Matthew Le God

Define exactly what you mean by "average Premier League player"? That is a very wishy washy phrase. I think you are significantly underrating his ability and some comments in this thread are reminiscent of the Wotton/Schneiderlin thread.

:mcinnes: Nope, 9th after Saints have played 29 games. Plus have key players like van Dijk & Austin missing for a significant time.

In Southampton's 132 year history... - Only 14 times in the top 10 of English football - Only 6 major cup finals In his first season Puel is currently 9th (with games in hand) and was responsible for reaching one of those 6 Saints cup finals. I know the league is very tight around us, but we should really at the very least finish 9th, if we beat West Brom on Saturday we have an outside chance of getting 8th. The club aren't going to sack him ffs! The doom-mongers and trolls on this forum are getting beyond a joke now!

You say that as if Zohore is a youngster himself... Zohore is 23 years old Gallagher is 21 years old Gallagher has been doing well in a terrible Championship team and is still eligible as an under 23 player for us next season. To write him off now is daft.

I'm not sure how you worked that one out. Why have you written off Sam Gallagher?

That is a very strange way to look at it. Why does it mean we are massively underachieving? Saints in recent years had a number of players good enough for top 4-6 clubs, but not enough as a squad to make the top four. That doesn't mean our players couldn't play for them. I can see why Bertrand would be an upgrade on Alonso, Cedric on Moses and van Dijk would improve them in central defence.

You always know when Heisenberg is trolling He is sat at his keyboard

Having been to Staplewood, I'm confident they don't panic buy players. Players are monitored throughly and alot of work goes into it over a prolonged time.

:mcinnes: It appears some people on here have a misunderstanding of what constitutes a "lie", twist quote and appear to hold vendettas supporting by no evidence. ................... And yet time after time you have failed to name one! This for example... Do you have evidence to prove that at the time he made those statements we had received a bid for the player? I covered that in the criteria. Changing his mind due to new evidence or events, which he is entirely entitled to do. They were clearly impressed with how Stephens did after Reed made that statement, plus had Caceres in mind but it took a while. No it doesn't. A personal opinion (that admittedly was nonsense) is not the same as lying. He didn't say Pochettino would definitely sign a contract. Plus you have a strange understanding of what a firesale is. A firesale is selling at discounted prices, that clearly didn't happen.

That doesn't meet the criteria.

Please give one example that can't be explain by what I said?

Was signing... Lovren then Alderweireld then van Dijk all part of our regression? Why have you already dismissed the possibility we'll sign another top class centre back? I'm also yet to see any conclusive prove from you that Les Reed is a "liar" as your avatar claims. Some of the things you claim are "lies" really aren't and others can be a case of changing his mind due to new evidence or events, which he is entirely entitled to do.

:mcinnes: You are all jumping to conclusions to make the leap from injuries to players = medical staff have done something wrong That is an extremely flawed way to look at it, you'd need to look at each injury individually and none of us have enough information to make such a judgement. It is possible for players to be injured through no fault of their own or the club's medical staff.

Not really, we have 4 or 5 (depending how you view Austin)... van Dijk Gabbiadini Targett McCarthy Austin Pied is in training with the rest of the 1st team so doesn't count and Austin is in training as well.

Sweetcorn? LOL. Hi Hypo. So tell us, if that is what the Koran says, why aren't the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, including your wife and family, out killing all of us infidels? Because people in all religions cherrypick the bits they like from their religion and conveniently ignore the bits they don't like.

Nonsense, yes he is. Plus this... What evidence do you have to suggest that when Puel says Austin will be back playing in 3 weeks, for you to consider him to be lying?

As an attacking option from the bench, I think Sims is more likely tomorrow than Seager. Long starting upfront, Ward-Prowse, Redmond & Tadic as the three behind in the 4-2-3-1 and Rodriguez, Boufal & Sims as attacking options on the bench.

Because Sky didn't listen to the way Puel worded it. Puel : "We will see if he comes back before the end of the season" SSN BREAKING NEWS: van Dijk out for rest of season

Sky clearly didn't listen to the way Puel worded it.

The Echo article was published at 1am Tuesday, your post was at 11:10am Tuesday.

He relatively recently mentioned it in the press.

How does he meet the criteria of the question? Dyer wasn't released as a kid in the academy "thinking they wouldn't make the grade", Saints sold him during the admin period when he was 21 years old to raise cash.

Why is it a "**** take"? It actually makes no difference to existing season ticket holders, their price is frozen at last year's prices. They are frozen at last season's renewal price. So it is now significantly cheaper to become a new season ticket holder, which may help attract more.

We didn't have either Austin or Gabbiadini when a Claude Puel team put 3 past them in December.