Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 458: Fixtures, Friendlies, FAB, Boxing and World Cup!
150 Plays1 day ago
Southampton – We are back and with plenty to talk about! Friendlies have been announced! Fixtures come out this week! Applications for the FAB are open and on top of it all there is a World Cup going on!
Follow us on social media:
Linktree - https://linktr.ee/dailysouthamptonpod
X - https://x.com/DailySaintsPod
TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@dailysaintspod
Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@DailySaintsPod
Instagram – https://www.instagtam.com/dailysaintspod
Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/gspnsouthampton.bsky.social
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572875812052
Our Sponsors
For advertising and sponsorship details or to learn more about the scale and demographics of our audience – email us - dailysaintspod@gmail.com
Copyright | 2026 | Daily Saints Pod | All Rights Reserved
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Host Updates
00:00:13
DailySaintsPod
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod. My name is Greg and as always today joined by my good friend and wonderful co-host Zach. How are you doing?
00:00:25
Zak
Yeah, I'm just about alive in what you know this UK heatwave that only just begun. i Look, I get there's a lot of people that really like this weather.
00:00:35
Zak
I'm really, really happy for you. There's a couple of things I do like about this weather. For some reason, my hay fever gets better. That's always a massive win. but But the fact that I just sit in like a melting pot is awful.
00:00:46
Zak
ae I need to bite like 10 times to out fans or just get air conditioning. Sorry, that's very quintessentially British to just complain about the weather immediately. but it's probably not going to be the first or last time this week.
00:00:55
DailySaintsPod
I'm with you.
00:00:58
Zak
Yeah.
00:00:59
DailySaintsPod
huk no I'm right there with you.
00:00:59
Zak
yeah
00:01:00
DailySaintsPod
Got a freezer full of Calippos and bottles of water just trying to survive. You know, all all the good stuff, but But look, we we had a bit of a loose week
World Cup Excitement
00:01:14
DailySaintsPod
last week.
00:01:15
DailySaintsPod
We discussed that we're going to be slowing down when there's not stuff to talk about. But it's that's all right, mate, because we've got stuff to talk about.
00:01:21
Zak
yeah
00:01:23
DailySaintsPod
We've we've seen things and we've seen stuff and it's been a good few days of football, right? There's been some some World Cup happening.
00:01:31
Zak
I've really enjoyed the World Cup. It's been better than I expected. But it does mean that occasionally I'm having wake up in the morning feeling really tired because I've stayed up till 1 to, I don't know, like watch the best game of all time last night with Cape Verde, right?
00:01:46
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, I mean, Cape Verde were unbelievable.
00:01:46
Zak
And Uruguay. Absolutely.
00:01:50
DailySaintsPod
but what What a sensational performance. It was, yeah.
00:01:56
Zak
It was significantly better to watch than Iran versus Belgium, where once again, golden generation of Belgium continue to somehow not ever manage to score major tournaments.
00:01:56
DailySaintsPod
I mean...
00:02:07
Zak
Like, oh, it's so fun to me.
00:02:08
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, that was that was a really something-and-nothing game, right? With the the red card and then just the inability to break down that defensive line. That was...
00:02:19
DailySaintsPod
I mean, some people like that type of football, mate. I'm sure that Mikel Arteta was loving every minute of of that. it's like one long throw goal away.
00:02:28
Zak
good Good for those people. Egypt finally won the World Cup game.
00:02:31
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:02:34
Zak
Spain completely dismantled Saudi Arabia. then you you had, don't know if you saw, Egypt managed to get their first World Cup win ever against one of the lowest ranked teams in the world in New Zealand. So...
00:02:50
Zak
did you hear that Did you hear about that?
00:02:50
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:02:53
Zak
It was the guy that got loads of people to that ground. That is a really terrible way to explain that. But Didn't have a lot of fans.
00:03:04
Zak
So so you YouTuber organized get a bunch of fans to go to ground and make a big day of it, right? He did a similar thing with like the tournament's lowest ranking player. He was like a defender for New Zealand, like massively, basically just did loads of exposure and built up his you know social media and stuff for the tournament's night.
00:03:24
Zak
And yet still won't even be a drop in the ocean comparison to the Cape 30 keeper. So... As you can tell, I've really enjoyed the World Cup so far.
00:03:33
DailySaintsPod
It's been great.
00:03:33
Zak
It's been good.
World Cup Cultural Impact
00:03:34
Zak
then obviously, Claydon was good as well, which is like, you know, we'll win.
00:03:35
DailySaintsPod
It's been...
00:03:39
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, look, I've even seen or even seen some stuff on social media today, like where even the USA fans have like upped their charm game.
00:03:51
Zak
Yeah.
00:03:51
DailySaintsPod
It's like two weeks of exposure to you know Scotland and England fans and all of the other countries that have their... crazy gambits and crazy atmosphere.
00:04:13
DailySaintsPod
it was good. Like it was a real 10 out of 10 for improvement.
00:04:14
Zak
that's that's That's better than USA and me just being able to make my wife cringe by singing Let's Go Canada.
00:04:24
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:26
Zak
but I also did see that they loved their game recently.
00:04:26
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:28
Zak
And what they actually showed, you I think, was a video of the New York men's choir, a barbershop choir. So that was quite funny. Yeah, but it's just it's been it's been good.
00:04:36
DailySaintsPod
Nice.
00:04:38
Zak
like It's been good to watch some football. It's been good to see, you know, Carl Lahren get on the score sheet in both of his games for Canada, as catastrophic as it was fire for the injury in that game.
00:04:49
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:49
Zak
But, you know, it's been it's been quite nice.
00:04:51
Zak
As I said, I would have cared more about Scotland, but Russia doesn't play for us anymore.
00:04:54
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:55
Zak
However, if you believe some the transfer rumours, apparently we're signing half of the Scottish players.
00:04:55
DailySaintsPod
Look.
00:04:58
DailySaintsPod
Whoa.
00:05:00
Zak
So we'll have to see how that pans out.
00:05:03
DailySaintsPod
Oh, we'll do, mate. Look, I know we talked... I haven't written this down on our show notes, so i'm gonna throw this one in and at you at left field. But I know we were talking before World Cup about how it just doesn't matter and it's not important.
00:05:09
Zak
Yeah, sure.
00:05:16
DailySaintsPod
And I feel like... I need to repent and accept and acknowledge that having witnessed my kids who are both of primary school age have an absolute buzz about them, about the most ridiculous things all to do with the World Cup just because of schoolyard chatter and what they get to watch in the evening.
00:05:37
Zak
Mm-mm.
00:05:39
DailySaintsPod
The fact that the school do their own little... like sweepstake things. So to have my daughter come home and be like, can we watch the Uzbekistan game tonight? It's great having a game of football on every night is it's been really amazing to behold. And for those that, you know, don't,
00:05:58
DailySaintsPod
think about the importance of football. I watched on Saturday as I was making the mistake of trying to clear out a garden in the middle of a heat wave, but also stood there watching both kids trying to do their best to perfect the craft of the chest, down, turn and volley, just like Kyle Lahren
00:06:06
Zak
Yeah.
00:06:21
DailySaintsPod
you know, these things, like they're little things with big impacts. And I really, i love that.
00:06:27
Zak
I think to be clear, mate, fit for you as well, I wouldn't really say it was specifically no one cares about the World Cup. You don't care about international football in between. And I can kind of get that because it is really hard to get hyped about a friendly between England and San Marino for like the 100th time that we're going to win 5-0.
00:06:39
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:06:44
Zak
Or alternatively, let they try and make up international division leagues to try and, I don't pad out the runtime of friendlies.
00:06:45
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:06:53
Zak
But I think, like yeah, the World Cup is different and it does see the the atmosphere that's made for it. And I think with this one, because of the fact that you know like I think we were talking yesterday about one of the VIP packages for fee from FIFA for like one of the American games or one of the games was ridiculous.
00:07:10
Zak
So what's happened with this World Cup, probably similar to Qatar, is like people have essentially created their own atmosphere and created their own narratives. And that's that's amazing also for the outreach of the sport. I'm having like people like my wife absolutely roar at the fact that most of Boston have cones on the heads of all their statues without any explanation as to why.
00:07:29
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, but just fully embrace the Tartan army. Like, even talks of genuinely twinning with Glasgow now and having one of these, like, screen portals in the middle of the town centre.
00:07:42
Zak
That'd be cool.
00:07:42
DailySaintsPod
I also saw the funniest thing now that the Tartan army has moved on to Miami, where it was a Scotland fan trying to put the code on the head of a statue and immediately getting shut down by the Florida police. Just...
00:07:58
Zak
Well, yeah, but it's like even silly things like, you know, everyone's seen the Mexican and duck and...
00:08:03
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:08:03
Zak
Like, I saw, like, couple of Korean fans that were in Mexican shirts eating eat Mexican food and, you know, kind of everybody embracing cultures and stuff. And really what the World Cup is essentially all about, right, which is is essentially everybody just coming together and enjoying football, and regardless of the controversy around it and regardless of everybody's political beliefs or whatever in that.
00:08:17
DailySaintsPod
yeah togetherness yeah
00:08:23
Zak
Like, i I think that it's just a really, really fun spectacle. And I admit, too, I was very sceptical because of, because if you know, the build-up to in the... run up to it. The fact that some of the games that I just literally can't watch because I'm not getting up at three, four in the morning, I can't lift that way.
00:08:39
Zak
So unfortunately, I'm having to catch up on highlights. But you know what we have been able to catch has been really, really enjoyable. And it's just, once again, it's like when the Olympics is on, right? it's really nice just ta on the turn on the TV after work. And at some point, there will be some level of football on.
00:08:55
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:08:55
Zak
And usually to a good quality, or at least, you know, and then you get all the kind of people writing their own stories and the the narratives of it, especially you like this year, obviously, Cape Verde and Curacao being sort of big ones that are like making that mark, as everyone's aware of.
00:09:07
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:09:10
Zak
Yeah, no, I do think. And obviously, like everybody has like their World Cups that they remember. And like I still remember being at school and you know everybody coming in to watch England versus Brazil, right? When like being brought in really early and having like Teddy Sheringham in the lineup.
00:09:19
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:09:24
Zak
like that's how That's how long ago it was. But you know somebody somebody at school getting suspended for having the Ronaldo haircut where he was bold all over apart from the fringe, right? And yet there was like at least two or three people from school that tried to replicate it.
00:09:33
DailySaintsPod
Amazing. Amazing.
00:09:37
Zak
And I think everybody has that. is a very good way of introducing people to to football.
00:09:43
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:09:44
Zak
And I think that, yeah, it's... I don't know how I thought originally about, you know, having... It continues to have been such a sort of expanded event. I actually think that having some of the smaller nations and stuff has been really exciting because there are definitely going to be teams that are going out that you'd have expected to go through.
00:09:56
DailySaintsPod
It's great.
00:10:00
Zak
are going to be definitely teams of that knockout that you'd have thought would have gone out day one. So...
00:10:04
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:10:05
Zak
this
00:10:05
DailySaintsPod
I mean, Scotland are on par to qualify to the the next round. So, you know, beating my expectations.
00:10:11
Zak
Well, maybe if they get what like they get you need to get something from Brazil, right?
00:10:15
DailySaintsPod
Something from Brazil, yeah. but But yeah. No, it's been good. I'm really enjoying
Saints' Pre-season Tour
00:10:19
DailySaintsPod
it. But look, it's not just been international football and World Cup. We are a Saints pod after all. There's been Saints stuff.
00:10:26
DailySaintsPod
For example, we have announced our first friendly, our first pre-season friendly.
00:10:31
Zak
We have...
00:10:32
DailySaintsPod
We are going to Germany for for it. So I presume that implies that the rest of our pre-season camp and tour will be based around that visit to to Germany.
00:10:46
DailySaintsPod
It would be strange for that not to be the case, right?
00:10:50
Zak
Well, it really depends, right? like It makes sense to me that they're strengthening the links that you know Spores and Eckert have in Germany and alongside German teams and probably some of the the scouting that we do out there. it kind of makes sense that you may as well just have everybody in the same place, right? may as well have the entirety of the scouting department.
00:11:13
Zak
if you were still want to call them the scouting department, you know, the the coaching staff and the players, right? but It makes sense.
00:11:18
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:11:19
Zak
Like, it's nice that they're starting to kind of get that information finalized. And it's just nice to start to look forward to being a Saints fan again, right?
00:11:27
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, well, that there was a lot of talk last preseason. If you can cast your mind back that far, yeah on even off the back of a fairly depressing Premier League season and obviously relegation, people were...
00:11:32
Zak
Yeah.
00:11:42
DailySaintsPod
A bit upset and a bit miffed that all of their pre-season tour games were behind closed doors and they couldn't get tickets and go and support the the team away from home. So clearly taking at least part of that lesson on board, getting the news of that out there ahead of time, because it's the 1st of August with 3pm kickoff.
00:12:03
DailySaintsPod
3pm local time for them, so 2pm over here, in the side of the Eagles. I'm not going to try and pronounce their German name.
00:12:13
DailySaintsPod
Prusenmünster from the Bundesliga 3, right? So... I gave it a go. Apologies to any German fans listening. I tried.
00:12:28
DailySaintsPod
So yeah, it's good news for for those fans that want to go and travel and watch the team away from home at that. and Yeah, it'll be interesting to see as the other pre-season stuff starts to filter out. I don't know. Does it feel a bit like we're behind this year because of the the whole like end of season fiasco? like Season tickets obviously were scheduled to be out earlier than they were.
00:12:56
DailySaintsPod
Now they're out. But i mean do it don't we normally have a kit by now as well? It's just...
00:13:01
Zak
Yeah, but i'm not
00:13:05
Zak
I'm not really too bothered by it because of the fact that we've had so much going on. Like, World Cup has kept everybody busy.
00:13:16
Zak
Season ticket news was a bit later. We still got fixtures to come. I don't think it's really that we're behind. I just think that that's like they need the necessary time, right? Like you've got to let all of the players that have clearly planned to get married this year during the off season get married and have a two week honeymoon before you kick off preseason.
00:13:30
DailySaintsPod
yeah Yeah.
00:13:34
Zak
I think we're we're starting to eat into that a little bit already, right? Like I think Jack Stevens is now engaged. that was news that i so I saw on Instagram. So it's like, you know, there's a lot of a lot of a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.
00:13:46
Zak
and A lot players just trying to have a bit of a relax. And I think that, yeah, obviously they've had to make a lot of changes because of all of the stuff that happened at the end of the season. So I don't really feel like we're behind as such. And I'd rather them still do things with due course than just rush it.
00:14:02
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:14:03
Zak
And yeah, so I don't really feel the same, to be perfectly honest.
00:14:07
Zak
I think that it'll all come out in due time. And before we know it, it'll be start of season again. Yeah.
00:14:12
DailySaintsPod
I suppose you're right. When you think about it, you'd rather have a decent kit launch with players that are actually going to be here rather than the awkward situation of a year's worth of someone in the kit hanging over the storefront who doesn't play for the club anymore.
00:14:27
Zak
Yeah, like, like, that yeah, was going say, like, like, James, James, we're proud of Tino's, right?
00:14:28
DailySaintsPod
James will prowl. I'm sorry.
00:14:32
Zak
Like,
00:14:32
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, although even like Will Smallbone was still in the like pre-match video package for all of last season up until the very last game. so Yeah, you're right. It's looking forward. look Speaking of fixtures, obviously they're coming out later this week and we'll be doing an episode about that. I just thought I'd ask you it because it's an interesting one, really. Obviously, i've I love the fixture release day. I love sitting there and putting them all in the calendar and working it all out. And there's a few, you know, in particular that I look forward to seeing when they're going to be. And like, I like to see where we're at on Boxing Day and when we get to travel to West Brom and all those things for for like
00:15:11
DailySaintsPod
my reasons but what about you is there there an excitement around fixture day to to see what it's what or or do you take the same approach as that kind of semi-viral after villa tweet of can confirm we'll play all 19 teams home and away like
00:15:27
Zak
Yeah. Okay, we've got the South Coast derbies, which are going to happen again because we've got another season together.
00:15:32
DailySaintsPod
yep
00:15:33
Zak
We've got the Nathan Jones derbies, which are always fun to watch, one way or the other.
00:15:36
DailySaintsPod
e
00:15:37
Zak
We've now got Spygate derby, which, regardless of whether or not anyone says there isn't going to be a rivalry, you know both ends of that fixture are going to be, you know, for long for both teams, right?
00:15:48
Zak
Especially if, you know, rumours to be believed that Ross Stewart might go to Middlesbrough and make things extra.
00:15:49
DailySaintsPod
Yeah,
00:15:52
DailySaintsPod
yeah it's an extra bit of needle, isn't it?
00:15:54
Zak
Yeah, exactly exactly that. So I think it is always fun. It's always fun to see when we play against the newly promoted teams. I always think that's always good fun. The same with the teams that come back from a Premier League. So so i i don I kind of disagree. I kind of like looking at as and when we play each other.
00:16:11
Zak
oh And the kind of the flow of the season, right? Especially where we're like, well, that's an easy run of games that usually becomes the games that we win one out of 10. And then the games were like, oh, that's a really tough, tough battle where we win like seven points out nine.
00:16:25
Zak
And yeah, I just, I don't really agree.
00:16:26
DailySaintsPod
Mm.
00:16:29
Zak
Like, yes, we're playing each other every, every, you know, every year but I think that it's it's good fun to see when those things fall especially like the South Coast derby right because the last South Coast derby we had like I say the last one the first leg if you want to call it that that was played at St Mary's we had like a bunch of debuants right James Bree's first return from from Charlton
00:16:41
DailySaintsPod
Mm.
00:16:51
Zak
you know It was like the first time i Zaz got the pitch. like yeah i don't really Realistically, I'd like to look at him think that you know both teams have had enough time to cook to have an exciting game rather than just before we've even finalised the score.
00:16:59
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, they
00:17:03
DailySaintsPod
yeah they both fell at really awkward times of the season, didn't they?
00:17:03
Zak
So, yeah.
00:17:06
DailySaintsPod
It was a bit of a shame. i think that's partially why both of them were quite as kind of flat as they were. But we shall see, I suppose. But yeah, I love it. I love Fixture Day.
00:17:17
DailySaintsPod
But then i get excited about just about anything football related. That's why we do the show. A couple of other bits from the club and then around the club.
00:17:28
DailySaintsPod
I've just seen earlier today something the Saints website put out where five season ticket holders will have the cost of their season ticket paid back to them.
Fan Engagement and Events
00:17:40
DailySaintsPod
at some point next season.
00:17:41
Zak
Nice.
00:17:42
DailySaintsPod
If you are renewing your season ticket as a thank you for the loyalty, you'll be entered into the prize draw and five winners will be selected at random to get the cost of their season ticket back.
00:17:55
DailySaintsPod
So that's nice, I suppose.
00:17:59
Zak
It's nice.
00:17:59
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:17:59
Zak
They didn't have to do it
00:17:59
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:18:01
Zak
So anything that's like a bonus, you know, I know that we'd all realistically love them to just decrease the prices and make economic decisions that make everyone's lives easier, but also understand that they are also running a business.
00:18:03
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:18:08
DailySaintsPod
e
00:18:13
Zak
It's unfortunately just, it's just the way of the world. So whenever anything like that crops up is always nice.
00:18:19
DailySaintsPod
and look I'm down for a 5 out of 20,000 chance of of having that covered. I'm there for it I appreciate it.
00:18:25
Zak
But people still play a maze in the lottery, mate. So... At least this way, renewing your season ticket is the only entry requirement.
00:18:33
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, that is very true. Likewise, from around the club, for anyone who may or may not be interested, us the fan...
00:18:44
Zak
Advisory board?
00:18:45
DailySaintsPod
advisory board. Thank you.
00:18:46
Zak
You're welcome.
00:18:47
DailySaintsPod
i i looked at FAB and all I could think was Thunderbirds. That was what happened there, mate.
00:18:52
Zak
yeah yeah
00:18:53
DailySaintsPod
The fan advisory board have eight spots available as part of their process to to get fresh fans involved every every season. They have four...
00:19:06
DailySaintsPod
they It's a like a board of 12, but four of those slots go to the specific supporter groups, the the disabled supporter group, the supporters association, the Rainbow Saints, and all of that stuff. But eight places open on that where you can apply and go through their process if that is of interest to you. We've read through a couple of the minutes from their meetings here. And it's obviously interesting to to be involved in the club and be a an advocate of the club in that way if that interests you.
00:19:40
Zak
Yeah, I think especially, so i' see the problem is is that realistically what people want is to be able to come in and be like, Russell Martin's bad. Todd Eckers' tactics need to change. Obviously, it's nothing to do with that. It's always going to be like, you know, it's always going to be stuff outside the football you know that affects probably the match they go experience and stuff. And I think, to be honest, I understand why that puts a lot of people off because not a lot of people like like you know if you say we've worked really hard this year to increase uh you know increase the availability of beer like that's great happy days but there's there's obviously a lot more to it than that i'm not trying to completely diminish trying to diminish anything anyone's efforts but it's one of those things where it's quite i think it's quite a lot of commitment depending on what you want to get out of it right like if you're hoping that
00:20:12
DailySaintsPod
eight
00:20:14
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:20:18
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:20:24
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:20:29
Zak
you're going to have like a voice at the footballing side of things. You're not. And I think that people can see, I can see people's frustrations with being like, well, surely if you're asking fans opinions about things, or you can like, all I can think of is that disastrous injury interview that Wolves did with their like fan advisory boards, right?
00:20:33
DailySaintsPod
No. I mean, they...
00:20:44
Zak
Where they were talking about, oh, please have faith in us.
00:20:45
DailySaintsPod
Thank
00:20:46
Zak
Like going to do better this year. promise you we're going to do everything better. And then they like fired the manager and replaced him with some random Portuguese bloke. And then, you know, so I think the other thing is that you probably have to accept that not all of the advice that you give and all of the sort of opinions that you make clear to the club will be accepted.
00:21:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:21:06
Zak
But if you've got tougher skin, yeah.
00:21:07
DailySaintsPod
just you You are providing a voice that they will be able to take on board, and you are providing that voice. I think it's in one... one meeting per quarter. I think it's four meetings across the year that they meet. But it does have on the on their page a list of the things that you can be involved in the conversations for. And that is the club strategy and long-term vision, match day and non-match day supporter experiences, ticketing, access and accessibility, fan engagement and supporter behavior,
00:21:44
DailySaintsPod
community activity as well as equality, diversity and inclusion, club heritage matters and environmental sustainability. So, you know, nothing on the pitch, all of the off the pitch stuff. But if that is of interest to you, you've got until the 5th of July to get your applications in and then they will go through it all and it goes through, I believe, some kind of ballot. So...
00:22:11
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, it's, looks say like you say, probably not everyone's cup of tea, but if you want to get involved in those particular ways, at at least it's nice that you you can have a voice to be heard.
00:22:22
Zak
Yeah, like not not every club does it and not every club that necessarily is going to care and not every club is necessarily going to listen. I think that, you know, despite the overall sort of arching message that most people have, which is supports Republic out, which don't know, maybe that's a conversation for another point, I think with what's happened another day, with everything that's happened recently, it may seem like it's done and everyone's gone completely towards siege mentality and loving dragon solo. But maybe I'm just reading fan sentiment wrong. that would be That's what worth having a discussion about as some point.
00:22:55
Zak
But yeah, I think...
00:22:55
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, i think it's I think it's on shaky ground. You're right, we can get probably a whole podcast worth of discussion out of it, but I would say that its foundations are shaky, but it seems to be holding for the minute.
00:23:08
Zak
Yeah.
00:23:08
DailySaintsPod
If, however, we don't start the season fast, might not be the case. So...
00:23:12
Zak
No. But that's, yeah, obviously from from a FAB perspective, like, you know, shout out to the people who have been on it already and shout to everyone who wants to apply and put the effort in for that.
00:23:25
Zak
I don't know if it's something that I'd particularly be interested in I struggle enough trying to manage my life as it is. especially around football, let alone also trying to think about something other than the podcast.
00:23:32
DailySaintsPod
Whether it's that.
00:23:38
Zak
I say that like we don't run a daily podcast talking about Saints. I think that's probably why. i think if I talked about anymore, I think I might just lose my mind. need someone else.
00:23:48
DailySaintsPod
That's it. And then, i guess last but not least, obviously, events happening in and around Saints. We had the first ever boxing match and boxing event at St. Mary's at the weekend, which seemed to be... All round received us a pretty big success.
00:24:03
DailySaintsPod
Quite a lot of tickets sold.
00:24:03
Zak
Yeah.
00:24:05
DailySaintsPod
was i sat and watched it on DAZN because it was on there and I just couldn't... Unfortunately, it was predisposed. it was...
00:24:12
Zak
Well, yeah, I think i think that's one of the one of the problems, right? Is that like, I know that Ryan Gardner, his team heavily advertised it. I didn't really start seeing anything until about, I knew it was happening, but I didn't see any and sort of like hard push until the last kind of week.
00:24:25
Zak
And by that point, you know, we we we discussed and beforehand if it was going to get booked that me and you might go together. And then, like, by the time we both sort of realised, we've already got plans because we're hearing about it on the Wednesday.
00:24:31
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:24:37
Zak
That's probably our fault. But, you know, is one of those things that maybe they do need to get better at pushing those events, right? Because it seems like that did all of the pushing to take that.
00:24:43
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Yeah. Just, yeah. Like, there was awareness that it was happening. There was not a huge amount of awareness of when it was happening.
00:24:50
Zak
Yeah, i didn I didn't know.
00:24:50
DailySaintsPod
It really crept up on me.
00:24:52
Zak
you
00:24:52
DailySaintsPod
So...
00:24:53
Zak
And on top of that, I think that a lot of people were really angry the bar closed at, like, 9pm, which seems a bit insane.
00:24:59
DailySaintsPod
That's a strange decision. Yeah, hadn't seen anything about that.
00:25:02
Zak
Yeah, well, that is that seemed to be that seemed to be the entirety of the prevailing opinion, Greg, is, hey, why would you have an event that's like probably you know like a big thing that a lot of people would like to drink at and enjoy their time at the bar before they watch the boxing and then close the bar a really early period of time?
00:25:19
Zak
in while
00:25:20
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:25:21
DailySaintsPod
But look, it's their...
00:25:21
Zak
Lessons learned, innit? It's your first time they've done it, so...
00:25:22
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, it's their first event like that, and to be honest, we've seen with... some of the other not-Saints events that they have done, that there are there are definitely teething issues that they've had.
00:25:38
DailySaintsPod
I distinctly remember a pitch invasion at a charity game where there was supposed to be a meet-and-greet and then there wasn't a meet-and-greet and everyone kicked off of something I went to with some YouTubers.
00:25:47
Zak
i think it's I think it's more that like traffic is bad on a match day. If you can double the capacity and double the amount of people, I feel like the place that St.
00:25:52
DailySaintsPod
Hmm.
00:25:57
Zak
Mary's is isn't exactly fantastic for like traffic flow. and you'll You'll know that. i like man like We ended up having to...
00:26:04
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:26:05
Zak
We dropped off some family members and picked them up from one of the nights that take that. i Honestly, it was just an absolute nightmare trying to like get in and out of the city. and And we spent most of our evening basically just...
00:26:14
DailySaintsPod
Well,
00:26:17
Zak
so we To be fair, I watched about half the show by the time that... like But it's it's one of those things where, you know, and those those sort of teething issues are things that the club are going to have to deal with if they are going to start trying to make the stadium more commercially viable for other things.
00:26:22
DailySaintsPod
well
00:26:32
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:26:33
Zak
I don't think that's as much of a problem for a boxing event. And it was really nice that Ghana won it. And it was really good that it's kind of proved that it can be done in the future.
00:26:39
DailySaintsPod
Mm.
00:26:43
Zak
and maybe we can use this sports stadium for more sport activities in the future.
00:26:47
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, absolutely. and look, if they, you know, I know that they're sticking to doing it in the off season, right? And I'm sure there's a huge amount of setup and stuff that goes into it. But if they can, you know, work out what modernization needs to happen, that they can do these quick turnarounds like some of the other stadiums do, like Tottenham Hotspur and the London Stadium right there. They're designed in a way that it's easy on, easy off, so they can do football on a Saturday, gig on a Wednesday, football on a Saturday. They can work out that logistical problem and what modernisation needs to come in.
00:27:22
DailySaintsPod
The South doesn't really have, you know, that everyone this far south for things like that heads to London because it's only a couple of hours down the road. So...
00:27:32
DailySaintsPod
you know, that is a potential gap in the market and yeah, good for Ryan Garner to get the win.
00:27:36
Zak
Yeah,
00:27:37
DailySaintsPod
And, you know, now there's potentially, you know, now he's the interim champion. There'll either be, an elevation fight, right. Where he can get the world championship proper, or he'll be declared the world champion proper.
00:27:51
DailySaintsPod
And then he can have a defense and realistically speaking, those could be done there too. It's a huge potential.
00:27:58
Zak
well that's it's It's one of those things like this is if if this is what Sports Republic wanted to do in the first place and they want to build up the area and they want to turn it into a commercially viable thing and actions speak louder than words and this is technically an action so you can't really complain too much.
00:28:14
Zak
up you know You've got to wonder how much of it was pushed from their side as opposed to pull from Sports Republic.
00:28:14
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:28:20
Zak
So I guess we'll have to do it in the future. Good stuff. That's where I'm at.
00:28:24
DailySaintsPod
Still, yeah, it's good stuff. It's nice to see a variety of things happening at St Mary's and kind of proving its worth that way and almost working as a proof of concept, you'd think. I know that there was discussion about infrastructure and stuff and that as part of the development plans for the surrounding area, potentially building a station by St Mary's for that rail line and having that as more accessible, so...
00:28:48
DailySaintsPod
These are all things that aren't going to happen overnight. So it's just is interesting to speculate. But yeah. And as with all of these things, the most important thing, right, if it isn't of interest to you, at least it's not hurting, right? It's a benefit regardless. You don't have to go and watch the boxing in the same way that when the darts comes in the fan zone, you don't have to go and watch that you don't want to. But if you want to, nice night out and, you know...
00:29:15
DailySaintsPod
All things that with these new set of rules coming in are going to help boost the club overall as well, which is exactly what we want. But yeah, good stuff. a Great fight as well. Really enjoyed it.
00:29:25
DailySaintsPod
a Huge win for Ghana.
00:29:26
Zak
Hmm.
00:29:28
DailySaintsPod
Brilliant. Really good stuff. And look, that's it. That's all we've got to talk about today and all we've got time for anyway, mate. Not too bad. We'll be back tomorrow with some transfer news, and transfer rumours.
00:29:43
DailySaintsPod
Plenty of that about as the window is open.
00:29:46
Zak
We are just going to call it Transfer Wednesday. I make an executive decision before Greg tries to use some sort of esoteric words that mean that no one can find our podcast or no one has any idea what we're talking about.
00:29:50
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:29:59
DailySaintsPod
Transfer window Wednesday.
00:29:59
Zak
That's fine.
00:30:00
DailySaintsPod
That was what we were going for, right? Just...
00:30:02
Zak
That works.
00:30:02
DailySaintsPod
The team.
00:30:03
Zak
that like I thought you were just going to shove it up his window Wednesday. And I'm like, I don't know if anyone's going to know what that means.
00:30:09
DailySaintsPod
Crazy.
00:30:10
Zak
I mean, that's not, to be clear, that's just to help out the background-y podcast stuff, as opposed to the fact that I genuinely don't believe that people would understand what Window Wednesday would mean for a football podcast. I don't know why I'm explaining myself today, mate.
00:30:26
Zak
but
00:30:27
DailySaintsPod
Crazy. But look, that is all we've got time for. So let us know in the comments, in the socials, your thoughts. You want see more other events at St. Mary's, like the boxing, like the concerts, or just just more football. Get back down to that. Let us know.
00:30:44
DailySaintsPod
in the comments on socials. We are Daily Saints pod everywhere.
Podcast Closing
00:30:48
DailySaintsPod
TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X, Blue Sky, YouTube, everywhere. Hit us up and let us know. we'd love hearing from you. Until tomorrow, though, everyone, have a wonderful day. and Do not suffer too much in the heat. Stay hydrated. But until then, have a great day. Bye.
00:31:22
Zak
Going to get a glass water now.