Charlie Wayman

Very much a reality check, the players who played in Israel were clearly jaded mentally and not that great physically and this impacted the whole team. As Puel says, we play as a collective but if half the cylinders aren't firing properly than the whole team performance becomes disjointed and the rested players cannot realise their full effectiveness. We were lucky today because Leicester were in exactly the same boat after their mid-week exertions and so everyone seemed happy enough to settle for a 0-0 draw. This is the price of Europe I suppose but we'll get used to it sas time goes on. They'll be glad of the two week break. Let's give a massive shout for Oriol Romeu who was simply outstanding all afternoon and made VvD look a bit of a chump in comparison. Cedric's injury is a real bummer and if we lose him for a few weeks and have to rely on Martina our season could be ******.

Of course Harry will be in this story somewhere, where would the press be without him? Any quote from Harry gains headlines so when planning this 'sting' the DT will have made a list of people whose names would guarantee a few hundred papers will be sold and no prizes for guessing who would top the list... "What's he been up to this time?", "Thought old 'Arry would be involved somewhere..." If the DT know anything which in itself is very doubtful it will be their audience for such trash. Let's face it love him or loathe him Harry is always good for a quote and without the arrogance, swagger and self conceit of people like Pearson and Allardyce.

Having, courtesy of SFC now watched the game on-line, it is difficult to understand the misguided comments on here of people who were quick to rubbish Martina and Clasie. They were OK, no worse than many others on the night in fact in the case of Clasie, I thought he played rather well making few mistakes and making quite a few very telling through passes. Even Yoshida, most people's favourite whipping boy had a good match. Let's face it every player had a moment or two and even fan favourite Virgil van Dyke squandered our best scoring chance. Poor Hesketh but this is what happens when one performance of a raw kid is so massively over-hyped on here and elsewhere. Poor lad was defeated by the hysterical level of expectation heaped on his very young shoulders. A point was not good enough against this opposition and if Inter decide to make a game of it next time instead of dismissing the competition as being beneath their dignity we may come to regret our sloppy over-casual approach to goal scoring on display on Thursday evening.

One of the potentially most damaging outcomes of this whole wretched business will be the psychological impact on people who work with or around wrongly accused individuals. Smoke without fire, were they really totally innocent or just not proven guilty? Once mud is thrown some of it will stick; one of the calls that the club will need to make is whether that sort of collateral damage can be absorbed without impacting on team camaraderie and performance and of course the feelings of fans. Breakdown in trust and respect between players and coaching staff will inevitably destroy confidence and performance. At best there will be lingering doubts in many minds, why did the accused attend meetings in the first place? It may be that even being linked with such a scandal is sufficient reason to cast irredemable doubts in the minds of those who must pass judgement. This is a nettle that must be grasped and a clear and transparent decision made. No fudging and no meek whitewash of events will convince the many sceptics.

I think you are right, the guy has been around the Champions League and Europa League for years and knows exactly how to play it. Win at home, draw away leaves us with 12 points and into the knock-out stages.

Black works for Les Reed not Ralph Kreugar, it's up to Les now but he's in Israel at the moment.

Dave Watson is already here and rarin' to go.

Presumably they all went up by coach so the others must have been around somewhere as it is unlikely the coach would have left for home without them. Puel obviously felt they needed some free fun time to celebrate their success and relieve some of the tension. Why is it implied by the Wail that they were up to no good when there is zero evidence of the players having been on the booze. I'll bet the rag was miffed that none of our players had a blond floozie draped over them in state of undress. This is the London press stirring the ***** at it's best, they just don't like it when one of their precious clubs gets turned over and hung out to dry especially by those irritating imposters from the South coast so what better than to kick start the destabilisation process of a club who look likely candidates to grab honours away from their sacred four clubs.

Write, Andy not right....

Bloody stupid remark, ill-founded and an unnecessary slur on one of our most loyal and well respected players.

Let's tread carefully as this is unproven and sub judice.

If he had been a 'better' player as you put it he would be at Arsenal or Man City. Personally I love him and he is the only truly creative talent we have on the pitch. He is one of the few players in our squad that lights the place up with expectancy every time he gets the ball. What really clinches it for me is that he gives every impression of really wanting to be part of SFC and is enjoying every moment of it whether he is on the pitch or not. Just look at his beaming reaction from the sidelines when Hesketh scored the other night, he looked really proud of the your lad. If he acts as 'though this is his team, all strength to his elbow! I cannot believe for one minute that the other players find him difficult to deal with there is obviously absolutely no problem between him and Austin, in fact they seem to have something going there with all the kissing and cuddling and if he has a few exchanges with Redmond who can vibe surprised as Redmond is instinctively a greedy and wasteful performer and a bit of a spoilt brat to boot, IMHO! As for the 'exchange' with Puel on the touchline yesterday from my perspective Tadic was just asking about the tactical reasons for his substitution and Puel was saying "I don't want you to be completely knackered for Thursday and Sunday". There IS only ONE Dusan Tadic.

This was mentioned as 'fact' by the Sky Sports commentators so it's not just a load of twitter,not allowed during a match apparently.

Simply outstanding. A wonderful performance that must rank as one of our very best, systematically working our way into the game and then grinding the opposition into the dust. Very hard call for MotM nobody played badly and there is a glimmer of real hope that this team and this system might just land us a jackpot. Top 4 not impossible surely?

Did you get to meet them all personally then?

Need a touch of realism with Boufal, even when ho does make his debut it will probably be only a cameo for 15 minutes as a late sub and he'll likely stay on the bench for two or three games gradually building up his match fitness and acclimatisation to the physicality and pace of the Premier League. We shouldn't expect too much too soon, high expectations will only lead to disappointment. If he proves his worth it'll be the new year before his greatest impact will be felt.

Hope they do one this year, 7th would be terrific!

In fairness, Spurs bossed this game for large portions of the game but as the (new) big boss says the only thing that mattress is the win. We only win 1-0 ! Are we top now or did bloody Everton win again? Why must it be bloody Everton with that rat Koeman in charge with his reknowned lack of interest in youth team players? You couldn't make it up. Do you think Arsenal will be coming back on for Olomola if he keeps banging them in as he is? Why did they let him go in the first place and why is it only us who can get these kids firing on all cylinders? These I know are rhetorical questions but let's hope that when we sign on promising kids that other clubs have rejected that there aren't any hidden "grab-back" clauses in the small print that might mean that we have no claim on them when they become the polished article.

Sure, take the **** but I'll bet you wouldn't make Hal as much sense as him if you had to explain yourself in French.

He needs a goal, simple as that. Bet he reaches double figures this season. He's on fire except for the finishing. We must send out love signals not get on his back. It matters not who scores in the end as long as somebody does.

All four Academy graduates received great praise from the Wail this morning for last night's performances. Of course we don't believe a word this rag says but we'll let them off this time, even they can get it right once in a while. They were 'though polishing up the Manure link as 'though Hesketh was already one of their's but with Sims, Johnson and Olumula coming through fast let's actually hang onto these kids and create a new golden generation of our own on the south coast. Who knows we might even win this league in three or four years time.

No way is Puel is going to blow this one away on kids, he is not running a charity. He knows perfectly well that we cannot win the PL so he will go all out to deliver one of the other three competitions we are in and who says we can't win them all. It's also another vital opportunity to sharpen up our forwards with some much needed shooting practice. If he introduces any of the kids it will be late on and certainly none of the bunch who played against the Leicester Cubs on Monday night - so don't expect Sims or Olumola to appear. A surprise late sub might be Johnson who is rising rapidly through the ranks and taking the place by storm. This boy could well be our next best thing. If twere me and not Puel, I'd keep our defence intact to let them gel more and gain extra confidence from another clean sheet. All great teams are built on a rock solid defence - remember same old Arsenal, winning 1-0?

I missed this game as on holiday somewhere in the Med. Reading comments on here we had a god match but people are still nervous. Two things fans need to bear in mind - according to many Swansea were a very poor side so do we only win against very poor sides? Of course not, they looked a poor side only because we made them look like a poor side. Remember how we"only" scraped a draw against useless Watford? Look at them now, not that poor at all flying high and thrashing Jose's all- conquering heroes. Get used to the idea that we are not at all a bad side. Finishing is an issue but we can't expect Austin to do it on his own, he just isn't fit enough to last 90 mins let alone start every game especially when we play three in a week. He may well feel frustrated but believe me the trainers will know more about his conditioning than we or he and we certainly do not want any passengers on the pitch who may cost us a sub after only 30 or 40 mins. Let's enjoy the win and wait for the bigger picture to emerge, give Puel a chance and maybe after all we are in for one very big surprise this season?

We all heard it in the Itchen and it was bloody embarrassing. Koeman has moved on, clearly some morons in the Northam cannot.

Will nothing please you? As the man said we work as a collective not individual players and the squad will be rotated as we have many games in a short period. We should get beyond thinking of a best eleven and the others as reserves in the poorest sense of that word. Much will depend on stamina and fitness levels when measured on Saturday. We have good players in every position and it doesn't bother me who he picks as long as we win. Right now you cannot make a case for any one player to be consistently better than the other option for that position with maybe two exceptions, for example everyone's bets noir has played no worse that Fonte.