Professor

Very relieved that Prowse and Ings weren’t involved in such embarrassing management failure. Any competent manager would select the player available to him who is currently the highest goal scorer in club football. Having selected Ings for the Wales game, Southgate then played him out of position and despite the brilliant bicycle kick goal, ignored him for the competitive game. Our club should tell England not to call up our players when they are clearly just being used as makeweights.

Improved like Liverpool have? Or Man City? Buying players for a lot of money did buy success but there's no guarantee that it always works or that it lasts. We can all think of highly priced players who have flopped. We can expect that some of this month's big buys will do the same. Southampton know this only too with some the costly purchases the club have subsequently struggled to move out. We have the advantage of a settled and successful team from the post lock-down period still in place but with more strength in depth. Even the transfer of Hojberg doesn't affect that because he'd already been dropped for lack of commitment to the club.

What is the Salisu mystery? It was reported that his squad number is 22 and it's been said that he's working to get up to speed with Saints' way of playing. Is there anything more?

Van Dijk left an unpleasant taste by the way he engineered the breaking of his saints’ contract. He didn’t look too happy today after leaking 7 goals against a team that was nearly relegated a few months ago.

With Burnley having to field such a weakened team anything other than a win would have been a disaster but we had to rely on luck to get it. Of course, the goal was quality but even that came from a piece of desperate defending that started the move, rather than being the culmination of possession and control. Burnley were very unlucky not to get a goal from their various attempts on target. If they'd had a few more first choice players on the field you have to assume it would have been a different result. Ralph has said he needs three signings but implies he might only be given one or two. This start to the season shows just how important it is that the club signs three players better then the ones who are being patched into the side at the moment. The fact that the one signing made isn't even ready to be on the bench makes our recruitment look questionable.

I'm with those who find the advertising of a betting company thoroughly distasteful. Unfortunately, I can't protest by not buying a shirt because I already don't buy the annual rip-off of yet another replica shirt. The changing of the shirt every year is making fans a laughing stock as they allow their pockets to be picked.

The shirt having Chinese characters on it that Hampshire people can't read felt odd at first for a team based in Southampton, but it's a reminder that the Premier League is a competition between international companies using the names and colours of what used to be English football clubs.. As fans, we are here to finance the gravy train by being encouraged to pay for TV packages; through match day fees and by buying merchandise, including overpriced shirts. Unfortunately football is a drug that we get addicted to. We carry on paying, even when we don't like who owns our club or how it is run. Am I right in thinking that no German club could be Chinese owned?

One name I haven't seen mentioned is Callum Slattery. Was on loan to De Graafschap in the Eerste Divisie, the German second tier side. The season there ended early due to COVID-19 and back in Southampton, Slattery signed a 2-year contract extension to June 2022. Now aged 21, if he is to fulfil his early promise, this would be the season for him to make his mark. if he is in the frame, an indication would be to see him training with the first team.

I agree that he was in the side as DFM but when you look at our GA record with Pierre in the side, it wasn't that good, even excluding the 9-0. Hard to recall previously selling a player for a fee of this kind that has been so welcomed by so many fans. It's not that PEH wasn't liked but just that for that sort of fee you'd expect more of a stand-out kind of player.

It seems to me that Hojbrg not being in the Saints' team hasn't weakened the side at all. The way is now open for other players to out perform Hojberg's record. As far as goal scoring goes, 4 goals in four seasons and 3 seasons without out scoring at all, doesn't exactly set a high bar. I can't work out how the player is worth the fee that has been agreed. Walker-Peters, on the other hand, has demonstrated how good a player he is by his performances and speed in the 10-game sub-season after the restart. I was concerned that Spurs would cotton-on the what they were losing and hike their price, or even withdraw KWP from sale. To exchange those two players with money left over to put towards the Salisu purchase seems an extremely good deal and I imagine he recruitment department are feeling justifiably satisfied.

If Hojberg scores as many goals for Spurs as he has for us, Saints fans will be very pleased.

At least I haven't seen anyone post "Has he signed yet?" Oh Sh!t, someone has.........

An opinion, more than one actually. The Away kit is awful and has no relationship to Southampton at all. The 'sash' is just a way of having a year off from some version of a proper Southampton shirt after which they can announce 'The Stripes are Back' next year and bank another load of your cash.. It's hard to understand why on earth do fans fall for this rubbish every year. It's like handing your wallet to a pic-pocket so they don't have to bother dipping their hand in your pocket. Players are paid eye-watering sums of money, more in a week than many fans earn in a year, yet clubs fleece their supporters with faked up annual shirts sold at hugely marked-up prices. There is a solution, and it's in the hands of the fans themselves.

Could someone just remind me how many goals this star player of ours scored in the season just ended?

Good case of when you're in a hole keep digging. Missing the point made by other responders who've explained that the quality of outfield play in different leagues is not relevant to shot stopping. Forster showed he has quality by getting into the England team but he let that slip, hence the loss of his place with Saints His performances at Celtic suggest he's playing better again. It's now for the goalkeeper coaching staff to advise the manager on whether he's a better number 2, than Angus Gunn.

Is Kevin Keegan still working behind the bar?

The team that finished the season - the 10 games after the restart - was 3rd in the table for that period, so Yes, you would not change it TOO much. But if the premise of the question is that too much change is proposed, I'd question that premise. Let's also bear in mind that not every player in the squad featured in the team that played the final ten games, The potential changes to personnel are well documented. A new, quality, CB, with Salkisu the prime target would strengthen the team. Replacing Hojberg at CMF is necessary but actually took place during those ten games with Romeu and Smallbone both performing very effectively. The weakness at RB was quickly solved by KWP, hence the negotiations to sign him, or a suitable replacement, using the Hojberg money. The rest of the outfield looks fine, particularly with injured players expected to return to fitness there may be additions from the Academy ready to step up, for example we will see if Slattery returns from loan more likely to fulfil his potential. There seem to be two answers to Jeremy's question, (1) change the squad when forced to do so, and (2) strengthen when you can.

My first reaction was that it would be worth having Lallana back on a free transfer. I don't go along with the idea that football players should forgo the chance to accumulate the sort of wealth most people can only dream about, by playing for another team. Fans have loyalty to clubs but it doesn't cost us anything whereas loyalty could cost players a fortune. If Pompy offered Saints' fans a 100K annual salary to attend all their football matches, not many Saints fans would refuse, and that's a lot less money than entices players to move clubs. But on second thoughts, I'm not sure Lallana is right for Southampton now. He's a player on the way down. If there's a space in the squad, I'd rather see it taken by an Academy player.

If the story in The Echo is correct - that Hojberg has agreed to go Everton for £25m - that's certainly more than I expected. If his aim was to sign for one of the top six, he seems to have missed the target, something that he does too often on the field. .

This mini season post lockdown has given us so much pleasure. When it was announced, a few weeks ago, I felt very negative about. As far as I was concerned, the season was already and a handful of matches squeezed together without any spectators didn't feel to me as if it would be worth following. Obviously, I couldn't have been more wrong. This has been one of the best periods in which to be Saints' fan since promotion. But to make that feel absolutely true, we do need to win on Sunday. I don't see the Brighton result as the return of the home jinx, because the performance had to be affected by the five line-up changes. The team is on form and I feel confident they will win by at least two goals. Although Ralph said what he liked most about the Bournemouth match was the clean sheet, I'd like to see one change in the final game, which is to play Angus Gunn. Although McCarthy has made some good saves, he's also shown some weaknesses in gathering the ball and in distribution. I'd also stick with Long as he's more likely to create chances for Danny Ings.

Watching the highlights, it's mentioned that the VAR decision on the penalty took a minute and a half before the ref received the instruction in his ear-piece and stopped play for the penalty to be taken. Does anyone know what happens to that lost time? Would a minute and a half have been added to the playing time at the end of 90 minutes? With the controversy over VAR, I wonder what would happen if there were to be a significant second incident while VAR was assessing the first one. Would a goal; be disallowed, or a sending-off rescinded? Presumably these possibilities have been considered but when such an event occurs in a packed stadium, I wonder what the consequences might be.

We do have something to pay for, the thing that premier league football is all about - MONEY. With each place in the league table worth about £2m difference in prize money we have a £6m incentive to finish 11th instead of 14th. But for me, even more important are the bragging rights from being the top club on the South Coast. Both Brighton and Boscombe have challenged us in recent years and while it's good having them in the Premier League (sadly, not much longer for Bournemouth), we need to win tonight to keep the Albion their place!

I agree although Ralph's mention of younger lads might mean a start for Vokins as well. Obefemi looks nailed on to start but I'd have him or Long instead of Adams anyway. Great as the goal against Man City was, the circumstances were exceptional. Sadly, I think the club should give up on Che and maybe give Dan N'Lundulu his chance off the bench.

About the penalty, JWP has gone down a notch in my estimation, not that this will bother anyone. One of the commentators said that he was already going down before he made contact with the defender. The highlights confirm that and so does the reappraisal by the PL. Diving is cheating and Saints players should be above that. I'm proud of my team when they win by playing football, not when they get a result by cheating. I'm pleased that the penalty was missed but there was another reason to disparage Ward-Prowse over the incident. Having been given the penalty he should have asked Danny Ings to take it., not only because Ings is our top striker by a mile but because another goal would help him towards the Golden Boot. Instead, having got the penalty by unfair means, Ward-Prowse then showed his selfish streak by taking it himself. The miss, and the shame that will carry in the minds of the players, has damaged his reputation,, in my eyes if no others.

Could be changes to the line-up just because Sunday to Thursday is a short recovery period, and there may be players needing to recover from knocks. On the other hand, some players not available for the City game could be back in the reckoning. With two games next week to prepare some rotation seems likely.