Saint Pete

To be honest, I'd be well happy if we just come out of the January window keeping all of our current squad! Given the way we've played, it's reasonable to expect the usual suspects to be eyeing up a few of our players for bids in January, even if just to try and unsettle us. Hopefully, the board will have a strong strategy prepared for this though - I don't think we can play it like we did in the summer, as would be too unsettling mid-season to see several players go (or be unsettled like Morgan was) and then have to try to sign new ones, even if we had good targets in mind again.

Yes, and it's also down to composure on the ball. You never see him just "play the ball into an area", he is always aware of the runs other players are making and if no-one's free to begin with, he will hold it and wait for someone to make a run (Cork's goal against Sunderland was a great example of this).

Watching the highlights, Tadic involved in pretty much all of our best moves - he really is a class act. Will be interesting to see how we cope when we need to give him a rest.

My main worry with this one is potential of tiredness creeping in. Was a bit surprised we didn't make a couple of subs earlier in the second half and hope we don't pay for that on Saturday.

Get that man a season ticket !

So, are you saying that whenever anyone makes a late tackle after the ball has gone, it should be ruled as a "collision" and no foul? Forster was trying to get the ball first, but he didn't, Fletcher did, and if that incident had occurred anywhere else on the pitch, the ref would have given a free kick to Sunderland. You rightly state that the ball was going out of play, but that does not dictate that it wasn't a foul, only that it was not a goalscoring opportunity (therefore no red card). You are right, it's a matter of judgement, but I think in this case, Poll's got it right in his analysis.

I agree with you that it won't be the board's intention to sell the heart of the team again, but it's fair to say that if things continue to go as well as they are on the pitch at present, it's inevitable that the board will face a lot of the same pressures that we had in the summer again. If the players that we have brought in plus Morgan, Clyne, Rodriguez, etc, perform well and we finish high in the table again, they WILL be targeted again by clubs who can pay them more, and we will be faced with the same hard choices about whether to sell if they express a wish to go. For me, Samuel's original article was pretty fair in giving credit for the job done in replacing the players that have left, while warning against anyone thinking it will be easy to repeat the trick again - can't really argue with that. What he doesn't recognise enough though is the difficulty our board face in keeping our quality players happy when they know they can earn way more elsewhere. It can be done as evidenced by the Schneiderlin episode, but is much harder when 5/6/7 of your first team are attracting bids from bigger clubs. I think the only thing the board could do better next time is giving a more consistent, clearer line to the players on where they stand (i.e. if certain players are judged too key to be allowed to leave, they should be told this clearly at start of window and that's it, end of discussion). The reason Samuel is getting so much negative reaction from Saints fans is not so much about what he is saying now, but more about the constant stream of critical and negative articles about Saints produced by the Mail throughout the summer.

Really? You'd have to seriously question Dave Watson's judgement if that's the case

And you don't think it will be crowded if they put a station right alongside the stadium? Personally, I think we're lucky to have a stadium so close to city centre, unlike say Brighton where they have to crowd onto trains/buses from the centre.

Hopefully, they'll keep quiet about us for as long as possible!

Would be good if Long can get off the mark today.

Your comment on the Pelle off side demonstrates the problem with using a review system in football. Often you can look at TV replays of offsides and penalty decisions over and over again and people will still come to different conclusions over what is the correct decision.

Personally, I've never understood why people take the **** out of this all the time. The term soccer always used to get used quite a bit here when I was growing up (a while ago admittedly!) There were TV programmes called Soccer Special, sticker albums called Soccer Stars '80, etc. It's just an abbreviation for association football, which must be a term originating from over here. In fact, come to think of it, there's still a reasonably well known programme called Soccer Saturday on Sky!

Really good video - great character. Sure he will be popular and do well at Norwich too.

Squad wise, we look pretty strong now. It's too early to make meaningful comparisons with last year's first 11 as we need to see how some of the new guys settle in first. I still think we should have taken the hard line we have taken with Schneiderlin earlier in the summer and we could have been in even better shape, but credit where credit is due, we generally appear to have spent the money well and did particularly well today with the 2 key signings in the areas we needed to strengthen most.

All the best Jos - played important part in our rise back to the prem and always seemed very popular with rest of squad.

No big fan of Ramirez for us, but seems a strange one given Koeman comments the other day. Would have liked to have seen if Koeman could get more out of him - maybe, at least given it til January.

5 Live: Rumour about Ramirez to Hull?

Micah Richards off to Fiorentina, according to BBC.

Agreeing to sell so many of our players early in the window and before we had secured replacements didn't help us much either.

Exactly. So why aren't we offering him a new deal?

So Koeman says Cork wants to stay and is doing very well, but club have no plans to offer him another contract. Just don't get it! With all the upheaval this seems on the face of it a relatively easy and obvious one to sort out.

Anyone know if we have offered him a new contract yet? If not, very difficult to understand why, especially given that even if Morgan stays for now, realistically he is likely to go in January. Don't see the sense in letting a proven performer like Cork go when so many others have left. Hopefully, common sense will prevail...

I think this is a fair post. There's no doubting Boruc is and has been a very talented keeper. He may not be expressing his frustration in the right way, but it's understandable at this stage of his career if he wants to move on when Koeman has indicated he views him as very much second choice now. Time will tell whether the club and Koeman have made the right choice in spending big on Forster and sidelining a keeper who could have continued to do a good job for us (as he did last year) for another few seasons.

I see QPR have signed Vargas on season loan. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28868727 Hate to say it, but reckon they've got a good one there.