SNSUN

Bang up to date, and Tadanari Lee for his cracking goal against Derby last season. Oh, and I was there for that Wayne Thomas strike against Ipswich. The one and only time my missus has ever cheered a goal for Saints! (Being a Norwich fan...) Ooh, and the David Hughes bicycle kick against QPR- a good player whose career was cut short by injury.

Alledine Yahia is a name I've just thought of, although just checked and he didn't play any games for us. Seems he's a stalwart in France now.

Been playing some FM 2007. Josh Dutton-Black on there. I wonder what happened to him. Marcelo Sarmiento is always the first one to be released from his loan too.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ramirez leaving this summer, as we try to recoup what we paid for him. Sadly he hasn't been the inspirational game changer we thought we were spending £12 million on. I'd love to see him stick around and prove me wrong, but unless Pochettino sees an upturn in form from him in the tail end of this season, I think we'd go out and look for replacements. Of the other "must keeps", the only other I can see question marks over is Shaw. I wonder whether his head would be turned by the big boys. It'll cost them a fortune to buy him, and we all know he's be better off staying put, but ultimately if his heart is set on moving, we could be in trouble. Fortunately it seems like he's enjoying things, and hopefully he still signs that contract, so for now we can bask in the knowledge he's ours.

Using our unneeded, unused or likely outgoing players, you can make a decent League One team! Something like: Davis Butterfield Martin Seaborne Dickson De Ridder Hammond Chaplow Forte Barnard Hoskins I'd fancy that to challenge in League One. Even going up a league to the Championship and adding current Saints non-first teamers and you get: Gazzaniga Richardson Fonte Hooiveld (for the purposes of this although he's getting a run in the side) Fox Guly Hammond JWP Reeves Sharp Lee It massively highlights the deadwood we have from rising up the leagues so fast that we can field nearly 3 teams of differing quality. Stay in the Premier League and there'll be a lot of outs, lower league clubs will love us. Go down, and while we nay lose our exciting, young quality players, we still have the core of a good Championship team.

I'd take Junior Hoilett or Taarabt in a heartbeat, and perhaps Cesar if we lose Boruc, but that's it. Hoilett can be molded into a great player IMO.

That'll be the list of exits if we go down for sure.

They're much improved but so are we. I'd rather have been playing them at the start of Janbuary when they were, well, shyte, but I our improved recent form with the pushing high up under Pochettino means we could well pick up all 3 points. 3 points and relegation would be a distant memory, but 1 point would still be a decent haul. A loss could see us edge back towards the relegation zone. Things are tight in the bottom half.

It's still a shame to have started the day 6 points clear of relegation and finish only 4, but at least that drags Reading back into the mire. Wigan, all of a sudden, are looking really vulnerable. QPR are down IMO. West Ham could drop like a stone, and perhaps are the mid-table side most likely to do so. I can see Norwich's team spirit keeping them clear of trouble, and Fulham's little bit of quality too. Newcastle likewise will have no problems now. For us? Hopefully mid-table, but yesterday's win aside, we can't rule out relegation ourselves just yet. Beating Newcastle would calm my fears a LOT.

Jaaskeleinen (sp, but at least I tried!) should have gathered. Weimann should have scored. A let off for West Ham, and all the teams around Villa. I hate West Ham, but they have my support today, I'd accept a draw.

They're educated about our team and that worries me. The way they talk it's almost like they're waiting for an auction to see which lot to buy, like vultures circling their prey. Stay up and we should have no trouble keeping them, but if any club in the country could turn our young players' heads, it's United.

"Why didn't you tell me you could play left back?!? That's it, Fox off, Frazer on!"

Gary saying we're 16 points clear of relegation was nice to hear. I hope the FA ratifies that.

Alan Shearer's spoonerism makes me wonder if that's how the Chinese pronounce it - "Licky Rambert".

Gary Lineker doesn't suit Full HD telly.

This pressing up the field that has made us look impressive these last four games is Pochettino's doing, so instantly he's made a different impact, but I still feel Adkins sacking was harsh. I believe we would've stayed up under Adkins, although it would have been a close run thing. Not that it won't still be, but play like we did today and we can comfortably look up the table rather than down. Adkins was a nice bloke, very likeable, and it was sad and a shock that he was dispensed of as he was, but we need to move on and look forward, not back at what could have been.

Shearer had more hair when he played for us. FACT.

Cork £750k Morgan £1mill Lambert £1mill Fonte £1.2mill etc etc Bargains the lot of them, and more. I can't remember how much Punch cost us but it can't have been more than a few hundred K either. Cork perhaps is the bargain of the lot, not least because I reckon Chelsea would kill for him now.

I did it the other day, it's all nonsense as otherwise we'd all win the pools every week, but the experiment was to see how Saints could do if we win our winable games, control the controllables as it were. We finished on 41 points iirc. I do think we'll be in the relegation battle though, we've dropped too many points over the course of the season and may regret not strengthening more in January. I'll take going into the last game with our fate in our own hands. I notice people have started tipping Reading to survive. I still don't see it. McDermott said "we've got lots of quality in this team". I don't see that either. Reading will still go down IMO, but at least for the time being they're showing balls. QPR are, I finally admit, going down too. They're just too far adrift, they need near title winning form for the rest of the season to escape now IMO. Then it's a 3 ways tie between us, Wigan and Villa. Villa have looked shocking this season - it could well be them, prompting our survival and Wigan's great escape.

Nigel Clough at 40/1 is mightily tempting. There's the family history, and Clough Jr has being doing well on limited resources at Derby. Interesting...

This. This This Ghey ...or Michael Appleton managing his umpteenth team of the season. I still think the Blackpool fans have had a lucky escape there.

Stay up and consolidate our position in the Prem, and Lallana could do a Le Tissier and stay here for his whole career. I'd love to see that.

They have already got tons of midfielders, so it's no guarantee that he'd play every game anyway. JWP will be a class player, and already is, so I'd rather have him on the fringes of our squad than on the fringes of theirs. If we lose Morgan or Cork, god forbid, I'd worry about putting Chaplow in there *as 4th choice, and would feel a lot more confident with JWP brought in - he was class at the start of the season, especially in the United game where he caught my eye with a mature display.

The ridiculousness of the situation is that it WILL probably be someone like Andy Carroll called up, despite the fact he's had a lengthy lay off and has done next to sod all this season. There are one or two strikers I think would be called up before Lambert sadly, although I'd LOVE it if he did get a call up - even if he probably wouldn't see turf.

Are you Sammy Saint? :-D