Charlie Wayman

We have surely seen the best and worst of Redmond over the years. Why should we expect anything different to what we have seen and endured over the seasons. In my opinion he has never been sufficiently professional to have knuckled down and worked really hard on correcting his weaknesses. If only he had the dedication and determination of a Romeu or a JWP for example he could have been a half decent player but he doesn't and he isn't. He is what he is and never will be consistent enough to warrant and hold down a permanent place in the starting XI.

On loan or not, for this season he is a Saints asset and his future has nothing to do with our present. If he is our best striker then he should play ever week. Good will come of it even if he leaves at the end of the season as Adams & Armstrong will need to up their games considerably to get back into the team.

Depends I suppose on one's expectations, if being set up mainly to contain the opposition, keep a clean sheet and hit them on the break for a 1-0 then some might have enjoyed that and fair to argue that the ends justify the means. That's not what I want to see. Let's just hope we have not given up on being a slick passing fast running attacking team that creates loads of chances and scores a few goals. Perhaps that is naive. Surely it cannot be that the quality of our players is so low that RH can only set us up to defend or attack but not both?

A dour and unimaginative performance from Saints contributed to a scrappy and in most part utterly forgettable match with few highlights and little genuine excitement. If this is what it takes to keep clean sheets then we are in for a long, boring and miserable season. Salisu was our one player worthy of the MotM tag while McCarthy showed improvement with a couple of good reaction saves and increased aerial authority in his 6 yard box. Stephens was reliable and solid and did what he is paid to do. JWP & Romeu were way below par and Redmond frustrated as only he can. With a misfiring midfield we never really got going. Why Tella's pace wasn't used alongside Broja in the late stages of the game is beyond me, whet's the kid done to have fallen so far from grace? Leaving Armstrong to forage on his own for much of the match was a recipe for certain failure and we rarely offered a serious goal threat. It seems to me that we are not in good shape for next week's visit to City, caught between this new negative style of keeping a clean sheet at all cost, and our normal high-octane easy on the eye attacking play. Once again there were question marks over Ralph's team selection, while Tino seems to be his flavour of the month I am not convinced he is any better than Kyle W-P defensively or going forward. Certainly in the final third in positioning and decision making KWP is far superior. Ralph should not forget that Livramento is 18 and has a lot to learn. Playing Djenepo, Elyonoussi and Redmond together seemed extravagant and short sighted especially with Theo side-lined, leaving us with no viable substitution options when they tired.

Living his dream and why not.

Funny to you maybe but quite offensive to many old men on here. Plenty of smelly young men around who have never understood what personal hygiene means!

Worse than the Austin Allegro?

Really nice film on the OS today of an interview taking place with Oriol and his new Classic Porsche out in the New Forest. Turns out he has a Motor Home, loves classic cars and frequently drives home to Spain in them. To cap it all he has just had a new arrival in the family. Hard to imagine a more grounded player in this modern age where flash and glitz seem to dominate most minds. Solid as a rock on and off the field, rarely if ever expresses dissatisfaction with his life and just gets on with what he is paid to do always with a broad smile. How can we not love this guy? We are fortunate indeed to have him here playing for the Saints. What I love most is his choice of classic cars, a Porsche of course - what else - but a well selected highly regarded collector's model at that. This chap knows his onions.

It has always been a rip-off since we moved to SMS. Best to park in the town centre car parks and walk down, much, much cheeper with no congestion when you get back to your car.

Match day comparisons are of little value, even as a measure of match preparedness and fitness it doesn't convince as so much depends on the vagaries of the fixture list. Relative performance in specific matches doesn't tell the whole story either, we might have dominated a game last year and lost 0-1 whilst this year scrapping a late lucky draw having been outplayed all afternoon. The signs of progress we should look for are goals scored and goals conceded, it's that simple really, 4-7 last year, 4-6 this. To me that suggest we are still at or about where we were last year. Little has changed but we've played only 3 game so far.

BBB

Based on what exactly?

...and we will. 3-1 to Saints with a proviso that we must go in at HT 2-0 up. Expect an unchanged team form the toon trip.

Of course not

If we have to pick a number this early in the season then 13th.

Chuck them out of the World Cup, full stop!

This is a thread about Lyanco chaps!

Could be that we were paying Obafemi much higher wages? ...and 2m smackeroons is not to be sneezed at! Doubt Dan has much value on the open market.

There you go then.

The answer to all rhetorical questions is "No" You didn't expect an answer of course.

Why not? Money guarantees very little if all the super stars in the world do not gel as a team. Where are the super stars at Wolves, Leeds & Everton yet their systems ensure they punch well above their weight. Arsenal are packed with super stars aren't they? Ronaldo is a show pony with a very big ego. Trying to manage him will be a nightmare, will cost Solskjaer his job and ManUre any sense of cohesion and harmony. They will fall short yet again.

Extending either of those contracts (McCarthy, Stephens) would be an act of sheer lunacy. Run down their contracts and let them leave if they wish. Believe me they will be begging for a new contact once they realise no other team in the PL will take a second glance at them. It is time to finish clearing out the closet and dumping the rubbish.

Blimey you Redmond lovers really are a sensitive bunch of luvvies. Dare I suggest you look at the whole match again from the point where Redmond came on and then tell me what else he did that was helpful other than his speculative cross into the box that Elyonoussi stretched to reach and the simple ball slipped through to the fast running Armstrong along side him in the last minute. Nearly all of his attempts at beating his man down the left side failed. Wake up and get real, he's on the bench for a reason

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! So every player was rubbish but we played really well? How many beers were you on last night? Did you actually see the match? Doh!

A bright and compelling performance ultimately compromised by lack of match fitness. By 60 minutes we were done with KWP and Livramento largely spectators as our over-lapping wing runs that we depend upon so much disappeared. Inevitably our performance collapsed. Hopefully our match fitness and stamina will improve as game time increase. Everyone played reasonably well until the break although Djenepo hardly distinguished himself by fluffing every chance he had. It's all very well saying he should be dropped but Redmond with fresh legs was hopeless and seems past his prime. Many Saints eyes will have been focused on Elyonoussi and he did not disappoint, slow he may be but clearly he has a football brain good enough for the Premier League. His positional sense and darting runs caused the Toon no end of trouble and there were encouraging signs of a good partnership forming with Livramento. Capping it with his first league goal in the PL was the icing on a fairly well baked cake. Good luck to him. The second half was largely forgettable save the sheer bloody single mindedness of JWP's spot kick in the last minute. I guess all of us watching were praying he would not let us down... and he didn't, well done James. The learning point from today was that we cannot play at the speed of light from the outset and expect the players to last for more than 60/70 mins however fit they appear to be. A very big Plus was the ever improving performance of Mohammed Salisu, a genuine star in the making.