Hodgey

Kelv wasn't good but I'm not convinced we would have won with Stek. This isn't the first time this season we have inexplicably completely lost the midfield which is a major concern. Yes poor subs, but isn't the issue that our squad has the same issues as last year - subs nowhere near as good as 1st team players. Hoping that playing the likes of Claise and JRod is short term pain for long term gain, but lack of options at rb and gk already a big concern, and I'm not confident we have much back up to Pelle , Bertrand or mane either. When everyone is fit we are a match for anyone but the squad remains worryingly thin.

I'm hoping for us to avoid a relegation battle and get to one of the cup finals - our first team is weaker so we can't expect a repeat of last year & quite a few other teams in our mini league have got notably stronger. Concerned about our squad quality more - I thought the ambition this year as a minimum was a better squad so we don't have dramatic drops when players get injured. At this time our summer activity looks at best erratic - and in some cases (Caulker Martina) bizarre and others (soares juanmi) oddky not fancied by the manager at all. Still think if we continue with Tadic Pelle Mane up front we will beat the weak teams and sail just north of relegation trouble.

I don't agree with people on this board or RK who couldn't see past JC being a back up to VW. Two completely different players and actually JC should gave been used more to break teams down at home as VW has a habit of constantly slowing the game down (great against equal or better opposition). Had we done that, and JC saw he wasn't just there in case one of them got injured he would have stayed. I also don't like it when managers make it clear that form is irrelevant and 1 player will always play behind another - which RK has done twice now - doesn't motivate the 'reserve' nor the player in possession.

Like other posters I'm not sure what the Southampton way is - was clear under Poch that it was high press/fitness and max possession - although to be honest we were still reliant on a big man upfront and often bypassed midfield (we were terrible without Lambert). Changes as far as I can see under RK has been : less fitness/press focused, 1 attacking midfielder playing closer to Pelle (rotated), reliance on fullbacks for width. I think pretty much all Prem teams play the same way - just attack/defend more in accordance to who they are playing and all reliant on a good att mid to break teams down. We've even seen this with Chelsea and Hazard being off form, and the flip is true for Leicester with Maharaz having a golden spell. Each team has a player they are generally dependant on from an attacking POV - Hoolihan/Richie/Mata/Erikssen/Coutinho/Payet/Sanchez/Hazard/Silva/Sissoko etc and pretty much if that player is on top form then that team wins. Ours is Tadic - but he only seems to be able to do it when playing on the left (and I simply don't get why Koeman keeps moving him to the right to accommodate JRod).

That window bar Alderwereld debacle was played pretty well, not Swansea well but not Spurs badly either. Interesting that of the 9 players in 8 are defensive which makes sense given losses. Worst 1st team but better squad IMHO which I'm hoping will balance out given our struggles last year when a few were injured. That said 2 clear areas of concern - if Pelle or Stek get long term injuries we are in trouble - but given cost of strikers (and our terrible recent record in buying them) and Forster situation I get the low risk gamble.

That doesn't work though in practise. We all know the rules of the game for normal jobs , that's why you sign a contract. Football players should know the rules of their job too - vast vast sums of money, doing something you love, adored my millions etc - and you know that you sign a defined period contract, which could mean you can't theoretically leave until it's over. It'll be a cold day in hell before I start to feel sorry for these childish multimillionaires crying foul from their palaces. If they want the same rules as us - fine go get a mundane office job and worry about trying to pay the mortgage.

Before yesterdays game I thought what team I would pick out of those available and came up with - Stek, Cedric, Caulker, Fonte, Maya, Reed, Romeu, JRod, Tadic, Long, Pelle - whilst I think that team would have had a better showing than the one that played, after looking at it I simply thought 'that team isn't good enough'. It's too late now to get any more decent players in as we clearly thought VVD would complete our squad. Assuming we get him (which we may not), theoretically the squad will be good enough for a 14th ish finish. But we may have a couple of very uncomfortable months whilst players settle and confidence building must now be a high priority. Also now we are out of Europe I'd be tempted to send the likes of JWP and Targett on loan as they are not good enough and I feel they are going backwards at the moment. As per a previous poster I'd also love a swap with Long and Austin but the reality is that with Longs wages and transfer fee he isn't going anywhere. What we should be thinking about NOW is getting replacements for Mane and Wanyama who will both clearly be off next year and start tapping them up - we also may need to turn the black box on and off again as it appears to be malfunctioning.

I'm worried that as fans we have become very arrogant. Nothing I've seen suggests a comfortable mid table finish - we are relying on a lot of players who have never performed at this level before. We're in a relegation dogfight until we are out of it - and I predict well need another month at least before we gel - which means an Everton style season hopefully just north of the relegation zone. We have 4 players injured at the moment - imagine if that becomes 6.........

Needs to be sent on loan. Our arrogant policy that no lesser football side could teach our young players anything has well and truly come back to bite us on the arse. Ridiculous statement which thankfully we are now rectifying via mkdons / swindon etc. Targett as well needs to go on loan - neither good enough to even keep us up at the moment.

It sadly is that - he's too physically lightweight. The Premiership is the most physically robust league in the world, especially for Defmids - Wenger's teams were invincible when they had Petit and Viera bullying people in midfield - since he has gone for a purist football vision they have completely failed (by their standards) and lost points to inferior bully boys like Stoke. Chelsea have always had big nasty bullies, as did Man City when they won it and every year that role (defmid) becomes even more important in the premiership. Yes you get the likes of Cattermole knocking about - but then again they play for struggling sides, look at the confusion over Wiltshire and where to play him, and to a certain extent JWP - Ron is spot on in his limited use of Reed.

We needed someone like him, our midfield as it stood was far too lightweight and likely to get bullied, he's big enough and brave with a clear nasty streak. Different player to Spiderman though - Morgan dictated the pace of play for us and helped us break quickly via interceptions - that is what we are truly missing at the moment - we have plenty of people who can slow it down and break up play (Romeu, Wanyama, Reed etc) but none who can play accurate forward passes (which I guess is what Claise has been brought in for - let's hope he works out). Overall though good signing who complements our weaknesses well. Incidentally do we think that Liverpool and Man Utd sudden defensive improvement is helped by Clyne/Spiderman or just coincidence - zero goals conceded for either.

That does swing both ways - yes you can get a bit more money from transfer fees, but it won't stop players going. It will however make it impossible to get rid of high salary poor performers. Imagine how much more we would have had to pay off Osvaldo and Mayuka - and have another 3 years of finding loan deals for Ramirez etc.

A low stake gamble. Know a few QPR fans who think he is an absolute liability. But clearly has talent from his past. Strangely think he may be another Osvaldo - clearly talented but can he integrate and can we get the best of him ?. We are learning though as it is just a loan

I was talking to a big Celtic fan about vvd the other day and his comment was that he looked a class above the SPL, but that when they played Denayer (from city) next to him he made vvd look good but not great. Not seen either playing for Celtic and this is one die hards opinion but makes me wonder how good Denayer is (to be clear he though vvd would be a more than capable prem cb). He also felt that vvd would be off (to either us or Swansea) post champs league qual irrelevant of result.

Irrelevant of what anyone believes on what actually happened, it is another PR disaster, I was hoping we had learnt about the importance of playing the media after last years debacle. You can't release a statement on Monday threatening legal action and on Friday state that the club 4 days ago you were threatening to sue behaved exceptionally professional - which is it ?. Yes Toby played us, but we could have handled it miles better than mud slinging athletico, meanwhile always praising the one person who obviously did mess us about. I just hope that story about us trying to gazzump WHU wasn't true - as that did seem like a desperate act from a club about to lose their plan b (and a failed one at that). Let's move on, i think we have made 2 excellent signings, 1 plain weird signing so hopefully the black box still has some ideas.

Chaps - it looks 95% certain he's gone to Spurs. He would have known we were still interested so if he really wanted to join us would have waited - looks like he preferred the spurs option - no doubt with the Belgium contingent there already saying how great it is. No legal threats are now going to end up with Toby at SFC, best case scenario is that we get a couple of million out of AM. Very annoying for many reasons, not least the fact that we seem to have wasted a lot of time on this and may have missed other targets. Good news is that whilst spurs will no doubt know the other CBs on our list, I'm assuming they will not bother with them now. Regarding Toby - I'm hoping he ends up regretting his choice and becomes a 3rd choice CB again on the bench for a team that win nothing. Not that I have anything against him, but if that is the case then it proves he made the wrong decision. I'm also hoping we don't bother releasing anything else to the press - think it was a huge mistake doing so and really can't see how it helps our standing.

A move to Liverpool is definitely a good career move in terms of opportunity to win things / compete in Chaps League - we have won nothing of note in 40 years or appeared in the Champs league and being honest there is nothing to really suggests that we are highly likely win something or appear in the champs league in the next 10 years - ie the rest of his playing career. It's not a sideways move - that is heart ruling head. I have a differing point though - which also applies to Schneiderlin - are these players genuinely good enough to hold down 1st team places at trophy winning/champs league clubs ?. According to Hodgson Clyne ranks a distinct 2nd to Jones and Henderson out of position, I'm not even sure Jones is 1st choice for Utd - and lets face it England are hardly an example of top of the tree. Maybe the question should be where can I go to maximise winning opportunities and 1st team football ? - in which case a move is not quite so clear cut (look at Shaw / Bertrand).

Kermitsaint - think that is an overly harsh assesment there. Tadic, Pelle and Mane were excellent signings - their goals and assists last season proven that. The others I agree with though. I think the bigger point is priorities - at the moment I think we need a quality CB and Gk more than any attacker - irrelevant of replacing anyone who may leave, and that will probably cost a min £25m - add this to the £10m already spent and I think that hits our transfer and wage budget (ie £35m and probably another £7.5m in wages). I think Austin is a great buy at £15m and agree there is no direct replacement in the squad for Pelle which for me contributed to his poor second half of the season as he was simply knackered. Question is - do we need a reserve striker more than 1st choice CB or GK - or do we have enough already to get by.

Agree on Champs League front. But if we are looking for the next stage can I suggest Sevilla have shown us a direction ?. Consistently in Europe but actually competitive in it and have won it 4 times in the last decade or so. That has to be our aim, constant qualification and silverware in this and domestic cups. Not a fanciful notion either, Sevilla average attendance is pretty much the same as ours and they are also well below their domestic top sides in terms of resources etc. We will have superior finances moving forwards and a better academy. So you never know, we may end up in champs league but via winning the competition which I think is ironically easier than finishing top 4 in the UK. Oh and they play in red and white as well !

Les Reed would certainly be earning his crust if he can get anything at all for Mayuka Osvaldo and Ramirez given their spectacular failures (be that abilily, attitude, fitness, simply mental etc). I would see it as a massive bonus if he could manage to send them packing as that alone would save us c £7m in wages. Thinking about that it does completely vindicate KLs removal of Cortese - I wonder how many other vanity projects we would have been lumbered with if he had continued to operate unchecked. On which basis I would say that we would be looking at spending £20m on a GK, Att Mid and Striker due to our increased income, with any income for sold players used to replace like for like (but at c 1/2 of the amount). So assuming Clyne and Spiderman do go for £40m - I would predict another £20m to add to the £20m. That certainly seems to be how it panned out last season (we spent c £52m and sold c £90m). I like this idea of predicting sales however as fun so here goes Out Clyne £12m Spiderman £22m Gardos £4m In Austin £15m Claise £12m Byram £5m Janmaat £10m One of Arsenals 3 keepers Loan

Can't work out if we are much better due to JWP replacing the totally ineffectual Djuricic or that the dominating beast that is Toure has gone off. Suspect a bit of both

Just interesting that we seem to be able to keep other teams chances down but City clearly know how to create against us. Fair play Kelv (and Forster in the home game) for keeping the score down. Can see this being 3-0 again, especially when the players hear the spurs ht score. Still great season and personally I'm unconvinced that we can handle being in Europe and not be looking at the wrong end of the table (I also don't think Spurs or Liverpool want to be in ironically).

They could be 4 up by now - this reminds me of the home game

I gave to disagree with some of this - I agree that on a like for like basis that Wanyama is better, however against the poorer sides cork is a better option as Wanyama slows the game down and isn't a great passer. That should have been the basis for trying to keep him rather than always play Wanyana when fit and make it clear he was an understudy come what may. Plus we must have known that we would lose one of Wanyana or Schnederlin come season end. Big miss for us - ironically we'll now be looking for a Cork in the summer and there are very few good big defensive midfielders around so we will need to either gamble on someone totally unproven or spend big. Also don't agree with the Reed progression, I've yet to see the club place any real faith in him so he can't be hugely fancied - they'd rather play someone out of position instead.

I'm a big fan but he hasn't been as effective this year as under Poch, and has noticeably been poorer the last 2 months. This could be due to playing less possession football, or that we have had to use him as a defmid much more due to injuries which may have disrupted his rhythm. What I would say about yesterday is that at least he was getting into scoring positions, it would be more worrying if an attmid never has any chances and I really can't remember SD having many chances this year - that is a worry. Still think we are going to regret losing Cork - he's doing very nicely and a regular with a team not that many points behind us.