Fabrice Fernandes no.1 fan

A very impressive record, but it has always struck me that international management and club management are different animals altogether. She notoriously hates rotating players or making subs, so not sure how that looks across 46 games. Tactically she seems very astute, the way she's used the England squad is very admirable. Should she be getting better offers, absolutely

Should be a good experience for him there, they have Jake Hesketh and Flannigan so two players who spent plenty of time through our academy

It was a great finish and a nice move. I think we'll do well if we can keep Russo and Toone playing closer together, and using Hemp to stretch them

Brilliant piece, really helpful guide that. I've always found the most frustrating thing about the women's coverage is that the club never posted the teamsheet in order of position, only every numerically, so you could never really tell who was doing what in games you didn't attend. Helpfully, they did post it positionally this weekend, and unhelpfully for you they played a back 5! They played Collett and Purfield as wing backs, with Mott tucked in as a third centre back (with Peake and Parnell). We then played Griffiths, Peplow and Kendall as a midfield three, with Wilkinson and LLS up top. Neither Dean or Kraft got on the pitch so not sure if they're still being integrated into the team

Watched the highlights and whoever was playing wearing number 8 seems to have had a growth spurt over the summer! Ballard looked so class, he seemed to be the quickest, most reactive player on the pitch. Edwards came off the bench and had some good touches seemingly too.

Not looking a bad score now, maybe not the best pitch to score too highly on! Good to see Wheal back and bowling fiercely, and Holland has looked very useful too

Good signing that, will be very useful at this level

How are we actually lined up then, anyone know?

Seems almost unfair playing Barker in the one-day cup, he's just working his way through the Essex batters so far this morning

Quite a deep philosophical question there, when is a referee not making a decision, in fact them making a decision to not do anything

I think its best you don't tell people about this sort of depravity.

On behalf of the junior members of the forum, what did they get away with?

I do remember hearing Stephens was JWP's right-hand man a couple of seasons ago and dealt with player fines etc so seems a natural successor

French TV money isn't great so it tends to be the European teams who can afford to pay a bit more, which isn't Monaco next year, so can't see him being on huge wages

There is a talented centre back in there but too raw and we certainly haven't had the coaching quality to address that. Over-riding memory will be his seeming addiction to sliding into tackles when an attacker was going towards the by-line and giving away a penalty

I'm planning on starting a circle of lust where we discuss rumours with absolutely no substance but the players involved (both for the men's and women's team) are certified hotties. First up, we're planning to sign Scott Twine from Burnley, and make Armstrong's hair captain

Not quite the same, but similar to Zaha. He signed a long contract, Palace never sold him so he had to honour that contract and now the window on him getting a big move has closed and he's had to settle.

Timing is right, he's taken us as far as he can, and we have a lot to thank him for. Very key to get the choice of replacement right, from a cricketing perspective. Rod has given us the infrastructure to be a title contender in each format every year really.

Are you sure about this? I'm fairly sure the Test and Itchen are water, and Southampton water must be pretty poorly named too then. The city exists because historically it was a very important port town commercially, pretty good going for no water... For me the year prior is the better kit, that shirt always felt a bit like a Stoke kit for me, too much white.

And 7:45 kick off isn't doing much to help families attend. First week of the summer holidays, they could have really pushed it as a family fun day with an earlier kick off etc.

An interesting side from the u21s. Bycroft, Finnigan, Simeu and Olaigbe all played having been on loan last season, interesting that they've slotted back in at that level Abu played 76 minutes, Doyle, Dibling and Meghoma all got minutes too. Feels like a strong squad overall

You're right, it happened already and they didn't! The women's team played Forest over the weekend. Forest wore red, so we wore our away kit, but the keeper wore the home keeper kit. I guess we couldn't wear the third keeper kit with the away because the shorts and socks are basically the same too. We appear to have three colours palettes this season (red/pink, teal, and black/yellow) so we'll get all sorts of varieties of keeper and outfield kits, and possibly odd socks with kits to make them work. We'll be able to wear the home against teams playing in white, but probably not the white socks so we'll need a change for those games.

These two are somewhat forced because we've given away their previous numbers. Edozie has taken Tella's 23 and Sulemana has taken Smallbone's 20

I find it really interesting the difference in nations that make the women’s World Cup compared to the men’s. Unlikely to see Vietnam, Philippines or Haiti at the men’s World Cup any time soon

Some good signings this window, clearly an intention to step up. Looks like we've signed two new strikers (Dean and Kraft) and two midfielders (Peplow and Pike). International experience (at senior and junior levels) and WSL experience too. According to the website we have a friendly on Sunday away at Forest, will be interesting to see how we line up (if we get any updates). And to maybe peak some more fans' interest, Pike is most certainly easy on the eyes