Bobbyboy

And in twenty years we'll be listening to Puel co-commentating on Solent telling us how the one thing saints don't want to do is concede.

Almost Ali Dia. Almost.

Was doing ok on comeback trail but got possessed by an apostrophe or something. Didn't real follow it.

Exactly. I read "5 year contract" as meaning "higher fee when he leaves".

The first. That will allow Pompey to slip quietly out of the league as well.

1-0 Saints, Jack Stephens header from neat free kick from Callum Slattery...

He deserved that!!

Wow that was some miss from Long.

Stephens might be a stretch but it's an interesting thought. I wonder if Alfie Jones is ahead of him in the pecking order now?

I remember one game last year or the year before when Mane wanted to take a pen after he was brought down, but Fonte took him to one side and let the designated person take it (I think it was JWP, which would help narrow down the match in question). Fonte deserved MOTM purely for that on that day. Maybe I am misremembering but I think this is where having Fonte on would have made a difference. Except Austin scored. So I have no point to make here. It's good to have people WANTING to take pens I suppose!

Not sure about dropping Hojbjerg

Right. The impression I have is that we tend to do attacking left-backs and inside forwards from the academy. If it comes to BUYING players to sell later, they're presumably thinking Morgan or Vic, who both came to us in totally different circumstances anyway. I'm just struggling to see how this fits with who we have "developed" over the last say 8-10 years.

Isn't it about time he signed a contract extension? All this faffing around. First Fonte now this.

"And sitting alongside me is Phil Neville"

"They're the very definition of a selling club"

Picking VvD? Harsh on poor Alfie Jones, what did he do to miss out?

Pelle was playing for the under-9s? No wonder he wanted to leave.

The new Neil McCann!!?

I think the one statistic that makes me a tad concerned is that one from Adam Blackmore a few weeks ago where he noted Pelle and Mane had 44 goals between them the last two seasons, and that is a big gap to fill. Hopefully Redmond and Austin can take up that role (J-Rod I think is more of a bonus now if he comes good) but that the one stat that worries me. Defence seems ok, certainly much better than the first year we came up, and midfield also doesn't bother me really although it would have been nice to strengthen.. but Victor just went missing so much last year that it doesn't seem such a huge loss. We'll see of course. But that stat on the goals is the one thing I keep coming back to, shouldn't be so paranoid but that's a lot of goals. Sorry if that's classed as wetting the bed.

Didn't this guy win?

Be sad if Adam Yates missed out on the podium but probably looks that way now. Unless he can do some dynamic descending tomorrow off the front and then dodge the falling 1km booby-trap banner.

Well that was a mess.

OK. Stage 7. Didn't see that coming... One more? Maybe...

For Joe Allen or just because they're short of cash?

Now THAT was fun.