Chez

brilliant save

we are struggling. their change of tactics is strangling us.

Diallo lucky, to be fair.

thought we looked tremendous on the break, but we miss Ings to finish it off with his extra class. Diallo is an absolute beast in midfield. He looks a tremendous signing.

fuming about that missed foul by the ref. Left us scrambling and we never recovered leading to the goal. Very very poor decision.

More that he wasn't sharp enough on the turn rather than 'pushed around'. Same outcome though.

how on earth is that not a foul. Attwell has fucked us there.

I thought Ralf might give N'Lundulu the nod, but I am looking forward to seeing what Smallbone can do against what is a very good side. We got our tactics absolutely spot on last time we played them. Need to do so again, as they are very dangerous on the break and have guile on the ball too. COYR

your post quoted me, so I'll assume the content was aimed at me. Where have I suggested the UK is inherently racist? Nice straw man. I'd agree, the UK is pretty tolerant, but that doesn't mean there isn't any racism at all. I've no knowledge or experience of how soft the Police are on gangs due to fear of being labelled a racist, so won't comment.

Highlighting issues, through protests etc. doesn't contribute towards change? I am not sure I agree with you on this.

What if thousands of people all wore the same `don't fight in pubs' t-shirt to the pub every week, it got media attention as to the fact that it was a major issue and ignoring it was no longer good enough, and that media attention was retained by the continued and repeated act, which perhaps helped get other stuff implemented that contributed towards less fighting in pubs, would the wearing of the t-shirt seem a less bizarre concept?

better value in terms of lower wage? Lower fee? I think Williams can play at this level and on both sides. I know we shouldn't need jack of all trades, but nice to have, especially if you want to have a small squad. Omar Richards still not signed on a free with Bayern.

for my sins I watched the whole thing. The early clips make him look pretty poor, I have to say. but there's one or two nice flashes of skill as you go on and some good longer balls out wide. He makes a fair few interceptions, showing good anticipation, but mostly it just bad passing by opponents. I'd like to see more of how he does when under a bit more pressure. Most of the clips show him having hours of time. He looks pretty quick across the ground and is willing to go to ground to make a tackle, but I get the feeling he doesn't work quite hard enough to get the right side and maybe even does the bare minimum because he has the recovery speed - he's a bit casual, possibly, and could maybe do more. Looks comfortable on the ball, but one footed. Doesn't dribble and show much, if anything going forward. Bit of a meh for me, but that's just on this video, nothing else.

very good point and if you take it would step further, maybe player demanding that huge wage will have to settle for a little less than they would have prior to COVID?

Fair point. If you saw that person in the street wearing said t-shirt, would it annoy you?

Agree fully with his post. Anything that annoys racists is fine by me. If it means they don't come to games, fine by me. If you don't like it - tough fucking luck. It's the players choice. If they feel it is too closely connected to BLM or is doing nothing for the cause of anti racism, they can stop at any time. They don't need to explain themselves, but it wouldn't be terribly hard to do so. Personally, I see taking the knee as nothing to do with the BLM organisation and everything to do with the message `black lives matter' and trying to draw attention to racism that still exists in our society. I do not know if this action works any better than the `kick racism out' t-shirts, but I am more than happy to see our club trying a different method.

its pretty tough for young kids coming through these days, in that they not only need to compete with the best of British, but the best from around the world. It's hardly surprising therefore that only the off player gets and stays in the first team. When a player does, we should celebrate them, and give our academy a big pat on the back (which by and large we do) so long as those players are genuinely improving us and not just filling a shirt (cheaply).

is there no way out of this without selling key players? Could we retain the ones we want, but just not spend any money at all for three years on any new signings. I am guessing not if the ones you want keep asking for pay rises or want to leave anyway.

not necessarily. Bertrand will want a pretty large wage and maybe a signing on fee. If we let him go and then signed another free contract, perhaps someone wanting less wages, Omar Richards for example, then that could save us money. Doing that though, is easier said than done and obviously might be detrimental of the quality of the side.

If we don't make any loan repayments until 2025, the debt would rise to £122m. I would assume we will be trying to reduce that figure over the next five years somehow, which means spending less than we bring in.

They were linked with Tripper, but his ban would prevent a move, you'd think. Solskjaer seems to rate Williams. Well, at least he has made positive remarks about him recently (maybe to boost his price, maybe to boost his confidence ahead of games in the busy period - and maybe because Tripper move is falling through) , but he clearly hasn't shined early season enough to claim the reserve left back role. Wan-Bisakka doesn't seem to get injured, meaning the right back cover doesn't get many games, so perhaps there isn't huge pressure to sign a right back right. If signing his depends on United signing a player ,then it is going to come down to the 11 hour.

So that would be five out of the starting 11. It happened a lot when we were struggling for money in the championship. 2013/14 season we had Shaw, Chambers, Lallana and JWP starting most weeks and Gallagher started a few games. Will be very hard to replicate that.

LeTiss, Shearer, Bridge, Saw, Bale, Lallana and JWP all got International caps whilst at Saints. I think you might be able to claim that you are `famous' on being capped, but obviously they gained even greater fame when moving to bigger sides. Bridge gave us 5 years and Lallana 8 years. Lallana signed a five year contract for us when dropping to the third tier when he could easily have moved to Wolves. We paid him handsomely to do so, but that signing paved the way to our path back to the top flight. He stayed certainly improved the side no matter how sour in ended when he moved to Liverpool.

Most of his Saints career was spent outside the Prem, so you could say he progressed and fulfilled his potential. He was a very good player (in a shite side), not a great player, yet he still played at the top league which is testament to his dedication and application. The transfer funds we got from his sales was important in our survival as a club. I think possibly we as thanks might owe him a debt of gratitude for making that move. I'd suggest he was another great youth system/academy success.

I'd argue that academy rejects are those of us that didn't get a professional contract.