saint1977

Plus Basingstoke - they sadly beat one of our local sides Torquay whose nightmare goes on. Although I think I'd prefer Eastleigh as they'd beat them I think? Basingstoke would have more humiliation value in terms of playing them though.

Some people are saying Lallana was poor against us today, I don't agree as he caused some problems with his link-up play but his shooting hasn't improved since he was at SMS! It's what holds him back from making the jump from decent PL player to very good, along with his stamina. Benteke, even half-fit, is a different proposition though, he's a monster. Glad we got at least a point though, we deserved that. One in the eye for Sky and the obsession with Klopp. They could do OK if Benteke stays fit but he's got a lot of Rodgers' rubbish to chuck in the bin.

Pretty much sums up what I thought of it. Clasie was a good surprise, expected him to be rusty but lasted longer than I thought he would and made a sound impression. Cedric improving and delighted to see Stek back although he didn't have that much to do but bred confidence in those in front of him which was missing from the Leicester game. Excellent cameo from Gaston, with Mane's daft sending off has he convinced Ronald to get the nod Weds night ahead of Juanmi? Romeu may well come in for Victor for the Villa game too. Means Mane will be fresh to terrorise Distin next weekend though which could be fun! With the competition in forward areas - and still Long to return, it means J Rod doesn't have to rush his progress to full match sharpness. Special mention for VVD and Fonte - both outstanding.

Could be - quite a few seemed to happen in the international break. LLP also made a good point about the number of sprints during games now - Walcott would be a typical example of an 'explosive' player who it might affect and J Rod, although I think he just landed badly trying to take down a long ball at City. Had forgotten about Gomez as well. Just seems that ACL injuries are more common than hamstring strains and hernias used to be whereas it's a far more serious and can be a career threatening injury. RVN proved you can recover well and still have a long career at the top after one though - and the surgery wasn't as advanced 15 years ago. Big confidence for Fegie to complete the deal with PSV even so. Pity he wasn't injured in May 2005 though!

I'm glad it wasn't me just noticing it the last couple of years. How many have there been, seems to be far more than any other period of football I can ever remember? Walcott, J Rod, Ings, Wilson, Gradel, Gardos and those are just the ones I can think of recent from memory, I'm sure there's been loads more domestically and internationally plus there seems to be a spate in the lower divisions too, even Torquay's skipper Luke Young is out with one. Not just restricted to outfield players either, look at Tim Krul. You'll always get impact injuries like Shaw, Mings and freak accidents like Forster's. Why the sudden explosion of ACL injuries? Are the boots or equipment to blame? Softer playing and training surfaces? Intensity of training? Maybe it's just a freak period but the evidence is pointing otherwise.

Well, here's the view from the floating voter in the centre, not the left like some posters here and not the Thatcher right like you. Whoever isn't in power and out of favour always feels the opposition have duped the electorate, I was an undergraduate in 1997 when Blair won the election and you can take it from me (I was at a largely Conservative supporting university) that the right were furious at Blair's wooing of the media, especially Rupert M. The arguments back then and in 2001 after I'd graduated sounded remarkably similar. Other more radical right wing groups (such as the Countryside Alliance) sought to disrupt the Labour government by organising strikes and disorder, just as the unions have at times with the Tories in power. They were also moaning that Labour was a largely metropolitan party which didn't understand the countryside (some truth in that if you look at the last few elections although they were overstating rather and were overwrought by the fox-hunting ban. They tend to hold similar views about Cameron and Osborne as well). So what you hearing now is different, but also very similar to those times. Neither party ever fully admits to getting it wrong, the banks got away with murder and Labour wouldn't admit to it's regulatory failures which led to it, the right blamed over-spending which was an oversimplification which ignored some chronic market failures which still aren't fixed and the dopey old taxpayer, small businesses and public sector had to sort out the private banks' mess. Bad, wasteful spending of which Labour was clearly guilty of (e.g NHS IT system), yes, but spending efficiently and proportinately ahead of when needed on your infrastructure, education system and R&D are never bad things if well directed, although some on here will never agree with any state spending or even having a state. The sensible people work with whatever government is in power and make the best of it.

Torquay and Exeter, local teams since I moved here. Would like to see Plymouth go up but wasn't the most friendly away game in 2011 (although they were relegated as we went up and were in real danger of going bust). Torquay are having our equivalent of 08/09 with bells on at the moment, in Conference relegation zone at present and I was there to see them getting spanked 7-3 at home by part-time Bromley (owned and managed by a certain Mark Goldman - remember him?). Not sure the consortia there know exactly what they are doing yet - although well meaning - and fans of other Devon clubs coming to their midweek games to help keep them going. Plainmoor is walkable from my house and I also go to Exeter, including their opening day 3-2 victory over Yeovil (who won't have pleased some on this thread). Tisdale's teams generally play decent stuff and nice to watch Ryan Harley again. Lovely though to get to my first home Saints game of the season v Swansea and looking forward to Leicester, Saints are always my priority.

Topley is a cracking signing - young, talented, will improve. Just don't want to see more Andre Adams-type signings, Berg has done brilliantly but tough ask to repeat that next year and injury record suggests he may not. Top order mainly needs a re-boot plus change seamers. Adams has had a good end to the season but can deal with D1 attacks and is he likely to improve at this stage of his career? Been a great servant but D1 will be very tough next year. Vince needs to be skipper and build the batting order around him, he adjusted eventually to better bowling. Smith - good for white ball cricket but doesn't get the runs at D1 level. Dawson - brilliant when he came back but again, is he going to get hundreds? It's not like the Rose Bowl is Durham and it seams around all the time, we had huge trouble getting any sort of runs on the board until the very end of the season. Can probably squeeze another season or two out of Carbs but even his conversion has been poor. Need a couple of quality top or middle order batters for 4 day cricket to compete. In the bowling department, Tomlinson and Wood just don't cut in red ball cricket so Tommo, another great servant, will be on his way. Topley replaces one of those but need another seamer. Fuller of Gloucs is my pick, would be ideal foil for Edwards and Topley with the red ball, if we get McLaren even better. Crane looks fantastic and still Briggs has a role to play.

What a relief - great win under pressure at Trent Bridge and then the champions ripped Sussex's fragile top order apart. Nice to see a top order collapse to someone else for a change :-) Interested in Weston's comment - wonder what the Yorks-Sussex bad blood is about? Definately a busy winter for White and Daqle though, will need to be major surgery to the squad to stay up let alone do better next year with two giants coming up in Surrey and Lancs. No Worcs to be a banker for D1 bottom spot. Delighted at Fidel signing, loved him as a bowler ever since I watched him live in Barbados Test 2004.

That's the question a journalist with a brain cell should have asked post match to Ronald, except more forcefully. 'Can you please explain why the club replaced the England right back with someone much cheaper who wasn't deemed good enough to start today? Do you admit that cost your team the game?' Reed needs to be made accountable for the mess over the summer and Ronald needs to get us back to the MP pressing game and fitness levels if we want to be a top flight club next year.

No offence, but can't blame linesman for that but can blame Koeman for pathetic cowardly tactics after the first 20 when we were all over them. Yoshida at fb was like giving them a two goal head start and Martina wtf? Fontes worst PL game for Saints and VVD found wanting. Victor and Romeu stopped pressing and working, why? Pelle looks dangerous which might be the difference between 17th and 18th. Need to stay up with new TV deal coming. Above all, need to get back to MP pressing game or bring in someone who will.

Average would be 14th, and I'd rip your hand off for that no, even 17th would be fantastic. Had a nasty feeling about this season since the Everton game. Genuine people prospect of being relegated unless the tactics improve, Bertrand comes back at full steam or unless the January window can undo the hideous errors from the summer. Soares - total waste of money, and lack of ambition. If he's not good enough to start today, don't buy him. Yoshida at full back never works. As for Martina, he reminds me of Torquays defending yesterday. Juanmi - wtf is Koemans problem? We are 2-1 down, let's bring on Davis, nice one Ronald. Makes me feel wonder if he has the Dutch job lined up, not focused at all.

Not neccessarily from the Conservative party workers that I know, a New Labour winner would have been far more likely to back staying in the EU at the referendum but given the Old Left's historical antipathy it is far from a given Corbyn would get behind staying in. Which would present a huge headache as the corporations who fund the Tory Party and lean on it's leadership to see a big return on their investment in policy-making overwhelmingly want to stay in. The big problem - as Lord Duckhunter points out (and we don't often agree on these subjects) - is that the Old Left are making the 1975 comparison with Maggie. I don't agree with some of what LD says because Maggie and co kept their free market dogma very well hidden until after the 1979 election, concentrating on a smaller sub-set of socio-economic policies and focusing on the (correct) absurdities of the social contract. Where I do agree with LD is that this is IDS all over again - the Tories gave up on the 2005 election by electing him leader. It was a knee-jerk reaction, as was electing Hague at least a decade too early given the distinguished figure he has gone on to become. It appears Labour have repeated the dose, losing an election to the centre ground and going for someone extreme. GM - I agree on the possibility of a Labour split but I wouldn't get too excited as the referendum is a very dangerous and divisive issue for the Tory Party and could have a similar impact. In fact, if the vote was 'no', would Cameron and Osborne want to stay in power? Being pro-European myself, I wouldn't if I were them. On the other hand, if the Tory left and Labour right split away to join the LDs, we could end up with an SDP-type party with a greater mass of MPs and silent support (as opposed to the noise of the Marxist Old Left and Thatcherite plastic American brigade). Would suit me and would be a party I could actually be enthusiastic about.

I broadly agree with your point SM, and certainly agree there is a danger away support is killed off because that's the lifeblood of going to a game. One of my local sides, Torquay, are finding it dispiriting to play teams in the NC that only take 50 fans away when they take 500. However, although it was away at Hull midweek, Liverpool are another club with a huge, and possibly even bigger tourist following, and there were big gaps in their away end at the KC last season after Hull charged them a horrendous price. That's very unusual for them and people did remark on it. The TV deal does drive so much of clubs' behaviour (I don't think Saints are the worst offenders by a long way) but a couple of empty away ends for a TV game involving a high profile side might go one further than the Liverpool protest. After all, broadcaster didn't queue up in the 1980s to broadcast Luton games when away fans were banned by David Evans (plus the plastic pitch - scene of many a heavy defeat for Saints, 6-1 and 7-0 if I remember correctly?).

Not as low as it would be in Liverpool. I still think their 'Hillsborough: The Truth' headline was the worst, followed 'By Gotcha' and then this nasty, tacky effort. I can't stand ISIS either but there are some serious issues at stake which even the Sun's IQ-challenged readership should be aware of. What I find equally repugnant is Brooks' return, why doesn't Murdoch go the whole hog and bring back jailbird Coulson as well? Will never buy that paper and the best thing to do with it is what Ronald did with Olaf Thon's short in Euro 88.

Taking the thread's emotion out of it for a moment, let's say hypothetically that Rodgers gets sacked after another trophy-less season and they finish 6th. Lallana is one of a number of players put up for sale and Liverpool would take about half of what they paid Saints for him. The question to ask is would he then fit Saints seemingly standard criteria had he never played for us previously: - Age: 28 (apart from Pelle, who may have been vital to securing Koeman, our PL signings have largely been U25 and Boruc a free) - Resale Value (Low - very likely to decline) - Wages (High and likely to want a similar level at his next club) - Fit to team (this would be good, he'd be great in that 10 role with Romeu and a re-energised Victor protecting him) - Fitness record (Not great so far at Liverpool and was mixed with us at times although played a lot of games pre-PL. Had trouble lasting 90 minutes on a regular basis) - Attitude (Let's say he'd been at another medium-sized PL outfit before Liverpool bought him. Would Reed and Koeman be impressed by what they heard? Guan hinted that his attitude hadn't been great at end of season review meetings. The Clattenburg incident provided further anecdotal evidence that England recognition hadn't been an entirely positive blessing) Overall, I couldn't see the club signing a 28 year old player with that profile for £12m with say £90k a week wages, even with the new TV deal. Certainly not based on the last few windows. More likely to sign a Mane, Tadic or Juanmi (if they ever pick the latter).

Looked very bright under Adkins until that muscle injury flared up and then when he got fully fit again MP had come in and again looked good (W Ham and QPR home notably). However, once MP's very intense pressing game was established, that was never going to suit Gaston's strengths and not surprising he fell out of favour and probably contributed to his injuries. I've wondered if he needs a slightly different training regime to get the best out of him and agree that he's a genuine number 10, that's where Nigel played him and got some great results. We do have a vacancy there so if he could get himself fit - physically and mentally - who knows but Koeman sounded quite frustrated in pre-season so must be something behind that in terms of resilience, which Tim Vickery hinted at when Gaston was linked with is. For all the great things Cortese did, I've never understood why he spent so much on Gaston, a player who fitted Nigel's system (and reduced Lallana's effectiveness in the first season + injury v Reading) but clearly didn't fit the system and philosophy of the manager he was intending to bring in later that season.

For once I'm genuinely ITK. Ryan moved from Totnes & Dartington to Torquay to play in the Devon League. After a handful of games where he wreaked havoc, Devon selected him for Minor Counties and Hampshire spotted him. Had a two week trial last month, was invited to stay and all of a sudden he's making his First Class debut! Think he's been signed until the end of the season and they must rate him highly, expect him to get at least a one year deal in the autumn. He's 6 foot 4 or 5 and certainly got it through here in S Devon although no speed guns to be certain! He's a very decent batsman as you've seen today, was rated as an all-rounder but probably an 8 in a first class order. He's known as a very good golfer and went to Uni out there to try and develop a pro career in that so this is his first real season trying out in cricket. Real story and he's making a great start - good on him.

All the best in the SPL and Europa mate, Celtic are a great club with sound fans.

Agree, would buy from Chelsea again. Don't agree with what they are doing on the whole but if the players and agents keep on falling for it and gobbling up the signing on fees, it leaves Saints some juicy morsels in 3 years time whilst our academy regenerates as the legacy of the late 00s intakes kick in.

Lol - couldn't happen to a nicer bunch. To be fair, I've got a few friends in London who are Spurs fans and who are realistic but I've also met far too many who suffer from delusions similar to those in South East Hampshire. Nice to see WBA, Saints and other clubs like W Ham and Newcastle telling Levy to get on his bike despite the pathetic toadying efforts of the plastic Loadsamoney Chav hacks and even more pathetic Loadsamoney chav agents and players. Levy and Spurs don't have the money to shop at Southampton, Liverpool can only just afford it on the credit card and it takes a proper big club like Man U to buy from us comfortably. Levy will no doubt sack MP soon when they are 12th in December. Actually, the stingy so and so even made MP pay his own compo to Saints! And Spurs fans thought they'd win trophies galore after getting Sugar out :-)

Here's hoping. Would like to see it be an AMC - Samper isn't a bad call - and a loan is more likely IMO. To be honest, any good quality midfielder who can link up play and create is very welcome at present as we don't have one - or at least a fully fit and firing one. Would imagine Gaston might need to go out on a final loan to free up wages though?

Bournemouth have signed a couple of quality players now in Gradel and this guy if he comes in. Impressive for Swansea at SMS and at that price, would be a bargain if the wages aren't too steep. Would be ideal for Saints but just VVD coming in and targeting staying up it appears.

I broadly agree with this post, especially after reading about the concerns with regard to Tadic's health. Not sure we could sign VVD, a really good creative AMC and Austin from an FFP perspective though even if the club wanted to. Perhaps the club are after a AMC on loan if they can get Ramirez loaned out for his final year to free up wages? Wouldn't be totally surprised if JWP was loaned out to a decent Championship club to help him with his development. Saints badly need one though, that much we do agree on, we are dire to watch at the moment and Norwich have to be strong favourites for next weekend unless we've had a very active week in the transfer window. Bertrand's return next month will help and hopefully Soares improves to give us a bit of width back. Victor has looked well out of sorts. Glad we got a point, thanks to Fonte putting Deeney out of the game. Notable performance from Romeu and Soares improved although whether that was him or the formation I don't know. Hope Martina plays instead of Targett next weekend as Redmond will murder him. Juamni looks to be exactly what we need to help unlock defences but Ronald doesn't seem to rate him. In which case, why sign him? Some very odd transfers in with the exceptions of Stek and Romeu. Caulker is never a Saints player in a million years and that signing got me concerned, it had 'cheapness' written all over it, as did the Martina signing. With Clasie, time will tell.

Agree on Caulker, better second half but just as dangerous to Saints in his own box as the opposition's. Not sure what Les Reed was thinking of there. Positives - J Rod, much better from Targett, Romeu looks decent but is going to clock up a few suspensions, Stek solid again despite the bombardment from the air first half, JWP better second half and Tadic stayed on the bench. Hopefully we can get sell Dusan by 31 August, if not, loan him out to Derby or somewhere. He won't feature much if we don't make the Europa Groups. Need to improve: Victor hit and miss, genuinely isn't ready yet for top 4 move, Mane ditto, Juanmi only got a few minutes again. Caulker and Yoshi poor, despite both nearly scoring. How have we ended up with Yoshi and Caulker as regular first teamers? I'm going as far as Alpine, who is doing my head in, but something has gone very badly wrong with the recruitment and Les has some serious questions to answer. Would imagine that's why Ronald isn't looking too happy at present, along with some post op discomfort. Need to get another 3-4 in, a couple of CBs, good strong CM and we still look over-reliant on Pelle so a hold-it-up striker as well. Would see us as being lower-mid-table at best if we don't address those flaws, which are obvious early season already. The PL is much stronger this year and Saints are a lot weaker.