St Neel

Boring 1st half, yes - but even then we had the best chances to score. Never looked back after taking the lead. Everyone played well, but i think davis and redmond played really well. And both centre backs were awesome. We are playing much better technically with puel when compared with koeman, and starting to see the good results as well. Happy days

The Op might be right, but this analysis is just selective in favour of his own conclusion. There are mote than 5 reasons why teams whiich cost less can beat more expensive teams, for starters

I think the Southampton Way is in excellent health. its not just the academy - its also about signing good young players like Mane, Wanyama, and Schneiderlin (and most likely Van Dijk and Forster, and hopefully Boufal and Hojbjerg), giving them a platform to do well in, and selling on to bigger clubs once they have proved themselves in the premier league. As the article says. Yes, there are fewer academy graduates coming through to the 1st team - but you are never going to bring 2 or 3 new players into a top half premier league side every year. But there are graduates are going out on loan to Championship and L1 clubs, which is excellent. A very good article IMO

Is that to stop him trying to take players with him?

This reads to me to be the same as how we played under Koeman. Not surprising given they are both dutch

We werent too great in the 1st half today, but fell apart completley after half time again. No cohesion to our play at all. Even if VW hadnt got himself sent off, I doubt very much whether we would have scored.

Not seen a thread on this before so apologies if discussed before. It seems to me that saints are playing in a very similar style to man u. Possion football, pushing up on the wings. Very organised but with very little movement apart from the wing players. Very boring to watch imo

still would say the 13/ 14 team was better, even assuming: Cedric can learn how to defend. Van Dijk signs and is any good Fonte can step up if Van Dijk isnt any good Clasie ever handles the premier league Romeu? really? Tadic discovers his form from 1st 3 months of last season Negative I know but thats a lots of assumptions right there

Lets Compare: 27/8/15 v FC Midtjylland : Steckenburg - Caulker - Fonte - Yoshida - Romeu - Martina - JWP - Davis - Targett - Pelle - J-Rod to arguably our best team in the 2013/2014 season: Boruc - Clyne - Shaw - Lovren - Fonte - Davis- Schneiderlin - Wanyama - Lambert - J-Rod- Lallana Which is the better side, would you say? Does the "showcase club" strategy look like its improving the team? Looks very much like the poor bedwetters from summer 2013 were, actually... correct? We had a great start to the season last year, but the teams performance has steadily declined since then, as more and more quality has left. Replacements, bar the the odd exception (Alderwiereld on loan, Bertrand, Mane) have not been been good enough. The Club Board have been as self-indulgent and cocky as the ******s on here who dont criticise the club because (supposedly) they are the true, hard core fans..

Where are the Snowdon's of yesteryear?

The Outer Hebrides seem to be mainly populated by Leicester City fans. That's odd.

It is wierdly quiet. Hopefully this means we're getting business done quietly without agents using our interest to drum up more interest. Clasie was hardly mentioned earlier this summer, i was beginning to think we were no longer interested. Thenwe sold morgan and signed clasie a couple of days later.

Feyenoord are going to pummel us. And I wouldn't begrudge them either

mane and fonte copying pelle's party trick!

Reed has looked pretty good so far

Toby used to play for Athletico Madrid, who are about to move into their new 70,000 seat stadium. Do you really think he's that impressed with Spurs?

A pity Toby didn't sign for us, but as long as we: A) sign a decent replacement for him, B) sing a decent replacement for Morgan, and C) keep playing out of a good organisation then we'll still have a solid defence. I'm not sure Toby will enjoy playing in Poch's high defensive line so much, though.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/06/08/southampton-line-up-loan-signing-of-real-madrids-martin-odegaard-in-transfer-window-5235676/

Great news indeed!

are the players bored of Koeman's tactics? they look like they are

repsect to those who are at the game. i would want a refund

**** me this saints team is tedious

Gutted we gave the lead away twice, but an excellent performance. Whether we finish 5th, 6th or 7th: we still mix it with the best teams in the premiership. Which is thing to be proud of. Motm schneidelin. Would have been mane but for his diving. I also think yoshida deserves a worthy mention, despite losing chadli for the second goal. He was otherwise excellent

So you imply I'm racist, whilst denigrating Shane Long on the basis of him being Irish? See? Its a very easy game to play, this. Idiot.

Congratulations yourself, for implying racism without any justifiable reason for doing so. I quite clearly say in my post that Pelle and Mane are both good players, but both have faults, and that I don't think they play well together. Presumably then you think because I get a feeling (which I admit to not having any evidence for) that Mane doesn't care too much for the team, that is because he is black. Well, I cant prove that this isn't the case, but there are several other black players in the team, none of whom I have suggested don't want to be here. You may disagree with my comments, fair enough. But trying to clinch an argument by implying racism is pathetic. Bravo.