Dusic

Iheanacho is an excellent buy at the sort of figures quoted. Would be a bit gutted if he signed permanently for a rival.

Why? He has been nothing but professional at Saints and utterly superb. If he went to Liverpool he would be moving to a far bigger team with better players, a better Manager, more chances of winning trophies, ability to play in the Champions League next season as well as a lot more money. Why would you boo him when from his point of view it would be a good move on many levels?

#quietsummer

Surely Spurs wouldn't allow Walker and Rose to go to Man City?

Talks for Arsenal to sign Henry Onyekuru going well. Top scorer in Belgium. £6.8m release clause. 1st Nigeria call up http://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAlF4POXUAA_SyE.jpg Bit of a blow to miss out on this guy as we have been watching him for ages it seems. Low fee too for such potential.

If so, it won't be a prosperous one. He would be one of the weakest starting full backs in the league.

If Bertrand left, not replacing him would be quite frankly ludicrous. McQueen has been promising but also quite green at times. Targett has played quite a number of games now and clearly hasn't got that extra yard of pace you need at PL level. He is hesitant in attack and poor one v one defensively. Really hope this is bull****.

Hughes is well aware his own position is being scrutinised by Stoke fans. If he said he expected Saints to be doing better in any particular facet then he would pretty much be labelling that against his own job as well. Its clear to anyone who has followed us this season that the 8th position finish (and cup final to an extent) is a misnomer in terms of how the season has felt and what we have watched.

Can't see any conclusion other than Puel leaving - a change is needed, there is no rapport between Puel and the fans and never will be. Also need to return to a more physical, higher tempo game allied to being good in possession. Hopefully the club also realise their errors: 1. Appointing Puel when surely there were better candidates available 2. Ultimately failing in both transfer windows to provide him with a balanced squad. Perhaps trying to always be clever with recruitment rather than bringing in the odd PL proven player. Ultimately though it hasnt worked out and failure to make a change will be bottling it.

Easy to say get rid but he is a semi reliable creator of chances, certainly our best. Would only sell if we had someone coming in who perhaps offered creativity in a different sort of style, but there are players we woulf benefit from selling far more: Clasie and Long to name two.

We aren't going to be a top 6 side anytime soon but its a fair point. Already recently the likes of Hojbjerg, Clasie, Long, Rodriguez etc haven't had much game time and next season we will mostly have one game a week and won't need to rotate much. That should help achieve more consistency than we managed this time but clearly players will be frustrated. We might need to loan a few out for regular game time, someone like Josh Sims for example. Answer for me is in this summer's recruitment: we only need to sign players who come into the team and start in our best XI. We don't need squad players. I would be happy with 3 really good signings.

Second half of West Ham away is still the best we have played in a winning cause all season IMO. Ages ago...

Led to believe games are being played by all. All IMHO of course.

(Sad) reality is most PL players would just laugh at Adkins if he became Manager. #pressuremakesdiamonds

Gareth Barry may well have played there.

Spurs score - 4 players in the 6 yard box when Kane heads in.

Spurs showing the way to work off the ball in the first half then Leicester since the start of the second half. Can barely think of a game we have played well at a high tempo and with aggessive closing down this season.

We are so poor without the ball, both in a defensive and attacking sense, something ultimately Puel is responsible for. Defensively, we are woeful at winning back the ball. How many times do our front 3 regain possession? How many times do we attack after winning the ball back high up the pitch? Very rarely, we have totally lost that facet of our game. In fact many of our attackers first reaction when losing the ball is to turn and moan at someone rather than try to get it back, by which time the opponent is running at our back four. We are so often too deep, as if Puel is scared we can't handle opening up a bit. We are also very, very suceptible to the counter attack, largely because of a lack of mobility in the middle of the pitch. This also goes for our own corners which quite often end up in attacks for the opponent. Davis and JWP don't help in this sense as neither have any kind of physical presence and allied with Romeu who has been superb but is limited pace wise, its a big flaw. Need to sign a central midfielder who can cover more ground in the summer, a Schneiderlin replacement if you will. We have gone from a really solid Schneiderlin-Wanyama-Davis trio which pretty much covered all bases, to a midfield that doesn't really operate effectively. In attack, our off the ball running is often pathetic, except for the full backs who are largely decent in this respect. Nobody runs in behind, too many of the attacking players (Tadic, Boufal, Redmond) end up coming way too deep and just remove themselves as any sort of threat. Tonight in stoppage time Tadic and Boufal both came towards the halfway line when we needed them to provide a passing option. Gabbiadini has good movement but just gets isolated. If playing with 3 central midfielders one has to get forward more. As it is the central midfielders barely ever make forward runs so we become so easy to mark as you just need to cover the strikers runs and then we are not going to hurt anyone. From a team that used to be considered dynamic, capable of pressing high when needed and generally played at a high tempo (especially at home) its a shame to see how far we have fallen in these aspects - our movement in both attacking and defensive elements is often too slow to give a decent side many problems. Thats my biggest gripe about Puel. If/when he goes I hope this will be made a must have for any new Manager.

Surely 10 of the 11 were nailed on starters in this game? To me at least...

Bertrand likely just rested as Stephens and Cedric have been lately. He has played every game for a while now. Big game for Targett, he always looks short of PL class for me, especially in a back four when required to defend and attack - be interesting to see how he does against good players like Mata and Mhikitaryan.

Seems Ralph has invited a few of the chosen lads in for a chat today. Links below, not looking good for Puel, evasive on Rogers departure, interesting re investment, typical bull re contracts and player exits. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15289665.BIG_INTERVIEW__Ralph_Krueger_on_Saints__future/?ref=mac http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/saints/news/15289641.Puel_s_future_hangs_in_the_balance/?ref=mac http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/05/16/southampton-review-claude-puels-future-need-move-whatever/

Has to for a club our size. Plus the money is pretty much £2m per place - every little helps if the owner doesn't want to invest any further.

He is too big an opportunity for one of the big teams to miss and they won't let that happen.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4504120/Man-City-willing-sell-Iheanacho-amid-Dortmund-interest.html This says Iheanacho is available permanently for maybe £20m. If thats true, its equal with £12m for VVD/Alderweireld as an absolute steal! Ludicrous price for such a talent.

I get the impression there is about a 1% chance of him being here next season and that we played him to aid rotation over a busy period.