sandwichsaint

............ Boruc (new) ............ Chamb .... Fonte/Lovren ..... Shaw ..............JC......VW ................. ..................MS...................... ........... AL ...... GR .................. .............. (new)JR? ................... Squad players/subs Boruc/new GK Clyne LB CB (/Yoshida) Davis JWP JRod RL Gives a solid middle 4 of Lovren/Fonte/Cork/VW lets MS play at the front of the midfield (his best position) Gives an offensive 'front 5' of Shaw/Cham/AL/GR/new Not suggesting we play that all the time or that we permanently bin-off 4-2-3-1, but is this a credible Plan B?

This was one of the big problems on Saturday, Lallana running the show first half from a central position/free role, Gaston came on centrally at HT and Lallana was then marginalised on the left. Not sure there's an easy way to accommodate both of them? Maybe some sort of 4-3-2-1 if we could get a really good, mobile striker to play at the tip?

I've been saying this for ages, Wellbeck always plays well for England and will be a useful sub/squad player. HCDAJFU.

Johnson dismally shocking, Smalling's never been good enough, Wilshire so over-rated, Rooney may be better as an impact sub nowadays? I'd play: ................... Hart ................. Chambers ...... Jag .... Cahill ..... Shaw ..........Gerrard ...... Barry ............. ....... OXO .........AL ...............Sterling .............. Sturridge ................... Let's stick the four old farts in the middle and let the yoof have their head.

Bloody public sector gold-plated pensions blah, blah, blah. I'm in it too, but I'll leave the colour of the cladding until I'm 65 and I (hopefully) get some good cold cash in my mitts. Are pensions worth it? From the perspective of a 52 year old I would say 'always'. Biggest regret? When Adam was a boy (c1981) a row of fairly run-down cottages in my modest Kent village were done up by the local builder (nothing flash by today's standards, indoor bathroom, basic kitchen, new roof etc). I could see they were value for money at c£17,000 a piece - I didn't have a secure enough income for a mortgage or any bank of mum and dad to help me on my way ... they are now for sale at £180,000! Obviously gains of ten-fold don't happen everywhere, they aren't guaranteed boys and girls, and they may never happen again. Not having a mortgage at 20 is equal to a lot of nights out and a lot of Saints games but distance lends a certain perspective, if the govt and your employer are both chucking into your pension pot it would be rude not to wouldn't it?

Martinez turned down Liverpool to stay at Wigan

If you really think Adkins wouldn't have stayed up last season, and then added Lovren, VW, Osvaldo, and then maybe got a bit more out of RL and MS to name but two, maybe more out of GR (?), and then brought in academy players where appropriate, and then got us comfortably to mid-table this season, then maybe you need to have a closer look at what's been going down for the last two thirds of the season? We are 4 from 18 and have wimped out of both cups, lots of money spent, Poch has a par score at the moment but certainly no better.

My Charlton supporting ST mates have him down as a bit of 'ladies man', these 'rumours' came out of Charlton long before any problems at Saints. I couldn't possibly comment either way but he does come across as a bit of a chocolate drop doesn't he. 10 games min for me (and very lucky to keep his job too). He clearly has previous.

TBF he was hardly compos mentis away at Derby in the play-offs. Has anybody got a recording/You-tube of his pre-match interview on Sky? One of the strangest football interviews you will ever see, I'd been on it since 4 o'clock and i reckon i was more sober at KO time.

This could be anything! We have good record v L'pool, bogey team, we're due a decent performance, Lovren coming back, SMS under lights (straw clutching). Wheels always come off for the Scouse just when they are doing a bit better etc. Saints on the crest of a slump, SAS, season's over, MoPo only has eyes for the exit door, should've bought a striker. L'pool with a decent CL shout etc.etc. Utter dread, I'm watching it in the pub with some Saints, some L'pool, lots of neutrals. If we win then all is well, if we lose major grief v 'it's a bit of a nothing game for us'. I think we'll lose 1-3 but will be overjoyed to be proved wrong...... A little part of me died at Sun'lan', roll on the start of next season!

Strike-partner in a coma, I know it's serious.

One man minority, I quite like Colin Murray, his Friday evening show on 5live was always a decent listen. Really hate football on ITV, presenters, pundits and commentators. Andy Townsend wins the overall biscuit though.

Did she use somebody's numbers on here? Can't believe she had enough points herself.

Season fizzling out with a predictable whimper, I only saw the second half but i thought we were 'OK'. We dominated the play and had a number of half chances and one or two that were better than that but predictably we have nobody sharp enough or savvy enough to craft a half chance into a goal. In the bit I saw, other than the goal, I can't remember West Ham having even one half-decent passage of play (more than 5-6 consecutive touches) in the whole 45 minutes. They did score three goals, one was offside, second one they bullied us much too easily in our own 6 yd box, third one we were chasing the game and our back 4 was all over the shop. Move on, I would rather watch our football every week and lose some games than watch their long balls and sharp elbows. Has anyone established yet whether VW was fit? We need to get SG some decent game time for the remainder of the season, he looked v lively against Arsenal and needs a bit of a run while there's not too much on it. Feel really bad for Clyne, one of our very best players over the last couple of seasons, can't see us keeping both of them happy next season?

I'm sure there's plenty on here that would drive him there themselves.....

Cool, I spotted 91% of correct words and incorrectly claimed 7% of the non-words were real words. Net score 84% 'the highest level' according to the testers but I would have thought 94% would have been even better!

Can't believe we've got him back so soon. He has clear history with us (Norwich H+A, Arsenal A, Everton A), ridiculous appointment.

This crossed my mind too, was this MoPo's 'Pardew-at-Swindon' moment? 'You expect me to play in the Europa League with this shower of shi7? Get real, I need another 5-6 first team players before we even think about Europe....'

Really? Where has anybody named a club of similar size/stature to us who has won so little? They haven't, because there isn't one, if you compile a list of the 20-30 'biggest' clubs in the country they have pretty much all won more than Saints (Norwich might be the only example but I wouldn't have them as currently as 'big' as us, or in a historical 'top 30').

Good effort, feel your pain. Just feel numb that this is what football has become. Why did we back the team all the way down the leagues and all the way back up again if we then capitulate at the final hurdle? Really good away support at Swindon, Southend, Orient, Tranmere, Carlisle, Hartlepool, Gillingham etc etc etc, Don't those fans deserve to get something back? Fecking 12-45 kick off at the other end of the country and 800 people still got themselves up there. Poor effort today from the club, the manager and the players.

Lallana is 1 presumably? I didn't see Cork, Lovren, Schneiderlin, Boruc, J Rod in the starting X1 ... who do you think is Saints second 'best' player? Guess you'll say Shaw ..... he's good, but he's not our second best / second most important player.

I was reading the new GCSE Maths specs on Tuesday morning: it will no longer be necessary to teach conversions and equivalents from metric to imperial measures. Switched to the local Kent Online newspaper/website to find that a sink hole had appeared in the central reservation of the M2 measuring '5 metres by 2 metres and approximately 15 feet deep'. Duh!

Chris Martin of Derby as the SRL replacement, you know it makes sense.

Looks like Stuart Hall got unlucky with his jury?

Thanks for the link, always good to read some decent football chat, though with all the names flying about on there you do wonder why the u21's aren't current world champions!