Nordic Saint

Except he can't run. He looks like he ought to be able to but he can't. He's about the slowest player we've got over a 10 yard sprint. On many occasions I've seen him have a good 2 or 3 yard advantage going for a 60/40 ball and every time the opposition goalkeeper or defender has beaten him to it easily. He's even slower over 30 yards. When we have a counter attack and look to play the ball through to him he's still lumbering along behind the halfway line so we have to wait for him to catch up with play by which time any advantage is lost. He's not a bad midfield player in the Steven Davis mould and would probably be an improvement on Ward-Prowse but he hasn't got the pace to play up front.

Yes, I've been watching him for years and always thought he could be one of the best players our academy has ever produced. At first he was incredibly skilful but tiny. Then he had a growth spurt and that affected his form for a while. He's always been a couple of years ahead of his age group. He's played for England at all the youth levels and he's scored some spectacular goals too so we've got that to look forward to. Josh Sims will be one of the Southampton greats.

i agree. Those have been the best 2 so far this season.

Some of the posters on here may think the club's transfer policy is a brilliant business strategy but the players and managers don't and I think it's taking its toll on team spirit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3972858/Southampton-players-shocked-Ronald-Koeman-joined-Everton-admits-Virgil-van-Dijk.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Mané was our top goalscorer last season with 15 goals, even though Koeman stuck him out on the wing for much of the season. Next came Pellè with 14.

Kat needs to accept the fact that her father has already left her more money than she can spend in her lifetime so she really doesn't need millions more from the Premier League and selling our players. That really is the solution. I've got a horrible feeling though that's she's going to sell the last top class players we've got left before selling what's left of the club to the highest bidder. We need an owner like Chelsea's, Man City's, Tottenham's or Leicester's, who's a fan of the game and wants to invest in his or her dream of winning trophies with a football club because that's how trophies are won. It's always been the same like when Jack Walker bought our best players to win the Premier League for Blackburn. But, getting a generous owner like that is like winning the lottery and in 131 years we haven't won it yet. The good news is Pompey's owners are skint so we're by no means the worst off.

Leicester's main target this season is clearly the Champions League. They won the Premier League last season and this season they'll be content just to stay up. They've won their Champions League group and are through to the last 16. Let's hope we can do the same in the Europa League.

It's amazing that Spurs can still compete with us financially. They've got a smaller capacity than us now, their owner is poorer than ours and they're spending at least £750 million on building their new stadium.

Bloody hell. I didn't know they were in so much trouble. I thought they were in the top 5 and already 10 points ahead of us after the opening 12 games. That lack of pace is clearly killing them.

What is our weight? Our average position in our 40 seasons in the top flight is 11th and we get the 12th biggest gates in the country. An occasional foray into the top 8 is hardly punching above our weight. For our size, we are, along with Birmingham City, one of the the most underachieving teams in English football history in terms of trophies won and that seems to have conditioned some of our fans into thinking the club and its fan base are smaller than they really are.

Yes, Saints would be a lot higher up that table if pre-war estimates weren't included and Pompey would be a lot further down it. Our post-war-average is over 20,000 while Pompey's is less than 17,000.

Look on the bright side. We'll be able to watch an ex-Saints XI dominating English football for years to come. Admittedly, the fact they'll all be wearing Liverpool shirts puts a bit of a dampener on it. Kat has already sold our attack. IF, and that's a big if, she also sells our defence and follows that by selling what's left of the club, she will have shown considerable ambition for making money. We have to balance this by taking into account the fact the last 3 years have been great and we did beat Inter Milan. So, it's certainly not all doom and gloom.

Only one club on the south coast: http://www.nufc.com/2016-17html/attendance-all-time.html

Yet how the refs don't spot the shirt pulling from van Dijk must be something to do with God. The hate campaign against Fonte on her from some of our so-called fans is pathetic. He was superb today.

Our best players today, imho, were Fonte, Cedric and Forster. Those 3 really were exceptional. Forster made several excellent saves, the best of which was a diving save of a powerful Mane shot heading for the top corner of the goal. Cedric showed great pace and skill, and Fonte made some unbelievable saving tackles and interceptions to keep us in the game.

I really think a game in the Checkatrade Trophy might be good for him. At least he might start taking a few shots. His lack of pace and skill is always going to blunt his usefulness against the very top teams though.

We have got a few youngsters who have been struggling to cope with the pressures of Premier League lately, and Hjobjerg and Redmond are two of them. A couple of confidence-building games in the Checkatrade Trophy would do them the world of good,as would a Wembley final for all our players and fans.

We should sign Moussa Dembélé from Celtic as a replacement for Mané.

Ryan Bertrand has missed England’s training session on Monday afternoon and is now a doubt for Southampton’s match against Liverpool on Saturday. Bertrand seems to be coming aprt at the seams: one injury after another.

Fonte wins his 20th cap for Portugal tonight in their World Cup qualifier v Latvia, which is on live on ITV4 at 19.45.

I was happy for us to sign Redmond as a midfielder but, played out of position as a striker, he simply doesn't look up to it at this level. He seems a bit short of pace and his decision making in the final third is poor. Also he doesn't seem to have a particularly good shot or heading ability. He is a reasonable midfield runner, open to improvement but he is never going to fill Mane's shoes up front. I've thought that for a while now but seeing him in the England U21 game confirmed it for me. Even at that level, he didn't look sharp enough to be a striker, in contrast to Demarai Gray, who was everything I hoped Redmond would be. It is a cop out to say we have replaced Mane with Redmond. We haven't.

Another MOM performance for England from him tonight. Lallana is about the only England player who is clearly skilful enough to get into just about any team in Europe. Mane, Clyne and Lallana must all be worth twice what we sold them for. Just 1 or 2 more players from Saints - van Dijk & Bertrand - and Liverpool could totally dominate English football again.

The entire Lander company is valued at only half of Kat's estimated personal wealth, and as they are running at a loss, they would have to borrow heavily to raise the funds to buy the club. It looks very much like a Chinese equivalent of SISU.

He tackled and ran well but his passing was awful so I'm not sure he's enough of an all-round player for the very top level. The best player by far on the night and the only one who looked ready to step straight into a top Premier League team and the full England team, was Demarai Gray. Will Hughes of Derby was good too but he's another one of those attacking midfield players who can't shoot and we've got enough of them already. On a couple of occasions he was a few yards in front of goal and passed the ball out wide away from the danger area when it would have been easier for him to score. I was expecting Redmond to really stand out at this level. He didn't. He just lacks that bit of pace and sharp reaction to really make an impact even at this level. He still looks like he's not developing into much more than a fairly average midfield player and is nowhere near being a Premier League striker. Although Stephens scored the winning goal, he was very dodgy in defence. The Italian team reminded me a bit of Inter Milan: they showed a lot of individual skill but poor team work. However, they had players who were sharp up front and were always ready to take any chance they got. It was a very entertaining game though and it's a pity there weren't more fans there to see it. I'm not sure the FA will award St Mary's another England game after that poor attendance.

What's his name? Good luck to him. I'll be there. Like most things in life, football competitions are constantly changing. The Europa League used to be the UEFA Cup and before that it was the Fairs Cup. It doesn't mean we should boycott it.