Dman

Other than he actually plays football, he might be....

Won't wash with the football hipsters on here, but wouldn't be against us looking at Chris Wood on a freebie, should / when Che leaves. No frills but low risk, big, strong, knows the leauge and scored 14 goals last season.

If the actual Stu Armstrong couldn't shape Alcaraz into being a 'young stu armstrong' over 18 months, what hope has Adam Lallana... Ironically, alcaraz is probably more akin to AL than he is SA

Yeah, kinda how I'm seeing it. If they can replicate this turn over on the pitch, we'll be in good shape next season. That being said, from a pure strategic poisiton (and obviously replicating that sucess will be harder if the decision makers are also moving on), you do want / need consistency at the top...

Downes and JWP are both different players. JWP is and never has been a holding midfielder, he's always been a 'box to box' '8' or a '10'. JWP would be in to replace Smallbone or Aribo, not downes.

I dont think its strange at all personally. He's a hard working, tidy, risk free player. Perfect for someone like Moyes, not someone from the continent who wants to play something a bit more flamboyant.

It was always the challenge to find the balance - Ironically, they would have probably all been much better suited to a modern team. For me, Carrick was the missing peice. Had we been able to accomodate him with Lampard / Gerrard / Scholes, we'd have seen much more success.

Would you even take him back if he was? There's an arguement hes better than Smallbone (pretty storng arguement tbf), but massivley average, overrated player.

I have it on very good authority that Leicester were made to stand and watch the staff play golf on the course which they have at thier training ground.

His Missus makes Mara's mum look like Susan Boyle. She's top quality, him not so much.

Ings still lives in Winchester. Nothing to see here.

Hope the conference went well Turks - Did "you know who" tell about any progress on a certain number 9? Rest up, turn your phone off and try and enjoy a well earned break

I actually think Stewart was a good signing, in terms of ability - espeically at that level. Had he been fit, I think we'd have had a good crack at winning the leauge. I guess you can't odds him getting a second long term injury in the same season.

I'd offer him a short term deal to see if he can come back from injury and have an impact as Martin clearly likes him and he does add much needed experience, but truth be told, his days here are numbered.

Whilst I agree that everything else doesn't make sense, if you read reports, SR acknowledge that lack of 'experience' killed us last time round, so I'm not surprised by the links to 'older players'. That being said, if we're going to go for 'experience', I'd rather it was PL experience..

especially given we don't really play with a number 10.

what on earth are you rambling on about?

if true, which i'm not convinced it is, if we're looking for a no10, why would we not persist with Charley..?

Broja is about the best we can hope for on our budget (considering we'll likley need to strengthen in other area's as well). Still not taken my eyes off that lad from aberdeen, but I think theres much less risk in Broja.

Can you imagine how good Lavia would have been in our system (esepcially in the championship). I think he'll get plenty of game time under Enzo though.

They could get deduced 50 - 60 points and would still stay up. I suspect that's what'll happen - the PL will deduct them a stupid amount of points, but enough to give them a chance of staying up. Ultimatley, its not in the best interests of the PL to relegat one of its biggest sides.

Roll forwards 8 years and it'll all change again. Medium sized clubs like us, brighton etc. just cannot sustain long periods of success without significant investment.

Couldn't agree more with all of this. Dare I say it, its actually kind of got me leaning towards a touch of excitiment for the 'Northam Wall', before we're reminded of the general match day experience of the PL. I think a lot of credit has to go to Phil Parsons - He seems to 'get it'. Second leg against WBA and Sunday, are 2 atmospheres I can't remember seeing from saints in all my time of supporting them.

He wont be for much longer. Looking at potentially a career ending ban for spot fixing

As I said at the time, the injury to Bazunu is a blessing. I have big doubts we'd have ever been promoted with him in the net but more imnportantly, him being out has forced our hand in the fact we simply have to get a new keeper - which we wouldn't have planned for. McCarthy isn't the answer but neither is Bazunu. I hope we go for experience rather than young (i.e Trafford)