OnceaSaintalwaysaSaint

Mane scored 10 goals from 32 appearances in his first season with us and 15 goals in his second. Comparing him to Sulemana who has scored just twice for us in 45 appearances reinforces how truly shit he really is. As to Stewart, I'm not ruling him out but the first few weeks of the season will let us know what kind of impact we can expect from him. Che, Mara, Stewart with AA, Sule, Edozie, Sam AA needs reinforcement. If Che goes off to S.Arabia (can see Sule doing the same), we will almost certainly bring in someone new but please, not Ings.

Think we definitely signed the wrong winger from Rennes!

That brought a wry smile....just working out what's worse being a skate or being a journeyman. I think we'll be lucky to get Downes for £15m. W. Ham know what an impact he had for us when he wasn't eating raw chicken! Wee Man will come our way. We've got the the basis of a solid team and equally important, united team. I'm still hopeful we can find this elusive striker that's going to knock in 15 goals for us. That's all we'll need to stay up and then everything else is extra.

Yeah, there's a lot of luck and fine margins at this level. RM stumbled across a back three with Wee Man as one of the wing backs who was arguably man of the match at Wembley. Baz's injury forced RM to bring in McCarthy. Without those two developments, we'd probably still be in the Championship and baying for RM's blood. And it's not just Forest that are pretty poor in the premiership. I've got my rose-tinted glasses on and can see us surprising a lot of teams next year.

Thanks for the balanced perspective, S-Clarke. I just remember him being a knob. You knew he was joining as soon as his face was seen at Wembley. Think it'll turn out to be another Walcott signing. Uninspired, ineffective and are the players that got the team promoted really going to be encouraged by some has-been returning to a club for easy money? I doubt it.

Yes. Or in Europe. Surely there must be players out there who want to prove themselves in the Premiership who are not teenagers or over-the-hill returnees. It's up to our scouts to find them and the club to persuade them to join.

Don't disagree with this if only because it stops AA playing centre forward, but couldn't someone else play Che's role? I'd like to see us bring in someone new but if we don't, is Tall Paul worth a second go? I really don't want to see Mara in a Saints shirt again.

Yes we did struggle but I still think there was a defining moment in the whole season early on at Wolves. Earlier we'd beaten Leicester, the game before we'd beaten Chelsea and then in this game Che did the miss of all misses. Standing on the half way line we could only assume Che had fouled someone but to see that miss later was just incredible. It cost us 3 points, and I genuinely think with a win there, it would have given us the momentum to stay up. Ironic that Che could be going to Wolves. I didn't add Everton to the list, but Fulham aren't all that great also. I'm quietly confident that with a solid replacement for Che (not that I have any ideas), we'll be very competitive next season.

And the West Ham boys are pretty good negotiators, so I can't see Flynn Downes going cheap. Think those that suggest we need a striker, a goalkeeper, another central defender, a left back, a central midfielder and another right winger are going to be sorely disappointed. The focus seems to be on finding a striker. Domina hasn't come off but the club seems to recognise that we need someone instead of the man made of glass and Mara doesn't cut it and Che is likely to go. The club also seems to be sticking with Baz, so McCarthy gets a new contract and we find a stop gap here. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if we started the season with a back five and Wee Man at the back, so all in all, I can't see a lot of change this window. The good news is there's a lot of crap in the premier league. Aside from Leicester getting a points deduction and Ipswich coming unstuck, there's Notts Forest, Wolves, Brighton, Brentford, C.Palace who are all very mediocre and I think our current starting 11 would beat them.

With 10 months under his belt, Russell Martin is up to 6th longest serving manager in the Championship. The merry-go-round in this league goes even faster than the premier league. You would have thought staying up in their first year represents an achievement for Plymouth and the manager could have been given more time to consolidate their position in the league.

Speak as you find, but overall I think the club has handled this ticketing process very well. Was wondering if it was worth having the Saintsplus membership this year given how many away games didn't get past season ticket holders, but on Monday it was easy to get tickets for this game and they came through the post yesterday. All quite painless given the scale of the operation.

Agree. This really is a game for us to lose. Their press is not like a full on Leicester, it's got pretentious Summerville & Gnonto. We can play through that. We just need the player(s) to grasp the nettle when we play the passes behind. Who's it going to be - AA, Edozie?

That's the thing. It comes across that he's made of glass and from a distance, his legs look like they'll snap at the mildest of challenges. I'm hopeful that destiny will work out and he'll score a 97th minute winner at Wembley, but concerned that we won't see him in the final.

Best day out ever at St Marys. Got a bit too close to the Ted Bates statue early on so for a while, everything was just red smoke. Inside the Block 43 concourse, there was a Smallbone looky likey creating great banter and the atmosphere in the ground was superb. With regards to the team, you start to realise that with Stuart Armstrong out, Che out, Stewart out our attacking options are very limited. The defense were excellent, the midfield were excellent, Manuel Neuer in goal (apart from one moment) was excellent, but up front AA can't play in the centre. Reading back through this thread, I think Coalman spotted there were times when no-one was in the middle for the cross. But the gulf between 3rd/4th and 5th and 6th in this league showed in the end. They didn't have much to offer. Regarding the end, personally I don't object to people going on the pitch at the end of the season (last time I did it was Walsall), but you don't goad the away fans. That shows no class. Just like the knob that mooned the away fans. Funny maybe but I wish I has my old Enfield 303!

Really think we should do the same to W.Brom. We've Manuel Neuer in goal (hopefully he didn't just make a guest appearance last week!) so they're not scoring and we'll create sufficient chances to put a few away. 3-0 Saints. Question is, do we come on to the pitch to congratulate the players after the game? Leeds didn't today but we all know their support is very fickle!

I think it is a brainer. Arma has proved particularly useless in that middle role, so not too sure what the answer may be. Stewart to start with someone replacing him after 60 minutes? Just keep Mara away from the team. The way RM spoke about Che is a massive hint that he's not ready given he often downplays injuries.

Sod the light show. Word has it there's a big display planned outside St Marys to welcome the team buses. People on Twitter are bulk buying red pyro flares for it!!

I reckon they'll be pretty despondent not to come to St Marys with a win behind them. They are for the taking. Certain Che will play unless he's on crutches and even then, he would be better than Mara. Manning didn't do anything positive yesterday so I'm hoping Bree will replace him. Another concern is Joe Aribo. He runs out of puff every game after 60/70 minutes. Like Francis1947 said, by all means play the possession game and draw players out of position, but once you break the press, you have to move with purpose. Get Edozie/Fraser on from the start.

He's had a couple of poor games recently. He worked well with Bednerek when they were our centre back pairing but then if I recall, he played right back to cater for Jack S in the centre, and after that he doesn't seem to know whether his arse is punched or balled. I think it's another example of Jack S upsetting the balance at the back.

Should suit us then but once again, totally useless today. What's particularly frustrating is that he never breaks out of a jog. There were a couple of occasions today when a little more effort and he could have got to the ball first or put their player under pressure - but he didn't. I've also given up on him. Hope he doesn't play for us again.

Got to agree. Dull. Lack of ambition. No-one wanting to make a mistake. First leg playoffs don't have to be that way as shown by the League 2 games. And there's no way Mara was going to score, so 0-0 looked likely from the moment of team selection. Thought Downes was excellent. Macca was superb but other than that, there were a lot of average performances. Definitely our advantage but we'll need to show more ambition. Fuck the 'bravery' crap, 'ambition' is the key word.

You've got 15 years on me but even when I started watching Saints, the players were everyday Joes who you could meet in the pub or on the street. Nowadays there's that distance between the fans and the players. You watch them play and then they get in their fancy cars and disappear. Some look like they don't even give a toss about our club (eg ABK, Sulemana) and probably couldn't even point to Southampton on a map. So it goes two ways. We'll accept you when you win, but put in a shit performance and we will boo. But even if we don't get promoted this year and lose a lot of our squad, I still think we'll have enough quality to challenge for promotion again next year. That said, I hope we get through via the play offs.

Che evidently has an injury. AA absolutely cannot play no9. People have a memory of Mara playing quite well at West Brom, but that was because everyone kept chanting his name with that Allez, Allez song. He should be nowhere near the team. So do we chance Stewart? Sule played ok against Leeds. Think I would prefer Sule.

I've found these guys can be pretty good. Contrary to Bangkoksaint, I think if we get promoted, FD will join us and even if we don't get promoted our people should be working overtime to persuade him to stay. Our best loan signing by a country mile. He seems a bit fragile, and like one Saintsweb person said, he's no Kante, but he does a great job for us in midfield.

Apparently London Saints is a good one to join.