Giordano

I was being somewhat facetious for effect because Gerrard is still easily in the top 100 midfielder attackers in the world right now but Verdu is certainly more Spanish, plays in La Liga and that means he is probably better even than top England international Attacking Midfielder James Milner, as wild a claim as that is as well. In fact Milner is a better example. Name one international team in the top ten he might actually get a game for (except England), then see how many Spanish attacking midfielders of better quality exist and see how many of those top ten they might actually get to play for (Spain aside of course). I don't do playstation fifa13 or whatever its called but Im sure MLT knows exactly the stats of how many spain have versus england...

Yes this exactly how it works. In the light of watching the Spanish under21's being a league above anyone else at the Euro-u21 tournament (and 2 leagues above England) and our regularly being associated with Spanish players because of MP and Spain basically being out of cash in the main, I considered doing a rough comparative graph to explain it better. For example Joan Verdu is 29 and a decent AM player in a mid to lower level Spanish La Ligua team. As a guide in English players only AM comparative terms he is about the same level as Steve Gerrard. And ANY player from a mid table upwards team in Spain is in general better than his English counterpart in ANY premiership team. Awaits refutation. But the general gist of it is sound. Spain third team ie, put the third choice goalie, rb, lb, cb etc upwards would probably beat England's first team.

"MP was appointed in mid January and in Mayuka got less than an hour of football in 13 games, in the early days not even making the bench (yes i know he was at the ACON for some of it). if you're trying to say that is because Rodriguez, Lambert, and co were undroppable then i think you need to look at the goals for column in our last 6 games, 3 goals in that period with Lambert in particular looking out of form, off the pace and needing a rest. Our attacking play was very slow and one paced, crying out for some pace, something Mayuka is meant to bring to the table, If that didn't suggest we needed to try something different what did? Struggling for goals against the backdrop of a relegation battle yet still he can hardly get a kick, doesn't seem to me like the signs of a player who has much faith in him from the management.": Fair point - we looked tired and toothless the last six games that's true ~ but as i suggested, it might have been that MP went with "the devil you know" on that one preferring to keep SRL and Jrod on the pitch for as long as possible. In the circumstances a new to england and new to the epl coach erred on the side of caution, and it worked. "As for your other point, i mentioned that he had done nothing to show why we we signed him. if you believe that as a striker Lambert and rodriguez are undroppable and if you are right that he doesn't have the defensive nous to replace Ramirez, Puncheon, Lallana etc then we've effetively signed a player who is third choice striker for a team that only plays with one man up top and who can only play in that one position." Again - fair point, you are probably spot on with this assessment. If we play only one striker then Mayuka will need to be unbelievably good to start the first match as that striker ~ and with Jrod and srl on the bench. In the circumstances he looks like he was an emergency plan B purchase- fast pacey goalscorer forward to hoof it to if it goes wrong with our cultured passing approach ..the sort of cover your options thinking that picked Carroll and Crouch for the Eng bench. "In a season he's had one start where he was dreadful and Adkins didn't pick him and MP hasn't picked him. we weren't safe until the 2nd last game and only scored 3 goals in our last 6. with that in mind I don't think his nonappearances are anything to do with all of the other players having been amazing and undroppable all season." I am looking at it from a slightly different perspective Turkish, your reason given (suggesting that both NA and MP did'nt rate him) for his non-appearances is not the only possible reason is my point. You may well be correct but its not a given that one can absolutely infer and read volumes out of. The form of srl and jrod plus the other AM factors are as likely to have been contributory factors to little game time as your opinion. fwiw I would like us to persist with him a while, we are hardly blessed with pace, we were VERY lucky with injuries last year and in different circumstances he might have got the extended game time that most AM and strikers in particular seem to need before they can really express themselves.

Not really Turkish, a bit of rhetorical exaggeration there because there are alternate plausible explanations for why Mayuka did not play so much under Poch. Try the Forren excuse for example- it was too risky in those final games of the season to change a stuttering forward line up but that had the advantage of having got EPL experience ~ and that had clearly worked against some teams mid-season. Or the "who ya going to drop" argument - between talismanic SRL scoring his goals and Jrod reinventing himself as Saints player of the mid-season such that calls for possible Eng call-ups were softly muted they were a feared partnership. Neither of those was going to be dropped ever for Mayuka unless there was injuries suspension or dramatic loss of form. If Mayuka was to replace Gaston or Punch or AL or Guly as an AM that would have been more realistic at times - but i suspect he relative to the others lacks defensive nous to be really adaptable for that role........so the introduction of Mayuka for any of those AM starters or forwards was always going to be hard, and in the absence of injuries, suspensions, losses of form and tactical changes plus the backdrop of relegation if even one mistake was made - well that's why his game time was limited even if he was sh*t hot in training.

He did not play and was not even in the Croatia squad that got beat by Scotland the other night in the WC qualifier. Must be injured. Or not good enough to play at CB for Croatia against a team with a powerful attacking threat like Scotland. ;-)

Total idiot. There's lots of saints fans follow Hampshire cricket. Attacking SFC and praising PFC in the same article will disaffect hants from a strong part of its support base, and that will hit them in the pocket.

England don't have any modern day concept of a footballing "style", no concept of contemporary tactical flexibility or even how to develop it. The English National football team has almost always been about pragmatic winning football. Whatever it takes to win. Sometimes a 100mph running style way has worked, sometimes a long cross from Gerrard to Carroll works, sometimes a young Owen can slalom around Argentinian defenders and score, sometimes Beckham can nail a free kick against Greece, sometimes Platt can hook a volley over his shoulder against Belgium wasn't it....Gascoigne versus Holland and blood stained heroes like Adams can do a job for us at the back. But those are the exceptions. In truth we just repeatedly fail to win anything on the International football stage. We are perennial losers, and worse than that, we are losers who do not learn from our mistakes. We have always had decent "players", sometimes world class players willing to do their utmost for the three lions, doing whatever the gaffer says. Always, every generation has a number of outstanding talents. Like most european countries do. Except we persist in ****ing their talents up the wall with ****e tactics. We have never or rarely had a manager or more importantly, a management set-up for the National team, that emphasized a style, that maxim,ised the talents at its disposal.Look at Spain and Germany - very distinctive- both winning teams, look at Italy Brazil and Argentina- all distinctive World Cup and Euro championships winning teams who played and won and keep winning with a certain style...sure its cyclical and we are due some teutonic domination but that's only until brazil wake up or argentina wake up etc ...England's style is pragmatism born of a near 50 year inferiority complex over footballing technique inferiority complex....I just hope our next manager after the WC is over will be someone like NA or Gary Neville..someone with a belief in a new better way to play. Not this tediously boring uninspiring rubbish. Teams i will pay to watch are Germany, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Holland.....the rest....pah.

The article also says apparently we were in for him in January. First i've heard of that. Southampton interested in buying a Juventus centre-back? My we have gone up in the world...

Agree with the sentiment, though I have always been a Ramirez supporter here and elsewhere. I just think he needs time and the right team set-up to get the best out of him. I'm sure most on this forum know that the likes of Juventus are football royalty with the highest expectations. It's like Man Utd saying they are interested in him. He may not have set the world on fire here but if even six months after he's gone the best team in Italy thinks he might be good enough for them it is significant. If he might be good enough for Juventus he's probably too good for us, frankly. MP needs to work out how to use him best. So far, for various reasons, he has not and we have only seen glimpses. Next season will be Rock and Roll football or off you go back to Italy on loan or sale my son i reckon.

Given the origins of our manager, and that of NC plus the perilous financial state of both Italian and Spanish soccer I would guess that there is a very strong probability that we will be raiding some of the Italian and Spanish teams mentioned for players. I know it's something of a stereotype that evidence will probably back up, but I would NOT be going to Spain for a central defender - every week I see Spanish teams getting mullered by the usual name forwards whereas in Italy even superstar attackers have to sweat their nuts off for even a sniff of a chance....Italy would be my number one destination for a central defender as it seems to be bred in the DNA of most Seria A defenders to know how to stop players scoring effectively ~ but on the other hand I WOULD be looking at Spain for forwards and attacking / defending midfielders of which there seems an abundance in La Liga. So my best guess would be to see a CB arriving from an Italian club and an attacking MF and a defensive MF arriving from Spain.

A reasonable way of quickly working out what players we can loan/buy and who we can buy from can be deduced from looking at a number of factors for the teams in each of the major leagues. In doing so i will be deliberately ignoring south america, asia and africa for this as well as "minor" european leagues, mainly because it makes this easier for me plus i know very little about those leagues and players. Im also ignoring EPl and CCC players as everyone knows them. First of all: Look for "good" teams that have either just missed CL qualification or just qualified for Europa league. Look for "good" teams that just missed out of Europa League altogether. Look for Internationals not playing for top teams in those leagues. We are not in Europe next year so in general "top" players would not normally forfeit a CL season for a season with a team like saints (unless we wave loads of cash at them). Even Europa league is something, still better than no Europa league Southampton. In Italy : easy examples are Inter Milan, Roma, Lazio, cagliari, These will not play in europe next year, are full of good players on high wages but that the teams probably will not want to be paying wages for this year and who might unload a good player for a season or a good transfer fee. These might be good for loans or for buys. In Spain quite frankly any team below Athletic Madrid is approachable so players from Malaga, Seville, Espanyol,Valencia etc are all options as above. In Germany it gets a bit harder but teams like Wolfsburg, Stuttgardt and Hannover are options. In Holland its the likes of Utrecht, Vitesse Arnhem and Twente. With hard cash even the Ajax, PSV and Eindhoven might sell to us. Belgium id say all players all team are all available for the right price- even from Anderlecht. France. Another toughie but id say below Marseille,Lyon, newly promoted Monaco and PSG anything goes. Even Lyon might sell to us.. In Portugal its teams like Braga and Sporting as i don't think we could afford Porto or Benfica star players, which im sure are available at the right price. So....we have a list of about 60 clubs i think with perhaps 100 players amongst them that are worth having at saints. Of those 100 only a certain number are centre-backs- an obvious need. There's around a dozen -18 that might be good in those...then you take your pick.... Id be interested to see hoe many of our recruits materialize from this way of assessing it.

Osvaldo is a very obvious link because of the Espanyol/MP connection....that said Roma did pay a lot for him -$17.5M and i doubt now he is wearing the number 9 jersey for the Italian National team, ( scored twice against Bulgaria in recent wc match) and hat-trick in recent Seria A match that his price will be any less. Only thing i can think of is that if Roma do not qualify for Europa league by winning the Coppa Italia this weekend then its no europe for him or Roma at all for a year at least - like Saints- so he might be interested in "the project". Italian International number 9's don't tend to be rubbish or lacking in technique so he must be decent enough player. He has not quite burst onto the scene- one good goal scoring season at Roma hardly counts for a team that finished 6/7th. And if he is already around $20M he is hardly a bargain. Put it this way- Benteke or this guy-I'd have Benteke all day at same price as hes already scored lots in EPl... A bargain is if we got him on loan for a year whilst roma are out of europe and it cost us $2-$3M as a loan fee for the season...he could have a go at the EPL with us with an option for us to buy at the end if it worked out...Roma might be happy having a big earner off the books inn a low income season whilst they re-organise for next year, he gets more experience, we maybe get a top top striker without risking much money at all.....THAT'S what id call a cute bit of work if it came off....

there was more chance of cork replacing cleverly than srl replacing carroll....and it looks like that chance has walked now that rodwell has scored 2 goals in his latest comeback....

The clear quality of Bale, RVP, Scholes, Mata, and latterly Lukaku spring to mind....though i think those Man Utd players were let off a bit by too much respect, especially for Scholes... Di Natale in pre-season for Udinese showed us what a lethal finisher is really like. Demba Ba on his first game for Chelsea predictably ditto. Incidentally, our poor preseason results and our poor start to the season: coincidence? Udinese are 6th in a weak Seria A this year and were behind us in physical preparation yet they dicked us 0-4 at a canter...

Now this is something i like the look of! Saints surely would benefit from this at Staplewood... http://www.corrieredellosport.it/video/curiosita/2013/04/25-63245/Il+segreto+del+Borussia%3F+La+macchina+sparapalloni

The rest of the posts are conjecture compared to this. It is inconceivable that NC would be happy with a same-ish finish next year considering we gave the rest of the league ten games start this season. He MUST have insisted and have the mindset that this must improve. Did anyone see the OPTA stats report on SKY regarding the number of km's run and the number of sprints on average run per game in the EPL compared to 6 years ago? Its gone up massively - around 25%+, many of the stats are on a steep upward trajectory. It roughly works out that, like for like, on average the team have to up performance by c. 5% across all measuring means just to stand still compared to the other epl teams next year. To get ahead of the game ( and so potentially finish higher) it needs 10%, 15%, 20%..... A 20%+5% improvement for us if we finish 10th is to finish c. 5th- so CL is not out of the question in that rough and ready working out. Id say NC would consider a 25% improvement in the team across all measuring terms as achievable with this squad, this manager plus additions. Whether it is "realistic" to believe a top four place is achievable is a different question. I also feel that our style of play may get "found out" next season. I recall it took time for teams to produce a counter strategy to Saints in the CCC and League 1 but in some matches we got turned over through it, next year epl will be the same i think.

If NA was still with us I'd be 100% confident it was back to Switzerland but, all the same, I would be surprised if we had not already penciled in the dates and the arrangements already - before MP came on-board - so I'd still back Switzerland as the venue and the usual local low level swiss league teams for the first 2 matches we play out there. A variation on it might be the final game being an upgrade on last year - perhaps against a Northern Italian Seria A club - the most attractive and likely given the geography + connection is Milan, more probable though is a Lique 1 Evian or Swiss Super league Basle, less likely a German Bundesliga team from Duisberg, Stuttgart or even Munich - though very improbable.... I don't think a trip to Spain is all that likely but I may be wrong - and would be happy to be wrong- seeing us play against three spanish teams would be very informative indeed...and fun.

Given the almost unanimous feeling from responses to date that actually he comes across as ok in interviews it points to the OP misunderstanding MP's "manner", or being just plain wrong in his assessment of his TV interview character as portrayed to date as being somewhat "charmless". We have seen him laughing in training that is true - and a good thing, and if the results are good then who really gives a tuppeny continental that's probably true as well. I actually think that he understand more english than he lets on, and that his refusal to speak english in interviews by using the interpreter is a way of protecting him in the short term from pesky questions on pesky subjects. As for not answering questions much - well all the EPL Managers have their own way of not answering questions, maybe MP's blunt way of not answering questions seems a little offish to me but not odd to everyone else. BTW- I am an admirer of his and am very happy with the style of football we play so whatever his character if he keeps us playing like this I'm good. Just might send him a few one liners to use occasionally. Reminds me of AVB actually, it took him a while to smile occasionally as well.

I am a convert to the new style of play, pressing pressing pressing etc and I am happy with the points. But i do wish he would occasionally smile, occasionally look happy, occasionally answer a question. Its not that hard mate. I know you are under pressure but this dour monosyllabic non-answering kind of interactivity with the media is only going to wash for so long...and then what? The media will soon start making up their minds about this currently rather charmless man.... I just wish he would not go out of his way to appear bored, arrogant and rude so often when he appears on the telly. Quite how long he is going to be allowed to get away with these after match non-interviews i don't know but the post swansea effort was particularly poor i thought..His non-answers to questions do not even have the positive smiley upbeat spin that NA always imparted on his non-answers. MP, for me, is coming across as rude, and that rudeness is a cover for something else - who knows what- nerves maybe? Maybe its easier to appear rude than it is to be frightened of the job. His contempt for the reporters and interviewers is quite tangible - they ask him questions in front of tv viewers and he's looking over someones shoulder somewhere else - and when he answers if you read between the lines he is often saying "f off im not answering". He is accountable only to NC that is true - and they share similar characteristics i think. Maybe that is why he got the gig in the first place. NC found a fellow kindred spirit. Maybe we should expect some NC type decision making from MP- so there should be shock at hearing of 15 leavers in the summer for instance - why wait til the summer - transfer list them the minute we get safe- maybe by the end of April is more like it.... Its not irredeemable, but i hope that he will show some more loveable characteristics in due course..

Yep-agree. The stakes are currently too high to "find out" if Forren is able to step up, perhaps after we beat Swansea and Wigan lose two in a row we shall see Forren and Mayuka starting.... in

Gaston is a quality player who could be awesome in due course. For now though his set piece delivery is not good enough. I think he is still a bit confused over what is expected and lacks the total confidence that is required for set piece delivery (case in point SRL penalties). Is there any feedback from Staplewood over what his training free-kicks are like? We have to assume that because he is taking them on matchday that he is the best person to take them - but I have to say that Fox has a much sweeter left foot delivery than what ive seen so far from Gaston on set piece or in play crossing. I suspect that at this level we are looking for extra cunning and the hit it diagonal to the far stick for rickie approach is a bit too basic and obvious a tactic for the premiership - hence numerous variations this season from him, all mainly ineffective though. His on the ball in play ability is excellent and he is learning to work for the team even more so overall I am very happy with him. I'd let Davies take some more of the set pieces myself until gaston gets his form back if they are not shot on goal territory which is obviously Rickie time.

I think another higher-grade-than-Forren CB is a definite. And if Boruc signs up, then i can foresee it possibly being an Italian centreback or two arriving as Boruc can speak the lingo from his time out there......its helpful if the two cb's can communicate well and have some common understanding with the goalie... Ogbonna from Torino or Astori from Cagliari are the two main names spring to mind. Both are Italian International Centre-backs, both the right age (25-26- not too young, not too old), both at unfashionable clubs and hence why they must be pretty damn good to get into the Italian national squad and their are distinct parallels with Shawcross getting into the England team via Stoke, or Cahill via Bolton as the Italian national team is usually a Juve/milan closed shop. I suppose Shawcross and Cahill would be my English equivalent picks - but Cahill would never leave Chelsea for us. Apparently Napoli are after Astori and Man Utd been watching Ogbonna and both will be playing CL next season, unlike us, but unlike us, Napoli in particular probably would not double or treble their current wages over a three year contract. Its no good getting a really acclaimed centre-back as they wont join- we need an up and coming one who buys into the programme - so someone who doesn't come from a fancy club background suits our likely sales pitch to get them to join saints...Forren and Yoshida fitted that perfectly and i would hazard a guess and say that the chance to be in the EPl and paid far more than your current salary should be something of an attraction for a lot of good foreign not playing CL footie atm centre-backs out there...

Gaston is a talented but young footballer. He will do brilliantly given time. All the doubters are entitled to do so given the stop start nature of his performances. But you all said the same about Spider-Man, boruc, Jrod, even Puncheon and you were all totally wrong. You will be totally wrong about Gaston too. He is a world class player. Probably the best we've got at SFC according to the players themselves and a magnet to help recruit other talents too. Patience patience patience. IF we have him bext season he will destroy teams. When an experienced highly capped highly trophied international Professional like Neville says the toughest opponent he's faced all season was Gaston Ramirez it counts for something. A lot more than the short term knee jerk reaction to some of his performances to date.

Nat Clyne said on twitter that him, Shaw and Jrod are the quickest players at the club. All teams need speed of thought in their players, some players combine that with above average running/sprinting speed. If they have got both then they can look "quick". Bale is fast but his speed of thinking is even faster hence he looks amazingly quick, ditto Ronaldo. Mayuka's pace is not in debate, his speed of thinking-and that's intimately related to his team + tactical awareness, his integration and acceptance in the squad and their playing to your strengths, is not on that level. If your game is largely based on pace then asking a team like Southampton to bring him on then suddenly start lumping balls behind the full backs for him to run onto seems a refutation of everything the team is trying to do in the rest of the game. None of the rest of the team are really prepared for that run, or for the hoof, and that means the chances of failure in that tactic is high. IF on the other hand, Mayuka is trained in "The Southampton Way tm" and can then bring his pace as an added value element to that - well i can see him doing well. The other way around- it won't happen. So, its up to Mayuka to sort himself out and learn "The Southampton Way tm" if he wants to play, not watch. The fact he's not playing show's he has not learned enough to be better than whoever starts ahead of him yet.

Ramirez has a contract opt out clause to be available for talks at a bid equal to what we paid for him should we get relegated. If we got relegated I doubt we would get much more than that. If we stay up and then want to sell him - then the figure could be higher based upon his performances and the fact he has gone through an extensive (and perhaps longer than ideally we would all have liked) new country new culture new language new league new pace of game new fitness levels bedding in process. A decent showing the last 8 games, a few goals, saints staying up- I think he stays next year unless a £15M+ bid is popped down in front of us.