VectisSaint

I hate Andy Townsend. Never speaks well of us either.

There seems to be a whiff of meddling by 'Arry with some of the suggested/actual Boscombe business. I hope not, for their sakes.

This is the play-off stage.

Perhaps you missed the last bit, the conclusion. You were going to highlight why Ronald does not think Reed is ready.

Not in my view. The issue is not having an advanced midfielder who can provide attacking and defensive inputs to the game. Tadic was supposed to have done this job on Saturday (very clear from Fonte's berating of him during the 1st half). Davis was doing a def midfield job (whether you agree he was playing alongside Vic or not, thats what he was doing). But Davis was also doing the corners, and then not only was he not there to provide the protection but neither was Tadic - what is the point of playing Tadic if he isn't able to take the corners. When we pushed Davis forward 2nd half and let Romeu do the DM role we showed exactly how we should have been playing. We then destroyed it again with 10 minutes left by replacing Davis with JWP who cannot provide the defensive side of the game that Davis does in this advanced position (I am deliberately not using the word attacking). Soon after Everton scored their 3rd, though by then it was irrelevant. I believe when Clasie is fit he will be the alternative (probably the first choice) in this advanced midfield position providing defensive cover when needed and attacking play as well, unfortunately without him as an option we have to rely on Davis at the moment, and are screwed when we need Davis to cover the DM duties as he did on Saturday. Saturday was a disaster, but to be honest I believe the issue is resolved now that we have Romeu, and will be strengthened when Clasie also becomes available. Have to say sadly I can't see where JWP or Reed will fit in when everyone is available, especially if we get the Napoli CB who also seems to be able to play RB or DM a la Toby.

What we need and the reality are two very different things. Clasie's pre-season has been messed up, what with the transfer, his new offspring, his pre-season injury and then the injury in the u21 game which was being used to work up his fitness. Not his fault and not a mistake, just what happens sometimes. He will be good eventually but don't expect to see much of him before mid/end September. Unfortunately Bertrand is not much ahead of him, if at all.

Watching him in the game before he was injured he was also clearly not fully fit anyway and still some way off being ready for the PL. Even when his injury is recovered he will still be 2 or 3 weeks or so off being available for PL action IMHO.

They are after a CB regardless of what happens with Stones. They will be after 2 if Stones goes.

There will only be one Europa group away game that will go on sale in September (not August), the others will be on sale in October and November (depends a little on which number we would get for fixture allocation home and away). The last group match is scheduled for 10th December. I think your piggy bank will not be too badly damaged [TABLE=width: 624] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday one[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]17/09/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday two[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]01/10/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday three[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]22/10/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday four[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]05/11/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday five[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]26/11/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday six[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]10/12/15[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Apparently tickets are expected to sell out on or before Saturday 15th August. Magic.

We will still have half a match to play by the time their fate is known.

We already signed the defensive midfielder, were you not watching the game yesterday (second half). No way will we sign a left back, we have two plus Martina as cover. Get real people, other than a CB (VvD) it is quite likely that we have our squad, nothing too wrong when they are fully fit, trouble is that is going to be a few weeks. I would like to see another forward midfield, but I think we already have that covered with Davis and Clasie and I suppose JWP so don't expect one. I would also like to see another keeper, but its looking unlikely, so perhaps the situation is not as bleak as it may appear, perhaps Forster will be back sooner rather than later.

I'll pass thanks Whitey, just wait and see I guess. To be frank, if we can't beat Midgetland without him then we probably deserve to go out.

Apparently not, they are looking for one, if Stones leaves they will be looking for two.

Am I right to assume that Romeu is not eligible for Thursday? I hope I am wrong.

Hugely disappointing game. But, in the end blaming individual players isn't the answer. Today the blame sits fair and square with the Koemans (not sure how much was Ron and how much Erwin today). Setting the team up with two defensive (holding midfielders) and no advance midfield and expecting Tadic to fulfil this role was a complete and utter disaster. It wasn't that any of the players played particularly badly, though several didn't exactly cover themselves in glory, but leaving a huge area of the middle of the pitch without any presence from Saints was a disaster waiting to happen. Why didn't the coaching staff trust putting Romeu in from the start, thus allowing Davis to play his best role in advance of the defensive midfield. Until we have Clasie available, and now we have a strong defensive midfielder this is what we have to do. Expecting Tadic to fill this hole is just dreamland. To be honest even putting JWP there in front of Davis and Vic, or even Davis in front of Wanyama and Reed would have been much better. The Everton MF could not believe their luck being given such a large area to work with uncontested. So at least at half-time we saw what should have been done, Romeu came on and Davis was moved forward and immediately we looked more solid and could then threaten more offensively, trouble was it was too late, we were 2 goals behind. Then with 10 to go when we should be trying to win we inexplicably take Davis off and replace him with JWP, that was just a sign to me that Ronald had thrown in the towel. Almost straightaway, we were torn apart again because we had lost our control of the MF, didn't really matter that we conceded we were already 2 down. Very poor, and Ronald has to shoulder a large part of the responsibility. I would say that the players as a unit also looked lethargic, why is that? I've seen it before, sometimes we just don't look to be at the races, especially for early kick-offs. So, I would just like to say well done to Romeu when he did get his chance. I know we were already 2 down, but immediately he gave us steel and his reading of the game was very good, one or two passes went astray (a huge cross-field Morganesque pass to Soares sticks in my mind) but that is to be expected from someone with only one or two sessions with the squad. He will never be Morgan, but he looks a very good acquisition if we can keep him fit (just wish he would do something with his hair). For those who are criticising Targett again, lay off. He is being badly let down by others, especially the bad mistakes we are making at our corners (that's twice in 2 games). He saved us early on and took a yellow for the team thanks to the awful Oliver throwing yellows at Saints for inocuous issues, and had to take care from then on not to get another booking (clearly we had Martina ready to replace if needed, but after we were 2 down Targett wasn't really seriously threatened again). We could not afford to lose him to a sending off and he knew it, hence why some may have seen his actions as pulling out of a challenge. Its clear Bertrand won't be back for at least another 4 weeks, so we have to make do with a decent but inexperienced backup.

You are having a laugh. About the only good thing about today. He instantly gave us some steel, his passing was good, his interceptions, he really looked class in the role that he was brought in for. The yellow card was just so wrong, but then Oliver had no idea today as usual.

Some of the singles exist before tickets go on general sale due to STs. The restriction is not there when STs are sold, and of course some individuals do not renew.

Think a few people should actually look at what happened to Clasie on Monday night. Not many players would have come out of an accidental incident like that without a similar problem, nothing to do with fitness, and nothing to do with his hammy either, just pure bad luck. All that said, he did not look anywhere near PL fit before he got injured on Monday. He will be though.

Caulker sinus infection

3-1 FT

They've replaced Nzonzi and Begovic. But they've added as well.

Would make sense if we were all looking to buy our own little crane or excavator. Apart from their fridges or hotels, there really isn't much of the business that would benefit from sales to "joe public" which is what shirt sponsorship is all about.

Pedigree group can be contacted if anyone wants to buy it. Personally speaking, Shoot! was not a patch on Charles Buchan's Football Monthly.

This has nothing to do with replica kit sales, it covers only income from shirt sponsors and kit manufacturers. However, we would probably be in the same position even if it did, maybe now our kit sales will soar with the addition of an outlet at Gatwick LOL.