sydneysaint17

Balotelli's agent is Mino Raiola (also represents Zlatan/Pogba/Lukaku). Could be wrong, but find it hard to believe he's best mates with Leandre Griffit.

If Emery or Tuchel were to leave their current clubs, who else might interested? Can't think of any PL teams that would be looking that would be more attractive than us, assuming Wenger stays. Inter Milan, Sevilla and Bilbao would be the obvious "bigger" European clubs that might be looking but I think we'd have a good chance at getting someone decent in this summer - this time next year, maybe not.

Thought we improved slightly tonight. Played with good intent and movement in the first half, but yet again, poor defending and a lack of cutting edge going forward. Haven't really looked like scoring in 3 games - fingers crossed we get rid ASAP, especially with Tuchel and Emery possibly available in the summer.

Encouraged by the media traction that Puel to leave is getting... Skybet odds also slashed on him to be the next manager to go. 16/1 yesterday, 8/1 now.

Wagner, Emery or Silva. If dressing room rumours are true and the right manager is available in summer then wouldn't be surprised to see Puel move on under the pretence of "wife not settled".

If Cortese was still running the show, he'd have been gone by January

Just wish they were addressing Puel

Most exciting thing yesterday was the tannoy announcement asking the stewards to "stand down"

Went on loan there last season - he hardly got a game.

Boufal's record last season gives me hope that he will come good with a run in the team. As we used to with Gaston, when he's on the pitch sometimes we're too desperate to get him into the game and look to give him the ball even when he's surrounded by defenders. If he plays, he needs to start otherwise he tries too much and often overcomplicates situations where its not necessary. Give him 90 mins and let him play naturally rather than forcing the issue. Flip side of all this is apparently his attitude is terrible.

Pre-match drinking in Milan when a bloke revealed a "Cuco" tattoo

Agree with most - Boufal would be 15-20m given his age, potential and what we paid though. Gabbiadini and Romeu also on the low side given their performances this season and the length of time left on their contracts.

I'm feeling very optimistic about next season. Key players we might receive very high bids for: VVD and Romeu are the only two players who have played well enough over a number of games to justify the price tag Saints would put on them. VVD's long term injury might deter potential suitors for another year, as £50m+ is a lot of money for a player who may not come back the same, and Romeu has said several times that he is happy at Southampton. Senior players we might receive some bids for: Imagine we might receive bids for Bertrand, Cedric, Tadic or Forster, but given that all 4 have been inconsistent (to different extents - Cedric maybe the exception), I doubt we will receive an offer that we can't refuse. We will only sell if the bid is ridiculous or we have a better replacement in mind. Players with potential who we are unlikely to receive realistic offers for: Redmond, JWP, Gabbiadini, Boufal, Sims, Stephens, McQueen and even Hojberg at the beginning of the season, have all shown that they have the potential to command a high price tag, but we won't be receiving offers upwards of £30m for any of them (£40m+ for Gabbiadini) and so it's likely that they'll all stay with us. With the above in mind, it doesn't seem as though we will lose the core of our first team this summer and if we do sell 1/2, our reputation for developing players and allowing them to leave when the time is "right", positions us well to attract young, hungry and talented signings. We have the makings of an excellent squad who seem to be getting the hang of Puel's style of play and with some clever acquisitions, I think we could have a very good 2018/19 season.

Sell the black box and use the cash to give him whatever he wants.

Has to be a reprise of the Gaston Ramirez/White Stripes one. OOOOO GABBIDIANI.

Think you've missed my point slightly

The fact that many Saints fans still believe him to be Mane's replacement hasn't helped. In reality, he's replaced Juanmi as our "young attacking midfielder with potential" so in comparison, he's a huge upgrade. Shame that the real Mane replacement has gone off to the AFCON, just started to look like he was getting the pace of the league.

He clearly has potential, but his form has been poor at best and he still needs to add final product to his game to be a top 10 PL player. When he signed Merson also referred to him as the "signing of the summer" so obviously has some sort of weird fascination with him.

According to Paul Merson... http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11661/10718827/diego-costa-olivier-giroud-antonio-conte-paul-mersons-top-premier-league-performers-so-far Would be surprised if many/any Saints fans agree with this.

He's ginger and that's all I'll say.

Scott McDonald for me. Used to really rate Fabrice Fernandes as well but not sure he quite fits the description.

Bored of the "burn down St Mary's" brigade (and exam revision) so thought it would be interesting to get opinions on our goal of the season so far... despite the doom and gloom we've seen some great ones this year. The contenders: Boufal V Sunderland Boufal V Middlesbrough Rodriguez V Bournemouth Clasie V Arsenal For me, it has to be Boufal V Sunderland - can't remember many better at St Mary's since we've been back in the PL.

I agree that Les Reed's comments weren't suggesting that the first teams tactics had to be exactly the same as the academy. However, the system we play now is so far away from both academy/previous first teams set ups, that players are struggling to adapt. JWP (academy graduate...)/Puel/Long have all implicitly confirmed that players have not found the transition smooth and have taken time to understand the new philosophy. My point was that Les Reed said we have set the club to play the Southampton Way and we appoint managers who promote a similar style, however it would seem that we have instead changed direction to the "Puel Way".

The changes in tactics seem far more reactive to managers leaving, than proactively trying to gain an advantage over other teams. If this was the case, why haven't we bought players that suit the new system? Also, when Puel inevitably leaves after a couple of seasons either due to success, failure or mediocrity, will we be asking a new manager to adopt "The Southampton Way 2.0"? My guess would be that we would go along with whatever diamond, circle or triangle formation the new manager suggested.

Absolutely no idea how long ago this was, but I remember watching a club published video of Les Reed explaining why our managerial appointments have been so successful in recent years. He suggested that the club had an engrained way of playing football, "The Southampton Way", and that we selected managers who played a very similar style and were prepared to adopt our philosophy. He went on to say that the formation played by the first team (I believe 4-3-3/4-2-3-1) at that time was mirrored by all academy teams and the idea was that we ensured continuous progression by not having to completely remodel our style of play every time we got a new manager. It made complete sense at the time and made me think of how many teams struggled to adapt to a new system implemented a manager who would likely only be there for a 1/2 seasons at most (e.g. Van Gaal's failed attempt at 5 at the back when he moved to United). If Big Les was so confident in this strategy - can someone please explain why we appointed Puel? It is clear that, although our formation occasionally looks like a 4-3-3, Puel has introduced a new style of play and our football is radically different from the way we set up under Poch/Koeman (who also had significant tactical differences). Long confirmed this on BT Sport last night saying that the players are still "getting used to" the new philosophy. Obviously new managers will have their own ideas, but given Les' comments it seems strange that we have changed tack completely. What's even more confusing is that arguably our best XI are naturally more suited to the way we always used to set up; ----------------Forster---------------- Cedric------Fonte------VVD-------Bertrand -------------Romeu-----PEH-------------- Boufal-------------Tadic-----------Redmond ----------------- -Austin----------------------- To be clear, this is not a "bedwetting" post. I'm not commenting on how many chances we've created or how badly were playing, rather how we seemed to have deviated from "The Southampton Way" of playing football. To pre-empt one likely argument - I agree that Puel has been great at giving younger players opportunities and this does align to the clubs overall philosophy. For me though, by appointing Puel, Les has contradicted his idea of not fundamentally changing the system which undermines "The Southampton Way" and limits our ability to sustainably progress. Thoughts?