Cabrone

Decent back up option but would a 34 y.o international want to come here to sit on the bench most of the time? Would we want to pay his large wage demands? Pesonally I'd rather a younger, decent keeper but I guess they are hard to find. Has the academy got any GK starlets in the making?

I can see the logic of this one, Wham need firepower and Ricky would slot in as a direct Carroll replacement. Even if Wham had to pay a lot for a 32 year old if it meant they stayed up then the investment would have been seen as worth it. With Ossie and JRod increasingly taking over Ricky might think about jumping. Would be a damn shame for us but it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

Spurs (H) - W 3-2 Cardiff (A) - D 1-1 Everton (A) - L 0-2 Chelsea (H) - W 2-1 West Brom (H) - W 3-1 Sunderland (A) - D 1-1 Arsenal (H) - D 1-1 Fulham (A) - W 1-0 An optimistic 15 points

Great point at a tough ground. Better teams that Saints will go there and get nothing. 3 points against Spurs and we'll be purring again. How many days\hours\minutes before Boruc is back again?

We've got a decent track record against the Geordies, can remember Tiss regularly sinking them with another wonderstrike. Guess we'll try to do the boa constrictor and hope for a bit of Ossie brilliance. My money would be on Newcastle but we still have a decent shout ourselves. PS Those that are going take mountain gear with you, it's the highest spot I've ever sat in. The pitch looked tiny from up there but it was a great view across Geordieland.

Cost conscious Pompey board react with unbridled joy as McInnes announces he's the new centre forward.

Lowe's encouragement of the academy is one of the few things I'll give the guy credit for as it set the groundwork for what we have now. Saints did produce some good young players in the 80's but with the loss of Merrington it seemed to dry up till the academy came along. However his ultimate record is relegation from the premiership to league 1 via a succession of incompetent managerial appointments and a string of journeymen signings that left us with a bloated squad. As far as I know no other SFC chairman has managed to do that. His strategic thinking was poor too. When we were a decent striker short of having a real chance of getting back to the prem in 05/06 under Harry Redknapp he didn't release the funds and the season collapsed after Leeds at home. We battered teams in the first few months just to come unstuck by not having someone to stick it into the net. His axing of the well liked and decent Pearson for the Dutch duo was the final, almost fatal, mistake. His public relations were terrible too, alienating most people and causing a lot of friction within the club. I have no fond memories of the guy, he was parachuted in on some Askhamesque dodgy reverse takeover and scuttled off with the club at death's door. No amount of rose tinted glasses will make him look good IMO but I will give him some credit for the youth setup.

Can't see why all 3 can't play together, Big Vic infront of the back 4 with Morgan\Jack in the engine room positions. I'd also persist with a Lambert\Ossie combination, Ossie playing spearhead and Ricky playing foil - I really think we could get a very productive partnership going there given a bit of patience. Don't think they have had enough time together to see what they can really do.

Tricky draw but an interesting one too. I hope we take the FA cup seriously, it's our one chance of silverware left and we have a fighting chance of winning it. Put out our best team and we should get through although Burnley play some good stuff and will have their tails up.

Great performance, great point and hopefully a quick bounce back to form from here. Really great to see Cork back on the pitch, shows how important strength in depth is. It was a tough break for him being dropped as he was but I always knew he'd play an important part at some stage. Watch out premier league, Ossie's getting to grips with the play and there's going to be more where that one came from over the following months. By the end of the season I predict he'll do to his doubters what Boruc did to his, i.e.make them eat their words. Said the same about Boruc 12 months ago and I see Ossie following the same path - just give him regular games.

Drops far too many clangers, not consistent enough and transmits a panicky air to the defence who then try and overcompensate. If fit I'd have KD or even Cropper before him.

22 points in the bag from first 14 games should see us safe long before season end. Ossie scored, hopefully he'll go on a run now. Media love in over and now reality kicks in.

If KD is out how good is Cropper, could he do a job for us? I really have little faith in Gazza, makes the odd good save but always looks like he's going to drop a clanger. Hopefully against Villa it won't be critical but he's not up to it. Would be very interesting to see Ramirez and Osvaldo paired up, got a feeling those two could combine well.

He's obviously a top draw finisher yet it's not happening for him (yet). Class doesn't just evaporate overnight so what's happened? Also he's not alone, Ricky and JRod have been fairly subdued too. MP needs to get busy on the training ground, it's criminal how all this talent is being squandered.

If Artur is injured then KD should step in but it's a major blow. Just highlights the thiness of the squad, think we'll be conceeding a few over the coming weeks.

Rhodes should be given a chance in the prem but not with us and certainly not for £10M. Ossie is in a different class, just needs time to adapt (and a good run of games).

Same for me except I'd have MLT for JWP. Couldn't leave Mattie out, just wouldn't be right, besides he'd have a ball supported by big Vic and Morgan + still score a load from pens, free kicks and spectacular shots.

I want him to have a good run in the team as he's a class act. The key player for me, a fully firing Ossie could shoot us into a very high position in this league. Still think that a Lambert \ Ossie combo could work with Rickie in the hole.

Artur is fine, he's a quality keeper who had a brain fart - it happens every now and again and unfortunately he got stung. The Stoke goal was a freak. Swirling wind, not enough time to adjust to the conditions and a crazy bounce. No fault apportioned. 7 goals conceeded in 13 games is outstanding and still the best in the premier league by 3 goals. Give the guy a break, he's earnt more than a little slack.

The slagging he's getting shows just how good he has been and the standard he's set for himself. Cockups like today's were commonplace in our goal last season before he got in. He's our no 1 by a long distance and I'm sure normal service will be resumed.

Like a lot of other fans of a certain age it has to be Heath in 84, that cup was ours and he stole it from us. Flattened me for quite a while that one did.

After the game you see him talk to the opposition manager and having a laugh and a joke so I presume he can talk English to a decent standard. The fact that he uses an interpreter doesn't really bother me, sooner or later he'll start to talk in English when he's good and ready. 3rd in the table and playing blinding football is what matters to me.

We should go to the Emirates and give it a real go, no-one expects us to get anything out of it so the pressure should be off to an extent. When I look at any possible Arsenal combination whilst there is undoubted skill I keep on wondering where are their gritty ball winners? Schneiderlin and Wanyama should have a huge role to play in this game, strangle their supply and our defence should be able to mop up the rest. I'd love to see Cork in there but he just hasn't had enough time out there to be brought into such a high profile game IMO. I'd like to see Ossie play up front with Lallana behind, this should be his kind of game against a skillful but penetrable defence. Sooner or later he's going to click and when he does we'll get a big boost. Ricky and JRod on the bench for an impact in the last 25 mins. Boruc Shaw Lovren Fonte Clyne Wanyama JWP Schneiderlin Davis Lallana Ossie

Quite a game to start with, an 8-2 victory. The 6 we put in the 2nd half was one of the most amazing halfs I've ever seen.

Great stadium, I preferred it to SMS but times move on and the Dell was a stadium of its era. Wierd shaped stands and a big cage in the corner for opposition fans, the local hards would go down to the open aired Archers and exchange pleasantries esp when the more notorious teams were in town. Atmosphere could be incredibly intense due to the players playing virtually ontop of the crowd. I remember being at the front of the Milton and being so close I could pretty much reach out and touch the players. Some of them took some real s**t, esp the GKs. Due to the cramped size quite a few players ended up head first in the stands when the couldn't slow down fast enough. If you are a football romantic you'd love the Dell, if you are a football pragmatist you'd prefer SMS. I loved the Dell.