Hopkins

Hmm. Not that highly rated in Brazil actually. He's seen as very inconsistent.

I'm currently living with a Celtic fan and can confirm that Scott Brown is far from their most important player. Wanyama is an absloute beast for them and was pretty immense against Barca and the rest of Europe apparently. He's gutted about losing him and even more gutted about losing both him and Hooper in the same season.

Lambert, Puncheon and no idea.

Also don't think it's Chris Perry in the third row either but I could be wrong.

I don't think that is Pekhart. I think it's Davenport.

I think he's had quite a big say in terms of selection. I remember reading about how at Espanyol he would encourage the youngsters to play a year ahead and it seems with the likes of Gape, Reed, Seager etc that they have been pushed up to the U21's.

He's a class act. Doesn't suit the way QPR play. He likes to have control of the ball and play at a slower tempo so he'd suit the way we play. It won't happen though. He'll go back to Spain.

Praising us or not, Claridge should never be considered a decent pundit.

He has Chelsea written all over him. 1 more season of Cole at least. The Bertrand can give it a crack for a season before they come in for Shaw. He'll happily wait for them and it suits him and us to do so.

Targett will probably be boosted up to the U21's. Pochettino made a point of doing that with kids at Espanyol, promoting young players to the level above their age group. Same will go for Seagar.

Nicole Shaw ‏@NicoleyShaw @Natalielallana1 luke got injured training for the England u21s today so he cant play tomorrow

Having taught a lot of kids I can pretty much say that it really isn't one of the first thing that is taught to them. If however I am wrong, then it explains why footballers in this country are technically **** poor.

He was asked if anything was arranged on Soccer Saturday and he said no.

If anyone knows it would be him. Good news IMO.

Seeing as the manager is the most unstable position in the whole of football, it's probably for the best he doesn't have the biggest influence over signings that the club makes. We are making long term purchases for the long term interests of the club. It's logical to suggest therefore that people who are here for the long term (Cortese and Reed) have input. That's the point of the club philosophy. Only United probably do it any differently in the Premier League and thats because their manager is the most stable position in football atm. Every other club has a club philosophy that the signings and managers will fit into.. (Swansea, WBA, Newcastle, Chelsea are all examples of this). Welcome to modern day football. Much more efficiently run with long term planning.

No chance of it being 4 million.

Not suprised to see Clyne left out. Remember he was targeted by ourselves last season because of his height and also this season Bale scored by out jumping him. Ramirez might have a knock?

I think it was just the tactical nature of the game yesterday. Newcastle play direct football meaning gaps open up between defence, midfield and attackers allowing defensive knock downs to be picked up and quickly played into our attacking players like Ramirez, Puncheon and Lallana so they could run at the defence. Anita and Tiote were poor at intercepting and stopping that IMO, meaning the defence was exposed. On Wednesday Norwich will be a lot tighter especially between the midfield and defence, meaning our full backs will have to be outlets when attacking so as to either whip in crosses or pull wingers and full backs wider so as to create spaces for our attacking players. Wouldn't be surprised if Fox was back on the bench and came on if things are tight so he can put in deep crosses. Expect Lambert to cause problems with back post headers.

Talking of gay applauses the one when Lambert shook Pardew's hand was special.

48 hours is not plenty of rest btw. From my OKish knowledge and background in sport science I know that 48 hours rest is certainly not an advised amount to maximise performance so I imagine the guys in a much better place than me made a pretty good decision there. As for tonights supposed strong teams, United made 10 changes, Chelsea 6. Spurs also 6 I think..maybe 7? Thats with another 24 hours rest. Stop over reacting. It's been our policy all tournament to put out young players and players who are looking for an opportunity to play. Ours arn't as good as some of the bigger clubs as you talk about. It eventually caught up on us, oh dear, what a shame, never mind. Like anybody would have given a **** if we'd won. Nobody cared about the previous rounds so why now we've lost?

Not a chance Reed will take the job if Adkins goes. If it's that cushty he won't want to jepobdise it by putting himself in the position that is the least stable in the any football club. It's because the managers position is so unstable in any club that we have someone like Reed being involved in big decisions at the club by the way. So that a manager change wont change things massively with **** loads of new demands etc. Any manager coming in will know the situation just as Adkins did when he signed his new contract.

Maybe he's been injured and ill over the previous weeks and only just returned to training last week like Adkins said?

http://vann.is/r/gifs/smooock.gif

Not a chance Harry is getting the job. He isn't suited to it in any way whatsoever. Taking away the obvious hatred for the bloke, I'm not sure why anyone thinks he suits anything going on at the club at the moment? He's not going to fancy implementing anything long term, certainly wouldn't be up for playing the "Southampton Way", won't be told to play 433 like the U21 and U18 teams, won't care too much about bringing the youngsters through, he won't want to work with Reed too closely, he won't be happy without bringing in Jordan and Bond and certainly won't get on with Cortese. Not sure why anyone thinks Cortese will want to look at the next guy as a short term fix either, he'll back himself to get the right man for the job long term. Just like he did with Adkins, he didn't go for anything obvious and got the guy he thought could help run the club the way he wanted. If I had to guess right now, I'd say Martinez but only if Cortese can convince him it's a big enough job for him.

The fascination with pointing the finger at Cortese for Adkins 433 comment is a bit OTT. The theory is a good one, one that is implemented at ALOT of top top clubs round the world. The idea that the whole club playing the same way is one that is often praised. Leaving all footballing matters in the full control of the manager who is the one whose job is the least safe in every club doesn't make a lot of sense. No point in changing the manager and having another come in and change everything . Les Reed job here is vital. Just look at clubs who have changed manager recently suh as Swansea, they wanted a manager who fitted their clubs philosophy. The club is always bigger than the manager nowadays and the trick is to find one that suits and performs in your environment. The problem I think has come in our first team trying to implement this in our toughest season under Adkins so far. The first season was about getting out of League one ASAP. If playjhg 433 was the plan all along why didnt we try doing if last year? Has the plan changed over the summer or was it always the plan to change to 433 this season? We're we hoping we'd invest well enough to pull it off this year? If so, that could still happen an dCortese and Reed have to decide whether Adkins can implement sufficiently. They must have seen him as a long term appointment when they have him a contract extension, has their faith in his ability to coach and implement a 433 formation dwindled? We'll see.