Chez

how old was BT before he started scoring goals? How old was Marsden before he shined at our place? He's only got 40 starts under his belt and as was pointed out to me in the summer his heart problems set him back some way as well. He might not be Southampton born but he's through the ranks and I always thought fans backed these types rather than mercenary players that come for the money. Stern the laziest ****er ever to put a Saints shirt on had his arse kissed on here yet Lallana, who gives everything in games, is chucked on the waste pile 40 games in. If he was **** I could understand it, but he's not. a very good question. Last season he should have played where McGoldrick played. In the middle running the game. In a 4-4-2 I'm not sure, but he certainly is more effective than James and I'd probably pick him ahead of Holmes who I have my doubts about.

that is a very good question. I will keep on saying this till I am blue in the mouth, but if we play Patterson all season I honestly think he will get close to 20 goals. And you'll get his work rate to go with it. That said we need strikers. Having no forwards on the bench on Saturday was poor.

spot on. Fantastic signing for Saints as he knows just about every team and player in the league having played against them with Brighton last season and before. I'd hope we take his word on a few players, especially one or two nippers that perhaps have yet to really grab the headlines.

good point. Any one no what happened to Lee McCormack? He was on the books around the same time as Paul Tisdale, Paul Masters and Nicky Banger, and was an England schoolboy I think.

you didn't see KJ at Brum when arry played him in midfield. Gee that was embarressing. He made Powell look gifted on that night. Sorry, but I disagree about the touch thing. You can improve any skills a little, but no amount of training is ever going make Paul Wotton have a golden touch and thats what I am taking about - top level first touch, the sort that is needed to survive in the premiership unless you are playing centre back or in the big lump up front role. Lallana has that, as did Surman and Bale. First touch is such a huge part of the game its almost ignored and certainly taken for granted.

I missed that bit at the end. He certainly struggled for a long time after his injury. How bad that was I don't know and how much fitness he lost I also don't know. What I do know was that he did find his form again towards the end of the season and put in some very decent displays, so it hasn't been a case or playing poorly ever since xmas.

quality players playing quality football is what will get us out of this division. Watch George Boyd play for the Posh (promoted two seasons in a row without the merest hint of a lump up front I might add) and tell me that wide players need to hug the touchline all day long. At present the lack of pace on the other wing and up front is just as big a problem. As I have said countless times before, Lallana is not the finished article, and IMO he is a central player, but he needs time to develop and if we give it to him we will gain as a result.

You watch one game on the TV and now you are making rediculous statements about the amount of effort he puts in. I don't care if you rate him or not, to say he can't be bothered is complete and utter drivel.

not sure I follow you. Are you trying to tell me that coaching has given KJ or BT a `golden first touch'. They improved their hold up play for sure, but there wasn't a great improvement in touch really, more a better awareness of when to control it and when to lay it off first time. Very few have what Lallana has, he still needs to improve of course, and I'm not saying he should be first name on the sheet, but it ****es me off to see Saints fans jumping on the young lads back so early into his career whn quite clearly he has natural talent that given time will blossom. All I'm asking for is patience.

has anyone ever spent a million quid in one go in league 1?

I have no idea of your own football knowledge but in general there is a compete lack of awareness of the lower leagues from Saints fans, including myself, but that doesn't mean there are not very good players in the lower leagues, some of which may have played very few games. Had your heard of Lee McCormack before last season? Total unknown who topped the scoring charts with Cardiff. How about Josh Thompson, just 6 games for Stockport and now has signed for Celtic. How about Danny N'Guessen? Free transfer from Lincoln this summer snapped up by our friend Pearson and staight into the foxes first team on Saturday. Have you heard of Stephen Dawson at Bury? Young centre midfielder that won every one of their end of season awards for last season. IMO we don't need names or even old heads (legs) we need young, hungry talent and where possible with good experience already, perhaps in league 2 or 1.

more tackles yesterday than the entire season last year. A quality player that given time is going to get better and better. Patience with some of these young lads including Lallana, Patterson and even Lancashire is essential. I though he dissapeared yesterday in the second half though.

Lallana didn't have his best game but I still don't understand why so many on here are so keen to jump on his back. Its a long season and if we keep him I'd put money on him having a good season here and by the end of it a few of you will have changed your minds about him. Check his first touch out, you don't need a FA coaching badge to see that its ****ing golden and that by the way is something you just can't coach into a player. The rest will come in time...

Agreed. We need pace and dribbling ability. A threat going forward and someone that will keep the ball.

Perry and Thomas are a million miles away from the centre back pairing we need to get promoted IMO. They lack pace AND arial ability. Perry gets in good positions but thats about it. Both poor on the ball. Two new centre backs are a must for me.

Patterson seemed to do more than enough spoiling yesterday. What's required is some pace to go with him.

Patterson was the big plus for me today and we ought to extend that three year deal to five right now. evening Arizona. How on earth you can single out Saga ahead of Patterson is beyond me. I've been singing Patterson's praises since Reading away and today he showed exactly hat he is all about. He won everything in the air, showed strength, a little pace, confidence to run with the ball and caused their back problems throughout. Forget the goal, that was a bonus, when he went off injured and perhaps just a little tired as well we fell to peices. If we'd played him with BWP last season we would have stayed up IMO. I know you are big fan of Saga, and as you know he's not my own favourite, but despite these obvious differences in opinion I still don't see how you could see Saga as better than Patterson on todays showing.

agents getting desperate and creating links or are these rumours true? Either way its great to be linked to players just so we can argue their quality. Also good to see us linked with players from the lower leagues on their way up rather than same old same old on their way down.

two players from Stockport and neither of them are Josh Thompson...christ who ever their youth team scout is lets sign him up for us.

when are you going to give your `happy clappy' name calling a rest? This board is far from being black and white in terms of opinion. Just because posters are not crying every third post about our lack of signings it doesn't make them `happy clappy', unambitious or indeed any less realistic than you. There are any number of reasons why we have not signed six or seven players to date, but despite posters pointing some of these out to you, all you ever do is ****ing moan. Give it a rest, there's a good chap. We all know your opinion by now. There is no need to grind us all into the dirt with it. If you continue in this way all your will achieve is making yourself look like someone that actually wants the club to fail. Is that what you want cos that's what'll 'appen? (now where'd that catch phrase from, is it arry enfield???)

Having mentioned that the Jardi deal hasn't gone away, Pardew on OS http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~1745764,00.html then says "Needless to say we have other targets that we are looking at, and we hope to be able to bring in one of these shortly"

I actually don't rate Thomas much. Possibly the worst million pound defender ever. JPS was terrific for us and he would be a tremendous player at this level. You said it yourself though. Thomas is injured, so no matter how good he is when he plays, as it stands we are weaker at CB than we were last season.

loanees JPS, Pearce and Cork need to be taken into account. Also, and more importantly we were bottom three most of the season before being easily relegated. Bottom of CCC does not mean one place better than top of League 1 in terms of ability to win games. This squad needs a lot of improvement if we are to challenge.

3-3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J16f1Z4-IDU & should be a @. Bloody crap keyboard.