SNSUN

After our early season form I think we would all have liked to have seen a defender or two come in early in January. However as we are currently 3 wins from 3 this calendar year, I think the club has bought themselves some breathing space. As long as a player or two is in by February 1st, the second half of the season we will be stronger.

Reading their forum, some have picked up on that, while others are convinced they’ll already be down by then. Bournemouth are a strange fish, on paper they have a decent team but they’re ravaged by injuries and confidence. King and Wilson up top is a decent attack, but they’ve been restricted to playing Solanke, who’s awful. Howe needs to go back to basics if they want to survive. I wonder if Chelsea will activate their buy back clause on Ake. I reckon they could get their money back and more for him in 18 odd months so it seems like a no brainer.

Err.... OK so we are now looking at 1-4 points to make those fixtures a decent return! Winning the next two would give us a huge free hit against Liverpool - I still think 4 more points from the next 3 games is a good return. Does anyone else feel it in their bones that we are going to give Liverpool a headache, whatever the scoreline?

The Pongracic link is interesting, in that they're basically saying he's off this window for the right price. Granted it may not be to us, but as we're apparently interested, it's not hard to do the Maths. Yes, Stephens and Bednarek have formed a decent partnership at CB, but I'm in the "need another CB" camp in case one gets injured or suspended, especially as we will most probably lose Yoshida at the end of the season, have no faith in Vestergaard and are reluctant to play Danso in his actual position. He was at Bayern Munich until he was 15 - I believe that means he was in the same youth team as Hojbjerg? If my dates are right. Might help him settle quickly if he came. A CB and a RB this window (especially one that can cover LB) would make it a brilliant window, but I'm not holding my breath. My worry is that as good as our form is currently with everyone performing at 8 or higher, a knock of confidence or a couple of injuries could see us slink down the table again.

I hope we keep Che, signs recently that he’s an asset for us, but if we do let him go, I hope it’s for a similar amount than we signed him for, and we would definitely need a replacement as we play 2 up front. Unless the club expect big things from N’Lundulu but I’d rather not risk it, especially having gotten ourselves into a decent position. Maybe the club have a big name striker lined up that will surprise us all...

I say it every time we win 2 in a row in the League, but this is a good chance to win 3 league games in a row for the first time since Koeman. Never underestimate Wolves, but we’re a tricky outfit right now. Would I take a draw? Mmm, yes.

Almost the same. I didn’t want Ralph out per se but changes needed to be made and sacking the manager is the easiest way to make changes mid season. I’m glad we stood by him and he made his own changes. I also voted remain but now the vote is to leave, we should make the best of it.

Immense. And I've only been following it on here/bbc/Ladbrokes website. Ghosts well and truly exorcised. Danny Ings is a sex machine.

Looking at the table, I still think it’ll be a high points total for survival this season, late 30s. But our recent form has really given us a great chance of a mid-table finish - for survival alone I think we only need 4 more wins and a draw or two. Sounds completely doable and a world away from where we were just a couple of months ago. Yes we’re only five points from safety, but clubs down there have their own problems. Of course, we could regress with an injury or two...

VAR again, Sheffield United have their revenge for Tevezgate. That’s them safe and shuts me up that they can still be dragged in to the relegation battle. Also shows how lucky we were that the Djenepo handball wasn’t spotted.

Bore draw this. 1 all.

Sure enough TAA won it. I hate Liverpool.

New contract for the tea lady?

James Maddison is out according to their local rag. Bonus.

Tuesday 21st, around 5pm.

If Ayoze Perez scores a hattrick of hattricks against us on Saturday, I'll get a tattoo of him on my butt. (These words are not legally binding.) Either way we need to be quite solid, they have an abundance of attacking riches including Iheanacho who loves a goal against us (but not as much as against Villa, whom he's now scored most of his goals against). I'm hoping Vardy isn't fully fit, although he looked it last night, but maybe he'll have knackered himself out a bit. Either way the line up writes itself for us, and I'd have Armstrong in over Djenepo, and Long over Adams or Obafemi. (McCarthy, Cedric, Stephens, Bednarek, Bertrand, JWP, Hojbjerg, Armstrong, Redmond, Long, Ings. Subs: Gunn, Yoshida, Danso, Romeu, Djenepo, Boufal, Adams.)

Well they have Dier that can play there and Sissoko at a pinch (although he's now injured) and I think they've tried Foyth there recently (unsuccessfully) but maybe they're looking to bring someone in.

Not transfer news on our front, but it might inadvertently be good for us - Palace are set to secure the loan signings of Cenk Tosun and Kyle Walker-Peters. Palace have been looking to add a right back to their squad, and have been one of the teams linked with Maehle, so them going for Walker-Peters (who we have been looking to sign too, but Spurs only want to loan him out) is a positive - one less team interested.

Must be yellows then.

Choudhury has looked decent since he came on IMO. (I was about to post until his header just then!)

I might be wrong but I’m sure I heard cards were now competition specific. So no sending off would affect our game against them. Injury’s though...

Curtis Jones goal of the round for Liverpool. It was decent, but if it had been scored by some crapoid from Craptown United the media wouldn’t be yanking themselves over it nearly as much as they are that a Liverpool youngster scored it. Vokins’ was better anyway.

Didn't Ralph say he wanted one transfer in early or am I imagining that? For £7.5 million and with Palace sniffing around, I'm surprised Maehle hadn't been put on the first place to Heathrow on NYD!

Norwich (as per) please.

I'm not saying Red Bull is the way to go, but if we want to stay in this league AND compete regularly with the bigger boys, we need great investment in the club that a lot of SaintsWeb doubts Gao can give us. IF Red Bull is the clear and obvious choice, then so be it. Maybe more Mane's coming our way!?!? On the other hand we could be looking back at this thread in a couple of years time, and going .