Wurzel

Seeing the reactions of the players at the end of both the Everton & Swansea games don't think we can ever again suggest they don't care. Clearly they are as one as a team and care about the club, if only the last two managers had been able to find a way of getting even half of that level of enthusiasm out of them. Got to keep Hughes for another season.

This. Totally agree with the above. Only cause for complaint was the ghost foul given against Redmond right in front of the lino ( who's facial expression showed that he didn't even consider for a second it might have been a foul) then letting them take the freekick from miles away. If that wasn't given they'd never have got back up our end.

That was my initial thought as well ...... then I remembered even if we do go down (which personally I now think is unlikely) we'll still be above them for another year at least. So mock away.

For a younger readers the Painted Wagon was a city centre pub. The blue few did not travel by horses drawn transport (Embarrassingly that's how I read it the first time)

That's true, even as a teenager stood on the Milton terraces in the mid 70s I seem to remember the same rumour going round virtually every time we played someone in blue. Never saw anything in the ground, outside may have been a different matter (but I doubt it) To be fair they'd have had trouble getting into The Dellin those days. It was cash on the day, turnstile operators would have been well trained in checking for webbed fingers when the money as handed over.

I'm writing off the Man City game ( although secretly hoping they'll be in holiday mode by then). For me tomorrow is the crunch day. The way I see it if we beat Bournemouth we will also beat Swansea and Everton. If we lose we won't get another point. So it's either 9 more points or zero more points, really can't see any other combination of results happening. And unfortunately even the optimistic 9 still leaves us depending on the results of others.

Relegation is irrelevant. Pretty much all of those points (probably with the exception of administration) need addressing if we manage to stay up as well. Up or down, next year isn't going to be pleasant without a few changes from bottom to top.

You mention Palace and ManUre. I was reading only yesterday about how good ManUre support was against Spuds on Saturday (which it was). They put it down to the club learning from what Palace had done at Wembley, i.e ensuring when selling their Wembley tickets that certain blocks (lower tier behind goal) were allocated as singing section. Better atmosphere, no right to moan if people are standing but far to difficult for our club to implement (if they even though about it, which I doubt).

2nd favourites for relegation back then? ....... Burnley !

That performance looked good enough to get points out of Leicester, B'mouth, Everton and Swansea. We ain't down yet.

That performance looked good enough to get points out of Leicester, B'mouth, Everton and Swansea. We ain't down yet.

But why would we do that (or any other team with players in same position)? Effectively suspend him ourself to avoid an imposed suspension that may never happens? Makes no sense. Yep, definitely want to see work horses not show ponies for the rest of this season. 'Tis our only hope.

For those of us hoping that by the time we play Man City they'll be concentrating on the ECL Final ....looks like Liverpool have dashed our (admittedly very slight ) hopes of an easy ride there ?

The previous manager bottled so many "must win" matches by setting us up not to lose them. Things are clearly different now.

Austin AND Gabbiadini up front in a 442 ! At least Hughes understands what trying to win a game means.

Being another in the 50+ brigade as well that's pretty much how I see it too. MLT at his best was amazing but too often we'd be playing with 10 men for 85 minutes of a game, when he'd suddenly decide to turn it on for 5 minutes and win a game on hIs own. Channon was not as spectacular but was more of a 90 minute team player (except for whenever he had money riding on a horse running during a game when he'd hog the touchline for a few minutes till the race was over ). MLT probably shades it in the context of the OP's question, i.e. best known for playing for us, but who was the best player? How can you compare but if I had to it would be Channon and his 46 England caps.

FFS you couldn't get it more wrong if you tried. The borrower who gave the charge is Southampton Football Club Ltd. Their only concern is the playing side of the club. They can't give a charge over the stadium as that is owned by a different limited company. They can't give a charge over the training ground, that is owned by yet another limited company. The catering is owned by , guess what, yet another limited company. And so on. Can't be arsed to look up all the different company names. Yes they are all owned by one umbrella company but one company can't give a charge over the assets of another. That is one of the reasons businesses split their affairs between separate companies. SFC Ltd can only give a charge over its own assets . The only assets that company has are the players and the guaranteed income from the PL. Nothing but a normal cashfliw enabling transaction.

BIB - Exactly this, except maybe a once a season "payday loan" is a more appropriate comparison than a mortgage as the funds borrowed are used for day to day running costs i.e player wages. player purchase etc and repaid from the club's "salary" - i.e. the already agreed and known amount of money to be received in installments rom the PL No way would an arrangement like that have been used to secure a £220m loan to buy the club. Now if we saw similar charges over stadium, training ground and everything else made at the time of the take-over we would have cause for concern.

Club before country. In a year when Player of the Season looks like it will be won by default more than earned, he deserves that prize for this decision alone.

Initial reaction was depends how many points we've earned before we play them in the league, but didn't realise there is only two games before that fixture and even two wins in the next too aren't enough. So definitely the league game. Think they're stuck in 5th so maybe they'd prefer the chance of a cup win, maybe a deal could be done

Strange retail you must be involved in, totally different to the one I've been in for near on 30 years. I can assure you the standard retail jargon for we are selling up are, in order Closing Down Sale Everything Must Go Last Week/Day Repossession Notice pinned to the door. Strangely the Standard retail jargon for closed for refurbishment is:- Closed for refurbishment

I remember when Nathaniel Clyne seemed to be sharing the RB slot with - ****, forgotten who it was now, Callum Chambers?? - we had a far superior points per game and number of clean sheets whenever Clyne was the one playing so I'll go for him

Is he the first to have an OBE?

Only Bertrand included in the England squad announced today. Thought JWP had an outside chance and McCarthy could count himself unlucky. But I'd prefer it if as few of our players as possible have nothing to concentrate on except staying up (and winning the FA Cup) for the next couple of months. Who in our squad is likely to be going to Russia for countries other than England?

1) I think he WILL keep us up. The main objective. 2) Don't think any of the other currently available candidates were are any more likely to keep us up than him. 3) Short term appointment with option to extend. Assuming he does keep us up I think he would have the current squad comfortably top 10 again next season, if he's allowed to make his own additions (wondering if title of Manager not coach indicates he may have more say than the last few on transfers - then he could get us back challenging top 8. 4) He''s been there, done that career wise, he's not going to be treating us as a stepping stone to better things. If any of the big boys were interested in him be at one of them by now. 5) He's been managing a while - is it 6th most games managed in the PL? - hopefully he still has a desire to win a trophy or two. 6) Whilst Pochetino and Koeman done well for us, for me he is more the sort of manager I associate with Saints. More of a Nicoll, Ball, Souness , Strachan type appointment. 7) All in all happy with his past record, happy with him, and if I'm wrong and it all goes tits up we can start afresh next season.