trousers

Belarus 0 Sweden 2 (24 mins) Not what the Dutch (and us re: one of VvD's incentives to get back in the fold at Saints) wanted

Belarus 0 Sweden 1 (18 mins) Netherlands back to 3 points behind Sweden

Netherlands 1 Bulgaria 0 (8 mins) Netherlands currently 1 point behind second place Sweden as things stand.

Hoedt in the starting 11 for today's game Vs Bulgaria

Bertie!! Smile FFS!

This has got 0-0 written all over it

...

Boufal should be starting games IMO. We payed a club record (at the time) for a creative player and we're crying out for creativity. Yes, he can be frustrating but that's possibly due to a lack of consistent game time. Chicken and egg.

Bertrand looks as hacked off playing for England as he does when he plays for us!

How do you know he was "disillusioned" at Saints? It might just be about different degrees of 'happiness'. I'd be happy with a 4 star hotel but even happier with a 5 star hotel. Or something.

I had one eye on the France v Holland game last night. There wasn't much, if anything, Hoedt could have done about the first 3 goals IMO (indeed, for the middle two goals the play leading up to them wasn't even in his vicinity IIRC). Yes, he got turned inside out for the 4th goal, but I'd like to see a defender that Mbappe wouldn't have skinned with the skill he exhibited there. Didn't come away from the game worried about Hoedt's performance. It wasn't great, but it wasn't dreadful. IMO. I'm certainly not going to judge him on one performance in a Dutch side who were very poor overall.

Maybe he's gone to find Tartan Owl to compare notes....?

Please accept my apologies for attempting lighthearted banter on an internet football forum

I'd throw VvD straight back into the starting 11. Coutinho played for Brazil last night despite being 'injured' and not match fit. VvD strikes me as one of those athletes that wouldn't need to spend as much time 'getting up to match speed' as other players. And the longer we leave him out the longer any discord will fester.

Possibly not, but that could have been down to the hard-nosed approach that our board adopted throughout the window, so, whether we received offers or not, it could be argued our board played a blinder.

Fair enough. I was just echoing Morgan's account of his reintegration into the team: http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2014/10/07/schneiderlin-this-was-the-moment-i-knew-i-was-staying-at-southam/ “I played against Liverpool at Anfield and all the Southampton fans applauded me and chanted my name. It was so heart-warming. I knew then I would spend the whole season at Southampton."

IMO, that would be 'cutting off nose to spite face' territory. When Schneiderlin was interviewed after his throwing toys out of pram episode, he said one of the main things that made him knuckle down and have a good season was the good reaction he got from the Saints fans at his first game back in the fold away at Liverpool. If VvD senses a hostile atmosphere towards him from Saints fans it's hardly going to help with his reintegration. If we want to maximise the chances of him having a good season then we're going to have to bite the bullet and give him an encouraging 'let bygones be bygones' welcome back. Just my opinion.

That's a fair 'small picture' point of view but, as Jimmy_D says, there are potentially consequential benefits if we look at the bigger picture.

Actually, given how conniving Liverpool and VvD's agent are, I'm surprised they didn't actually think of this idea to bypass our desire not to deal with Liverpool!

The Saints twitter feed is surprisingly quiet tonight. In the past, when our business is done, haven't they usually posted a few insignificant tweets around this time on deadline day to keep people on their toes...? #clutchingatstrawsforonemoreincoming

Time to put a few bob on the French for the World Cup I reckon (yes, the Dutch have been poor but France have got a glut of talent up front)

4-0 Hoedt turned inside out for that one

France 3 Netherlands 0 French counter attack... nothing Hoedt could do about it.