croydonsaint

Massive statement today from Koeman "No players will be sold in January" He seemed very determined in the way he said it and said, I thought as a statement of fact. If so very significant and great that he has been so clear on early on. Of course we may welllose another 2 or 3 key players in the summer, but at least he has put down a strong marker and also given us time to make replacements.

I keep reading that Koeman and Van Gaal did not shake hands before the game. Is that right? I was sure I saw them shaking hands and then he walked towards his seat and then went back and shook Giggs hand. Did I imagine that?

Agree. Lets go back to the start of the season and how many of us really thought we could do as well as last season. I do not see why we cant still finish above 8th but will be down to getting our injured players back and perhaps a couple of good signings. Even when we have lost we have not looked bad so I still feel very optimistic, all be it frustrated as well.

Poor first touch and runs out of ideas on the final ball. His strength is running directly at players but not doing this. Think hes lacking confidence [lets hope hes not reading this thread]. He is a good player, give him time. He could be just a few games away from every one raving about him...............................I hope!

Strange game, quite scrappy with neither side able to keep the ball for a lot of the game. Wanyama started well and as previously mentioned Alderweireld probably had his best game as did Forster. Think Pelle missed a couple of very good chances and this ultimately cost us a very tight game. The lack of depth in the squad is crystal clear, so confident that we will make some signings in January. If we do not we will do well to keep in top 8. Yoshida does worry me. He seems to have that mistake in him when under pressure and nearly cost us a goal late on. Mane continues to be frustrating and seems to have gone backwards. Unfortunately only way I could get tickets was in the North stand so that was odd. Bit of a dull lot and their favourite song was arsenal arsenal arsenal, no humour either, grim. Some guy wanted to talk at half time asking us what "we should do different" I was tempted to say let some goals in would be good, but could tell that would not have gone down well.. They seemed to be impressed with Wanyama and thought they should take him in January and heard guy commenting that we were being found out now they were playing the good teams. I thought at times Arsenal were poor but you could see in the last 15 minutes it would only be them that could score. Gutting to concede so late and worried about Monday with all our injuries.

See Mitchell is starting his magic at Spurs with a one nil victory. Now he's left us I guess Koeman will have to start playing his part in our good start to the season.

Agreed. What a great signing and BBB [before Black Box]

I am not sure it fair to say he has no integrity. Of course for us it is disappointing similar to the close season when players were leaving. I think the important thing is to ensure we recruit well and carry on our course. If we go on with the direction we have taken since Cortese bailed out we may in years to come end up keeping the people we want to keep.

What a bump.............. Happy birthday Matt, good seeing you earlier and looking forward to Arsenal and Sheffield Utd! Think this season can be your Birthday present!

definitely did seem odd. Am sure this would be picked up by Hodgson as one of Clynes strengths is charging up the right wing and getting dangerous ball in. By contantly not passing to him they were definitely not helping Englands cause.

it is quite clear that Mitchell is an intelligent guy and has certainly developed his department probably in ways not envisaged when he was recruited. He will clearly be hard to replace but we probably thought that when Pochettino left. As people have mentioned on here already it gives us an opportunity to find some one even better. I am left though wondering why with all the potential for development ahead of us that he would want to leave. I would love to know the reasons behind him leaving. was there something inside the club that he was unhappy with, ie. relationships, budgets, direction etc. Is there a danger that the positive PR around the club is masking problems? I just have a little niggle that with such a highly regarded club and high profile and well publicised role in it, why would he leave now?

I enjoy looking at stats, and particularly at the moment as they seem to be pointing to our best position ever in this league [ie not old first division] One that I like is I reckon 1.75 points per game for the remainder of the season is very likely to get us 4th place. As we are currently on 2.27 points per game that is quite a reverse in form. Liverpool and Spurs need to achieve 2.15 points per game for the rest of the season to get to the 72 points that should be around what is needed for 4th place. As they are currently on 1.27 points per game they have to get a lot better than we can get worse. This is why I really do think we can end up above them both. My prediction for the end of the season is 4th or 5th.

to date we have had a great start, infact the best start we have ever had. We have the advantage that apart from Man City and Chelsea, the rest of the "big 6" are struggling. I think the talk of us having not played the big teams yet and our results will decline when we start playing them is as wrong as the comments at the start of the season that we would struggle and likely be relegated. There are several precedence's of the "smaller teams" starting strongly and then declining badly, West Brom and Newcastle come to mind, but if we can keep this settled team playing and not get hit by bad injuries, bans etc. I really think we will not drop off as we did last season as we have a deeper squad and I think a better management team. I think there is a good chance also that we may be assisted by Liverpool and Spurs continuing to punch under their weight. Although Man U I think will do better we just may be able to keep within reach of them later in the season. I tell every one that we cant possibly win the next game coming up. I have an Arsenal fanatic mate who I tell every game that we will lose and they will win and am loving banter when the opposite keeps happening. Unfortunately have tickets in the Arsenal end v us coming up but feel I have nothing to lose as we beat them in the cup and surely they should be beating us!!!!

I think that is a bit harsh. Although his weaknesses have become more apparent with hindsight, I don't think any one can say he did not get a lot out of the players last season. I think his problems are exactly what I thought could happen to him which is that here he had a bunch of players ready and wanting to develop, players that although very good were fighting to develop there careers. At Spurs there is a number, maybe even a majority of players that believe they have made it and much less likely to buy into his highly physically exerting playing style. His system can only work if the players all buy into it 100% as it falls down other wise. If he can't get them onside very quickly ( and I do not think with the players at his disposal that he can) he will be gone by the end of the season. Can't help feeling he has made a massive mistake with his career by leaving us, but personally am pleased he did as I do not think the club will have developed as much in the next few years if he had stayed.

To answer original question 4th position will need probably around 72 points to be sure. That is points per game of 1.89. We are currently performing at 2.27 ppg. If we can achieve 7 points every 4 games we are unlikely to be lower than 4th The way I am seeing it, we stand a decent chance of being above LIverpool and Spurs. Think 4th place will be between us and Man U. Think we will be 5th for what it's worth. And that would be incredible.

I will vouch for that. I can remember quoting I think it was Alpine Saint [haven't seen him for a while things must be good] who was saying something like" but Alpine thinks we are doomed, he could have a point this time, look we have got no players left" and you said, don't worry, what ever Alpine says the opposite always happens and sure enough you were right. Roll on Saturday........................... can we win again Becks, surely not?

Err? Or maybe aim for the stars and you might end up on the moon. Let's be clear. Cortese did some good things but he was also slowly snuffing out the history and spirit of the club we support. Thankfully that has been corrected in spades. Cortese is happy, he has got his money and some one else will back him. ( but not in football) Am am just happy that he is as far away from us as possible.

Let's not forget that if they didn't leave we couldn't have moved on to be the team we are this season. I know this is hind sight and I was not unhappy with pochettino last season but the thought of him managing us now having seen how we play this season genuinely fills me with dread. Of the players that left, the losers are Lovren,Lallana and Lambert. At least Lambert has gone home and at this stage of his career maybe not the worse situation. Lovren has been found out as not the world class defender he was believing he was and lallanas place in life is to be a bit player in a big club. He is a very good player but he is not a great player. He probably has lost the most by his leaving and I bet in 15 years looking back he will know that.

Koemans appointment, excellent spirit and attitude in the team and some very very good players playing for each other. All of this is great credit to the directors who have the whole club working together to acheive this success.

Appreciate update. Cant see why we do not sign Cork even if only to protect his value as Surely he would attract buyers if we did wish to lose him.

If he loses more though it could be curtains for demodode?

very good post Beckenham cup cakes do not count.

Ok Here goes........... Liverpool are 6 points behind same period last season and Spurs 8 points less. Liverpool had an exceptional run towards end of last season, I really do not think they will be that close to repeating that and can see them around 18 points less than end of season points haul of 84 points so would see them maybe around 65 to 68 points. Spurs not looking great, they finished on 69 points and do not see them matching this. [They just could come good, but as the weeks go by....] Everton ended up on 72 points and suspect they will end up on similar [they are currently 6 points less than same period last season. Man U finished on 64 points last season but will certainly end up over 70, likely mid 70s or above. Forgetting Arsenal, Chelsea and Man city as these are 100% ending above us. So now the mighty Saints. Well we have a better team and manager and depth of squad than last season [i think we can all agree on that now] We have Rodrigues coming back also and last season we did have a poor run when players got injured and inadequate replacements were played. I could see us perhaps gaining 15 points v last season if nothing dramatic happens to the team and we maintain our form so could end up around 71 points. Obviously all speculation and through Saints tinted glasses, but we just could end up a few points away from, or even above Liverpool, Spurs and Everton. Now if that happened well it just doesn't bare thinking about..................................

During that game I can remember seeing him running around in his technical box waving his arms around and jumping up and down like a manic chimpanzee while every one including his players ignored him. He is just a bit of a joke really and isn't worth taking any notice of.

Has any one worked out the saving on this v paying for each game?