Charlie Wayman

At the time he was signed did he not say he couldn't believe how much money we would pay him? Then he found out just how hard he had to train! Who else turns up at the workplace (training ground) with his girl friend / missus in tow, shows what he was thinking... this is a doddle, swan around play a few games get a load of dosh... what's not to like. Poor old Jose, first it's Pardew then this clown.

Don't hold your breath. Too many smiles around the training ground yesterday to suggest anybody is about to leave. Also difficult to integrate a new player before it will have an impact on performance, best left to summer now.

He's played in the PL twice so must be quite a lot better than most on here allow credit. As far as I can see he was caught out of position about as often as Shaw, Clyne & Chambers - it's what happens when full backs are asked to bomb forward but they don't have the pace to get back against the counter attacks. He didn't really have the benefit of Louvren covering him as Shaw does so let's not get too out of context about his positional play especially as both goals against on Tuesday night came from errors against their right wing attacks and Fox wasn't playing. Footballers do love playing football, that's why they are footballers. Only a numbskull would suggest that they enjoy life on easy street by being paid to train and sit on the bench in the rain every match day.

Yoshi has a big chance now to shine and secure his international place. He knows that and he will deliver. Too much face to lose in Japan if he doesn't take the opportunity presented to him now. In Japan it is socially unacceptable to lose face.

+ bloody one!

One of the best games ever at SMS, a thrilling encounter between two of the best tippy-tappy footballing side in the country. Felt a bit sorry for the new whizz kid missing from two yards with what could have been the match winner. Chambers was awesome, Morgan imperious and Corkie & Davis tigerish. This was no fluke and we should be higher up the league than 9th. We still give away sloppy goals, Jay is a liability in our own box and we need to keep him out of it. Poor old Ward-Prowse just couldn't get up to the pace of the game coming on late. On this showing by Arsenal I am even more convinced that Chelsea will win the PL this year simply because they sussed our game and neutralised our threat after the break, whereas Arsene-al did not.

Boruc looked very rusty at Sunderland and could have done better for both their goals whereas Davis is a great shot stopper - our keeper is probably going to need to stop a lot of shots tomorrow night

Davis - Clyne - Fonte - Yoshida - Shaw - Cork - Schneiderlin - Davis - Lambert - Rodrigues - Lallana Self selecting on form of last two matches.

I guess the answer must be that perhaps the opportunity has gone by. Maybe if/when the stadium is upgraded as per the published glossy pics then maybe that would be the right thing to do. Right now I'd call for the Itchen to be renamed The Marcus Liebherr Stand - in fact they should have down it long ago.

No. What a ridiculous proposition. Another FL in the making and let's hope he can go on until he is 40. There should always be a place for Jack Cork, our new Matt Oakley.

Which in fact was only following the Reading model and in itself a bloody good idea. When you look at the environs of SMS, like a post apocalypse industrial waste ground and it nigh impossible accessibility too traffic you can't help but wonder how it came out so wrong. Yes, we got the stadium but only because no other use could be found for such a barren site.

Nice idea but Arsenal will beat us 1-0 in the final

Very prosaic, trouble is we've not only hit an inconvenient pothole, we've broken a wheel as well.This bus ain't going anywhere very fast until we get somebody in to fix it.

Oh come on chaps don't lets get ahead of ourselves, Brentford maybe, Barcelona... "Usted debe ester bromeando" as in 'taking the urine!'

You should have gone to Specsavers, old chap. He has a degree in Accountancy & Economics from Southampton Univ. When I was at Univ. under-graduate meant the three years studying for a degree before it was awarded.

I was about to write exactly the same idea. Of course the fact that we agree doesn't make it more likely but it is the reasonable assumption. Interim means "keeping the chair warm" in corporate speak. I don't see this as necessarily encouraging news even if it allows continuity. On the other hand finding people of the calibre of Cortese to replace The Don was never going to be easy.

Didn't we steal a bloke called Lambert from Bristol Rovers for a bag of chips and two gaspers, we really are a very bad lot...

A very thoughtful in initiative that I for one appreciate very much. I also loved the sting tucked in amongst the prose... "a few smiles too". I alluded the other day to thaw fact that Marcus was alwya smiling and waving and we have missed that clear embrace of togetherness ever since. "We are as one" etc was always meaningless Cortese-speak after Pardew & Adkins got the big heave-ho but more relevant to us was the disrespect shown to fans by never ever telling us anything about what was going on inside the club. Cortese's 'behind closed doors' really meant bolted tight, shuttered and triple locked. I am lucky as my seat is very close to those of the board but in all Cortese's time here it is hard to recall a single occasion on which he actually looked into the faces of fans around him and smiled any sign of recognition or friendship even 'though all those fans had been in their same seats for every one of his five years.

Wishful thinking on your part. Cortese simply wanted to grab full power and resented having to report to even there Liebherr family.

I thought that was down to Martin Broughton or do we read different newspapers.

You'll be lucky to get away with that after-thought. The context of your original entry doesn't allow this answer.

Hadn't you noticed that we are already competing with Man City & Chelsea or is the PL organised differently these days?

You could indeed, lots of oppo goals come down the right side because he's so often caught out of position. Give Boruc some slack, he's been out for weeks had next to nothing to do until suddenly the ball's past him into the net. Could have done better on their second? Have you any idea how fast that bloody ball is going when it's hit full belt from 5 yards and near the post. I don't blame him for not having fast enough reactions to stop it and the memory of his recent accident smashing a hand against a post won't have helped his automatic instincts in that particular instance but for sure he didn't hold up the white flag either. Of course if his hand is not 100% and was a factor then he shouldn't be playing until super fit and ready, it was odd he wanted off soon after maybe he realised that when the **** hits the fan like that he isn't really ready to risk all.

You wonder why we bother to play pretty intricate football when a team as crassly poor as Sunderland can score just as many goals playing what the pundits call "the direct game" with lots of physical huffing and puffing and long hopeful balls up the channels followed by aimless crosses to nowhere in particular. The conclusion is that ugly, unentertaining kick-a-bout is just as effective as tippy-tappy tango, so what's it all about? The answer is as usual our strikers let us down badly and miss open goal after open goal when we should have scored at least 4 before HT and maybe 5. Plenty of comment above about this so no need to go on and on but if the front men can't score then Cork, Davis and Schneiderlin should step up to the plate but they rarely do. Surely we can be more objective and aggressive in the final third? Give Saurez a sniff if a goal and he bust every gut in his body to make sure it goes in the net, same with Aguero, same with Hazard. Are they great players by nature or jus more willing to have a go when others give it up as a bad job. Rodrigues and Lambert do not have the forcefulness of these types of players and it is high time management woke up to the fact. What happened to Seagar, I thought he scored for fun? Is there nobody in the Academy of Shearer quality coming through? Tough week I know but bloody hell this second half collapse was inexcusable. If they're all knackered by HT then for heaven's sake slow them up ia bit in the first half so that they have some energy left for later.

The article is unfair to Cortese. Who was it that picked unknown managers from obscurity and made them household names? A fool and money are soon parted, no sign of financial failure here. Samuels is right about the dispensability of people around Cortese but that's what a CEO is for and a good one can and will take tough decisions without allowing emotional considerations to get in the way. He could handle the truth, many others around football cannot. I didn't see Samuel writing much direct criticism whilst Cortese was in post, it must be fun to come out from under cover to join in the kicking of the corpse.