Bad Wolf

"Mitchell was credited with unearthing Southampton’s summer signings Graziano Pelle, Dusan Tadic and Sadio Mane" - What do they mean by 'unearthed' if they mean scouted/spotted/found then that's total crap since Koeman knew Pelle and Tadic very well from the Dutch league and even said last season he'd like to take Pelle to his next club. He also spoke highly of Tadic before he came here. Very lazy journalism unless by 'unearthed' they just mean finalised in which case, wouldn't that be Les Reed?

Upgrade on Boruc in some areas but Boruc's better in others, Forster does however have age on his side. One thing they both struggle with is kicking. Forster is a really poor kicker yet still 10 times better than Boruc at it. Boruc's clearly better at coming out for crosses though, far better. 7/10 so far.

MUCH better? Really?

We won at Arsenal and Stoke. We can't be THAT bad. Terrible today, looked like a bunch of players who had never met before. Elia looked good again though. We missed Morgan and Wanyama BIG time today, they ran rings around us in midfield and we couldn't do anything. Second to every lose ball as well. I really hope at least one of the three main injured players is back for Swansea. At least we'll have Yoshida back by that time too.

I think he was telling the truth at the time because he'd given up on Toby because he didn't think it was realistic.

Born in Southampton, grew up in Southampton, family support them. I was a bit of a late bloomer with football though, I didn't get into it till I was about 13 in 2005. The first game I watched was the 4-1 at Fratton Park. I knew I had truly become a football fan the next week when I listened to the Norwich game on the radio while playing The Simpsons hit and run on the Xbox and let off a huge "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!" when Henri Camara hit one into the goal in the last minute and then let out an even louder cheer when the whistle went. First game I went to see was a 3-2 win over Anderlecht in a friendly when Kenwyne Jones scored a hatrick and first competitive match was on my next birthday, a 2-0 win at home to Crewe.

The kids are through

Osvaldo to QPR would be hilarious. Imagine him and Joey Barton training together. This didn't seem worth starting a new thread over but what's the maximum amount of loan player a PL club can have? I always thought it was two till we signed Elia. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Thank ****, I thought I was the only one thinking this. Everyone keeps going on about how "underrated" he is, which contradicts itself when you think about it but he constantly loses possession, his passes go stray often. I can't for the life of me figure out why everyone raves about him. With that being said though, we always look a weaker team without him.

Indeed. A horrific one. I remember shouting at Les Reid on the TV "YOU PROMISED NO ONE WOULD BE SOLD IN JANUARY....YOU LIED TO ME!!!".

Freaky. I had a dream last night that he left us this month and then later in the dream we lost 9-0 at home to Spurs

I bet against Saints all the time. It softens the blow when we lose. The only problem is when you start putting lots of money on, you could find yourself cheering for the opposition which really is not what a love for a football club is about and pretty much defies the point of doing it in the first place. So it's probably always best to keep it low. I still want Saints to win just as much as I did before, it's just a light at the end of the tunnel. A small consolation. Doesn't make you a bad fan because like someone else said, it has no bearing on the result, it's not like the players get wind of it and think "betting against us, is he?! What a pr1ck, I'm devastated" and the whole team moral goes down and we lose because of it.

Very good pricing again. Was expecting it to be more than Ipswich by a fiver if not more due to playing a team in a far superior league so to only be up by £2 is a real nice surprise and a real treat by the club. I'll be there.

I hate to say I told you so but I ****ing told you so!

It'd be a problem if a player or two picks up an injury that'll keep them out for 5 days (or more). I'd go: --------------------------Forster-------------------------- ------------------Gardos---------McCarthey------------- Clyne-------------------------------------------------Targett -------------Davis--------Cork-------------Reed------------ Igsgrove---------------------------Long--------------------- --------------------------Pelle-------------------------------- Igsgrove looked great when he came on in the first game last week and Long is purposely tucked more inside than the former so he can play the role Mane's been playing for the last few weeks but also drift out wide when Targett needs a holder so he can run on the overlap. I'd be tempted to rest Wanyama. He's been our best player for quite some time now and if anything happened to him it'd have a hugely negative bearing on our season IMO, we'd miss him so much. Especially given the CB situation and that he could probably cover there if we got desperate. Rest Morgan for the same reason too, him and Victor have been the reason we've conceded so little goals this season. JWP instead of Cork if he's not fit.

That's fair enough but will that freshness last till Saturday if all the big guns play tonight? Though it'll be what we'll have to do a lot next season if we get Europe.

Could work the other way round though. If we get into the top four, we'd no doubt be looking to add even higher quality players in all positions and strengthen our squad even greater thus being even more unlikely to play the extra games we'd have because we'd be playing such high standard opposition than in the Europa League and he may not be able to cut it quite that high but he may well be Europa League quality. I'd say he'd be more likely to say if we got into the Europa League than Champions League. On the other hand, getting into the Champions League and playing in it, with a club like ours is a huge deal and will probably be his only chance to play in the competition so he may well stay on those grounds. We can speculate about all manner of things but at the end of the day, none of us are him, none of us are Koeman, none of us are his dad (who seems to have gone quiet lately) so we don't know what his situation is and what his mind is and none of us know how he will look at it. The best thing we can do is keep winning, do as best we can and whatever our situation, offer him a new contract, be honest with him about his squad status and let the lad make up his own mind about whether it suits him or not. If he decides to stay then great, we've got a fantastic squad player but if he decides to go to elsewhere in order to get first team football, I'd be disappointed but I'd understand and wish him well. Has he actually signed a contract extension with us since he arrived in 2011 or is this still his original one that's running out?

I thought he looked really good yesterday. Given that he hasn't played for a while, being given your PL debut as an away player at Old Trafford in the starting line up isn't gonna be easy but he seemed very similar to Mane with a bit more physical presence to him. He certainly looked more of a natural winger than Mane (who as we've established in recent weeks' best position is a floating attacking midfielder, just off Pelle). Got a couple of good crosses in and always looked likely to create things when he got on the ball however he didn't quite get on the ball enough for my liking but hopefully that was just him establishing himself in the team and hopefully he'll be a bit more settled in the weeks and months to come. Not a bad debut at all though.

Just seen LVG's interview on MOTD....He really is a bit of a tool isn't he. Credit to him though, 2nd best Dutch manager in the PL.

Didn't he do his hammy at Arsenal and only miss one game? In any event I thought Gardos did really well today but with Fonte and Gardos being our CB pairing, we have NO cover there if anything happens to them. I know Wanyama could probably fill in there and I think Schneiderlin has in the past as well but the problem there is we'd miss them both in CM. Cork is now back in training isn't he? I seem to remember that in his first spell with us, he was a CB so I'm guessing he could probably slot in there.

Burnley 2-1 QPR. Nice goal from Ings. Would be a good option since he's available on a free in a few months.

Is there a presser today or is it tomorrow due to the game being on a Sunday?

Well they can want on. Even if it is a "fiddle", it really doesn't matter because we pay the lad's wages, not them. As long as this "fiddle" is with his blessing and he's happy to choose us over his country then there's no issue.

Jason Euell used to get boo'd by sections of the crowd and amazingly so did Kelvin Davis at times, when he was announced as starting.

I for one hope Bart and McGoldrick do play a part and I hope they'll be given a good reception by our fans. McGoldrick was only a good when he played for us, the pressure of doing so well in the academy was forced on him and he was thrown into a terrible, terrible Saints team as a loan/main striker during our relegation season and I think he got about 10 goals didn't he? Which given his age and given the situation isn't quite that bad. I'm pleased he's gone and made a career of himself elsewhere. Same goes for Bart, I quite liked him when he was here but he'll always be remembered for that home game with Blackpool where he had the worst goalkeeping performance I've ever seen at St Mary's but in general I think he did okay when called upon (apart from that game) and was always a good option to have as back up to Kelvin. So I really do hope they get clapped by our fans if they come on/start. In other news, I had a dream last night that we won 4-0 today but Yoshida scored the 4th goal so since he's gone to the Asian Cup, I don't think it was a prophecy Really looking forward to this though, glad I got my ticket when I did due to how fast they sold out. My second game of season, the first being the 4-0 win over Newcastle. I think we'll win 2-1, Long and JWP for us and McGoldrick for them (hopefully he'll have the decency not to celebrate too much if he does score). COYR!!!