Born In The 80s

Football is an opinions game. JWP is not a top 6 player in my opinion - not even close. Take his set piece delivery away and I think he is a fairly average player. I think it showed that we didn't miss him at all when he was suspended (perhaps we even looked a little better).

My personal view is that the squad's quality was always going to put us in a relegation battle. We have defenders and midfielders who seem to make key individual errors at critical moments and forwards who don't score goals. The fact you could take any player out of this XI and we don't lose much quality shows that we have no real match-winning quality anywhere on the field. We have championship players all over the XI and halfway through the season are 9 points above the drop zone - not fucking bad if you ask me. Sometimes you only realise how good a manager is when they go; if Ralph leaves, I think we might find out quite quickly just how much he impacted this group of players.

LFT are totally pointless as people can just lie about their result. To get the email saying you're negative all you need to do is register the LFT unit on the gov website and click negative. You don't even need to complete the test. Makes a total mockery of the whole thing.

I must admit, I'm pretty surprised at how many fans are cool with this news. 25m sounds like a good deal for a guy in the last year of his contract on the face of it, but what is the cost of relegation? Who will replace Ings' goals this season? Having scrolled through the forum, lots seem happy with replacing him with an unproven Championship striker. It is more likely that this swap will make us a worse team than a better one next season and, truthfully, how much worse can we afford to get? People ask what do you want the club to do? I would have liked to have seen him stay for a year to ensure we have a proven goalscorer in a likely relegation battle. The cost of relegation far exceeds 25m or whatever they got for him yesterday. Looking at the squad, I find it impossible to not be concerned. There's not one area of the squad that I feel comfortable with - from GK to strength in depth up top, it all looks very relegation to me. I see us conceding goals and now, without Ings, I can't see us scoring enough. This is a very big ten days for us in the transfer market. We need proven, experience. Without it and I think we are going down.

That was an absolute shocking game of football. Horrific. As bad an advert for the Premier League as it gets.

You're totally correct. I switched off after they disallowed this. They are literally changing rules (sleeve/arm/part of body) to suit the narrative that they want to create. It's the clearest sign of corruption i've seen in quite some time. Let's face it: 9-0 is a great story for the league and the ref did everything he could to ensure it happened. I honestly don't think I've ever been less enthusiastic about football. It's so boring analysing refereeing decisions after every single game. I suppose the only good thing VAR has shown is how truly bent this league is. When using technology, there is nothing to hide behind.

How do you know this? After half-term i get, but surely it's too early to make a call until Easter? My two are 7 and 10 and are desperately missing school. Keeping Primary children off until Easter seems ridiculous to me.

I know it's a rag, but the Daily Mail today talking about the lockdown easing on Good Friday, apart from schools which will start going back after half term. Good Friday feels like a hell of a long way off.

Might just be me, but does anyone else find these 'lockdown' rules a little more than head-scratching? The local park today is absolutely heaving (similar to a Summer's day). People enjoying drinks in groups, games of basketball, tennis courts open, organised game of 8-a-side on the footie pitch etc. The vast majority of stores on our high-street are also open either for you to go in or as click-and-collect. Cafes packed with queues for takeaway. At the same time schools have been 'closed'. Yet, my son, who logged onto his Google classroom this week found that 16/30 of his class are in school and the numbers are growing by the day! Apparently out of 350 children, 160 were in school Friday. What on earth is the point of closing schools in the first place, if you're allowing that many in? Totally bizarre approach. P.S. Open up my golf club please and let me go for a pint.

All a lockdown does is kick the can further down the road. At some point, someone is going to have to make some tough choices and face up to fact that we are going to be living with this virus for a long time. A vaccine isn't going to magically appear for all at Christmas and we cannot afford to keep locking down every two months. The tsunami of unemployment grows every single minute we are in lockdown and this will devastate so many businesses. What a mess. As a conservative, Johnson has now completely lost the little support I had left in him and must go, along with several others in the cabinet. Time to see what Sunak has.

This seems to happen every day now, doesn't it? A huge public outcry on social media (yawn). It seems to me that over the past few years all people want to do is get offended by absolutely anything they don't agree with. People going out of their way to try and defund the police. Then the same time, people trying desperately to defund the BBC. It all stems through social media and I think it's an incredible shame that the world is going this way. The BBC just can't win right now and it's a damn shame. I've voted conservative my entire life and voted to leave the EU. Some of my left-wing mates think I vote the way I do because I watch BBC news! Seems to be the opposite accusations flying around now. As a nation, it seems people don't want impartial news; they want stories to be written in biased ways (Guardian/Daily Mail) to suit their political agenda. Seems everyone is offended by everything right now.

One of the things that I thought Teresa May got right was trying to promote Grammar schools again and I was disappointed that many of her own backbenchers didn't support her on the issue. I''m also very surprised that so many left-wing voters oppose so strongly to Grammar schools. Ultimately they're giving bright, potentially poverty-stricken children an opportunity that local comprehensives don't give them. There's a lot of talk about BLM at the minute and why black kids aren't getting high profile jobs etc. The issue lies in education for me; the system and school curriculum are failing them. When you consider the opportunities given at private schools vs local comps, it's not surprising that predominantly white, privately-educated students are running companies in higher paid jobs, whilst black students (and working class white males) generally fill the minimum wage jobs etc. Grammar schools would give some/more of those poorer children a chance...

I totally agree. The farcical decision to cancel exams, without a proper plan, is the one that has caused this grading mess. However, wasn't that a government decision?

As I follow him, I've seen what he posts, and I don't personally agree with any of his Covid-19 tweets. But what does that matter? It's his personal opinion and he is totally entitled to share his views on platforms like twitter. I am completely stunned by how strongly some people view/judge others based on their isolated opinions. Twitter seems to have amplified this issue. If we were all the same and had the same views on life it would be a very boring world. There is quite a hateful tone to your post and if you truly feel he has gone from hero to zero, then I think it's probably you who needs to take a step back and get rid of twitter.

To be fair to the government, our scientists have spend months deliberating masks and have only just made their minds up that they are effective. I remember watching a daily briefing a few months back and one of the doctors said that masks aren't necessary. Meanwhile, in places like Taiwan, who have handled the crisis superbly, they were wearing them from day one. However, it's foolishly to pretend that our failure is all down to the government; the Scientists and NHS leaders have played a big part in it too. I must say, I'm pretty baffled that anyone would have a huge issue with wearing a face mask at Tescos for for 45 minutes on their weekly shop. Listening to the radio, many people are whinging about it making fools of themselves (most of whom deny that Covid is even a thing!). We really are a nation of complainers. Even if it makes a small difference in protecting shop assistants and bus drivers, I'm confused why anyone wouldn't be on board with it.

It really is a pleasure watching the lads at the minute. Another outstanding performance and I'm feeling hugely positive about things right now. Cannot understate how well Ralph has done; he is one of the top coaches in the league. As the season winds down, I really hope the board don't rest on their laurels. If they back him and give him some cash to spend on a proven CB, we could be in for a very fun year next year. I know there will be bigger clubs in for him and he will cost £30m, but I'd love us to go all in for Ake as our record signing. A proven CB who leads and organises. Just adding him and possibly KWP on a permanent deal would make a huge difference to this team. Please - no more £15m projects from Europe.

Interesting take - one that I really disagree with. Personally, although you're paying slightly less, our recent record of buying from the continent has filled me with very little confidence. It's not as cheap as it once was and I would argue that the risk is far greater. We have blown an absolute fortune on 15-20m type players who just couldn't adapt to England and a premier league. I would prefer if we looked at players who have played in this country already: perhaps relegated players or championship gems. I'd take a good number of Bournemouth players in particular. Ake would be exactly the type of CB that would improve us, and I would love to see us go after Brooks. They would cost a bit, but both of those signings would almost certainly improve us and have a high chance of working out I think.

I cannot believe I'm saying this, but our football has been an absolute joy to watch since the restart; it makes me very excited for next season. I think we have a very very good manager and the club deserve huge praise for sticking with him after the Leicester fiasco. He's the first manager we've had since Poch to actually improve players. I hope he continues to persist with Che and Danny up front. Makings of an excellent partnership. Every time I watch us, I'm left ruing the same leadership weaknesses at the back though. We really really lack a commanding CB to organise the defence. This is one of the reasons we concede so many goals from long balls. You wonder whose out there that we could grab, but I would like to see an older, experienced organising CB come in. If we can then grab KWP I think we could do seriously well next year.

Impossible to argue with any of this. It's generally the far-left and far-right who have a problem with the BBC. On the whole, it's very balanced.

I may be wrong, but I don't think Ings won anything at Liverpool. In fact, I don't think he has won anything in his career. Strongly suspect he and his agent have ambitions to change that. Regarding you laugh at my suggestion of Everton and Leicester being bigger than us: one of them is managed by one of the world's top coaches; the other won the premier league and will be playing in the Champions League next year. Keep laughing if you want, but both are significantly bigger clubs than we are currently.

Group of ex-Premier League footballers: 'hell of a lot of opposition'. I'm sorry but what utter bollocks. I'd love to hear who these ex-Premier League players are and what era they played in because it just doesn't support the truth. If they exist, I presume they are washed up has-beens from the 90s that didn't play more than 10 games of top flight football. It is simply untrue to say that lots of current Premier League players oppose this movement - I've actually been quite shocked by how strongly the white players have supported the campaign with many making financial contributions to the cause. The company I work for has done quite a bit of work with the PFA and Premier League delegates (ours is Oriol Romeu) unanimously wanted to take a knee after discussing it as a group of players within their clubs. Every Premier League club now has black players and with the rise of platforms like twitter and instagram, the racism that they receive online has woken a lot of players up to the issue.

Shocked by the number of posters who think Ingsy will stay. This is football and we are Southampton. He is clearly too good us and his level of finishing wouldn't be out of place at any club in the league. When he's fit and confident, he's clinical. The first touch, control and ability to run with the ball makes him a serious threat and it's easy to see why he has scored so many times for us. Bigger clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, United, Everton, Leicester will all know this and I would be shocked if at least one or two of them weren't keeping a close eye. With regards to comments on him being a local lad - dream on! Lovely for Ingsy that he can spend a part of his career at him hometown club with his family nearby, but sooner or later he's going to want to move onto better things. He'll want to win trophies and he'll have his agent reminding him of this every time they meet. He's a guy whose had serious injuries and knows better than most the damage these can have on a career. The minute a bigger club shows interest, I cannot see any scenario that he stays. Then you throw in the fact we are the biggest selling club in the country - he won't be here long.

Staggered by how much confidence we played with today. So impressive. Ings' control and first touch is as good as any striker in the top flight, and it's hard not to be hugely impressed with what we've got in Smallbone: hopefully they can keep hold of him. For the rest of the season, I'd like to see Vestegaard and Adams given extended runs in the XI to see if they can cut it at this level. Perhaps a few of us were too quick to judge Vestegaard?

I quite like Starmur, but I have a huge issue with his shadow cabinet: I strongly oppose many of their views. However, this has played out absolutely perfectly for them. Starmur will surely be hoping that Cummings rides this out and somehow clings on, as this will certainly turn many. I'm not sure Sunak, Gove, Boris etc, realise just how badly they are coming across to many conservative voters.

Not sure I can quite believe this. Let me get this straight: he went to a beauty spot - with his young child in the back of the car - to test his eye-sight? That is the excuse they have given for breaking the rules? Genuinely stunned that they have told such a ridiculously unbelievable lie. No-one truthfully believe that. It's absurd. Cummings driving to a castle is frankly the least of the country's worries and I really don't give a **** about it. But the cabinet (led by Boris) have turned this into a huge deal by showing themselves up as, it's hard to put any other way, liars. Boris, Gove, Hancock, Williamson and Sunak are seriously damaging their reputations and that comes from a pro-Brexit, conservative! Don't think we'll be able to vote for this government again.