Dusic

Bit of a shame that everyone is resigned to losing our best player without a fight after less than two seasons and only a few months after signing a long term contract. We will still be fed the "no need to sell players" line but we all know he is going. Not saying we can keep him, just that its so BAU for us to sell so readily that nobody even thinks there is more than a 1% chance he will stay which is a bit demoralising after four summers in a row of this. I hope we do better than we did in hindsight for Mane. Is £50m really enough given the money available to these teams? He is probably the best CB in the league with no real downside or weakness.

Agree that largely its been fantastic, although not in terms of replacing Schneiderlin or Wanyama. Of our central midfield signings in the last 3 years only Romeu has impressed.

It was certainly better to watch, attacking teams with pressing, pace in certain areas, power...just like Spurs are dominating with now, albeit with lower league position due to having inferior players. Puel is taking away the good things we had in place, which Koeman adapted slightly. We are so lacking in any sort of physical power now, a massive reason we struggle to record wins.

Its pretty clear that he is a massive step down from Pochettino and Koeman. Not saying we would have got a Manager as good as either of those again, but for a PL club that finished 6th and has a good reputation, there must have been better candidates than Puel. He has lost what made us good, high tempo, pressing football playing to the strengths of the squad. Im not a major Puel out person, but I don't think he has done much this season to provide any sort of indication that he is capable in the long run of doing anywhere near the sort of job that our last three Managers have done. If he left this summer, very few people would be disappointed and actually it would be quite exciting which is a shame to say. Can you imagine the fans every singing about Puel? That probably speaks volumes.

Martina, Gardos, Gazzaniga, Long, Austin, Rodriguez, Clasie plus those OOC in (Caceres) and end of loan (Hassen). VVD and Bertrand will almost certainly go. Would obviously listen to offers for Forster should they arrive for some reason. Should fight to keep Cedric one more year. Would loan out Targett and Reed for the whole of next season to the Championship and then ultimately decide if they will ever be PL quality, assuming we stay up next season and don't need Championship players.

Spot on.

If it were true then it suggest KL is just looking to get rid of the club and isnt overly bothered who to, which would be a big concern. If these guys are the best thats on offer then thats a worry.

Woeful. Poor season, start of a decline that needs to be arrested in the summer. Team shape all wrong, no pressing, no shape in midfield. I wasn't a Puel out person but he has massively underachieved, no question. Compared to Pochettino and Koeman its hard to really see what he is trying to do with this team.

As anyone will have seen, our home record is very poor. Above the three relegation sides and not much else.

No Bertrand in the training pics. Sore throat maybe from a Claude throttle?

Tough to win with this bowling lineup!

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15250041.Lander_set_for_Saints_takeover_meeting/?ref=rss Lander by far the most advanced deal according to Adam Leitch.

Bif of concern that KL would have even entertained this group really. Crossroads summer on and off the pitch, seems fairly likely that last May was our peak.

Agree with both. The second is a big problem since we lost VVD. Last season we had Fonte, VVD, Wanyama and often Pelle. Now Romeu is the only strong player we have. Need rectifying. Would add a third - severe lack of mobility in the centre of midfield making us easy to counter attack.

Souness nailed it just now: "Southampton are a great watch but they are easy to play against".

Frustrating game because as good as Chelsea were, we threw it away ourselves. We played tidily, passed the ball well and for a 20min spell were the better side. However... Biggest issues: 1. Defence bullied today. Poor defending from set plays, crap clearances and generally always looked like they could run through us. We bring so much pressure on ourselves. 2. So open to being counter attacked due to lack of midfield legs and only one player in the team who tackles. Must address this in the summer. 3. The whole way we play. Its great when we are good, but its probably the toughest way to win points. We have to play really well to win and generally cut teams open to score goals, albeit todays was cheap. We work the ball wide really well but don't have strikers that thrive off aerial crosses. 4. We are probably the nicest team to face. Lots of tidy players, very few powerful players, very few niggly players. Not many who win headers and tackles.

Everton crowned U23 Champions tonight. Hopefully Saints can stay up so our young players play against better players otherwise might need to ship a few more out on loan.

We will have to beat one of the top teams at least if we want to finish above about 12th I think. Our games in hand a slight red herring as based on our form versus the top sides we will likely get zero, one or two points from the Chelsea, Arsenal and Utd games.

Of they let him go it will be because they feel that whilst he is a good player, he isn't good enough to play regularly in a good team at PL level. That wouldn't be a disgrace IMO.

Certainly doesn't appear overly attractive for us. Not every club is fortunate enough to get Everton size investment but Lander on the face of it seems a very risky option and quite hard to see the benefits.

And your bro Tammy has just netted again. Prolific season.

I think there is also an element of truth in what Koeman said. JWP has been in the first team for 5 PL seasons (incl under Koeman's management). Stephens is 23. Koeman isnt referring to them. Reed has been used very sparingly for the past 3 seasons and must have major question marks as to if he will ever make it at this level. Sims showed promise, but is very inconsistent and also is 20 so next season probably key for him. Are there any 17-20 year olds (Sims aside) who are anywhere near the first team? Is it connected that the U23s are likely to get relegated (we have been slowly adding more and more first team squad players into the lineup to try and prevent this) and the U18s have had about 3 poor seasons in a row now? Whilst Lookman was bought rather than produced, we definitely have no teenagers as good as him and Tom Davies so he has a point IMO. Interesting also that we have very few if any Academy players selected in the England U16s to 20s this time around. Not always a great indicator but for example the likes of Shaw, Chambers, JWP, Targett, Stephens were all selected through many of those age group sides. As a well known Academy that has produced very good players you would imagine they would be having a look to see what we have and ultimately have decided there are better players elsewhere at all of those age levels.

Do you mean Caceres who is primarily a full back and is under 6 foot tall?

He is rapid once he gets going. But ultimately his poor technique and finishing ability renders a lot of it somewhat useless.

No. Its just a sign he was at training. The photographer doesn't pick the team.