Saint Charlie

Where do the continual Man City stories come from? A.) Agents of Jay to get either a better deal from Saints or hurry interest from Liv/Spurs etc B.) Saints, to show fans why he isnt signing a new deal. C.) Bored journalists looking to destabalize Saints and prevent us from reaching the CL D.) City to show their transfer market muscle and unsettle the player and stop him from signing a new contract whilst they decide if they want him. Fairly sure it would be A.

Exactly. We could win games at a canter lower down. We have to play 100% to get wins at PL level in the vast majority of cases. Its the concentration as much as physical elements.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/premierleague/article-2909872/Southampton-midfielder-Jack-Cork-delays-decision-new-Saints-contract-despite-boss-Ronald-Koeman-wanting-stay.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

Yep. He scored some vital goals. He was also lucky to be put in a team with some Premier League quality players like Lambert, Lallana, Chung, Morgan and Cork. Would have been great for any decent striker to play with those lads.

Anyone still think he isn't really an improvement on Billy Sharp? Shame Billy doesn't start much at Leeds. His career has declined since leaving Saints.

Would be amazing if he signs a new deal but wouldn't say these tweets make anything more or less likely. His management will meet with him every so often about a number of things. If we did secure him though it would be the best new contract since Schneiderlin in 2013.

He did. When we were clearly unable to finish any higher than 6th in the league and even that would have been very, very difficult. We have a small squad and some injuries and a chance to finish in the top section of the league. That is the difference. Also last year quite a few big teams had gone out early on, whilst it was also a couple of rounds further on. We are still in the 3rd round and all the top sides are left in the draw (mostly with easy ties in the next round). Certainly wouldn't make wholesale changes, and he won't. But personally I would bench Fonte and Pelle, maybe Clyne as they are all positions where we have no cover. If the team that plays doesn't beat a team from the league below who will also rotate then fair enough, they deserve to go through.

Anyone who has forgotten how good he is should watch all our goals from last season. See how many (good) ones he scored or contributed to. Hopefully at some stage this season he will be available, would be a massive boost.

We can do it. If anything stops us apart from a ludicrous upturn in form from other contenders it will be squad size and inability to deal with the unavailability of our key players. We only have one striker capable of scoring, for starters. Competitors nearly all have 3 strikers that are pretty decent.

I would give Cork a start then if he is fit enough. You could also understand completely if Koeman decided to play McCarthy instead of Fonte. Centre back situation is delicate and as Koeman has said this morning, league is the priority.

Makes sense to rest him IMO as that area of the pitch we actually have options. I think he has 7 bookings now so can only get 3 more til April before a 2 match ban and he is so important for us. That said, he has missed quite a few games recently, did a load of press and a TV interview to be shown as part of the coverage tomorrow and then isn't in any of the photos or videos so hopefully no injury!

Fourth place, just like the players.

Its only players thst didnt play in the first game. He will rest players again as he did at SMS.

Does anyone know which melt it is thst runs the TalkSaints twitter account? Another kid I think. Always stealing other peoples photos and tweets and then posting any news hours after it breaks. For a while I thought it was MLG as has that style, but it never mentions FM so probably not him.

McCarthy and Hesketh are travelling up to the game also.

Cork in the squad, or at least has travelled.

If Terry the Cabbie from Romford rang in to TalkSport to agree with Durham every day his show would have been canned and he wouldn't write this column. Anyone suprised or outraged by this article is worse than him and give people like him the platform to do this.

Most England players are squad players at top PL clubs and that ones that aren't get told to throw away regular PL football against top sides to play bit part football against Champions League minnows like Ludogorets. Cork's OS comments to the effect that he might have got some game time over Xmas with the injuries and suspensions show that he knows he isnt a first choice. Its not a no brainer from his point of view to stay.

Consistent with most of his work and will get the reaction its designed for elsewhere so lets not give it here!

I would agree if it wasn't for Man City, Liverpool, Spurs and maybe others monitoring him. He will see if their interest is genuine before considering signing it you would have thought. If he was seriously concerned for his career then he would have signed our contract as soon as offered and if it was that bad we wouldnt have offered him one! He is in control of the situation and despite being injured is in a strong negotiating position.

Indeed and I am sure that he won't go anywhere this window. As others have said though, if he doesnt sign a new contract in the summer then we pretty much have to sell to ensure we get a good fee that can be reinvested.

I can understand that but if we qualify for any sort of European football then we will need to add another 5 or 6 players minimum so should look to keep hold of good players. He was right up there with our best players last season and scored lots of great goals. A team like City or Spurs will only buy him if they have info that he has fully recovered and we wouldnt have offeres a 5 year deal without thinking that he will too. Really hope he stays, he is class (hence why these type of teams are tracking him).

Probably his agents trying to flush out interest from others.

Daily Mail saying they are considering a bid despite Bony signing.

Think Bertrand will sign, but agree, it would be a big lift if a player wanted elsewhere was persuaded to sign here. We have extended Yoshida and Steve Davis as well as Fonte and whilst they are good (Davis excellent tbf) players for us, they aren't the star names.