John McGrath's Jockstrap

Have to focus on lack of quality midfield options for Monday. Personally I would put Targett in at LB and play Bertrand on LH side of midfield, then have Davis, Wanyama and Tadic in mid as well. Toby may/may not be fit, if not has to be Gardos in and not Yoshida given v.Persie high ball threat in the box (and his scoring record against Saints). For a change I would go back to a 442 line up with Long and Pelle up front. ManUre have a lot of defence injuries and an old stye 442 line up may just be the way to go for this one - let's face it we don't have many other options??.

Sorry forgot Ramirez as well - assuming he is in UK right now!

Lots of coming and goings at the moment. Bit confused about the Long and Pelle combination (ie 2 up top) which suggests that we will play 3-5-2, so this presumably will look like: Forster Fonte------------------Gardos Wanyama Clyne-------JWP------------ Tadic-----------Davis-----------Bertrand Long----------Pelle I assume Morgan, and Cork will be gone shortly, so this leaves Taider, Gallagher, Reed on the bench. hmmm - thoughts everybody???

Can I just say what a ridiculous amount of bedwetting posts I have seen in the last few weeks..... So as a really (I hope) balanced opinion, can I say the following: 1. The Cortese idyll is gone. It was never going to happen. Why should it?. KT's father bought an asset for sub £20M on a punt, he probably really truly enjoyed at the time and it is now worth at least x5 as much but.... ML is gone, and KL is left with somewhat of a poisoned chalice. Damned if she does, damned if she doesn't. She has made some (and inherited some) poor back room management choices post Cortese not suited to cutting edge English PL management culture and it shows. Why should she not sell it rather than read the peurile rubbish on this site?. I feel for her while she has some sub standard executive management, on the basis of evidence so far, in charge of her assets and inheritance. 2. We are now (but always have been) a selling club. Look back in history. Truth be told that we will always produce good young talent but we will ultimately sell it at the right price. This will never change. We will never be a top 4 club.Accept it - be a Saints fan rather than a plastic. 3. We might win a cup if our manager believes in it enough. Ultimately the key to our side, which I think Koeman will get, is blending the good yound talent that we CAN keep with hardened pros like a Pelle - if SLR can get the deal done. History always a good predictor of this......look at Saints of the past 30 years. 4. What really does p*ss me off if the reverence posters seem to show towards Guan, mehball etc etc on this site. The truth of it is you are in some really junior position on the very periphery somewhere in the club with no concept of how businesses are really run let alone how to influence them. ITK - read - in the kak. 5.. Forget Llalana, Lovren et al. Who gives a sh*t about them. Take the money and invest in the Academy, and blend with some great 28/29 year old players who the kids can learn from. Ball, Case, Mills, Marsden, Lambo etc. Finally, as a seasoned Saints supporter - COYR and loved the past 4 years more than any other time in the past 30. Keep the faith.

And I wouldn't foget the Charlie either ( would need it). I would go and buy: Nathan Redmond - we need some pace and direct running wide/up front. Age and profile would work with rest of team. If we lose Shaw to Man Utd, get Hernandez in as part of the deal assuming my board have the b*******s to negotiate hard enough. Would also take a punt and buy Ings or Jordan Rhodes as back up until Jay Rod can walk again. New left back - Timothée Kolodziejczak, New CB - probably get Caulker in. And spend the rest on more Charlie for Artur's Xmas party....... Easy job.

Definitely take a punt on Redmond (and Lingard). We really need some pace up front and Redmond has it. Would get the cheque book out now if I were the manager. A low cost acquistion that may pay real dividends especially when we get so much possession of the ball as we have this season.......feed him and he will play...... hope our management listens to JWP.......

Back in the dark ages, he came in for a pittance fee, and brought a bit of aggression and passion(+ goals) into our forward play which definitely made the difference in us going up.No doubt he also liked playing with class players hence his goals. Funny how these things get forgotten these days in the Prem but not by those who've been on the rollercoaster........

Reality is that at the moment we have a manager who won't make his mind up about staying until he knows what the board want to do about selling the clubs' best assets; the players don't know whether they would stay if the manager intended to stay; the board have no concrete firm offers on the table = stalemate. For what it's worth Shaw to Chelsea with Lukaku + £10m ish in exchange would be a good deal for us. Could get a decent LB replacement for £10m.

Think the reason for the subdued atmosphere during the game and second half was the realisation that we are going to sell off our best players. We have been on a great journey the last 5 years and when you are always improving and on the way forward it makes you feel positive and up for it. With players on their way + most probably manager (to be replaced with??) it somehow feels like we are at the top of our curve and we are back on the way down. Krueger's recent comments do nothing to dispel this feeling. Saints fans are used to rollercoasters and the view yesterday is we are now off on a down cycle or at best an uncertain one......

After his 25 yard effort off his backside vs Pala*se...... He scores on his arse He scores on his arse Jay Rodiguez he scores on his arse!!! Best goal I've seen all season lol!!!.

The Facts of Business Life...... The original backer (ML) had a chance to make some money by making an investment (by expensive Swiss banker advice) with the likelihood that with sizeable backing he would happen to optimise his investment by a factor of x. To make that happen ML installed a very focused manager (NC) to give him the best chance of success. NC makes it happen and gets paid a handsome fortune for that. NC actually quite enjoys the journey, and thinks I can make a name for myself for delivering this result. Backer (ML) passes away (RIP). Daughter comes in to club and has no interest in club apart from making the most optimum ROI for the investment (as a non footballing investor who could blame her.......) KL - key question for her - if you invest a sum of money (x) on a venture and get the chance to x10 (x) your original investment - question would you take it yes/no? = yes. NC is the block. Erode his power base.NC's dream cannot happen. He resigns. Manager (MP) recruited by NC resigns (who wants to manage a club being asset stripped with a reputation to build??). Managerless and Chairpersonless. Club sold to person y (normally without pot to p**s in) Potless person comes in We go back to red and white stripes, hoofball, and enjoying the pleasure (occasionally) of being a Saints fan. Cut/paste/repeat. Great isn't it!!!!

Firstly I have never jeered or booed my own players, and never will do, but today I had some sympathy for those who did. The reason I say this is that everybody who has watched Saints over the past 24 months would know that Gazzaniga, Hooiveld and Fox are not and never will be Premiership players. Whilst I understand that we have injury problems - get over it - all teams do. What is inexcusable from the management is to keep picking them in the hope that they will not make mistakes and will improve. They won't and this has been proved every time they have been picked or had a run in the team. Booing does not help (especially young players confidence) but the fans pay good money to watch the team and are entitled therefore to make their views known. The players are professionals and as entertainment professionals I am sorry they will just have to deal with that. The management have to take a lot of the flak for this shambles of a defensive performance because those who are Saints regulars could tell you that the 3 were not going to be up to it. I felt especially sorry for Gazza who is way,way out of his depth at this level and then having to keep goal behind Fox and Hooiveld cannot help your confidence much. I feel especially vitriolic about Fox - he is always out of position, moans at other defensive partners about lack of cover, jogs back when he is out of position.....drop him and never play him again. We would do better to use a makeshift full back as we did when he came off rather than persevere with him. One thing IS for sure Cortese does not like booing.....

A bit of balance needed here. Jay Rod has a lot of potential yet to be fulfilled at this club and this call up may be the kick start to his confidence that he needs to become a really good player. Watching him play it is obvious to see that he is a player who thrives on confidence and a settled place in the side.....scoring goals helps. BUT - he does go missing in games, and at times does not have that first touch necessary to be that really good player?. I think at £7m he was a snip for us and a better gambling "chip" than Ramirez in terms of investment. Can he do it.....I hope so and the England call up will help a fragile confidence no end. Lallana has been a revelation last few games but don't lets get carried away. He has high spots and low spots (eg latter end of last season) I am not sure he is true international class generally but Hodgson needs to pick players based upon form because frankly he needs to given other options (Milner?). Rickie - a bit like swearing in church, but 12 months from now he will gone from this club with a lot of great memories from the dark (but fun!) days we all shared in L1 while he built this club back up again out of the ashes, but to honestly think he will star in Brazil (in that climate,after another season of carrying the Saints back up to the top 6 Prem) is fanciful. What is most important is that in Jan and next summer we will attract serious talent to this club as a result of these call ups and we should not underestimate that.

Standing back it is very interesting to see how Ramirez has divided opinion in this forum. Even more entertaining is to see the vitriolic and playground banter between regular "contributors" to this website. Frankly as a dedicated Saints fan for over 30 years it is ridiculous to read. Fact is Ramirez at 23 years made the wrong decision for us and for him to come to this club. A Southern European side would have been the right choice for him but his agent influenced his decision to come here to his, and our, detriment. An undeniably talented player who has arrived here like a fish on a quayside. Sad but true. If we want to have a discussion about value we should reflect on Ramirez's contribution to that of Steve Davis......we all know what represents the best value. The manager of this club and the Don will make the right decision about his future. It will not surprise him or me if he departs in Jan.....and he should go for both parties benefit. Frankly at the level we are trying to aspire to taking a hit of £5m + is not the issue. Ensuring we do not impair the progress of others more suited to the club, the Prem League, and the advancement of the club is.

I think that at the moment Pochettino does not know what is the best line up of 6 players in front of the back 4 and it is showing in the way we are playing. Getting the right blend is the black art of football management. All I can say is that VW is physically sronger than Cork and probably offers more of an attacking threat, but his first touch is often not the best, and his passing is variable. But going back to the blend, I would also comment that Morgan is not the presence he was last season when playing with Cork and maybe he is too similar a player to VW which accounts for change in Morgan's performance. Maybe the blend is better with Cork in there with Morgan, and Cork for sure has a better first touch, and carries the ball better than VW. I also think that S. Davis is being missed. He played the pressing game very well, has a very good short passing game but appears to be the current victim of the "we paid a lot for him so we're playing him" problem that some managers fall into so isn't playing.Maybe we need some injuries/suspensions coming in to force some changes MP may not be voluntarily willing to take right now. In all honesty I am not sure that many of us really know what is the correct front/mid combo. We have the players on paper, but it isn't gelling (yet).All I do know is that somebody somewhere will get a caning from us when MP does eventually get it right. I hope for his sake it is sooner rather than later as Cortese is not noted for his patience.