Professor

Anyone who disapprove of Billy Sharp not accepting a reduction in pay to play in the Championship is really only qualified to criticise him if prepared to see their own income cut by 50%. So he is doing absolutely the right thing to wait until a loan agreement is made that protects his contract. At the same time, Championship clubs are understandably not willing to pay Premier League wages for a player in the second tier. This has the feel of brinkmanship all round and I suspect an agreement will be made that will see SFC continuing to pay part of Sharp's wages. It is in the clubs interests to have him playing and performing well, as that way they might eventually recoup some of the fee (was it £1.8m?) that was paid for him.

Think I have the initials correct. In the Saints Player interview with Harrison Reed, FH walks past the goal in training kit, clearly taking an interest in the practice match under way. I have every respect for professional women working in a largely masculine environment as they must usually be extra strong characters in addition to technical ability. Does anyone know if FH does have a professional role at the club and who she is?

Rickie did well but was let down by the poor midfield support and lack of crosses. Even at corners they allowed him to be crowded out by not having enough players forward. Suspect Hodgson was out for a draw all along but he was lucky to get it. Anyone know why Wilshire is considered to be adequate for England? Couldn't see it myself.

Just to explain my criticism - and sorry if words such as grandmother, eggs and suck come to mind - The Premier League is largely populated by teams packed with full international players, none more so than the top 4 or 5 clubs. There was a time when international football was a step up from Division One of the Football League and even from the Premiership in its early days, but that is no longer the case. For Rickie to play against The Ukraine is no different to playing against Man City. It could be argued that he has a stronger team around him, although it could be debateable whether the England side is stronger than the Southampton team, given the international players now in the Saints' side. I simply disagree with the Mail writer that Rickie will face any stronger test tonight than he does in the Premier League against the likes of Chelsea, Man U, Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, etc, etc...

Amused to read Martin Samuel in The Mail Online saying "Lambert’s movement and reading of the game will be tested like never before at international level." I suppose Samuel would never believe that a striker playing his first Premier League game for a club promoted as runners-up from the Championship, could come off the bench against the League Champions at their ground and score an equalising goal against a defence stuffed with international players. Just couldn't happen. Could it?

I know I've helped it along, but 12 pages on a striker who isn't playing is quite remarkable. I suppose its partly because of this surplus of ex-championship strikers clogging up the payroll - not just Billy Sharp but Tadanari Lee and Lee Barnard. Getting Mayuka out on loan was a help but discussing how the club should act towards Sharp leaves the same question over the other two. Even though Chung now has a squad number, there's no indication yet that the club needs to play him.

Probably thinking of 'restraint of trade' but Saints are not restraining Sharp as he is on a contract to the club and is being paid, quite generously it would seem. The contract will not include any obligation to select him ahead of other players. It is understandable that he won't take a pay cut when he has so long left on his contract. If he went down from £18,000 to say, £10,000 and if he still has 2 years to go, that pay cut would cost him close to £1m. Might not earn that much in the rest of his career. Although he did well for us in the run up to promotion, two sets of coaching staff must have good reasons for their assessments and its hard to see him competing with Osvaldo and Rickie, or JayRod come to that, whilst we also have younger strikers with more of a future than Sharp. Unless the club decides to cut their losses by subsiding his wages we could have him here until the end of his contract and get nothing back towards his original fee. Saw somewhere that the club is entitled to £3m from the Bale transfer for developing him as a young player, so maybe there could be some unexpected money that could be used to offload Sharp.

I used to go to Mick Channon's place of work quite regularly; and Kevin Keegan's; and Matt Le Tiss'; and Barry Horne's; and........

In the pic where Rickie is taking his free kick for Bristol Rovers against Saints, our defenders look more like a Sunday League side. Very glad things have moved on - and that Rickie moved on with us.

Jesus said the team doesn't play in fixed positions but from positions. I take that to mean that any player can move out to the wing and interchange. Lovren in the Norwich penalty area seemed a good example if playing from a position.

This window shows that however well our Academy players do - and maybe there will be another Bale amongst them, when you come to topping up the squad with recognised internationals you have to be ready to spend well above the sums we've spent this year if you intend to be a serious competitor at the top of the Prem. Its far to early to judge how good our three buys will turn out to be, although Lovren particularly looks like a real gem. Wanyama and Osvaldo will do well for us but we aren't yet in the league of signing players for £30m each which is the ball park figure for the top 5 or 6 sides. Our squad feels OK and I'll be surprised if we don't finish in the top half this season but the step up to Europe will need something more when you look at the opposition. Pochettino looks to be taking one step at a time and we fans will be with him all the way.

Agree with MOG that Mr Blakey is entitled to of his own opinion and to of every right to express it but I do regret that he confuses the preposition 'of' with the word 'have'. It's 'wouldn't HAVE minded' the past participle of the verb To Have.

Had the penalty been awarded with Rickie putting it away, ands had Lallana's volley that hit the post been a couple of inches to the right we could have won that game.......but that would have been a travesty of justice to Norwich who passed better, controlled the ball better and were the more threatening side. It's no good complaining about referees or bad luck if you don't have the best team on the park, because unless you are the best team you will lose more games than you'll win. There are reasons, or excuses, for not scoring goals from open play and Osvaldo has to fit into the team, but the worry is that this team may not be as good as we thought it was. Another 2 or 3 games from now and we'll have a better idea as it is still early days and 2 of the 3 games have been away from home.

To blame Fox, you must be watching a different game. It was Chambers who failed to make the tackle or block that led to the goal.

If you've been watching this on a live stream, which team has had the edge? Its looked like Norwich all the way. Still possible to get a goal back but it would be against the run of play.

GK being a unique position is one where you can't give an understudy the occasional game, or bring them off the bench, as you can outfield players. Our two understudies are reasonable standard and Kelvin, of course, very experienced. There will be the usual last day flurry of moves so it would be surprising if none of our players are involved. Hopefully some of those without squad numbers moving on. Whether we bring in a winger seems to depend on an adequate player becoming available but as you can only play another forward at the expense of one of the 7 or 8 attacking MF or Strikers we already have, its understandable if Pochettino doesn't see it as essential.

D'accord mon ami. Avec langue est très important de dire la bonne chose. Allez les Saints!

Top clubs do not stay top clubs by having a first 11 and 11 reserves. We need Cork and he will get time on the pitch over the season as injuries and suspensions occur and as different combinations are used to win particular games. Even today, he could start the side at Norwich if Schneiderlin's injury hasn't cleared up. With the club's stated aim of European competition, the whole squad is important, not a 'first choice' 11. In my opinion it's not a matter of how much Fulham might offer, because Jack Cork's value to Southampton is as a player, not as a way of putting money in the bank.

Why change a winning team? Boruc Chambers Fonte Lovren Shaw Morgan Wanyama Lallana Ward-Prowse Gaston Lambert Oh! Hang on! They didn't win did they? But that was because the defence let a goal in, but there's no clamour to alter the defence, of defensive MF so the only change is whether there would be more goal threat by playing Osvaldo, which is what he was bought for. So who drops out to bring him in? Rickie because he's the current main striker? No, Rickie tends to play deeper so having Osvaldo up front would work with Rickie just behind him. JWP because he's youngest? No, he's too good to drop. Gaston, because he can be inconsistent? Maybe Lallana, because his finishing isn't sharp enough? Maybe So. I hope MP plays Osvaldo from the start and my guess is that is will be Gaston who moves to the bench but likely to come on during the game.

I have a prediction for 'Lawro'. Lawrenson will be sacked by the BBC at the end of the season and this time next year he'll be forgotten.

If we do go for him, surely it would be better to buy rather than loan. Loans between Prem clubs are anti-competitive with the player not able to play against his primary club. If Moses was here, I'd want to see him against Chelsea.

If we could have a self-service salad bar along with fruit juices available before KO, I might even risk football ground food but not impressed by the standard fare usually on offer at inflated prices. Who provides the burgers doesn't really seem an improvement.

Home to Man U would be nice. Good test and if MP selects a strong team, we can put out a side that will be more interested in the Champions League. Winning a game like that would do a lot to raise Saints' profile, which is on the up anyway. We could almost be compared with Cardiff.

Just looking at the BBC Text commentary - as well as listening in Radio Solent. BBC text has Possession as Barnsley 51% to Saints 49%, which seems a bit odd given that it also has Saints on 12 shots to Barnsley's 1 and Saints 7 corners to Barnsley's 1. How reliable is that possession figure? BTW, Who would prefer to have Adkins here now, looking at Reading's performance on goals and bookings?

Rule 11 says:- A player is in an offside position if: •he is nearer to his opponents' goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent How does that deal with arms, a foot or any other body part if the player himself is not nearer the goal? This wording also makes being level, onside, since if level a player is not nearer the goal line. But if players are level, both are likely to have a part of their body nearer the goal line than the other. To be absolutely level in respect of every part of the body is virtually impossible. If a referee or assistant treats a player as offside due to a hand or a foot, or a shoulder, that has been stretched beyond any part of the opponents body, how is that consistent with the wording of the rule? We hear a lot about players being level but if you adopt the 'any part of the body' interpretation, being 'level' would be virtually impossible. The decision by yesterday's assistant would seem to exclude the possibility of players ever being judged level so I wonder if the Assistant simply got it wrong because JRod was moving past the defender and it was speed that beat the Assistant. If you go for that, then a goal was wrongly disallowed. As Chapel End Charlie has said, the judgement is almost impossible to make in such tight situations but it does seem right to give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker as there is no unfair play in the attacker having just part of his body beyond the defender when he still has to run past him.