Chez

You'd think it would be the other way round.

a loan with a view to purchase, so long as we tie it down better than we did for Toby, seems the ideal scenario for most signings to me. Just like any normal job, a trial period gives the employer a chance to see what the player is all about at close quarters and get rid if the player doesn't cut the mustard. With our recent record in the transfer market, perhaps that ought to be our policy of choice...

good post. What a greta display. Got after them right from the start and never really let up. Got slightly fortunate with the offside goal, but we could have been well clear but for their keeper and the woodwork. Brilliant performance. Massive smile on my face...COYR

Great half by Saints. Chased everything, battled for everything, won everything. Every second ball was ours. Disappointed to only be level. Will be hard to replicate that again in the second. Hope we can?

SFB, Southampton football business. They could not give a monkeys about the size of our away allocations. All that matters is that they don't make a loss by not selling a requested allocation. With that in mind, the policy appears to be take no chances. 1200 for Palace is pathetic. What kind of 'club' would treat its 'members' like this. You are a customer. Nothing more.

they don't half blow hot and cold. Ref allowing a lot. Quite good to see.

tough tie. Hope we can match 2003. Spurs will sell the 4k plus tickets, so it should be a decent atmosphere.

Not been to `new' Oxford ground, so that would be my preference. We might get around 3100 tickets, which, I should imagine would be snapped up pretty quickly.

Jay Rodriguez might be a better benchmark. He moved from Champ to a 'relatively struggling' Prem side. No familiarity with the other players and the style of play or 30 championship goals in credit like Sir Ricky. He played 35 prem games in the first season and scored 6 goals. My memory isn't the best, but despite doing enough to get the shirt each week, I am not sure he fully convinced Saints fans. Second season in he was an absolute revelation. Stronger, faster, more direct and full of confidence.

are there any Championship clubs with £15m to spare in the January window?

Nice outlook. We just need Che to catch fire should Ings lose form or get injured.

Oh right. Thats not good. If players are not stand out in the SPL then they wont cut the mustard in the Prem. I dipped in and out of that game, but from what I saw he won a lot of headers and nearly scored two or three goals from headers from set pieces. That caught my eye. The basic skill of winning headers is something that has been undervalued at SFC.

unhappy at not being in the side and unhappy at not scoring goals. Good. We dont want players that don't feel like that. Whether that means he is unhappy at his situation at Saints nd wants a move I am not so sure. Also not sure a game in the FA Cup will resolve things.

us, his agent or Leeds

boy do they blow hot and cold. I was going to say flat track bullies, but thy have beaten some of the better sides then lost to some strugglers.

is his backup Nyland any good?

yep. He looks better in the air, better on the ball and quicker too (goes without saying really). How much would celtic want for Julien now?

Celtic's record transfer fee paid is about £9m, so I don't think we will get the £25m for Forster some papers mentioned we might want. Perhaps we could take Frimpong in exchange.

is he suspended then? You don't get to pick and choose which games you miss.

agreed, Cedric will stay, but might be a good idea to bring in his replacement now if Valery is going to be out for a while (who knows) and if his replacement can cover left back, where we are very exposed.

I think he played well in several games for us. He showed a willingness to get up and down the pitch, good strength, decent touch, half decent on the ball and reasonably quick. When they gave him a five year deal they must have felt he had the quality. The ACL injury was a bad one though, so its no surprise he has been out for so long. A year or more is not unusual. I hope he can get back to his best. Great to see a local lad do well.

not sure many would argue against this.

lovely post. Great that the team and the fans are both enthused after what has been a pretty horrible season until recently.

Presumably Stoke put out their best side, who had all played together a far bit. We won't have that continuity of selection and usually the team looks disjointed and struggles a bit. Individuals may gave better quality, but team play can be terrible. With that in mind, any kind of win becomes a decent result. I notice Boufal wasn't even on the bench against Spuds, yet we had three strikers on the bench. Has the toe caused issues again? Valery was also still missing due to 'an infection', so you would assume he will miss out again. Right now we don't seem to have much cover at full back or CM. Gunn ??? Yoshida Vestegaard/Danso ??? Romeu ??? Djenepo Long Obefemi Adams

I really liked his professional foul when Spurs caught us on the break. That ruthlessness is exactly what you need at this level. That bit of nastiness and doing everything possible to stop the opponent gaining the advantage is helping to stop those break away goals that hurt us badly earlier in the season. I have to say I was relatively calm for the last ten minutes compared to normal. We seem to have a bit more solidity, and luck...