trousers

Cheers for the insights VFTT - appreciated. Out of curiosity, do you know whether it was a specific "straw that broke the camel's back" event around the time of the Huddersfield game that convinced the board to sell VvD in the January window (rather than wait until the end of the season, for example), or was it something they had been thinking of doing all along and the decision just happened to be rubber stamped around the time of the Huddersfield game? Cheers

Send a PM to one of the mods with your info. They will then be able to validate your info in due course when it comes true, which will then prevent any future 'abuse'. That's the best way of separating the genuine ITKs from those that make stuff up IMO.

Wouldn't surprise me

Nonsense. Your go

Mods - please can we have less of this pragmatism on the SaintWeb forum? I come on here for the knee jerk reactionary stuff and posts like this are most disconcerting. Thanks

I'd stick with McQueen. Thought he had a good game yesterday and had a bit more enthusiasm about him compared to Bertrand in recent times. IMO, we need to create a vibe of having to win back your place in the team rather than players feeling entitled to being first choice. Let's create some healthy competition for places and ramp up the desire to play for the team.

Because he went through a mediocre spell in the autumn?

Just got back to the hotel. Massive improvement in both attitude and performance. We had chances to sneak the win and it wouldn't have been undeserved if we had. Hojbjerg my MotM. The only negative for me was that our subs seemed more off the pace than the players who had been on the pitch all game. Long chases everything whereas Gabbi and Redmond give up the chase most times. And Lemina was sloppy when he came on. And a special shout out to McCarthy who was confident in goal and that seemed to rub off on the defenders. Has to be our first choice now for the foreseeable future IMO. Shame that we probably won't start with the same 11 vs Palace (due to certain players being knackered?), as that line up deserves another crack of the whip. Here's hoping we don't take our foot off the pedal vs Palace.

I didn't mean it as a criticism per se. Was just wondering (out loud on an internet football forum) what would have happened if we'd said to Liverpool: "Ok, go on then, you can have him but the deal happens in the 2nd week of January (for example) to give us time to negotiate deals on a couple of players we're looking at bringing in without alerting their current clubs to us having £75m to play with". I was just speculating that, giving how desperate Liverpool appear to sign him, would they really have turned around and said: "no, bugger off, it's 1st Jan or nothing"? I would venture that would hardly have been the response of a club desperate to sign him. That said, perhaps I'm just being naive (as well as "ridiculous"...). First time for everything

The only blessing is that we don't have anyone with Durham's wind-up abilities on this forum...

You've got to grudgingly admire him though. It sets out to get a reaction and... lo and behold... He gets reactions. Mission accomplished.

Chomp chomp chomp (Me included)

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Tick

I wonder how the Telegraph got hold of the story...? It just seems odd that the one newspaper that we seemingly feed stories to (via Jeremy Wilson) is the very same paper that breaks the story 'early'.... something doesn't add up....

Whilst it could be said that the article is poorly written and/or targetting the wrong man, there is some credence in the underlying point being made IMO. We do seem to have gone from a club that regularly sung facets of the 'Southampton Story' from the rooftops to a club that now keeps things closer to its chest. Whether that's got more to do with our new owner coming on board and Katharina taking a back seat, or its more to do with our poor form this season, who knows? Or, it might just be a coincidence or just a mis-perception on my behalf.

Yay! Saintsweb's first troll in c.2 years....

I know this has probably been asked hundreds of times before but I can't be arsed to search back through the forum to find out (Honesty is sometimes the best policy....!) What are the best pubs for away fans, both in the city centre during the afternoon and closer to the stadium nearer match time? Cheers!

If we believe what we've been told in the past (ok, ok.... stop the tittering at the back), don't we already have succession plans in place for every post at every level within the club, which would include Reed's position?

Agree with this. What was stopping us saying to Liverpool: "ok, he's yours for £75m, but on the condition that nothing is disclosed / announced until we've got our signings done and dusted"? Surely, given how desperate they were to sign him, we were in the driving seat?

Any danger of answering his specific question rather than skirting around it...?

Really? Since when? I've always believed this is a forum based on fact and insightful observation rather than wild agenda laden speculation and guesswork... Next you'll be telling me this isn't the only forum on the internet without any trolls....

Given I don't know enough about what has been/is going on behind the scenes, I'll have to abstain.

Walcott has always stated his favourite position is as an out and out centre forward, and has previously expressed his frustration at having to play deeper/wider positions for Arsenal. So, one would assume if he comes here it'll be as our first choice centre forward IMO.