James

All I'm saying is that if the justification for playing Stephens over an "experienced" player is to blood youngsters in a harmless environment (which seems to be what Lighthouse is saying here) then by extrapolation we could have used another youngster (Jones) in the event of another injury. Our transfer business was inadequate. I wanted a CB signing but we didn't get one. The signing of MC was done at the last minute and was done IMO out of sheer panic. If we have no intention of using Caceres over our own youth players then we may as well not have bothered with him. I would, of course, have preferred us to have signed a good defender with pedigree who could have been first choice but we didn't. Just because we panicked and brought in a player on a free doesn't make our transfer business adequate and all I'm saying is that given we apparently have no interest in using him we may as well have saved ourselves the trouble.

Fine but how do you know Stephens is better than Caceres? I've only seen Caceres play at half speed in an U23 game so wouldn't like to make a call on who is the "best available". My point (in direct response to your point about the benefits of blooding JS) was that there really was no point in signing MC and paying him any kind of wage if we didn't think he was better than Stephens. If Stephens or Yoshida were injured we could make use of Alfie Jones who is next in line (and clearly a player the club have high hopes for) and we could then reap the benefit of Jones getting earlier PL experience in a season where we are safe and will finish mid table. From what I've seen of the U23s I don't see Jones as too far behind Stephens if I'm honest.

Exactly. Especially that some of the criticism of Puel seems to be mitigated by the fact that he was let down by Les Reed and should be given the summer to mould the team as he wants. If we did good business and achieved all our targets in the market then Puel has to be judged on this season. Can't have it both ways. For me, Puel was let down by Reed and should be given the summer but then I think our transfer business last summer was inadequate.

New keeper. New CB. New DM. New Striker. Four players I'd like assuming no one leaves. Given that we know at least one player will leave it'll be another summer of mass changes I think.

All of the above is true, its also irrelevant to the point I was making.

That's a big 'if' unfortunately.

Wednesday for me please as have a good friend who is a Season Ticket holder. Would also like Leeds but doesn't look like they'll make it.

What if Jack Stephens was injured too? Surely that means we should be blooding the other young CBs whilst we've got nothing to play for just in case? That seems to be what you are saying.

Agreed. Given what Silva has been able to do with what's been available to him at Hull I'd love to see what he'd do for us. We won't be getting rid of Puel though so no point in even allowing ourselves to wonder.

So you don't think we left ourselves short (especially up front) following the summer window? You were genuinely content with the amount of business we did?

People also said it was "obvious" we'd replace Fonte in January but we didn't. I reckon we will see VVD leave and will get one CB in for between £10-15m from some European team. After last summer and the failings in Jan coupled with rumours of a takeover I can't see us investing heavily in the next window. Hope I'm wrong.

Ironic that the situation you describe did happen with JS making his full debut in a cup semi final away at Anfield.

As of two weeks ago (can't find a more up to date version) Hull are 4th in the form table based on points picked up since Silva arrived. He's clearly turned them around. They were dead and buried before he got there.

Saw them play at the Emirates earlier in the season and they didn't look too bad to me. Palace were also a bad team both home and away when we played them and they did us over. As I say, I expect us to win but I bet it isn't as easy as you think. Mind you, you seem to predict a thumping win almost every home game against mid table teams and it never happens.

Unreal that Costa didn't get booked for diving. They almost scored when Mason allowed them to play on in that phase instead of awarding us the free kick for the dive which would have been a complete travesty.

Palace were also dreadful when we played them away and Hull couldn't buy a win and they both beat us so not taking anything for granted. Certainly don't expect a 3 or 4 nil as Hull really aren't that bad these days. I expect us to win but I think it'll be close. 2-1 Saints I think.

If it is better for Stephens to gain experience than to play Caceres then why sign or pay him at all? If the logic is that we should be giving youngsters game time then surely Alfie Jones should be the replacement for Jack/Maya if they were to get injured? Unless, of course, the club actually worried we might get relegated when we brought Caceres in?

Thought we gave it a good go but ultimately you can't concede four goals away against the best team in the league and expect to get anything out of the game. An enjoyable enough game but it was, in my eyes, a bit of a procession for Chelsea in the second half but the last minute Bertrand goal gave the game a slightly fairer reflection (albeit at a time when Chelsea had almost completely switched off). I never really thought we were truly in the game as I expected Chelsea to click through the gears and go through us which ultimately they did. Souness made a good point in that we are easy on the eye but ultimately not too hard to play against. We aren't a very physical side and players like Davis and Stephens get outmuscled relatively easily by the top players. I can take losing and especially to a team like Chelsea but I thought that irrespective of how good they were we were pretty poor defensively - every time they came forward I thought that they were going to test us and with Fraser almost incapable of making saves we were always likely to be under a bit of pressure. The first goal especially was far far too easy for me. You can't give good players that much space. No disrespect to Maya and Stephens as I do think they've done a decent job in the circumstances but they just aren't good enough as a pair against top class players like Costa and Hazard (to be fair though, few can stop them when they are in the mood). We played some nice stuff going forward but we just aren't decisive enough and still don't take enough chances even with Gabbiadini. We can't expect him to score every game so we do need the others to chip in a bit more and I think we need to improve our finishing coaching ideally. I think this summer will be a bit of a cross roads for us because, although we as fans have been completely spoiled by our recent successes, it does feel as though we are on the decline. If we want to push on then we can't suffer another season of mass exodus and relatively slim investment - this season has shown how easy it is to get sucked in although thankfully we were never particularly close. We really have paid for a summer of poor business, the delay in getting Gabbi in (would have been excellent had he come in the summer and by all accounts we were in for him then as well) and the failure to replace Fonte once VVD was injured. If the club's ambition is to improve then we need to give Puel the tools he needs to make it work, at the moment he hasn't got them at the back and it really shows. Unfortunately I expect VVD and at least one significant other to leave (probably Cedric) so we'll have another grand redesign on our hands in defence at least.

Another poor performance. So weak in defence. Absolute procession for Chelsea but they are a top side and we are just nowhere near that level unfortunately.

Impossible to say without knowing what our window is going to look like. We could have a completely different team (especially defence) come the first game of next season. Assuming (and a big assumption) we have an ok window - top 8.

In my mind Koeman is the better of the two managers. However, he wouldn't sign a new contract and we had to get rid. I like Puel and I am interested to see what he can do with a full team next year. I fear that he will be totally undermined by another summer of sales and inadequate recruitment but that's another matter. I haven't been totally convinced by his tactics this season as we have played some pretty horrible stuff even with VVD and our top scorer Austin so don't see him as the 'world class manager' that many of the clappers do. I think he's a decent fit for us but I do slightly worry about squad morale as there have been rumblings of bust ups all season and Long's reaction on Saturday wasn't pretty at all.

Not good enough at the moment. Needs a big pre season.

Got to say manager got it wrong today.

Looked like a foul for the goal from where I was sitting but no mention of anything in the commentary.

He has looked ok in flashes. At the right price and with the right training you might be right but I haven't seen enough of him.