doddisalegend

If the last few years have shown me anything making predictions about what happens when important people leave the club is a bit pointless. I thought we were ****ed when Pardew left, I thought Nigel being sacked was madness, Many thought NC leaving was the end of the club. yet none of those departures were actually that bad and mostly lead to better things. I think MP has done a great job but I'm not yet convinced he wants to stay, and frankly if any of the teams he has been linked with come for him I suspect he drop us like a hot brick, I also haven't lost faith in the club that they can find another good manager if he decides to go. MP leaving doesn't automatically mean all our players leaving or the end of the club doing well.

Quite honestly we don't know yet, the summer I guess will show us. My gut feeling is we've moved away from NCs , frankly extremely unlikely champions league dreams, to a more sustainable steady mid table side built on academy products. We are a decent side but we are so far off the top sides that we would need ridiculous money spent on us to get even near the CL. Look at how much spurs spent last summer their strength in depth is miles ahead of us and yet they're not even a CL team and aren't even that good a Europa league team. Their has been mention by KL and RK of being a self sustainable club that really doesn't tally with pushing to be a top PL team or a CL team. Youth and decent purchases to keep us a well run mid-table are were I think were heading and TBH we should be happy with that.

That's a fair point but we were on the back foot before J-rod went off so there is more going on than that. The defence seems to have become rather mistake prone in recent weeks compared to the brilliant way it played early in the season.

I haven't heard those what did he say?

The big boys are in full swing now and scoring for fun. I really thought Arsenal might do it this season but they've been smashed up by the sides around them badly. I think Arsenal are miles ahead of Saints as a team yet they seem well off Chelsea, Man city and Liverpool. Liverpool are a bit of a one man band (I might be a little uncharitable there but I don't reckon they'd be doing nearly as well minus Suarez). Reckon Citeh and Chelsea will have the PL sowed up for the next few seasons. I reckon Saints are going to need a shed load of investment just to stay were we are.

Speaking of loaning players haven't we got any we could loan to Northampton to help them out. I reckon Guly would be pretty amazing in league two, Jos would firm up any league two defence, is Forte still on the books? could notch up a few goals. Maybe Sam Gallagher to........anything to help out a fellow Hampton town and get pompey relegated:p

They had plenty of luck today York missed a couple of sitters (one candidate for miss of the season according to the tatters)

Listened to the pompey match on Solent (yeah I know but I have the radio in the garage set to 96.10) truly dire stuff from pompey but my favourite part was the pompey fan who texted Radio Solent after the game to say he is refusing to give the club anymore of his money while they're rubbish...........

Does he play up front or CB? Reckon he'd be pretty good on the half time catering to.......

I've highlighted the bit we might struggle with. If you'd put decent/good/PL quality I might have agreed but world class is like a Ronaldo or something. I be happy with keeping what we've got and winning a cup myself

His first saints hat trick and my sons 1st away day. The MK Dons keeper was shockingly bad that day - great goal though

Fair point I see your Suarez and raise you................. Liverpool got away with it (big time)

Since the take over how many players have we lost to other clubs that we didn't want to lose.......... the only one I can think of is Oxo. We may not be the richest club around but we're in a good enough place to make ourselves an attractive club to stay at and if a player really wants to go we're a position to get top money for them by playing hardball (and lets face it if they really don't want to be at the club - might as well let them go if the price is right). There is really no point worrying about it to much if a player goes they go. It's what the club does with the money and filling the place in the squad after that player has gone that is the important thing.

Good to see - well done the club.

Roy will play Lallana and Barkley (if he goes at all which doubtful I reckon) in midfield and neither Rooney or Sturridge play the support striker role for England very well. Rooney is to interested in personally glory and trying to be every where at once and Sturridge is better playing off the defenders shoulder. Lambert can play the target man role well enough and the support striker role as well so seeing as the fourth striker is merely back up Lambert offers more flexibility in case of injuries than Andy "battering ram" Carroll.

It's not the first time AL has been subbed of quite early in the game by MP usually it seems to be to facilitate Gaston getting time/staying on the pitch. TBH he had a quiet game (by his standards) today and Roy was in the stands so being subbed off probably wasn't what AL wanted at all. Can't help feeling the spectre of the World cup is putting pressure on a few of our players. Lambert looked desperate to go when interviewed on MOTD tonight and Adam has gone from not even being on England radar to a pundits already on the plane choice.

Well with Gaston, Jack and Victor injured. JWP being off the pace Guly might have to play a few more times before the end of the season.....

I wonder how many of J-rods goals the last two seasons have been assisted by Lambert? J-rod would get next to no service playing alongside glory boy Rooney in the England team. Given that J-rods England debut was pretty forgettable and he didn't even get on the pitch against Denmark I'm not sure Roy is all that impressed with J-rod. He will most likely only go if Sturridge, Rooney or Welbeck get injured before the WC.

We were struggling before he came on. We were great first 15 minutes then we went off the boil and tried our hardest to let Norwich back into the game. RL comes on scores one and sets one up and our attacking play looks far more dangerous. You can spin it anyway you want but we are a better team when SRL plays what we need is a replacement in the SRL mould sadly most people seem obsessed with the idea of getting a striker who can run fast.

I think today showed that unless we get another player to take up Rickiy's role we need to play him all the time , not as a Sub, we don't have another player who holds up play and lets others join the attack the way Ricky does without him up top we look a poorer side. Osvaldo wasn't that player and neither is Jrod those type of players need to feed of the service Ricky provides. I think a lot of people need to stop obsessing about SRL lack of speed and the fact he isn't scoring every game and see how he is integral to how the team plays.

In fairness he probably never thought he'd play for England let alone be part of a WC squad. At his age this would be the final icing on a career that a few years ago looked likely to be built on lower league football. I could see why he would be distracted by England he has one chance at the WC and I reckon he wants desperately (and who wouldn't).

TBH if either of them go they won't get much playing time apart from a last 10 minute gamble if we look like going out of the WC. Sturridge (deserved) and Rooney (not so much) will be the main strikers. Personally I can't see why Roy wouldn't take Lambert a) he did his bit in the qualifiers when there was no one else b) when Roy got to see him with the England squad he seemed impressed c) the few England appearance he has made he has done what Roy has asked of him and stepped up straight away with goals and assists (something Jrod failed to do, harsh I know bit I reckon that's how Roy will see it). d) Carroll has done nothing to warrant a place and it would be much easier for Roy to take RL who is already integrated with the current crop of players.

No Victor or Jack means having play around with midfield. I wonder if that means the surprise inclusion of Guly, who is supposed to be an attacking midfielder, playing in front of Morgan and Davis? I guess JWP is the obvious replacement though there is always a chance of Gaston managing 90 minutes I suppose.

Did anyone see the echo article the other week when Luke Shaw credited Puncheon with being a big influence on him being the footballer he is now...

Always thought Puncheon was a decent player good enough for the PL, though has a tendency to lose concentration occasionally resulting in **** ups, TBH if he looked crap at palace that might say more about the ****e he has to play with bet it was a bit of shock playing along side the likes of Chamakh and Dwight Gayle after playing with Adam and Rickie.