SaintStinger

Sure he is.

While i agree Pelle has been poor lately so has Mane. Take his pace away and he offers nothing whatsoever at the moment. And he really does need to stop falling over all the time.

He's hardly set the world alight since he's been there. A bit part role even when not injured. Doesn't even score that many goals either. Sure, he looked good for us, in league one but for the £ he would cost including wages i'm sure we could do better.

Never would i want Saints to lose regardless of the outcome for some other team.

Yoshi!

Crazy to see people seemingly happy to see him go for upto £10m. A man who has scored 25 goals for us so far and broke into the national team while here and scored 4 more for his country too. I say keep him for the rest of this season at least. Fully fit and in a team playing well and confident i think he'll score a good few more. And i think he and Austin would play well together.

Biggest load of crap i've read for a while. So many obvious reasons this would never happen.

Really?

He obviously meant he is as fit as the rest of the squad.

Villa, Norwich, West Brom.

Do you get some of it then?

Simple fact of the matter is he's scored loads of goals every season (17 at worst) since he went to Swindon regardless of time out with injuries. His failed medical didn't stop him scoring either. Also worth noting is that Hull didn't seem to care much about George Boyd's failed medical at Forest before signing him.

Endless excuses?

Yet our first season without Poch we achieved a higher finish. Even with the exodus of players. All of a sudden now we want Pochs way of playing back? I didn't hear anyone complain last season.

Pathetic thread. Can't even be bothered to type anymore than that.

Spot on? What utter nonsense. Red Nose Day ring a bell? The indonesia earthquake? etc. Yea 'whatever' is really the first thing that western countries think of when a tragedy hits these areas. /rollseyes

So it's been confirmed that at least one of the attackers was a Syrian refugee. So logically, inviting tens of thousands into the UK will only increase the likelihood of the same thing happening here. Woud that be a correct assumption? Or am i just another filthy clueless racist?

We are a much better side than Villa and if we turn up i can't see us losing. We have such a strong squad this season.

It's his fitness then. I based what i said about him by looking at our Steven Davis's appearences for N Irland too. And he's played 30 more times than Evans. From just 1 year longer service. And concluded that he can't be that regular then.

One of the key things for me is getting Tadic back as a rugular starter. He has to start starting. And he has to show his first 5 months for of last season form again sharpish. He seems to be the only player we have that get's the best out of Pelle. He actually has the vision and skill to make those lovely little through balls and create clear chances. We know he can do it. Mane again has to start, obviously. So no room for JRod for me. He's simply not up to speed yet.

Jonny Evans? That bit part Man U defensive calamity that's never even been that regular for his country even? He was never, ever, going to be part of a serious Champions League club. Did you notice how many other top 10 sides missed out on him too? I'm suprised he didn't end up at Sunderland (where he had two seasons with already), as they usually take most of Man U's young defensive cast off's that never made the grade. And he's not even that young, he's older than Yoshida and Gardos and much older than Caulker. He's way past improving anymore. No, we didn't miss out on Jonny Evans.

We'll thump Watford. I can feel it.

Some good posts. And, as i expected, most mentioning his score rateas his biggest drawback. Great contribution to the team though. So much energy and seems to be everywhere at times. Picks up a lot of loose balls and strives to go forward. How many times do you see a pass from him go backwards? Or sideways even? And he does have a really good pass on him no doubt. He is always involved in our attack. Would like to see a few heat maps from him, but, like us, he's never the focus of the media either. You can't argue with his stats though, or the amount of managers that include him. As you know Koeman picks him, so did Pochettino and Adkins. And so did O'Leary, O'Neill, Lawrie Sanchez, Coleman, McCoist, and Walter Smith. He played 35 times for club and country in his debut season at 19. How many of our youngsters have managed that even? In his second season he won "Young Player of the Year", "The Fans Player of the Year" and "Player of the Year" all at once. The amount of games he's played after that and still does is impressive for sure. He gets picked for the first team and cup games. How many times do we think to 'rest' another player for a cup game, especially in the early stages? He seems to play them all. And his appearance tally backs it up. His appearances. Includes internationals. 2004-2005 - 35 2005-2006 - 49 2006-2007 - 50 2007-2008 - 58 2008-2009 - 49 2009-2010 - 60 2010-2011 - 58 2011-2012 - 46 2012-2013 - 40 2013-2014 - 47 2014-2015 - 47 Very impressive. I'm just wondering, now we're in Europe, how many he will make this season. If we make the Europa group stages then i'm going to say 53. What do you think?

Looking at his wiki page, and some other stats sites I noticed that, although I see some slight criticism from some fans, he does go a little unnoticed sometimes. Which is kind of strange when you look at his career. He's been a regular at every club he's been, at the top level, for the last 11 years. And when I say top level I do include his time at Rangers in that bracket. I do so because of the Champions league football every season he was there, and at least having a rival in Celtic. Celtic now are just 1 of the big..1. Plus we've had and, still want, players from the Scottish big clubs. He's played 30+ times every season since his Villa debut to now. 50+ appearances on more than one occasion. Throw in 75 international caps over the same period. He clearly lookes after himself and is the perfect Pro. A mangers dream i guess. They can't all be wrong. I think he'll be real handy this season and I'm glad he's a Saints players. The game against Vitesse was his 30th in Europe, the majority Champions League. Lots of experience. So i think the reason he doesn't get all the praise is his poor strike rate. He's never scored a lot. Only once ever coming slightly close to double figures in a season, including international goals. I don't ever think that'll change. Still, a lot of other clubs would be glad of his services. Is it just his poor finishing that that's missing from being a top drawer player? Just for arguements sake, If he was sold in the summer, would he a be a player that we would talk about replacing? As in, we need a new CB, striker and someone to replace Davis? And if so, who you you bring in to replace, or use instead of?

Seems crazy that some clubs would be interested in him after the trouble he's caused over the last few years at numerous other clubs. I know some do with troublesome younger players as it might still be worth it but he's no spring chicken anymore so why even bother?