SNSUN

As a lover of domestic abuse, I hope my next wife supports Portsmouth. (Joking of course! My sister doesn't favour a football team.:-))

This my Norwich-supporting wife's birthday today, and that's her present sorted. A replay is a worse result than a loss. An extra game is what we didn't need. Still in it though, I guess. Might think differently in May if we're at Wembley.

In, just, but he needs to pull a couple of miracles out of the hat in the transfer window, along with some decent results in January, or I'm reconsidering my vote.

Hate to say it but I agree. £60 million is a cracking amount of money. He'll be tough to replace but it's not impossible, and that is 2x£30 million signings to improve the team or 3x£20 million signings. (Blindly ignoring the fact we'll probably spend about £10 million of that and bank the rest...)

Can't believe we're losing to WBA. Jeez. I know they're better this season but they're not Barcelona. I've never been so glad to be working.

True, but he does have a better than 1 goal every 2 games ratio (albeit in Holland), gets a few assists, is tall, and is only 22. For those reasons I'd say he's worth the risk. I doubt he'd be that expensive either. I still think we need to strengthen the whole backbone. Fonte needs replacing long term (I firmly believe VVD will be here at least until the summer), we still need a midfielder to boss the middle of the park, and of course we need a striker. I'm looking forward to the transfer window but I won't be glued to Sky Sports News like most years, as i really don't think we'll be that busy. The top 6 will be though IMO.

I always back he managers initially, you have to give them some time to put across their philosophies, tactics, signings and ideas before the team can gel, as rarely does any team just click when they get a new manager. Look at Conte at Chelsea this year, they took a while to click but now they're flying. In Puel's case though I've become a tad doubtful. The signings made in the window were OK, but to put such faith in Redmond when everyone could see we were a natural striker short was concerning. Some of the results this season have been good, but some have also been worrying too. I do however like the way he's given youth a chance. As to whether he should be 'in or out', well clearly he should be in, after all this was never going to be more than a transition season. It's not his fault that the traditional top 6 have all learned from the Leicester lesson, and if 7th is the best we can achieve this season, we're well in the running for it. IMO He should be judged at the end of this season to see whether we're making strides to improve, or regress into a team that sits lower mid-table or even battles relegation. We have a decent defence at present but I'm looking to see how he deals with the possible exits of Van Dijk (a huge hole to fill) and Fonte, and of course whether he can sign a striker.

Nope! Feliz Navidad! :-)

Merry Christmas motherfunkers. I'm off out to show youngsters that kick scooting is a man's game. :-)

Pardew will sign him for his next club... Swansea. Put your Christmas on it. (Don't!)

This. Similar pace but Long offers more at present. Redmond would be a better impact sub when opposition legs are tiring.

JRod for Berahino? **** that!

Just got in 20 mins ago and whizzed through the first half on Sky+. I just caught the JRod goal as live. We look confident but Bournemouth are a team with goals in them. I'd be more confident with a third. Boufal looking great so far from what I've seen, he also works so hard for the team. Tadic coming on

Decent point had they not been down to 10 men most of the game. Need a striker. Thank God January is close.

We were linked with him a few years ago before he got a bad injury. Was class back in the day, but we're not the sort of team to sign injury prone players. :-) I'm going to be brave and say that the bottom 3 in the Premier League currently (Swansea, Hull, Sunderland) will be the bottom 3 in May. Ergo we should look at pilfering Sigurdsson and maybe one or two others. ;-)

Haller is most likely I would think, and has continued his goal scoring from last season. Gets a few assists too. The cheapish but dangerous option would be Berahino. We know he can score goals when fit, but he's a seemingly troublesome person. A new Pahars would be nice.

I'd say the backbone needs strengthening. CB, DM, Str. Won't happen. Maybe Berahino will be a target because we love a bargain and his contract is up in June. Who knows. We do need strengthening though. We aren't getting relegated but this could be a more disappointing season than anyone realised. The financial model is good, sensible, but if we don't loosen the purse strings a little we'll come a cropper soon enough.

I'm usually glass half full but we've played 14 league games and only won 4, are out of Europe and have tricky League Cup and FA Cup fixtures to come. I do think we'll get better through this season but right now it's not looking too good. Need a striker in January though, and longer term the CB positions concern me.

I really wanted him to do well here but after a reasonable start he's just faded badly. At one point last night in the first half he picked the ball up in our half of the pitch and started running, and Romeu (of all people) was running clear. A more intelligent player would have played Romeu in for a brilliant chance, but he just kept running to the byline. In the end he set Romeu up for a header but it was an awful assist attempt. I hope he gets better, but at the moment he's little more than an impact sub.

FFS I was hoping to avoid spousal beatings this season - last time it happened was when we signed Redmond...

Pleased with this, Sam looks strong, mature and confident, and the best bit about him is he can play anywhere on the left. With Targett and Bertrand, we have an exceptional trio of left back choices, to the point that even if one of them leave in the summer, it doesn't weaken us substantially.

Hull please. Yes they beat us in the league, but over two legs we can do them. Mourinho looks like he wants to win this by putting out strong teams, so better for us to meet them in the final. (Or Liverpool knock them out in the semi!)

I've never been happier to lose £648 on an insurance bet. I mean, Christmas is cancelled, but at least I get to see Saints in a semi final...

IMO there's more chance of me crapping out solid gold nuggets for the rest of my life than of VVD going to Everton. His consistancy is astonishing and he's still at a great age to improve further. Virgil is going to the very top. The best bit? We got him tied down to a six year contract this year so he leaves when we say so. Fantastic business by the club. The worst thing? He'll be a ***** to replace. Especially as we'll be looking for 2 CBs as Fonte isn't getting any younger...

And yet he still took credit for our back six. Despite the fact for large swathes of the season he preferred Martina over Soares. Ungracious **** ignoring the Sims question too. I've gone right off him. Hope he continues to struggle there and he replaces the departing Lukaku, Coleman and Barkley with some crud from the Dutch league.