ThorpG

I don't think it is delusional to aim high. Best to aim high and fall short, than set low expectations, where you simply aim for mediocrity. The club should aim to win every game in every competition, however unlikely that is. Otherwise what is the point of the players even bothering to run on to the pitch. It is no coincidence to me that the club has had its best finish in years against a backdrop of higher standards and higher expectations, supported by a more ambitious transfer policy. If the club had set low expectations and aimed at mid table obscurity, would players of the standard of Lovren and Wanyama join and would players like Lallana stay?

Not quite the same. Clyne has had two good seasons in the Premier League and would walk into most Premier League teams. Wickham has had a run over about five games following loan spells to the Championship. Not really a fair comparison. I wouldn't take either to the World Cup, for the simple reason that Johnson is a better right wing back, while Lambert is a long way ahead of Wickham (and Carroll for that matter).

In fairness, I have posted before and Glasgow Saint has been willing to admit / acknowledge another viewpoint, so am going to 'play the ball, not the man'. I do think he is misguided on this point though; to me Pochettino is showing indecision maybe, but not disloyalty. Would prefer he just signed a new contract because I think he is a good manager for us, but also think that nothing likely to happen until the season is over.

Has Pochettino shown any disloyalty? Why would he not wait to for the end of season and then sit with the owners, to discus plans. If he was deep in talks over his contract now, he would be criticised for not focussing on the three remaining games.

Then they would moan that we have not kicked on in Europe...

Take the money and run. He looks like he is on a downward trajectory going from club to club, shrouded with controversy. His value could drop further.

Let's be honest most of this site is pointless as we are guessing, hypothesising, opining, making stuff up etc. Would be a pretty dull site if we could only post facts, given none of us work for the club, and therefore don't really know...

You strengthen your weakest positions first. We have three good centre backs (Lovren, Fonte and Yoshida) - that is not the worst position. We have one left back (who may leave). We have 1 Premier League standard keeper, we need two. We have no replacement up front, so as soon as we have one injury (I.e. Rodriguez) we are short of goals. We know we have a top rate first XI; our issue is we have little quality off the bench or to move to a 'Plan B' when we can't break teams down. I think there might be a time and place to replace Fonte, but not sure it is this summer, on the basis we need to resolve the first three issues first as a priority, and getting in more than 3 players is a tough ask with a potentially limited budget. If we do this and find the money / right player to improve on Fonte than will have been a very, very good summer, but looks a stretch to me.

It is a poisoned chalice role. Expectations of tournament victories despite complete lack of talent in the national game (relative to other big nations). Good and bad managers have all failed and been subject to relentless abuse and criticism. If the job did not pay well no one would do it. Redknapp on more than the Spanish and German national managers... . Then again I bet neither Loew or Del Bosque are as well schooled at reciting the 'down to the bare bones' line with a straight face...

So Fonte, who has been a top servant for the club in all three divisions we have been in, should be jettisoned straight away because his form has gone downhill of late. Nothing knee jerk there, then? Don't get me wrong, I would love another Lovren-type for a bargain price, but there are not many of those to be found. Fonte is good enough for us - would spend any funds we have on a backup keeper, a striker with a turn of pace (both to cover Rodriguez in the short term and to inject a bit of needed pace into the squad) and a backup CB to replace Hooiveld. Am also assuming we will bring in replacements for Shaw and Ramirez, on the assumption both of these likely to move on.

Would rather kill off the website though... Waiting for a backlash now - surely someone is going to call me a 'happy clapper'...

Would agree with every single part of that.

Agreed - only possible other for me would be Magath for Bruce if Fulham stay up. Fulham were a shambles when he took over and yet they look like they might just scrape their way out of trouble at the expense of Norwich, West Brom or Swansea.

Not ideological, simply a reflection of where we are as a club. A few of the very top clubs have a Plan A, a Plan B and maybe a Plan C (and I am talking Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool this season). Most good but not great teams seem to essentially have one plan (hence Arsenal, Tottenham, Man United and Everton have at times played with the same tactics this season even when clearly not working, because they have no alternative). We have a clear style which is mostly effective, but current squad strength prevents us moving into top 6-7. The pressing game has served us well, gives the club a style (we are good to watch, far more so than most teams we face) and gives us a base to kick on next season - a couple of good recruits, another year for the younger players in the squad, and maybe we can develop a Plan B. I believe had we organised proper cover the Boruc this season, it would have made far more difference than any conversations about Ramirez, Puncheon, why Pochettino failed etc. Most teams in the bottom half barely have a Plan at all (any idea what tactics/formation Newcastle, Fulham, Hull, Norwich or Cardiff were employing?) BTW - very few talked about Top 4, we are Saints fans, we are nearly all wired to think in terms of survival first then look up.

On a value for money basis would say Ruiz. Cost Fulham a lot and did nothing - never looked like he was playing the same game as the rest of his teammates. Altidore scandalously bad also - isn't a striker meant to go in the penalty area occasionally? Turning to players we are oddly linked with, I always think Curtis Davies is truly dire - from memory he once described one of his own performances (for Aston Villa, I think) as the level of 'pub player'. Clearly more aware off the pitch than on it...

I would suggest that the form Puncheon has shown recently is form we never really saw in the Premier League. Football is like that - sometimes a move reenergises a player (Davies to Bolton? Marsden to Saints!!!). It is not a linear sport, why players succeed at one club and struggle at another is something no-one can really claim to understand, otherwise buying players would be easy. How many other clubs were after him, by the way? Not a long line... Not a big Ramirez fan either, before you start quoting stats, £ numbers etc. I would happily lose both players, I am not sure either have really cracked it at Saints as Premier League players (Puncheon did do a good job for us in L1 and Champ, but then so did Hammond, and I got over losing him also). I would like to see us back a younger British player (either through the academy or from the lower leagues), as I believe this has been our best strategy so far (Lallana, Shaw, Clyne, Chambers, Rodriguez, Ward-Prowse etc.). Failing that I think the French league offers better deals than the Italian league (for a club like us) - I think if you play in Italy, Southampton can feel like a hell of a step down.

Let it go. We didn't win the cup, but have done pretty well in the league. Last year we didn't win the cup and just stayed up. Progress. We would all love a cup win. But the team played like cr*p against a 2nd rate Sunderland team. I was p*ssed about it. Then got over it and moved on. I hope next year we can get into top six and win the cup. Then again, knowing Saints, we are just as likely to go bust or get relegated. In three years time we will have forgotten about cup defeat and 8th place, I am pretty sure about that.

Robbie Slater was a much better Aussie than Scott MacDonald...

You are right. Let's approach the future with absolutely no hopes or dreams beyond finishing 17th... OK so Fulham, Stoke, P*mpey, Bolton, Birmingham have all played in Europe (all of whom clearly dwarf us in terms of revenues, spending power etc...) in recent years, but we should definitely have lower ambitions. The long term plan of the club should be to get into Europe (realistically the Europa League). No-one (including Doctor Who) is saying this season, but why not in a few years time?

Antonio - good player for us. That said we have moved on to the Premiership - he is playing for Sheffield Wednesday. He may turn out to be a decent player, but I hope our horizons are a bit wider than that - we need to survive the Premiership with a squad of players who are untested at that level - not a time to bring in Leaue One wingers.

St Mary's sounds OK to me. I am not sure we would get enough for naming rights (we are hardly Newcastle after all) to justify changing it to something bland and corporate...

Matty vs. Newcastle where he flicks it over everyone's heads. Matty vs. Blackburn Pahars vs. Skates - a bit sentimental maybe but loved Pahars, was a great goal and was one of the last great things he did in a Saints shirt.

Going up as Champions. Reading will slip up vs. Brighton and we will consign them to 2nd place when we beat them on Friday. Adkins and the team have a winning mentality (that's why they they were able to get over the Skates game and win comfortably away today).

Why 'pity'. Does losing 1 game preclude us from winning it? I thought being top at the end of the season meant you won the title? Just checked the table - think we were still top... What a strange comment.