SNSUN

Joakim Maehle was apparently given an asking price by Genk of £7.5 million today. While I don't know how good he is, aside from what websites etc say about him, and the fact we've been trailing him for a year, that seems like a good price for a right back that will potentially be first choice at the start of next season.

I wouldn't sell him for anything as right now a goalscoring striker is the difference between safety and relegation unless Adams or someone steps up. But there's also his injury record to look at. He seems as fit as ever, but how Saints-like would it be if he got an England call up then got crocked for the season. I wonder if £50-60 million would make the board's heads turn? Hope not, especially as he's a local lad and seems to want to do what's best for the club.

JWP covered the second-most amount of ground over the Christmas period. Engine. [TABLE=class: sp-story-body__table] [TR] [TH=colspan: 2]Which players ran furthest?[/TH] [/TR] [TR] [TD]N'Golo Kante (Chelsea)[/TD] [TD]48.01km[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]James Ward-Prowse (Southampton)[/TD] [TD]46.71km[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Fred (Man Utd)[/TD] [TD]46.49km[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Ashley Westwood (Burnley)[/TD] [TD]45.52km[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Dele Alli (Tottenham)[/TD] [TD]45.3km[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD]Source: Opta[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

By comparison look at Rafael Varane, played only 23 league games for Lens, was captain in that time, and joined Real Madrid where he’s gone on to be one of the best defenders in the world. All players have to start somewhere and if he’s turning Scout’s heads this early in his career, he must have something about him. I’m not saying he’ll go on to be a Varane, but still... The thing with a centre back is, six weeks ago we were screaming out for experience to plug the gap. Now we have a partnership forming of mid-20 year olds, so attracting a top youngster may be a good way to go about things. (I still don’t know what to think about the Danso signing though!)

Nominated for December player of the month. Surely a no brainer but as it’s a public vote it will probably be TAA that wins it. Get voting people, Danny’s the man!https://www.premierleague.com/news/1552879

Well we shall see whether they are "on crack" or not come the end of January. After all Ralph has already stated he's looking to bring in players, and he's not going to paying for them with Unicorn farts is he, so he must already have a pre-agreed budget. IMO I think our budget will be less than the £30-35 million quoted in the papers but that's just conjecture.

“Villa lose Wesley and Heaton for the season” Well if that isn’t a headline that screams relegation I don’t know what is! But it made me wonder if they’d be after a new Keeper, and whether we could offload Forster on a permanent, maybe in a battle with Celtic. I guess it depends what the terms of his loan are.

Daily Mail apparently has it at £35m plus any sales I read which should be enough for 2/3 decent players. I'd be very surprised if we didn't go for Maehle pretty soon, he seems to be a long term target in a position we've been looking to fill.

Yes, they are two that I would rest - but as we currently have no right back or left back cover, both really need to play. (Short of using the likes of Ramsay and Vokins or players out of position.)

Nah, I'd still choose Hasenhuttl. We certainly need a change up if we want to continue the League form but I wouldn't be changing too much as we should be taking this competition seriously. Perhaps this is a chance for those that haven't seen game time since the 9-0 to make up for it, while resting a couple of the harder working first team players. Gunn Cedric (if Valery still not fit) Yoshida Bednarek Bertrand (unless Ralph feels like giving Vokins a shot) Romeu Hojbjerg Armstrong Boufal Djenepo Obafemi

With Yoshida OOC at the end of the season (and most likely off), Danso nowhere and Vestergaard tipped to re-join his old club (or be offloaded somewhere if not there), we still need to be seeing a CB come in this window - but I agree, it's a less pressing concern than it was a couple of months ago. A partnership is blossoming and both players have stepped it up - however an injury or suspension to one of them and we could see the brick wall come down. A CB is a must this window. Jack Stephens ≥ Harry Maguire...

Crazy League - 12 points between 5th and 19th. So really we could go either way. Keep playing as we have been and we should pick up enough points for a top half finish. 7-10 would be a decent return from those 5 fixtures and as we now know, we already have 3 of those in the bank, so we are now looking at 4 to 7 for the next 4 fixtures. (If anything, 4 from the next 4 now seems a little tight!) Anything more than ten points is dreamland. With our new found confidence we should be looking to give the FA Cup a good go too.

Surely Ings for POTM

Had the 9-0 been a mere 3-0 against Leicester, we'd even be above Everton in 10th (and top half of the table right now). Huge progress. And with every win, we are chipping away at that goal difference, something draws don't accomplish. Full credit to Ralph for turning this around, and full credit to the board etc for not pulling the trigger when they could so easily have done that.

Another clean sheet? Against another "top 6" team? What sorcery is this! I don't know which body part Ralph sold to the devil to get the defence sorted after looking so shyte in the first half of the season, but long may it continue. Ings can have my babies anytime.

SURELY

Time wasting sub time?

3 shots on target against Gazzaniga - I'd be smashing them in from all angles against him. Annoyingly for all our seemingly good work, all it takes is one moment. This would be a massive 3 points though...

Ooh that's one to keep an eye on for the Fantasy team... Kane hammy.

Watford down to ten men

And full of murderous rage if we don't even get a point.

Are we hunting for a second or should we look to bring on Romeu to shore things up?

Will it ever get to the point that a striker with an uncontrollable erection gets VAR'd for offside I wonder? Best make it 10 inches. Nobody has a 10 incher.

Normally I would say 29 points should see them only needing another 6 or 7 for safety but with teams near the bottom (including us) picking up points, I think the safety mark could be quite high this year - somewhere around the 40 point mark. That's why I wouldn't personally rule them out yet - they have the squad that could easily get demoralised from a few defeats in a row and see them plummet. It's still the fixture on the calendar that Saints and other teams should be looking to try and get three points from in 2020. Also I look at Liverpool, and genuinely I think that if they have the title sewn up early, they'll rest players for other competitions - and that bodes well for teams that play them towards the end of the season. Burnley, Brighton and Villa have them in April, and Newcastle in May.

How do you as a fan get rid of VAR? Same way you get rid of Gao, or Lowe, or whoever - vote with your feet. Don't go to games. Unfortunately VAR is here to stay, so it would be wasted effort. The only hope we have is that it gets better, quicker, smoother, like Rugby. I'd give the Stockley Park lot a minute to make a decision, or the refs decision stands. Start the clock. 59...58...57... Anyway haven't we benefitted from it more than it's hindered us so far? I guess that will even itself out in time, but still we've done OK so far.