SNSUN

Weird, my Palace mate that goes to a lot of games thinks he's become their most important player. Differing views etc etc

How much is an extra place worth to the club? About £500k? Every little helps. I actually think we could finish as high as 7th but 8th or 9th is more realistic.

66 on a triple word score then. Makings of the sign of the devil there, should steer clear. :-)

Woo, placed on Suntiep.

I love the Cheltenham festival. I'm still rubbish at betting though! Hurricane Fly would've killed a few people there, good one for the bookies. I had Our Conor each way, looks like the horse is getting put down... (Edit: he's still alive, just injured) I don't half pick em!

Norwich haven't scored more than one goal in ages, in fact only twice this whole season in the league and one of those was the first game of the season. They rely heavily on set pieces to get their goals. Bassong has been terrible lately. These are the ways we beat Norwich, restrict their set pieces, attack Bassong and score 2 or more goals. Hughton is a poor manager, they're in real danger of relegation this year. Just look at their last 4 fixtures of the season. They need to be safe by then...

My favourite game of the season, me vs the wife, winner gets bragging rights. We'll both be there too, which makes it spicier!

We wouldn't be SFC without a summertime drama of some sorts, but Pochettino signing a new contract indicates Katherina could be staying and means we have greater chance of keeping the talent. Hope this is true.

That job Is cursed, apparently his predecessor died too. Well I'm an LUL employee and I owe a lot to him so I'm sad to see him go, but can understand why Londoners aren't sad about it. Be aware though, the RMT has dozens just like him to replace him with.

I knew he was a Saints fan, but to put him in a Southampton best XI is brave...

This. Oh and Trousers, I wait for the day that becomes your avatar! FWIW, it's over. We lost to Sunderland with a stronger team than they had. It happens. Some people on here need to achieve that relaxed feeling you get seconds after blowing your load into a fitty. (Unless fitty is underage and instead of relaxation, panic ensues...)

Not sure about outside the box but I remember Ostenstadt scoring while sitting on his arse.

I'd be a lot more confident in keeping our youngsters if we still had a man around that could arrange to have a horses head placed in their beds... Seriously, this summer, keeping Pochettino is the key IMO. I believe that whoever is owner of the club, Kat or whomever she sells it to, must keep some cohesion around the place, and keeping Pochettino may meaning keeping, and building upon, our best players. If the rumours that we're looking at Javi Gracia as his replacement, that needs to be done as soon as the season finishes, to give the players a chance to know him. My fear though is if we lose Pochettino, the key players could be sold on. (Although granted we'd be well compensated for them.) However it was encouraging to hear Shaw gush after his England appearance, saying that he couldn't believe that at the age of 18 he'd played for England AND had over 50 Premier League appearances to his name. Regular football may be our biggest bargaining chip in keeping the likes of Shaw, over losing him to Chelsea or the Manchesters where he may only be 2nd choice. As a Saints fan, as for the academy, I have a sense of pride in seeing the players it produces. Granted it's not massively consistant in the players it churns out, it's only as good as the personnel within it, and as we saw from our relegation season in the CCC you don't always find a diamond like the few we have in our current team (or an un cut diamond in Lallana). How we could've used Shaw back then when we were relying on Molyneux, how we could've used Lallana when we were relying on Ryan Smith, or Chambers in lieu of Lloyd James. Seeing our youngsters sold on is sad, but I still have a sense of pride when I see Oxlade-Chamberlain. The benefit now we're in the Premier League is that we can demand more for our youngsters than when we were in the lower leagues, which I guess is the biggest plus of all. I'm sure we'd all love to see the same set of players start next season, but with one or two additions, but it will be a struggle, especially as so many of them are now in the limelight.

This. More for improvement than anything.

Lovren for me. Cracking signing, must be kept. Lallana, Cork and JRod for the other 2 spots. Young player goes to Chambers. To keep Clyne out in his first full season takes some doing.

a) Fonte IS good enough as a back up, but agree not for the first team. b) Lescott is slow, and will be 32 in the summer. Not exactly what we look for in a player, although short term would do a job if we also sign a good youngster and blood him ready for first team action. Dan Burn looks like he can be a good player for the future, Grant Hanley could make the step up and Harry Maguire has been getting rave reviews at Sheffield United. All those could learn from Lescott for a season. Chambers has looked very good when I've seen him, very confident for a first seasoner, it's Clyne I feel sorry for. We can't lose him. Two top right backs is a great asset to have.

Could put Jon Forte in there, for the lols...

Guly? He's the other option for the rest of the season. If he's going in the summer, I'd rather give Gallagher the chance to prove himself. Very weak in this department as proved with the missed chances today.

Should've scored there.

So far today I've heard the TalkSport presenters say that Lovren grew up a Liverpool fan, and now we have a Sky bloke saying the same about Morgan. We are Southampton, a team of Liverpool fans. :-)

Lallana looking good so far. Need more from JRod.

Hey all. I'm all set up at work, got the iPad hiding so the customers can't see it, I had a colleague find me an app that finds football streams for it, I turn on to the match... and watched Suarez score. :-( Meh, we've looked pretty good aside from that. Ooh Lallana...

Centre back is definitely the weak spot in this England set up.

Good news. Especially so that Jay has been given another chance to shine.