Matthew Le God

Did you think Newcastle were not good enough to trouble them last weekend?

I'm not solely talking about league positions. In any case I don't think there is a great deal to separate two of the three players we lost last summer (van Dijk/Alderweireld and Cedric/Clyne), Clasie still has a lot to prove if he can ever get to Schneiderlin's level. We do now have extra depth to the squad, as we signed players in addition to those we replaced. That is extra depth compared to last season, but many fans are too quick to jump negatively on a run of bad results. But in general the club over the past 3 years is in the best place it has ever been. We have a combination of very good infrastructure at the stadium and training ground, a strong top flight squad, a very well respected academy and a good owner. We have never had all of those in place before in 130 years and next season's TV deal will allow the club to strengthen further relative to European clubs and those English clubs not currently in the top flight.

Fickle football fans... being fickle shocker! Its not new, especially since the birth of internet forums. The endless negative random musings of depressed fans grates and is part of the reason I rarely use this site anymore. The club is in the best situation it has ever been in and people still moan.

How many first team keepers do you want Saints to have in their 25 man squad? Forster is very close to a return, Stekelnburg has done little wrong and Gazzaniga really isn't as bad as many on here like to make out. If Saints did as you suggest and have another keeper, what would the do with all of them once Forster returns relatively soon?

Umm... how to break this to you? Tadic and Pelle have been dropped to the bench today.

Just saying "PL football" is too broad. Its significantly harder to get on some Premier League team benches than others. The quality standard at Saints means any youngster is competing with senior internationals in every position (multiple ones in quite a few positions). That isn't the case at all clubs.

Why do you think it was false? The story wasn't that Arsenal want to sign Wanyama, it was that in Pires opinion Wanyama would be a good signing for Arsenal (whether that is accurate or not is irrlevant) and the two are very different. It can only be false if Pires didn't say it.

Hard to take that article seriously when they think Saivet is a possible replacement for Wanyama. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/6524746/SunSports-daily-football-round-up.html Saivet is 5 foot 9 and a very attacking player, he doesn't play in the same role as Wanyama.

Quite a few of those could describe Beckham, especially when he had only just turned 21 like Ward-Prowse. You appear to want Ward-Prowse to be a different type of player to the one he is. He has a lot of very good attributes for the roles he is used, you've listed attributes needed for a player in a different role which is unfair. I'd also dispute a few of them anyway and they certainly aren't all "unimprovable" for a player with 10+ years left in his career.

Will you give them the honour of learning to spell their names correctly before they leave the club?

Sadio Mane is worth more than £30m in the current market. Are Martial for a fee rising to £58m or Sterling at £49m really significantly more effective than Mane? When the new TV kicks in prices will be further inflated next summer. There would be little incentive to selling Mane in January, let alone only for £30m. He'll probably be sold in the summer for huge money.

Last night in the second half Koeman was playing a 3-4-3 formation; which involved Bertrand as a central midfielder and Wanyama as a centre back... Stekelenburg Caulker Wanyama van Dijk Davis Ward-Prowse Bertrand Tadic Long Pelle Mane I'd rather he didn't do that again.

Which one? In the second half vs Liverpool Koeman was playing a 3-4-3 formation, which involved Bertrand as a central midfielder and Wanyama as a centre back... Stekelenburg Caulker Wanyama van Dijk Davis Ward-Prowse Bertrand Tadic Long Pelle Mane

They say its tighter security, but it was very poor. I joined a very short queue at the Northam turnstiles and ignored the metal detector queue. A steward at the turnstile then asked me... Steward: Have you been scanned with metal detector in that queue? Me: (looks at long queue) Yes Steward: Ok ...and in I went. Really is no point to the metal detectors and the queues they created if you can bypass it so easily.

When the day comes, I think Frank de Boer may be an option if he is still at Ajax. - Ajax and Barcelona connections and philosophy like Koeman gives a degree of continuity of ideas - De Boer has been stating openly and repeatedly for a while he wants to come to the Premier League, Saints have a higher wage budget and more scope in the transfer market than Ajax. Like Saints did vs Feyenoord for Koeman. Even more so when the new TV deal starts next summer. - He is a relatively high profile name in European football which would help attract players - Experienced in European competitions and a track record of winning domestic competitions - Saints have good relations with Ajax at academy level and also we've played two friendlies vs Ajax in the last two international breaks

Its largely the fault of Sky and their "question/topic of the day" which they ask each of their reporters to ask at all the press conferences that week. They can then use clips of multiple managers talking about the same topic on SSN.

I think thats unlikely, as he signed for QPR when they were in the Championship, he has only signed one contract with them (in 2013). The media claim QPR wanted to get him tied down to a £50k or £60k p/w contract, but they haven't been able to. He is on £28,000 p/w or less according to all of these articles... http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/qprs-charlie-austin-set-demand-9981457 http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/charlie-austin-set-to-earn-over-50000-a-week-as-qpr-bid-to-secure-strikers-long-term-future-with-new-9852902.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2883438/Charlie-Austin-talks-new-QPR-deal-striker-set-double-wages-60-000-week.html http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/576776/Southampton-10m-bid-Liverpool-Chelsea-Man-United-Charlie-Austin

You have very low standards of evidence you require before jumping to conclusions. Are you religious at all?

I don't know why people ask this, go on the Saints ticket website and look for yourself. It has a colour coded map of availability and you can also click on individual blocks to see how many are left... http://tickets.saintsfc.co.uk/PagesPublic/ProductBrowse/VisualSeatSelection.aspx?stadium=SM&product=CH15LI&campaign=&type=H&productsubtype=&productIsHomeAsAway=N

On what is that based? Our squad under Koeman is stronger than it was under Pochettino, he is still giving gametime to Ward-Prowse and Targett and gave 5 debuts to academy players last season. If Pochettino had Ryan Bertrand and not Danny Fox as an alternative option, then Shaw wouldn't have been able to breakthrough as quickly as he did. Chambers was 2nd choice to Clyne under Pochettino, he was getting games when Clyne was injured and coming back from injury. Gallagher got a lot of 1st team involvement largely due to the squad lacking the depth of senior numbers we now have.

The vast majority of our current first team squad are current internationals or relatively recent internationals, or in the England youth teams. The quality bar for an academy player to move up to the Southampton first team is now very high. The quality level needed for a youth player to reach the standard of the first team this season is tougher than any other time in the club's 130 year history. The number of internationals and depth of squad we had in 1983/84 or 2002/03 is small in comparison to 2015/16, the squad now is at a higher level than in both of those eras.

Been that way since August. I'm no longer paying the tax that doesn't exist on other club forums.

Attempt to answer my three questions that you have so far ignored...

I'm actually intrigued as to alpine_saint's rational for posting this thread. Not only because its extremely vague as to what exactly he is saying, but also what kind of response did he expect he'd get and why?