saint1977

That's a no then. What's my agenda then? No chip on my shoulder pal, living in one of the best places in UK and doing a job I love. Just curious that the same old catch phrases get used by half a dozen of the same posters. Wouldn't vote for Corbyn if he was the last person on earth.

As much of an idiot as Corbyn is, and he really is a relic of the old Labour left of the early 1980s who as a Lib Dem voter would even make me get my occasional Tory vote out to deny power if I needed to, no offence intended but do you actually understand what you mean there or have you just blindly trotted that out from Trousers or one of the others from the right wing of the Tory party on here? For example, the water companies effectively tax me as a consumer to provide what is deemed in UK law to be a basic human provision - and it's very expensive in Devon and Cornwall too - with no choice of provider yet that isn't deemed taxation so by your logic that isn't my money they are taking! Yet if HMRC ask for it, it is my money - is that the logic? I suspect we agree 100% on Corbyn and the appalling direction of the Labour Party but that mantra gets chucked out too often on here unchallenged and it's about time someone called it. People present welfare reform and cracking down on multinational tax avoidance and fraud as either/ors - I want the UK government to do BOTH. That way, we get to invest in the country's infrastructure and education/skills provision so all benefit - employers, taxpayers, even politicians. People on middle-upper middle incomes are subsidising both the Exec level earners with £30bn of unpaid extra work a year, multi-national tax avoidance and the bottom 10% (rightly) taken out of the tax system. If you want to make a point around that, fair enough. But well invested public money - like infrastructure, education, R&D - leads to matched private sector investment so we all win with more skilled jobs - look at the impact of Pfizer pulling out of Kent site at Sandwich. We need to encourage them to invest in partnership so they have a longer-term stake in the UK, as Osborne is trying to do to be fair. If they don't want to play by the UK rules, we'll grown our own companies who will.

Good all round performance again, Targett terrific in new role, Soares got forward well, CBs and Fraser untroubled. Victor had best non-Arsenal game for a while, Davis excellent, Romeu unlucky to be dropped though and hope he returns for Man U away. Mane and Long a handful. Looking forward to the rest of the season with a big gap to the bottom 3 now and key players coming back and summer signings such as Romeu, Cedric, Clasie and even Martina improving and Austin to come.

Absolutely clattered into Gomes last night in an attempt to reach a through ball first, risking injury and Gomes came off worst! Can't see it, Mane was also one of our hardest-working players v Palace on Sat, along with Romeu and Clasie. He's lacking some confidence at present and needs a goal, hence his decision-making isn't great but he's still causing teams plenty of problems and a goal on Saturday will do him a world of good. If you want to single out someone recently who has been playing like he didn't want to be here, Victor is your man. Think Victor has a few weeks on the bench until Romeu/Clasie/David get a suspension or knock. In fact, I'd rather have Harrison Reed as the next CM cab off the rank.

I said pre-match that it we produced the second performance I saw the Palace game, we'd win 3-1 (I wasn't far off) but would get beaten if the first half performance was repeated. Thankfully, we produced the former and Saints were pressing urgently, first to most challenges and combining it with some quality on the ball and great deliveries, not least Targett's for Long's goal. Well done to the young man, his best game in an SFC shirt. Big bonus having Fraser back, ideal really as not a busy night for him but he gave an assurance to the defence whereas Stek's confidence looked gone on Sat. Hope Clasie OK for Sat having played two games already this week, much prefer him and Romeu, who was also our standout player on Sat, rather than Victor. Victor is going to have to really knuckle down if he wants his first XI spot back.

Think Villa, Sunderland and Swansea, shame as I like the latter but the caretaker idea very rarely works and that Oxford defeat will stink the Liberty out for a while. Saints have to be favourites to finish bottom 3 next year though without a big change of transfer strategy. If VW and SM are sold, the fans will expect to see all of that re-invested + a £15-20m net spend, even that would probably leave us behind the newly promoted clubs. We've cut the board slack because of Cortese's waste - training ground, Osvaldo, Gaston - but no excuses next summer Les Reed.

To be fair to RK, after 8-10 defeats, none of us is very chipper either. Wish the players' pride was hurting as much. Good news re: Bertrand and Pelle. Stek was awful fully fit on Saturday, only had 3 things to do and made a mess of all of them - Ward's shot in the middle of goal at a very saveable height, rooted to the goalline from a corner he should have contested/punched when somehow Dann missed from 5 yards and his terrible flappy 'save' for Zaha's goal. If FF isn't quite sharp enough, go with PG and FF on bench. Hard to call this game from what I watched Saturday - based on the first half I'd say 0-4 to Watford because I saw a lot of Saints players not competing and frankly making me think RK had lost the dressing room but 3-1 Saints if we play with the intensity, urgency and pressing in the second half, where really we outshone a very good Palace outfit and but for Hennessey and the woodwork we'd have won 3-2 or 4-2. Not sure where the 3 goals will come from but let's say Pelle gets 2 and VVD from a set piece.

Glad it's not just me that is staggered. Can't get into our poorest side since the dark days of 08/09 yet goes on loan to Klopp and Liverpool, having turned in a Callum Davenport-esque disaster of a performance against them in the League Cup. He's been worse than Yoshida - and Yoshi wouldn't have got into our League 1 side of 2009/10 this year. Got to use the loan space to bring in an AMC as well as a new permanent striker - come on Les Reed, time to earn your money.

Might as well have another look at him, Cedric is still out presumably? Would like to see Seager feature, we are toothless at present and would be decent experience for him. With Victor suspended (thank heavens) Reed must be due a start with 3 home games in a week? Save Mane for the league games. Great to see Fraser play 90 minutes for U21s last night, hope he'll be back in the next couple of weeks.

He is a risk but so was Victor. At least with Shelvey he's already done the 'Top 4' thing at Liverpool, didn't quite cut it but plenty good enough for us. Would be a big upgrade on Victor and give us much more forward momentum. Might prefer Palace and Pardew but then that may put him back with a crowd of friends in S London who he wants to avoid. I think we'd have a decent chance and he's the type of nasty character we need, Saints are far too easy to play against at present. Crucially, he also gets forward and has a point to prove. As someone said, can see him combining well with Clasie, Romeu or Davis. JWP can get experience in the Championship and Wanyama can be a sub to close games out in the last 15 minutes as he's nowhere near good enough for Southampton Football Club at present as a starter unless his mindset changes. This the type of signing the fans want to see to get us of this spiral - come on Les, get a bid in.

To answer the original OP: Cheer Mane, as many have posted he appears to have given his all on the pitch Boo Wanyama - I hate booing our own players but his attitude reeks and I've no time for him as a player, useless stack of sh*t. Chanting Reed, Romeu and Clasie's names could be more effective however.

Exactly, I've never liked Victor that much in the first place and minus Morgan this season he's been shown up for what he is. Great V Arsenal when a destructive role was required (which reminds me of the famous blunt Jack Charlton quote on his own limitations but effectiveness) but as he showed Saturday when he's required to dominate play, even basic ball retention over 5-10 yards is beyond him. Lucky to be at SFC IMO. Morgan must have a bad back from carrying him. I'd let him go for £8-12m upfront and bring in a decent AMC. This won't happen as RK has drawn this as a red line so I'd like to see RK take Victor down a few pegs, as Dave Jones did with Carlton Palmer - say in public that he's the water carrier and there to get the ball to those that can play and stop the opposition, which at that time was MLT and now would be Clasie/Mane/Tadic. I've a feeling that might puncture Victor's pride sufficiently to get us through to the end of the season with a bit more effort and anger to prove the club wrong and attract a summer buyer. Mane is a different story, he is very much needed but attitude clearly off. I'd have played him Saturday but fined him 2 week's wages and publicly criticised him, which Koeman did. To criticise players in public shouldn't be done lightly but clearly there is a need to 'name and shame'.

Think this is getting OTT, poor run of performances and results and Ron/Jose have made a clear pitch for funds to freshen up but doesn't constitute a crisis yet IMO. The club made some mistakes in the transfer market this summer and hopefully they have learned from them. That's not to say Cedric, Clasie and Romeu won't come good in time either, they have good pedigree. VVD has been fantastic and Stek is OK, he isn't Fraser but who honestly thought he would be? Martina did my head in as a signing and one would hope the club don't go down the Rupert Lowe squad filler route when we replaced an ageing Dodd with first Kenton, then Nilsson, both of which looked good from a moneyball perspective, were cheap but utter toss. If there is another instance of a similar signing, then fair enough, sound the alarm bell but I think a lesson was learned.

Sorry Pompey fans, you visited Brunton Park a couple of weeks too late: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35059214 It might have eased the distress of Danny Grainger's 95th minute equaliser.

You are both right, it's a midfielder who can run in behind, Morgan was doing it at times last season when he played in a more advanced role and even Cork earlier last season. Davis has been more a threat this season but is never going to be prolific. It would create more space for Mane, Tadic and Pelle as well. Sell Wanyama - who is a total deadweight this season - in January to fund a good AMC. Romeu and Clasie can both screen the back 4. Can't see Koeman wanting to do that though having gone on record as saying no major sales in January, even to reinvest and freshen up.

I think JWP will mature into a fine player, and it's just time and physical development. He needs to play at a level currently where he'd stand out to gain consistency and that would be the Championship. Might not get a game at Derby or Boro but Hull might be a good bet or a side on the fringe of the play offs. He should be part of the future plans but with the bottom sides picking up points this weekend and the TV deal next season, we need to freshen up the midfield in the short-term to get results. I'd also sell Wanyama to achieve that aim.

If Levy offers £15m (which I doubt he will), I'd take it. Victor has looked disinterested for much of this term and we need to freshen the first XI up in January, particularly the midfield. Loan JWP out to toughen him up and get a upgrade at CM to work with Davis and Clasie.

Flipping heck Adrian, that's 2 posts in as many days I've totally agreed with, what's going on with the world...

Fonte passing his fitness test will go a long way to deciding the outcome. If Caulker plays again, we might as well save Villa a trip and send them the 3 points. Caulker's display V Liverpool was Callum Davenport-like and I thought he'd been garbage v Newcastle but he went one better on Weds night. Might as well just pick a fan out of the stand and register them instead. Whether Victor plays depends on his mindset, not that fussed on Romeu but Clasie struggled, thought he'd turned to corner but probably the worst of the midfielders Weds night. Can't believe people are saying Davis should be dropped, wasn't great v Liverpool but the whole midfield v toss and he'll be fine tomorrow and offers a lot more than JWP who needs some game time in the Championship. Might be time to give Harry Reed another try, at least from the bench. Front 3 will cause Villa problems but hope Koeman doesn't go OTT on defensive tactics, if Jose returns it will be alright. As long we don't use our National Conference standard loanee CB we should get something from this game.

Yep, that's pretty much it. With J Rod struggling to regain full match sharpness it's bitten us on the backside and games like tonight are where quality impact players come into their own.

Haven't agreed with some of your posts in the past Adrian but I do this one. Some of our signings over the summer were odd - bar VVD and Stek - and clearly from his comments Ronald agrees with us. However, to be fair to the club, Cortese for all the great things he did for the club left a massive bill and over-run on the training ground. One would hope that the last couple of seasons mean we've at least made some inroads into that over-spend - although the Osvaldo settlement might have eaten some of it - and that we can get back to a position of net spend again. Ronald is probably trying to push that message home before he considers whether to complete his contract or stay longer. His past suggests the former but the club may not want him going into his final year with the situation open.

Good to see Hants attendances up 20% last year. New hotel must be helping and when the golf course is finished it could increase further. Excellent from Vince in the England T20 in UAE, good chance of getting in the T20 WC squad. Topley has a chance but quite a few experienced bowlers to come back but hasn't done his chances any harm. What do people think of scrapping the coin toss and visitors choosing whether to bat or bowl? Could it spread to Test cricket given the recent surface for India vs SA test and some of the surfaces for the last 2 Ashes home series? I think it may have been a result of some counties in D2, namely Essex, preparing shocking green tops for their village green attack of Ryder and Masters. Vaughan commented yesterday that Hants were bound to want to bowl first opening game at Headingley in April! Can see the advantages of enabling spinners to play a bigger part and encouraging faster bowling but could be downsides as well.

I'd agree with those bar Juanmi, looked useful in the Vitesse game when he came on but hasn't been given opportunities. Seems a strange signing, as many of them were last summer. Stek and VVD are the clear successes, can see Clasie joining that bracket come May and then kicking on some more. Caulkker is OK for cover but would have preferred some succession planning for Fonte but perhaps that will be Jack Stephens? Romeu I'd give a 6 to, reasonable player and I've seen much worse but could have been better given his pedigree which is first class. Soares has recovered very well from a poor start and will never understand Saturday's decision to prefer Yoshida unless Soares's can't play 2 games in a week at the moment? Martina though - why, just why? I'm not even sure Cook would pick him at the skates down in the grim basement of the league, and that's saying something. Positioning and distribution are terrible, yes he's quick but so was the full back we got on a free from Norwich in League 1 and he was as bad a footballer as well.

Heading home, poor all round. Mason is a terrible ref but our didn't put him under enough pressure. If he hadn't have given the first one and Stoke were at home, he'd have been intimidated by their fans into giving the second one. Saints fans aren't savvy enough in that department. Silly booking from Pelle but felt sorry for him, dreadful service. Long needs to go in Jan, loan out Juanmi and Martina and use the money to bring a decent partner Pelle can work with. Clasie the only player trying to get his head up and make something happen. Brief flickers from Mane when came out but Stoke's midfield tracked back well. Got beaten by the better, more organised side, hopefully Saints take the learning from it.

Bowling now looks strong with McLaren confirmed as well as Topley and Edwards. Wheal should be a year stronger and Stephenson's remarkable story continues with a two year contract. Batting still a major worry though, top order looks horribly brittle unless one of the youngsters such as Alsop has a storming pre-season ahead of their anticipated development schedule and dislodges Adams or Smith.