SonicBoom

I think you can tell the quality of our midfield by the fact there isn't really a "first choice". You might have your preferences, but overall they are all kind of interchangeable (although I conceded some may see this as a positive). If Davis is injured, that's generally met with a shrug as JWP will come in. If Hojbjerg is out then Clasie comes in, I'm never that excited by them and never that disappointed. Previous seasons saw us having the likes of Lallana, Schneiderlin, Wanyama, etc all of whom were on the team sheet if fit. That's what I like to see. Stand out automatic selections, backed up by decent and improving squad members.

Funny how Benitez spent a massive pile when in the championship and Newcastle were the big fish. Back in the premier he's moaning that players are too expensive. The prices just indicate the TV money. All the other clubs here and around Europe know how much revenue is in our game so the price of players simply goes up to reflect it. Liverpool will baulk at the fee for VvD but yet they still want 30 mill for Sakho.....

Er let's be honest here. Everton finished what 15 points above us? So before we start comparing line ups, have we done anything to close that gap ? I would say no. Everton have made several big signings so currently I would say they are much better than us. We need to improve a lot before we can say we are realistically as good or better than them. They are also reported to be after Sigurdsson too for 32 mill so we have our work cut out to say the least.

Adam Blackmore said yesterday that Black is very popular with the players. Seems to me that the fans took against Black from pretty much his first day due to the Villa fans comments. TBF he was there at a time when they were in decline. Most seem to have decided he was only here to translate which is patently nonsense. I guess he'll leither lstay or go depending on the new managers requirement.

"He replied with a smile and a nod" Absolutely ridiculous. If he is staying and wants to confirm it then he could put all the speculation to rest in one shot from his twitter account. "Happy to say I'll be staying at Saints for at least another season" He doesn't do that which of course prolongs and intensifies the speculation. If you have agreed to stay then I can't think of a reason you or the club wouldn't put all this to bed.

Agree with most comments on here. He was good for a few seasons but never looked back to his best. Although apparently I'm doing him a dis-service. Our player liason guy, Hugo Schekter, tweeted about Jay yesterday. He said he's one of the nicest guys in football - and a true Saints legend. Hmm you might want to lay off the fizzy pop Hugo. He was a lot of things but he certainly is not a true Saints legend.

Mark SFC since we came back to the premier league we have had ever improving finishes pretty much. We established ourselves in the top ten and are generally regarded as the best of the rest. Had we booted out Les Reed a few years ago can you tell me what you think we would have achieved that was better than what we actually did ?

There are many reasons to offer a player - or at least one that is yet to establish himself - a new deal. Just because we a giving him a new contract I still wouldn't immediately think it's because we think he is going to break into the first team. It might be to just protect his future value for example for when we do let him go. I've never seen anything from him that leads me to believe he's going to be PL quality - however I haven't seen much of him since he went out on loan so I really don't know. I genuinely hope he has developed and can step up.

Well I don't think it could happen but Wagner at Huddersfield impresses me.

Hmm I know we should expect it but it's never nice to know that your captain and highly paid player is perfectly willing to meet other managers even though he would be fully aware it's against all the rules. Nice one Virgil. He might stay for another season but I doubt he'll be regarded in quite the same light as before.

I just wanna say that getting to a cup final is not winning a trophy. People keep saying "we got to a cup final" like we won the champions league.

I actually liked Gardos when he played. I'm surprised he hasn't been given more of a chance since he recovered from what was a horrible injury.

We need to retain some sense of reality. A while back 50 million was touted which is a huge amount of money and the most we've ever got a for a player by far. Then it rose to 60. And now people are saying we shouldn't let him go for less than 70! We throw these numbers around like it's nothing. In reality we might get 50 plus a player but at those numbers I doubt it. If we get 60 that is incredible business. You would hope with that money plus surely investing some of the new tv money, we could bring some serious talent to the squad for a comparatively modest outlay. But let's not get carried away by expecting 50 then 60 then 70.... I would imagine there is a price to be agreed then the player will go wherever he gets the best deal from those willing to pay it.

My issue with Puel is that he doesn't seem to have learned. We are no more fluent now than we were at the start of the season. I can't really see a definable style of play any more now than in his first games. Other than a few players he seems to rotate the rest endlessly which works no better now than the start of the season. We all make mistakes but we try to learn and improve. Puel seems to stubbornly refuse to change despite the evidence in front of his eyes.

The club won't sack him based purely on moaning from the fans. For all we know he is hard to deal with for example. Maybe the club have seen his training methods? Who knows. The stories today highlight that the players aren't happy with a lot of things. Fan pressure will have some bearing but it won't be the only factor.

More importantly who will be on penalties this time?

Always easier to suggest who we shouldn't have rather than who we should but Ranieri doesn't seem like a Saints style manager. Then again nor did Puel. As someone else said I would rather we went for an up and coming manager, take a bit of a chance like we did with Poch. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though.

I think keeping Bertrand is essential. He is one of our better players and is usually a guaranteed 8/10 and we can't say that about many of our players. Very few do him for pace and he gets forward well and even scores the odd goal. Neither Targett or McQueen are anywhere near that level yet. It's replacing players like Bertrand with players that aren't as good that slowly eats away at the overall quality of the team.

Within reason you can only charge for what a player is now - not what he could turn into in the future. Obviously there is an element of that with young players like Luke Shaw for example. What I mean is that Mane could eventually be a 50 or 60 million pound player. We shouldn't then beat ourselves up because we didn't charge that. At the time he'd had a couple of good seasons for us and we quadrupled our money. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but 38 million was a very good price at the time.

It's all about winning however you do it. I wish we had a little more in our locker though than just knocking it long and hoping their back four miss it.

If I were a Liverpool fan I think I'd prefer klopp shut his gob and managed the team rather than have endless and pointless rants at a fourth official.

Is my telly broken? Anfield is almost silent.

My concern, and that of a lot of people is simply that they don't seem to have a lot of money - in PL terms. And so if they don't have a lot, then they are going to be more interested in making money and taking it out than putting it in. I think we will be confronted with the sight of a grinning Chinese guy walking around the pitch waving to the stands, where he will be met with very half-hearted applause and general suspicion.

I don't know what the fuss is all about with silva. He's done a good job with hull for half a season and suddenly he some sort of messiah. Of course he could be great, but don't forget what we would ask of him is totally different to the job Hull asked of him. There's no guarantee he could do it. Of course there are never any guarantees. That said I think Les gets unreasonable stick because before Puel he got the last three appointments spectacularly right.