VectisSaint

As CanadaSaints said, no impact players. If you are relying on Forte then we are fecked. I am happy to eat my words if he comes on and scores a late winner, but he really is out of his depth. He has pace, but that is no good if you have no movement off the ball, getting up to speed from a standing start is his problem. Still the starting line up looks good, so lets hope that the Brighton hackers don't upset that too much.

Has hardly appeared all season, and rumours of him departing. Would not have added much to the bench IMHO, given that Frazer has been one of the standouts of this season so far, but I guess he could have covered in MF if Cork had to drop back to CB in the event of a probalm with AM or Jos. We really are threadbare at CB, surprised they have not recalled Harlee Dean. Right sided CB is just as critical in the transfer window as a striker.

Jaidi was a much better player than Seaborne last season. Unfortunately that is in the past, and I doubt either will figure in the team this season (or even ever again). This is why a new CB is a must. We fortunately got Jos as a late replacement for Seaborne (and what a star he has proved to be) but we still didn't address the fundamental issue that without Jaidi and DS we do not have a left sided CB for cover. Aaron Martin is a more than adequate backup for Jose (of course he isn't as good, thats why he is backup, but he is young and learning and will not let us down in an emergency). Our only backup for Jos is effectively Spiderman or Cork, and with Chaplow out long term we would be looking threadbare in CM if either were needed at CB for more than an odd game.

Good stuff, we can drop Lallana, put Lee in the team just in case AL gets injured, see how he gets on, things will probably get worse to start with, but at least we will have used more players.

How do you manage to miss the first 6 paragraphs? 3rd paragraph for Jos. Why do you find it difficult to give credit to NC when he is the one who works behind the scenes to make the signings happen for NA? Personally I'm very glad that NC does this, and allows NA to get on with identifying targets and most of all coaching the team, rather than getting involved with contract negotiations. It was just the same when Lowe (spit) was in charge or the other clowns for that matter. I guess you would prefer the model they had at Nottarf Krap where they had to negotiate the managers's cut.

West Ham did not make a bid for Jordan Rhodes. There is a huge difference between making a bid and making a discrete enquiry. I saw the Whittingham story as well, strange game Fat Sam is playing, no way would Cardiff let Whittingham go to a rival IMHO. Why is he making all of these transfer enquiries public?

We've already gone more than a year since we were beaten at home in a league game (11th Dec 2010). Still find it difficult to believe the last team to win in the league at St Marys was Brentford. Adkins out.

Poised to score more goals in a calendar year than anyone else for Saints since Ron Davies in 1977. According to the OS. Spot the deliberate error. Still nice to see Big Ron remembered, even if the memory is a little faulty. I still hope that the Club will find a way to get Big Ron back to SMS before the end of this season. It would be fitting if he was at St Mary's on the day when we lift the League Championship trophy

Also confirmed by Sam that they made an enquiry and were told that Huddersfield were not interested and so he would not take it any further especially as he would not have the funds to prise him away anyway. So Fat Sam confirms no further interest. Fat Sam has already said he has a very long short list, so what, it seems like his short list may be even shorter given WHU's lack of funds. I like it when big mouths like Fat Sam reveal what they do with regard to transfers, giving the game away, I prefer the approach of NC/NA where nothing is said until the deal is done, keeping everyone guessing and not showing their hands like some poker novice. However, it may be the NC may give NA the required funds.

I think you are just looking for trouble. The manager probably didn't get mentioned because he wasn't involved in the contract negotiations. Other than saying to NC, please get the man signed up, these sorts of things would not be handled by the manager. Its not like with some managers who shall remain nameless where negotiations with players have to involve decisions on the size and content of brown paper envelopes.

Not sure why. Surely the contract would be such that it provides different remuneration depending on where we are. Much like Lowe (spit) inserted a clause in most players contracts to reduce pay if we were relegated, so would NC if we are promoted. It really is not difficult to budget based on various outcomes.

Not at all, if he said something that some would consider derogatory then it would not materially change my opinion of Claridge, who I (and it seems most others on here) consider very knowledgeable, and usually very fair. One bad comment about a Saints player does not alter a general opinion of a person. As I don't know what was said, I can't comment on whether it was deserved or not, being a Saints player does not mean you are above criticism.

I thought it fell through because Lowe thought Drogba had an attitude problem. Still we had Brett Ormerod so no worries.

What about them? [i have no idea what he said and wouldn't change my opinion even if I did]

Actually the one thing they don't need to do is to dump Claridge. Its the other bloke that is the problem, knows nothing about football and is a real thrush. Claridge is actually very good, trouble is some on here are blinkered and can't see past his Skate connections, shame really because he is nearly always very complimentary about Saints.

May Day!! May Day!! (Perhaps you meant 3 months and 3 days)

Quite right, why would the Sun make things up when they can easily hack into people's phones and answering machines and get accurate information?

No ****, Shurlock

Looks like they have just missed him out, he shows up on other top scorers lists with 9. Correction, they have only credited him with 5 goals!! Why are all of our players so formally named, Richard Lambert, Guilherme do Prado, Daniel Fox? I assume Sharp will become William when he signs for us.

About as likely as signing the double European Footballer of the Year. To be honest I've never heard of him

springsteen

As always we should play to win the game. Winning breeds confidence. OK, make a small number of changes to rest some key players/give fringe players a run, but we should not be far short of our strongest team. Having a weekend off never seems to have the positive effect some folks expect, we usually look lethargic when we have not played. Most players prefer to play week in week out. The one thing we could do without would be a replay. Just a shame that the game is not exactly exciting (sorry Coventry).

This is why we are top of the league, we are very good, and the rest of the pack are utter dross. Nothing to fear from anyone, today has been a good day, 3 horse race now with Cardiff and Hull getting beat and Brum now so far behind even with games in hand. We've had a little blip and still are 3 points clear, 8 points clear of 4th and 12 points clear of 7th place.

Looks like we won't drop out of the top 2 this year then

Love to know what you think are difficult games. Apart from Birmingham (away) there is nothing in Jan/Feb that should really cause us any real concern. West Ham are average at home, better away, Leicester and Cardiff at our place (won 5 away games between them), Forest away (3 home wins), Burnley at home (OK, Clarets have a decent away record), Derby at home (3 wins) and Watford away (4 wins out of 12). Just leaves Brighton away, and they have not even won half of their home games this season. Actually a pretty good set of fixtures, apart maybe from Brum who are unbeaten in their 9 home games. I know it can look reasonable when we are top of the league, but really we should have nothing to fear playing anyone.