James

Would definitely take him as he's an upgrade to Clasie and arguably to Davis too. As others have said though, not really the kind of signing we make so I'd be surprised.

Completely disagree.

IMO he should have stopped it. Beaten at his near post and did get down to it.

I think these companies have been incorporated by Norton Rose, a city law firm who are likely acting for them in this, if the registered address is anything to go by. If that's right then they are certainly quite far into looking at some kind of acquisition. You wouldn't normally bother incorporating a new company to make an acquisition unless you were relatively deep into negotiations. Doesn't mean it'll definitely happen though.

JRod needs to go on loan. We can't afford to give him the game time he needs here.

Should never have started with JRod. Disallowed goal aside he was dreadful. Too many changes from Puel for me when we likely lose to City in any event. Good performance and should have won but a lot of what ifs given our best striker started on the bench. Still, nothing the manager can do about all those missed chances. Onto the next!

Agree with what you say about being bothered about supporting Saints no matter where we are. My point is more that whole point of gaining promotions from lower leagues and progressing up the football pyramid is so that the fans and the team can enjoy occasions like this. Sure it isn't as significant a game as, say, Everton at home where we beat relegation on the final day but it is a huge landmark in terms of what we've achieved as a club over the last 6-7 years. But take the point that its more an landmark occasion to be savored than a crucial game in and of itself.

If you can't get excited or giddy about playing away to one of Europe's biggest clubs then why bother following a team like Saints at all? The whole point about striving for improvement in the league and winning cups etc. is because the reward is a game like the one on Thursday. Realistically we won't win the league or regularly qualify for top level European competition so games like this are likely to be as good as it gets. A cup win would be bigger but again those come along once in a blue moon. I take the point that the promotion games were vital in getting us to where we are now but Thursday is clearly one of our most high profile games ever and an important moment in our history.

Yep - imagine there will be a fair few Saints on that one. Back Sunday afternoon to make a proper weekend of it!

Wouldn't have taken Long off. Redmond proving to be undroppable in league games.

Exactly it. Should never have been put in this position. You can't persevere with stupid experiments like this in the Premier League.

Shame that being easy on the eye doesn't win games, goals do and this team doesn't have any in it.

Redmond experiment has to stop. He's a championship winger playing up front for a top half Premier League team. What on earth must Austin be thinking on the bench?!

Redmond is cr*p. Austin please. Absolute disgrace to miss that. Absolute disgrace.

The fact that Puel sees Redmond as a guaranteed starter up front seriously hampers us IMO.

Very odd selection given how well we played on Thursday. Our two best performers from that game on the bench.

We definitely did in the second half when Long came on.

Typical big club bias. Fans were baying for blood at our supposed time wasting so you could see him itching to give the penalty. Completely robbed.

This forum really is becoming a bit of a joke. If people don't agree with an opinion they just start dishing the insults. Completely unnecessary.

This is my biggest fear. Would destroy our season if it happened. Hopefully we have all been reading too much into it.

True. I do think it's a pretty big coup for a club like Bournemouth though.

Agree completely with the first couple of lines, sums up my feelings on the summer perfectly. Well put.

Agreed. When you look at some of the fees being thrown around it really doesn't mean very much.

They've made a pretty ambitious signing relative to their station. You could say we've done the same with Boufal.

We are one injury away from Yoshida getting an extended run in the side. Injuries to any one of Fonte, VVD and, to a lesser extent, Hojberg would really test us. Agree that it's a risk that we haven't signed one more just got to hope we've got enough in the tank until January if things get desperate. Easy to see the squad being stretched quite thinly between now and Christmas.