edprice1984

I thought Schmidt had joined a chinese club? GvB would be a good fit imho. Used to bringing through young players, they play an attractive brand of football and young and upcoming manager.

I heard two things that made me nearly crash the car on the way to work this morning: 1 - The French ambassador speaking on Today, alongside her German counterpart stating "France and Germany have always been friends" 2 - John McDonnell stating that it was important for those earning £80,000 a year to pay their 'fare share'. Apparently paying £30,434 a year in Income tax and NI contributions isn't enough!

I have a number of mates in the armed forces and they all told me the same thing. He should have never faced a murder charge. He did do something illegal, it should have been manslaughter with an understanding that he was under severe emotional and psychological pressure at the time. I understand the arguments against any prosecution, but we have distinct and carefully thought out rules of engagement that are designed to protect our servicemen and women as well as enemy combatants and civilians. War is messy, but when someone breaks those rules they do need to face the consequences.

I never begrudge a player a move away to a bigger club. I only get annoyed if a player goes about in a dishonest and disrespectful way - see Lovren or Kenwyne Jones. IMHO, Virgil is probably the best player we have seen at Saints since MLT. He stands way above any one else in the squad and could play for Real, Barca or Bayern and still be a stand out player. I am hopeful we can keep him for one more year, but if Citeh do come calling with say £60m or £70m, the club has to accept it. This may help in keeping other key players like Bertrand and Romeu as we can offer better contracts as well as giving us the cash to find a suitable replacement.

I wouldn't say he would be 'crawling back'. He left when he was very young (17?) and when we were in League One. He has seen his chances limited by injury and Wenger's inability to figure out where to play him. Wages will no doubt be an issue - but if he was to leave Arsenal we would be in a good position to sign him. Although as someone else said - Everton and West Ham would be probably favourites.

Holding on to players is going to be the key. I get the feeling that VVD wants to stay one more year - but obviously if a big offer comes in (£60m+...and yes I think he is really worth that much) we are going to have to let him go. Romeu is a strange one, clearly one our most consistent performers but that one strikes me as lazy journalism. Cedric is probably more likely. Signing another Romeu type player would be high on my list though. I haven't read the reports from the u23 game last night re Caceres but if we can retain him for next season and sign Maguire then I think we will have a good base to work with (with Yoshi and Stephens deputizing as required). I think we will need to look around for another forward as I do see JRod leaving in the summer if a offer comes in. I would certainly give Sam Gallagher a run as he seems to be doing very well at Blackburn in an otherwise poor team. Other than that I don't feel we are lacking too much.

The red one above looks like the Wales Rugby shirt from a few years ago! I quite like our current home kit, not too fussed on the Black number - but I tend to alternate on Home and Away kits year on year so like you would like the white or would be nice to see a return to Yellow and Blue. Never been particularly enamored with the Keegan era shirt (but then its not my era of watching Saints), personally I would love to see us move to a sash permanently as it would distinguish us from the likes of Stoke, Sunderland et al.

They were bloody awful! It didn't help that the lad throwing the ball on to the bouncer couldn't hit a cows backside with a banjo

With a red sash...

Myself and my Dad will be stopping off in Beaconsfield for lunch and a few drinks before getting the train direct into Wembley Central. As I have two days in Bristol on a Work training course starting on Monday I may need to be a little more sensible than I would like to be. Needless to say, I doubt I will have any voice left.

I see Take over Thread favourites Riquelme and Ronaldinho are offering to come out of retirement and play for Chapecoense...

Long's all round play is still good. He links well, chases lost causes and is a general pain in the a*se. The goals will come, as he keeps getting in the positions to score. JRod, unfortunately I am not too sure about. He does look short a yard and I do wonder whether the injury is in the back of his mind. However I also think that the way the team is set up doesn't necessarily play to his strengths. Against Inter he was making intelligent runs behind but we weren't picking him out. Maybe a loan where he is playing week in, week out would be beneficial. Gallagher should stay where he is for the rest of the season and try and bring him into the fold next year. In terms of the season, if you had offered me Semi final of the League Cup with the chance to qualify into the last 32 of the Europa at the start of the season I would have been very happy. Factor in that we are sitting mid-table with a number of winnable games to come, we should be confident going into the next stage of the season. The Hull City game was, in my opinion, one of those games. I think Puel is learning and probably would like to bring in another striker in the transfer window but normally there isn't a great deal of value.

Seems not...Tim Sherwood just announced as Director of Football

A couple of points from last night... We've got Van Dijk, but for how much longer? Has to be one of the best CB's in the league, I can't think of anyone who is close at the moment - if Stones is £45m, VVD must be £60m+! Hojberg had a strange game, gave the ball away a lot in the 2nd half but was good at driving into the opposition. Tadic seemed to disappear a little in the 2nd half and obviously it was a poor penalty, however he was instrumental in both goals and created a number of chances again. Maya was great last night, best performance from him in a long time. McQueen again excellent, although did get caught out for their goal. JWP in the 2nd half was brilliant, although 1st half I felt he didn't get his head up early enough. People have mentioned JRod being poor, but he was making himself available all the time, making good runs into the channels but wasn't being picked out. It was the right move to replace him with Austin as he started to hold up play, drag CBs creating more space out wide for Redmond. The biggest change in the two halves was ironically Inter. First half they stuck 10 men behind the ball and let VVD make his way to the half way before putting any pressure on. 2nd half, their front three began to pressure Yoshi and VVD when they had the ball creating space in behind, this was where Redmond and in particular JWP found some joy and started to really become big influencers in the game. VVD in particular when he started to stride forward was immense! Unlike with other CB's and even midfielders I am not concerned he will get dispossessed. He just looks so composed and knows what he is doing. I do enjoy our style of play, although do think we miss another CAM or Striker - maybe Boufal can be that difference. Brilliant night, barely had any voice this morning and enjoyed striding into work with a very smug look, particularly when the first person I saw was a Utd fan! WTFILN!!!!

I heard that there were a group of lads over in Milan using the football match as a cover for an audacious gold heist. They were last seen heading towards the alps in a bus with a convoy of mini coopers behind them...not been heard of since. Wonder if they made it?

I remember turning over to Grandstand and Final Score to see the result, I was only 12 at the time and I remember jumping around the living room at home as the reports came in. The Monday morning at school was probably the best moment I had as a Saints fan up until the Cup Final in 2003. Growing up in Gloucester, I was the only Southampton supporter in my year and one of only three in the entire school. (Shane Bradley, who played a couple of games in the late nineties for Saints but was released and ended up at Mansfield I think). The 98/99 season Great Escape et al, we weren't bottom at Christmas. I am sure it was Forest, Charlton and Blackburn that ended up going down.

What was the name of that Argentinan from back in the Wigley days? Arias? Didn't he have a really stupid nickname like torpedo?

No.

True there is that danger, but personally I would love us to have the chance to beat them with an u21 side. "We beat you with kids, we beat you with kiiiiiddddds, f*ck off Skate B*st*rds, we beat you with kids"

I think it is almost guaranteed we will get grouped with Portsmouth....this could end up being very very funny!

From what I have seen of Nagy he looks a very tidy player. Skillful and quick. Would add great strength in depth and imho would be a very good addition. Interesting to see what the fee would be, sure I read that Marseille were offering €1.5 million.

With absolutely no grounding in fact or reason I am going to stump for Yogi Loew.

Pelle along with Bonucci up there for Man of the Match. He was awesome!

I am not unduly worried. Find all this nonsense quite amusing really. If the unthinkable does happen, I am confident that we have the process in place to replace RK - but I will be very very suprised if he isn't our manager this time next year.

I assume that the two 45 min places are now gone but I am sooooo tempted to just do this!