jasoneuelllfanclub

one of the national journos who covers saints has just tweeted this Alex Goring Crook ‏@alex_crook Hearing #saintsfc have made a formal bid for #Cagliari defender Davide Astore

With the colossus amount of money due next season for TV rights it is even more critical to every club to maintain their PL status. I would think that Saints have spent more than originally budgeted for however they are trying to sign players of quality that will have a higher sell on value should they ever be in a position where they need to recoup some money. I truly believe if we can manage to stay up this season then there are some exciting times ahead for us. We will have a young team with some real quality players and a much better chance of attracting quality players. On the other hand should the worst happen then we have some saleable assets that will hopefully balance out the books along with drop in wages. I am comfortable with it as it currently stands.

I read on twitter that the reason why Bent has been excluded from league games is that if he makes one for league appearance that will trigger a £7m payment to sunderland as part of the transfer deal. How true this is I have no idea but we will soon know come saturday.

Totally with you on this line up. If villa play 3-5-2 with the 3 young lads at the back then it be interesting to see how far up the pitch puncheon and guly play in order to support lambert. I can see lambert giving these lads an absolute torrid time however the supply from wide areas has to be decent still.

Italian international defender has too be decent surely. Serious money has been given to adkins, more than he could have hoped for I'm sure. Just a left winger pretty please mr cortesi and we will be more or less sorted.

A lot of pundits say Newcastle are too good to be relegated, I recall that's what they all said last time they went down. I really think they have major problems up there, giving Pards an 8 year contract based upon 1 good season was ludicrous and they may well regret that. For me QPR, Reading and Villa are the 3 weakest teams however I expect 1 other team to be dragged into it and end up being relegated, most probably Newcastle with Villa staying up by the skin of there teeth.

Corky is mr consistent. Morgan is either exceptional or poor. Sunderland game example where he was awful but man utd game he was brilliant. Corky for me.

i think adkins will rest 3-4 players for this. he will want to protect the likes of shaw, clyne, lambert and maybe morgan. boruc richardson fonte yoshida fox cork davis guly puncheon ramirez rodriguez

Indeed. No way can we be outnumbered in the midfield with Wilshire, Corzola and Arteta they will destroy us and pick us off at will. We need to match them up and press them for the whole game (very hard I know esp after so many games over xmas). However Newcastle exploited there main weakness being fullback area and dealing with crosses. Unfortunately for Newcastle this allowed Arsenal midfield to have a lot of the ball in the Midfield which was to there detriment obviously. So difficult balance to find without being torn apart. Adkins has some tough calls to make. JRod deserves a chance but likewise Rickie is our main man so do we play 2 up front still or use JRod out left where is wasted imo? Then there is the case for choosing Guly based on his performance on saturday (missing an open goal aside). We need to give their midfield 3 something to think about, play between the lines as Nige would say. I am struggling how to guess what Adkins will go with for this one so based on my own preferences I think it will be: ---------------davis------------------- clyne fonte yoshida shaw puncheon morgan cork guly ------------ramirez--------------- ------------lambert---------------

No not imo. We absolutely need more creativity in wide areas especially on the left side now we are with out lallana for x amount of weeks. We havent played well since Newcastle game (Reading was ok but they are awful) and since reading game we have barely created what I would class as clear cut chances. We miss Lallana immensely and Adkins will know this contrary to what he tells the media. Lambert, JRod, Mayuka and Lee are fine for me but we need better supply whether it be crossing or those defence splitting passes. We dont seem to score those types of goals. Adkins is keeping quiet on AL injury for two reasons. 1. not to alert upcoming opposition. 2. not to increase media speculation on transfer targets

Sorry but Stoke are all about hoofball imo. They just hit hopeful boys up to Jones or Crouch and rely on knockdowns and failing that they have set pieces. They will probably beat us but it will be down to physical factors more than anything and nothing to do with skill and vision.

a lot of there goals come from corners or just knock downs from lumps upfield by midfielders or defenders. even when we play 4-4-2 we still tuck in far to much and let the oppo get crosses in far too easily. it is going to be tough for sure but we have slightly greater chance with shawcross being suspended. no point going like v like lets bring some pace upfront and try to get behind them.

this is the problem we have when with out lallana. we need mobility upfront especially when playing away hence me putting Jrod in but we also need ramirez in his most effective position to provide the creative outlet. my take is that stoke dont have much possession partly because they play hoof ball but because there midfielders are not very good on the ball so it is important we get hold of the ball, frustrate them and cause them problems with pace and vision. so 3 midfielders across the middle will keep it solid and then we have ramirez and lambert as the creative outlets with JRod hopefully using his decent pace to get away from there juggernaut defenders.

Not going to be pretty to watch this one as Stoke are a horrible team. We need to stand firm and put our foot in. Shawcross being suspended is a bonus and their fullbacks could be susceptible to pace and trickery. If we gonna play Ramirez then needs to be in the hole otherwise he is wasted however without lallana we have to change our system to accommodate him. 4-3-1-2 Davis Clyne Fonte Yoshida Shaw Morgan Cork Davis Ramirez Lambert Rodriquez

To be fair Window Cleaner could be right about not alerting other clubs as this may up asking prices even though the silence is frustrating for fans. We definitely need cover/competition in attacking midfield role as the lack of creativity and pace on saturday was plain to see. We are one dimensional due to our lack of pace so when the opposition stifle our game plan we have no answers.

To be fair we was crying out for someone to get to the byline and whip in a decent cross on saturday so maybe Buckley will provide that. This chipped nonsense from silly angles is pointless and the amount of over hit crosses was staggering. We have a goal machine in Lambert who thrives on quality service. The cross that Lukaku scored from for WBA is the sort of service Lambert needs. Even though Torres header was brilliant and wasnt an clear cut chance yesterday the cross was decent as it had pace and allowed him to attack the ball.

As he got injured on 8th December that takes us to around early march time. sh1t! Get your cheque book out Cortesi. That is a huge blow.

If you read the whole post you will know what I meant. Just to be clear when lallana comes back we cannot expect the trio to stay injury free right though until the end of the season. The fact he is currently injured strengthens need for cover and competition pronto.

I dont get the logic shown by Adkins. De Ridder hasnt even featured for u21's in weeks/months yet gets a place on the bench ahead of lee and reeves who have played regularly for the u21's and impressed. not saying they are the answer by any means and probably are not but I would imagine they are pretty disillusioned by SDR being selected ahead of them. Only the club know the true extent of Lallana's injury but I really hope they have someone lined up early in the transfer window to not only provide decent cover but also competition as we cannot expect the trio of lallana/ramirez/puncheon to remain injury free for remainder of season. we are woefully exposed when they are out injured or out of form as the "several options" Adkins talks about is non existent and will send us down unless we do something about it.

the team did nothing to encourage the fans to raise the volume. the team was so flat which meant the atmosphere followed suit. yes teams can have off days and fans can be the 12th man to drive them on but when the team create **** all and never look like scoring it is likely the fans will stay quiet. to be honest even had sms been loud and rocking today still dont think the team would have raised there game sadly.

The irony of this post is brilliant.

The same Pilchards who said we was signing Michu for £5m back in the summer. Take with a pinch of salt me thinks.

Unless of course Solent are part of the propaganda in covering up the extent of Lallana's injury. Although if he does make a swift recovery it doesnt exactly give them much credibility for being ITK when it comes to Saints lol I wonder if the thevman's post on build up thread is anything to do with lallana? Would make sense as he wouldnt want to give the game away by posting smiley face on this thread although that would suggest he is ok for saturday which would mean a miraculous recovery so not sure myself.

Bbc solent 7.20 bulletin said lallana out for a number of weeks. They did interview with lallana about his highs of 2012 but wasn't allowed to talk about this injury.

Simon Peach ‏@SimonPeach Hearing whispers that Lallana's injury not as bad as first feared. Still no official news from #SaintsFC. Will know for sure on Thursday.