SNSUN

I do think the best of Ramirez is yet to come, but sell him for what we paid or more in the summer and I won't be too upset, pending we replace him correctly. For his big transfer fee, much was expected but we've not seen the best of him yet - keep him and I reckon he'll be a much better player next season after having a season to adapt to the English game. I'd rather lose him than one of our other crown jewels - Morgan for instance who has been linked with Arsenal from the moment we signed him. Weirdly (and I am a bit weird), as much as I love a big money signing and get all excited over it, it's the bargain signings or academy players that I end up liking more - Cork, for instance, who's turned into an excellent player and didn't even cost us a million quid. I do hope we get to see the best of Ramirez though. Keeping the squad together and adding quality to it is the way forward this summer IMO, losing only the "lower league" players that did us so well in the past but don't have a future at the club - like Hammond, Chaplow, Seaborne, Dickson etc etc

Coningsby, Lincs and Paphos, Cyprus - neither are particularly useful for London! :-) I'm not sure what we're looking for, 3 bed house with parking though would be ideal. Kids will follow soon enough so good schools and a safe area are paramount. Funnily enough the first thing I said to my missus was that we should go round towns and villages trying different pubs! hat's one way to see how friendly people are in the area. Anyone going to my current local would walk out in seconds! All good advice people, London I class as within the M25 - I live in literally the first village just outside it! We both have free London travel as part of my job, so one option is to move inside and utilise the free travel. She's not that keen though. Lots of planning to do - daunting but looking forward to it.

Obviously I'll do things properly and study everything, but I wonder if I could pick your experienced brains! Yesterday my lovely parents said that within a couple of years (pending them selling one of their spare houses) I'll be given £50,000 to put down a deposit on a house. To be honest I'd been begging them for a while, I really didn't want to live in a rental for ever, despite us rather liking our current rental home. This will be mine and Mrs SNSUN's first house purchase, and we just wondered what things we should look for, what a good mortgage is, anything you've experienced that you've learned from...that sort of thing. Even a discussion on location would be good - I'm very attached to the Windsor area where I've been raised my whole life (and have friends in), but we were wondering whether a move to, say, North Hampshire would be a good idea. As some of you know I work for London Underground (currently at Heathrow) so it can't be toooooo far away, but if it's a reasonable commute it won't be a problem. Ta.

I'd say we're in a healthier position now than we were in 2003. We have good financial support behind the club in the Liebherrs, God bless them, an exciting young team being supported by a top academy without the need to sell individuals, and a manager who, whilst still unproven in the Premier League, has got us playing well and is possibly a bigger draw in terms of player signings (although of course that still has yet to be proven.) I'm excited by the future, and I think we'll soon top the average attendance mark.

Yes please. If we stay up, I'm looking forward to all the lovely rumours that will no doubt link us with various players - and even more to those Pochettino signs. This is a good link, as long as he achieves more than Adam Johnson has since leaving City.

Not a fan of Reading. Full of plastic fans who have only become interested in them since they've become "successful". Last season especially, and some of my friends are guilty of this. Just because they were born raised on the border of Berkshire makes them Reading fans, despite none of them showing an interest in football before (although I shouldn't moan too much about that, I wasn't born or raised in Hampshire...). Funnily enough they've gone a bit quiet this season. I shouldn't hate them, the Reading owner is an old school mate of mine, and my first Saints game I saw was at Elm Park, I just do. The Pompey rivallry means less to me as I'm not a local boy, but 24 years as a Saints fan has it ingrained in me now.

It depends if we really want to challenge next year, we need to keep all our best players and add to them. Ergo no amount of money would be enough. We don't want to become a selling club again, undergoing heartache whenever a player gets good enough that a big club wants them. If the player's head gets turned it could prove tricky, but he's under contract and any team wanting him would have to play top dollar. Of course, if we go down (touch wood) it's all a moot point anyway.

Saints Alive! (But quite a few are also dead) - a quality book title you'll agree! Not fussed with the title - been looking forward to it since you mentioned it Duncan. All The Saints is probably the best, because it is about All The Saints.

Oddly winnable, but I'd take a point if you offered it to me now. 32 points - and possibly 2 wins from safety...

This you, Phil? :-)

It was a terrible game really, this is a "competition" and there just isn't any playing teams like that. Kudos for a professional job by England though, but I still reckon we could've got a few more with different personnel. Baines and Walker were good at full back though. Ox-C had a good first half too. This reminds me of a school match I played in, our 4th XI vs another school's first XI. There'd been an error in the fixture arrangement. I was a back up for the 3rd XI (right back/emergency keeper) and when this 4th XI game was announced, my mate, the 3rd XI captain, appointed me captain of the 4ths. We were a team made up of choirboys, rejects, people that had never played football before, fat people and Americans. There were 11 of us, no subs, and I had to persuade the 11th member of our team to play in football boots 2 sizes too small for him. Our keeper had no gloves, didn't speak much English, and most of the time didn't know he could use his hands. We lost 10-1. I maintain that had I not been at centre back, the score would've been worse.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/huddersfield_town/8130763.stm "It is understood that Town's new board are concerned over his possible resale value at the end of his contract when he would be 30 years old." Best million quid we've ever spent. A gamble, perhaps, but one we were financially more willing to take. And boy has it paid off. I doubt we'll ever get such a return from a £1million transfer again, surely? RLGM legend.

Poor goalscoring record or not - consider him an upgrade to De Ridder, and it makes the transfer seem that much better.

Irrepective of what happened then, he's proved himself invaluable to us since then. He's got years of play left, and is Premier League quality. Sign him up.

So like Brangelina, do they have a conjoined name? Is it Spudsy? Or Beargun?

It's not cover for the announcement he's joining the full England squad tomorrow... is it? ;-)

That's just it - whatever the final table and wherever we finish, it won't be justification for how good our current team really is. So many factors have made us more positive this season - the discovery of Shaw and of how good he really is, finding a keeper that can actually earn us points rather than lose us them, seeing us solidfy much more when Cork came back into the side, seeing Jos improve as the season has gone on, playing more direct, pressing football under Pochettino, seeing our lower league players step up and prove themselves Premier League quality. If we go down, God forbid but it may still happen, surely this will be one of the better teams ever to slump out of the division. I don't think it'll come to that though. One win for the rest of the season though - I'd be surprised if it were that few.

Ignore us - if you offered that final table to Newcastle, they'd rip your balls off for it! I can see them picking up a few points, they won't be in the relegation mix for sure, but that would be an impressive end to the season for them! After seeing them against Wigan though, they were poor - Wigan were the better side, and so I can also see them dropping silly points. Wigan's performance on Sunday, coupled with Aston Villa's recent form, if what gives me the most concern about our own predicament. If both keep those performances up, the final points total could be a lot higher than we think - and ergo could drag those clubs that are on 33-34 points into the mix.

Shows how Chelsea's form has slumped off. They were leading the race at the start of the season.

Spurs are after him as a ready made replacement for Bale. Well they can knob off. As can the others. Yes I can see big clubs wanting him, and perhaps his head will turn, but we'll really challenge next season if we stay up and reinforce. We're where we are in the League table this year because it took us a while to find our feet in the division, new players hadn't bedded, we missed players like Cork, and we had to wait a while to find a decent Keeper and Left back. We now have both - and with even more reinforcements in the summer, I fail to see why we can't be a challenging top 8 side next season. But that would mean keeping our youngsters like Shaw. How much money would tempt Cortese? Hopefully none. There are perhaps one or two crown jewels we could afford to sell if we had to, Ramirez for one, (perhaps even Lambert and Cork if the money was ridiculous) and find good or better replacements for, but players like Shaw, Clyne, Morgan and Adam are who we should be building the team around. Incidentally, I was going to post this on a seperate thread but as Shaw has this one, could you see us converting Shaw into a winger as Spurs did with Bale? Granted he's more valuable to us as a left back, but with his attacking play and crossing, I could see it happen as an option.

Because we were in the Championship. Fox is better going forward but Harding was the better defender. Thank God we promoted Shaw when we did, he's been exceptional. A new left back much needed in the summer. The others I'd keep, but I think Sharp will probably be off anyway.

(In Will Smith accent) "Awwwww HELL NO." The others I perhaps agree with, unless better reinforcements can be made, but I'd rather no back up left back than Fox. I'd rather play Jos or Forren at left back. Or Seaborne. Or my wife. Ok perhaps not her, but you get the gist. Even Harding would have been better back up than Fox. I loathe knocking a Saints player but Fox is not Premier League quality and never will be.

Haha! Brilliant drama at Ewood Park. To be fair, that's the best decision they've made all season, but it does counteract the stupid one they made when they appointed him. Perhaps now clubs will see him for the defensive, long merchant he is. Plus he looks like Chuck Rock. Blackpool had a lucky escape.

Great appointment for Reading if so - all I hear on places like TalkSport is fans of nPC sides saying "If we sack our manager, I hope we go for Adkins" so his reputation goes before him. Not such a great choice for Adkins if it happens, he'll have a Premier League relegation on his CV despite not being the one that caused it, and though Reading have a bit of money behind them now, I can't see them bouncing straight back up if they go down. Still whatever happens, fair play to them and him, and best of luck, except, of course, against us!