James

McQueen is arguably more of an attacking full back than Bertrand IMO. Think this game is too big for Stephens as he just hasn't had enough minutes. Need Bertrand's experience at CB and McQueen has played some pretty big games in his short career so won't be fazed. Think Puel will start Stephens though.

Would be more than happy with Jags in the short term.

His anticipation and timing was a bit off I thought. Went for the ball a few times and didn't get there and then mistimed a few headers. He's young and learning and that's to be expected. Will be a big test for him at Anfield as their players have such quick feet. That said, we didn't concede yesterday and he grew into the game so all in all a solid start but get the feeling we will have to be patient with him and expect a few mistakes early on.

Wish someone would put one on Vardy. Horrible little chav.

VVD in trouble here.

We must persevere with Hoj and JWP from now on. JWP giving us a goal threat and great set pieces and Hoj is much better at driving forward with it.

Exactly. He was third choice behind Yoshi even when fit. He had one good half away at Man U but his performance away at Sheff United still gives me nightmares...awful! The other point which I think makes fans rightly sceptical is that JRod was out for a similar length of time and he hasn't yet looked anything like being back to his best. We could afford to carry Jay a bit in some of his comeback games but you can't carry a centre back and, whilst Jay was brilliant pre injury, the jury was still out on Gardos.

Was talking about Puel vs Pellegrini not Koeman. Also, it was more a general point about outlay. Pellegrini would have cost significantly more in my mind as he wouldn't have been happy with our limited transfer activity so the club would have had to back MP in the transfer market as opposed to Puel who continually says he's happy with what we've got and uses our youth and other back up squad players.

Why is anyone surprised?!

Because, like it or not, season ticket holders make an upfront financial commitment to the club to buy a ticket for every home game. It's a guaranteed income stream that the club can count on (as opposed to walk up sales which are variable). Part of the season ticket package includes priority for away and cup tickets.

Agreed. As good a striker deal as we could have hoped for. Would much rather him than Gabbiadini whose record is pretty patchy and who will cost more most likely.

Part of the problem is that the club are almost boastful about how our preparation is second to none and how we have all the due diligence done in advance to deal with any situation. If you set your stall out like that you are bound to attract criticism when it unravels. For me, this is a return to the mid table Saints of old which, given I've had a season ticket for the last 20 years, doesn't bother me especially but it is a slightly painful realisation given what we've been spoiled with over recent seasons. I just lament a golden opportunity missed last summer when I thought that we would kick on from a position of extreme strength having worked extremely hard to give ourselves that opportunity.

Nail on the head. Decent, likeable player but no disguising that Fonte's departure has weakened us.

Stoke have just signed Berahino for £12m so deals are out there. At his best (and given our ability to improve players) he is clearly better than both JRod and Long.

Yes, I do understand that but you can't ignore that we receive the same amount of TV revenue as every other club and generate tens of millions from player sales every summer. We have made a net profit on transfers every year bar the year we returned to the Prem. We have to spend to keep pace with the teams around us. Teams like West Brom, Stoke and Palace are investing decent money in their squads on players they have confidence will do an immediate job. We are taking a big risk by gambling on young players who, at the moment, don't appear to be ready. I'm all for developing youngsters but it has to be balanced otherwise a duff season and you'll be relegated. We certainly aren't too good to go down in the next couple of years. We have built our reputation as being the "best of the rest" but this year we are risking that. Players like Hojberg and Boufal came to us because of our status as a good club outside the top 6 that played good football. We are putting both of those positives at risk this year.

Wasn't really old enough to appreciate what went on when we had Branfoot in charge (my first full season was the season after he left). Genuine question for anyone who knows but how long was the discontent for Branfoot simmering before it became an outright mutiny amongst fans?

Pellegrini. Reports that he was interested, track record of winning things, managed some of the biggest clubs in the world, would potentially have attracted top draw players and perhaps would have convinced some of our leavers to stay. No doubt I'll be shouted down and told Puel was a better fit for Saints but fact remains that he was relative unknown, had only managed in France. Did a decent job with Nice but they are now top of the French league which smacks of a Pearson/Ranieri situation at Leicester where the squad was clearly capable of more. In my opinion Pellegrini would have represented ambition and a desire to build on our position whereas Puel struck me as a bit of a cheap appointment. I'm not opposed to using the academy at all but in a big league where there is huge competition it needs to be supplemented with experienced buys that are ready to improve our first team straight away.

He is clearly better than Yoshida, Stephens or Gardos. Anyone who claims otherwise is doing the age old trick employed by Saints fans of claiming certain of our sold players are cr*p to justify the actions of the club.

It's not the sales per se, it's the lack of replacements or, when we do replace, doing it on the cheap. You can't sell lamb, replace it with mutton and expect to progress. When the first exodus happened when Poch left we at least brought in replacements but we aren't doing it this time and seem to be relying on existing squad players/youth. If this is the new direction then fine but you can't preach progress and not actually back it up with actions. Similar teams to us are investing in their squads but we aren't.

And to think that we started the summer from a position of immense strength having finished sixth. The writing was on the wall for me when Ron walked out and we (IMO) failed to bring in the best manager available to us. We've gone backwards, there's no doubt about that. Just hope that we can survive in the Prem this and next season.

What a surprise. Also Gardos comes back at an "interesting level"?! What does that even mean?

Wouldn't hold your breath for anyone decent. We might get a couple of loans in but don't see much else. Not sure why anyone expects Saints to spend now. They didn't do enough in the summer and we've never done much in January. I always think back to the first year under Koeman when we were well in with a shot of Champions League and all we did was get in Elia on loan. It was obvious that year we needed someone to take the heat of Pelle, we didnt, he stopped scoring and we duly finished 7th.

To be honest, when the game this is achieved is a woeful one nil that we've scraped past the Norwich B team at home it does take the shine off it a bit. Doesn't really prove these academy players are actually good enough does it?

Odd that we've strengthened one of the teams near us but decent deal on paper. Yet another window where we've sold before we've brought anyone in, really doesn't lift the atmosphere of gloom around the club at the moment. Lots for Les to do in the next week but won't hold my breath for him to deliver what he promised.

Stopped reading after "the sooner we get relegated". Moronic suggestion.