Hopkins

I don't think he's considered worse than Chris Smalling just less versatile. I'd be chuffed to bits if we signed him, he was pretty good against us and fits perfectly in our squad, young and English.

I have my doubts about Rosler. I have a friend who is a Brentford fan and he occasionaly moaned about Rosler going defensive when they took a lead. I started to see Wigan fans talk about that as well. Mind you, he's a much better option than Mackay, Moyes or Laudrup. Can see Mackay going to Norwich and Garcia to WBA and Sherwood to Brighton. Not that I think this thread will is needed.

I think people will be surprised how badly some of these B teams will fare actually but aside from it being a terrible idea all round, I don't see us as a club opting in for this. If I've read it right, they only need 10 B teams to join. I'm pretty sure we'll decline the opportunity.

I'm genuinely interested in who people think Lallana would go to by the way. All top teams have players like him already and the only one I could see him getting into is Liverpool and they wouldn't be up for spending 20-30 million on a player that will compete with and is similar to Stirling and Coutinho and therefore isn't a guaranteed starter. We've done a great job of getting him onto a long contract covering his best years and almost pricing him out of the market. He's not the type of player to leave to sit on the bench for money, we know this because he's turned down chances to leave when we were in much worse positions and he constantly talks of wanting to enjoy his football. I think he knows he is at the best club for him as long as we keep the manager and keep progressing.

So I've watched the Lallana interview twice now. Once at the time and again after reading this thread. I'm not at all worried about him leaving anymore than I was. The interview doesn't suggest anything at all to me. I'm literally struggling to find anything about his answers or body language that worries me. He doesn't clear his throat at all, which has been suggested in here. He takes a pause at the start of his last answer which instead of us all thinking "OH **** HE DIDN'T IMMEDIATLEY SAY HE WANTS TO STAY" can easily be construed as "He wanted to gather his thoughts at answering a a question that requires a bit of reflection" especially as he then goes onto reflect and tell us all how much he'll always love the club and wants to keep progressing over the summer. Absolutely laughable reaction. I urge you all to watch it again with a bit more of a positive outlook rather than going into it looking for the negatives and wanting to be the first to post the "well that's him off then" post on here as soon as he's finished.

Right that's twice I've seen Reid mentioned as a signing today. He shouldn't even be considered once let alone twice in one day.

You wont get the last laugh and you were talking nonsense, just like the latest articles. Lets clear a few things up... When this first came out a month or so ago ALL clubs went on record to say they were happy with the punishment handed out. Now Sunderland are staying up they have decided to leak stuff to the press in a desperate attempt to have Sunderland docked points. The Premier League will probably laugh it off not least because they acted within their own rules. The case the article mentions about Altrincham but that's a completely different organisation with (I'm assuming) different rules. A decision has been made and all clubs have agreed to it. There will be no backtracking and even if there was then it's quite obvious the amount of appeals and legal work that would go into it would take it well into the new season so there would be no deduction. You should probably consider the facts rather than believing an article in the media that quite literally is just saying "Some teams who are ****ed are desperately scrapping around looking for a way out".

He's raw and certainly needs to improve but he's 18 and will come good. He doesn't need a loan at all, he needs to stay and improve technically without the pressure of having to lead the line for a Championship team only to get dropped and lose his confidence. Right now he's the only fit striker in our squad who is in anyway interested in getting behind a defence. He at least tries to stretch a defence so he's useful He'll be OK and this thread will be bumped at some point next season when he goes on a scoring burst and is powering through defences because that's the type of player he will become. He needs time and we need to be patient and understand that these games will be a learning process for him that will benefit him and us in the long term.

It's not double standards at all. Check out post 32 and 33 to see why or just ignore the facts and keep talking nonsense if you wish.

Baines but Azpilicueta has easily been the best left back this season by a country mile. Cech, Kompany and Shaw being picked just goes to show the lack of thought that players put into their picks imo. The first two especially are classic "Umm..nobody jumps out at me so who is the one everyone says is the best?" picks.

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/52b71160eab8ea0c67b010a0/kompany-own-goal.gif http://s3.amazonaws.com/br-cdn/temp_images/2014/03/02/d181b5cbd69ad18056a6d1b7afed0655.gif?1393770081 http://imgur.com/YCo6doE http://nesncom.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/vincent-kompany-and-philippe-coutinho-liverpool-manchester-city.gif?w=500&h=279 Nah.

Wouldn't be surprised if Saints were responsible for the Shaw to United story to try and convince Chelsea to put up more cash.

His record with young players should rule him out of working here.

It's really **** banter... that's the problem.

Niemi Dodd Svensson Claus Bridge Morgan Bale Lallana Le Tissier Lambert Pahars Manager: Adkins Subs: Beattie, Cork, Fernandes, Clyne, Lovren, Boruc

To be fair it was someone on another forum that did the work.

Sunderland statement which should (but won't) put an end to it. "The issue of Ji Dong-won was explained in detail at today’s Premier League shareholders' meeting and no issues were raised by any club. Sunderland AFC confirmed that they had complied with all procedures and the Premier League stated that the player was duly registered on the extranet system and in all other Premier League mechanisms. The club has never accepted any wrongdoing, but did acknowledge that a technical fault occurred and as such were fined by the Premier League accordingly in December. The matter is now closed." And a quote from MK Dons (who Sunderland knocked out of the cup with Ji in the team - although they were winning until Ji was subbed off!!!) The club acknowledges that the FL board dealt with the situation as they saw fit and will not be pursuing the matter further. So this is a complete non story. Any logical person should see that.

Some absolute nonsense spoken in this thread. It's completely different situation to ones that have led to point deductions. The rules fwiw: Any club found to have played an ineligible player in a match shall have any points gained from that match deducted from its record and have levied upon it a fine. The company may vary this decision in respect of the points gained only in circumstances where the ineligibility is due to the failure to obtain an International Transfer Certificate or where the ineligibility is related to the player’s status only. The board may also order that such match be replayed on such terms as are decided by the board which may also levy penalty points against the club in default. So no, when it comes to International clearance it isn't necessarily a points deduction as punishment. That only happens if the ineligibility is due to lack of registration, suspension, cup tied etc Also this is from a Sunderland fan on another forum: We played our own player, who was registered with the league, under contract, not suspended. He had been able to play for us the season before. He had a legit work permit. He had international clearance but the secretary didn't realise it had to be renewed when he returned. This is an administration error, not a sporting one. We found out about it, owned up, got fined. We didn't play a player that was suspended, cup tied or not ours to gain an advantage.

Upon first glance that's a stronger than normal Saints side vs a weakened Fulham team.

I'd also like to point out that this isn't an agreement that we can just ignore (or sod, as someone put it earlier in the thread), it's approved and recognised by FIFA. Not only would it need all other home nations to agree to opt out but also FIFA would have to agree to it also. I doubt either of those would happen due to a) The other home nations wouldn't fancy England being able to cherry pick whoever the want. b) The other home nations have explored the possibility of players like Nacho Novo representing them (Scotland obviously) and nobody agreed to it then. c) FIFA I think would immediately frown upon it and start putting pressure on the home nations to become 1 international team and nobody would want that.

He does violate the home nations agreement. You must have read it incorrectly. I'll summarise for you. This the agreement that was amended and approved by FIFA in June 2010. The criteria for eligibility to represent a home nation is: 1. A Player who, under the terms of art. 5, is eligible to represent more than one Association on account of his nationality, may play in an international match for one of these Associations only if, in addition to having the relevant nationality, he fulfills at least one of the following conditions: a) He was born on the territory of the relevant Association; b) His biological mother or biological father was born on the territory of the relevant Association; c) His grandmother or grandfather was born on the territory of the relevant Association; d) He has engaged in a minimum of five years education under the age of 18 within the territory of the relevant association. — Home nations agreement He doesn't fulfill any one of those conditions. Further to this, I'm not sure how true this is, but if it is, it just makes an even bigger mockery of the media and their stupidity. Someone on another forum just pointed out this... He falls short because he played for France in the 2006 UEFA European Under-17 Championship elite round. Since 2004 FIFA have required players to hold (be eligible for) the nationality of the nation they wish to change to at the time they play in their first game in an official competition. In other words, Schneiderlin would've needed British passport in March 2006 (when he played for France in an official competition for the first time). Schneiderlin's case doesn't even reach the Home Nations Agreement, he falls short before it's even brought into the equation.

He isn't eligible. As someone has already pointed out in the thread there is a home nations agreement. But hey, lets be guilty of what the media do and ignore that little fact.

Neither were passes across the goal mouth. Fonte's much worse than Guly's. Your sons U16 team are not as good as our first team. It's not the biggest defensive no no there is, that's a myth and incredibly outdated. It's the way we play, it benefits us more than it harms us, get used to it, it's going to happen. Apart from that, good post.

There isn't any other genuine option to Lambert though? He's out of form yes but find me someone in better form than him that has not been picked...

Lallana doesn't pick the team does he? I'm in no doubt thought that it was a big game for the players, who ever played, it was their biggest game of the season, but we were always going to make changes. The team that is picked doesn't change the relevance of the game, it was a big game, it just happened to be other players who were "given the opportunity" to perform in it. The players should have been good enough to win, or at least perform better than that, hence why we can be disappointed with the performance, but the team selection was always going to be like it was today. When I say "anyone at the club" I obviously meant someone who had a say in picking the team.