SNSUN

So oddly I’m supporting a fifth of the Premier League teams today, Us and Arsenal to see us jump a place above Burnley, and City and Wolves to stop the dippers winning the title. Ultimately just seeing us finish on 40+ Points would be a nice end to the season.

Gazzaniga Alderweireld Van Dijk Lovren Clyne Oxlade-Chamberlain Wanyama Lallana Mané Lambert (umm) Ings! manager: Pochettino. OK couldn't think of an eleventh defector but that's quite some list since we've been back in the Prem. 3 or 4 in the final I reckon too. Oh how I'd love a Wanyama 30 yard winner after a mistake by Lovren. ABL - anyone but Liverpool. Sadly it'll be Liverpool.

Wikipedia has his height at 5’11’’...

RIP Toomer.

Gunn Bednarek Jones Bertrand Valery Lemina Romeu Targett JWP Redmond Long subs: McCarthy, Ramsay, Vokins, Hojbjerg, Armstrong, Ings, Austin. Forster, Stephens and Moi blasted into space in a rocket. Hojbjerg given a break to see how Romeu and Lemina get on together. Long over Ings only over recent form. Must win really as 15th is on offer with the extra dosh that comes with it. (Helps pay off some of the wages.)

I keep thinking back to the Wolves 6-0 when Saganowski scored a hat trick away from home when we were all expecting us to get tonked as the big players were out injured. Let's hope Ings and Long can bang in a few like that because we certainly aren't keeping a clean sheet with Stephens and Forster keeping the goals out. Is this Elyounoussi's last shot? Annoyingly, for Premier Fantasy Football purposes, I put Rice in defence and he's out. The player that will come off the bench to replace him? Redmond, who's on the bloody bench for us. I knew I should have put Ryan Fraser as first choice sub. It's not a terrible line up but there are 3 glaring weaknesses. I look forward to a stronger squad next year.

I was in a bar in Paphos when he scored the Reading equaliser with some other Saints fans. Memories.

It’ll be interesting to see if we get enough points from the Ralph tenure to show we could have stayed up even without the Hughes 9 Points. 29 points so far and Cardiff are on 31, I think one win would do it. We’d have stayed up in a 23 game Ralph season. That is some going. Man’s a genius.

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.