The Kraken

First of all I don't believe friendly results are meaningless; while I also don't believe they're hugely important, I do think there is definitely some significance to putting together a good win/performance or two to get the team into the right mentality. I'd certainly much rather we won all our pre-season games than lost them, that's for sure. That said, I can also see the separation between the "lack of pre-season" last year and the comparisons to this year. Last year was seen as a lack of pre-season as most of our current players did not arrive until the season was underway; similarly AP only had 3 or 4 weeks to work with the squad prior to the big kick off. This season, while results are below par of what we hope for, the fact is that the players have had a reasonable amount of time with the manager and each other to prepare for the season ahead; so even despite the fact that the results aren't yet up to scratch, I can go along with the argument that all the other pre-season training with the bulk of the squad is still taking place. I have always maintained though that if we got into August without being very close to the full squad for the season ahead I'd start to get concerned. Yes, I know that the window is open until the end of August and beyond for loans, but I still think we're 3 players short for the whole campaign, and the injuries to Lallana and Punch show how light we are in those areas. So I'm hoping to see at least 1 signing by the end of the week to start to address this. Our first XI is still perfectly good enough to kick off the campaign, but it would be nice to have the backup in place with the squad before long.

Without knowing what wages he was on it's hard to say what he'd be looking for. That said, he may have completely had enough of living in a foreign country and be willing to take a significant step down in wages just to return. I'd certainly like to see him sign, but won't be holding out too much expectation for it. Think he's probably a shade below Premier League level now but could easily do a job in the Championship.

“It's not been until now, the third week into July, that I have been able to begin to make discussions and contact with potential new clubs" Yet another example of how, as much as we would all like them to be made earlier, not all transfers can be conducted by the first week in June.

Agree, but as AP has been beating the drum since close season about his desire to bring in a new striker as cover for RL and a new wide man I tend to discredit the theory that he's only now just realising we're a bit short in these areas. I still also believe we'll make use of the loan system so unfortunately may not complete all the signings we probably need until beyond the season gets underway. But as long as the majority of our players are available for Plymouth I'm confident we can get through those first few games with few troubles until the final reinforcements arrive.

“The next couple of weeks I would look to bring in a couple of players if I can to strengthen us offensively a bit.” Tick tock, tick tock. Without Lallana and with Puncheon doubtful we really are shorn of a lot of our attacking threat. Need to sort this asap, which I'm sure we will.

Last year Alpine predicted we would finish 16th - 18th. Being as this year he thinks we'll do worse, I can only surmise we're going to have a relegation dogfight on our hands this year.

Alpine's wind ups are getting worse and worse.

Spot on.

We get the message FFS.

Yet an unfortunate Crystal Palace second string side (in all likelihood sober and disease-free) lost 2-1 to the same Sutton Utd team last week.

I can't believe I just wasted 10 minutes looking through your depressing post history to pluck these out, but here you go. Lallana and Schneiderlin can't cut it and should be replaced. August 2009. Morgan Schneiderlin, "Strong contender for Most Overrated Player at Saints, currently, imo." and "He's not what we need for League 1, imo." September 2009 "List the players still at SFC with suspect temperament/commitment. Saga Lallana Schneiderlin Anyone else?" September 2009 "Can anyone see Cortese putting up with this much longer ? Sorry, I cannot. He's an experienced professional who has given huge support to the manager and players who arent delivering. I expect to see more changes in personnel over the next couple of months." September 2009. Anyway, as I said you're much more prone to making negative, controversial statements and sniped against the club that usually can't be proved or disproved one way or the other. Although I did quite enjoy your assertion earlier where you think we'll get off to as bad a start to the season as we did last year.

Because he doesn't offer solutions to anything; just unsubstantiated criticism that cannot be proved or disproved one way or the other. Ask for any solutions to a problem and you'll just get a response telling you that the manager should be capable of making those decisions. Although when he does venture out of his comfort zone and predict things (rather than just snipe) he shows up his cluelessness; for instance at the start of last season by claiming that Lallana and Schneiderlin did not warrant their places in the team and should be replaced. And I happily predict that his doom-laden predictions of us getting off to as bad a start as last season will add to his list of wrongness.

And proven wrong many more times too.

Calm down Tubby. This is from The Evening Standard back in February... "Southampton manager Alan Pardew is lining up a summer move for Barnet winger Albert Adomah". I think even by your harsh standards that's pretty early recognition that the wide areas need strengthening. And AP can hardly be blamed for not signing Antonio if Reading want to keep hold of him, which appears the case right now.

From Saints Twitter Nearly at Sutton. Early team news is that Puncheon hasn't travelled (ankle) and Lallana is still recovering from knee injury

Just to put today's result in a bit of perspective, all of today's other friendly matches in bold didn't go as league status would suggest. Aldershot 3-0 Bristol City Barnet 1-0 Charlton Barnsley 3-1 Huddersfield Bohemians 2-1 Aston Villa Braintree Town 0-0 Colchester Bristol Rovers 0-1 West Brom Burton Albion 4-2 West Ham Chesterfield 4-5 Derby FC Kaiserslautern 1-0 Liverpool Hartlepool 0-5 Leeds United Hayes & Yeading 1-1 QPR Liaoning 0-2 Birmingham Lincoln City 1-4 Celtic XI Macclesfield 2-1 Man City XI Mansfield 1-1 Tranmere Marine 2-3 Wigan XI Nantwich Town 0-5 Crewe Newcastle Town 0-6 Stoke Northampton 3-3 Watford Northwich 0-3 Accrington Stanley Norwich 2-1 Newcastle Notts County 2-1 Cardiff Oxford Utd 1-1 Leicester Peterborough 1-0 Nottm Forest Preston 0-3 Everton Rochdale 1-1 Bolton Rotherham 0-2 Sheff Utd Staines Town 0-1 Dag & Red Stevenage 2-1 Millwall Sutton Utd 1-1 Southampton Walsall 0-2 Coventry Welling 4-1 Arsenal XI Wolviston 0-1 Darlington RA Wycombe 1-2 Reading

They're not massively important I'll admit, but they aren't irrelevant. You can be sure that, had we won, we would be hearing good things about "gaining a winning mentality, nice to get a win under our belts" etc. I'd certainly much rather we were winning these games, and winning convincingly, rather than the stuttering draws we have ploughed out against our non-league opponents. Plenty of time yet, but I think we really need to hit some form pre-season if we are to expect a flying start to the season. I'm also a little worried that we seem to be favouring a 451 formation yet don't really have the central midfield personnel to make it work. If we're going with this formaton for the season I'd suggest we need two new CMs; even going with 442 I think we need one extra.

Presumably because he is under contract to Reading and, as of now, they don't want to sell him. Best case scenario is they have a look at him in pre-season and decide they don't want to keep him, then we step in and sign him up. Whether that will actually happen is anyone's guess though.

Oxlade-Chamberlain has a powerful shot on target palmed away by the Sutton keeper as Saints enter the last 10 mins strongly

Perhaps the most RIDICULOUS analogy I've yet heard REGARDING our new KIT. ALSO, your SPORADIC use of capital LETTERS makes no SENSE at all.

Let's not start that one again. Everyone would hope to have the players in as early as possible, but as AP himself has pointed out it's not as easy as that, getting the right players in can take time and unfortunately we have to play a waiting game for them to become available. We "could" have made many signings by now, but if it means that we subsequently miss out on better signings then I'd much rather wait.

Saints go close from a Dan Harding corner as Radhi Jaidi knocks the ball down to Lambert but he puts his effort past the post

Early team news is that Puncheon hasn't travelled (ankle) and Lallana is still recovering from knee injury . Blimey, do we have any wingers left? Holmes and Oxo to start I guess, which looks a bit lightweight.

Wine and beer is included in the price. But still, 2 hours of buffet food and beer/wine for £75 plus VAT = one big over-priced ripoff to me.

To be fair it's almost an unfair question to ask; as I stated first off back to CEC, I would much prefer we had the option of both of them in the squad as they offer such different qualities. But, looking at it short term for just the season ahead, I would go with Puncheon. While I probably agree that Antonio has the ability to be outstanding on occasions, he also proved that he can be utterly ordinary quite a few times too. For a promotion-seeking side we're going to need a number of players who put in 7 out of 10 performances almost every time they step on the pitch, and I think Punch is a more likely contender for that. Anyway, AP knows the flaws of the squad depth right now so hopefully we'll soon see this resolved one way or the other.