SaintAndy14

PEH has played well in central midfield - looked very composed and tackled pretty well.

Geez, that was painful viewing. What on earth Tadic was doing trying to dribble past players on the edge of our area. How long until we finally drop/sell that clown. Line-up was baffling again, we look clueless and lacking any belief. I think I'll have a snooze during the 2nd half instead.

Playing very well in this match!

I think the majority of the above posts are spot on and it's time to make some big changes, otherwise we will continue down this slippery slope that we are already a fair way down. What upsets me the most is that I don't feel any pride in our club, staff or players at the moment. Poor decisions from the top down, a manager who continues to select useless and half-arsed players and won't learn from his mistakes or take a gamble, and players who don't give 100%, work together and who have noticeably poor body language (shrugging at others, waving arms in the air when errors are made, moaning etc.). I coach my primary school football team and the attitude of our boys and girls is miles better than some of these Saints players at the moment. A handful of our players/staff aside, the rest should be ashamed of themselves. Embarrassing, Saints.

In a somewhat frustrating season so far, news like this puts a big smile on our faces! I wonder if players/staff realise just how many personnel who leave Saints end up stalling/going backwards in their careers? Or whether it might be a factor in decisions going forward? Probably not, as most players/staff have a 'grass is greener' attitude or are happy to chance it due to their career ambitions. Would certainly be worth getting a few articles out there in public, though! A credit to just how well Saints coach/train/organise everything and everyone.

I'd quite like to see Ings - Saints fan and surely Liverpool will want rid with all of their attacking options? Should be an upgrade on Austin as more hardworking and knows how to finish. May be similar to Jay Rod, however, in the sense that serious long-term injury may have caused him to decline as a player.

Fonte assisted WHU's goal - header across goal which Hernandez headed in from yards out. Spurs down to 10 - stupid tackle from Aurier who was already on a yellow.

Really enjoyable viewing (barring the 6mins of added on time?!?!). Lemina was superb and clearly MOTM but both summer signings looked excellent. So pleased that Long started and stretched their defence, as well as holding up the ball, winning headers and chasing everything down which created chances/won possession for us. Thank you, Saints, for a very satisfying away performance - and a goal! Well done Davis. Oh, and well done to FF, too! Two very good saves.

Pleased to see Long starting again, purely for the fact that he will hopefully stretch the defence and chase everything down. It comes to something, though, when I'm pleased to see a striker start who hasn't scored in 16 matches! Just hoping to see some meaningful attacking intent today. Money is on a draw, however. 1-1 or 2-2.

Someone like a Vietto, even on loan, would have made it a solid 8 or even 9/10. 7/10 and hopefully, as mentioned above, an important window to show the rest of the footballing world that we will no longer continue to sell our key players every transfer window.

That could be an awesome signing if we can get him in.

Perhaps a yellow away kit would have helped. At least then we could chant 'Yellows' every now and then to add a bit of variety at away matches!

Exactly. I call him the 'Ghost' as he goes missing so often during matches, particularly away, as you say. I just can't believe how dreadful this Arsenal side are. Disjointed, a clear lack of effort and the entire team look as though they've never played together before. Extremely edgy and riddled with poor decision-making. We have our moans about Saints, but imagine being an Arsenal fan at this match...Disgraceful performance.

Rotherham doing their best to take Hudds to ET but missing a series of chances towards the end. Could do with Huddersfield being taken to ET, although I'm not sure how many of their first 11 they're actually playing.

That was a pathetic goal to concede, looked like a Sunday muck about in the park.

Saints settled down and looking to control the play now. Wolves still looking dangerous on the counter-attack. McQueen looking good down the left. The above courtesy of Tony Cottee on GSS!

I agree - a good Championship side who are hoping to push for promotion realistically won't take the 2nd Round of the League Cup too seriously. They certainly won't have any aims of winning it as this cup can distract from league form, and league form is their priority. Narrow win for us, I reckon. Not a pretty match, but we should have enough to get through.

I also opted for Cedric and Gabbi. Thought that Stephens could be a decent shout - fairly cheap and will play regularly, hopefully we will keep a few clean sheets, too!

Poor Redmond. That will stay with him for a while. Surely JWP should be ahead of Tadic in our pen pecking order?

This. Looking at that shortlist on the previous page is rather depressing! I know there is no chance that they are in the running (surely?), but even seeing names such as Ryan Giggs and Tony Adams makes your heart sink! Plus, some fans mentioning NA returning to us as manager gives the impression that we are now going backwards rather than forwards - Nigel is loved by most fans for everything he did for us and rightly so, but he certainly isn't the man to progress the club at this point in time. Saying that, neither are most on that shortlist! Judging by the names being thrown around, it seems likely that most of us will be underwhelmed by the appointment at this stage. Really hope I'm wrong!

Congratulations Steven! Top professional.

Sorry if posted already but TT ruled himself out of running as wants to go to a Champions League club.

This viewpoint is interesting and I'm inclined to go along with it. Because we all love our club and, if we had the talent, would give anything to play for Saints, I've always said that if a player doesn't want to play for us then get rid of them (in a way that gets the most money from their sale). However, it's got to the point now where our 'top' players always want to leave after proving themselves and we aren't a big enough club to persuade them to stay. We are a stepping-stone club for good players who become great players whilst they are with us. If we are going to progress further and become a regular top 6 club then we need to keep hold of the likes of VvD, and the only way we will do that is by saying "You've signed a 5 year contract, no matter what you do or say, you're going nowhere" and continue to sign and develop quality players. If we refuse to sell, no matter what the incoming offer is and no matter what the attitude of the player (as someone mentioned above, a player on a 5 year contract isn't going to refuse to play for 5 years), and continue to sign and develop quality, then we surely will progress and break into that top 6 regularly. Just look at all the quality we've sold since being back in the Prem. Keep hold of those and we'd be title contenders by now. If we are that financially secure and don't need the money then run their contracts down - having Clyne or Wanyama for another season is surely better than £12.5m and £11m for them, even if they have asked to leave? In summary, if a player has signed a 3, 4 or 5 year contract with us, ensure that the player knows that we are very unlikely to sell them as we want to keep all of our best players and seriously aim to get as high as we can in the Prem. Being this well-run business who sells their best players and makes a healthy profit on them is an excellent way to run a business, but it won't get us passed 6th place at best and is very disappointing for fans who see that we are in a position to go to the next level.

Yes I am and yes, completely agree with you. Just wondered how much difference winning a Cup Final would have made...

Currently finishing 8th - if we had won the League Cup Final as we deserved to instead of losing and finished 8th, would people still be calling for Puel to go?