SNSUN

There's millions of pounds still at stake and that'd at least cover some of the wages for crap players we're still paying. Ergo the teams we put out against West Ham and Huddersfield still need to be fairly strong. Maybe bring in Jones, Ramsey, Slattery or Johnson but do it against Huddersfield if anything. A stronger team for West Ham please. Diop got highlighted against Spurs as having a good game, so keep Long and Ings in with Redmond for a bit of pace, maybe have Lemina next to Hojbjerg and Romeu in midfield giving JWP a rest, Valery and Targett wing backs with Bertrand in a back 3 with Bednarek and hopefully Yoshida, and maybe bring in McCarthy for a change. West Ham are weird, crap at times, decent at times. Along with Everton they get the "most inconsistent team of the season" award. They're beatable but I'd take a point. Then a home win against Hudds should see us finish above Burnley.

Goalscoring machine! Sell Austin and Gallagher, keep Shane next year as he offers something different and seems to be fairly nonplussed at not being first choice. Ings, Long, Obafemi plus a new striker should give us enough next season up top.

Safety and still Huddersfield at home to come. Shame we didn't win, i still feel looking at the goal differences that we could finish above Burnley. If you'd offered me 15th after the Hughes regime, I'd have torn your arm off for it. Summer rebuild starts now, the sooner the better but most importantly... ...FFS KEEP RALPH HASENHUTTL!

Respect the point!

Elyounoussi Armstrong Sims Yoshida Vestergaard Ings (mc)Carthy Targett Obafemi Ramsey Yan Valery Those players initials spell out my thoughts on the game! Seriously though Bournemouth are a strange team in that they have some very good players interspersed with some not so good ones! Ake, Wilson, King, Brooks and Fraser are all weapons for them, and most would probably slot straight into our side. Still a victory would mathematically see us safe and would definitely put us on a platform to finish higher up in the table than we expected at the end of the Hughes reign! Do we have enough about us? Tough one to call but I think we can win this.

2 correct results and a correct scoreline so far! I could rival Lawrenson with predos like these! 7 points in the next 3 would be tasty though - 4-6 would perhaps be my revised prediction as the season draws to a close...

As a cup half full (normally) person I hate to get to half time and concentrate on the negatives, but "we will regret not taking those chances" is fresh on my mind. Still, if you'd have offered 1-0 at half time, I'd have torn your arm off. Respect the point, if that's what it comes to - and we could use Spurs winning too!

I had this game down as a 1-1 with Watford potentially wanting to avoid injuries before their big day - but after seeing the line up I'm not so sure. If we want to get anything out of tonight's game we need to see the best of JWP which we haven't of late. Doucoure and Capoue will be key for them, Capoue has a history of scoring against us. A loss is no great shakes, although we'll have gone from looking at the teams above us at who we can catch, back to who is approaching us from behind! Still I'm confident in safety, with Bournemouth and Huddersfield at home still to play and really only a couple of points needed, we'll find them from somewhere, even if not tonight. A point would be massive though - respect the point!

Gunn, Valery, Bednarek, Yoshida, Bertrand, Romeu, Hojbjerg, JWP, Armstrong, Redmond, Ings. Subs: McCarthy, Stephens, Targett, Slattery, Sims, Austin, Long. If Vestergaard is out. Tempting as it is to start Long after his incredible recent scoring extravaganza, I hope we leave him as an impact sub. Lemina on the bench or too soon? This is a bit of a weird game really, as we're both still in a relegation battle, but barring a strange set of results, we're both safe. I have us down for losing this game, which is no great shakes, but we could just as easily turn up and win it, looking at our recent form. It's possible one goal either way will nick it. I can't see a goalfest.

Saints - 43 Points - 14th Relegated - Brighton - 34 Points Champions - Liverpool (Now I need a shower! But City don’t have Championship League to worry about, so I’m on the fence a bit.) Other two CL spots - Arsenal and Spurs Promoted - Norwich and Leeds Playoff winner - WBA unless Boro sneak in, then watch a Pulis borefest. FA Cup - Man City but not underestimating Watford Champions League Final - Barcelona Pompey - Lose playoff semis Eurovision - Australia

Did Sven Mislintat ever end up anywhere or was that just a pipe dream?

“This is not just Saints, this is Hasenhuttl’s Saints.” ...said in sexy M&S voice. Not in ages have I been so confident of us getting the job done, if, of course, there’s even a job that needs doing. And I think 36 points will be enough for survival, not that we'll finish on that.

BARgains can be had if you look hard enough... Fabian Schar at Newcastle is testament to that for 3 million. Here’s an article on him... https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/hidden-talent-making-fabian-schar-16131684 Don’t ask why I chose Schar, he’s just the first that popped into my head. Incidentally, our own defensive bargain Bednarek gets a nod in that article for most Interceptions. I think if you pay big money, you should expect a relatively complete player, but our transfer philosophy seems to have been to pay big money for big team back-ups like Carrillo, Hoedt, Lemina and Gabbiadini. I hope that’s an end to that philosophy.

I do think it will be more interesting next season with the top six, Chelsea maybe losing their best players, Liverpool's players will be coveted by bigger clubs than them, Spurs adapting to a new stadium potentially without Poch, United finding their feet under Solskjaer maybe without Rashford and Pogba, depending on the outs, the top 6 could shrink next season and you may find one or two of them in with the common crowd! We can hope. I have Saints finishing 14th this season, I stick by that for now.

The players we should be keeping are: GK: McCarthy, Gunn, RB: Valery, LB: Bertrand, CB: Bednarek, Yoshida, Vestergaard, CM: Romeu, Hojbjerg, Lemina (if he can get fit, but if a big bid comes in, sell him), Slattery AM: Redmond, Armstrong, Sims, JWP, Str: Ings, Obafemi. Based on that we need a RB, CB, AM and Striker. So 4 signings. We look light in attacking positions. Those are the players to keep IMO, then we need to pad out around them or use youngsters like Lewis, Jones, Ramsey and Johnson or others. Of course we're not going to find buyers for ALL of the rest, so I guess some players will remain or go out on loan. I expect we'll still have Stephens, Targett and Elyounoussi (unless bids come in). That means the outs are: Forster, Rose, Long, Austin, Gallagher, Barnes, Carillo, Boufal (although I'm with some in thinking he could have a future under Hasenhuttl if his temperament is right), Hoedt, Davis, McQueen, Reed, Hesketh (Do those last two have a future?), Clasie.

Even if we screw our winnable games up, we have a much better goal difference than them, And I'd guesstimate 2 more points will be enough even then. Cardiff would need 8 points if we get 2. They won't do that, and even if they do, IMO we will get more than two points this season, it's a no-brainer. In fact they already need 6 points to overhaul us if we don't get any more points! (Which won't happen.) As has has been said on this thread, if we monumentally **** up safety and get relegated, we absolutely would deserve it. I think some of you are giving Cardiff more credit than they deserve, and even if they do miraculously pull a few wins out the bag, it's Brighton and their run of awful fixtures that should be worried IMO.

Cardiff are down. My consolation prize is £2k if Saints go down and I never win anything! Seriously though I just can't see them staying up. On their forum they're talking about 3 wins for safety - they've had 8 in 32. I'm quietly confident in our survival and think we should be looking to gun down Bournemouth rather than what's going on behind us. My predos for our last six fixtures... Saints vs Wolves: 2-1 win (they'll be deflated. Ings will be on the scoresheet.) Newcastle vs Saints: 2-0 loss (just an inkling. They spanked us 3-0 last year and even though Kenedy has done bugger all since, he might like this fixture. Still Rondon is in form and Schar is fit. Toughie.) Watford vs Saints: 1-1 (Their minds will be on Wembley but at the same time they have some quality.) Southampton vs Bournemouth: 2-0 win. (Not being biased, I think we will beat them. Hassenhuttl should be eyeing this as the second best chance for 3 points after Huddersfield.) West Ham vs Saints: 0-0 (Toughest one to call - could go either way. They're inconsistent but have better players, we probably have a better team ethic... and coach. End of season stalemate.) Saints vs Huddersfield: 3-1 (Party time at St Mary's as a season that started out badly ends on a high note. A consolation goal for Huddersfield gives them something to cheer about too.) 11 points, 14th place. Tasty.

He was a mistake waiting to happen for the first few years but a lot of that was occasionally down to being played out of position, not getting regular game time and being overshadowed by better players/bigger names. However he has improved, and as can be seen when he replaced Stephens recently, we're better with him than without him. Seems like a nice bloke too. A very good signing as it happens showing that you shouldn't write off a young player after a season or even two.

Made them work very hard for that. Thought Hojbjerg was MOTM and Redmond was excellent, but everyone played well, even Sims when he came on. Shame about their third goal because we pushed up for an equaliser, but their first was offside and their second, while a great goal, someone should have brought Salah down for a Professional Foul. Valery isn't the finished article, but he is going to be some player. Trent A-A looked knackered dealing with Redmond. Still, Long scored which we got to cheer, and we gave a good account of ourselves in a free hit match. I'm not disheartened by the result. A toughie against Wolves next but we can beat them. Still hope City win the title.

I have a horrible feeling about this, their team looks very good on paper. We've been relying on midfield scoring but they'll have their hands full, so it's either Redmond or Long who are both iffy at hitting the target if we want to score. Keep the score down and sendings off for them would be nice. If we can score the first goal I'll be ecstatic.

A night out in London is expensive, when you factor in Limos, VIP areas, unlimited bubbly and some premium poontang. (For libel purposes, I am not suggesting Danny Rose pays for premium poontang. He's a Premier League footballer so he probably gets it for free.) Still I hope he's saving up or has a future career lined up, he says he will retire around 33/34, and the money he's used to will quite rapidly dry up.

I still think we're safe, give or take a point or two. Reading the Cardiff forum they're not concerned with catching us, just Burnley. We should really be looking up now looking at where we could finish; 12th is still possible, I think beyond that is unlikely. If you offered me 14th now I'd take it. Over-confident? Perhaps, but that's the Hasenhuttl effect. This is the most comfortable relegation battle we've been in the 30 years of supporting Saints!

No link or rumour but I was looking at Lyon's squad the other day and my goodness they have an abundance of attacking riches! Dembele, Fekir, Traore, not to mention Depay. While Fekir is probably Liverpool bound, I'd love to see Bertrand Traore or Dembele here. Good young strikers than can score goals! Also, Would anyone have Calum Chambers back? Versatile, now has experience, wouldn't be particularly expensive, covers RB , CB and DM...

If anything, a Cardiff win today will have Palace and Newcastle worried! Suddenly the mid-30's (I predicted 34-36 points would be enough I think) don't seem so cosy. Still, I'm confident Saints will see the job out over the season, and if there's any team I care about winning today, it's Sunderland!

After the arse-puckering finale to last season with Pellegrino's godawful under-performing dreary side being kept up by Hughes who it seems had more luck than judgement, it's almost a comfortable relegation battle this season, if that makes sense. Hasenhuttl has come in and shown tactical nous, has streamlined the squad, and without signing anyone new, has instilled belief in the players he inherited. If only we'd had him since the start of the season. He's the must-keep of the summer - let him bring in a few new players to complete the team (essentially a CB, RB, Str and AM should cover it) and we should be back up in the fight for "best of the rest" next season.