SNSUN

...and Young Player Of The Season. So, we're reaching the climax of the season, seemingly staying up and doing so comfortably. What a season, full of ups and downs, surprise wins and surprise losses, additions along the way that have made us a better team, (Shaw, Boruc) and additions along the way we, presently, remain puzzled by. (Forren) But who is YOUR player of the season overall, and who is your young player of the season? For me there are a number of stand out players, Morgan, Cork, Lambert, Puncheon, Yoshida, Shaw, Boruc, Clyne, which may make this debate more interesting as there's no ONE player that stands out, but for consistancy over the whole season I have to give it to Morgan. He gets better the higher league he plays in and judging by the stats previously posted on here, he's outplayed the rest of the Premier League for his position. For 'young player' it will be a lot easier IMO. Luke Shaw. Not only has he shown class defensively, offensively and positionally, he's only 17 AND he sorted out a problem position for us. Class, and I truly hope we can keep hold of him. JWP started the season well but sadly for him chances have been limited. I liked what I saw though, especially against United in the 3rd game.

I'm normally positive but I still won't be comfortable until we're mathmatically safe from relegation. Yes I think we'll win a few more and finish comfortably mid-table, but there's always a chance we won't! Still only 6 points clear, 2 or 3 losses (while perhaps unrealistic) and it could be squeaky bum time again. All that said of course, I think we'll beat West Ham on Saturday anyway which will push us up to 40 points, after showing yesterday that we can beat long ball teams as well as passing sides. I think we'll draw against Swansea and West Brom, lose to Spurs, draw against Sunderland and beat Stoke. So 46 points, or 48 if we can beat Sunderland, which is the game I'm not too sure about. In fact, play as we are, and they're all winnable, although our trip to White Hart Lane sticks out as the toughest.

Safe? There's a couple of young Derby lads that are supposed to be cracking youngsters - Hendrick and Hughes. Nick 'em....

Whilst I think he'll be great for us next season, I also wouldn't complain too much if we sold him for cost or profit, as long as we replace him correctly. If he's not happy here it would be silly to force him to stay. However if we can keep him, and all our best players, and add to them in the summer, we could have a cracking team next season IMO.

http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?44121-Putting-pressure-on-Boruc-to-sign Thibaut sounds like he should be a Shakespeare character.

Thousands of posts on a messageboard - I think that ship sailed for some of us a long time ago. :-)

Well, let's keep proving him wrong. Perhaps the Beeb will look back on his performance in the prediction league at the end of the season and decide someone else would be better at doing it. His positioning of QPR and Swansea is laughable.

Gotsta be Moyes for me. Our last two results are impressive (even more so if you take into our performances in those games) but this is traditionally a time of the season when Everton switch off having secured safety. 3 wins in a row for them is particularly impressive. The 1-2-3 in my eyes would be Moyes-Pochettino-Ferguson.

I thank and appreciate everything Nigel did for us, and while his dismissal was shocking, it seems Pochettino has what it takes to move us forward. We can beat the big boys now, we've proved that - now we need to find a style which beats the "lesser" teams. Was the sacking of Adkins timing wrong? Well put it this way, the timing was a damn sight better than what Reading or Sunderland have done recently. I see Reading as a yo-yo club, bouncing between divisions and surviving off the parachute payments. Anton has a bit of money behind him but not Liebherr type sums - but if Adkins does get them promoted again next season, I do think they'll make a better stab of the Premier League than they did this season. I do think Adkins will be happy there, and I wish him all the best - but Pochettino is the future for us now. I also think he'll be a bigger draw in terms of transfers than Adkins was - as he's a bigger name in world football. The transfer window in the summer will be very exciting - that's my prediction. (pending of course that we do survive, which I think we will!)

The double for Jonathon Forte against MK Dons, widely heralded as the accelerator pedal for our League One promotion. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/9436579.stm

No, we're not safe. Not close even. We're safe when we mathmatically cannot go down. Do I think we WILL be safe? Yes, I've seen enough progression in the club to think we'll pick up enough points needed.

All fingers point to us winning but we are away and this is just the sort of game that Reading will be up for. Normally I'd worry about this game, but for some reason I trust Pochettino to get the lads to pull off a professional winning performance. A draw is no bad result either, an extra point towards safety and it would still mean little to Reading. Win this though, and surely we're as good as there. 37 points is what Twichmeister general thinks will be enough to keep QPR up. It won't be, and they won't get anywhere close to it either, but that would mean we only need 2 or 3 points until the rest of the season to maintain safety. I can see us beating West Ham the week after, so 6 points from these two games would mean a 4 game winning streak and would power us up the table. Exciting times, but I hope the lads don't get too carried away. Even now, safety is still our goal. Still, 1-3 to us on Saturday, even if it is live on Sky.

I know that prediction league on the Beeb is the biggest joke ever due to it's inaccuracy - I mean do you base results on whether team is better on paper, recent form, etc etc - but I just did it again and still Villa get that third spot. It goes down to the last game of the season and Sunderland, Wigan and Villa are all in with a shout, but Wigan beat Villa at home and stay up. Somebody said it on another thread, that last game of Wigan vs Villa could be the one which determines who gets the final slot. (Oh, and even trying not to be biased we finish on 46 points.)

It's hard to say which - who knows what the Di Canio factor will be like at Sunderland, but I've seen enough from Wigan and Villa recently to say they'll make a fight of it. As it stands I still think over the course of the season it'll be Villa that deserves to take that final spot, but Sunderland are in big trouble. Of us, Norwich, Stoke and Newcastle amongst those others, I see Norwich as being the ones to struggle and join the relegation battle. They can't buy a goal at the moment. Poor form from them.

I couldn't care less whether Fulham are catchable. I want Fulham to win this and sink QPR hopes once and for all. We can do the same to Reading on SAturday. The sooner we get rid of QPR and Reading and get down to that one spot, the more confortable I'll be.

This, and a GK if Boruc goes.

Definitely a Fulham win - and it's going very well at present. Goodbye QPR, and your overspending, media-loved manager. Messiah? Nope, he's just a very twitchy boy.

Found this on a Stoke forum - a league table formed with only the results since Boxing Day. (So a form guide going back 11 games or so.) It shows why Norwich, Stoke and Sunderland are all suddenly in the relegation battle... : http://oatcakefanzine.proboards.com/thread/211310/table-boxing-day#ixzz2PA58MCI4

Beating Reading and Sunderland could potentially send them down. Both massive games. Who knows, the biggest game could be Stoke on the last day - if we need to win it to stay up. I think (and hope) we'll be clear of relegation by then anyway. I can't see us getting anything from the Spuds game, but then we said that about both the Liverpool and Chelsea matches. They're all winnable, if you think about it. For me, as I dislike them, I hope we beat Reading the most, although I am going to the Hammers game (and can make the Stoke game if I have tickets) so a win against them would be good.

I take my missus to games so she can see goals. She rarely gets any watching Norwich.

Pochettino's trust in Jos surprised me, especially after the way he started the season, but then he was the selected CB when Pochettino got the job, because of injury to Jose. Jos has had some solid games too since he's been in, playing alongside first choice Yoshida. Personally I still think Jose and Yoshi are the preffered partnership, but Jos being a left footer give us more balance. Who knows about Forren, perhaps one for the future but currently it seems like a strange signing. For progression next season, I'd still like to see us bring in a dominant centre back. Whom to play with is the tough bit, but probably Yoshida or Forren. I hope we stick by Jose and Jos - Jos was excellent in the nPC (and has improved this season) and Jose was excellent in League One and good in the nPC (and was very good in the first half of this season)- but I can see us being a bit ruthless with some of the squad players in the summer.

I said on the 18th March that anyone in the table up to 10th (which was Stoke) could still be in danger and it got poo pooed. Look at Stoke now. I think they'll survive on the basis that there are 3 worse teams in the league, but it shows how a few wins in the relegation battle can really drag other teams into it. Failure to beat Liverpool and Chelsea and we'd have been right in the shyte, and the Reading game would have become massive. Thanks to the two wins we can now balls up one of our easier games without completely screwing our season up. I hope we don't though - I hope we win every game for the rest of the season! It still looks like QPR, Reading and one other. Even though Villa lost today I saw enough that they could scrape wins. Wigan are doing their usual late season routine. We're flying. Norwich can't score for toffee. However I do suspect Sunderland now could take that final spot, but they have made a managerial appointment that will at least kick them up the bum. If my money was on anyone though, it would be...... Villa. Based on how poor they've been this season with the youngsters. Benteke has shone but their young defence makes too many mistakes. It's so tough to call though.

Funnily enough, this means that O'Neill still doesn't have a relegation on his CV! He's escaped by the skin of his teeth. I think Sunderland could go down. Wigan and Villa have shown the fight in recent weeks, and both have goalscorers, Kone and Benteke. Sunderland and Norwich could be the ones struggling - and as for this sacking, it's baffling. Very strange decision.

I think it'll be a little more. Excluding Reading and QPR, who I personally think are down, you have one relegation space for, I'd say, nine teams. (i.e. Anyone from Fulham downwards) Of those nine teams, you have those with a bit of form (Us, Wigan, Villa) and you could probably rule out Fulham and, after today, West Ham. That leaves Newcastle, Norwich, Stoke and Sunderland as the teams out of form. It's because the likes of Wigan and Villa are picking up wins, that more sides above are being dragged into the relegation battle. It's a terrible time for one of those teams to be out of form. Newcastle have the players to drag themselves out of it, and Stoke have the talent to fight to win or draw games too. So really it's Norwich and Sunderland that need to watch their backs, pending a continued improvement in form of Wigan and Villa. Even our form could dip, but I don't see it. I still see 40 points as the safety mark, and won't even start relaxing until we're there. Our next two games are immensely winnable. Six points from those and everything else for the rest of the season is playing for places up the league table.

It's like trying to compare Holt to Lambert. Only people that couldn't give two hoots about either would draw that comparison - lower league players, risen up, goalscorers that score goals in their first Premier League season. There's a massive difference though, Lambert is intrical to the way we play, a creator as well as a scorer. Holt is a fat battering ram. I know a lot of Norwich fans and most of them say they'd rather have Lambert over Holt this season. I personally don't think Lambert will ever see the England squad - but if Jay continues playing as he is, he surely won't be far behind...