Saint Charlie

Haha. He just said in an interview that he helps new signings settle by sorting them out a phone. Maybe he has access to a wholesale supplier? On topic, there was a good example of Jos' lack of concentration last night. 2mins 25 secs into the highlights video. Reminded me very much of the Newcastle cock up at St James' Park last season.

Very true. He and Kelvin are both key in this respect it would seem. MLG - Could you put some stats together on our PL result split when Hooiveld played over the last two seasons? Year by year view. Cheers.

This will be the fourth season with Saints for the man with the square head. Excellent in the Championship (especially on Tuesdays) and then progressively worse since then. Can he turn it round and have a solid campaign as a starting player? Or will his 'happy feet' conjure up a few more OGs? Personally, I am amazed he is still at the club considering how efficiently we shed the other Championship deadwood. But he does help new players settle in by sorting them out with mobile phones, and seems a good lad around the camp. Does this mitigate things slightly? My opinion could be swayed by those of others...

Good pricing. Hopefully Cup games this season will be similar.

Cardiff's defence was ****e last season despite having Marshall in goal who was excellent and Medel sat in front of the back four who is a good player. Is Caulker that good, or were the other defenders really that ****e?

Not for me. Add Davies too. But its only us and them that are clearly weaker (at this stage).

Exactly. The last thing Targett needs is to be hyped as being better than Shaw before he has even made a league appearance.

Hooiveld sums up his defensively quality on 02.27 of that video. More of that in the PL and he will get roasted alive, as he did last year and the year before that.

I said teams have improved in quality or numbers. Not neccessarily to be better than us but that they have improved themselves in theory which is all any team should look to do, incrementally improve on what they had. Would say that applies certainly to: Arsenal, Chelsea, Palace, Hull, City, United, Newcastle, Stoke, West Ham. Villa, Liverpool and Burnley have added numbers to their squads. The others (Spurs, WBA, Everton, Leicester, QPR, Sunderland) havent done a lot yet but havent sold any key players zo are certainly no worse off (Everton lost Lukaku but knew he would be going as was a loan). Only Saints and Swansea (very shortly), are weaker overall now than in May. You could argue for Liverpool with Suarez going, but they have also made some good signings so it possibly balances out. Would say that is a pretty fair assessment, and shows why we still have a lot of work to do - surely nobody disputes that?

Have you ever seen Targett play live? Shaw's defending was always excellent I thought, equal to his forward play. Stops crosses well, good in the air and great 1v1. Can't remember an opponent really beating him apart from Albrighton a couple of times. If Targett gets anywhere near Shaw's level he will have a fine career.

So we are net worse than last season at this stage. Three quarters of the other teams have improved, either in numbers, quality or both. None of our weak areas from last season have been resolved yet. We will obviously be signing players but understandable that there is a feeling of more urgency this window than any other for a while.

Which is normally fine but this year is a bit different for us due to the sales etc etc (I know by saying this I am a moronic bedwetter but its also true).

Sky saying WBA closing in on a "big name striker signing". Hopefully Anelka style rather than Lukaku.

Being better than Fox is irrelevant, thats not the benchmark. We need a starter, then Targett to develop as cover.

Siem de Jong is a good player, ditto Cabella. Also Colback a solid option.

Clyne is a RB who can cover at LB in emergencies and is never as good playing at LB because his left foot is not great. HTH.

Looks good. Obviously need a second LB so will be interesting to see if he can push the new recruit during the season.

If Ulloa is £7m then Ings surely over £10m to even interest Burnley. Not sure he is worth that kind of money.

McQueen has certainly seemed to do enough to stay in contention. Isgrove and Sinclair IMO won't make it with Saints.

If we really wanted Caulker we have had ample time to go after him. Can only conclude we don't. Is he that good? Jury definitely out.

Yeah he was talking to the Arsenal and Chelsea Scouts that were in attendance at the Southampton FC Awards ceremony. In between the main and dessert if I recall correctly. Jokes aside, there were quite a few clues from being in attendance that night as to what was about to unfold.

Was it patred who posted it? Theres a reason most of those loons have been exhiled to the UI.

:cool:

Yep, good to get him scoring from the start!

Be a decent clean sheet for Jos if he can hold out.