Beckenham Saint

I don't know what more you want from him, he has done a couple of interviews on the official Youtube channel and the cameras have been live streaming most of his training sessions so he's hardly been hiding from the fans, but his English clearly isn't 100% yet so he's probably brushing up on that before he can fully assume the role of court jester and 'personality', that you seem to want. Persoinally, I'd prefer he was spending time with the players, teaching them how he wants to play and getting them ready for the season than becoming a big personality on Youtube and in the press. Why you would want anyone with the personality of Boris Johnson anywhere near our club is beyond me, and even if you don't, the idea that he was the name given as an example is just mad. What do you want, Puel to write an offensive limerick about Big Sam and get stuck on some training equipment in a funny way? Seriously, though, what are you expecting? The club to do one of those tacky twitter series' like Arsenal and Everton do where they round up all the gossip linking players to clubs on the OS? Of course they won't give us any signs as to players replacements, because they go about their business quietly, like always, and don't alert other clubs to our targets and their availability. It's worth noting, too, that we've made two astute signings, have tied down all our best remaining players (besides Long, Tadic and Cedric who it seems are being dealt with) to long term deals and have another training camp coming up off the back of the USA trip which sounded very successful. Personally, I think there's a fair bit of momentum there, which will only be built upon by some more contracts and signings and another training camp to go.

Witsel joined Zenit for €40m a few years back, they're unlikely to want much less than what they paid for him and he is a good player, so in todays market £30m is probably about right... Plus he's Belgian... Newcastle have no need to sell any players and have set a very high price tag on Wijnaldum in a bid to keep him there, as they want him in their team next season unless they can get silly money for him, and Everton would have to pay up if they really wanted him.

Check out the Grades Icon remix of West Coast, if you like that sort of thing...

Unless they discussed potential targets during the Puel interviews and have put the wheels in motion on deals already...

But we're not aware of the criteria that the board were looking for, so we don't know that. They will have examined much more football played under Puel than any of us on the here have and have a real overall view of his history and management that we simply don't. Likewise, they may have done the same for the other candidates and everyone would have had different qualities, but if we have appointed Puel, then it's safe to assume that he ticked all the boxes that the board were looking for more than anyone else. I would not be surprised if they ran comparisons of players at our disposal and players he has worked with to see if there are any similarities and if he'd be able to utilise their skills. Perhaps, again, they did this for everyone, comparing our current squads to those at other candidates disposals and the board again came up with the idea that Puel was the best fit. Also, isn't it good that we operate under a strict budget? Failing to do so before nearly lost us our club, and it is the strict budget and continual financial growth that allows us to continue to expand areas off the pitch as well as on it that have made us so successful and lauded around the country. Living within your means is to be commended, not condemned and is a very weird stick to beat the club with, and also strange given that we clearly aren't averse to spending money where we see fit. It's not as if all our players are bought in on the cheap or on loans.

What's that based on?

I think his agent has confirmed that we've not bid for him but someone from the Premier League has...

From Blackmore's tweet, it sounds like Pellegrini was discussed, but his name doesn't make the final edit. Kind of interesting to watch but nothing groundbreaking. Gist was: Ronalds a bastard attractive proposition for future managers stronger league next year but we're a good team away days in europa to look forward to and group stage qualification shows how far the club has come fans want us to win something, should have won league 1 we'll be playing some premier league teams in the premier league next year

No reason he couldn't sign a contract that only comes into play on the 1st of July, when he is no longer their manager. When you sign a player on a pre-contract Bosman, I don't think you have to pay compensation to his old club, but could be wrong. Anyway, if we need to pay any compensation to Manchester City (which would surely be minimal as we're hardly poaching him from them AND they have a manager incoming, so no problem for them), then we'd surely use the money we got from either Koeman or Wanyama to cover it.

I doubt he'll struggle in the championship with that squad and his experience. If he'd been appointed earlier than he was they'd have stayed up no problem, there are a lot of good players there and were totally mismanaged under McClaren. Noises coming out of Newcastle are that they're adamant they're keeping most players and have stuck huge price tags on Wijnaldum and Sissoko (ie more than they're worth) to stop them from leaving. They'll be straight back up next season and it seems that Benitez is committed to the cause so I really don't think he'll be going anywhere. Also, if we want to appoint someone by the 28th for the fitness testing, it'd make sense to get it done as early as possible but I think we'll make full use of our own self imposed time scale and probably announce it at the start of next week. Even if interviews over the weekend were successful, it'll still take a while for contracts to be written up and agreed between lawyers and agents. My money is on Puel, so it won't be him. Hoping for Pellegrini...

First game was 2002 when I was 8, we got the FA cup final that year and so Strachan was in charge. First new appointment when I was a fan would have been Paul Sturrock. I thought he was OK at the time and remember being really optimistic when we beat Liverpool 2-0. I seem to remember really liking that team, despite so many poor results under him, and very anti climactic after getting to the FA Cup final the year before. The 3-3 with Newcaslte was great fun to watch and probably the game that got me hooked on a lifetime obsession with football. First time I remember being really excited by an appointment was Pardew, although I was pleased to see him go by the end.

Weird how they make the jump from "I wish him all the best" to "but could be joining him at Everton, writes Paul O'Hehir."

I thought that - there was the ,, post from Guan when AVB was listed in the middle of two other candidates by someone else.

That's Marcelo Biesla, I think

After Pardew we got Adkins and took a step up. After him - Pochettino and took a step up. After him, Koeman. We signed better players, played better football and had, an albeit too brief, taste of Europe and therefore took a step up. Why would we buck the trend of hiring better managers than the outgoing by bringing Pearson back? You do remember where he had Leicester firmly rooted for most of last season?

Surprised he didn't try and shift that onto his other foot! Get in!

Should have scored, it's encouraging how easily we got through them, though...

Hard for him to be consistent when he's so inconsistently in the team though. Whenever he's had a run in the team he's been reliable, never set the world alight but then if he did he'd be first choice, not cover. Obviously, he's not as good as our first choice but no player plays their best football when they're played out of position once every six games.

Kelvin for me. Even now, 4 years later and knowing what happened, whenever I watch the highlights of the match I'm still utterly convinced that Leeds are going to score. That was the game where I felt we were going up, I've never seen a goalkeeping performance like it. Fraser was amazing today and granted the attackers were better, but that performance against Leeds from Kelvin was other worldy. Always nice to see Warnock so annoyed, too!

This guy is seriously over rated by some fans. Doesn't bring anything to the team apart from running at defenders with very little end product and wayward shots from range. There were two stats doing the rounds on Twitter yesterday that summed him up nicely: Rather have Shane Long any day for that price.

Are Batman and brett24 the same person?

Saints' loss is Spurs' loss

http://cricfree.tv/watch/live/sunderland-vs-southampton-live-streaming this ones OK, not great picture quality but it's not glitching / freezing