Matthew Le God

The club have been scouting Sporting Lisbon's Ruben Semedo over a long period. Semedo has many similar qualities to van Dijk and is 3 years younger... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yYSbtgGjAA

*didn't

We did get relegated in 2004/05 for financial reasons. Why on earth do you think we did?

No he hasn't, you are jumping to conclusions (again!!!) What he actually said was... How does anyone get "Liverpool are about to sign José" from that? Could just be two mates looking forward to see each other in a few weeks at a cup semi final.

Ronald Koeman gives all Saints fans an early Christmas present...

I think your search for an idiot should look closer to home. - 7th in the Premier League - semi final of the cup to come If you think we have remotely close to a squad that would be in a relegation battle, then your ability to judge player quality is extremely poor (as is the case for a lot of bed wetters on this forum).

Nope, I liked Koeman. This thread is to highlight to people like you that Puel really isn't doing a bad job. Ok, we'll have occasional setbacks in the season, but that isn't the time for the endless negative drivel. Look at the bigger picture and we remain with a good chance of finishing top of the "best of the rest" outside the top 6 rich clubs. Scoring more goals would of course be nice, but it is points/league positions that matter and Puel so far is performing well.

- Pelle was replaced by our top scorer Austin. - Mane has been replaced by both Boufal & Redmond, some Saint fans have been far to quick to dismiss them both Saints could end the weekend 7th, it is far from the disaster some are making out. We have the same amount of points this season as we did at this point last season with Koeman.

Sims & Redmond, we don't need Puncheon. We need a striker; not defenders, central midfielders or attacking midfielders.

Would he? I'd rather have Tadic and Boufal in the starting XI.

Are you two aware we are 9th? 2 points away from 7th. (what do you actually gain from posting endless drivel like this for the last 10 years?)

Not "dull", completely dominant but lacking a cutting edge. If Boufal had shot rather than crossed for Rodriguez we'd have won that.

Ward-Prowse got the assist for the winning goal vs.Middlesbrough on Sunday.

1) Foster plays for West Brom not Saints. I think Forster is better than Butland. Although very promising, Butland doesn't have anywhere near the experience to have proven himself like Forster does. 2) Martina is not Southampton's first choice right back, Cedric is. Martina is 3rd choice, behind Cedric & Pied. 3) I don't know why you are comparing Shaqiri & Arnautovic with Long & Rodriguez. It is Tadic, Boufal, Redmond, Sims they would be up against for one of two places. 4) Plus if you are going to include the injured Butland, why not follow the same logic and include the injured Austin?

Utter nonsense. Even if we didn't replace him a central defence of Yoshida and Fonte wouldn't get us relegated. Far too much quality throughout the squad for a relegation battle. I very much doubt he'd be sold in Janaury as there is little incentive for Saints to do so (he'll go in the summer) but even if he was sold, I'm perplexed as to why you appear to think we wouldn't sign a replacement.

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.