Chez

He might get injured. If that happens, do we have a replacement that is going to help us win every game from here on in? AA has done well, and we don't want to ruin the balance of the side, but strenghtening when you are already strong is no bad thing.

I said previously that I thought there was no chance Bournemouth would let Brooks leave (he's always in match day squads and often comes on), and I still think that will be the case, however he certainly seems very keen just to play, wherever that might be: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68102324 Perfect player for us. Great touch and vision. Get him in on loan, make him a Saint, help us go up and then twist Bournemouth's arm to sell in the summer. If they do loan him, I'd of thought that means his time is up down there.

RM just needs the talent at his disposal. I know there are always good players in the youth team, but there certainly has been a lot investment (£1m on at the time 16 year old Meghoma and SAA and sizeable first pro contracts contracts) and subsequent hope that the latest batch would produce a Premiership level player or two. There still might be.

If they are good enough, they will force their way in, as JWP did when we got promoted. They may all want minutes in matches, but the manager will see how they manage at championship level every day in training. If you don't hold you own, impose yourself or shine there, by and large you aren't going to on match day.

seeing an old thread like this pop up is similar to seeing a famous old person's name trending on twitter. Your first thought is `have they died?'. Gad that is not the case. I see he has scored a grand total of 19 goals in 127 games since he left us.

we done sir. I remember and played football with Neil. Did he play for any local non league teams after departing Saints?

I too am disappointed to lose young talent, but I don't think you are really putting yourself in the shoes of these guys and understanding the decisions they have to make. Chelsea offered Jimmy-Jay more money than you can imagine - it was simply impossible to turn down. To say he `demanded ludicrous money to stay' is not fair. It's a free market. Saints had a choice. Pay ridiculous money to keep top talent, or accept defeat and sell...for a huge amount I might add. It was a no brainer decision for him to make. The simple matter of fact here is we attracted some of these very talented youth players by offering very good contracts ourselves. People and policy have subsequently changed, and those young players are not being given money, perhaps beyond their worth, to stay. Saints has a budget and that budget just does not match Chelsea etc. I am not saying these guys are making the right moves for their career, time will tell, but if you are going to play in the reserves or sit on the bench, you may as well be at a club that pays you more to do so. And in some cases a lot more. They are young guys too. If it doesn't work out at Chelsea or Brighton, there will be opportunities down the pyramid - I know of one club that is more than happy to buy unwanted Chelsea/City youth talent. I understand your frustration, but money talks in this game. It's worth pointing out that we benefited from raiding less rich clubs with the likes of Lallana and Walcott. And now it's up to us to have the scouts and people in place to do the same.

it's a step up from Flynn watership downes. I'll get my coat.

18 months into a six year contract at Chelsea, which as you say, will include a bloody huge weekly wage. I think if Ralph was still here, he might continue to push, but new manager won't have same connection. Bloody shame we won't see anything of Stewart this year or know if he can make the step up. If we do go up, we will have Che out of contract, AA, who couldn't do it in the Prem, Mara, who hasn't really pushed his cause much this season and a guy with several long term injuries under his belt. Not ideal. Lots for us to talk about next summer though (hopefully).

Sure. I understand how it happened - Ralph decided at that specific point in time that McCarthy was the better of the two keepers (and maybe he was at that particular moment) - but the decision looked a bad one almost straight away. It's water under the bridge now. That said, I am not sure why he hasn't been the number 2 this season. Perhaps he has another clause in his contract that guarantees him another year if he plays so many games and we didn't want that to ever be activated, hence signing Lumley. Or maybe we thought he was off, so got our replacement in (too) early. It will be interesting to see how other clubs value him. Could he still be a number 2 at a Prem side or maybe a number 3? Once that massive contract disappears there may be a lot more interest in his services.

I was impressed by him - and I'd pay more than £5m, although he is never coming here. It's worth remembering that he was only 20 at the time. Shearer scored 4 league goals in 36 top flight games for us when he was the same age. I like him Broja. He has pace, power and ability on the ball. Not too many strikers have those attributes. He scored some nice goals for us too. For a period he looked a top class Prem striker, causing defenders real problems. No doubt about it, his form tailed off towards the latter part of the season, and there was much debate on here as to whether his head was right. But I would say in his defence that the supply to him was non existent and we weren't playing well as a side, losing nine of the last twelve games. It was a shame we could not sign him. We badly needed a striker during the season we were relegated. He won't be joining us now or in the summer.

Deserved goal IMO. They've pushed hard and looked a threat on the break. Leicester midfield gets caught the wrong side of the ball a fair bit.

I'd love to win it having missed out on both winners trophies for the last two promotions

no chance we get a fee. Doubt we have been looking for one. It's the wages that are are killer to any move. Doubt his next club ain't paying him as much as we are currently. Perhaps we could pay the difference for the last 6 months of his contract. He'll no doubt have a loyalty bonus coming his way if he sees out the contract too, so he wont be pushing for a move.

Doesn't surprise me that he's linked with a Prem side, but I can't see him leaving in this window. He's a key player for them and they won't want to unsettle their side. 18 months left of his contract though, so things will happen in the summer.

not much he could do. I've been impressed with him though. He seems Ok positionally, reasonably quick and he busts a gut to support attacks. Has a good touch and decent on the ball. Willing to take the fullback on and get to the bye to cross. He was outstanding last year in League 1. If they hadn't got promoted he would have been one to target. Might still be for next year.

Interested to se how Lief Davis performs against better quality opposition.

he was never quite as effective in a game once he got a yellow though. He couldn't make certain tackles and the opportunity to commit a professional foul to prevent break away/bad situation was off course gone. An early yellow for a CM is bad news and has a subtle impact, all be it not one that always effects the result.

That's interesting. Personally, I was fine with the substitution. We were cruising and realistically the only thing that would stop us winning was a red card, so RM was protecting the win. He's done it a couple of times recently. It's a smart move if you have confidence in your squad players and it can pay off if you get an injury to a first choice as the second choice are not completely rusty. At this level, Stephens is OK. Good enough to do a job, which he has so far this season. Obviously he dropped an absolute clanger, which we haven't seen from our CBs in quite a while. But I don't think he was the cause our second half issues though. We made lots of subs and none had a positive impact, plus Swansea improved.

If you think he deserves your wrath, you go right ahead.

He must have been 50 cm deeper than his partner?

hang him.

We have made a raft of subs. Swansea are on top. How is that all Stephens fault? I'm not even a fan of his, but struggle to agree with that assessment.

He's made one really ugly error. Cut him some slack.

Got to ask, who is meant to be marking Bolasie there? Fraser? Cant blame Manning as he had two.