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Well not exactly kindness of heart, it at least gets them off the wage bill, which is better than continuing to pay them for very little return.

Succinct & accurate, how can that problem be resolved? Maybe outside the scope of Saints physio team?

They will live to regret it if they do not, barring (maybe) Luke Shaw the best 19 year old I have seen playing for Saints in the PL.

Very close call I would say.

Save yourself the drive, keeping ABK and selling Stephens is the no brainer here surely? Young growing in value versus old and declining in value. Plus helps sabotage your nearest rivals chances of staying in the Prem, win, win, win.

SNAP!

Oh if AMN gets another prem gig his agent is way better than good, he walks on water. Am I correct in thinking that the last two UK loans teams AMN went too (WBA and Saints) both got relegated? Will there be a line of teams trying to get the 'third times a charm' award, I doubt it. Best case for AMN is ARS release him and he gets picked up by a European team on the cheap. If Saints decide they want him back then there is no hope.

Agreed. Been following Saints since 1972 and he is arguably the player I have least enjoyed watching, certainly in the PL seasons. Well to be honest there are some who have been worse to watch, but they all have better explanations, came with Saints from lower leagues etc. But AMN I just do not get. This was his shop window and this is it? If the club doesn't have better B Team/Reserve players then Saints are in a world of hurt.

Yep please sign me up for whatever he is on. SO LONG AS ALL MEANS OF COMMUNICATION ARE REMOVED FROM HIM/HER.

Sadly it appears both tall Paul and Jack Stephens fit in the "cannot" play intersection of the Venn diagram of available Saints and Bournemouth players, one of them is in the contractual reasons bubble and one or possibly both in the not good enough for this league bubble 😃.

Now we know why he had to be subbed at half time. https://www.atptour.com/en/news/alcaraz-tsitsipas-barcelona-2023-sunday-final Had a really big game to play today. Hope he recovers in time for Bournemouth talk about versatile!

Excellent hope he gets to enjoy the moment. Is there an emergency recall clause Saint's can activate? Would be quite the achievement to help in the promotion of one team and help save another team from relegation in the course of a single season!

Well maybe you are right, maybe the statistically best manger in Europe had a sudden impulse to change the personnel and tactics completely from all the previous Southampton games he was in charge as a one off experiment, then reverted back to his game plan afterwards including another disaster class for the next round of the EFL? Or perhaps was forced into it by resting players for PL games and got lucky. We will probably never know for sure, until JWP's tell all biography comes out 😃. But go with me here which would be more surprising that he did that entirely of his own volition, or that he consulted with his chief coach who had been coaching the squad for longer and new the squad better? Maybe Jones was willing to listen to others, in which case that makes Jones a bit less of a moron than you, don't you think?

Suspect using simple deductive logic it is more than a rumour. Here is the deductive logic every other game under Nathan Jones was a disaster class from start to finish. Yet miraculously we beat City. Albeit City failed to show up, doubt we will see that again in the premier game, lightning rarely strikes twice.

Agreed, yes. But as pointed out he was only really viable after the FA cup, we would have seen him in the event of injury or a dramatic drop in league form.

Think the story is he was signed as cover on the basis of getting paid per game played, guess he thought he would walk into our team having regained his fitness. But that season the relegation threat was low, and Saints didn't appear to have a long term plan for him and he obviously wanted a more lucrative contract so he wasn't worth paying to play.

Some small differences here apart from the similarity in height, Peter Crouch "was capped 42 times by the England national team between 2005 and 2010, scoring 22 goals for his country during that time, and appearing at two FIFA World Cup tournaments.[2] He is one of 33 players to have scored 100 or more Premier League goals, and holds the record for the most headed goals in Premier League history." So how much did he remind you of Peter Crouch, bearing in mind when Peter Crouch played for Southampton he was five or so years younger than Paul?

Sadly my jury has come in and is willing to go down in digital history. But before passing judgement would like to ask a few questions before passing judgement. 1. Does tall Paul have the innate physical ability to last a whole game at premier league pace? 2. Why has tall Paul not previously been snapped up at earlier points in his career by goal hungry teams? 3. Why did tall Paul accept the challenge that other strikers declined? Yes I agree he could turn out to be height for goals the best striker Southampton ever brought and in that case will end up the first Southampton billion dollar sale, early signs are however not positive.

Sure scouting, academy u14, u16, 17, u21 & B-team all cost nothing. If we divide the cost of all that by the number of players produced you get the "Brentford solution" do not bother and buy the right players at the point you need them for the first team. Exaggerated by loads of % I know but that's the principle.

Apparently he will play with a pain killing injection for Poland. Chance he plays for Poland, makes the rib injury worse and cannot play for the rest of the season? Would that be in the category of blessing in disguise or not?

Yes agreed, none of us know how that conversation went, and I guess if I were him I would have wanted to take the chance also, a professional career can be short and/or over in a instant. Just a shame it hasn't really worked out well for either party. Germany were poor and I am not sure if ABK got any actual game time? Easy with hindsight but he could have skipped a few weeks in the desert and been an important part of the great escape! Instead the wheels came off against Spurs or he got caught in the barbed wire if you like!

Well one positive we all largely seem to agree on the best team and that says something right there! For me the biggest surprise is seeing Walcott in everybody's line up, who could have called that at the beginning of March! No doubt someone will have a post predicting a Theo resurgence but I for one certainly didn't see that one coming!

If all are fit yes, think Bednarek (broken ribs) and ABK (dislocated shoulder) will be pretty unlikely starters. Bednarek's injury couldn't have been predicted, but probably should have been punished unless it was purely accidental, they didn't show the replay. ABK however was the opposite if it is the same shoulder as before, the club could have withdrawn him from the Germany world cup squad and he should have had the surgery. Could have been a win, win he was unlikely to get game time and it him allowed plenty of recovery time, the chosen option was a loose, loose for ABK and Saints. So options are Salisu, Caleta Carr and the brazil nut as CB's, my preference retain two of those three and Perruad at full back. Salisu at left back really hasn't worked that well, he looks uncomfortable, gaps appear and attacking output is limited on the left. Midfield and upfront I agree except I do not know if Mara is better used as an impact sub after Che has tired out the opposition, guess that probably is a better option as Mara could probably do a job replacing any of those behind the front striker if needed and I am not sure Che could.

Not sure that Tall Paul is a fit for the Premier League let alone Saints, looks like he may have attempted a step up too far, from his brief appearances so far he has not impressed like Graziano Pellè did in his initial games. Unless he starts poaching some goals during his cameos I am not sure we will see very much of him at all.