about them is that they are managed by Danny Cowley, formally of that lot down the road. Colchester have been a League 2 for about ten years and that doesn’t seem to be a run that’s ending particularly soon, with Cowley already highlighting the difficulty they are having with recruitment this summer.

As for Saints, well the pre-season tour to Germany was wrapped up with a 70 minute game and a 90 minute game for split squads against German third division side Munster. After a win in the 90 minute game, Tonda made reference to the fact that we have to get used to winning games and developing that mentality of stringing wins together. This starts against Colchester.

As I write there’s been no one joining after Lewis Dobbin – there is still plenty of time of course and a lot of Championship sides have been getting deals over the line in the past few days. There’s still time of course but the pressure is on a bit as we need a good start.

One avenue that was allegedly still open, was confirmed shut when the will he / won’t he question still hanging over Ross Stewart was answered as he signed a three-year deal with Swansea. Now I get it. Ross clearly wanted a three year deal and we weren’t going to give him that. I can’t imagine he he’s on any more money at Swansea then he would’ve been at Saints but it’s the guarantee of those three years and at his age with his injury record, you can’t really blame him. Hopefully for Swansea’s sake, he doesn’t spend all bar six months of those three years out injured.

If he does and then leaves, then Swans fans will be as pissed off as we are and it’s another nail in the coffin if you believed that there was a shred of decency and gratitude left in the modern player. I wonder if he is grateful for the club for paying him for those years. I wonder if he’s grateful for the rehabilitation the club provided and the management of his minutes to get him back playing again and into the Scotland squad for a nice little group stage holiday in the summer. My current train of thought is that the fuckery that was used to get out of the optional year leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth. Good luck to him though he is going to cop a load of shit when they come down to St Mary’s. We move on.

In amongst some of the guff that always comes out of of Fans Forums, Johannes Spors revealed to no ones surprise, that we would certainly be looking to strengthen in that area of the pitch and with the likelihood of Shea Charles completing a move to Fulham in the next few days, you would imagine we would be looking in midfield as well though Joe O’Brien Whitmarsh is making a case to be this years’ Cam Bragg.

The forum was more significant than usual of course, because of the end of last season. To my mind though, the questions were answered in an up front manner and I do wonder sometimes, what the fans are expecting them to say. I’ll admit to wanting everyone hung, drawn and quartered at the time but we’re trying to draw a line and move on – despite the FA. One quote I did like was Phil Parsons basically rephrasing the old Millwall maxim. Everyone hates us and I don’t particularly care.

On the pitch, I can’t really seeing any other team apart from Boro, being more fired up against us than they would be anyway and they didn’t seem any more fired up than anyone would expect in the playoff semi final. Pompey fans will think they’re team will be more fired up because of it… but we all know that lot are full of shit. It’s a season of avoiding the noise.

Jay Robinson has found pastures new for this season and has moved on loan to Monza for a season to play under Ivan Juric, until he gets sacked, which is probably inevitable. Personally, I see this as a good move because whilst Jay always looked half decent when he played, there are several players in front of him for the wide attacking positions in the squad. Hopefully we have learned from the Dom Ballard situation and keep hold of all the cards. Dom moved to Bristol City for £5 million so whilst we’ll get a bit of money, the decision to let him go is looking progressively less clever.

Anyway, back to Colchester and the Jobserve Conmmunity Stadium…