Chez

he cant play in the most advanced role imo. he doesn't offer anything much there. he played well sat next to Downes, playing in a three man midfield, collecting and distributing the ball and pushing on now and then. he passes the ball well. touch is ok. that's it. he's perfect for Martin's approach. in fact we struggled sometimes without him, beyond that though, meh.

Wilcox wasn't even at Saints when Edozie, Larios and Bazunu signed for us. Shields will have made a recommendation, not that everyone involved in scouting would have been well aware of all three players.

can't get my head around Taylor signing. we didn't need an other cb and he was never suited to our passing game. can someone explain how Wood, a guy that was poor at Swansea for two seasons, was ever going to make the step up in class? likewise, how does Fraser, a guy that couldn't get in our championship side, be seen as god enough for the PL? the others i can understand to a degree, even if i didnt like some of them, but those three above baffle me.

i wonder if foreign players like those two, perhaps pretty well known outside of the uk, will get top flight gigs abroad rather than have to drop down a division?

of course no PL regular is joining us in the championship, but if we can get another Brooks on loan that would be ideal. There are lots of talented youngsters that can't get a game in the PL. We should know all of them pretty well. Getting them is not easy.

if they do go up they will try to buy him.

for those worried about us signing more championship level players that offer nothing on promotion, loaning in PL players again makes the most sense. Rak-Sakyi has been decent at Sheff United. It will be interesting if he can get a place at Palace, another PL gig or is sent out to the championship again.

dare I say it, Colby Bishop scored 20+ goals two seasons in a row for the skates in league 1 and then 10 this season after coming back from a heart surgery.

BBD has 4 goals in 16 appearances, 2 in 13 for Armstrong. I keep reading on here how we have lots of players that are great at this level, strikers with great championship goalscoring records, but goals seem hard to come by for all of our forwards.

Is 6 goals in 36 games for one of the top scorers in the league all that? I like your description there of him being a bit more aware. That might be true, but I didn't see a huge improvement. His game still needed a lot refining. It's hard to judge too as opponents were much worse, and we had a total domination of possession - so that made his life easier in terms of not needing to run towards his won goal all day. For me he's just too lightweight for player that doesn't have blistering pace. He's got skills, and he can beat a man, which is brilliant, but if he hasn't beaten a man all ends up he get brushed off the ball. It's a shame he has had injury problems while out on loan. I fear he will come back pretty much the same guy.

What's it about then?

What improvements did you see? To be honest, I saw the exact same player as the season before, but facing far less quality of opponent. There were again lots of tricks, reasonable but not extreme speed, combined with being lightweight.

Lambert 27, Guly 10, Sharpe 9, Connolly 6 Lallana scored 11 and Hooiveld 7

bbc south have come to their senses?

it's going to take a manager that is able to inspire a huge turnaround. I never warmed to Martin, but respected fully how he turned the sinking ship around. \whoever is next will need to be able to sell a 'project' (yes I know how that sounds) and get players pulling in the same direction. It can be done. wont be easy though.