the saint in winchester

Priceless.

One for Dubai Phil or Eric of Arabia to comment on: An Aston Villa fan has cut a planned family holiday to Dubai short so he and his two sons can watch the FA Cup final on television. The man's wife will stay on holiday on her own for the last day of the trip - 30 May, the day Villa play Arsenal in the Wembley final. (Daily Star) Do they not have TV in Dubai?? Made me laugh.

When you put it like that, you realise how much we have changed!

So ... the 64,000 dollar question .... would you get him back here and get him firing again? Or do you all think he's a busted flush now?

Yes. You beat me to the comment. Now can we stop watering the pitch at half time?! If its a choice between (A) seeing the ball moving quickly across the well watered turf but maybe losing a player to injury vs (B) seeing the ball move at average rate but keeping all players on the pitch ...... I know which i would choose.

You put it with a smileyso maybe you are joking ...but he looked sound in the U21 final. Admittedly that's not PL standard play but he is looking good. I certainly wouldn't be swapping him with a Swindon keeper!

HOW could that work? We are making a League 1 keeper our first choice next season? No thanks. We need a top quality keeper even if we have to sell him in 12 months time.

He would have been on my list....then he had that howler at Wembley which puts me off

That lad De Gea doesn't seem to know what he wants to do, makes the gossip page of the BBC site every day. Let's give him a way out with a 6 month loan next season.

Hull's win over Liverpool is a reminder of what a team that HAS to win can do. Sunders have to win. Going to be a tough game for us.

Yes, agreed. Aim for the stars. For us to get Top 4, we would have to dislodge one of the galacticos - Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal this season. Liverpool want to be in there too, Tottenham see themselves as that class. I read Les' comments as meaning "reach Champions League once in the 5 years" rather than every year after that. Tough ask, but we have to set a target. We have climbed mountains the last five years, so let's do this!

Good comments and a statement of intent, but he should say that stuff. A little concerned Morgan agreed to stay on with a view to going this year so we may have a battle on our hands to keep him. Like most of you, I expect to lose Morgan and Clyne, and Toby, of course. Beyond that, hoping they stay put.

Same for me. "The website declined to show the video".

Don't worry, mate, we are more than used to "bus replacement service" every weekend on our rail network too! Thanks for telling us, but we have a bingo bus taking us up!

He wouldn't get in the team, seriously. Cook and Elphick were supreme.

Well done Bournemouth. Watched the game on SS1, it was brilliant. Scored 3, should have scored 5, could have scored 8 or 9. For anyone who didn't see any of it, check out Matt Ritchie's goal. Made me purr with delight and wish Steven Davis could finish chances like that.

Davis Clyne Toby Fonte Bertrand Morgan/Reed Wanyama JWP/Djuricic Mane Pelle Tadic

Hardly an "advantage" to be without your first choice goalkeeper for 12 months, plus other short term injuries. Madness, I tell ye.

Thanks for bringing this up, Fitzhugh. I meant to raise this myself after the Hull game. As we can all see, this is causing injury to our players. Forget 'ball zipping around to make it exciting'; it's a flippin' health hazard. Players, ours and theirs, are going flying base over apex. Should be stopped immediately voluntarily before we are investigated.

Yeah, don't think you'll get any different response on Toby - do everything we can to get him in. Elia hasn't done much to justify a permanent deal, but if the purchase price is that low, then probably worth buying him and hoping he improves. Jury-titch - no idea. He looked good vs Liverpool, but has had so little game time, not sure how we can judge. Do take westmidlandsaint's comment that Elia and Jury do seem to be bench fillers and we may need to spend the money on first choice players.

I'm always the optimist. Just thinking another club may be interested and a bidding war ensues. But agree most likely scenario is as you describe.

Will he want to? Answer is, almost certainly NO. I would expect Bournemouth to make a modest offer to buy him, or we will sell him on. Shame, would have liked him to be with us, but things have moved on, too much been said and done.

corrected that for you.

I wouldn't think twice at that price, but I can't see Man U letting a player go for that price who is curently scoring for Real Madrid! I think he will command around £15m. If we have an option to buy at £7.5m, take it before anyone thinks twice.

"What would you take if offered now"? Two points more than Liverpool and Tottenham. Predictions: Sunderland vs Saints 3pts Leicester vs Saints 1pt Saints vs Aston Villa 3pts Man City vs Saints nil point So I think we can get 7 more. Whether that is enough to gets us into 5th or 6th, time will tell.