Rebel

There are some good young players from the premier league who are out contract this summer - strikers Borini from Chelsea and Guidetti from Man City - not too mention Vaughan from Everton. We should also be looking at getting players on loan like Mellis from Chelse, Eastmond and Frimpong from Arsenal - maybe even Vokes from Wolves if they stay up. Possibly Surman from Norwich.

Nicky Maynard has a year to run on his contract at Bristol City and seems keen to move on - he's not signed a new contract and Bristol City have gone from contenders to also rans. Wasn't he top scorer in the Championship last season - but just come back from injury and to form now. I could see Saints signing him - and it would give us the pace and proven NPC goalscorer we'll need if we go up. James Vaughan from Everton/Crystal Palace on a free would be a good signing in a similar mould. Young and pacey - and good value. Nathan Tyson will also be available on a free I believe. I'd like to see someone like Beattie or Vokes to lead the line and give us another option upfront. A lot of the stuff around who is available and who is not will depend on who goes up and down. If Wolves stay up Sam Vokes would probably be available - if they get relegated they will probably look to keep him. Similarly if Reading stay in the NPC players like Brian Howard and Matt Mills might be available. If they go up Antonio might well be instead. Again if Burnley stay in the NPC Jack Cork might be available. Again if Swansea dont go up Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer might look to move on. If we sell AOC I'd like to see him come back on loan for the season - maybe with a couple of friends - any from Frimpong, Lansbury and Eastmond at Arsenal would do!

The cr*p coming out of Bournemouth and Brighton this season has been amazing! Bournemouth really do have a chip on their shoulder about being the small club down the road that we used to lend players too and play friendlies against - but I think its mostly because half of the people in Bournemouth support Saints just like Adam Lallana and his family. They really don't like being a second club - which they were for a lot of our fans until this season! Brighton I don't get at all - I think a lot of its to do with hating Alan Pardew for his Palace connections and then the rumpus over the summer about Calderon supposedly been offered a better contract by Saints. Something which was not even true according to Cortese and was spouted out by Poyet! Its Calderon they should have an issue with not us! They also seem to forget they came to St Mary's earlier this season playing for a draw from the very first minute - not something to be proud of even if you've won the title. They left a bad taste in the mouth just like Billy Davies Derby County - but you had to admire both teams for their professionalism! If Saints had a little bit more of that street smart attitude - and maybe kept a bit of managerial stability - I think we'd still be fighting them for the title this season rather than trailing behind them in second place! Or first loser as some like to say!

I have to say Umbro do produce the nicest football kits by a long lomg way at the moment - take a look at footballshirtculturte and you'll see what I mean! Looking at the latest Umbro shirts I have a feeling our away kit will be a blue and yellow version of the Ireland away shirt. And I am sure our home kit will be simple red and white stripes. Personally I'd like to see one similar to the early 80s kit with the thick and thin stripes and then the year after one similar to the classic Air Florida Keegan era shirt.

The play-offs are a lottery - and we've never had any luck with them before! We need automatic promotion in second place. I can't see us beating Brighton at the Withdean but hopefully we can squeeze a draw and scrape wins in the rest of our games and we might just make it - otherwise we are going to be relying on goal difference to carry us up!

One problem - Huddersfield and Peterborough are quite likely to win all of their remaining games - so we need to win all but one of ours now as well!

You think he'd of realized by now that we can't play the diamond - we don't have the right players for it - or they are simply not good enough! 4-4-2 from now on please!

The Saints Trust was against the SISU deal if I remember it correctly. The deal would have been very good for Dulieu and the Executive directors - Hone, Oldknow and (the American bloke) - but not the fans or the club as a whole. Coventry are exactly where we predicted Saints would be after 2 years under SISU control. Watch the asset stripping and administration take place before you're eyes!

The new shirts were signed-off before we had a new sponsor so it will be interesting to see how they fit their logo on the design. A white panel with a red logo perhaps on red and white stripes?

That's my point -we had momentum with 12 points out of 12 despite not actually playing very well. After a decent second half on Saturday tonight was our real chance to step it up and keep the momentum going - but snatching a draw from a victory and losing Lallana and Chamberlain to injury (along with Morgan) isn't exactly a big step forward! And my comment about pressure is based on watching these players over the course of a season - they are not good a handling pressure - don't be fooled by the last 3 or 4 results - we have played badly and won games due to the ability of individual players at key moments - and the terrible teams we played against in Swindon, Yeovil and Sheff Wednesday. As a team we have not played well for quite a while. Winning games has glossed over the reality of our team for some people. We should be top of this league with the players we have got in our starting 11- and our supposed strength in depth - not 12 points behind the leaders and fighting for second place. Charlton were there for the taking tonight - after their terrible run of form and lack of confidence - MK Dons certainly won't be!

he's a bad luck charm!?!

We really need to win games like that if we are going to get automatic promotion - losing 2 points tonight and possibly either or both of Lallana and Chamberlain for a number of games definately feels like a bad loss to me! We don't really have thet strength in depth that Atkins supposed to have talked up - so for the next game against MK Dons we could be without Lallana, Schneiderlin, Chamberlain and Gobern on the pitch or on the bench. It's all about momentum - and at the moment our's seems to be slipping away! Three points tonight would have rally put the pressure on Peterborough and Hudderfield for the next few games - Saturday's certainly - injuries or not! Now the pressure will be on us to really make those games in hand count. And to be honest I'm not so sure our players can handle presssure! If an understrength Saints lose to an infrom MK Dons the pressure is really going to heat up!

Gosney from AFC Totton would be worth a gamble if you ask me. N'Guessan and Forte seem to have made no impact so we still need someone to replace Puncheon. At least Guly is back in the squad. If we are going to play a diamond we need 2 wide midfielder (Oxlade + ?) as well as Lallana in the hole. Chaplow is much n better as the attacking or box-to-box midfielder in 4-4-2 than a wide player in a diamond midfield. I think we are still missing Puncheon although Guly can play wide, upfront or in the whole.

Hammond had a good game yesterday - but in the previous two home games he was terrible. He is not a great passer of the ball and his first touch is often terrible. He's not the best tackler either. Saying that Chaplow hasn't had a great game lately either.

Chaplow and Hammond are probably nearing suspensions and we shouldn't be playing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain week in week out. Dickson and Butterfield - not too mention Lambert - could play in midfield - but we could do with another playmaker / creative midfielder whether Gobern and Schneiderlin are out or not.

I have to say I was hoping for a bit more if a wow factor - the launch also seems to have been a bit of a damp squib! And I don't understand why a business-to-business company would sponsor a football club - particularly a recruitment company / IT managed services company supposedly in the global marketplace It's makes much more business sense for a consumer brand or even a regionally focused company. It's certainly a come down from Friends Provident or Flybe! I was hoping for someone like Skandia or Aegis (or whatever it's called now - was Fortis). I can't imagine the deal is worth that much to the club - smacks a bit of last resort - if not a favor to someone! It's a bit of a stupid name and a daft logo as well - and there website is not even that clear about what they do. Reminds me a bit of the Sanderson deal which had a similar 'favour' feel to it! I think I would have preferred to have remained sponsorless!

The truth is O'Neil was down on the South Coast to meet up with an ex-player of his - he had dinner with him and his father and watched a Saints game at St Marys - from that truth a rumor spread as people had genuinely seen him down here. I was told this by someone who knows the ex-players father - something I know to be true as we've talked about that before!

It's a weaker league than last season - but we have a weaker team than last season as well. Norwich, Leeds and Millwall were very strong teams for League 1 last season - as shown by their league positions in the NPC this season. Swindon and Charlton are considerably weaker than last season. Peterborough are a lot worse than the three teams that went up. Huddersfield are about the same as last season - as our MK Dons. Only Brighton are stronger than last seaon really. At the end of last season we had the best team in League 1 - but we let the team get weaker over the summer - not stronger. That's the biggest difference for us!

Howard might give us the leadership on the pitch we so desperately need as well - and if nothing else it will capture the imagination of Saints fans as he is a local boy coming home to the club he supports - which might all give the club the little lift it needs to push on for automatic promotion

You are kidding about Hammond right!?! At times he is bl**dy awful - recently against Swindon and against Yeovil he was the worst player on the pitch for most of the game. He failed to track back time and again, his passing was abysmal and his tackling poor.Hopefully it's just because he needs 3 or 4 games to get match fit! Both Morgan and Chaplow are far better midfielders. As for that both Howard and Surman would improve our team right now. What we really need is a CM, a winger and a striker before the loan window closes to cover for Chamberlain and Lallana as well as Barnard if legal issues take him out of the team - as well central midfield!

I think we're mire likely to see Joseph Mills and Ryan Dickson at leftback next season ad Harding will be out of contract in the summer I think

Or Jason Puncheon!

Andrew Surman from Norwich - to get him match fit on his way back from injury.

I think Peterborough will be beat Bournemouth - they are a very different team now to the one that got thrashed by Bournemouth earlier this season! Also I think our third defeat of Bompey could be a psychological nail in their coffin - and lead to a collapse of form from them

there are quite a lot of bad loser Bournemouth fans out there tonight - particularly on Radio Solent! 3 games and 3 Saints wins this season - that says it all really!