AS EVER, things are still a little different in the football world.

For instance, never before can I remember two FA Cup rounds being drawn on the same day.

So this time we had the fourth and fifth drawn together, all before Saints had even played in the third round. Very interesting, particularly for Saints, knowing that the first two rounds were both at home and to be played within five days.

The Shrewsbury game on Tuesday went well enough, but of course we all know, particularly after seeing Leeds United lose to Crawley, it’s not always as easy as it looks.

But the next game of course is never easy – Arsenal. It is at home, but as we’ve said, without any crowd in, there is a little bit less advantage to the home team.

But the interesting thing is the cup tie is on Saturday and Arsenal, if they lived a bit further away, would probably stay in the same hotel as they are back here again on Tuesday night in the league.

It will be interesting to see by Wednesday, how many players actually got involved in both games.

The third round in the cup for instance showed some teams putting as many as nine different players in, compared to who had played in the league game before.

I am sure our manager and players all want to do well in the cup. We are, I think, on a better run than Arsenal. Although we are now next to each other in the league as they are starting to recover from a dodgy start. They soon look set to lose who appeared to be their main player at one stage, Mesut Ozil, who is about to sign for Fenerbahce in Turkey.

But it would seem from the gossip he was not the right sort of player to have around the dressing room. Not only the management, but some of the other players seem to be pleased that he has left.

Talking about players leaving, I still get faintly amused when I read every day on the gossip column on the TV as I have my breakfast, which player is linked with which club and wonder how the manager feels, particularly if he wants to keep the player. It could well be that the agent, who nowadays gets a slice of the transfer money, has put it out.

In the old days, players used to be quite happy to be given a contract and hoped that when it was coming to an end, you went to the manager’s office and he would be saying ‘we can extend it’.

The worst part of course was if you were to say to the players, ‘sorry I can’t give you another one’. You’d shake hands and they were out of the door on a free transfer.

Now players don’t seem to want to be at a club as long as they did in the old days. As I’ve said many a time, most of them will be getting as many moves as possible in a shorter time to please the bank manager and eventually pack a bag and move back to the country they call home.

Things appear to be settled at Saints, except for the little gossip I read where Danny Ings has been linked with Tottenham.

It could have possibly been his agent who said he may want to play for a team that was in the Champions League. I wouldn’t have thought that Ralph would want to lose his top goalscorer, nor would the supporters. But the focus will definitely be on Danny over the two Arsenal games.

I suppose if it was to happen, Tottenham would be an ideal sort of club, bearing in mind it would still only be an hour’s train ride away from his hometown of Winchester.

But on the plus side, if he is looking for a move, it could well mean he will give more than 100 per cent on the field to impress new owners.

But the cup is the main thing. Let’s get through these three rounds in a short time and eyes could be looking up at Wembley and hopefully by the final date, the gates will be opened to get the 90,000 in, which makes it so special.