VectisSaint

Do you have any evidence that anyone does care?

This. His abilities when the ball is live are poor. Yes he has good dead ball skills (though even here his abilities are overrated), but he is slow, is not creative, cannot tackle and is too small to be effective in the air. None of these aspects are going to improve over time (unless he learns to be more creative with his passing, unlikely in my opinion). So the old excuse of he's only (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, etc etc) does not wash. Unfortunately he is not now and never will be an outstanding Premier League or England player, he will continue to earn a decent living in the PL either with a lower level team or as a bit part player with us. It is nothing to do with us not cutting him any slack because he is a Saints player it is all to do with him not being the future great player that he is hyped up to be, and that people who watch him play week in week out can see, and our succession of managers see as well. The only time I can remember him playing really well was once maybe last season, or it could now be the season before when he partnered Vic in defensive midfield and he really did look quite promising. But it seems to have been a one-off experiment and he really has done virtually nothing during open play since to show that he is going to be a future star.

Saved his energy by standing around like a statue watching the ball for 89 minutes. Walcott was the fastest back in his days with us. Has lost some of that speed over the years with Arsenal due to injuries. Where was Ward-Prowse in the list?

Another reason to get an Irish passport post Brexit (if you are eligible).

Seems to answer the question, "where has all the money gone?". How/why have Saints got involved with such a bunch of shysters? We do seem to be scraping the barrel with some of the commercial tie-ups (the African betting company as well). Good job it wasn't Nasty Nic that came up with this one.

Assist and goal (penalty] might boost his confidence though.

Point with Valery though was that he has been around the first team (pre-season) and we could have added him to the A List but have (presumably deliberately) chosen to omit him. Loaned out players are expected of course, and Pied is out for the season.

So whatever happens Valery is not available for any Europa League group match. Everyone else is available for selection.

Expenses £20.9m in 2015. Matchday and commercial £29.6m Wages and salaries £72.1m, Broadcasting £84.2m So thats a balance of nearly £21m. Then player sales profit was £44m. Even allowing for Tax (2.9) and Interest (2.7), that's about £60m to the good in 2015. Questioning where the money is going is not unreasonable. I have no problem with paying off the debt that Katherina has accrued, with the new TV deal coming into effect this season, its difficult to see how even if that was paid off in full we would not be in a healthy position.

53 shots, 14 on target. We have a lot of shots when we are chasing the game late on, once we throw caution to the wind. The times when we look good, need to stop the goals against and then we might have a chance.

FFS. Some people really need.to ****ing grow up and stop believing the crap that is spouted by Turkish. If it was anything it was a Poch signimg, but in the end it was just as much a Les Reed signing as any other. Some times the Board got it wrong, though to be fair Osvaldo was still a very good player, just that he was a complete nutjob. Hooefully one day some.people will open their eyes and see that Uncke Les is just as capable of cocking.up.

WE should move above Forest in 2 or 3 games time. It might take a while to crack Derby though as their average home attendance is running in the high 29ks, about 1000 less than us so far this season.

Your link doesn't seem to work correctly, try this one instead: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?56552-Europa-League-2016-2017&p=2353260#post2353260 The official Europa Squad list should already be available, but has not yet been published anywhere as far as I can see.

At least it proves that not every player these days is a money-grabbing arsehole who wants to leave to play Champions League (even if they don't play CL at their new club).

We don't have 25 senior players (senior players are those who are 21 or over on 1 January). By my reckoning we have 23. The problem really though is not quantity but quality. None of the listed outfield players are better quality in the positions that their counterpart departed players played. Certainly the jury has to remain out on Boufal, he may prove to be the exception. Hojbjerg is quality, but he is clearly not a replacement for Wanyama. Even if all the players are at least as good as those they have replaced this is still only a strategy for standing still. Our strategy should be to improve. Biggest problem is that we have replaced Koeman and Koeman with Puel and Black.

The u21s know how to take penalties. The over 21s are the problem (Reed, Stephens and McCarthy last night are all over 21)

More interested in why Harry Lewis is not playing.

Really confused now about the eligibility rules. Originally it said u21, but now Martin Hunter on the OS, and all of the fixtures say it is u23. Maybe they changed the rules when the changes for PL2 were introduced, even though this would not be what the EFL L1 and L2 Clubs (reluctantly in some cases) signed up to. Sounds like ticket sales at many grounds are pitiful.

No the defensive shield who did not play in 4 of those games because he was suspended (and played 45 minutes in 2 more). Came on at half-time when we were 2 down to Liverpool, which we won 3-2. Also the 9 clean sheets that we kept when he started.

Well aware of that, thank you. Interesting they considered the CheckaTrade trophy to be higher priority than PL2.

and maybe a backup RB on loan...

Did I miss Boufal signing? Has his injury suddenly healed and he is fit to play? There are some seriously deluded people on here that claim not to be able to see that we are not OK this season. Yes we were poor last season early on with RK and also around Christmas, but being poor now does not mean all is well because all was well last season. RK got things working well eventually by going against what the Club wanted, changing style and tactics and upsetting the Board, eventually costing him his job. Does it look like CP will do the same? Does it heck as like. Our back 5 has not changed but we have lost the defensive shield that was Vic (I like Romeu but he is not Vic and at the moment seems to be struggling in this role). We have lost out creative spark, and no sign at the moment of that being replaced in the next few games at least. Its going to be a long hard season.

U23s being stuffed at Sunderland.

Is that what it was? Looked like the groundsman had gone to work after a heavy night on the falling down water. No wonder the linos had a terrible time with their decisions with all of those skewed lines in the grass.

The EFL Trophy is for Under 21s (as of June 30 2016) not u23s. 6 of the starters must be u21. It is PL2 that is for u23s. Hopefully Saints will see sense and play the same squad as for PL2 games which will allow some of our more senior youngsters (such as Stephens, Isgrove, etc) rather than try to make a different team specifically for this tournament. It is a farce that the EFL trophy and PL2 have different rules but that's how it is (AFAIK, I was caught out by the late PL2 rules change, so maybe the EFL Trophy has been changed as well, but all the bumf seems to suggest it has not been changed since it was announced). Trouble is the PL2 team have 2 games in 3 days as they play Sunderland tomorrow, so may be there will be some "rotation". Lewis, Valery, Stephens, Wood or Jones, McQueen, Reed, O'Connor, Johnson, Olomola, Hesketh, Gape.