Matthew Le God

On what is that nonsense based? - at the end 2015/16 Stoke were 12 points behind us, 32 swing in goal difference - after 15 games of 2016/17 they are below Saints In a combined XI team I really wouldn't want many (if any) of their players.

No I didn't, I didn't pass comment on him being injury or non injury prone. You are twisting my words significantly. Is English comprehension not your thing?

Are you two aware we are only 1 point from 7th and 4 points from 6th place??? :mcinnes: Plus have a league cup semi final to play and FA Cup to start. I remain confused as to what the likes of Dalek2003, Batman and alpine_saint have gained from 10 years of positing utter nonsense on this forum.

Saints had a scout watching Sporting Lisbon centre back Ruben Semedo again this weekend.

Any player that falls awkwardly like that and dislocated a shoulder would be out for a similar time. The reason Austin cost £4m is because he had only 6 months left on his contract and was at a Championship club in need of money. But don't let that get in the way of being negative Batman...

I'm not sure how you have come to that conclusion. - Puel has rotated the players in positions where it is the most physically draining... left & right back, central midfield and the three attacking positions. - Saints last played 3 days ago and have another game in 3 days, Middlesbrough have had 7 days to prepare for today's game so unless Puel made changes they'd be fresher than us

I'm lost as to your point... as Austin was signed as a pre-emptive replacement for Pelle's departure.

It is effectively to cover for Austin's injury, if we signed a striker on a perm it would be bloating the squad. Austin is the first choice striker, other strikers are his back-up so when Austin is fit in March what do you propose we do with a perm striker you want to sign on a 4 or 5 year deal?

Pelle was replaced by our current top scorer Charlie Austin, when are people going to realise this? Pelle was being linked with a move to China in January 2016, Saints pre-empted his move in the summer by signing Austin early. The club have told friendly journalists that this was the thought process. Just because both were at the club at the same time briefly doesn't mean one can't be the replacement for the other. Charlie Austin is a more than capable Pelle replacement.

It is repeated at 10:30pm tonight on SS1 Probably on later in the week as well as they normally do with Premier League World programmes.

Nope, it is you with the fundamental mistake. There is no need for any club to offer more than the release clause as meeting the release clause means it is automatically accepted.

You can count the number of "non selling clubs" in the whole World football on the digit of one hand and possibly have some to spare. The time to worry is not when we sell our best players to some of the world's richest teams, it is when those teams don't want our players... and that doesn't look like happening anytime soon.

So what players should he have used today? That doesn't make any sense. The rotation from league game to league game is minimal.

I've a feeling Rodriguez will be sold in January. Sims appears to have moved above him in the pecking order. Sims has been preferred over Rodriguez for 3 games now (started vs Everton, came on instead of him vs Arsenal & on bench instead of him vs Palace).

A Clyne/Wanyama price drop situation can't happen to van Dijk until the summer of 2021 when he has 12 months left on his contract, which ends in 2022. He'll be sold for a huge fee long before then, probably summer 2017.

The Telegraph reported the deal for Sadio Mane is a figure which could rise to £38.5m. Not very many players in world football history have gone for more. Which other players are you claiming we sold "far too cheaply"?

We've been scouting Sporting Lisbon's Ruben Semedo for a long time and I'd guess he is being lined up to replace van Dijk when he eventually goes... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yYSbtgGjAA Could possibly be a very Portuguese defence with... Bertrand Semedo Fonte Cedric as first choice back 4 next season.

Please enlighten us all by explaining how saying that... - we are in the top half of the Premier League - in the semi final of the League Cup - have a good chance of making the last 32 of the Europa League with either a 0-0 draw or a win vs Hapoel Be'er Sheva ... is "spin" as you put it??? :mcinnes: (I guess you will either ignore my question or not answer it and go off on another tangent)

Redmond isn't really playing as a striker, for many weeks now he has been playing mainly on the wings of a 433. Austin sometimes switches with him during games and Redmond is central, but largely he is playing as a winger with a lot of freedom to rotate with the other 2 attacking players.

UPDATE: - League Cup semi final - top half of the Premier League - good chance of progressing to Europa League last 32 Plus... Cedric Fonte Ward-Prowse Hojbjerg Sims Austin ...kept fresher for the Crystal Palace game in 2 days time than if they had started last night. The Arsenal build-up thread yesterday was a nightmare to read. So many clueless posts were made when the team was announced. :mcinnes:

I very much doubt that is the reason, more likely Puel wants to keep his best right back fresh for the Premier League. As fullbacks in our system are required to do a lot of running.

A chance at what? No reason or need for him to play instead of van Dijk, Fonte or Yoshida in Premier League or European games.

I'm really struggling to see what attributes Martina has that are better than Cedric. Cedric is significantly better than him at everything.

Tadic had a bit of string holding his badly broken nose to his face on Sunday, he hasn't been training and would possibly be a big risk if he plays anytime soon...

- top half of the Premier League - good chance of progressing to Europa League next round - League Cup quarter final to play Squad rotation has helped results like today's happen and keeps players fresher.