SaintBobby

I don't think Lambert shld have been left on the bench vs West Ham and I'm worried that he was. The fact that we beat QPR yesterday does not change my view.

He's a brilliant fit for Liverpool, especially in his more withdrawn, roving role (not just a traditional, battering ram centre-forward).

I'm about 80-90% certain he'll stay. But if he goes, I'd say Liverpool are a good shout.

1. No proof. Just speculation. Not obvious that his benching at West Ham was due to injury, so just speculating. 2. Looked a bit slow and poss unmotivated in last cpl of home games to me.Not awful at all, just not up for it/firing on all cylinders. 3. Yep, that's why I said it. 4. That's going back yonks - we're the third or fourth top net spenders this year. 5. Agree - but it's not as if we have no options w/o him. 6. £6m for a player who is v rarely in the starting XI is one hell of an outlay for Saints. 7. Just don't know - but they'd be foolish not to, he's just what they need. 8. Just don't know - but they'd be foolish not to, he's just what they need. 9. Hmmm...not sure, don't feel there's any evidence either way on that. 10. I'd say shakier finances is a good reason to sell players 11. Quite!

8 from 12 isn't awful - the win yesterday was huge, obviously. I don't think it will be 38 points to stay up. A lot of teams are averaging less than a point a game - I'm guessing 34 or 35 will be enough.

Yep, watched the game again on Sky. He did take a knock before being subbed - but don't know if this was the reason or just a contributory factor or neither.

Haven't been greatly impressed by Boruc or Gazzanigga. Am not sure I would have dropped Kelvin in the first place - although he hasn't been the mutt's nuts this season not by a long way.

I wouldn't be amazed if Lambert left in January tbh. I don't think he will, but my jaw wouldn't hit the floor if he did. Here's my "2 + 2 = somewhere between 3 and 5" reasoning: 1. He's been benched a couple of times without obvious tactical reasons (most noticeably West Ham away). This could conceivably be because of tensions between him and the club. 2. Has looked mildly disinterested in a couple of games. 3. Might believe his only shot at every getting an England cap is to be at a bigger club. 4. We've spent a hell of a lot on transfers and recouped virtually nothing. 5. We have a surfeit of options upfront (although Lambert is very probably the best of them). 6. Would go some small way to explaining the £6m signing of Rodriguez, which is a heck of an outlay for a rarely used player. 7. Liverpool desperately need to strengthen up front and Lambert would be a good fit for them. 8. As a scouser and a Liverpool fan, one could understand Rickie and his agent being very keen on exploiting any interest from Liverpool. 9. If by Xmas, we look more likely than not to be relegated, he may want to seek a way out rather than see things through to May. 10. Some general, inconclusive, circumstantial evidence that the club's finances are not as strong/bottomless as previously believed. 11. This "worrying photo"!!!! :-) (actually, forget that, this photo is irrelevant!) As I say, if I had to stake my life on it, I think he will stay. But I don't think we should assume that all our better players are nailed on to still be here in January.

Puncheon. Immense. Honourable mentions - Cork, Ramirez, Lallana and Shaw. Good stuff all round - but thought Schneiderlin was a bit below his usual exceptional standards today.

Brillliant stuff - we were the better team by a mile. Puts us back in the mix - despite the annoying Reading win.

shocking goalkeeping

Looking pretty good so far.Just need Gazzaniga to look a bit less wobbly, really.

I stopped reading at this point. (see bold, used above) They can't even distinguish between plurals and possessives. Apostrophes and extra webbed fingers just arrive at seemingly random intervals. Stunning and horrific. But very f-ing funny.

you score 6, we'll score 5. awesome.

One very good, but pretty expensive centre-back. Dawson for sake of argument. I'd probably limp through with what we've got. But an excellent left-back would be my second priority. Clear out some midfielders/attacking midfielders, we have too many.

Shaw went over to the bench a few times, was obv asking to be subbed. I think there was a case for throwing on Mayuka, but starting with Shaw and Cork turned out to be an inspired decision.

My guess would be a change of manager works best when the incumbent has "lost the dressing room". Not sure how this could be measured, but it's a hunch.

Find it hard to believe there's a "15 min clause" in Guly's contract. But are any professional football players, anywhere, known to have "play if declared fit" or "in squad if declared fit" clauses? Does seem the sort of thing a player might want, but I have known no proven example of it.

Have decided my bigger gripe is now not people leaving early or taking their seats late, but expecting to just barge pass irrespective of what's going on the pitch. Wait for the ball to go dead FFS.

If I remember correctly - and I might not - Wigley was a rather half-hearted internal promotion on a short-ish contract. If he'd had a couple of years of staggering success behind him as Saints manager, I would have given him more time. The club decided - after a stunning record - to give Adkins a lengthy, lucrative 5 year contract. Was that a dumb decision?

Looks like an awesome read. I think I'll buy the hardback edition.

He wasn't interviewed by Palace. Was on their long list. But not interviewed.

I have no more data than most. But, here's a thought. We're going to treat major purchase as capital purchases, which we may have to get rid of at a loss. So, rather than writing a cheque for £12m for Ramirez, you borrow the cash. Assuming that we either stay up - hurrah! - or offload him for say, £9m, if we go down. My worry would be if we can't cover that £3m gap - not if we borrowed the money to buy Ramirez.

Not sure I agree with this. If, for sake of argument, Saints were offered $10m to play one game a season in Tokyo or Shanghai rather than St Mary's. I'd take it.

I'd give us 3.5/10 Defence has been shocking. Only real upside is we know the problem that needs fixing. If we get some points tomorrow, I'd shift my score to maybe 4.5 or 5/10. At the start of the season, I was expecting about 7 points from first ten games. Am disappointed, but not wholly surprised.