Rebel

I was hoping we were going to try and win thus game with the pay-off of a home game against Chelsea in the next round! More than that I was hoping we were actually going to try and win one the cups this year! We just don't have enough strength in depth to put out a second string against a team like Sunderland and win. I hope we pull it back and prove me wrong.

I was hoping we were going to try and win thus game with the pay-off of a home game against Chelsea in the next round! More than that I was hoping we were actually going to try and win one the cups this year! We just don't have enough strength in depth to put out a second string against a team like Sunderland and win.

Wellbeck works hard but his touch is far more often than not truly terrible Sturridge is one of those Hollywood players - selfish to the core and no where as near as good as he thinks he is. Those two, Smalling, Jones, Cleverley and Milner are only in the England squad because of the clubs they play for - there are better English players out there than them - but it's big club syndrome

They are such an arrogant club - there time has come and gone - I am going to enjoy watching them moan and groan and become the new Liverpool as they decline over the next few seasons

I hear a lot of people getting frustrated with Fox and the fact he makes the same mistake time after time - but I didn't hear anyone booing him near me - maybe the odd groan and a lot of complaining to friends, family and neighbours about his mistakes but that was it. Some of the people on hear really need to get off their high horses.

Why should I be ashamed of myself? I didn't boo him nor did I cheer ironically when he passed the ball to a Saints player - but I'm not going to pretend he's something he's not just because he wears the Saints shirt.

Fox was awful today and it has nothing to do with a lack of confidence - he's making the same basic mistakes he was making in the Championsip - the difference is it only takes a team 15 -20 minutes to worh out he the very weakest link in the premiership whereas in the championship it took 45 minutes. His poisitioning is terrible, he backs off players instead of tackling and other than a long diagonal ball to the front he can't pass. It's terrible that we had to change our entire game plan to protect one player because he's so bad. Did anyone else notice Lovren and Fonte get increasingly more p*ssed off with Fox - and eventually stopped passing to him. It's not like Dyer is that good a team should really need to double up on him. We desperately need another plan B for left back when Shaw is out - the only thing I can think of is playing Yoshida there. As the game went on I found myself getting increasingly angry that we didn't buy a left back in the summer.

We should just be done with it and buy Bournemouth - and turn them in to our feeder club - question is would their stadium be big enough for our second team?

It's not the best window - but then it's not the worst either We still don't have much depth to our squad - of a premiership standard at least anyway. We lack pace in the side, cover at full back and wide players with pace. We have Clyne and Shaw at full back - a 22 year old and a 18 year old - once you get past them we have an 18 year old winger providing cover at right back and a left back who struggled defensively in the Championship. Chambers might prove good enough given time - but Fox has proved he's not good enough. We have three strikers deemed good enough - and another 3 deemed not! We have 4 attacking midfielders who want to play in the hole (Davis, Ramirez, Lallana and Ward-Prowse) and only 3 defensive midfielders. And 2 inexperienced right wingers in Isgrove and Chambers. To me our Squad looks a little unbalanced and short of strength in depth . We dont really have 2 good players for each position when you look at it properly - something that's seen as a benchmark. If we get a couple of injuries to key players - say Lovren, Lallana and Scheiderlin - we could be in real trouble

We still need a left back and a right winger with pace

I think we're really missing the Schneiderlin and Cork platform which we built our game on for the second half of last season Wanyama so far is simply not as good as Cork at keeping the ball or playing it forward. Together Morgan and Jack were our best players - our double pivot and our fulcrum. Splitting them up makes no sense. I was worried when we bought Wanyama but convinced myself we bought him so that we could play 3 in the middle - Big Vic and Morgan ahead of a Cork. I will be really p*ssed if we end up selling Cork. And I think we overpaid for Wanyama at the moment.

They can treble that and it should still be a no

The U21s and U18s have lost a lot of players from last season - Shaw, Chambers, Isgrove, Hoskins, Reeves, Ward-Prowse and Martin that I vp an think off. Some have moved up a level or two within the club - others have simply moved on Recent results are worrying as you want them to develop a winning habit - and not a losing one though

He's only 5ft 4 - too small for the premier league I think If we're going to sign a player of that type we should go for Manuel Lanzini from River Plate

Not start against Man Utd or Chelsea? Who is then? Not Fox I hope

Somewhere it says Roma will spend the money we give them them for Osvaldo on Adrian Lopez from Atletico Madrid - why don't we just go and sign him instead.

Osvaldo plays as a wide striker on the left or right as part of a front three supposedly - so as well as giving some competition to Soldado as centre forward he can also play alongside him. And they'll need him if the get rid of Defoe and Adebayor I think he will end up at Spurs - the pull of London and a team that will push for the title this year will be too great. Besides at £17 million, 27 and with a dodgy temperament I'm not sure he's the best signing for us anyway - and I'd rather sign Lamela any day of the week - not that I think thats going to happen either. Sometimes I think we are trying to run before we can walk with transfers. Right now I'd be happy with John Guidetti and Scott Sinclair on loan from City and a new left back.

I thought we bought Wanyama so we could play 3 in the midfield - Cork sitting in front of the back 4 and Morgan and Victor pressing forward Cork and Morgan were probably our two best payers last season - it worries me if we're going to split them up - they were superb as our double pivot Lambert's best position is in the hole behind another striker - but if we are going to play 4-3-3 he doesn't really fit in to the team - he lacks the pace and mobility you need to lead the line - unless he's going to play as basically a false number 9 - relying on the two wide forwards to get into the box If we play Fox and Hooiveld at the back I expect us to lose - teams targeted Fox as the weak link in the Championship - what do you think they'll do in the Premiership

If Shaw's injured for than a couple of weeks we're going to need a first choice left back too

I'm not convinced that we were actually looking at Osvaldo - there's an interview with Pochettino where he says we have not made an offer for him and are not interested Reading between the lines we seem to be looking for a striker between the ages of 20 and 25 - ideally 21-24 - with the perfect age being 23. Old enough to make a difference but young enough to get better It also seems we want someone big enough, strong enough and fast enough to lead the line - with Rickie playing as a second striker. Leandro Damiao seems to be the perfect fit for this role - hence our undoubted interest - but it looks to be a complete no goer Personally I think Rodriguez has the ability to play this role - but can also play on the left or right of a front 3 Rondon from Rubin Kazan would fit the profile we seem to be after - and at 23 is the right age - and I think has said he wants to leave Rubin Kazan. He's also played in Spain for Malaga and and in the champions league which ticks more boxes. Rodrigo Moreno Machado - the Spanish Brazilian who plays for Benfica and has a great scoring record for the Spanish U21 side and seems to be able to play across the front 3 - would be another worth considering - that's if Benfica would sell. There are some good articles on strikers Villa should have looked at to replace Benteke if they sold him - which is the same type of striker as we should be looking at - here: http://www.cartilagefreecaptain.com/2013/7/16/4526508/striking-prospects http://www.7500toholte.com/2013/7/17/4531484/transfer-rumour-christian-benteke-finnbogason-castaignos-hosnier http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/astonvilla/id/877?cc=5901 Of that lot Alfred Finnbogason, Luc Castaignos, John Guidetti and Philipp Hosnier look to be the pick of the bunch Gonzalo Bueno might also be worth taking another look at - he can also play across the front 3 and you never know he might help us get the best out of fellow Uruguayan Ramirez Mattia Destro from Roma would be another worth taking a look at - although if we were going to sign a player from Roma rather than Osvaldo or Destro I'd love to see us sign Erik Lamela to play wide on the right or left of a front three Add Antoine Griezmann from Real Sociedad to play on the left and Damiao to lead the line and with Lamela I think we'd have an awesome front 3 - we can all dream can't we!?!

Not a bad shout - right age at 23 Others to add to the list of young strikers with potential we could take a look at are Luc Castaignos and John Guidetti

I agree that it's not over until the fat lady sings - and the transfer window has not yet closed - but I can't say that so far the transfer window for Saints has played out like I thought it would - or anything like it really. I wasn't expecting a landmark signing like Leandro Damiao to be honest - but I was expecting a bright young thing or two from South America - and one or two bargains from Spain based on Pochettino's contacts a d experience. I was also hoping we'd sign a few rising stars from the Championship (Charlie Austin, Kieran Trippier, Martin Olsson, Henri Lansbury for example) I was expecting to see players like Fox, Guly, Mayuka, Tandanari, Sharp, Hammond, Hooiveld and Fonte moved on and replaced by younger and better players to give us more depth in the squad. I wasn't expecting to see Forren sold back to the club we bought him from for a pittance (we signed Forren and Liverpool Coutinho - the scouters must be laughing at that one) I was expecting to see a new left back, another holding midfielder, a right winger, one if not two new centrebacks and a least one new striker. So far I think I'd give the club a C- in the transfer window. i cant say that ive been thrilled by the signing of Victor Wanyama from Celtic or Dejan Lovren from Lyon. Although I have a feeling we overpaid for both. It's on record that Lyon and Lovren wanted shot of each other - and last season he went from bright young thing to dismal failure. And I am yet to be convinced by any signing from Scottish Football after the terrible failures of Neil McCann and Rudi Skacel in the Championship - not too mention Strachan's clan at Middlesbrough. Did we really pay £12 million for a player from the equivalent of League One? It seems an awful lot to me - far too much if I'm honest. I'll admit it I would rather have signed Banega and Astori. It looks like we've been aiming too high and missing our targets - but also missing out on those those players we could have signed as well. Swansea, Norwich, Liverpool, Fulham have all taken 2 or 3 steps forward this summer already - whereas it seems we're standing still at the moment. Maybe I'm wrong and will end up signing one or two big names before the end of the window - but I have a feeling we'll end up with another Mayuka and Forren in a last minute panic. At the moment with a few injuries we'll look like a struggling team.

Rickie is more of a second striker than a centre forward anyway - he's better with someone playing in front of him so he can drop deep or go wide to pick up the ball and make the play. Lambert's best games were always those when he had Connolly, Barnard or Sharp playing in front if him so he could find the space in he hole for the shot, drift to he back post for the header or make the killer through pass for the assist. If we don't sign mother striker I'd expect us to start this season with Rodriguez leading the line in a 4-2-3-1 using his pace and movement across the front - with Ramirez in the hole flanked by Lallana and Puncheon - or as the central striker in a 4-3-3 with Ramirez and Lallana alongside him and Cork as the holding midfielder with Morgan and Wanyama pressing and driving forward. Lambert will be our Plan B when we need to go more direct or use the long ball - using him as the second striker to recieve the ball from the back and link the play

http://fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/view.php?id=506828 Blimey - they really want us to go up ****e creek without a paddle just like them don't they! They can't convince themselves enough that the Liebherrs are 'dodgy owners' just like the succession of them they had down there at Nottarf Krap! But they seem just as intent to ignore the big differences between the two clubs - we have a great academy producing young players for the first team, we have a fantastic training ground, a modern 32,500 seater stadium owned outright by the club and a fanbase capable of filling that stadium for more than just the big games. So we'll never be as up ****e creek as they are now!

That's a shame - he's better than Bournemouth If they are not careful Bournemouth are going to have more Saints fans playing for them than Southampton