SNSUN

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.

Not yet. We’ve had tough fixtures, we were always going to be low on points barring some outstanding performances that we just don’t have the players to accomplish. Granted I thought we could have picked up points against Bournemouth and Burnley, but them aside we’ve had a tough run of it. We have 27 games still to play, still time to rise up the table. 8 points should have us towards mid-table, 5 at least would keep us in touch with those above the relegation zone. With 16 games gone we are then approaching the mid point of the season, and 4 points or fewer from the next 5 and I think we are well implanted into a relegation battle.

8 points gets us firmly back on track. Doable. Any less than 5 and we are relegation fodder.

Well I don’t have to lick anyone’s winky tip but I was sweating balls for a while. If there is anything like a good defeat, this was probably it. Still starting to get cut adrift at the bottom now as other mediocre teams pick up points. But we have our ‘easier’ spell to come, so today’s improved performance is a positive sign.

10 or so minutes before the Aguero goal I stuck 20 on a City win. It was the first time it went above Evens all day.

Looking down a league, there's Hegazi and Martins Indi that could be available for a cheapy (seeing as I'd be surprised if we had much in the way of money for squad investment come January). #justsaying Heck, I'd happily take Phil Jones off United's hands if the price was right. Or anyone half decent just to change things up.

I'm so confident neither will happen, I'm safe. Though if by some miracle we do beat City, I reserve the right to retract that comment! I still believe the best form of defence is attack, and we have a decent attack. They need to ignore what the 6/7 players behind them are doing and press City. Their defence is their weak spot. (Though I'd still swap every last one of them for ours.)

If Norwich can beat them... Seriously I would lick anybody’s bum hole for 3 points today, even for a draw I’d probably lick a winky tip.

Two of Redmond, Boufal and Djenepo have to play IMO, so if Djenepo still isn’t fit then it should be Redmond and Boufal. Then up top Adams and Ings. A nice front 4. I don’t want to think about the rest of the team... ...oh OK. McCarthy Cedric/Valery Bednarek Danso Vokins Hojbjerg Romeu Redmond Boufal Ings Adams A left back at left back please, irrespective of his experience.

I agree to a point. I actually think we had a half decent summer window in terms of attacking recruits. Granted we couldn't get out of the Ings signing but at least we didn't sign him and think our striking options were done. If you'd told me at the start of the window, including Ings, we'd spend 50 odd million and we'd sign an exciting African young talent and a high scoring Championship striker (I like being linked with the lower leagues talent) I'd have said, attacking wise, that would be a half decent window. What we didn't address is the glaring lack of quality further back aside from a panic signing almost after the window had shut. We have far too many Centre Backs on the books, and not a really good one amongst them, brought a right back in that had previously been loaned out and played him as the young player trusted to play there has been found wanting, only have one left back that often doesn't seem to want to be here, and have only 3 central midfielders, with one defensive midfielder amongst them, with no discernable game changing talent. Ok, Adams hasn't scored yet, but he will given game time. But I think the money we spent on attack was OK. The woeful disregard for the defensive positions is why we're in this mess, and why our attacking talent have so far struggled to shine.

Well Stephens’s consolation goal won me £37 so it wasn’t all bad! I still think our best chance of getting anything from games is to attack teams. Maybe not City, but neither are we good enough to defend for 90 minutes in the hope we don’t concede.

I look at the team and defensively (and I include central midfield in that) we are devoid of much quality. You could argue McCarthy should be first choice GK but even he's far from perfect, and you could argue Cedric and Bertrand as full backs are mid-table quality. But then comes the Centre Backs, Bednarek, Vestergaard, Yoshida, Danso, Stephens. Are there even two half decent ones in there, let alone 3? It's no wonder we appear to be after a centre back in January, as long as it's not shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Then there's defensive midfield. Again Romeu is probably a mid-table defensive midfielder, but that's it. Why we didn't keep Reed and give him a shot this season I'll never know, we're hardly blessed with defensive midfielders. I actually think our attack is half decent, especially with Djenepo to come back, although it is our complete incompetence in defence that means the likes of Boufal and Adams are being sacrificed presently. Effectively a mid-table Saints team could be: McCarthy Cedric ------- ------- Bertrand Romeu -------- Djenepo Boufal Redmond Ings which shows the glaring absences of quality from the defence. Can we turn it around? Yes we can beat teams around us at the bottom of the table, if we can sort the defence out and actually attack teams, which is our strength. But my God do we need to strengthen big time in January. Can we afford to? Well that's the question. The only 'pro' from Friday's thrashing is that it occurred fairly early into the season with a chance to change things one way or another.

Correction. Or Djenepo if he’s fit...

Because Bertrand is suspended and we’re **** out of left backs otherwise. Sticking Danso at left back, de Bruyne or whoever will have a field day. At least a promising young left back, trained in that position, may have some idea of how to perform there. And who knows, he might do well. Cedric aside, there’s nobody else I would want to see in that position. If Cedric is fit, fine, give it to him, but if not, it hasn’t to be Vokins. But of course, we all know it will be Danso...

Another two goals for Jarrod Bowen at Hull. We should definitely be looking to bring in in January, even if we go down he’d be a great asset!

If we start next season in the Championship, I’d be more than happy to see Valery start as our first choice right back. But he was thrown into Premier League football last season at a tender age and did OK, at a time we’d loaned Cedric out and had nobody else to call on. But he’s not Premier League ready, yet.

Man City twice in a row after a 9 nil thrashing! FFS. Simply we need to mix it up in one of the games, and as the first is the Cup game, that might as well be the one. Firstly, no more 3 centre backs. Yes we’re crap with 2 but we’re also crap with 3 so we might as well have the extra attacker on the pitch, even against the likes of City. Secondly, no more 3 central midfielders. They aren’t good enough. Thirdly, no Gunn. He’s not ready yet and McCarthy is better. So... injuries pending... McCarthy Valery (unless Cedric is fit) Danso Yoshida Vokins Romeu Hojbjerg (who else? Slattery? ) Armstrong Redmond Adams Ings Or get Djenepo back on crutches or whatever, it seems we need him.

I remember tonking Sunderland 8-0. Good times...