Sergei Gotsmanov

Sad to say but you are right. Fans that demand loyalty from players yet give absolutely none of it. I remember the days when we would be proud to have a goalkeeper that played for England and if he had a bad run it would be us the supporters that lifted him and got his confidence back because he was one of our own. Nowadays our fans just kick him down further until he will be a nervous wreck. We used to take great delight in our own home grown players coming through. Players like local lad JWP, still barely out of school and recognised as an outstanding prospect by everyone in football apart from the hysterical lynch mob on here. God knows what they would have said about Benali but he became a cult hero to the old fanbase. I supported Northern Ireland in the Euros like it was my own team, why? because of Steven Davis. He was pivotal in their extraordinary run and has been a fantastic and under rated servant for our club. I remember MOPO when asked about him just said "what a player". Not according to the armchair experts on here, tired legs, past it. Nothing demonstrates the fickleness of some of our supporters than the Austin thread. ‘Get rid’ they demanded he is just ‘a championship striker’. Finally he gets some game time and he is van Nistelrooy. When the clouds of relegation gather who do our new age fans believe will be the ones in the dressing room revving the players up to put in a performance; VVD? Tadic? Boufal? No it will be the Forsters, the Steven Davis's, the Warde Prowses and the Austins.

Leicester's squad is better than ours; their past problems were a hangover from winning the title two seasons ago. They also have owners with very different financial aspirations for their club. Massive TV revenues and transfer profits mean nothing if other clubs have bigger budgets to play with. I cannot think of one of the players that have left in recent times who would have been persuaded to stay. I thought it was bold to fight to keep Van Dyke when it would have been easier to pocket £60m - if you agree then should Les not get the credit. (As it happens I think it has turned out to be a mistake because VVD would appear to have lowered the overall morale of the dressing room). If we lost good players to teams of similar or slightly higher stature than ourselves then I would be put out. I appreciate that Les has a formula that has allowed us to punch above our weight in recent seasons. That formula at least provides a system to follow and gives some form of stability. Stability is preferable to instability in the middle of a season when we might well end up with a relegation scrap. Unless our budget changes I would stick with what we have got because it is stable and proven. You need to judge Les on his long term tenure not on a few months. What will be more influential is the approach of our new owners. I am prepared to give them a chance but there are definitely some anxieties.

At least Les Reed has a long established plan. I have never really bought into this 'We March On' ****** because there was always going to be a ceiling that we could reach and that plan took us to that level and I salute that. Those thinking of sacking Les should firstly ask themselves; What would an alternative plan look like with the same budget?

Educated and cultural player who lost his way. He is only 28 and in the right dressing room would be a fantastic asset. He is the sort of player who would play a high level of football unto his mid thirties. Would love to have him back but his wages would be a barrier.

Very good!

In the bleak days it was people like SaintLee that kept us going. Very very sad.

How is it possible to measure the impact on average wages accurately? Economists argue against the basic rule of supply and demand. Classic 'must be bigots and stupid to vote leave'. I will let you get back to your reading but when you have been through the European Commission's recommended reading list, there is a very good book called the 'Power of Charm'.

You think that if your labour market is suddenly inundated with 1.5m low skilled workers this will not cause deflationary wage pressures? Ground based evidence based on a survey of over 30m people. 17.4m voted to leave. High levels of immigration cited a primary reason why. They voted to leave because they have seen first hand the A&E wait get longer, a housing crisis unfold, class sizes get bigger and their greenbelt concreted. You can cite other factors that have contributed to theses factors but a 6m rise in population is a pretty important one. So you have chosen to argue that EU freedom of movement is not in fact the freedom to move. I think you will have to do better than that. Do you think that if we made our own immigration regulations we could make it work better in our favour. Of course.

Shurlock you weren't canvassing for remain in the North East were you? Your style of debate is very warm. If there are 100 plumbing projects and there are 75 plumbers to undertake the work then each job will cost say £125. If suddenly 50 new plumbers arrive and there are 125 plumbers to do the 100 jobs then I would argue that the price of those projects will go down. Do you get that? I would argue, and the majority of the electorate seem to agree with me that this is not the case. They cannot get their children into the local school, they have to wait longer at A&E, their children cannot move out of home etc etc. This is what you would call ground based evidence. You never seem to tackle the core of the issue which is 'unlimited'. That is what people have a problem with. Immigration is a good thing but it is considered reckless to have no checks and balances. Your problem is that you cannot defend the principle of 'unlimited immigration' and just resort to name calling. Go on defend unlimited immigration? I don't mean to worry you Shurlock but there is a danger that by constantly using terminology like 'opportunity set' and quoting high brow economists you will not make yourself look clever, just pretentious. You are unable to recognise that the leave camp was a broad church. The referendum was lost because you lost people like me who think the EU is a good idea badly executed. All it would have taken was for the EU to budge a little on free movement and recognise its flaws and you would won by a landslide.

Who taught you your charm Shurlock - Martin Selmayr? Non EU Immigration can in theory be controlled. If the electorate are unhappy with levels of immigration then they can speak at the ballot box - the only way that you can do that in the EU is to vote for protest parties liken UKIP to represent you among all the growing number of other crackpot protest parties being elected by other countries to the European Parliament. You cannot change it - it is in the rules. Unlimited EU immigration amongst a community with considerable wage disparity is flawed. That is why our population has ballooned since 2004. If your population jumps by 6m then that automatically influences your 'policy set'. I am afraid I don't now what an 'opportunity set' is - maybe I should stay in more and become more familiar with the musings of people like Dani Rodrik. EU migrants put in more than they take out yes but that is down to the million French high earners and others in London not the million and a half unskilled migrants that have pushed down wages and put pressure on housing and services. The evidence that you are looking for about the impact of immigration on peoples lives came in the form of the referendum result. That and the 6m population increase in a decade.

I think if you google it you will see varying figures but you could conclude that if you take both the highest and even the lowest estimates you are indeed correct. It is indeed 'quite a lot'.

Shurlock my old pal I cannot continue to stand by any more. It is a very straightforward answer. The EU's right to free movement and uncontrolled immigration encroaches on all of these - what bigger encroachment on sovereignty can there be than not allowing a country to decide how many people and who comes to live in your country. The EU's inflexibility and insensitivity to immigration will be its undoing. Pandering to big business and not ordinary people has facilitated Brexit and the unpalatable rise of the right wing across Europe. I am afraid there is no EU funded think tank journal for me to quote but you have to just get out more and realise that when your population rises by 6m in little more than a decade people will become anxious. It is simply lazy to label them racists; they are not. Well 85% of them are not.

Great role model great player

Sadly we get the loyalty from players that many of our fans deserve.

Austin has scored goals where ever he goes. He has not been given a chance this season. We would be mad to get rid of him.

Where do people believe we should be as a team based on our catchment area, size and status. When I read threads like this I realise that it is not just a lot of the modern players I am disillusioned with but also many of today's so called supporters.

He has his issues but can be very good. I would imagine he is also very good to have in the dressing room.

Technically I think that goal was taken away from Dodd - outrageously I may add

I think in that team we had Pele, Best and Jesus

Never saw the attitude but wish him well. A fresh challenge will do him good.

It is cut and dried for me. We have finished 8th in the league and had a cup final. The cup final was probably my greatest experience of supporting Saints apart from maybe staying up against Wimbledon. Judged on this I think it is absurd to sack him. We will either appoint a brilliant manager who goes to a bigger club or a useless manager who gets sacked. The only caveat I would have is if some of the senior players do not warm to him and want to get somebody else in.

Thank you for that. Very emotional!

Was Wes Brown the last person to score at the Dell still playing?

He did a good job down the road. I seem to remember that we had to pay a large instalment if he played 30 games and so he got to 29 games and then they would never play him. I don't think he was given a decent crack of the whip.

Liked that. Romeu man of culture.