Torrent Of Abuse

I think the battles for 4th/5th between Liverpool and Man City, and 6th/7th between us and Spurs will be the big stories. i might be not giving us our proper dues but sadly I think it will be Chelsea, Arsenal, ManU, ManC (sneaking in), Liverpool, Spurs, Saints. Still a fantastic season though.

Not many people concern themselves with what a guy like him does. Just consider how many were talking about Les during the meltdown. People often want results now, not investment in the future.

Do it on the pitch or don't do it at all. That's a message for the team, by the way. Not some weird throwback to Puncheon's toilet break incident.

With that kind of breathtaking horse-sh@t he's a match made in heaven for P@mpey.

And to think that grubby, crooked, little t*rd-magnet was within a hair's breadth of the England job. T'riffic.

It could have all been so different. And if you wait while I fire up the Delorean, I can show you.

City are fulfilling a vital task simply by giving us something to chase as opposed to us just looking over our shoulders. I don't think we will actually catch up with them. But aiming to catch them my give us what we are looking for.

I was going to suggest we build a monorail but that's more of a Shelbyville idea.

Probably, as they could likely make a better offer. It does increase our chances of keeping him though. Sometimes you accept a little less money but stay where you are happy. Offer still as to be impressive though.

If we do qualify for Europe but players still leave, I wonder how they'll word their departures? They always seem to shy away from saying it's for money. It's always for ambition. What can they say if they can't use that line?

Sign Bertrand and Toby permanently. Sign Rodriguez on an extension or (If he refuses) consider the swap deal for Kane and Townsend with us giving a little bit of money to go with it. That way we either have good players locked down or squad depth. No other transfers needed.

4 players with a Saints past/present start for England and another 4 on the bench. Sadly only 2 remaining but they are the ones who figured for the whole 90 minutes. What a journey it's been. What a lot the club has to be proud of. At the start of the second half, 5 players were in our first XI this year or last. What a great advert for the club and its approach to bringing on players. You'd think we were talking about one of the big 4.

Gah. I should wait until I am on the PC instead of trying to type on my iPhone while walking. I'll try again... Levy strikes me as being like one of those rich guys who goes into the store and demands the best, most expensive, most feature-rich TV set-up in the place but then gets frustrated when he gets it home and finds that it doesn't read his mind and change channel automatically, and ends up throwing it out. It's a shame we've lost such a capable head of department but I'm sure we will adapt and bring in someone else equally capable. I think Saints' strength lies in the patient way we grow systems like this. Just buying in bits of it or all of it doesn't work well. You have to have the attitude to make it work properly or you just end up misusing it and throwing away all the hard work. I remember being sad when Georges Prost and Huw Jennings left - yet look at us now. I think we're in a good position to get some very high quality CVs on the desk for Paul Mitchell's job. Such is our profile. I'm not sure I'd like to go into a club as short-termist as Spurs no matter what money they throw at me. Unless I planned on raking in the cash short-term too.

Levy strikes me as being like one of those guys who goes in the store, demands the best, most expens

Wow. If Spurs want to know why we have had so much success, why don't they just rummage through our bins? Maybe if Steffen Freund isn't doing anything, he can oblige? Seriously though, I wonder if this (obviously very good) appointment is really going to fit in amongst the short-termism that seems to rage at WHL? As we have seen already this year, it's not the players, not the staff, not the training pitches or the type of balls they use but that a patient, long-term vision was set up by the Liebherrs that applies from everyone and everything at our club for age 8/9 upwards. You can't mimic that when your focus is actually on outcomes now. We will be fine. We appointed Mitchell after losing Huw Jennings(?) I think and Georges Prost. We have the right direction from the top so I am confident we will do well. And what ambitious academy person wouldn't join what we have? #weMarchOn

I think folks are seeing what they want to see. The media just likes stirring; a stable environment where nothing changes and nothing happens is an anathema to them. I don't think they take one particular side or team over another unless they see a story in it - a chance to make something happen. Spurs going for our players would make something happen. It's a story. If Mitchell turned them down and stayed, the story would be that the rejection weakened Pochettino and would spark a crisis for Spurs. There would be no "agenda" other than the deliberate pursuit of a story for the sake of a story. We seem to think that the media is out to get us. I just think that (given our size) negative stories have always been easier to find and pursue.

There will always be a feeling of wanting us to succeed (as it's a great story) and wanting us to fail (as it keeps the natural order) but I can't see a conspiracy here - at least in the media. I'm sure Levy wants our recruitment team. Who wouldn't? That's the shortcut to success that any team wants and they can afford it. They tried that with Pochettino and failed. This is another roll of the dice, not the media stirring.

He deserves a start but if he doesn't get one then he will be that much fresher for our next match. Sorry but I'm selfish like that. Saints come first.

Time to #askDejan what he thinks of this? http://metro.co.uk/2014/11/10/statistics-show-that-liverpools-dejan-lovren-is-the-most-error-prone-defender-in-the-premier-league-4943247/

Difference between Spurs and Saints right there. Pochettino must rue the fact that he couldn't take the players' attitude (or "mentality") with him when he left.

I agree - and posted something similar on another site. There is something very strong at the very foundations of this club and players who leave seem to shrink on walking out the door. I'd be curious to see who people think would leave, who would stay, who might step up, and what we might have to offer to get our own way.

A lot was said about the motives for players leaving last summer. Some said it was "ambition" but many said it was more likely for financial reasons. With the team doing so well, is it realistic to think that we could keep this team together? What would it take? Europe? Champions League? Are we just going to get raided anyway - even by the big clubs we are now mocking for looking like they will miss out on Europe? Should we even try that hard to hold onto players or do what we did last summer and trust that history repeats? Can we realistically afford to hold onto some of these guys? If so, who?

It will get boring about the time P*mpey get back in the Premier League. So, in other words, never.

Bit of a slow operator, it seems. And expensive too. http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29949390

I guess most weeks it's more like: "Why my daddy doesn't clear his lines? Daddy not stepping up in line with Skrtel. Leave space for midfielder to run in. Bad daddy."