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Not true.Even when unpredictable he is a threat. Of course the manager may want to replace him to suit game tactics, but he is not a waste of space.

There have been plenty of not young Lambert's, Fonte's and Vardy's playing in lower divisions, so just because Isgrove is an Academy product playing with a lower division club should not categorically prevent him from being able to prove himself in the Premier league imho.

But didn't Les say talks were positive with Koeman before he came here?

Would young skates be skatelets or minnows?

Perhaps the reason why JWP is getting less starts this season could simply be that the quality of football played by the team has been improving and the squad gets better as we climb the table. Competition for places in the team is that much greater.

Rogic - a very useful midfielder should Victor leave, after his display for OZ

This

Thanks David, informative and brought back some very good memories. I remember being impressed with Matt Mills and had forgotten he only made five starts. I was quite gutted when he left as he would have done well for us, I think. Mentioning Claus's ten seasons at the back, did he ever get a testimonial? His leaving coincided with difficult times for us, but he was terrific in his day. A legend.

The Europa League matches are going to be fascinating, because after a busy summer of internationals and a shorter pre-season/ holiday period for some players there is going to be a need to be able to call on a wider pool of first team players, else early season exhaustion might be an issue. Could this be an opportunity for the manager to give more youngsters like Stephens first team experience?

But showing signs against Oz that he is coming through that difficult spell. Promising work in progress.

Well said. Take note o yea of little faith in our youth

I stopped having a Season Ticket two years ago because I could only get to around 10 matches a year, but have had no problems getting seats as a Member, so far. I am concerned that tickets may become more difficult to buy if ST membership grows too much. Definitely time to increase stadium seating capacity.

I've given up trying to understand what is being said in the Itchen North too.

Yes, Martina's role in the latter weeks has been an important feature in our more forward looking play. His wonder goal earlier mid season seems to have done wonders for his morale and general progress.

The problem that Academy defenders have when given their chance in the first team is that they only need to make a mistake that leads to conceding a goal and impatient TSW warriors will crucify them. Mistakes by midfielders and forwards aren't usually so costly. I think it was Martin Cranie who had a difficult first start in our relegation year. Although he played well he is remembered for a mistake that cost us the game. It's a difficult one, but we need to give defenders time to develop and mature before slagging them.

With TSW fans especially

European Isles?

But better than Gaz, so his spell in goal probably helped us to 6th place

There is some explaining to be done there

"Zaza wants assurances over playing time and appears unwilling to spend another season with Juventus kicking his heels on the bench." That's that then. RK would never give assurances over playing time, he surely did that with Pelle

Is he any better than Pelle?

Fair point. As I've said before, If a Champions League club offer him a tasty contract, and they meet Saints valuation, then that's it, however if they don't then Mane is better off staying with Saints and the Europa League, at least while we are still in the competition) In the past (when Koeman arrived) we refused Spiderman a transfer, but offered him a getaway the following season, which was honoured. We don't know how many years contract Salzburg were holding him to, which might or might not have been reasonable. It depends on circumstances.

Mane had been scoring for fun for Salzburg in the Austrian league and was easily Austria's stand out player. I'm not saying that Mane did not refuse to play, but it would be interesting to know more about his contract with Salzburg and whether the club was being unreasonable in barring Mane's progress upwards to the Premier League.

Well why not? As an antidote to the amusingly hysterical '5 players want to leave fred' I have decided to look forward to the enticing prospect that all 5 players will be persuaded By RK (who will have signed a new contract) to stay until January for the first part of our Europa League campaign. Since the five players are on contract and since we do not need the money, why sell at all? Spiderman was persuaded to stay for a whole year, after all. And if not a single club competing in the EUFA Champions League matches our valuation then the five would be better off playing in the Europa League with us than to experience no European competition at all. That's if we want to keep them, of course

Thank goodness for that Now let's go on holiday.