SaintSeb

As someone mentioned would love to see Rondon from the Baggies. No way they'd let him go for 'our kind' of fee though, let alone mid-season in January. but Berahino on a cheap deal due to his contract situation could be good for us. I know his attitude has been worrying, but hopefully he's learned his lesson not to be a diva because it has severely hampered his career as at one point he looked a very very promising player. In terms of continental options, Haller I know very little of, but I saw someone mention Plea as well as Ntep from the French league which in fluent Puel are both interesting players with good possibilities... The trouble with January is your either taking a risk on a player not getting a lot of game time (which there are usually negative reasons for), or paying an over-inflated fee if you want any sort of quality guarantee and even then there are a fair few galling flops (Torres and Carroll obviously springs to mind). Austin really was a brilliant signing when you put him into the context of other players signed in this window.

I'd be surprised if Fonte leaves in January, but if he does I have faith in Yoshida to step in on a more regular basis, he's been very solid; would even go so far as to say it's been his best start to a season for us so far. Would like to see a young promising defender come in during the window though to come in alongside Van Dijk next season (praying beyond hope that we keep Virgil, he is a truly outstanding player). We are in need of another striker, I'm not a pessimist by any means but even the most positive of fans has to admit we need more firepower and that, sadly, Rodriguez and Long just aren't cutting it so far this season. I have hope they can recover some sort of form, but I have to concede I now feel their best days at Saints are behind them. I really hope they can prove me wrong though! If we had to ship either out Rodriguez on loan makes most sense, but I'd rather see him stay as another option for squad depth. The question is who can we realistically get in in January without being utterly ripped off? Berahino? Hasn't played let alone scored in the Premier League for a good year, but has a lot of potential. Not seen much of this Haller guy, but we need anyone who can finish to help out when Austin is having an off day. Other than that, we just need to cut this complacency out of our game! Against both Hull and Palace it looked like our team just turned up expecting the other team to roll-over, then gave up a bit when they realised they had a game on their hands.

Unbelievable that it's 2-0 to either team given how **** both have been! Hopefully we come out with the same kind of drive we had against Arsenal in the week! A shame that error will probably knock Forster's confidence as I feel as if he's been less cautious coming off his line for crosses and long balls in the last couple of games and starting to become the presence in the box which his brick sh*thouse stature should automatically make him!

Fonte's form is picking up after a 'head was turned' start to the season. Bertrand has only just come back to fitness so needs time to get back to 100% Long has been his pre-end of last season form self (great work rate, poor finishing), and has been injured. Davis has been more in and out of the team, so his consistency has been hurt with less game time IMO. Cedric started inconsistently, improved, then got injured. Forster, not really sure how to explain his poor form. Just seems to be repeatedly caught cold whenever a shot isn't straight at him or a save requires him to dive out of his comfortable range. Hojbjerg has been good when called upon in my view.

Purely for the Pompey connection Defoe's a no for me! Also he's no spring chicken, would rather get a younger player in, or dare I say it recall Sam Gallagher...?

Nope that is correct. Hadn't really thought about it until now but that's pretty impressive really! Quite a lot of draws to be fair; if we put away just a couple more of our many chances then quite a few of those would be wins and we'd be higher up the league table. Even as is we're not doing badly at all though!

Yeah I really don't think we have much choice but to rotate or our players would just burn out.

You're Boufal You're Boufal You're Boufal, it's true! You're Red and White, Make [insert oppo team name/nickname/defender name here] look ****e, And they don't know what to do, Because they can't get the ball off you As another verse?

I'm not sure we'll get many this weekend. Burnley will sit deep (as they do against every team) and be very compact. However, I do think we have it in us to put 4+ past a team again (as we have done a few times in the past couple of seasons).

I suppose everyone is entitled to their opinions. In that vein, my opinion of yourself and Alpine based on your posts on here is that you're both miserable bell-ends. That, or actually rather brilliant wind up merchants.

But surely the point of focusing on the league last season was to qualify for this tournament and actually give it a go if we got there? If we don't then field strong teams in the competition we were trying to get into then why bother?? The prize money? Qualifying next year to do the same again i.e. not field a strong team because we want to focus on qualifying again the year after? Personally I'd happily accept a lower league place if we had a real go in Europe and made it into the later knockout rounds.

Even if what he did turns out to not be technically 'illegal', I still hope the big fat w4nker gets the sack for his greed alone.

HAHAHAHAHA Sunderland AGAIN

Careful mate, straying dangerously towards positivity there, people will not like that! Honestly I think some of the blokes on here would complain about having a wet knob after getting a blowy

F ucking Bobby Madley, potato headed f ucking c unt

Lallana just still can't shoot. Even the shot for the goal was straight at the keeper!

What we've lacked so far is penetrating passes into the box for shots from closer in. That and the teams we've played have defended well and deep. I'm hopeful that with the addition of a creative player like Boufal, as well as an increased understanding of the system we're playing, we'll start to carve out more clear openings.

1) United: Ibrahimovic to be the difference. As much as the c*ck sucking by Sky during our match with them was infuriating he is certainly world class, even at 34. 2) Chelsea: Will just miss out. Have strengthened where they needed to and will benefit from no European football. 3) City: Pep will be massively looking at CL I believe and despite having the most complete squad will fall short of the title for that reason. 4) Arsenal: Because it's Arsenal 5) Liverpool: Again, lack of European football will help them finish higher. Exciting, but very inconsistent. 6) Spurs: CL and increased quality of the league will see them slip. Also I think Kane's confidence will be shot after the Euro's and it will take him a while to return to form. 7) Leicester: Have done well to keep most of title winning team, but Kante a huge loss. Extra games to take their toll as well. 8 ) Everton: Koeman is a good, but more importantly pragmatic manager and will do far better with this squad than a defensively naive Martinez. 9) Stoke: Continuing steady improvement under Hughes. My tip to make a go of it in a cup. 10) Saints: Not good enough to challenge for top 6 again, but too good for bottom half. Steady league season, but hopefully an exciting one in Europe and the cups! 11) West Ham: New players haven't looked great for them and injury to big signing Ayew will mean a slip backwards imo. 12) Middlesbrough: I think they'll do quite well. Definitely the best of the promoted sides. 13) Bournemouth: Depends on how fit they can keep Wilshere and if Ibe can live up to his fee. Think Howe is an excellent manager though and will see them to mid table safety. 14) West Brom: Tony Pulis, pragmatism personified. Will be eternally last on MOTD. Are so boring I almost forgot to put them in. 15) Swansea: Big, big losses in Williams and Ayew, but have signed some decent players to replace their outgoings and will be fine amongst other dross. 16) Sunderland: Moyes is a good manager with this level of club, and whilst I think they'll find it tough, they should have enough to stay up. 17) Palace: Beneteke to keep them up, just. Pardew is an 'impact manager' whose impact has worn off and I think despite big spending, they will be fighting to stay up. 18 ) Watford: Not convinced they have enough quality to stay up. They weren't awful against us, but we gifted them a lead and they sat on it. 19) Burnley: Dyche's a decent manager, but almost too pragmatic. You rarely win games with less than 20% possession and I doubt they'll win too many more this season. 20) Hull: Great spirit, but ultimately the paper thin squad will be their undoing.

I would agree with that assessment, especially regarding Austin. His movement in the first half of the Sunderland game decent but frustrating; as in he was finding good space, but being over eager and jumping the gun with his runs, thereby getting caught offside... a lot! In the second half he was pretty anonymous though, hopefully with more and more competitive game time he can recapture that eye for goal he had at QPR. Has to be playing strictly centrally though as he is like a fish up a tree out wide, which could be an issue given Puel's system requires width from the strikers. Should think he's a smart enough manager to at least tinker with his formation to a player's strengths though!

I actually agree up to a point. I'd imagine their wages are a deal breaker for us. From a purely playing perspective though, Remy or Bony could be very good for us. Remy especially, his pace in the split striker role could be very dangerous.

Yeah, I often wonder if it was a deliberate policy change as soon as Cortese left, or a knock on effect which the board lost control of by submitting to troublesome players (Lallana, Lovren) then had to regain it by forcing someone to stay (Schneiderlin). Either way things have worked out well so far. Time will obviously tell regarding this season. Would the players still have left if Cortese hadn't? It's difficult to know, but regardless of who your chairman is, when the big clubs come calling I'd imagine it's very, very hard to turn them down. I think that even if they wouldn't have left though, the club is better off without him. Whilst he instilled a ruthlessness we needed to succeed after our rebuild, that came at the price of a loss of our identity as a club. What I realistically think we can hope for, given how the last few summers have unfolded, is that we can continue to establish ourselves as a top ten club, whilst occasionally having a tilt at finishing higher, and start to sell less frequently with each year so more continuity and a stronger sense of squad identity is built. Hopefully in turn this will allow us to grow as a club on and off the pitch.

Yeah, was going to say Walcott was the first major sale from the academy in its modern guise. Strange to think that he went for as much, and possibly in the end more, than Bale did!

Having read most of people's responses (not all, I got bored, as some did reading my original post apparently!) I just want to posts some comments of my own in response: 1) Not Les Reed 2) I definitely understand people's scepticism and criticism of the new manager and system, in any time of change and uncertainty it's inevitable, especially when he hasn't yet proven himself with positive results. To write him and his system off this early as some have, however, is downright ridiculous. 3) Thanks to those who have responded with posts other than insults and patronising remarks. 4) People have talked about whether or not the club are doing their best to push us to improve, which I think is a very interesting debate. In my opinion, the club have had to handle difficult circumstances due to becoming victims of their own success. They've brought in ambitious players and managers who want to do well and have done well, but on the other side of the double edged sword they go on to feel as though they've outgrown us quicker than we'd hope. Like another poster (can't remember who) put quite well, Leicester went from being sh*t to amazing in one fell swoop, whereas we've improved more steadily so have had to deal with big teams buying the cream of our crop each season, sending us a step back after we'd taken two forwards. I think this summer the club have tried to react to this issue by bringing in a manager that they hope will be here more long term and got key players who wanted to stay tied down so there's less pressure to sell. Only time will tell if this is the case, or if Puel will last long term! I do somewhat sympathise with the idea that we could do more to keep our best players, sell them a long term vision even if it is a bit of a pipe-dream, but is it worth the risk if they truly don't want to be here? I don't know. Also, would they even come here in the first place if they thought they'd be prevented from moving on? Not sure of that either. Saints seem to be of the opinion that the way to bring in the best talent and remain sustainable is to be upfront about the possibility of selling them on, which is fair enough in my book. I understand fans wishing it wasn't this way though, but realistically there is no way of trying to break this 'glass ceiling' we find ourselves under that keeps everyone happy and is risk-free.

Can I get an extension? I'm going to be writing a Saints themed version. I'll send it to you when we're inevitably bottom at Christmas. A little preview for now; my plan will include Hoddle and Sherwood taking the helm as a dynamic duo. Along with the usual management duties, they'll perform Chas and Dave hits before kick off at home games in order to boost supporter morale.

Yeah, but just for the physio team to have an easily injured specimen to test experimental treatments on.