beancounter saint

Thanks for this - I find it an interesting, if not terribly happy at the moment(!) read.

Maybe so, Tadic I actually thought was playing well last season until he smashed up his nose playing for Serbia against Wales and had a few weeks off but that's a long time ago now.

Me too, I know it's easy to get a fixed mindset about certain players but I think Tadic has been absolutely woeful for a long time now.

Interesting to see only 14 pages on the thread following the biggest win in living memory compared to 19 so far on the Newcastle one!!

It's Sunday isn't it - or even Monday morning in Oz, even more reason to stay in bed!!

That might be your opinion but it's not a statement of fact. As has been pointed out numerous times, the league finishing position has improved consistently under Les Reed's tenure - it seems to me this a more objective measure. We will see if last season was a blip or the start of a new trend.

He is paid to act in the best interests to Southampton FC, not those of individual players.

Agree in pretty much every respect but, to be fair, if everyone shared our opinions, there wouldn't be a lot to read on here!!

Good point, and Michail Antonio was, and is, extremely quick once he gets going - maybe not quite "Jonno Quick" though!

"The torpedo" Federico Arias. Don't think he ever actually made it on to the pitch, but the possibility was eagerly anticipated! I do like players with genuine pace - Shane Long is probably about my favourite at the moment - they have the raw materials to do something special even if in reality they rarely do!

This is right and anyone who is not being wilfully obtuse can see it.

Well fair enough, but I would still say the results achieved in the group stage were a step up from being eliminated against Midtjylland over 2 legs.

The home form has been undeniably been pretty limp in terms of attacking effectiveness but I don't buy how the European campaign has suddenly become a "pathetic display". It was a considerably better effort than Koeman managed the previous year and I thought he was now some sort of footballing Messiah? As to the unhappiness or otherwise of the squad, who knows?

I looked this up today and, as far as I could make out, silva was appointed on Jan 5th when hull were 11 points behind saints and, as of today, the gap is exactly the same.

Lol!!

Your "support" seems to come with an awful lot of preconditions. Are you sure you wouldn't be happier supporting Chelsea/Man City/Man Utd?

No, I'm almost 100% certain it was actually down to he and Watson finally getting around to reading some of the thoughts of the sage contributors on here and acting on them! ;-)

Yes, must be a really bad egg, considering he has been just about the only constant at the centre of the club's activities since April 2010.

Sorry, but if you try to draw definite conclusions from single results in isolation it is you who fits into that category. The fact is that football, more than most sporting contests as it is relatively hard to score, involves quite a bit of luck which often distorts the result of a single game. There will be plenty of times when Saints get a win over a better side and, conversely, come out losing against a worse side, through chance on the day. Over a season it usually more or less levels itself out.

The way I remember it, Delap scored twice with his head, both from Neil McCann crosses, but it was quite a while ago!!

Back when I first started watching Saints, Paul Durkin seemed to do a good job. I remember a 3-2 win at St Mary's against Arsenal when he sent Sol Campbell off and I think there may have been a couple of other occasions where we got the rub of the green with him. He's from Dorset apparently!

I've always thought Long was the fastest sprinter in the squad, even before Mane left. I'm sure I read somewhere he competed as a sprinter when he was a schoolboy but can't find anything when I look now.

I certainly get this impression too. When he broke his goalscoring drought the rest of the team and the coaching staff seemed genuinely delighted.

He's a superb athlete, very quick and leaps like a salmon. Whilst coaching/training will improve players attributes I don't think many are capable of reaching his level. He's not the best finisher in the world but, in my opinion, not as bad as some on here would make out.

Was that Romain Gasmi? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romain_Gasmi Currently plying his trade at Bangkok Utd!!