Pat from Poole

As I've just said on the Ugly site, it all depends on how many more injuries we get, as the squad is so wafer-thin. I fear we will be goners if Lambert gets a serious injury, I simply don't think we'd get the wins we need if we were without him.

Heck no. Chris Marsden Football Genius, however........

Stepping stone and all that....... As he admitted himself, he's mainly here for the money. If we go down, he goes. If we just about stay up, he won't be up for another year of struggle near the bottom of the League. Cortese probably told him we'd be in the top six this season.

Given that the chances of Ramirez still being a Saints player next season are practically zero, I'd be inclined to suggest we should be more concerned about maximising our use of Lambert. I would happily sell Ramirez tomorrow if anybody offered us £12 million.

He's a brilliant keeper. Definitely one of Wigan's main reasons for potentially staying up. Really rate him. Wigan would want top wedge for him.

How is he better than Rodriguez???

I'd happily sell Ramirez in the January window if it funded the purchase of Brad Friedel and two proper solid centre-backs. Lambert is by an absolute mile the most important player at the club, far more so than Ramirez.

Ironic or not, you are right.

The best parody account by an absolute mile is WengerKnowsBest. Very funny. As noted above, NotBigSam is also very good.

Agreed.

I despise Redknapp with a passion, though admittedly he does do quite a lot of charity work in Poole and Bournemouth.

My favourite goal of his was the equaliser in the FA Cup game against Cheats which we lost as Cheats had a number of players they should not have been allowed to sign. The roar and mental celebrations were up there with anything I've ever been involved in as a Saints fan. He's a top player though, we'll only really appreciate him when he isn't around.

There's a massive difference in skill and all-round awareness between KEN~!!! and Lambert. Not to mention character and loyalty to the cause etc.

Manji was / is madly in love with Rupert Lowe, so will be derogatory about anybody who was complimentary about Michael Wilde, usually deeming them as not very perceptive, or some such equally condescending put-down.

Dream on. A player with Lambert's attributes PLUS pace would be worth over £30 million.

Lambert would definitely be snapped up by a Prem club if we go down. Which would be a massive miss for us, as he would get 25 goals next season in the Championship.

I always thought Dickson was a decent player, certainly better than Harding. He was one of our real contributors in our promotion run-in two seasons ago. That cross he put over for Lambert at Leyton Orient was just fantastic; also scored the crucial 2nd goal at Plymouth which effectively sealed promotion. Have never understood why he hasn't been given more of a chance.

People who eat during a game baffle me.

That's interesting, and I guess could partly explain how difficult Saints have found it to sign players in this last transfer window, if potential recruits didn't think they might be getting much in bonuses.

I wonder what Villa fans do if there's a goal scored in the 19th minute. If they score it, do they refuse to celebrate and just carry on clapping? Or if they concede the goal, rather than berating their own players, do they just carry on clapping? The opposition would surely be humbled by such polite appreciation of their goal.

Gary Neville may be an insightful pundit, but I'm not convinced he's all that as a defensive coach. Certainly, some of England's defending since Hodgson got the gig hasn't been all that great. Sweden's two goals against us at Euro 2012 were embarrassing, and the Ukraine game last week again was dicey defensively at times, particularly down our right-side, as it happens.

Darren Kenton? Wonder what happened to him.

Les Reed will be the next manager.

I think he looked absolute class, albeit not the right-sided midfielder we were in need of. So we may well be stuck with Puncheon until January by the look of it.

I think the best away Saints support I've ever witnessed was on a snowy Tuesday night in West Brom, the game when Prutton missed a sitter in the Redknapp relegation season. We had about 3,000 up there, and made a non-stop racket all night, though in hindsight I wish we hadn't sung "Harry & Jim are Red and White" for about half-an-hour.