saint1977

The simple fact is that Clyne has some work to do on his positioning, which is why Chambers was preferred for much of last season. Clyne is a good player but should sign a new contract and develop further under Koeman. As for England, I lost interest after the summer. I leave following England for fans of clubs like Burton, Tranmere or Pompey. Don't know why people are so bothered, looked how Lallana's attitude deteriorated after being part of that set-up.

True for all of the new players, need to get behind them all and put the summer's disappointments behind us. Our away supporters are better in this regard though, parts of the home support were Meldrew-esque on Saturday and it won't help players settle in.

Did you see Swann's article yesterday about England's approach to the 2015 WC down under? He said that Flower and Cook had a theory that if England scored 239 they'd win something like 72% of the time. He said the watershed for him was the last WC where Flower was delighted that they'd got 230-odd on a slow pitch only for Sri Lanka to canter home inside 40 overs. No wonder Trott used to compile 130 ball risk free hundreds, team orders. Hopefully the inclusion of Hales this series v India signifies a change of approach. I agree with him though that Cook is better off focusing on Tests but don't agree with him about Balance being omitted as Gary showed at Lord's V Sri Lanka that he can up the tempo when he needs to. He has also scored quickly for Yorkshire and gives some stability at 3 without comprising a potential middle order of Bell, Morgan, Buttler and Stokes/Jordan. Would still like to see another expansive player in there like Roy or Vince. Today not going too badly, forecast looks OK in Cardiff until 5pmish. Rohit dismissal a big bonus.

Haviong watched the coverage back it was a very disappointing display but the season can still be successful by winning the remaining 4 day games and getting promotion, which after all was the over-arching objective all along. Coles has been poor of late but Hants need to pick him up quickly because he can be rapid with the ball - not something we've been blessed with overly - and destructive as a lower-order bat. Warwicks - sorry B'ham Bears is daft - and Lancs were easily the best two teams and deserved to be in the final. Surrey had nothing apart from Roy - who must get more chances with England in T20 - and Steven Davies. KP looked awful. Can someone remind me how Jade Dernbach got a wardrobe full of England ODI and T20 caps? Supposedly a good 'death' bowler but all I've ever seen him bowl are four balls to smack.

Some of the criticism of Pelle is rather harsh. OK, I'd like see a bit more mobility based on Saturday's display but as someone pointed out, when he did drop deep to link up with play, that left us with no outlet at all and really toothless. Only Tadic was prepared to make any serious runs forwards. The current midfield is solid - which is a good platform to build from - but needs pace to break and join up with Pelle. Bringing in at least one, preferably two blisteringly quick winger/strikers and starting Taider once he's adapted to the PL would be ideal and make us less predictable. It would get a bit more space for Tadic too who teams are bound to mark heavily and neuter as our only creative and dangerous outlet.

Yep, it was a nightmare day. There seemed to be quite a few fights breaking out in the ground which summed up the discord that season between sections of the fanbase. Burnley home was another game where the tetchy atmosphere felt like it could bubble over between the ones who'd been there all season and those returning post-Lowe and during admin. Personally speaking, I had a weird clash with a guy at Bolton. My friend, who is well over six foot and well built, was voicing his frustration at WGS's no-striker formation in the first half but hadn't said anything particularly out of order. So this idiot 'fan', carrying his small daughter, decided to confront me and my other mate who are five foot ten and medium build about 'not supporting your team'. He offered us outside which we laughed at and then the coward went quiet when our larger friend returned from the away fans bar and said he'd kindly take him up on his offer. A friend that went to the QPR away game in 1995/6 said there was drunken fighting outside Loftus Rd before the game during the Merrington season - anyone there that day that recalls it?

Shaw will be fine longer-term at Man U but will learn from his mistakes at that age. LVG has a certain management style and I'm not sure I'd have handled Luke's integration process at Man Utd the way he did but Luke's still one of the most impressive players I've seen at that age and his quality will prevail. One thing he does need to watch is social media use - some of it has been daft and he got away with it to an extent at Saints. However, at a club with Man U's profile he won't.

Potentially an exciting finale to the season. Finals Day Saturday - which may also explain why WBA sales for the Saints game are sluggish - and three winnable 4 day games. The rain in Leicester was a real bonus and great effort by the Hants guys at Canterbury. There's been some talk on this thread about Hants not finishing tail-ends off in the 4 day format, is this signing for the Kent and Glamorgan games the answer - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/28867951?

Alright then Roger, what about if Lovren nails him on Sunday and he's out for 2 months? We saw in 12/13 how well Maya at RB worked (not).

That's what I was thinking, Billy's wages would push up their FFP quota. Byram is quality and might stop Clyne resting on his laurels. Or Clyne could be pushed further forward for the WBA game if we haven't got a winger in by then?

Not horrified by the prospect of Long signing but not excited at that price either. Blunder not to have replaced departures as we've gone along and consequently we'll pay over the odds for the 3-4 further signings we need by the end of the window. He does have the advantage of PL experience which is sorely lacking in the squad now and is ideal for the scrap to avoid the bottom third of the table. Had been very impressed by Tadic, Pelle, Bertrand and Forster but time will tell on this one. Seems to have a decent attitude at least. CB from Steaua sounds better. Still need another CB and a winger if Long and Gardos come in.

If that type of player exchange came about Adrian I'd be a happy man. Ings v Deeney would be a tough call assuming we were interested in either/both but were only buying one, Ings has the acceleration we need, is a great finisher and a Saints fan but Deeney has a great all round game and I've been calling for us to sign him for a couple of seasons. He is slightly older than Ings though from a sell-on view. We definitely need 2 x CBs, liking the sounds of Garda. Gaston needs a proper run of games which he hasn't had for almost 2 years. The club have made their stance on Morgan and I support that but if Levy ups their pathetic offer to something north of £20m he'll probably still go and hopefully that's the last of the whinger generation, unless Artur is next to spend time on the naughty step. Blame Lallana for setting such a pitiful example. In terms of Saturday, keep the GD intact, get 10 behind the ball and the season starts with most of the new faces and at least a week's training led by Ronald for the WBA game.

Current squad - 18th With 2 new CBs, winger and striker - 12th.

This is true, I also remember one in 1994 during the Arsenal home game (where Ian Wright scored a hat-trick and Craig Maskell missed a sitter) with about 40-50 fans in it taped off. No trouble to speak of as Arsenal were miles better on the day, 0-4 I think it finished. Back on topic, I don't agree with a Neutrals section as SMS as most games are near-sell outs if not sold out and unlike Fulham who are based in a high wage part of the capital, I can't see the market for a coastal provincial city. As soon as I saw the OP I knew Griffo would be the first poster to respond though ;-)

Great post SClarke. I know where Charlie and Windows coming from and had Saints not sold 5 others for mostly huge bucks, Morgan might have had some leverage. The club don't need the money and he's got 3 years left on his contract. So if he won't play for the club he'd either better push Levy into upping his offer or offering us some players in part-ex that Koeman really wants or enjoy the U21s until January. If he chooses option 3, he's mad but so be it, he's totally brought it on himself.

Stupid from Legia, what was the point of making that substitution anyway? Mind you, UEFA have ignored their own previous precedents, but that's hardly a surprise. Delia has gotten right off the hook there. If it had been Celtic winning 6-1 and then falling foul of player eligibility rules they'd have probably got an £750 fine but when FIFA is so awful, the saying 'the fish rots from the head' comes to mind. No wonder UEFA, the PL, FA and Football League are so poor when the game's overarching governance body has such a cloud having over it and a buffoon in charge. Shouldn't make any difference to Saints, the club have had more than long enough to get CB and GK situations resolved and signings completed.

Swindon supporting colleague saw him (Jack Stephens) play quite a few times last season and said he was superb and the comments from Cooper and Power suggested they were keen to take him on loan again. I'd keep Stephens this campaign but hope Turnbull makes the same positive impact at the County Ground that Stephens did.

Thank you, very interesting to hear. I wonder if the club might do what they did with Jos in the Championship and loan him initially and make him permanent in January if he's done well. However, there is the additional complication of Osvaldo! I know the club said the buying options weren't intertwined but politically it might suit Saints to have a lever to pull in offloading Osvaldo for good. On a related note, have you seen Schelotto play? The reports that others have had on this site from Inter fans hasn't been positive although he seems like a good influence around the dressing room. Sounds like the club may have cooled on him - mind you I wonder who that medical KBSS mentioned is for?

Lallana won't be fit for the Liverpool game so I'm afriad you can't have a flake with that...

Smith needs banning from all SFC property and a clear message to the BBC that if Smith comments on SFC any further, there will be legal action and KL can afford much better lawyers than the BBC. These articles are garbage but need nipping in the bud so the academy and other areas of SFC's activities don't suffer detriment. BBC won't want the fight in their weakened state and would probably keep Smith away.

Neither of the Villa links about Bertrand are particularly critical of him, in fact he began well but are far more critical of the club. It was more his wages on loan when Villa were so skint. Not really a problem as he's probably on about the same or slightly less than Shaw. £10m is quite a big fee if we wanted to keep him and stayed up but then LB is a specialist position. I'm quite happy with the signing anyway and I've been quite critical of the board the last few days. Like I say, good reports from my Villa supporting colleagues and they are generally critical of most things Villa-related at present!

Yeah but Saints want Osvaldo out and if Inter pay his wages in full, then Taider effectively neutralises the lack of loan fee as I'd imagine he'll be on 25-30% of what Osvaldo is on. Let's hope Inter want to buy him - I never thought I'd see a worse buy than Delgado but Pochettino let us down badly on that transfer. The only question is where he'll play because even if Morgan does go this window, we are well stocked in the CM department. Looks like a genuinely decent player from what we saw in the WC although that's never a safe barometer. Just worried about whether Inter may have forced him out - don't want another glum face around Staplewood!

A couple of Villa supporting colleagues who see quite a bit of them reckon he did very for them on loan and are disappointed he isn't returning. One in particular will be venting his spleen at Paul Lambert who he does not rate as a manager! So it's not just Saints. Solid signing to start with, need 6-7 more now.

Don't boycott but nice big poster saying 'Reed Out' should do the job plus some very cutting songs. Tells you everything you need to know about England - Reed is probably an FA establishment plant, he's used the Liebherrs' to fund an FA academy for England U21s so the big clubs can pick off the talent and gets all the political plaudits. He makes me sick. Luis Suarez is a legend for knocking England out of the world cup. He's also making Rupert Lowe, let alone Cortese, look like a genius. He has to go.

I'd welcome anyone that wasn't Les Reed, Gareth 'work experience boy' Rogers and Ralph 'Freddie's dumb brother' Kreuger. Morons all of them and couldn't run a bath. Hopefully an intimidating atmosphere at the first few home games next season might persaude them it's not wise to stick around.