SaintBobby

If Lallana is fit, I'd play him on the right and drop Puncheon to the bench.

I think that's a tad optimistic - but only a tad. Probably 11th or 12th this season and 8th-9th next.

If by "breaking into the top 7", you mean just about scraping 7th place because one of the top teams has an unusually abysmal season, then I think it is feasible. Just. With one hell of a following wind. But also a bit pointless. I'd rather win the League Cup, for example.

MLG seems to have gone quiet on using Wolves as a role model. How's that massive expansion worked out for them as they stare League One in the face?

This reminds me of England's failure to select MLT back in the 90s. I'm now hoping the national team fails to qualify for Brazil 2014.

Despite my loathing of Redknapp, I will be cheering on QPR v Wigan on Saturday. Rangers can't realistically catch Saints, Wigan can. If we beat Reading and QPR beat Wigan, our safety is basically assured.

This is the best link for how gone or not the relegation-threatened teams are. Chances of Reading and QPR going down are pretty close to certain. http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/premier-league/relegation

Well, that's 24 minutes of my life I'll never get back...

Let's hope so. Then we can get that yo-yo strategy back on track. Present form is seriously endangering that strategy, as it's looking increasingly unlikely that we will successfully carry out the "getting relegated" part of the plan.

Very surprised to see Hoovield ahead of Fonte. I think Fonte has been very good. I'm happy with Fonte and Yoshida as first choice. If the manager thinks it's Fonte-Hoovield or goes for Fonte-Forren or Yoshida-Forren or whatever, well fine. I think we now have 3 or 4 good centre backs. I'd like some cover here, but am not sure I'd spend £8m or whatever.

I'll be honest. I love a good moan. And I'm willing to pay good money to have one. Watching football is one of the few things in my life where I can let off steam without any of the things going wrong being in some way my fault. That said, I don't go for any overarching analysis of any player (Lambert not fit for a pub team, Guly worse than my grandma etc), but I do shout a lot if a player misplaces a pass, fails to play in a teammate etc.

Gotta be honest, I'd take a draw. I'm sounding like a stuck record saying that every game, but we're so close to the finish line that we can get over it with just a handful of draws from here. Sorry to be so unambitious!

Spurs away. We were fantastically unlucky not to have taken any points from either of the Man Utd games, but to end the season having taken points from all of the other top 7 would be pleasing.

If that's right - and it maybe - we are safe already. (making certain, very reasonable assumptions about goal difference)

Slightly off topic, but broadly on the same theme, I was trying to work out how it WON'T go the last game of the season. Because Wigan and Villa play each other on the final day, if we go into the 38th game level with one of those teams and a single point ahead of the other, we are mathematically safe (assuming there isn't some utterly mental change to goal difference).

I'm not expecting a huge leap forward next season - probably aspiring to mid-table and never in serious danger of relegation is a good target (as with Swansea, Fulham or West Brom this year). I can't see any chance of breaking into the top 6 without truly enormous investment. Also, the difference in places around the mid-table is so small that targeting a league position rather than a points total seems a bit strange. A points total of 50 might be a good target, but this might leave you finishing anywhere from, say, 8th - 14th.

It's a pretty mental league table at the moment. Arguably there are only three teams with nothing to play for as we enter April - West Brom, Swansea and, bizarrely, Man Utd. Maybe Man city as well - who seem near certain of top 4, but have no chance of winning the title. I still don't think it will require as many as 40 points to stay up. If you treat QPR and Reading as doomed, surely there's a good chance that at least one of the other teams towards the bottom will go on a pretty horrible run - something like W 1 D 2 L 4, which would mean somewhere between 35 and 39 points will be enough to just stay up.

Bookies odds are shifting a lot tonight, but most are shifting us out towards 20/1 to be relegated.

7 defeats on the spin from here? Wow, that is pessimistic!

I think MP's record is now W 3 D 3 L 3 ? If so, that's better than Adkins. But also, hasn't MP had a tough nine games? (playing 5 of the top 7 teams, or something?)

He was on the money. What part of what he said did you (or others) disagree with?

A draw would be a very good result. We're measurable underdogs, surely? After this match, only Spurs away looks really tricky. We should easily avoid relegation really. \We probably only need another 4 or 5 points and we will probably get 10-12.

Rickie Lambert isn't very, very lucky. He's very, very talented!

Back on topic, we are now 6th favourites for the drop - even after Wigan's win. We're at 6/1 - 7/1 with most bookies. The relegation odds on the betfair exchange (as decimals, showing how much you'd walk away with if you placed £1 on a team being relegated) are as follows: Reading £1.09 QPR £1.21 Wigan £2.08 Villa £2.86 Sunderland £4.80 Saints £8.03 West Ham £16.70 Norwich £17.60 Newcastle £20.00 Stoke £27.00 others are at 100/1 or longer

Seems to me to be a sensible approach if the money is used to buy players, which costs a lot up front but the benefits of which are spread over several years. Surely, the Saints squad is now fairly "complete" if we do stay up - we may sign another defender, maybe another winger/attacker, but we aren't going to spend as much as we have this year, are we? So, if you're going to assume Rodriguez, Ramirez, Clyne etc require one off capital outlays, why not borrow? The important thing, of course, is to have a plan B if relegated - can you sell sufficient players at sufficient prices to pay back the loan? It seems to me that we can. Quite comfortably.