Charlie Wayman

Real or Barcelona, £50m is peanuts for both. We lost out seeing Gareth Bale to Spurs who then up-loaded him to Real at considerable profit to themselves and of course the three wise Saints forget to write in a sell on clause. Once bitten twice shy so the club should say "nothing doing" to all PL rivals and go for the real big-time bucks once and for all.

Not a very sensible idea

Having watched the utterly dire so-called football match between Everton and Liverpool last night in one of the most ugly displays of brutal physical football I have ever seen I am rather proud of our Saints this morning and beginning to think that we are really rather good. On Sunday's and last night's performances we would have thrashed either of these pathetic excuses for PL football teams. Draw we hope even now we could gate crash the top six, surely it cannot be impossible. Maybe our secret weapon is squad fitness and freshness, even Arsenal looked knackered against Man C and that could be quite telling in the second half of the season. How long before Puel's tactics are copied by others one wonders but we have half a season start. This might turn out to be a rather special season. I don't blame Liverpool for this abject display, Koeman's charges were simply awful out to stop Liverpool playing at any price using every trick and dirty tactic in the book. For that tackle alone Barkley should have been jailed. Thank goodness they were not fit enough to practice their butchery for two halves and justice was amply served by the late, late winner.

Now you're being silly. Head over heart!

That all dates back to the 1948/49 season when we were 8 points clear of WBA on the run in yet they pipped us to promotion to the First Division.

Obviously we were very much fresher than Bournemouth after the mid week games so dare we hope that Puel's rotation policy is beginning to pay off. The fitter team were clearly superior throughout despite the early lapses of concentration by Hojberg and one or two others. Great see us come from one down at last and especially pleased for Jay Rod who worked his socks off and fully deserved his goals and a big shout out for Davis who changed the game when he came on. Keep it up lads this is much more like it. We can play when we are given room thats' for sure.

Koeman's criticism of Reed was always that he was not decisive enough, quickly enough when receiving the ball, that he needed too much time on the ball before deciding on his next pass and so was often caught in possession. Koeman clearly thought that receiving and passing the ball should flow in one movement instinctively and probably he was right. There is no time in the Premier league for thinking when on the ball, we saw much the same with Jorde Clasie when he arrived here but he has of course learned to read the game much better now at PL pace and is a much better player for it. Reed is a youngish player and hopefully will improve with time but he needs match time to speed up his mental and physical co-ordination.

You are mostly right but doubt we'd start with two front runners and JRod probably will have to sit this one out as he has played a lot in the last two games. Expect --------------Forster-------------- Cedric---Fonte---VvD---Bertrand --------------Clasie--------------- -----Hojbjerg------Davis--------- ----Tadic-----Long-----Boufal---- Just possible Reed will play instead of Hojberg with Clasie at RDMF rather than the holding position in front of the two CDs

I don't know all the in's and out's of all the politics but reportedly a third kit is a requirement of the Premier League Rules. Saints didn't have one this season and the PL told ruled they had to do it, so the upshot of all this is that Saints have reluctantly issued a third kit to abide by the PL ruling. They have no intention of selling it to the public, obviously it is a very simple design that has been cobbled together quickly on the back of an envelope and produced in a very small batch. Presumably they will use it once tomorrow also reluctantly to comply with the PL ruling and never to be seen again. All very strange. Never say never, aye?

You'd have thought the staff would have made sure he had a winter flu jab back in September. Had he played he could have snuffled out any attacking threats down their left side.

These things used to happen routinely in the background without all the fuss and razzmatazz surrounding recent contract renewals of Academy grads so Gunnery is perfectly right to be a little cynical about what is really going on up there. Smokescreen for sure. Good to see that Les Reed is still alive, he has been so invisible of late that some may have feared he had disappeared for good. Now let's have a photo op for the missing chairman who's name escapes me just at the moment.

10/10

If there was serious risk of relegation then the club would have to get off their backsides and make decisions but if we bumble along the way we are, not actually losing and picking up enough points to survive nothing will change simply because MONEY is involved. MONEY to pay off Puel if they sacked him and MONEY in the transfer market to give a new manager a fighting chance of turning things around. Puel appears to be so supine that he won't ruffle board feathers so will get zilch in the transfer window whilst the new Henry will still trot out every weekend and the club's poster boy will continue to pass from opponents 18 yard box back to Forster.

We are rapidly turning ourselves into a laughing stock

Yep! Agree with you. Can't make sense of that myself.

We've got plenty of strikers who can score in the Championship.

So it goes, both results work against us tonight. Bet we drew it up as well to compound the situation. A must win for us is never a good omen.

Most probably.

Many on here have been unfairly critical of the lad since his arrival which I've never understood. He has played as well as he did today many times before but some only comment on his very few bad games. His reading of the game is second to none and he let one or two of his colleagues off the hook today by clearing up their mess.

As good a summary as any. One or two of our players were not even at the races today and no team can cope with lazy ball-watchers. The justifiable booing at HT must have resonated in the dressing room judging by the brief super-charged performance after the break. Puel is a stubborn sod that's for sure and has little idea on how and when to deploy his subs. Once again far too late to make any impact. The Tadic sub was probably pre-planned as convenient for both a returning Tadic and a not yet fully up to speed Boufal. I hope Boufal's goal embarrassed every other player in a Saints shirt. He made so easy what the others find nigh impossible to achieve.

If you take that away from him what's left to justify a place in the team? There's nothing else on offer.

Everyone is judged on their last performance these days, why should Puel be immune to this degree of scrutiny. Do you not think that maybe he - Puel - is only towing the party line by talking endlessly about developing the young players and playing the odd one now and again? He is not addressing us when he says these things he is showing Les what a good boy he is. No new players will come in in January because Puel won't have the guts to stand up to Reed and make it a make it break issue. Sadly from his point of view, he'll get the blame from upstairs whichever way this turns out as appeasement never works. Bet your life no **** will stick to Uncle Les even if we get the BIG R as reward for or season's efforts.

Must have been at the gin bottle last night if you believe 1/10th of what you have written. Sadly apologists like you ensure we will remain locked into this downward spirral which has only one logical outcome if you care to think clearly and remove your pink-tinged specs.

We played tonight without plan or purpose, passion or belief and for all the world it looked like the senior players had to make up their own game plans as they went along. Cedric ran and crossed, Bertie tried to be everywhere at once to work out his frustration. Redmond did what Redmond always does better than any other winger in the PL, made a right pigs-ear of everything he tried. Worse player of the match was he closely followed by Hojberg. Claude Puel failed tonight as he has failed so many times recently, seemingly tactically naive and unable to change the pattern of play at all. No doubt questions will be asked in the morning, if they have a name or two in mind he could be sitting very uncomfortably on Sunday. I think I've seen enough now to stop believing that he can stop our slide; if he does go let's hope Black goes with him.

If he doesn't get to start tomorrow night how about we encourage Puel with fan power and this simple chant; We Want Jose Fonte! It wasn't long ago that our mass choir's "swing him from the Itchen Bridge" saw the back of the universally hated one. It would also be a reminder to Jose where his loyalties should lie. Come on Northam, do your stuff!