washsaint

You conveniently forgetting we had him on loan for a season with a mandatory buy clause, therefore in reality a 4 year contract? Players come and go all the time and there is very little loyalty (JWP, MLT, Benali being exceptions) - from either the clubs or players. I trust the new footballing regime to have a backup plan should Ings leave. What is the club meant to do - hold a gun to his head and force him to sign a contract?

That would be the same Jack Stephens that was part of 3 consecutive clean sheets, including against Liverpool?

Wow, there are some incredibly dumb t***s on here tonight. The abuse at Stephens is ridiculous and shows those posters up to be utter t***s of the highest order. We played well first half and not so good 2nd half. It's been a recurring theme for many games now that we offer very little in front of goal (1 goal in 5 games now). Adams was excellent then ran out of gas. Smallbone was having an excellent game and got injured. Anyone who thinks we will be splashing the cash to bring in reinforcements is deluded. Where's the money going to come from? We could well have gotten a point - and that probably would have been the fair result. Onwards and upwards - hopefully Adams and others will be given a rest ready for next weekends game. It's a real concern how often Walcott gives it away and gives other teams to break away. But then we don;t really have any other options at the moment.

Breathtaking performance - absolute joy to watch Saints and a travesty that we are losing. However Stephens and McCarthy were absolute s***e for their goal (foul or no foul). We are still in this and deserve at least a draw. Smallbone has been a revelation: strong in the tackle, great passing and vision.

The clue is in the heading - the most consecutive appearances by an OUTFIELD player

Very good today. Quite frustrating that he does so much so well but then doesn't complete. Been a great addition to the team though

Fair points. However teams now know how to nullify our threat and we struggle to have a plan B. Again not surprising as this is pretty much the same team that struggled for 3 years or so. At least it is now only 2 defeats in 14 or so and we have 8 clean sheets this season which is a remarkable achievement based on where we were. Hopefully Ralph tweaks and we rediscover some of our panache. Still a great start to the season.

Solid performance but all the zip in our play has disappeared and we are back to being ponderous, slow and, very worryingly, toothless in attack. 3 games now where we have never looked like scoring (or really creating anything). The positives are that we are defensively very solid but I can only see us sliding down to 13th or so at the rate we are going. Would be very disappointing as top 8 should be in reach. Left hand side as an attacking threat is non-existent and Djenepo just does not look like a footballer right now and Bertrand slows the game down constantly.

Oh man, what a shame. That was a trip to end all trips back in the day. Torrential rain, terrible stadium with people p****ng on the terraces due to lack of facilities but an unbelieveable experience. Missed our flights home after spending too long in Sigishoara, had stuff stolen from the hotel room but wouldn't have missed it for the world. At the time I seem to recall the majority of foodstuffs you could get in restaurants (pizza, pasta, almost anything!) was polenta and cabbage! Their fans were mad but also very gracious!

As others have said it took him a while to get going but there was enough about him to show real potential. Thought he grew into the game while obviously not as physical as Romeu. Did well for hist first game

RH should be questioned for his meaningless subs with no time left. What was that all about?

Better 2nd half and fantastic block from Stephens right at the death. Armstrong and Long were utter passengers and Theo showed his lack of football brain for most of the match. Did not look like conceding but also did not look dangerous. Long should have learned the offside rules by now. Decent enough result but should have been more

Aside from JWP and Adams that was utter garbage. Long, Armstrong and Walcott have been disgustingly bad. How on earth Long gets a start I'll never know. Its like playing with 10 men every time. Diallo been anonymous (but it is his first start) and a couple of Stephens mental lapses already. Just a very poor showing all round.

Another very good performance from Saints - agree with Ralph: far better than when we beat them 1-0 in the summer. In this game we were their equal rather than hanging on for dear life. A draw would have been a fair result and Saints played some very good stuff but without much of a cutting edge. This is what I think will hold us back against the bigger teams. Without wishing to scapegoat 2 players who I thought were terrible were Bertrand and Redmond. I don't know what has happened to Bertrand but he seems very slow and completely switched off a couple of times. With all the talk about Ings extending his contract I would argue that it is equally (if not more so) important that we get Vestegaard signed up. Once again yesterday he was incredible and his balls out of defence are outstanding. Am I right in thinking he only has 18 months left on his contract too? We are a very good team now - and exciting. I don;t think there is another team (except Liverpool) that is so enjoyable to watch home or away. We play without fear and to think this is pretty much the same team that (until the restart) struggled mightily for 2 seasons.

Agreed - every cameo appearance he has looked to have quite a bit of skill about him. How great is it that he looks a really positive signing but cannot get in the 1st team because of how well Oriol and JWP are playing? For the first time in a very, very long time we now seem to have good competition for all positions (perhaps with the exception of RB and LB) and young players that, while not regular starters just now, have the hunger and talent as backup.

You're a ray of sunshine aren't you? Looking at Ralph today, and listening to him recently, you can see he absolutely LOVES it here and has complete control of the footballing side of things across the club. He seems to prefer working with rough diamonds and small squads and have a feeling he will be with us for some time. Saints and Ralph are made for each other: and I actually don't have an issue with Gao's ownership. He doesn;t seem to interfere and we are back to being a verty well run club with a feelgood factor around it.

What a f***** load of pony. What a bunch of hysterical, woke, whining illiberal tarts that are so full of themselves and patting themselves in the back for their 'right on' attitude. Condescending, b****x of the highest order. Is John Barnes racist too as it doesn't fit your ridiculous woke agenda? Highly likely people are going to look very, very stupid having reacted to what is, essentially, a non-event. Next time police issue a description of a "middle aged, Caucasian male" are all you woke T***s going to jump up and down and scream "racism"?

So many wet t**ts on here. Only an absolute moron would say racism is OK - of course it is not. But football scored a massive own goal by tying the 'taking the knee' to the BLM movement - in their leap to be shown as so woke they completely fouled up the message they were trying to send. BLM is a foul organization that actually seems to create more harm than good with its Marxist agenda and 'defund the police'. We now seem to live in a society that is so illiberal (people claim they are liberal and all touchy feely and then claim immense hurt if anyone dares to disagree with their sentiments and cry to mummy) people cannot disagree with a stance without being accused of being racist/homophobic/white privilege, etc. All racism is terrible and needs to be eradicated - but taking a knee is tarnished. The 'Kick it Out' message resonates far more. For those bleating about racist Millwall fans (and yes a lot of their fans are quite special) why no mention of the Colchester fans who booed? Or West Ham fans who booed? The woke minority who are shouting the loudest don't recognize that people hate being preached at and people look to sport to get away from the day to day crap, especially during COVID. Here in the US major sports ratings have plummeted at the height of the BLM/take a knee force feeding by professional athletes: because ordinary people cannot relate to multi-millionaires pontificating to them about how they should act and how much white privilege they have.

Djeneppo, rightly, getting a load of grief but very little said about Armstrong. HIs performance has been disgusting - absolutely abysmal.

This has been absolutely awful so far. No pace, no pressing, bunch of headless individuals. What on earth has happened to our recent style of play? Djeneppo, Armstrong and Walcott have been beyond terrible with the others only marginally better. Pathetic so far

Sorry but think yourself and Saint Lard are wrong on Djenepo. He was a constant threat the 1st half and 2nd half we never got going again. Utd were panicked anytime he got the ball: Djenepo is totally unpredictable but he is not s**t.

Last couple of games have shown we are still very much a work in progress. Ralph making changes too late in the game and see absolutely zero point in bringing Long on. Long is garbage and should never put on a Saints shirt again - well past his best by date (if he ever had one). It was screaming out for DIallo to come on half way through the second half when Utd were in the ascendancy but instead Long is brought on - he could not trap a bag of cement. Walker-Peters was appalling today - giving the ball away cheaply. A strange game - 2-0 up at half time playing well for half the first half and then not in second half at all. Thought Romeu, JWP and Adams were excellent. Rest of the outfield were poor: Armstrong offered nothing, Walcott never really got in the game, back 4 were very poor and Djneppo decent 1st half appalling 2nd half. We are a long way from challenging top 6 - the last 2 games have shown that. Hopefully having Ings back will give us a bit more in the upcoming games.

The Villa game showing just how well Saints played last week

Apologies, as I am sure there are other threads out there on Theo but I can't find them! Did anyone else get a lovely warm feeling inside listening to Theo's interview post Newcastle game? Seeing the genuine joy on his face at playing for Saints and what is happening right now was lovely to see. His genuine affection for the club and way he speaks is lovely to see - I was not a fan of him returning but he has already shown how little I know. He is still rusty in front of the goal but his work rate has been phenomenal and the stints he puts in for the team is great to see: he obviously completely buys into what Ralph is doing here and looks like he is enjoying every minute of his time back here. Between him and JWP, they should both inspire the Academy graduates as to what hard work and dedication can bring. After so many dark years watching Saints, this is the best football I can remember since Nicholl's day (far slicker than Pocettino's teams and the pragmatism of Koeman's teams). Long may it continue!

What a load of old cobblers you hysterical tart! We have some very good players now and a decent strength in depth: our bench actually looked pretty strong today. Of course we would miss Ings but we are not a one player team - look at how the goals have been distributed this season so far.