Chewy

Cry? I think I'd probably cum. great achievement by a truly great saints player. I do think his best (and more mobile) days are behind him, but he still has a role to play. Thank you rickie.

Good skills, I only got 4 right this time, so 11 out of 16. So, next 8 are: Stoke (h) win Hull (a) win West ham (a) win Liverpool (h) win Palace (a) win Norwich (h) win Spurs (a) draw Newcastle (h) win I'm abusing my previous good predictions by going for 22 points. If I'm only half right we will still be well on course for our best ever premier league points tally. In all seriousness, though, all of those games are winnable. Of course there will be the odd slip up along the way, but we have no reason to fear any of our next 8 opponents, and how many times have saints been able to say that in the last 30 years?

I think only lallana and lambert will go, and possibly Clyne as Johnson is injured, but post World Cup when Barry, lampard, gerrard and cole all retire from internationals I can see a way in for cork and shaw. Jrod is not quite international class IMHO, and there could be others depending on how they develop (jwp, maybe gallagher if he chooses England, reed?). What is without question is that we are the best club at the moment for developing young english talent, something to be very proud of. It may not last, it may be just a fleeting moment, but right now this is the best club to be at for a young developing english starlet.

I think cork and victor could play together in tough away games, pushing Morgan further forward, but only when we really need two holding players, like at citeh. To do so at Fulham, probably the worst team I've seen at st Mary's since we got back to the premier league, would be too negative. Very tough on cork, but mopo had to choose between them today IMHO.

Sunderland one up. I guess this is good for us.

The police moved the Newcastle game, much to the annoyance of both clubs.

I don't think many did, apart from the usual wums and bed wetters. There are certain areas where we are light, and injuries to key people would be felt far more, like gk. Unfortunately, that's precisely where we had an injury.

So, after a few outgoings (only one of which affects the first team IMHO) and no in comings, how do we rate the squad as a whole, and where do we need to look to strengthen in the summer? My thoughts are: Keeper happy with our first choice, but neither Davis nor gazzaniga are good enough backups. Need a number 2. Centre backs Need four as a squad, we have four but both yoshida and hooiveld are only good enough four the fourth (second back up) slot IMHO. Need to sell one and bring in a first choice standard player, leaving Fonte as first back up. Full backs Great at right back, only shaw at left back. No idea if targett is good enough, but happy to go with mopos belief that he is, together with Clyne as an option as well. Cork can add additional cover at right back too, so two cover options for both positions means we are fine. Of course, we could well lose shaw in the summer, if so we need a direct replacement ... Easier said than done. Centre midfield Easily our strongest area; Morgan, victor, Davis, jwp, cork, reed. Nothing needed here Creative players I've avoided saying wingers because we don't use them as such, but we are pretty thin here. Lallana, gaston, guly and Jrod, and possibly isgrove. Need at least one player here IMHO. Striker Only Sam and Richie now, both of which are ideally sub level, one at the end of their career, and one at the start. Unless Richie regains a serious amount of fitness and form, or Sam explodes onto the scene, we need a player here, I guess the player osvaldo was meant to be. Sam has a big 4 months ahead of him and I wish him luck. So, my take is we need a keeper, a centre back, a creative player and a striker, as well as shaws replacement if he goes to Chelsea in the summer (which I think he will). If we got all of those, I think we would be a serious threat for top 6. However, without those we are still a good side (when all are fit) and a reasonable squad. Losing deadwood in January plus the loon hasn't made us relegation material, or done anything to prove kls intentions, but assuming the above four improvements would cost about 40 million plus wages, we will have some idea of her ambition or lack of it in the summer.

If she was looking to make quick money she would be offloading the likes of shaw and lallana, not players who either never play or are a major disruption to squad harmony. Just because we may not spend some money for the sake of it today does not in any way reflect on the intentions of kl to sell this summer. And if the right player is available today for the right price, I have every faith that we will make the signing.

Under poyet, Sunderland have never beaten us. Statistics ...

Could be better, but could be a lot worse. It's certainly winnable, and we owe them big time.

Most importantly, never ever read this site, so you don't end up assuming most of the fan base are utter morons.

Um ... Turkish?

Random ...

Sorry, as much as I share the frustration about yesterday's draw, are you really suggesting the management need to "wake up" to the fact that our strikers aren't as good as Suarez, aguero and hazard, and that we don't have an Alan shearer in the academy? Even by this sites standards that's possibly the most delusional rant I've ever seen.

Says he sent his son to winchester college, so with such a strong link to the area this must all be true.

So is yoshida playing or on the bench? I'd be tempted to bench lallana for either reed or j rod but otherwise like your team. With jos on the bench obviously.

Had a conversation with a villa supporting mate who reckons that many clubs get close, but are always just a couple of players short of making the step up. To get close you need top quality players, but these will go for the lure of champions league football, money, and dare I say it the money available to their agents for arranging a top move. Unless you get very lucky with timing, injuries and form, (or a ridiculous cash injection like citeh and Chelsea) it's nigh on impossible to make the breakthrough for a sustained period. We are on the cusp, and just a couple of players short, but will we get those players before the lure of bigger and better things turns the heads of lovren, Clyne, shaw, lallana et al. I'd love to believe we will buck the trend but have my doubts unfortunately. Cortese and povcchetino themselves could also be susceptible to this. I'm enjoying this season for what it is - the best in 10 years, and second best for probably 25, and I can dare to dream ... But I am a realist at heart.

Good draw for us, but not great overall - could be as many as 12 premier league sides in the last 16 including 7 of the top 9. Will be a tough run for whoever wins it this year IMHO.

Been watching arsenal v spurs, and he's just summed up why he is so sh1t. He gave a free kick for a push on rose identical to the push on walker that happened in the box and would have been a penalty, but he didn't give that one. Oh no, might have been controversial. Then he gives arsenal a free kick for a handball where the player did less than the Everton defender against us. Again, as it wasn't in the box he gave it. The guy is a moron. Whatever the rights and wrongs of what he said to lallana and whether it was sufficient to complain, he is clearly a bottler. How can he justify such decisions? Even if we do seem overly precious, getting this guys glaring inconsistencies in the spotlight, and hopefully removing him from being a potential ref for our games in the future is a massive plus. He's simply incompetent.

I agree (see my above post) but what about lets b avenues post saying you don't implement it if there's a foul given, only when there isn't. There might be some mileage in this suggestion.

Monk and Williamson both came through our ranks and are playing premier league football, so we've not completely failed, but they're nowhere near world class. I think the points above about there only being one keeper, and that all of England's top keepers came from lower league clubs are both very valid - top clubs can't afford to risk giving a young keeper the run of games they need to develop. There's an element of this at centre back too, as mistakes by defenders are likely to be more costly than those of forwards, but it is still a bit surprising. Anyone know if any of the current crop are likely to buck this trend? Debayo looked good against Pompey in the youth cup. I think the point above about converting midfielders into centre backs is probably valid - john terry was a midfielder as a youth, so too (I think?) rio; carragher was a full back initially. Maybe chambers has a future at centre half?

The man is deluded - not only does he think our dream of european football is reachable, he also said burnley is a nice town full of nice people!

I agree in principle, but what if a player is genuinely hurt, like the gash on lovrens leg the other day? This could actually back fire quite badly; currently if you're holding onto a lead you use this tactic to help waste time, but in future you'd be encouraged to inflict pain on the opposition by causing injury to them to reduce them to ten men etc which for 5 minutes at the end of a game you're chasing would be grossly unfair. people will always try and exploit the rules to their advantage so I could really see this happening. I think there would have to be an element of allowing a ref to allow a player back on if he felt there was genuine injury ... But then allowing refs (especially the current useless crop) to make subjective judgements is probably not a good idea either. I think the status quo is unfortunately the only way to go. Treating players on the field while the game continues is ok in rugby, but I just can't see it working in the more fluid game of football - they'd be in the way far too much. Ultimately if everyone played fair we wouldn't have this problem, but footballs way past this point unfortunately.

Even factoring in the young english talent development, we are not doing as well as Everton, Newcastle or hull relative to expectations. Newcastle should probably be top ranked. And how come Fulham have got 5? They should be bottom ranked IMHO, a 3 at best. Truly dreadful. Personally I'd give us a 7 for performance, and an 8 to include talent development. It's been a great season in many ways, but far from perfect.