SNSUN

Hypothetically, if we beat Norwich we'll be looking at the Arsenal injury time equaliser as a missed chance to win three in a row for the first time since the tail end of the last Koeman season! Unless we spank Newcastle at theirs, of course. Then West Ham. Then Villa. Last time we won 5 Premier League games in a row? Anyone? Early 2001 under Hoddle with a run of clean sheets. Ok maybe I'm getting ahead of myself - but we do have 4 potentially winnable games coming up... if we can get the personnel and performance levels right. I'll take awful 2-1 wins against them all.

Points are what matters this season, not performances, in a season we will almost certainly be in a relegation battle. I’ll take crappy 2-1 wins every day of the week if it means we stay up and can sort the crap defence and midfield out in the summer. Norwich next...

I like a good pee. Always feels so liberating afterwards.

Let's hope Boufal with a bad toe is better than the other dross we've seen so far.

I've stopped watching it here at work because a) my Sky Go stream is crap, b) Saints are crap and c) watching Saints is winding me up which is making me irritable when dealing with my customers. Maybe that's the catalyst we need to win this and go on an unbeaten winning run.

We'll be lucky to beat Norwich at this rate.

Definitely looking that way. It's hard to get excited about us right now. Watford are crap and look like they're going to score with every chance they get.

I like it. I still question whether Stephens and Bednarek are our best two starting centre backs, but that's the situation we find ourselves in. Naturally the central midfield shield in front of them looks week too, but we certainly look to have enough in attack to make Watford crap their pants. IMO first goal will decide the game. They score it, our confidence will shatter. We score it, we can win. Although I still think it'll be a draw today. 2-2.

Budget options then, loans or frees.... Fabio Coentrao as a back up left back/challenger to Bertrand?

Budget options then, loans or frees.... Fabio Coentrao as a back up left back/challenger to Bertrand?

We need a dominant centre back so we can comfortably start only playing two of them. We also need to ship out a couple...somehow. I'm not sure how - weren't Villa interested in Stephens a while back? We need a left back back up, unless McQueen does get fit or Vokins steps up, but as neither seem likely presently, I'd be signing a decent young left back from the lower leagues that could one day step into Bertrand's boots. Who? I don't know, it's been hard following the lower leagues lately on account of having no time! We need a right back first choice, and to ship out Cedric. Valery is fine as a back up/promising talent. We need a defensive midfield brick ****house like Wanyama was to break up play. We lack variety in central midfield IMO. We don't need a GK but Gunn has seemingly regressed this season. Can we afford to stick with McCarthy as first choice? Attack is fine IMO. We have a goalscoring striker fit which is important and reasonable other options (hoping Adams gets his chance and takes it eventually). Attacking midfield options appear to be decent too. If we can sort out the defence (and defensive midfield) we could stay up this season! We literally have one transfer window to get it right - Gao needs to back us or go away.

A must win. I still think Watford are a better team than their position in the table but then the sacking of Gracia was an odd one. I'll take 3 points any which way we can get them, even if the winning goal is scored by Vestergaard who humps the ball in from 2 yards off his crotch. It's not like we're being cut adrift (yet) or are running out of games, but with Villa beating Newcastle tonight, I would like to see us at least catch up to that pack of teams to give us a bit of confidence.

A good point pre-game, a poor point post-game.

Woke up after sleep after Night shift, saw we were 1 nil up, spat out my coffee, logged into Ladbrokes for a cheeky insurance bet, too late, they’d already equalised. Still 1-1 is a good half time score. I’ll happily take that at full time. Still, Arsenal to win close to evens....

Only Holloway Road shuts before and after games (or is exit only), unless there is overcrowding at the others, so Arsenal and Cally Road should be open.

I can’t see anything from this game, but at least we have a full squad available. The problem is the wrong players will end up playing, including that midfield trio that hinders us, and struggling to pick two centre backs of decent calibre, let alone 3. And we will play 3 centre backs. It’ll probably be (352): McCarthy Stephens Bednarek Vestergaard Cedric Hojbjerg Romeu Ward-Prowse Bertrand Redmond Ings (Or include Yoshida for one of the others) which is a loss before we’ve even started. I’d like to see us have a go at them with pacy, attacking football. My team (4231): McCarthy Cedric Yoshida Vestergaard Bertrand Hojbjerg Romeu Djenepo Boufal Redmond Ings but I don’t think we will see Djenepo, Boufal and Redmond play together all season. Either way it’ll be a loss tomorrow. I just hope we keep the score down.

We close it during the busy periods before and after games, but it’s open during them, so you might get lucky. If not you can always walk about 10 minutes to Highbury and Islington for the Victoria Line (changing at Green Park for Jubilee) or walk about 20 minutes to Tufnell Park which is a straight shot to Waterloo on the Northern Line.

JWP would have his takers, for some reason he's rated higher by other teams that by his own fans. Redmond would be snapped up, one of the keepers I reckon - probably McCarthy for someone looking for a steady back up, Bertrand could do a job elsewhere, and we'd probably lose Boufal and Djenepo. I can't see anybody paying the money for Ings that we paid in the summer. Just as well as Ings/Adams/Obafemi/N'Lundulu would probably be a good attack for the Championship. As for Cedric, I really hope it's not over for him here yet, especially as there are question marks over Valery's development this season. Bertrand back on the left will help, but my God do we need defenders in January.

I’m well surprised we lost to Lesotho once!

Same. 34/37

All those were pre-arriving back in the Prem, or back when we were in the Prem before. I was talking about our record of signings from abroad since we've been back in the Prem in 2012. Truly shocking. We had more luck with foreign-based signings in the Prem before we went down in 2005, and of course the few we signed in the lower leagues all mostly contributed to our promotions. Additionally of the listed, Wanyama, Long, Boruc (sort of) and Virgil all came from British clubs too. Really that leaves the successful signings from abroad as Tadic, Pelle, Mane, Alderweireld, Lovren, and I suppose Cedric, and if you're being really generous, the likes of Yoshida and Hojbjerg too. That's a pretty low success rate.

I was scrolling back through the Saints seasons on Wikipedia (12 hour Sunday shift) and looking at our transfers over the years since we've been back in the Premier League and it's amazing how many misses we've had since then signing players from abroad (purchase and loan). We definitely seem to have more luck buying from Britain. I was trying to put together a team of players that have failed with us (or been a disappointment after initial excitement) that we signed from abroad, for one reason or another, and came up with this: Mouez Hassen (Signed as a back up but never played, a Puel legacy) Jeremie Pied (Another Puel back up player, injured at an inopportune time and rarely played)- Florin Gardos (Injured for most of his time here, not terrible but never first choice) Wesley Hoedt (Error prone and cocky) Cuco Martina (Great goal aside, he was pants.) Jordy Clasie (A big disappointment, not built for the Prem.) Saphir Taider (Disappeared before he'd even kicked a ball. Probably wise! ) Juanmi ( Another not built for the Premier League. Did well after leaving) Filip Djuricic (Did very little in his loan spell despite decent young reputation) Manny Mayuka (Another that did very little in his time here) Guido Carillo (Probably the biggest WTF of them all. Cheers Pellegrino.) subs: Forren (could be easily included in that line up), Caceres (A panic signing if ever there was one which speaks more about the people running the club than the player himself), Osvaldo (talented but a nutjob), Elia (that Newcastle game aside) and you can possibly add players like Elyounoussi, Ramirez, Gabbiadini and maybe even Vestergaard that have been disappointments, albeit with some good performances amongst them. Are there any I've forgotten about? Now all signings are hit and miss but that seems a lot to me. I do appreciate we've also had a few successes too, but I'd be surprised if it were as many as the failures. Does our scouting need to improve abroad? It seems a lot of those players were 'manager choices' too. Maybe we should just stick to the domestic market!

I was doing a big food shop in Sainsbury's. I listened to the car radio until Davies scored early on, realised that was probably that, then decided the monthly food shop was more entertaining.

Which branch of Next? I bet it was Staines. I hear he likes to philander the lady staff. I don't want to see Ralph get the sack, but there's only one change you can make at this time of year, and it isn't to the playing staff. He must be walking a tight rope. The question is, who is out there to replace him? We aren't he sort of team that would go for a Big Sam or a David Moyes (probably just as well). We would need someone dominant and not afraid to get us out of this hole. Arsenal are apparently looking at Enrique. It'd be a shame for Emery, I think he's doing a reasonable job there, bringing through the youth alongside senior players. He needs maybe another couple of windows to get the squad to how he wants it - meaning no Ozil on £6 trillion a week or whatever it is.

I suppose as it's a very real possibility, relegation is worth at least speculating about. Unfortunately I don't think it ends well for us with instant promotion either, as there will be a clearing out of the playing department at the end of the season. There will be a mix of lower to mid-table Prem teams signing our better players, the usual in-contract players loaned out because they earn too much, out of contract players, and then one or two I'm not sure what will happen with. Out of contract: Yoshida, Cedric, Danso (end of loan, would he be signed up for the right price, would be a good CB signing for the Championship), Long, Lewis (May stay if we lose McCarthy or Gunn get signed up), Rose. Loaned out or sold to get rid of their wages: Lemina, Forster, Hoedt, Carillo, Elyounoussi. Possibly signed up by Premier League teams wanting what little gems we have: Bertrand, Djenepo, Redmond, Boufal, Gunn or McCarthy (I think one will be sold by someone looking for a keeper. McCarthy could be seen as a solid understudy to someone, or someone may see the promise in Gunn that we apparently saw. I think it's more likely McCarthy will go and we will keep Gunn as I doubt someone would pay what we paid for him. I'd be very surprised if we kept both. But if we did then Lewis would be released at the end of his contract.) I also think JWP would be quite sought after. That would leave a senior squad looking like: GK Gunn (or McCarthy) Lewis RB Valery Ramsay LB McQueen Vokins CB Bednarek Vestergaard Stephens Jones DM Romeu (though I'm torn whether someone would come in for him or not. I'd like to see us keep him.) Reed CM Hojbjerg (again could he be signed up?) Slattery Smallbone AM Armstrong Sims Johnson Hesketh Str Adams Ings Obafemi N'Lundulu With a few promoted youngsters maybe like Jankewitz, Klarer, et al. Ok this is a real "worst case scenario" squad, and more and more relegated sides are able to keep a lot of their squad together and at least charge high prices for them, but we would definitely need a few clever signings to pad out the squad. or we could end up with a team that looks like: Gunn Valery Bednarek Vestergaard McQueen Hojbjerg Romeu Armstrong Sims Ings Adams.