Nordic Saint

Why do we? Is it just lack of advance planning?

Reed chose Puel because he knew he would fade into the background and do as he was told. Few other managers would have done. Reed is already starting his PR campaign about how he personally has managed to get us to a Wembley final and so has redeemed himself after his failure at Charlton. If he'd spent less time yesterday doing all of his self- promoting videos and photo shoots, he might even have found time to sign a central defender. We'll be seeing even more of Reed as the final approaches. Reed all about it: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/583235/Jeremy-Cross-Les-Reed-Andy-Murray-Usain-Bolt-Alfie-Barker

We breed success. We don’t buy it. We sell it.

Les sold him to West Ham. He'll sell the other one in the summer. It sounds like he's offered Chelsea first option. So they'll both be in London. He sold the strikers to Liverpool and some club in China. But, as he claims we've got the best pool of midfielders in the Premier League, he's still got some of them left he can sell.

Excellent. https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-01-31/southampton-white-kit-wembley-announcement

Who on earth told you that fairy story? Or did you just make it up yourself? When players are in their early 30s, like Lambert, Pelle and Fonte, we sell them, as it is the last chance to get a transfer fee for them. Simple as that. All of these so-called 'leaks' about 'Billy big ********' " Toys out of prams', 'refusing to train', ' being unpopular with the other players' etc are just bullsh!t, which some of our more gullible fans seem to lap up. Speak to any of our players and you'll find that Fonte was popular with them right to the end and they were sad to see him sold. Yes, his agent wanted a contract extension and a a final pay increase as Fonte was by no means our highest paid player and he knew that this would be his last ever contract. He wasn't offered that.

Thanks, I was at that game. Most of the Saints fans were on the icy open terrace of the Clock End but a small group of us went onto the North Bank because it was covered and more crowded so it was warmer. The Arsenal fans were a bit surprised to hear OWTS being sung in their home end. I don't know what the exact stats were but it seemed like Arsenal had about 85% possession and at least 25 shots at our goal while we hardly crossed the halfway line. It was the most one-sided draw I've ever seen and a very satisfying away point against the great double winning Arsenal team. Eric Martin was an acrobatic but erratic Scottish goalkeeper and that was by far his best game for Saints. 1970-71 was one of my favourite seasons. We had a formidable defence with John McGrath and Jimmy Gabriel the latter day equivalent of Fonte and van Dijk.

3. Buying injury-prone players We buy injury-prone and unfit players because they are cheap. The big clubs don't need to do that. Austin's knee issues were well-publicised before we bought him, Boufal and Clasie were unfit to play when we bought them and now we are being linked with Gabbiadini who has an awful injury record, known issues with ankle problems and muscle fatigue, and who has only managed to play 2 full 90 minute Serie A games in the last 2 years. Sometimes it pays off and you get a bargain. You could certainly argue that Austin's goals when he is available to play mean the risk was worth it. If you want to reduce injuries, you buy players who have played 90 minute games regularly without injury or fitness issues. Of course, you still can't do much about bad luck like Vardy's stamp on van Dijk's foot.

You prove my point. Where was Gardos? He covered about as much ground as a training dummy and he's been like that his whole career so no excuses about him only playing for our U23s since October. Watch no. 15. That's him:

I'm still not seeing the improvement in any of them, even Harry Lewis. Maybe the best thing for him will be, like Gazzaniga, to go out on loan so he can work with another goalkeeping coach.

That is not at all fair on Stephens. He was playing virtually alone in the centre of defence as Gardos moved about as much as a training dummy. Nearly every Arsenal goal came about through outpacing the centre of our defence and exploiting the space where Gardos should have been. Poor Stephens was run ragged like Fonte used to be when he had to play alongside Hooiveld. But even Hooiveld was more use than Gardos, whose movement off the ball and covering play were non-existent. I wouldn't call Gardos the Ali Dia of defenders. He can head the ball and on the rare occasions a forward runs into him, he can tackle, but like most Romanian league players he is about League Two level. He's certainly nowhere near good enough to play against Premier League strikers. Stephens, however, shows he has the potential to be a useful squad member at least. If Gardos had played instead of Stephens at Liverpool, we probably would have lost 3 or 4-1.

Once again we saw today how having our singers hiding in the corners off the away end for big cup games makes them more like home games for visiting teams and that was as embarrassing as the performance on the pitch. Why can't the singers get behind the goal at the Chapel end at least for big cup games? There really are no excuses.

Don't worry, with his injury record. we won't see him running around much. In fact, with all the coats and pairs of tights he need to even sit on the bench during a Seria A game, we might not see much of him at all.

Not injured enough, you mean? This fellow sounds a much better prospect for our treatment room: "Spartak Moscow's Serdar Tasci could be arriving at St Mary's on loan for the rest of the season according to media reports this morning. The German who won 14 caps for his country between 2008-10 won the 2006-07 with his first club VFB Stuttgart and played over 200 games before joining the Russian club in 2013 although due to an injury in training it would be several months before he made his debut."

I think the first manager who introduced that counterattacking style was Udo Lattek. Before that, football tactics had always been about trying to dominate possession and territory. I must admit when I first saw it in action with Bayern Munich, it seemed a bit like cheating, as their opponents, including, funnily enough, Liverpool, had most of the possession and did most of the work but Bayern scored the goals. It's worked well for us this season against the big clubs, except in the Tottenham game. I guess Puel would have analysed that one and put things right.

Puel's joy when Long's goal went in puts him right up there with Nigel Adkins in the charming man stakes as far as I'm concerned. He's also a very good manager especially when you consider the hand he's been dealt with player sales and injuries. Many would have hung their heads in despair or become ratty and irritable under similar circumstances. But he's stayed calm and got us to Wembley against all odds.

Some people will criticise the club for anything. If the club really wanted to exploit the situation, they'd merely have to sell mini season tickets with cup final ticket priority to assure that every remaining home game was sold out. I'm happy with the current arrangements. If the club ignored loyal home fans in order to reward fans who've chosen to live in the north of England and only attend a few northern away games each year but miss most of the home games, it really wouldn't make much sense. However, if/when we reach the FA Cup final this year, where our ticket allocation will be less, they could give first priority to season ticket holders who've attended all of the FA Cup ties, both home and away. Anyway, at least 31,500 of us are on our way to Wembley and that doesn't really leave any regular fans out. There will also be thousands more tickets available on ticket sites. If I were a businessman who lived in Yorkshire, hadn't been to any of the home cup matches and didn't have a season ticket, I'd fork out the 285 quid the ticket sites are currently asking for

If only Les had signed a striker

I'm not! If we score a goal tonight, Liverpool will need to score 3, and that's something they haven't done against us in any of our last 6 visits to Anfield.

As Gabbiadini seems to have spent more of his career in the treatment room than on the training pitch, our modern medical facilities will obviously be a big attraction for him. Hopefully, Les will show him a couple of our other recent signings, Pied and Boufal, luxuriating in them, to clinch the deal.

i think we're being very sensible not to pay that price for him. Napoli want to offload him, as he is an injury-prone liability, who has only managed 2 full 90 minute league appearances in the last 2 years. They will take any offer they can get for him on transfer deadline day.

Jagielka is only 34. Two of the Premier League's top goal scorers this season are Ibrahimovic, aged 35, and Defoe, aged 34. Real Madrid's Pepe is 34 next month and Chelsea were led to the league title by 34-year-old John Terry. Nowadays, centre backs especially are at their peak in their early 30s.

I've got a feeling Manolo Gabbiadini is going to take over from Boufal as the star of this thread if we sign him. He's very frail, got weak ankles, suffers from 'muscle fatigue' and his injury record is awful. Also, on the rare occasions he's fit enough to play, he won't like the cold weather as he even has to wear tights for the bits of games he plays in the Italian winter.

I must admit when I started going to away games several decades ago, it was more about 'invading' opposition territory after consuming large quantities of alcohol and I noticed very little other than the interiors of pubs and football grounds, but in recent years I've found one of the attractions of away games, especially in small northern towns, is doing a bit of sightseeing before games. It's taken me to places I'd otherwise have had no reason to go to, like Barnsley, Oldham, Bolton, Burnley and Hull. What got me thinking about this was seeing Leicester fans wandering over the Itchen Bridge after the game to take some photos, although little did they know they were going to end up in Woolston. Do you have any quirky away games that stand out? Barnsley was one for me: the quintessential small northern town, with hilly, cobbled streets and views of the pit heads. Saturday night in Blackburn was always fun. Least favourite: Tottenham. I'm sure there must be something interesting connected with local Jewish history but I've never found it.