Dig Dig

Chelsea are likely to play a strong side, Ba will probably start. In constrast we will rest players I would imagine. Some of you need to remember that whatever happens in this cup match, don't have a tantrum and embarrass yourselves like you did in out last cup game: http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?40840-Leeds-3-Saints-0/page11&highlight=leeds

Stop mucking about and discuss Astori sensibly please. FFS.

What would you be doing instead? Sat watching the thread, constantly hitting refresh hoping that someone would post something about Astori? When more news about Astori breaks, someone will post it and then people will discuss it.

very good Hypo, another wasted debate where you ignore most of what is written and repeat the same thing.

Alright then, it seems we were trying hard then.

Until you know what we did and didn't do in the detail required and the reasons why, a statement like "could have done more" is really meaningless.

Hypo, you place a lot of emphasis on what Nixon said about not knowing what we want. That may have just been his opinion of the situation as he may have been hearing different names linked to us at the time. He tweeted something to that effect just before we signed Yoshida and in addition, you are ignoring the fact that prior to this, Nixon had said we were after a CB which would shock the Premier League and would be in the same league as Ramirez signing. We were clearly not idle in the summer.

Of course we had to strengthen and the reality is that we did. Rare that any club has a perfect transfer window which covers every single area and also brings in players which hit the ground running straight away. Especially one which has a bit more to do than other established prem teams. Is it realistic to address all areas in one transfer window?

Contingency plan signings are a very quick way of collecting a big squad of players, inflating the wage bill and having players who are not what you wanted. Re Ramirez, no one knows the effort that went into that deal compared to other targets which didn't come off. Nixon mentioned a CB signing which would have been as big as Ramirez signing so it seems we were trying at least. I think towards the end of the window, when this particular signing didn't come off, we went in for Yoshida.

Regarding the GK situation I agree, but how so other areas? We have a strong midfield, a decent CB pairing (we need to strengthen there granted) and a forward line which scores goals. Other than getting Yoshida in a little earlier, not sure that our summer transfer policy is as dire as people make out. Ramirez, Clyne, Yoshida, Davis all have impoved us and Rodriguez is starting to look quality. Compare to Villa, Newcastle, Reading, we have done well to strengthen our squad sufficiently.

Rodriguez is an important player for us, take him out of the equation and our striker options are not that great. I still don't get why people assume signing X means we didn't prioritise other positions. As with everyone else, we are successful with some targets, unsuccessful with others but it doesn't mean that we sign players at the expense of other positions. We obviously have a very particular transfer policy and won't sign players unless they are thr right type, age, mentality and improve what we have.

Paul Robinson from Millwall, Dean Leacock from Derby, Zakauini from Peterborough... Would all be available for not much money and would walk into our team whilst being ready to sign at 00:00 1st Jan.

I would rather we were talking about signing £1-2M players who we can sign on 1st Jan.

Nothing is certain until someone working at Costa in Soton Airport tells us that they saw him arrive today.

players "spotted" at St Marys rumours are never true

Poor suggestion from you lad. I expect better.

Very true. Alpine can get away with it because he knows loads about football and is a Saints nut who wouldn't miss a minute of football. It's not as if most of his views are shaped by select comments on this forum or anything like that.

I think one thing we should all learn is that it's almost impossible to predict results over a 3-5 game stretch, it's almost futile.

In other news, good that Sunderland and Newscastle lost

Talking recently to TV critic Garry Bushell about the previous evening's BBC gala tribute to the late Bob Monkhouse, Brazil asked: "Garry, how was Bob's health last night?".

I don't really care, just find it amusing and a little bewildering that these people are paid to soley talk about football and the majority seem to make very little effort into any form of research or pride in their profession. The ignorance is the same for most clubs outside of the top 5 or 6.

Was listening to talk sport this morning. Alan Brazil was asked if Saints will stay up this season. His response was something like "I hope they stay up because I like Southampton. They have a new stadium and Lawrie McMenemy used to be there didn't he? The problem for them is that they have no money so it will be difficult":facepalm:

Just another game where if Chelsea score first, QPR crumble. They had Shaun Derry and Clint Hill playing for them FFS. 9/10 times Chelsea win that game without having to do a whole lot different other than find the net.

Well you've done exceptionally well against all those sides already so you should be very confident.

Or in the long run make no difference at all. Plenty of sides who have got relegated have beaten a top side along the way as well.