S-Clarke

Speak for yourself, but I'll always remember JWP as a proper Southampton stalwart. He'll always be fondly remembered by me and I hope to see him return one day to see his career out. He was on 100k a week, there was probably a relegation clause to reduce that slightly, but there's no way we could have sustained JWP in the Championship from a financial pov wage cut or no wage cut, and he deserved an opportunity to get back competing in Europe which WHU were going to give him. I've got nothing against him and fully understood the move from a club and player pov.

Not sure what you're getting at here gio. If we're not practicing penalties then it's negligent, arrogant or whatever you want to call it. We are effectively now in a cup knock out competition of which penalties can decide the outcome between £0 and £180m - we better be bloody well practicing!

He scored in the away game, scrappy over the line job. But was injured in our home game. Yeah the Aberdeen striker is another interesting option, our head scout (Mowbray) will know all about him as he scouted him for Aberdeen. I can't see him costing as much as £10m, probably more in the 5-6m range. Definitely could be an option.

I'm not sure where your 'broke' angle is coming from, I've noticed you saying this on multiple threads. Are you ITK about something? Sure, we won't be as flush, but if we're still in this league next year we will still be competitive financially. We made more last summer than any Championship club has ever made, which helped us offset our horrible window the previous year. If we fail this summer we'll still be looking to potentially recoup £60m+, with the sales of AA, KWP, Bednarek to name a few (there will probably be a surprise in there as well). Let's not forget the huge wages on McCarthy, Stu Armstrong and Adams being saved. IF we fail next year (if we're still down here) then I'd start to buy into the financial struggle bits, but we won't be skint next year. We'll still be able to compete (if our recruitment is right)

He was injured for the home game. He does seem a little injury prone, but he is a good player. £10m is about right, I have no idea what on earth went through our heads a few years ago when we were talking £34m for him though (it was £22m, up to 34m with add ons). That was before Wilcox as well, I think it was Shields trying to push us on that one. The more you look at it the more fishy these deals with Man City look. If i'm honest I'd rather put that £10m down on Jay Stansfield from Fulham.

He's saving himself for when we bring him back on loan as a PL team, then he'll resume his target to break the record with us. He's just paused it for the time being!

If you have a look at what are effectively his players - Garnacho (came through under him) Hojlund - £75m striker Antony - £85m of nothing. Mainoo (came through under him) Onana - £35m pick for GK by him. Martinez - £40m pick by him for CB Malacia - £40m pick for LB (although he's been injured) Amrabat - Loan signing, his pick Christian Ericksen - Free transfer, his pick. Casemiro - £70m, his pick. The players he inherited were the likes of Shaw, Varane, Rashford, Martial, Fernandes, Wan Bissaka, McTominay. So in my eyes he's already reinvited that squad, added loads for lots and lots of money - and they look worse for it. They need new CM's, new strikers, new GK to start with - and that would be replacing his big signings. It's quite funny watching them struggle so I don't care that much, but I think it's wrong to say he needs time to mould his own team and that he's still got players that aren't his, the majority are his picks or players who have come through under him.

I always thought Rosenior had flopped a bit given the players he had at his disposal, I think I can somewhat understand why their owners expected a bit more with players like Delap, Morton, Seri, Greaves, Carvahlo, Zahorey, Phillogene, Tufan etc available to him. They had much more quality than WBA in my opinion, I'd have been more worried had we ended up facing Hull! I was always a little confused by his Manager of the season nomination.

Yeah, all comps. To be fair, how long do you give him though? He's already had 2 full seasons there and they're now 10x worse than when he started. His player picks have been horrendous, Antony for example is one of the worst football players I've ever seen - £84m! If I was Utd, I'd cut losses. From a pure neutral point of view though it would be good if he stayed, as it's quite fun watching them be this consistently shit.

Only way this has a chance if we are promoted, we won't be going anywhere near him if we stay down.

This is the chink that will always be in the back of my mind, like you say we're fine in the games that don't matter. When we were chasing down Ipswich and Leicester, 16 or so points behind, there was no pressure going into Blackburn or Swansea at home, no expectations...just win the game and see what happens. As we got closer you could tell the weight got bigger on their shoulders, and then we just wilted when we got to 2nd and were being chased rather than the 'chaser' - and that was the end of that! The game against Ipswich at their place was great for 60 mins, one of our best performances of the season up until that point - but the pressure told, they went into their shells, retreated and ultimately couldn't resist the Ipswich mentality which beat ours - it wasn't quality which done for us that day, it was the mentality and how well we both coped with the pressure. Playoffs are more pressure than either of those scenarios above and that makes me nervous. Yesterday was great and all, but we've shown we can do this when the expectation is low and the pressure is off - it's when we're needed to do something that we fall flat. The next 2, and then hopefully the third, is the opportunity to rid us all of those doubts.

When you look at the makeup of our squad and the players we have, what with our noticeable weaknesses in CM, it does make me wonder why we've not tried 3 at the back more often this season. It gives us more protection off the ball, and then on the ball one of the CB's can step out into midfield to provide an extra number in there. I didn't think it particularly nullified our attack either, as it enabled Manning and KWP especially to hug the width and play as our wide players essentially. The two up top, playing somewhat closer together, gave us a stronger outlet when we needed to retain the ball. It also meant we could have a player like Fraser playing LWB and not end up being particularly exposed. I will add that Leeds were inept though, they didn't use the ball well at all and kept giving it away, so this setup will have much stronger tests - but It's something I think we could have seen on other occasions this season.

I think it's important to ignore what our previous records have been at this stage, they really mean nothing in these one off games. Without sounding too overconfident, I think we've got the better of the draws though. Don't get me wrong, they're a good side, but they don't have any of the attacking talent that Norwich have for example. They'll be tight, will close us down relentlessly and will probably try and foul the crap out of us - but I'm hopeful that moments of our quality will catch them out. We'll see what happens! One thing I didn't realise is that they'd signed Yan M'Villa on a free since we played them, so he'll be playing against us. If he's even a tiny bit near the level he was at Sunderland then that's added an extra challenge!

What an effort by Ipswich, it's nice to see someone different in the PL from time to time rather than the usual yo-yo's, they'll need to do a hell of a lot to be competitive for sure, but they'll enjoy the summer trying to do that and being linked with players they could only dream of 2 years ago! Birmingham were served the ultimate dose of karma - Eustace was fine for them, but they got all celebrity-focused and brought in someone who should never be a manager. That relegated them, nothing that happened after could save them. To see Eustace then saving Blackburn at their expense is the ultimate slap for them and their daft yank owners. They do have a lot of money behind them though and at L1 level that will make the ultimate difference, so I expect them to rip L1 to pieces next year and return with a bounce - could be a relegation that provides them the reset they need. I see a lot of people saying Rosenior has done so well to get Hull as close as he did, but he's flopped massively with the players he had imo. Carvalho, Philogene, Delap, Greaves, Seri - they shouldn't be scraping to get into the playoffs ont he last day, they should have been in there with WBA/Norwich. He had better players at his disposal than WBA.

That was an enjoyable game, can't say I expected that, but we did play well. I find it hard to read too much into it though given the dead-rubber nature of the game - we played without any pressure or nerves and it showed. The playoffs will be a different kettle of fish. This was, I reckon, the first game we've had this season with less of the ball - a back 5, sitting deep and breaking in transition (which is what we did well) were the keys to this match, somewhat of our kryptonite in recent games - we turned it on the head today. Leeds were, very, very, very flat though - they won't be that bad in the playoffs, I still think they'll have way too much for Norwich. Bring on the net 2 and let's see where we are. The games will be different, nothing like the league games, so in my eyes the 'unbeaten' stats mean zilch - WBA will be very tight and hard to breakdown, I would happily take a draw in the away leg and finish it at home. Overall it's games like today which just add to my frustration! Blackburn away, Boro home, Rotherham home - it could have been so different!