Charlie Wayman

He played well today, maybe he should start at Burnley in place of Redmond?

We seem unable to hold onto the ball and string more than three passes together, the one time we did today we scored. Possession stats will be interesting. Bearing in mind there are only 7 days to go a lot of our players looked knackered after 30min which has to be a worry. The lads that came on at 60min were generally better than the starters they replaced. Valery looked really good today and Bednarek did well. Can't agree with some that Adams had a good game as far as I could see he didn't win many balls in dangerous areas. I liked the attitude of returning players Cedric & Boufal who gave it there all without a hint of sulkiness or lack of commitment. I guess it is the Ralph effect of believing in these players.

Stumped by this move. He has always looked the part unlike Obefami yet it's the latter who has caught Ralph's eye. Guess it's hard to know what to do with some promising young players as even younger ones push up into the U23s. We don't want to block pathways but there are only so many kids that can be in the first team squad.

No. Why do you launch such daft threads?

We are where we are and it is of no help to keep looking backwards to play the blame game with people who are a million miles away from the Club now and couldn't give a stuff. Ralph seems to be better than that and very much the realist. His mantra is probably "These are the players we've got so I'll make the best of them" After all every single one of them has climbed through their academy ranks to become paid professionals and into first XI's of Top League European teams so de facto all are very good players. It is a myth that the PL is the best league in the world and many of these players cannot raise their standards to that level. What is different about the PL is its physicality and pace which are quite different issues to pure football skill. Nobody would expect a Border Collie to win a greyhound race after all. So if certain players find it hard to adapt physically to the PL just be aware that they have not suddenly become poor players worthy only of derision from mindless fans. As for why these individuals were signed in the first place the answer is that they are damned good footballers but nobody on Earth could have predicted which of them can meet the physical rigours of the PL and which ones could not. ... and for those who bemoan the 5 year contracts just remember what happened a couple of years before that so everyone thought that longer contracts were the way forward to stop our best players being syphoned off by richer clubs after a couple of years.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Traditionally the Chinese are risk averse and in for the long game and here we are only a year or so into the new owner's tenure. We talk often about 5 year plans but don't rule out the possibility that he could have a 10 year plan - remember a journey of 1000 mile begins with a single step.

(1) Where will we finish in the league? 5th (2) Which round we will reach in the Mickey Mouse Cup? we will win it (3) Which round in the FA cup? 6th (4) Leading Goalscorer? Boufal (5) Our player of the season? Adams (6) Which player will surprise you most? Hoedt (7) How do you think our great neighbors will get on down the M27? 2nd.

Totally agree. Hate 'em.

Who was maligning him? He's our local treasure! At least he is not the one eating all the pies.

That's a very good headline saintmatt, much depends on how old you are. When I was a kid Wolves were by far the biggest nickname "brand" whilst other well known ones included The Blades, The Owls, The Gunners, The Toffees, The Geordies even Pompey. I can't recall Man C, Man U, Chelsea or Liverpool having particularly famous nicknames at the time and even 'Spurs' was not that famous. The Seasiders was also a top team but alas no longer.

We cannot dismiss Danny Röhl's departure as being of little consequence. There have been plenty of examples in the PL where the headline success of well known managers has been underpinned to a huge extent by their lesser known assistant mangers who maybe were not be as good as managers in there own right but knew football and players better than their bosses so that the combination worked in perfect synergy. Ferguson relied on Mike Phelan for his success and Jose Mourinho on Rui Faria. These combinations do not happen by accident and it is simply not the case that one should expect similar outcomes when a new assistant is levered into place. Ralph's success at RB Leipzig was shared with Danny Röhl. It was noticeable that things improved when they teamed up again here last season. Without him Ralph may struggle. I sincerely hope not but Danny's departure cannot be good news for Ralph, SFC or we fans.

A lab experiment involving simulation is not medical evidence.

You forgot the mandatory Welly boots and rolled up newspaper.....

"What Saints don't want to do now is concede another goal"

Steady on, both sides agreed and signed contracts.

18 of last seasons squad list remain including FF. To that we can add Valery, Boufal, Adams & Djenepo so there are 3 spaces for newcomers or U23 promotees. Presumably Obefami will be one, maybe Reed or Smallbone another so if a CB is coming we have room for him

He is also the regularly playing captain of the Japan national team. A lot of critics overrate the average level of PL CBs, Maya is no worse than the average and probably quite a bit better than most. Would anybody really swap him for Cahill or Stones? VVD is probably exceptional but he too makes many mistakes and the odd clanger and I doubt we would join a queue to welcome back Lovren. Our future in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2 looks likely to be Vestergaard and Hoedt (yes, really) but Maya will always be picked in a 5-2-1-2

Here's a couple of explanations to mull over; 1. What did you expect from a cheapskate football club that does everything on the cheap? 2. Permission to go ahead with a fan zone has just been granted by the local authority for planning consent in outline and from the police for local impact (people live nearby) and crowd control. As the season was about to start so the club felt it important to have the project up and running for the first home game, so the sort of temporary furniture depicted in the artwork is all that was possible to meet the timescale. Meanwhile an application for detailed planning permission of a more permanent structure(s) including meeting building regs has been submitted but will take several months for argument, agreement and finalisation. If all that is successful, construction work will follow and the likelihood is that the definitive fan zone will be ready for the 2020-21 season. This season's temporary arrangements will serve as a pilot to provide data on access and usage and feedback to authorities on any problems or concerns that arise.

Where are the sandy beach and deck chairs?

Reed is looking decent. At least we had more ball possession second half. Best goal of the match from Boufal otherwise our front runners were clueless (as usual?).

What was that supposed to be? 45 mins and not a decent move of more than two passes from Saints. Feyenoord out-passed us at will and only rearguard heroics mainly from Bednarek is saving us from a hiding. Where is our midfield? Get Romeu out there on the next plane.

Surprised they haven't asked you to select and manage the team. Needless waste of money bringing in that untested Austrian bloke.

When I asked for a Kingfisher at my local curry house they brought me Tandoried

That's the way I see it too. Body language from Dublin suggests Ralph quite likes the player and what he does and he also seems very popular. I suppose it very much depends upon the lad himself and whether he is prepared to give it another go with Saints in the PL. Obviously he is fresh back from AfCON and has a bit of fitness training to catch up on as you can see in the pics that may be hard for him. In a 4-2-2-2 he would be an ideal partner for Redmond in the mid-attack twosome feeding Ings / Adams or Long / Djenepo. Sounds bloody exciting to me and would terrorise more than a few shaky PL defences - did somebody mention Arsenal, ManU & Liverpool?