Saint WGC

Shame that the usual old names get banded about and we will no doubt go with one of the safe boring options. As one of my favourite all time Saints players and as manager of the team who are playing my hometown team in the cup at the weekend, I would love to see Tim Flowers at least have some connection with Saints, whether it be as goalkeeping coach or even as manager, just my personal opinion. Yes, I know it is a huge difference and he has only managed Solihull Moors for five months but they are flying high near the top of the National League having struggled the last couple of years. I would much prefer someone with a great track record who is an up and coming manager with fresh ideas and a modern way of thinking. Someone like Chris Wilder has a fantastic record wherever he has been, the problem is why would he want to leave his boyhood club who are flying high to come to Saints...probably unlikely. Paul Cook has done a great job in his last two or three management roles...yes I know who he managed but he comes across as a good bloke who will also stand up for himself too. I really like Eddie Howe, think he is very impressive but I just cannot see why he would want to leave Bournemouth to join us right now - whether people like it or not, they are a better side than us right now. The other option is to go for an out and out madman like Paulo Di Canio....he would at least kick some backsides in the Saints dressing room although they would no doubt take only five minutes to stop playing for him, so precious are players today! I guess what I'm trying to say is that there are young managers in the lower leagues who are out there and deserve to be given a chance rather than the same old failures who get job after job but everyone wonders how! Of all the market leaders, the main ones who appeal to me are Frank De Boer (harsh to judge him on four games at Palace) and Jurgen Klinnsman but they are probably too big for Saints realistically when it comes to our board's ambition (or lack of). I do think the next appointment needs to play attractive attacking football though and try and get the feel good factor back into the club and most of all the fans and players and maybe he needs to identify the players we need, rather than someone like Les Reed!

How about something different from the usual. In this modern era, the recent thing is to select a minute which is relevant to the person/situation involved where the crowd give a minute's applause. Well why don't Saints fans go the opposite way and just deliver a minute's "booing" as loud as possible - how about the 10th minute to signify (unless I have counted incorrectly) the amount of home league goals scored this year, yes, not this season but this year. After all, there are a lot of people who pay out a lot of money for a season ticket and are not even being entertained - I think most of us can take losing games as it is pretty common place over the years when it comes to Saints but the football the last three or four years has been atrocious too.

You forgot to mention the sixth goal will be allowed despite a possible foul on Cedric at the far post and afterwards, Hughes will launch a scathing attack on the officials moaning that the referee cost Saints dear as we were still well in the game at 5-1.

Hopefully the Man City captain will declare at 6-0 after an hour and give us only half an hour to survive or I suppose we could ask to go off for bad light!! The team with the best defensive record at home to a team that just cannot score.....you don't have to be a genius to work out the way this is going! Just go all out attack, this is a free swing to be honest!

Where do I start? Loved going to the dell, don't enjoy St Mary's match day experience or atmosphere these days. No really exciting players to watch and no feeling that many of them care either. Totally uninspiring and unimaginative manager selections by the board. Hughes was always a short term fix and should have walked away with his money in the summer. Totally uninspiring signings. Spin by the saints media.....recent email received last week with headline along the lines of "HUGHES: We're almost where we want to be" - is this for real? Maybe it had a different meaning but couldn't be bothered to read it to be honest. Negative approach from team - maybe players should be banned from passing the ball backwards. Of course I don't mean that but why do we regularly have the ball on the edge of the opposition's box and it ends up being passed back in our half to the centre backs or even the keeper. Possession stats obsession really winds me up. Mersin on Soccer Saturday said about Saints, "all they're bothered about is finishing 17th now, I don't know what's happened to them"! Like it or not, he's spot on. What's happened to our academy and young players. Dreadful team selections by the manager - pick the best eleven each week and stop leaving people out of the 18 then starting with them next game. In my view, Gabbi should start alongside Ings for six games at least, give him the confidence that he'll get a run of games and hope his form and confidence return. We are pretty poor, only positive is that we are creating quite a few chances - the negative is we're missing nearly all of them! Advice to Nathan Redmond: when you take players on, you look decent and are a threat. When you constantly turn inside and pass the ball backwards, you may as well be on the bench. BE POSITIVE FFS.

Would have to pick Matt Le Tiss, goes without saying and he alongside Rodney Wallace were very exciting to watch. Ahh remember the days when we were entertaining to watch a few years ago. Always liked Claus and Richard Hall too but Michael Svensson would just get the nod as centre half. Creative midfield player would be Steve Williams. McCarthy Cedric. Stephens. Svensson. Bertrand Hojberg. Williams Lemina Le Tiss. Ings Rod Wallace

Don't worry folks, Les will no doubt pull off a masterstoke in January and announce the signing of Edin Dzeko to form a lethal little and large partnership with Danny Ings (said with no sarcasm whatsoever!)

Worst injuries on the pitch were Mark Wright breaking his leg in the 86 semi final at White Hart Lane - I swear I heard the crack from my spot on the half way line, funnily enough when Mark Wright was sent off late on when he headbutted Paul Elliott at Luton jumping for a header and Elliott was stretchered off unconscious and at the Dell, Tony Coton playing for Sunderland breaking his leg hideously in the first minute right in front of us in the Archers. As mentioned earlier, off pitch injuries were the female steward who was facing the Saints fans got hit on the head by a Matt Le Tiss shot in the warm up which knocked her glasses off and left her quite shaken up. Matty did come over and apologise before looking sheepishly at the fans grinning with his hand to his mouth in a "whoops" gesture. Also at Barnsley when again Matty hit a shot that went over the bar and everyone ducked as the ball flew over their heads and whacked this poor bloke with glasses flush in the face. It was a wet day and the "muddy Mitre ball print" left on his face was a clear indication of how hard it hit him! Also remember getting in the ground a few years ago at Villa Park where this family were sitting four rows in front of me in the front row. This young kid was being fed all sorts, chocolate, sweets, hot dogs and a bottle of fanta before the game and I said to my missus, "that kid is going to be ill later the amount of food he is shoving in". Just into the second half, suddenly there was this scattering of people around and in front of us and there was just a huge pile of sick all over the ground with a very pale looking child sitting there. Some poor steward had to come over and clear it up but he did get a gentle round of applause for his efforts!!

Brilliant topic this, I agree with many of the goals mentioned already but I will be different and pick three from one game. I have such amazing memories from this game, 1-0 down at home to Newcastle on 86 minutes then Neil Heaney equalised, Gordon Watson put us in front and Neil Shipperley finished Newcastle off for a 3-1 win. I just remember the Archers going absolutely ape**** for all three goals (I was totally knackered), this was the famous game when the stadium announcer told us all in the Archers to sit down so after a few songs with expletives telling him where to go, the atmosphere in that second half was just incredible. That was probably the best game I have been to for so many reasons. Matty's v Arsenal was just the fairytale for him and all of us, not to mention the quality of it. I was so relieved that Chris Marsden's 25 yarder straight after was tipped over the bar, I'm pretty sure it just would not have been as special for everyone there (sorry Chris). Marian Pahars last minute equaliser v Liverpool at the Dell from 3-0 down with 20 minutes left where he jumped up on the wall behind the goal at the Archers and everyone was just going mental. Am I the only person who still misses the Dell to this day! Even with only 15,000, the atmosphere there was so special and dare I say it, intimidating for the opposition.

Van Dijk £75m Mane £34m Lallana £20m Clyde £12m Lovren in tears (again) - priceless!! As for Lineker almost suggesting Ramos was laughing at Salah going off injured, thought that was disgraceful. There was me thinking presenters were at least meant to pretend to be impartial, was he the linesman or something, could have sworn he was in the studio. Not a fan of Jordan Henderson but fair play, he spoke well afterwards. At least one person connected with Liverpool showing a bit of humility.

Would love to see Jonjo Shelvey in a Saints shirt but probably unrealistic. Did occur to me that Tadic and Mitrovic link up well when playing for Serbia but don't know how matey they are to be honest. He may be a bit temperamental but I think he would give us a big physical presence up front, not sure whether Austin does to be honest and if Tadic stays, then they could work well together. Mitrovic has never really had a fair deal at Newcastle in my opinion. Otherwise, Tom Cairney and Bradley Dack are players that I think could make the step up, especially Cairney. Unlike a lot of people on here, I really like Jack Stephens and rate him as decent, someone who given the right coaching could be a really good player, he has a great attitude from what I see too. Maybe we could get a quality defensive coach in, may not be the worst idea ever! I just cannot see us shelling out £30m on one player so I think we will probably be looking at quality Championship players to be honest. There are a few quality players at the top clubs who are not playing regularly but unfortunately, the wages and the fees, not to mention the fact that some players seem to be just happy being on the bench, would put them off coming to Saints where they would play week in week out. I rate Martial and Rashford and think either would give us something we don't currently have, however, having been realistic with some names above, I am probably being unrealistic with these ones, I feel a season long loan deal would be the only slight chance. The question I would ask is are their international prospects going to be helped more by being bit part players at a big club or playing week in week out at somewhere like Saints.

No, they've already had one, much simpler way to placate them. Agree a 1-0 defeat and to sell Redmond for £60m to them as Guardiola clearly loves him, sounds like a fair deal all round to me! Obviously if Swansea are 9-0 up, they have to let us equalise in the last minute too and we'll knock £10m off the Redmond price tag.

In addition to Boufal's, I'll throw in another goal (no pun intended considering the game I'm talking about) and say for a classic breakaway goal, JWP's second at Watford.

Pure fantasy I know but if Boufal has really misbehaved like this, surely the club would be well within their right to fine him two weeks wages. Just think £120K could pay 8 office admin staff £15K or 6 staff at £20K for a whole year rather than them losing their jobs as will probably happen with our relegation. Similar with several other players who have been picking up £50k plus a week for doing next to nothing, be very nice if they dipped into their pockets and found a week's wages each and put that towards paying loyal staff who have probably been at the club for years and face redundancy through no fault of their own. Unfortunately, like I say, pure fantasy!

I'll be staggered if we stay up so I am going to throw three names into the hat. For anyone who thinks these names are not big enough for Saints, sorry but I'm living in the real world and we should be looking for some young ambitious manager rather than just employing the usual crop who continue to get jobs without really achieving anything. We need someone who is going to work with what he has and does not need a huge budget to succeed but will also spend any money wisely. I would suggest Paul Tisdale or Gareth Ainsworth as my first two choices then possibly Lee Johnson but I would like to see us give someone from a lower league the opportunity to achieve something at Saints similar to what Nigel Adkins did. My only reservation with Nigel Adkins is that it very rarely works second time around but I would not be against him either. Paul Tisdale has done an amazing job with Exeter and would seem to have a job for as long as he wants it although there have been a few murmurings in recent seasons but he seems to have created a good team and also a great rapport with the fans and players. Gareth Ainsworth was a player I rated highly but he had a lot of injuries so never really achieved what he might have done. However, he seems to have done a great job at Wycombe and has a lot of passion which I think would be a huge change from the last two managers we have had prior to Hughes. I also think the fans need to be able to build a relationship with players again and who knows, even find a new hero. I think in the Championship, we need a strong leader and a focal point in attack, similar to when we had Dean Hammond and Rickie. Deano may not have been the best player on the planet but he was a good captain and leader on the pitch along with Fonte too. I don't really think a lot of us supporters have a great affinity with the current crop of players to be honest, maybe I'm wrong but it definitely is not the same as it was under Nigel Adkins. We have to accept that we may not be buying Premiership players so we need to be finding the odd gem from the lower leagues as well as solid reliable players who will fight for the cause in what is a very tough league. Maybe I am being naive but I think Saints fans are generally realistic and will get behind the manager and players if we see people in the red and white shirts showing that they care and who have an affiliation for the club. Players who will run that extra bit more for their team mates to get on the end of a cross or make that goal saving tackle.

Amazing goal, dare I say that was Redmondesque!!

Think I may be the only one who has quite a bit of sympathy for Stoke. Their players showed plenty of spirit, put a good shift in and got the type of bad luck struggling teams get. Shaquiri's corner could easily have gone in and Saints fans should be prepared for the same sort of dreadful biased refereeing when we go there next Sunday. The first penalty was scandalous and while the second probably was, no way would it have been given the other end. I'm afraid I have no belief that our gutless bunch of bottlers will go there and even compete. No doubt we will not even have a go and put balls in the box, Arsenal are there for the taking at the back but we will probably just knock it around in our own half to make the possession stats look good.

Interesting that Jon Whitney has just been sacked by Walsall. Sky Sports News have just said they are 14th in the league but have lost four of the last five games, including away at second placed Shrewsbury on Saturday. Seems a bit harsh to me as they are 6 points above the drop zone. I think it just sums up the ineptness of our board to allow a manager with 1 win 17 games with far greater resources than Walsall have to remain in a job. Maybe if we were playing attractive football and losing 3-2 or 4-3 every week, maybe our fans would be a tad more lenient but the football is dull and uninspiring. It is hard to say what would have a bigger impact on the respective clubs, Walsalll going down to league 2 or Saints going down to the Championship. However, I think our manager has done a lot worse than a young role manager.

That was the most gutless performance in the second half that I have seen anywhere this season and sadly it was Saints who produced it. What bugs me is this obsession with trying to keep possession but just not going anywhere. I personally wouldn't have had a problem if we had resorted to long balls into the box in the second half as at least we would not be at risk of playing a pass backwards or sideways and losing it which we tend to do which leads to a chance for the opposition. We put two or three crosses into the box in the first half and created half chances but nothing in the second half apart from Cedric trying to take out some poor soul in row Z. A lot of the time, teams score against us because of our sloppiness - if we get opened up by brilliant football, none of us can really moan I guess but it is just the way players seem to lack any bravery on the ball to be positive and go forwards with the ball. They just pass the responsibility to someone else. Liverpool have a big game in the week but we just surrendered meekly. Surely the manager should have been saying “come on, let’s get in their faces and see if they fancy it with Porto coming up”. We hardly put an aggressive challenge in all afternoon – that must be the easiest game Liverpool will get all season as far as having time on the ball goes. At half time, I thought we may at least come flying out of the traps to try and get back in the game but we just strolled around and kept possession in our own half before losing it eventually. Looking at the final whistle, our players seemed more interested in going to up to Van Dijk and having a laugh and a cuddle with him. Just looks to me that such a spineless performance does not seem to bother those players one bit, did it actually hurt any of them? Three struggling teams played yesterday and of those three, two of them put in a real shift and performed whereas we just gave up almost preferring to protect our goal difference. Every time I see Newcastle, Jonjo Shelvey is their best player by a mile, I know he does daft things every now and then but he would walk into our midfield and is the type of player we desperately lack. Where is the creativity in our team to take out three or four players with a slide rule pass - hard to believe there was talk that he could be sold at the start of the year but he could well be the difference between Newcastle staying up or going down. Forget the idiotic stuff he can get involved in, he has a lot of quality on the ball. As so many have said on here, the manager should have gone weeks if not months ago and dare I suggest that the board's arrogance in thinking we are too good to go down could come back and bite us big time. To sack Puel because of the style of football was probably fair enough but we are even more dull to watch now so how do the board justify that?

I guess if a winter break comes in, then there has to be a total ban on all teams playing friendlies here or abroad during that period. Similar if you like to F1 where they have a month off with no racing allowed and two week compulsory factory shutdowns. The whole moaning and whinging from the usual suspects, i.e. Mourinho, Guardiola, Klopp, Wenger and Conte has become very tedious and boring. As far as I am aware, if you want to win trophies, then you should expect to play more games. Simple solution if you don’t want to play as many games - get yourselves knocked out of the cup competitions or stop moaning. A league one or two side could potentially play more games than any Premier league team over a season if they had a good FA or League cup run, got to the final of the Checkatrade trophy and played 46 league games. All of this with a far smaller squad of players and in theory, far more taxing pitches to play on. How many times do we hear managers of those clubs whinging about it? If you want me to be cynical, albeit totally unrealistic, stop having weekends off for meaningless International friendlies and also return the Champions League to the old European cup as a knockout format. But we all know why that won’t happen, imagine UEFA’s reaction to say, Steaua Bucharest playing Hoffenheim in their showpiece final. Oh and how about stop travelling across the other side of the world playing pre season friendlies. If the poor players are too tired, then Man Utd players and their manager for example should try traveling a few miles to Oldham or Bury for pre season games instead of spending hours and hours on planes just to increase their fanbase in Asia. After all how many of those actually watch Man Utd play live? Oh sorry, they buy the shirts, scarves, mugs, etc, silly me. The money in the game has become totally ridiculous with the real fans being the ones to suffer as always. Rant over!

Has to be MK Dons away, lovely ground, loads of leg room and big away end!!

I'll throw an unlikely name into the hat - Vincent Janssen. I think he is actually a lot better than the stats showed at Spurs and maybe it was just a case of wrong club, wrong time. He seems to hold the ball up well and bring others into play, by all accounts he had a great attitude at Spurs despite not playing a lot, was popular with his team mates and who knows, maybe he could just turn into a gem of a signing. Lots of people questioned Pelle when he signed for us so not one to totally dismiss in my view. He is currently on loan at Fenerbahce so may be one to think about for the summer. Yes, it might be a gamble and yes, we have had our fingers burnt a few times but there is probably no guarantee with proven players, one that springs to mind is Kevin Phillips! Alternatively, take a punt on someone from the Championship like Brett Assombalonga. Of course, if Theo Walcott is a realistic proposition, then we should not dismiss that idea at all. Personally, I think he needs to revitalise his career away from Arsenal unless of course he is just content picking up his wage and being a very bit part player.

While it doesn't surprise me in this modern era to hear another mercenary act like this at Saints, it is this type of behaviour that vindicates every saints fan who wants to boo him or shout abuse at him. There will no doubt be people on here who will say we should support this bloke while he plays for us but to be honest why should we. His behaviour is an absolute disgrace, an insult to every saints fan and to the people who pay him a weekly salary that most of us would have to work three years to earn, not to mention some of the players. If he just kept his mouth shut, maybe he'd get a bit more sympathy, after all if Barcelona or Real Madrid came in for him, I'd believe the whole ambition thing but I honestly think it's about money. Liverpool are a mile away from the two Manchester clubs in terms of winning the league in my view. Personally, I think we should get Jack Stephens back in the team, we need someone who deserves the chance to develop his game and who actually wants to be part of the team. Yes, Van Dijk is a quality player but for every Gareth Bale, there are probably 20 others who have left our club for supposedly better things and dare I say it, ruined their careers. I admire Saints for their stance and refusal to be pushed around by the big clubs. The best way to solve the issue is for Saints to just come out and say he is for sale for a minimum fee of £100m. Then if Liverpool really want him, they will cough up, all up front, no add ons. Think the way he's behaving could easily cause problems for the club and the dressing room in time so just get rid but on our terms. I know it's different times but sorry, it still grates on me that people like Van Dijk and the likes of Wanayama are/were earning probably 20 times the amount Le Tiss earnt per week at Saints for doing a fraction of what he did for our club.

I remember years ago I had two favourite non Saints players, firstly Rickie Lambert and secondly Marcus Stewart. So imagine how I felt when Rickie signed for Saints but to see what he went on to achieve was probably beyond his and all us Saints fans dreams to be honest. I like to think that having gone through what our club has, we have a soft spot for a lot of "non fashionable teams" in the lower leagues who probably dream of having a day out at Wembley like we did against Carlisle that day. Rickie was a truly fantastic player for Saints and a great bloke as well - as others have said, he genuinely seems to have appreciated his career and where he came from - he worked hard to achieve all he did. I'm sure he loved his days at Bristol Rovers too but it is at Saints where he really fulfilled his ambitions culminating in playing for his country and scoring on debut. My favourite goal was his hat trick goal at MK Dons when we won 3-0 there, an amazing bit of vision from 35 yards but he scored many other great goals as well as achieving a perfect penalty success record. Saints are very lucky to have had two such fantastic number sevens in their history and the enjoyment we all got watching them. All the best Rickie in whatever you do and really hope we see you back at St Marys one day in some role. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying we had some great times in League 1 and the Championship and that the Premiership is not the be all and end all when it comes to football and supporting our team. Players like Rickie are a rarity these days and should be treasured while we have them.

Not sure what the answer is regarding our lack of quality in the final third. Bearing in mind, realistically Van Dijk will not be sticking around after this season and we need to continue to develop Jack Stephens alongside Yoshida or Hoedt, what I'm going to suggest maybe utter rubbish but here goes. Why do we not consider using Van Dijk as a makeshift target man up front and going more direct, still playing Gabbiadini as well. Or play Van Dijk as a central midfield player, he can pass the ball, is technically good, has the ability to shoot from distance, like I say, that may be a poor idea but is it really a worse option to try than the ones that seem to fail to work most weeks at the moment. No matter what most of us think about his behaviour, he is a quality player and I think he is a huge threat and presence in the opposition box as well as being a really good defensive option at set pieces which we do not look totally secure at defending at present. I would like us to be a bit more direct with our wingers actually putting some decent balls into the box rather than turning inside all the time and going sideways. We are stuck with these players until January now so need to get by but the current set up and system is just not working. I kind of think that it is unfair on him to replace Jack or Yoshida when there are certain players further forward who offer us nothing and are not performing to the level required. Maybe this would upset some of the players but I think they need a big kick up the backside and maybe made to realise they are not automatic choices.