Fitzhugh Fella

Many thanks, very helpful!

Yes enjoy the present by all means and 7000 inc me filled their boots in Milan. But not to cover all bases and leave things to ifs and maybes is not prudent management. I'd like to think Les Reed keeps one step ahead of the game. Either that or he is one lucky Director of Football.

Well I certainly hope Les Reed isn't sitting back enjoying life. The whole point of the thread is about forward planning to continue our fabulous recent progress. You stick your head in the sand if you want but I would like to think the more savvy supporters will welcome the club preparing for all eventualities.

Did you ever get around to investigating this further? A student from Solent Uni wants to interview me on the causes of the Skates v Scummers hatred and wondered if you had found the time to explore further?

In football these days some things are inevitable and truly great players get their moves. I'll give you odds of 2 to 1 he will not be a saint this time next year.

And just a second before Davis gave the ball away Martina had pushed up in support and so was suddenly caught out of position.

Don Roper came back from Arsenal and Ivan Golac resigned twice.

We should be looking for a van Dijk replacement too, he's is certain to depart in the summer I reckon

With the growing media praise for Virgil's qualities it looks like an inevitability he will not be here next season. To my mind he is the best centre-half I have seen in a Saints shirt and will be almost impossible to replace, so I hope Les Reed and co are already on the case. I'm sure they are and it might be an idea to get the person in come January before we sell (presumably in the summer).

Can I pompously agree with you? I am a big fan of Romeu and think he is an intelligent player both off and on the pitch. Indispensable already and to think Chelsea let him through their fingers! hope I don't sound too pompous, by adding, Puel is quietly impressing me. Still early days but he has made a really solid start.

Can I pompously agree with you? I am a big fan of Romeu and think he is an intelligent player both off and on the pitch. Indispensable already and to think Chelsea let him through their fingers! hope I don't sound too pompous, by adding, Puel is quietly impressing me. Still early days but he has made a really solid start.

Good point under all the circumstances. I thought Boufal looked promising. Still think we should have signed an out and out forward. Austin's lack of pace was particularly noticeable today and his one reasonable chance he hit straight at the keeper which is frustrating. Romeu immense even after being booked. Thought McQueen did well too Starting to get over the pain of the San Siro and the players did well to lift themselves. Puel deserves some credit also.

I would like to claim the record for a beer in Milan. 35 € in the Duomo. A round of 4 came to €140.

That's a bit presumptuous to state. We finished last night with three forwards all firing not on full cylinders and a young thrusting forward who has pace could have opened the door. All this goes to prove our squad is undercooked for the task that we face.

At Linate now, everything seems to be running normally

With 3 unfit forwards on show at the San Siro tonight the thought crossed my mind how Sam could have done a job for us out here.

We travelled with 3 forwards none of who were fully fit or match fit and that is why we didn't score. Just like Beersheba that game was winnable but our squad is just not deep enough.

Agree but would mention scoring goals for a struggling team is a lot harder.

Summer 2018. V popular with the Rovers fans apparently and really enjoying his football

I honestly think we should play our strongest team and go for an historic win which should see us qualify. We can then go to City expecting to lose but so what, a defeat there is nothing new and will be forgotten by the following game.

Lots of chickens being counted on here, which is always a worry when it comes to Saints.

There were some Israelis on the coaches from Tel Aviv to the game but they were Saints fans, other than them I saw no other 'locals' in our end.

Who said there was a problem, I was merely highlighting with a tad more ambition it could have been 6 points which would have given us more leeway v Milan?

I agree entirely but I guess the argument will only be settled once the season is over or at least the Milan games are over. I still can't see the point of expanding so much energy to get into the EL only to downgrade its importance to a 1in 38 Premier league outing. Something not reported but the Be'er Sheva players were so chuffed with their 0-0 draw against us they went on a lap of honour. It was a tad embarrassing but fair play to the Saints fans (we were kept behind for 15 minutes) when the Israeli team approached our end everyone applauded them much to their bemusement. That sent a signal to me that perhaps Puel had given them too much respect and Thursday night was a missed opportunity.

Yes I understand what you are saying but with two games v Milan coming up we potentially spurned a good opportunity in Israel. Only time will tell if Puel made the right call but, I repeat, after spending 9 months of blood sweat and tears to qualify for the Europa League and then to send out a weakened team when 3 points were attainable, begs my question - is an away game at Leicester more important than a winnable Europa Group game? If win tomorrow and v Milan away and I might be persuaded you and Claude have got it right.