Nordic Saint

Man of the match and he's got to be one of the best midfielders in Europe this year: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47442879

The funny thing is, our owners would have been gutted if he'd insisted on seeing out his career with us, as they just saw him as a commodity to be sold for a profit at the right moment. The only reason his sale was delayed until January was that Gao wouldn't let Kat sell him before he parted with his money to her. Of course, Old Les was very good at putting a PR spin on things like that.

Return to the Planet of the Apes? "Bale only communicates with gestures" https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47444043

Fonte led his Lille team to another 1-0 win today and they remain undefeated this year. https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/53064295_2347393535491271_6545928272507568128_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=9cd6e864905b0c01d0f6f56d924a8dcc&oe=5D1249D7

Exactly, that's what we want. At the moment we are not getting our fair share whereas United are getting more than their fair share.

We wouldn't have got Kerry Dixon and David Speedie.

So, the MOTD pundits agree that we should have had a penalty and one of United's goals was offside, which means the score should have been 3-2 to us. Why didn't they mention that last bit? Like several other of our other excellent performances in Manchester against both United and City we were robbed of the points which correct refereeing decisions should have given us. Even our first game back in the Premier League was a 3-2 defeat to Man City won by a goal by Tevez, who was a yard offside.

If you look at the the thread at the time we recruited him, I think you'll find many posters here predicted exactly that. As for Lemina, he's always been a bit of a sick note, with spells out for inflammation, back trouble, ankle injuries and abdominal strain, especially in the winter months. But, he is a bit like Gaston Ramirez: just not cut out physically or mentally to play hard 90 minute league games regularly for a whole season.

If you look at their career records, this is as good a season as you could expect from both of them in terms of the number of league games they've been able to play 45 minutes or more in: Ings 2018/19 15 2017/18 3 2016/17 0 2015/16 4 Lemina 2018/19 16 2017/18 21 2016/17 8 2015/16 7 Someone at our club should have noticed that that when they agreed to pay £15.4m for Lemina and £20m for Ings. I suppose at least they got more out of them than they did for the £20m they paid for Carrillo, whose career stats for 45 min+ league games should also have been noticed before that much was paid for him. 2018/19 15 2017/18 11 2016/17 6 2015/16 18 In future, one of the first criteria our recruitment department should look at before they pay a large transfer fee for a player is how many league games he's proved he can play over a season. Otherwise, we are left in a constant state of limbo waiting for expensive players to be fit enough to play games.

It's a bloody good job Yoshida was away at the Asian Cup in January and Bertrand had a long-term back injury then or the January window might have ended up a lot worse. Seeing experienced Premier League players back in the team last night makes you realize what we've been missing.

Three central defenders again because Ralph knows Vestergaard isn't quick enough to play in a back four but he hasn't seen yet that Yoshida is. Once he has, Vestergaard can be replaced by a midfield player, like Sims or Armstrong. Apart from that, this looks like just about the best starting eleven we have available at the moment, although after they've been coached by Dave Watson, there are doubts about all of our goalkeepers.

If that happens, the owners will have hit their target for this year: to use as little as possible of the club's income and make a profit from the transfer market whilst just hanging on to Premier League status.

We now have arguably the weakest squad we have ever had in the top flight and if we get relegated, I can't see us doing very well in the Championship next season without a few better players being bought.

Like nearly all of our fans, I think he's done a great job to get our awful squad to play as well as he has. We should consider ourselves lucky to have a manager like him. Appointing him is about the only key decision our club has got right in recent years. Each of our managers has been handed a weaker squad than the previous one as our best players have been sold off and either replaced by players who are not good enough for this level or not replaced at all. Most managers would struggle to get our current squad into the top six of the Championship.

"Southampton may well have a few regrets at selling him for just £10million." Yes, the club's transfer activity in recent years seems to have been run by clueless morons. https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/02/25/report-dusan-tadic-wanted-by-bayern-munich-after-southampton-exi/

All Saints' fans share your view. We think Ralph is an excellent manager, and I don't think we've lost our "sense of realism". He has got a squad which would struggle to get into the top six in the Championship putting in exceptional performances against good Premier League sides. Our issue is with the owners and the board, not with the manager.

That's not going to happen. He's already told the German & Austrian media he will leave if we are relegated. http://sportwitness.co.uk/ralph-hasenhuttl-tells-german-media-hell-leave-southampton-relegated-wages-manager-revealed/

The prayers are not working. Ings just seems to limp from one injury to another. So, I guess it's down to Shane Long and Charlie Austin, when he's fit, to score the goals we need to stay up: https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/17453108.southampton-striker-danny-ings-could-be-out-until-tottenham/?ref=rss

It seems very likely he asked the club to buy a striker and a right back in the transfer window and they didn't. So, you can't blame him for that.

They were so noisy, it was like a home game for them. It's the same when they play here. You rarely get fans that noisy nowadays.

With up and coming players like Adams, who is 22, the longer you wait the more expensive they become. He's going to cost a lot more in the summer than he would have done in January, especially as our reported interest in him will have raised his profile more. The same applies to Maehle, who is 21.I guess if the club had no money in January and is hoping that player sales in the summer will bring enough in to buy them, we may still get them. But, we're going to have to sell our better players in order to raise that sort of money. As for the club's massive Premier League income, none of that seems to be released for buying players any more.

Oh dear. Always Mk II: https://www.saintsweb.co.uk/member.php?681-brmbrm

I wonder who made this comment this month? "If I were on their money, I wouldn't give a rat's arse what my own mother thinks let alone someone on a forum."

If only we had Jay Rodriguez. I'd happily trade both Long and Austin for a striker with his ability.

No more unfashionable than Leicester were when they attracted a wealthy Thai owner or Wolves when they attracted a wealthy Chinese owner or Brighton and Bournemouth when they attracted owners prepared to put some of their own money into their football clubs.