Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

Cedric is fit again according to Pellegrino.

Another thing you get with Austin is that he's a big lad and he'll put himself about a bit. Defenders know he's a good finisher so they can't give him space in the box but they also know they'll be in a physical battle too. Long is a pest too but without the real physicality. Hopefully Charlie can stay fit & go on a decent scoring run now he's in the side.

So it's just in practice they can't be a*sed?

As I'm no longer a season ticket holder, I now get to about 10 games a season. I've not seen us score at St Mary's since Feb 4th when Gabbi scored vs West Ham (excluding the Cup Final at Wembley) and I've not seen us win since we beat Boro on 10th Dec 2016! I reckon I've spent about £250 going to League games since I last saw Saints score, which is pretty f*cking dire by anyone's standards. If Les said "give me an extra £31.82 & I'll guarantee you a goal at the next game you go to", I'd snap his hand off...

The games a day & half away & I'm already wondering whether I've done the right thing in getting tickets. No sense as to what sort of performance we'll put in & one of the main improvements, Lemina, won't be available again. I've been looking back at the games I've attended in 2017 & realised that the last goal I saw us score was in the League Cup final at Wembley in Feb. That's 6 or 7 games my son & I have been to without seeing a goal...

Looks like Fonte has had another great game tonight at another of the League's wonder clubs.

I like the energy Long brings to the team but that doesn't mean he should be our main striker. Agree he should be on the right; his crossing is actually a little underrated and he could still bring that constant chasing down & pressuring of the defence to the side. Gabbi would undoubtedly appreciate the support of another out & out forward player too, creating space for him.

It's actually a bit worse than that. Edited...

Shane Long couldn't hit a cow's a*se with a banjo. Fact.

For me, Rickie is the player who best symbolises our ascension from League 1 back to the Premier League. Sure, there were other major contributors like Lallana, Schneiderlin, Fonte and Kelvin but Rickie was the standout. His own personal progression was in parallel to the team; each time we successfully took that next step up, so did he. When we reached the top flight of the domestic game, he got his chance to show he could succeed at that level, too, and got a richly deserved England call up (and that turned out pretty well, too). Even though in my head it was obvious he would never be coming back, as age caught up with him in the past couple of years, I always held that slight hope that he'd be back, even if just on some form of pay as you play deal, for one last hurrah. Best of luck to him in whatever he does now, though. He'll always be revered as a genuine Saints legend. And, if he wants to take on a role as a finishing coach somewhere, I know one place he'd be extremely useful currently...

A bit of light heartedness after today's latest defeat. Nathan Redmond, Neil McCann & Stuart Ripley are 3 Saints wingers who have attracted a reasonable amount of derision from our fans during more recent times. You have to pick one to be in our current Saints line up, based on their Saints form alone. Who do you pick...

Hopefully, though, he'll be another like Bertrand & Romeu who has been in that big club situation already & now wants some proper game time to show what he can do. Yes, he'll probably go back up the ladder at some point but maybe not for a couple of years at least, I think.

I wonder when we'll find out if the re-integration process has begun? I think I read he was expected at training today but I wonder if that will be a continuation of his solo training or he's accepted he'll be here until January at least and he's back with the remaining first team (who aren't away on international duty). Surely he'll need at least a couple of u23 games before he can be considered for first team action, having not played since January, if his mindset is to get his head down and get on with it.

Looking at that, I don't think he's unhappy at Saints, I just think it's his general demeanour. Ryan Bertrand just don't like life!

Ah. Let's hope he uses his last post of the day wisely then...

I wonder if Tom28 ever did get his email through to St Chalet??

Then Walcott to us?

Can we carry some of these goals forward to the Watford game??

Can't really class him as a 'defector' but Harlee Dean is leaving Brentford for Birmingham for £2m.

I think all managers have their own way of dealing with potential incomings. Koeman would quite openly talk about them, Adkins would not comment at all and Pellegrino seems to be coy or plays dumb. Just something we'll have to get used to and try to interpret, I guess.

On today's showing, you can see why he'd prefer a move to Liverpool over Arsenal! Still hope we hold our nerve in these final few days of the window.

Good. Dedicated pro & well deserving of a new deal. Unlike others, will probably see it out too, without a fuss...

Tadic's effectiveness dropped markedly when Pelle and Mane left IMO. When he had the ball, with Pelle, he had a strong and technical focal point who could retain possession better than we do currently, whilst Mane's speed often meant he could turn an average through ball into a decent one. Now we have Austin, who only really comes alive in the box, and whilst Manolo does look to get into behind a defence, he doesn't have the same speed to turn the threaded passes Tadic likes to play into decent ones. Whereas Tadic was able to move the ball on quite quickly before, he's now holding onto it longer, slowing down our play because he probably realises this too. I feel for Boufal. He was built up to be a world beater before he arrived but he's never achieved the consistent game time we need him to have, to see if he can be an effective weapon for us. Like someone said above, he's now almost overplaying to try to demonstrate his worth, in an attempt to convince the manager he's worth keeping on the pitch. Last season, he was undone by injuries, this season I feel we need to have a bit of faith in him and hope the outcome is a consistent output of goals and chances created.

Don't mess with my Hoedt Hoedt... (as per the Denise LaSalle classic)

I did see him play for Lazio against Brighton in a pre-season friendly last summer. Looked composed & rarely troubled by Brighton's powderpuff attack on the day, alongside De Vrij. Fingers crossed he'll go on to be the defender we hope he'll be.