Super_Uwe

We are nowhere near copying Lowe's "master plan" of 08/09. His plan involved flooding the first-team with young players, week in week out, combined with farming out the higher wage earners at the start of the season. Financially it might have made some sense at the time, but clearly the team wasn't good enough to compete in the Championship. We have given plenty of opportunities to the academy players in the league this season, but with the exception of JWP the others haven't become regular starters yet. The cup fixtures have been their main source of first team games. What's pleasing over the past few years is that the academy players have come into the first team and looked decent straight away. I don't think fans should underestimate how hard that is to actually achieve, it's not something that is as easy as we have made it look IMO.

What a goal to win it in the end!

Yeah I do! He would never be anything other than a short-term solution. But he would genuinely offer something different to our current strikers, and he is a proven goalscorer at all levels when he's been playing regularly. The question for me isn't his ability, it's whether his confidence has been shot so much that he wouldn't want to come back and tarnish his reputation. Sometimes weird transfers do come off. Who the hell thought Mickey Evans would be such a brief legend for us all those years ago?!

I see Lambert was stuck on the bench again for Cardiff this weekend against Bristol City. I honestly think we could do a lot worse than get him back on a loan/six-month deal. He knows the club inside out, the fans still love him and he would offer us something different up front. I know he's past his best and will be turning 35 soon, but I could see him coming back and getting a few vital goals for us.

I would not be in the slightest bit surprised to see him head home back to Portugal. He's still regarded as a hero like the rest of the Euro 2016 Portugal squad; combine that with a few "cryptic" posts on his FB page following the Brexit vote and it does make plenty of sense to me. I cannot personally see him turning out for West Ham or even Palace where he played before. Not saying it won't happen, just doesn't add up for me.

Fair play to him last night! I'm less concerned about the missed chances though, more that he actually showed good composure to score his goal. Scoring goals is a good habit to get into, hopefully he can keep it up. He's never scored more than 7 in a season before, you'd like to think double figures would be within his grasp.

To be fair he did leave on pretty good terms in the end. The club gave him a decent send-off, so I wouldn't necessarily have ruled out a move on that basis. Think it will be a good move for him to go to Everton as he's really gone backwards over the past 18 months. Not only out of favour at United but also lost his place in the French team which he'd worked so hard to achieve whilst at Saints. I'll be interested to see how much his United stint has affected him mentally as it must have been such a let-down for the bloke.

Very interesting article. I guess his story is similar to many players though. Ability-wise there often isn't all that much difference, but the very best players are the ones who deliver in the games that matter and end up playing at the very highest level. If it's a question of him "relaxing" more, perhaps that's a sign the criticism that's been coming his way so far this season has affected him more than you might think? Fans might assume that all players can just take abuse and criticism - Matt Le Tiss was of course a great example of someone who never ever lost belief in their own ability. Maybe he's more sensitive and anxious to do well, which in turn ends up affecting his performances. But it's encouraging to hear Puel's comments as clearly he feels that he will come good eventually.

I've only been to one - 2003 FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park. For some weird reason I feel quite optimistic about tonight. Forget about all the transfer talk and poor form in the league; I think we might surprise a few people. With the way the league is this year, it does make me wonder how much of an eye the players have subconsciously been thinking about the semi-final. This is our best chance to win a major trophy for nearly 15 years (JPT aside!) and hopefully the fans will be right behind the team throughout the game.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38465052 With Ronaldo and Jose sharing the same agent, I'm not at all surprised to hear that he may well be looking at some "better" financial options. Sad to see things pan out this way, but no great surprise. Hopefully though things will get resolved sooner rather than later and he will get a decent send-off if he leaves. Then of course the challenge will be to find a replacement.

It's 25 years ago this year that I went to watch my very first Saints game at The Dell (we beat QPR 2-1). As an 8 year old, I had no idea who the hell Ian Branfoot was, but looking back now I realise that his time in charge was seriously unpopular and it probably wasn't the best time to become a Saints fan... For the rest of the 90s, I used to love going to The Dell and have fond memories of the teams we had. Was also lucky enough to see Matt Le Tiss playing at his peak (although still a bit too young to really appreciate how good he was). But we were favourites for relegation pretty much every single season, with a couple of mid-table finishes in between. But we managed to survive year after year, and that was success to me as a Saints fan. Towards the end of the decade and into the 00s, we finally start to establish ourselves as a mid-table Premier League team. And of course we had "that season" in 02/03 where we finished EIGHTH and got to the FA Cup Final (no I haven't forgotten Rupey!). Then the wheels started to fall off big time, and we got relegated in 2005. We all hoped we'd be back in the Premier League before too long, but each year we got progressively worse (as did the finances!). Of course we managed to stay up on the last day in 2008, but one year later we were relegated to League One with the club almost going bust. Thankfully since then of course we've kind of done alright to be honest... So what has this got to do with Puel? If this is supposed to be such a bad time, why don't I feel angry towards the bloke? I'll tell you why - because it isn't anywhere near a bad time. This is the best period in our club's history for the past 25 years, arguably the past 30-35 years when we had our best ever finishes in Division One. If you can't see the good times now then you never will, Puel or no Puel.

Well whatever happens he's on course for a Beattie 99/00 season at the moment!

I'm really sad to see what has happened with Jose this season. Obviously he's still putting in the effort on the pitch, no question about that. He always has done and he's the kind of pro who you would expect to give nothing more than 100% to his team. But I've followed his Facebook page over the past couple of years and undoubtedly this season something has changed. You still get the positive posts about the club, but he's previously been all over the #wemarchon stuff. Not so much the case any more. It's sad because he's been a great, great player for us. I don't know whether he's just impatient to win more now that he's had a taste of success and doesn't feel that's likely in the short-term with us, or if there's something else that has happened.

A great result all round for Saints yesterday. As many people have mentioned, really odd and unnecessary interview by RK. It's a shame as I still like the bloke for the last couple of seasons, but clearly he had the hump yesterday evening.

I think we'll keep him until the end of the 2017/18 season at the very least. I don't think for one second he'll be seeing out his 6 year deal, but who knows? I would never have predicted where we are now seven years ago when the club almost ceased to exist. But I am under no illusions that he probably joined us with the intention of doing really well and then being given the chance to move on when it suits both parties. I can't say I love it being that way, but it is a realistic approach to the huge amounts of money in football, and it does mean that we have certain control over how things play out.

Good to see him doing well, physically you can see that he is much stronger and better equipped to play up front than when he broke into the first team back in 2014. You never quite know with young players, but I have a good feeling about his future with us. Weird thing was his family lived on the same road as me when I was living in mid Devon. I was completely unaware of this for most of the time I lived there, it was enough of an outpost to assume there was nothing Saints-related nearby!

I'd be worried about our prospects if we lose a few more key players in the next few weeks, but overall I think we have about as good a squad as we could realistically hope for. Everyone has been really impressed with Sam McQueen coming in and looking completely at ease; if the squad was too packed full then he probably wouldn't be getting a look in, even with the injuries. You have to have a balance to make sure everyone is getting enough opportunities and being fresh enough to perform well when needed. Chelsea's top players were the difference yesterday. It's always been the same in that regard when you play the better teams; most of your players will need to play well and hope the opposition have an off day. No shame in that.

F'sure Harry.

On his way to Fulham, still going strong!

Well I must have missed this when I was a season ticket holder back then. My overriding memory was that his long throws were generally crap for us and exactly as Berkshire Saint described above.

I quite agree. I hope the club has something special lined up on Sunday for him, a nice chunky cheque would be a lovely gesture.

Well he's hit the £300,000 mark this morning, so it does seem to be getting some momentum now which is good. I've seen a few of his recent Youtube videos and the poor bloke's face tells you all you need to know about how tough this has been on his body! I honestly have no idea how he is managing to do it, it is absolutely insane what he is putting his body through. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed for him that he manages to keep going these last couple of days.

Donated today and shared his Benali's Big Race page on my Facebook page. He could definitely do with some more support, I can't believe the number of ex-Premier League stars from both Saints and other clubs who are cheering him on and yet it seems to have flown under the radar a bit. Amazing what he is doing though and hopefully he will smash that 1 million target.

Spot on. His long throws during his time for Saints were utter garbage. As you say, he just looped them into the box with no real venom. Quite why the coaching staff at the time thought that was a brilliant plan was beyond me, that was just basic stuff. Once he developed the much flatter throw at Stoke, of course it was much more effective!

We just need to re-appoint Dennis Rofe for the 75th time. A human tannoy/entertainer of the highest calibre (short shorts are an optional extra).