Dusic

In Pochettino's first summer we kept all our best players, a few signing new deals and signed Lovren, Wanyama and Osvaldo. The first two instantly and massively improved the quality of the starting XI. Lovren especially was a gamechanger and boosted those around him. Unsuprisingly we improved. The problem now is we still try to spend the same £12m - £15m as these guys cost 12 years ago, whereas the equivalent quality players now start at £30m with many clubs of a similar size now going up to £40m. Its seen as a risk to spend more but arguably is less risky as the quality of player and level of proveness is usually far higher.

As per title: Draper was a disappointing signing, quite hyped when he joined after a good career at Villa but was too often injured for us and didnt justify the £1.5m outlay. Prutton was vastly overrated, and a major disappointment after being considered as something of a coup when he signed from Forest as Eng U21 skipper. Haunting miss vs WBA and total headloss vs Arsenal probably the two highlights of his stay, leaving aside the Prutts & Beatts show from back when our radio station was the envy of English football. At a push? Prutton, just. Awful first touch but better availability than Draper (when not suspended).

Yeah I don't understand the hate for him at all. Was largely very good in a promotion winning side, including getting the key goal in the playoff semi final, plus an assist in the final. Our struggles this season have barely involved him. Seems like a good lad and one with an affinity to the club. Will be one we can rely on next season. Madness to be wanting rid of someone like him!

Off to Cambridge on loan. Probably a make or break one for him from a Saints perspective. Score goals and a good pre season puts him well in contention. If he doesn't do much then at risk of being another who cannot translate U21 form to mens football. Good luck to him because he can clearly finish when given opportunities.

By PL Club Owner standards it was a pretty decent interview, he comes across fairly well and didn't say anything that was too ludicrous. He is obviously a connection of Jim White but bit of a shame to only get to hear this thoughts through something like this. Phil Parsons as CEO has been extraordinarily quiet this season.

The accuracy level of the Turkish transfer reports is somewhere between 0.0% and 0.1%. There is no scenario where Galatasaray drop £10m on a player who they could agree a pre-contract with to sign in 6mths for free.

KWP won't be signing for Galatasaray. He will go to a PL club on a free in the summer.

Its hard to objectively judge because we are so limited in particular areas that it was obvious anyone would struggle - so probably a good decision to get a stopgap in rather than pay compo for a manager who is then unpopular come May. He has found a system to suit Sulemana and got more from LU but results still woeful. I do think he has been unlucky with injuries, especially after finally finding an attacking setup vs Utd which looked promising. At this stage I am more bothered about being able to appoint Spors or someone else of quality into DoF/TD role - without some off field consistency and a dramatic improvement in recruitment any Manager will struggle with Saints at PL level. Think Juric has a chance to be the man next season - but he needs to somehow start taking points (and probably make some effort in the media to build a rapport of some sort with supporters).

To be fair Bmth got Solanke to sign a new contract in Sept 23 which meant they could sell on their terms (getting £65m for him) and then spending double our record fee on his replacement, who had proven himself with Porto and had a very good start to the season before he got injured. Would say that was pretty good work from their side as a selling club. They are having an excellent season, with two young CBs - both signed for less than we paid for Vestergaard - who have at least doubled their value already. They probably have 5 players whose selling value is at least 40m so well set overall to continue their progress.

Anonymous so far. Sheff Utd look poor overall - they will be straight back down if they do go up. Championship was definitely much stronger last season, and will be again next year too.

As per title - which goals against really hit the hardest? Recent shouts from me would be the Zlatan cup final header and Tom Davies deflected late equalizer at Goodison - felt like it had relegated us at the time. Last season maybe that Cardiff winner after we absolutely battered them for an hour to the tune of one goal.

Dibling is different level to what Grealish was aged 18. Lallana hadn't played in the PL until he was promoted there so totally different.

Dibling is too good to waste a season getting smashed to bits in the Championship - it will serve him no purpose. He will get enough game time at a good club because he is a really good player. We are overplaying him anyway because our other attackers are so poor.

Believe Tim was at Staplewood yesterday.

Don't really see any logic in loaning Shea Charles out to Sheff Utd, unless our idea is to try to sell him in the summer on the basis that he does well and they want to keep him in the PL. If he goes back out then to SW on better loan terms surely makes more sense?

Mad that once Taylor goes, 4 of our summer signings will have left by the January. Can argue it was a likely path for Edwards but pretty damning overall.

Liked in his interview that he specifically mentioned he likes to run and press. Hopefully he does well and financially is a viable option for next season.

My understanding is the FA have asked us to consider Tim Sherwood for the role as part of a campaign to realise the benefit of Brexit and #backthebrits

West Ham making a very public bid for a striker they have no chance of signing? Surely not.

The rationale at the time was that the Championship has extra ganes with typically smaller squads and so a style where you have the ball much more is physically easier and to a large extent it worked - we scored numerous late goals in part because of it. Clearly the issue has been the transition to a higher level and certainly the style of play didn't work with the players we have, because we have conceded way too many goals and just arent enough of a threat in the final third. As much as the style has been an issue the recruitment is equally or more to blame IMO. Only Fernandes has really worked out and we are already getting rid of players we signed 6 months ago. To have a situation where we signed BBD, Cornet and Fraser who could all play wide left and 2 have left and the other massively on the fringe is a good summary. Likewise signing a RB when we needed a proper LB instead, giving McCarthy a new deal, not loaning Edwards out in August once it became clear he was got even playing in the League Cup. All the clubs this season who have pumched above their weight have a very good track record of recruiting and managing contracts to keep their better players until they get big fees for them. Hopefully Spors can sort this side of the club out because its the only way we have a chance to be successful in the PL. The fact our best player is probably still on a first pro deal on a pittance when he is a generational talent is also poor management and will probably see us receive (and have to actually consider) stupid £20m plus add on bids in the summer.

Chances of a Nathan Tella sitaution playing out again with Shea Charles?

Results poor but I think Juric has at least sussed out most of our players, and knows what our issues are - intensity has improved and at least he is honest with supporters. He just doesn't really have the players to solve them - as would have been the case whoever had been appointed. It will be interesting in another 10 or so games to assess the liklihood of him still being in charge come August.

Is there really any benefit in developing a player for someone else given the situation we are in? IMO any signings now should be with a view to that player more than likely being with us next season.

He would be more suited to this style but we effectively swapped him for Fernandes who is miles better (and will surely turn a big profit in the summer). Fernandes our best signing for many years IMO.

After the dross he has served up over a couple of years I can't believe anyone would think he was anything other than superb last night, for the first hour at least. Juric has worked out that he needs to be given space to run into rather than marooned out wide against a team with men behind the ball. He can create a chance from the halfway line out of a nothing situation. Few players can rip someone apart like he did to Yoro last night, and whilst his final actions clearly werent perfect, they were getting closer and were productive in the Swansea game. Defenders hate facing players like that with 50 yards of space, and he is our only forward (Dibling aside) that will actually trouble defenders. At the very least if he continues to show this level we might get some good offers in the summer.