Nordic Saint

Yes, once. He miskicked the ball out of play in his own half. He does that JWP thing of jogging round in circles while the game just passes him by. It keeps up his stats for km covered. He might just as well be jogging round the streets outside the stadium.

HT Stats: Possession: 80% - 20% Goals 2-0 Corners 5-0 Shots 11-0 The commentator concluded: "Southampton are playing with 11 men but 4 or 5 of them have hardly touched the ball" Those 4 or 5 players are not good enough to play at this level. Armstrong is Championship level while Ward-Prowse would be Championship level if he had a bit more pace. Long''s top flight days are long gone. Even Ireland have dropped him. Let's hope Ralph's half-time talk gets them playing above their level in the 2nd half. But, in the first half they looked like they didn't even want to be there.

We don't seem to have any midfield. JWP is just a passenger, jogging round in circles, chasing shadows.

Yes, I guess they are hoping the transfer fee they get for Bertrand will pay for him. But, this is obviously the worst time ever to get a decent transfer fee for any of our defenders.

I've just said it on another thread and I've been saying it for years, we should buy Dael Fry. January will probably be our last chance, as after that his transfer valuation will start to increase out of our price range. As for an 'old head' to play alongside him, Simon Kjaer.

Let's hope the central defender we buy is someone good, like Dael Fry, and not another Vestergaard.

True. Klarer is still only 19. What I've noticed with a few of our Academy players is that their form often suffers because of physical development changes they are going through. He looked confident, composed, strong and athletic until this season but lately he's looked a bit Bambi like. That could just be because he is developing physically but being in a poor team can't help. Danso is 2 years older than him and still a lot of people think he isn't ready yet to figure in our central defence. As for Bednarek, would he have got in the team, when we had Fonte, van Dijk, Alderweireld or Lovren? He may be the best of a very poor bunch but ideally we should be looking for better.

I have to own up that I was one of his biggest fans but, like all of our U23s, he seems to have lost his way lately as the U23s have suffered a series of poor results, the latest being a 3-0 defeat to Leicester. I think the malaise running through the club and the poor coaching setup affects all of our players at every level.

I'm not sneering. No club of our size wants to be outside the top flight, especially when it means they are a league or two below their local rivals. Sunderland and Portsmouth fans are understandably very unhappy about it.

Just had another look at the Sunderland messageboards and their main interest nowadays seems to be in how Newcastle are doing in the Premier League, a bit like Pompey fans with us.

No, they didn't. They were very unhappy that they didn't manage to get promoted and aren't any happier this season.

I used to believe in the miracle of the January transfer window but when we sign players like Carrillo, it only seems to make our problems worse. We urgently need another head of recruitment like Paul Mitchell or more money will be wasted in January.

The bookies. We are only 4th favourites for relegation behind Norwich, Watford & Newcastle. 16th or 17th is definitely achievable, like it was in 1997 when we lost 7-1 to Everton but still finished 16th. The results against the 3 favourites ahead of us in the relegation odds are going to be critical.

Vestergaard not being the worst centre back is. That definitely casts doubt on their methodology.

I'm not disagreeing with you. I just think there is something wrong with the coaching setup at our club as none of our players seem to be improving and most are getting progressively worse. Having two mediocre ex-goalkeepers, neither of whom has any previous experience coaching outfield players, as our first team coaches is IMHO a mistake. That's just my opinion and you are perfectly entitled to differ.

At Ajax, Tadic has been playing Champions League games against Real Madrid, Juventus, Bayern Munich etc. Hardly shooting fish in a barrel. I must admit I never rated Elyounoussi when he was here and doubt that he would be our saviour if he came back but he appears to be thriving playing in the Champions League. I did, however, rate Forster but, like all of our goalkeepers, he really deteriorated badly here under the coaching of Dave Watson. It's good to see him recover his form playing for Celtic in the Champions League. But, like Elyounoussi, I doubt he'd thrive if he came back here.

I think Tadic has been nominated for European Footballer of the Year for his performances in the Champions League, not for playing against Pompey.

Both Forster and Elyounoussi are flourishing there now that they've escaped the coaching of Dave Watson & Kelvin Davis and look at how much Tadic has improved since leaving.

He's probably trying to stop any change that involves spending money.

Kat and her sales team sold him a vision of a business where players were bought cheaply and sold for huge profits, while the Premier League millions kept on rolling in, and he bought it. He hasn't got anything from it. Kat took him for everything he had and more.

Gunn is much younger than McCarthy and isn't it the club's policy to put as many young players as possible in the team/shop window? It's probably a policy Ralph had to agree to when he was first interviewed for the job.

I never want to see him in a Saints shirt again. Can we just put him on gardening leave until we can give him away to any club prepared to take him on a free transfer in January?

Money has been frittered away on players like Vestergaard and Carrillo who were clearly not good enough for the Premier League. About £100 million in transfer fees and wages has been poured straight down the drain on substandard players that no other Premier League club, with anyone with any common sense in their recruitment department, would want. That's where we need to start. It's no use giving our current recruitment department money to spend in January as they are more than likely to waste it.

We would have done in 1983/84 if he hadn't gone to Newcastle.

Anyway, it's a bit sad that after all these years, our fans still haven't managed to learn more than one verse. Oh, when the saints go marching in Oh, when the saints go marching in Oh Lord I want to be in that number When the saints go marching in Oh, when the drums begin to bang Oh, when the drums begin to bang Oh Lord I want to be in that number When the saints go marching in Oh, when the stars fall from the sky Oh, when the stars fall from the sky Oh Lord I want to be in that number When the saints go marching in Oh, when the moon turns red with blood Oh, when the moon turns red with blood Oh Lord I want to be in that number When the saints go marching in