SaintBobby

Have never undertsood why "surplus to requirements" players seem so had to get off the books. (not just at Saints). If Barnard, Forte and Martin are on - say - £10K a week, we may as well accept loan deals to recoup £2K or £3K a week. I appreciate there may be a bit of brinkmanship - try to get the loan club to pay £4k not £3k, try to get the player to accept a paycut rather than train with the stiffs, but the brinkmanship often seems to end in stalemate rather than compromise, which is in no one's interest really.

47 weeks a year - London, UK 5 weeks a year - Las Vegas, Nevada

I'm still a bit of an old fashioned curmudgeon about this, I like my skipper to be an agressive, passionate centre back or defensive midfielder (so, I'd probably go for Fonte). But maybe the responsibility and status has helped Adam's overall game and confidence. He has been our player of the season so far by a country mile and the imporvement on last year (when he was still pretty good) has been jaw-droppingly good.

I really hope we are offering enough opportunities to Cork to keep him happy, he is an immensely valuable squad player. But the truth is that if Vic and Morgan are fit and not suspended, he is behind them in the pecking order.

I was really excited when we signed Ramirez. But although he has had a few moments of flair and brilliance, he has obviously - in aggregate - disappointed over his first 17 months or so. But, his recent form really is encouraging. He was very good yesterday. I also think a number of weaknesses in his game can be ironed out - e.g. he seems to just about be starting to understand that he has less time on the ball than he was used to in Italy. I'd say it wouldn't take a great deal more improvement for him to replace Steve Davis in the starting XI, at least at home.

Great save by Boruc, but Lallana was MOTM for me. Surprised Schneiderlin got such a high %, I thought it was one of his quieter games. Delighted for Ramirez, he turned the game and was a joy to watch. Very brave sub by Pochettino.

On another thread, someone helpfully reminded us that Monkou and Lundekvam both started at Saints as full backs. Am not sure whether they both came through the academy though! :-)

A brilliant example of how to be wrong in so many ways, so many times in just 3 sentences. Impressive stuff.

yeah, but you kind of got that spectacularly wrong last season too....

Seems a slightly odd contract. I'd hate to get into a situation in a year or so's time where we don't play Lambert for his 19th league game because we don't want to trigger the contract extension. Still, I'd prefer him basically locked in, I guess.

Am just starting to believe I might prefer our midfield (if everyone fit). They are stronger at the back though and much stronger up front.

Wowser. That looks fantastic. Had never heard of flipboard before - nice job!

I find it amazing that some people think this is a must win game.

Well, that draw persuades me that I'm probably more interested in the FA Cup than the League this season (barring a massive upswing or a massive downswing in our form in the league)

Amazingly, the skates are about 14/1 to be relegated and still as short as 16/1 to be promoted! I'd say the 14/1 on relegation is worth a punt - looks more like 4/1 or 5/1 to me.

I think the quaintest, cutest thing is folk on this forum imploring us to "concentrate" on a particular objective. The implication is that if we all think about "not being relegated" this will somehow be more helpful than "dreaming of Europe". Bless.

The fact is that league position matters the most, but at some trivial levels (8th or 10th) it doesn't matter as much as a cup win, or even just getting to Wembley. This isn't hard for any reasonable person to grasp, surely?

They are dropping like a stone. Could well drop out of the league.

Good result. Lambert, Lallana and Rodriguez superb in the 2nd half.

utterly majestic....looks even betetr than it looked live!

Mental. Utterly mental.

Don't know much about him - but does seem to be just the sort of player we could do with.

In other news, the skates are getting very close to being dragged into the relegation mire in League 2

Everton 2 -0 Stoke

It's a pity. There's a real flicker there...but it just don't seem as though it is ever truly going to catch light with us. He has the ability to develop into a really good player...but probably not with us.