Cabrone

I think there's a good chance that a fully 'bedded in' Austin would have put away at least 1 of those missed chances and would have won us at least a point yesterday. Difference between him and Long is that Austin is your man striker, Long is a support striker. If you are going to play one then play Austin as Long is a bit lost without a main striker to play alongside. My personal preference would be both as I think they'd work well together but if Puel is going to stick with one then let it be Austin and give the guy a real run out to let him find his feet. I'd say at least 6 games. Also don't agree that Austin can't play Puel's system. Whilst he's not the fastest or the tallest he is intelligent and street wise and has a real assassin's instincts (look how he ghosted in to get his goal at Man U last season - completely lost the Man U defence and delivered the payload) and is smart enough to figure out how to play he diamond and get the goals. We'll never know though whilst Puel refuses to give him a chance.

The good news is that maybe Puel's diamond is starting to take shape, the bad news is we are toothless where it matters. Yes Long is a pest and causes problems but if he doesn't put it away it counts for nought. We have a goal scorer in Charlie Austin - start playing him and giving him time to get used to the setup and maybe we'll start scoring some goals......

The diamond will hurt us

Gut feeling so far is that this guy is not the right fit. Can see him going quite quickly unless he learns and learns fast, he doesn't look in sync with the team for me. Need to see more up front, we don't have bad players but it's not firing at the moment.

Play Austin and play him properly i.e. in the box receiving service. If Puel isn't going to do this then I'd like to know where he thinks the goals are going to come from? Maybe a signing up his sleeve? On the plus side we're always a bit sluggish at the start of the season so I suppose at least we got ManU (a) off our fixture list during our slumber phase rather than losing to a more beatable team.

Charlie Austin is a centre forward penalty box specialist so play him there. He'll score lots is played correctly. Also Redmond is a winger so play him there. The manager needs to learn quickly because the premier league is a very unforgiving place. It's not rocket science.

Austin is by a quite a margin our major goal threat. For me it's imperative that we keep him and if we don't then we have a suitable replacement in place before we do. If the formation needs changing to incorporate him then do it, he'll get you 15-20 goals a season which is a big enough reason to change style to suit him - especially when I can't see any other player getting close to this. I don't think the club will let him go anyway.

He's potentially a very good player but he's a winger so play him there. It's not rocket science. As for the central striker it has to be Austin for me, the only truly recognised goal scorer we have. Long may have his admirers on here (and I think he does a good job at what he does) but he is not going to give you the goal haul Austin will so it should be a priority that Austin is given as much game time as possible to get him up an running (assuming he's fit). Crazily early to cast doubts on Redmond though.

It's a shame we can't be given our toughest game on opening day as we have a really poor record on the first Saturday regardless of who we play. We've won only 3 times on opening day in the last 27 seasons, 2013/14, 2011/12 (champ season) and 1999/2000. Even in our league 1 days we only managed to draw and lose on opening day. We must have one of the worst opening day records out there, I wonder why?

Not a bad start, could and should have won that one in the end. Hojbjerg looks like he's going to become a firm crowd favourite, v.impressed with him. Austin needs more time on the pitch to work up an understanding, that's where the bulk of our goals are going to come from.

He isn't good enough and we'd know by now if he was. Produces some good'ish performances but too many mistakes to be considered a top flight GK. Champ or league 1 is his level IMO.

Right up there as one of our best signings ever, cost £1M - a ridiculous amount by today's standards, dropped a league to come to us and has risen 2 divisions whilst fighting off challenges for his place from a list of talented CHs at the club. It's no coincidence that his partners look very good when they play alongside him as Jose is a class act. Now he's gone and won the Euros, not as a peripheral player but as an integral part of the team, a bit of a legend really. I wonder what he'd be worth if he was 25 now? 20-30M?

Of all time?

Best of luck to Graziano, did a good job for us, got his chance with the Azzurri and can leave with his big money move and his head held high. Also mustn't forget the most meticulous barnet in Saints history....

Cost us £1M (could be argued that it's one of the best millions we've ever spent), dropped a division to join us, consistently superb (arguably making his partners look better than they may have been?), loyal, enjoys the club, first ever Saints player to win the European championship(?) and had a dust up with crazy DaniO . I'm not one for bandwagons but come on - surely Jose deserves this accolade? +1. Certainly deserves it a lot more than Keegan (nothing personal, just that special K didn't hang around too long) PS: All dependent on Jose not going to 'Pool of course.

Sounds like an exciting signing. Have Pool put in a bid for him yet?

It's because we are desperate for anything positive about England. If Robson and Venables were Italian or German they'd have been thought of as fairly mediocre managers but English fans have had so little to cheer about that they are put up on a pedestal. I personally don't rate Venables - he snubbed Matty when he was at the peak of his powers, something that still rankles with me to this day. Supporting England is like having an abusive girlfriend, you take endless **** but you hang on in there because deep down you still love her. Eventually after years of abuse you either go down the 'don't give a ****' route or end up having a love\hate relationship - you love her but you hate her at the same time. I think this is why so many English fans are genuinely delighted for Wales, they are a conduit for our long supressed need for some joy and good news when it comes to international footie plus they are showing England up for the pathetic rabble they are.

Utterly superb Wales, given me a bit of a lift after the desperate pile of merde we witnessed on Monday (Iceland were superb BTW). Just goes to show that British players can do the business if the manager, tactics, ethos and selections are correct. The pampered prima donnas need to be dropped if they don't show a heart and a pair of balls, no favourites. N.Ireland can also hold their heads high, they gave some good performances, it's only England as per usual that's a let down. Now go and win it Wales!

Sounds like a good deal to me, on his day he's great but he goes missing too often to command a £34M price tag. Liverpool will have to coax more consistent performances from him and if they can then the £34M will become justified. If we spend that money wisely it could be another boost for us.

Maybe it's time to get radical with England, they just can't keep on going as they are. How about sending the champions and their manager to the tournament as England, we should have given the Leicester players England shirts and made Claudio Ranieri the manager. The slots vacated by non English players replaced by the in form players regardless of the team they play for, friendlies ended. They are a waste of time and qualification games played by whoever the form team in the prem is, non English players again replaced by the form players in the league. I think Leicester would have beaten Iceland last night, Saints would have too.

Someone needs to check for any irregular betting, that was so bad it was suspicious. Check Woys pockets for brown envelopes, my expectations for England are rock bottom but that performance was in new territory. It really smells. Congratulations to Iceland for their gutsy performance, thoroughly deserved.

Has England ever won a penalty shootout? I seem to remember maybe beating Spain in Euro 96 on pens? Can't think of any others.

Iceland will park the bus, England will huff and puff without creating much and the result will be a 0-0 bore draw. Iceland win on penalties.

Slovakia parked the bus and asked the question, England didn't have much of an answer. We snatched a few chances but never really created anything good. Final ball wasn't particularly great. Against a team like Slovakia you either need to attack at pace and pull them out of position or you need to do something clever, fast 1-2's or beating players in 1 on 1 situations and creating space, England couldn't do this. Frustrating but that's England for you.

Luke warm about Pellegrini, thought he underperformed at Citeh given the resources and does he still have the hunger having previously managed some big clubs? Would personally prefer a young hungry manager but a guy like Pellegrini does have the 'big name' status which will attract quality players. I will say that it would an ambitious statement from the club (despite my questions) if they get him bearing in mind his status in the game.