mrfahaji

It just seems a bit unnecessary to me, especially if they've received it once already. Perhaps it's more meaningful if a fellow title rival gives you a guard of honour, but is Kevin de Bruyne going to feel massively humbled because Jack Stephens is giving him a round of applause? Just another example of when something happens occasionally or for the first time, it has meaning and is memorable, then everyone jumps on the bandwagon, it almost becomes expected, and in the process becomes a bit of a bore or annoying. Eg players not celebrating a goal, a minute's silence for anyone remotely famous, a minute's applause, applauding at a certain minute of the game to acknowledge something or someone etc.

Probably true, but also because Pellegrino seemed to coach the players to play safe all the time. When I criticise Cedric's lack of getting forward though, it's less about how much time he spends attacking in general, but specific moments in games where he has chance to do something positive and doesn't. I think he has been a bit better in the last few games, perhaps it's also something you notice more live than on TV. The matches that stand out for me were Wigan away and Chelsea at Wembley, and they were both matches I attended.

Only if it will somehow help us. I certainly won't be applauding a team/club who have only found success through spending way more than anybody else.

That I can't disagree with! Only marginally worse than giving Forster a 5 (or 6?) year contract on £90k a week though.

Maybe we should get Pellegrino back for one game? If ever there was a man to call to secure a narrow defeat!

Ha, you're being way too generous. I'm pretty sure Batman was referring to Dazza's post. In fairness there were a lot of people who couldn't see us buying a win after Chelsea & Leicester. I was certainly doubtful.

Weren't we also in for Wimmer and Imbula? I could also understand the Berahino thinking at the time too, as I'm sure many Stoke fans could. Obviously a risk but appeared to have the ability to stick the ball in the net, which is what they were missing. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The problem I have with Cedric is his reluctance to get forward, but I'm hoping that's due to a lack of confidence and/or playing under Pellegrino for so long. As a wing back his crossing also needs to improve a lot. We can't have a wide player who puts in one good cross every four matches. I'm not convinced Cedric is great, but I also think we have a lot more pressing needs elsewhere so we should just accept that he will be our RB and hope Hughes can get the best out of him/improve his weaknesses.

Hopefully, love our kit this season. Was worried it would be associated with relegation but fingers crossed it won't be now.

Didn't he get injured at Villa? I also recall him being linked with PL clubs after their relegation, but perhaps that was based on the player he was before he joined them rather than his tenure at Villa Park. I remember him making a big mistake early in the season, but that doesn't mean he was rubbish overall.

I'm not sure that's true, Stoke fans have generally been lamenting that it was his mistake that led to Palace's goal, because he has been a rare consistent performer, not just in the past but also this season. I don't watch football apart from Saints though, so only going on what I hear rather than what I've seen for myself. I also had the same opinion as you until I heard this from Stoke fans.

Ha, I was going to use the "baby out with the bathwater" line myself but after realising that the 'baby' was an intangible idea and the 'bathwater' was Les Reed, I thought it was too confusing

True. Look at Thauvin at Marseille now - scoring and setting up goals for fun, yet at Newcastle was a complete flop.

Same. Maybe it was the pessimist in me but I was expecting to see at least 7, and was thinking "has there ever been double figures? surely they can't do more than 9...?", so 6 was a pleasant surprise.

Lol, an accurate fix

Yep, apparently he's turned him into player who has half an idea of how to play football. As for relegated recruits, assuming Evans will go elsewhere, I would consider Matt Phillips and that's about it. Just because I can't see any players who a) we could get ahead of other teams without paying over the odds and b) even if they are better than what we have, I'm not sure they are so obviously better than we should go for them ahead of alternatives from abroad.

Exactly. I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea of the 'club' controlling transfers. The manager should obviously identify what he feels the squad are missing, but I'm not sure he should be the one picking precisely which players we go for. It certainly appears to be why Hughes is unpopular at Stoke. It's just that Reed and Wilson haven't been very good at it. All those things that people lauded our club for (fans, outsiders, and the club itself) a couple of seasons ago should still be aspired to, we just need to be better at it. If anything I would prefer the club to have MORE control of the vetting process. It would surely avoid Carrillo situations. Ideal situation to me is: Hughes says "the team is missing someone with X, or needs a player to play X role", the club then find a shortlist of targets, they review the options with Hughes and decide on the best target.

What if Swansea score early and we concede early? Would they not think "who knows? let's go for it" If Lambert has the players up enough for the game then we'll be fine, because I can't see Stoke conceding hatfuls of goals to Swansea in those circumstances. But it's just the combination of us playing Man City, our players being complacent and thinking they're safe, Man City players having freedom & space because we're no longer up for it, Stoke having a bee in their bonnet about Hughes and not being overly fussed about losing and Swansea being solely focused on scoring lots of goals rather than just getting a win. I mean, it would be the mothership of all catastrophes coming to land if it happened. But this is Saints we're talking about.

Main reason I wanted Huddersfield to lose was so Swansea had to focus on winning. They can focus on trying to score a hatful to catch us.

Classic case of why people complained about the added time for Everton though. Huddersfield wasted so much time, then they get a FK with 30s still to play, take a whole minute to take it, and the red blows as soon as they do. The game also stopped while a player was treated for cramp etc etc.

What's Benjamin Bourigeaud of Rennes like (I know, not a defender)?

Thanks!

I'd say he's even more of a luxury player than Tadic is. Tadic might not be defensively minded, but he does track back a bit, keeps his position etc. Shaqiri doesn't bother with that side of the game. What I would say though, is that Hughes signed Shaqiri, Arnautovic and Bojan, so he clearly values having those types of players (though for a while Arnautovic and Shaqiri rarely played together, so obviously doesn't like to overdo it). Maybe he will value Tadic in a similar way and get the best out of him. (somewhere, in a parallel universe, a manager is getting the best out of Dusan Tadic for more than one in five matches...)

I don't think our comments are mutually exclusive. You are right, but to me they do not ooze PL quality yet. Nor do the others you have listed (though I really like Sims, want to see more of him). The way the article is written makes it sound like the board are patting themselves on the back for some more brilliant signings. They might prove to be, but they're not at the moment. I'm happy for these players to be sniffing around the first team, getting some game time and if they're improving given a first team berth, but I'd be concerned if we went into next year with the belief that the current crop of players will do just fine under Hughes' management.

Reading the telegraph article posted in the 'Mark Hughes' thread, I am concerned this is going to be closer to the truth than any Saints fan could fear or possibly think true. Bednarek and Hojbjerg (and Hoedt to a lesser extent) have stepped up well enough given our predicament, they've certainly given it their all, but I'm not sure they are quite ready to be heralded as evidence that the club have got everything right.