Giordano

I think that he has had an exceptional season. He seems to provide a good balance for some of the less experienced players in the team and I admire his immense work-rate and unselfish play which in part has enabled that platform for some of the more "obvious" talents, like the full backs, to develop. He has also got underrated technical abilities as well- his passing range and eye for a ball is excellent as is his ball holding ability and aggressive harrying - very much a flag bearer for the new Southampton pressing style - his only (relative) weaknesses are physical stature and pace but his experience helps him a great deal with the latter. He plays at the level of a £5M-£10M midfielder but we paid a fraction of that. An excellent acquisition and in a normal year a stand out for player of the season. In this year though its not normal and you can only give it to the player who genuinely went from EPL class to World Class - the captain, the leader, the hardest worker and best player in the team, Adam Lallana, no discussion.

Rickie will go to Brazil barring injury and /or a dramatic loss of form. Why? Because 1.he is a better footballer than Carroll. 2. He's playing the kind of football that will help England out there ie passing football. 3. He's scored and scoring unlike Carroll. 4. Everybody loves him and most people think that a big guy with a pony tail looks a bit odd unless you are zlatan. :-) 5 very likely he will have at least Adam there to pass to him and vice versa if they on same time - being in same wavelength could count for something at the death out there. 6.rickie always scores penalties. 7. Rickie is great. Those are the main reasons.

It is good news. The list of clubs that would want to take Mopo in the Summer will be quite long as he has certainly cemented an already positive reputation for developing younger talented players and making them better - like Lovren, Morgan, Adam, Luke and Jrod etc but also for getting maximum out of experienced older players like Rickie, Boruc, Fonte and S Davis. What he has not done is take precocious non homegrown younger talents and made them brilliant. In fact he has not been successful at that so far. Mayuka, Lee, Osvaldo and GR so far have not really done the biz. Overall he has got an excellent reputation as a football theorist - his principles are of course borrowed from the great Argentinean coach Bielsa but he is in a small minority throughout european leagues as a coach whose principles of very clear and attractive hard working yet attacking identity and team style are always evident. As such hes very bankable. We should pay him basic £3m a year not £1m imo.

Absolutely correct. Technique and ability to retain possession will be at a premium in that heat and humidity. Running around at 100mph like a blue arse fly will just get you killed off later.... excellent Passing ability and quick thinking for that slow slow quick kind of football essential. Rickie spots a killer pass as good as anyone. Rickie holds the ball as good as anyone. The Southampton way is pass pass pass pass....Rickie is as quick thinking in the box as anyone. Rickie is a set piece expert both taking them and heading them in. He can score from both inside and outside the box, almost from nothing. And Rickie never misses penalties. So imo Rickie will be a invaluable option for Roy in Brazil. More valuable than Carroll. He is the only one in this england squad can play that role with the strengths and the finesse required. Unless he gets injured or dramatically gets worse i think he's going to brazil. I can see that Roy will start with a hardworking team in attritional style play and hope to put on the likes of oxo and townsend towards the end to run at tired defenders. Adam lallana would be an obvious starter given his energy levels in this sense.

The teams that are above us in the league who have got strikers that are "better" than SRL are way ahead in the stratosphere in terms of cost. To replace SRL with one of them might cost upwards of £30M plus smash the wage structure at SMS. Which means we have to get one from the next level down - namely an overseas international quite young and hope it works. Or a domestic championship forward and take a chance. We could not afford a Van Persie, Suarez, Rooney, Welbeck, Sturridge, Eto, Torres, Lukaku...Reading some of the gnarly comments on this thread I don't really know quite when we became so big-time as to be slagging off and writing off the likes of Rickie Lambert and Jrod with such contemptuous ease. These guys are being talked about as if they were cattle to buy or sell in the market. Somewhere along the way a lot of you have forgotten what being a Saints fan really is all about - and its NOT about talking and acting like the rest of the nouveau riche clubs and support do that's fer sure. Whichever forward we do get in the fullness of time will be slaughtered by you lot for being (a) rubbish if he does not score instantly and then every time he plays (b) being more expensive than £1m Rickie Lambert © foreign hence cannot take the pace and physical nature of the game (d) English hence has no technique (e) too slow or just a head down speeder with no brains and perhaps worst of all (f) not Rickie. Its no-win playing the supporter game the way that you do. Never happy, never proud, always greedy and envious and wanting more than what we got because we want to be Manyoo or chelski......I want us to be World Club Champions alright no doubt about that - I've dreamt it too....but i want it to be with Saints players playing the saints way with a support that's exceptional in its understanding and empathy for the team, not this sneering sh*t towards our own players that id only expect to hear from skates...

First of all : I'm afraid I do not buy into the conspiracy theory that Mopo essentially "threw" this match by deliberately playing an understrength team so as to improve chances of taking points at Upton Park. Secondly : I think Mopo could have put out a stronger team, but he misjudged it this time. I don't blame Perez - he is the reserve Manager so he gets his chance in the CC and FA Cup just like the fringe /reserve players do. He and Mopo probably do not understand about the FA cup and why its more important for us to do well in the Cup than finish a marginal place higher or lower in mid table. They chose to give some fringe players the chance, they took a calculated risk. In retrospect, replacing Ads with McQueen was a gamble that failed. In retrospect JWP for Morgan was a gamble that failed as was Guly for Jrod. Three gambles three fails. KD was not so much of a gamble away to Sunderland imo. Jos was always starting after Fontes injury. The rest of the team was plenty strong enough. Overall I would say that this Club, this Manager and this squad don't deserve the current vitriol over what was a simply one misjudged team selection in one game that went wrong in a match settled by a "worldy". As for are the supporters "pawns"- of course we are. I hate it too. But its not necessary (even though it feels in the right zone) to connect it to a misjudged team selection away to Sunderland in the 6th round. Yes it feels like the end of the season, and for some possibly the death knell for this possibly most talented ever of Saints squads which may get dispersed to the winds in the summer, but if we have had our once every decade season-in-the-sun at least we are now recognised the world over for playing great football, in the "Southampton Way". What other supporters outside top four can say that?

Judging by the size and colour of fontes "flesh wound" i think that its unlikely he will play today. I think its going to be jos and maya myself....but there could be a small outside chance of a surprise centre back if mopo wants to try out Bigvjc there...

My goodness??? You threw it out like bait and I bit, apologies in advance to the objective posters out there for my doing so. MoPo is a really innovative manager in the EPL and taking us to 9th so far (but more important is our commitment to the style and momentum of beautiful attacking football) is a great achievement to date. Our upwards trajectory is very exciting as is our style of play. No, NOT any Half decent manager could have done that with this squad. Look at all the managers in the EPL who could have delivered this but more importantly done it by integrating so many young players and it's a very short list...He is good, period, so take that and stick it up your negative glass half empty arse.

Quite, He has not won anything yet doing it "his way" so, currently he's not going to win over a Real Madrid team full of World Cup winners and a world player of the year. Would be a disaster imo for him and RM. RM need a BIG manager ideally a WC winning coach or manager who has been it seen it got the t shirt - not a newbie wannabee, however good he is with the likes of Southampton. Whoever wins the WC this summer- the manager would be a favorite to replace Ancelotti imo- not Mopo. Mopo's next level is a fading glory team that wants to get back up there again using youth a bit more because they are either skint or miserly. Spurs fits the bill perfectly. Arsenal post Wenger is another. Liverpool possibly another if Rodgers ever goes. Don't see the point of him moving to Aston villa or a team like that in england myself. Overseas Inter Milan is a good possibility or any of the next level below RM/Barca clubs atm in la liga...possibly a big Greek or Portugese club. I reckon maybe a dozen teams are possibles for him in the Summer. He would be great as National Coach i think - his teams really play for each other which national teams sometimes do not do despite having good individuals...he would make them greater than the sum of their parts.. so i would not be surprised if he took over Argentina one day!

Good news for when we play West Ham as h would surely have been fired up to do well against Rickie's team in the direct match up and he has scored against us before I think...but even better news for SRl and Jrod because AC has got just one game - away to Everton on March 1st before England's last friendly before May comes when we start our three pre tournament matches....he surely cannot sneak into the Denmark game squad at the expense of SRL now no matter what he does v Everton...and it also leaves a small chance for Jrod too, I think Jrod is one injury for Welbeck or Sturridge away from booking a place on the plane myself as one of the four forwards Woy will probably pick in the 23.(the other being rooney)

I want to see our kit all around the world and to be able to buy a fake but high quality cos it came from the same factory top for £4 in Patong or some backstreet in Budapest or on the beech in Kos this summer...I will wear that at the match live but not otherwise unless im watching it live on tv at home when its just good luck...I don't want to pay a stupid amount for a plastic shirt like what they charge us right now, we got enough money from SKY already plus KL is minted so enough of the over-priced kits malarkey in the club shop please - leave that to wealthier people, and let us have our kits made in Asia and billions of cheaper counterfeits of it available from the usual sources.

I agree with this and at the risk of sounding boringly obvious has it escaped everyone's attention that West Ham were reputedly offering him a 3 year contract at a lot more money than hes on at the moment? If i offered most of the posters here a 50% salary increase as is rumored from his current c £40,000pw to c £60,000pw, a £xm signing on bonus and guaranteed it for 3 years plus you don't even need to move your family as work is only 65 miles up the road ...are you saying you would reject it out of hand? He is contracted until 2016 with us but it would be mid 2017 at that wage with WHUFC. Then add in that you've got young competition at work at present for your position, maybe you are not quite as "needed" as west ham might say they need you to save them, add in that the MOPO style of play does not always flatter you physically as the team does not play to your strengths as much anymore then add in injuries and a family and the idea of setting yourself up for life with one last big contract.....well- you would have to listen to what both West Ham and Saints had got to say on the matter- surely?I reckon it was very close myself, and that the Osvaldo thing might well have saved Rickie for us. We could not get rid of Osvaldo AND lose Rickie....and it was just to soon for the new bosses to be on the case for a replacement hence SRL is still a Saint. Delighted cos we all love Rickie. So, he's got 4 months now to ensure he goes to Brazil which means he will be busting a gut to score or make goals as always...and then when he gets back from Rio having played WC footie and scoring a hat-trick against Italy having nut-megged Osvaldo for the first goal and a one two with Ads who had left Osvaldo on his backside prior to that during the move for his second whilst his third was a bullet header from outside the area after Jrod had chipped the ball over to him, the Jrod who incidentally had also nutmegged Osvaldo earlier in the move causing a retaliation resulting in Dani being sent off, to join Balotelli who had already lashed out at Ads for nutmegging him twice in one course of play whilst picking his pocket, adding another tattoo to his arm "I love Brazil" and finally autographing Balotelli's shirt adding a big X kiss before revealing an undershirt t-shirt message to him as "Nuts! Mario" before carrying on to score his first goal for England during one rather long and extended mazy run lasting around 6 minutes...so long in fact that several of the england midfield had enough time to get deckchairs out, apply some factor 30 and order some caipirinhas, Gerrard even had time to nick some wheel hubs off the Italian team coach and still get back in time for his drink before the ice melted and Woy managed a little nap which left him a lot fresher for the post match interview .. All that means Rickie would be in a strong position for a renewed contract on a higher basic wage from Saints upon his return :-).

A measure of Saints desperation to unload him was that (1) We've left ourselves short or experienced strikers (2) we gave him away for free - no fee or nothing - not even the promise of a friendly or to lend us back some of theirs sometime which is what i would have gone for if i was rogers..... . (3) he's supposedly taken a salary drop to leave, and, (4) the $19M fee is not fixed at all- its a ballpark provisional outline starting figure - they've as good as already said they won't pay that reading between the lines. Its not guaranteed at all they will want to keep him. They got a load of very good forwards already btw - Vucinic, Llorente Tevez,Giovinco, Quagliarella. At least two need to leave in the summer for Dani to stay at Juve. If Osvaldo does not play much out there expect a bit of a problem in the summer....

Ive got a feeling 1-4...or 0-4....think i will be having a total goals punt on this game as I think we will attack attack attack this lot....

For goodness sake mate why ruin the last twenty five threads of nocturnal enuresis with such an utterly sensible balanced commentary? Could you not have slipped in a "Gallagher is too young" or "we must spend spend spend on anything and anyone" type comment?:-)....PS I still remember that time in Bucharest at the casino after the Saints match lol...

With the money we save in wages we can extend Mopos contract. We can afford the wages of several top top players in the summer, we will look good to potential buyers having unloaded a load of surplus to requirement contracts..,.our income to wages ratio will be massively improved....which means our open market value will also go up and we can try out some of the kids and maybe they will zoom up in value...there are loads of pluses so lets face it - we are not going down so its a free hit for KL...

To all the - unfortunate but accurate use of pejorative term related to nocturnal enuresis - posters out there concerned over lack of signings in this window and indeed the overwhelming new outflow of players ( Fox,Lee,Sharp,Barnard,Martin,Puncheon - combined sell on transfer value - under £2m and possibly Osvaldo)it might be worth pointing out that in THIS apparently going nowhere mid table mediocrity team the home grown young players appreciate rapidly in value at about a rate of £300,000 to £500,000 per completed EPL game at this age 18-20. IF Chambers completes 20 EPL games at the level he does he will be a £6m+ player. If Gallagher does the same (PLUS SCORE A FEW GOALS )he will be a £6m+ player by May. JWP must already be thereabouts, Shaw is apparently a £20M+ player after 44 games, Reed and Targett - frankly if we look after them as per the others and they get some games then they will go upwards in value as well. Whats not to like? At this rate the 2018 World Cup team will be All-Saints players...just need an english goalie..

Agree with you. It's looking like it's getting left behind and irrelevant. Only la Liga the EPL and top two bundesliga& France count nowadays.

Astori wants to play in the World Cup for Italy. How does coming to SMS to battle with Lovren Fonte and Maya at CB help that ? He is first choice at Seria A club Cagliari, a fans favourite there and just been voted 2nd or 3rd best Cb in seria A last year + and is seen by Prandelli every week. I would eat my hat if he joined in the next 24 hours. IF he ever joins Saints ( and frankly he could easily join a bigger club than us ) it would be after the WC, not before ( which, incidentally would be better cos i reckon Italy will not get out of group so his price might be cheaper).

We have got Sam Gallagher and Guly Do Prado but yeah, we need someone extra having released two strikers this Jan already and assuming Dani is leaving either permanent or on loan. Incidentally for Glasgow - Dani has been "rubbish" compared to who? Or was it just a manner of speaking expressing fans current disillusionment at the whole Dani thing having seen him arrive at SMS with fanfare as an Italian international centre-forward that we all had high expectations for but possibly leaving via the back door under a cloud? Fair enough the latter but as a football player he is not rubbish. Teams like Juventus openly desire him. He still gets picked to play for Italy. He is not "rubbish". We must remember that Jrod + Rickie have both had the benefit of playing at SFC in our unique style for a long while. I think that MOST recognized name strikers would struggle with the way we play to adapt and do better than score 3 in 13. And I have not seen any strikers score a better goal than the one he scored against that sh7te team Man City this season so he has clearly got skill. If he goes so be it, but its a shame cos he has the footballing ( but perhaps not the mental) characteristics to have done well at SMS.

Gosh that brought a lump to my throat. I agree totally. I've not been so excited about a potential debut for yonks..(since rickie had a chance to play v Scotland in fact and before that...well i cant remember..).he is one of our kids ( well ok we got him two years ago from plymouth..) but we trained him and he could possibly be the new number 9....excited for him and wish him all the very best if he starts...

I was not at SMS for yeovil nor his previous debut so can anyone tell me what his pace is like? Im sure he can win a challenge in the air and can hold and pass and shoot~ and his goal certainly showed he fancies he can get past a defender because he essentially just pushed it across the left back and had enough pace to get in front so he could not be challenged without it being a penalty(incidentally Rickie would not have been able to score that goal) ...but is he as pacey as Guly? Faster? Anywhere as fast as Jrod? If the starting eleven had a twenty metres sprint race where would he come? Anyone got a clue?

Assuming SRL is still unfit and much as I personally would want Gallagher to start I rather think that it will be Guly again. We will look to press them high up the pitch and harry them out of their stride. Guly loves doing doggies, can obey instructions like that to the letter because he is an experienced professional and offers guaranteed defend from the front application on behalf of the team. If you go back to our preseason match against Sociedad in which he started you'll see Mopo made him do exactly that against a team that wanted to be able to pass it around a bit away from home - like Arsenal do. Gallagher might come on as a impact sub after 60 minutes again I think, after Guly has worked the back four over, and himself into the ground. But playing Gallagher from the start is the more glorious decision! Home league starting debut sell out v the leaders and he can be told to get out their and enjoy himself...Mopo cannot really fail on this one as we are expected to lose...picking Gallagher would make me very happy irrespective of the result...I love that we will pick these young kids and give them a chance...

Its the January inflation factor. The price of every player, especially strikers, goes up in January. The teams that want to buy one are more desperate for firepower in Jan than at any other time of year. This makes them less likely to want to play games negotiating on the price and indeed means they invariably pay a premium price for that striker. Buying Dani for £12M + add ons in summer - its quite easy he could be £15m + add ons in Jan even with his recent history, indeed it actually advertises his possible availability without Saints having to do much about it to be honest. Im sure we've been contacted by lots of clubs regarding Dani. On a separate note- fingers crossed Sam G gets a start tonight and scores a hat-trick!

Ive read the article in Italian and its pretty much as you can see. A swop loan deal is being suggested. FWIW and IMO Vucinic is absolutely tailor made for Southampton. An incredible upgrade if true. Was just voted (by the Seria A players) the second best Centre Forward in Seria A for 2013 - behind Balotelli. Only problem is he is 30 years old - but as a brilliant, intelligent and versatile centre forward to compliment our squad until the end of the season - a top class upgrading swop. But i don't see it happening, he will get no guaranteed playing time at sfc.