S-Clarke

Oh yeah absolutely, lots of time to mature and he can still turn into a top player - but my complaint is that as a club we can't keep going on this sole path of signing young kids and expecting them to impact the first team straight away, as shown with Small sometimes it takes a little longer. Tino and Lavia and to an extent ABK are more exceptions to the rule in terms of their immediate impact, the majority of young 18/19-year-olds take a little longer to evolve.

He's actually back with us now, his loan at Port Vale was terminated. I think he played in the match against Colchester last week. I guess the results we have so far had from Small highlight the risk of just signing 'talented' young kids. At the time he was rated as one of the most exciting full backs in the country, a left sided Tino I guess, but he has shown to be nowhere near ready - if that's mental I don't know. Signing anyone is a risk but signing kids with potential is an even bigger risk if you're looking for results 'tomorrow'. Some come to the fore straight away, but others can take a fair amount of time to acclimatise to first team football. We signed kids in the summer like Larios, Edozie, Mara etc - who knows how they will pan out, but they certainly haven't as yet provided us with the results we needed 'today'.

They're our only two at the WC aren't they? I know Bednarek is there, but I don't really count him (unless Villa decides to send him back)

It was great entertainment. 100% a pen though, but feels a bit karma-esque after Suarezs antics the last time those two met in the WC.

I remember him saying that when he was at Spurs, something a long the lines ''Why didn't you come to me when I wanted you before???'' - sounds like he turned us down in the hope of something better, which did happen.

The last round of these groups have been great entertainment.

Just 10 more points out of that lot will probably have us relegated by April. We'd need to get wins against Spurs, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle away, Brighton away etc if we were sat on 22 points by the end of March. In my opinion we need to be sat on 27 points at the very least by the end of the Leicester game to still be within the realms of safety, anything less and we're a bit fucked.

2nd half was everything the 1st half wasn't, started the 2nd half pressing high, moving the ball quick and look what happens. Rashford had a shocker first half, but different player 2nd half. Really like Bellingham, not sure I'd swap him for another player - for 19 years old he's on a different level. We're good to watch when the attack press and move it quickly, they're capable of doing it so hopefully we see more of it. Senegal will pose much more of a threat than a truly dreadful Welsh, but if we play it quick then I'd hope we'll have too much for them.

Have we really played well...? What are they on about? This is a terrible, terrible Wales team and it's 0-0 because we've played it safe 9 times out of 10. Rashford has games like this where he doesn't look like a professional footballer, so he needs to be dumped for the 2nd half. Henderson needs to go as well, you don't need his sort in a game where you know you'll be trying to score goals. A very safety first game from us so far, against a truly terrible welsh outfit.

Seems like this has worked out perfectly for Gakpo and PSV really, got to say they both played this spot on. His value has gone through the roof now, so PSV can get even more $$. And Gakpo will have his pick of elite clubs without having to make a middling step to a club like us to get there.

All of those potential teams and we get Crystal flaming Palace. Bore fest.

Great to see Salisu score, but some of his defending in that 2nd half was comical.

I think France will show up our weaknesses if I'm honest. They have a very mobile attack with Dembele, Mbappe and Coman in there. Our weakness is getting caught in behind as our CB's are relatively slow, they could exploit that for fun if we’re not careful. I think being 'brave' and throwing all-out attack at them is the wrong way to approach it, the best way we can do anything against France is to defend deeper so the space to exploit in behind isn't there. I'd argue that our recent runs to the Final/Semi-final have coincided with us playing teams not blessed with that pace and mobility up top, so France would

They are moving over the hill now yep, that's why the previous years have been a huge, wasted opportunity in my opinion. They've never really 'clicked' and Martinez overseeing their golden generation was a pretty bad idea.

That is ridiculously unjust.

I think this deal was off as soon as it started getting into the media in the summer, had a whiff of Promes about it from the off. We probably tried way back in the summer but baulked at the cost, and kept an interest as the window closed in case he became more affordable (he didn't). I still don't see us spending that sort of figure on one player. For sure, we need to, but I think we're wedded to this 'unearth gems for peanuts' strategy no matter what.

There's a lot of talk about our 'golden generation' of the mid 00's, but you have to say Belgium are totally wasting the chance they should have with theirs. Should have won something by now with the group they have imo. Lukaku, De Bryune, Hazard, Toby, Cortouis, Vertonghen, Kompany, Carrasco etc. Top players at their prime who'd have walked into any team in world football.

Great header, but just how bad are Qatar?? Shouldn't be anywhere near this level, this is going to be a big score I think.

That goalkeeper looks like he's going to be a laugh! What is he doing.

I guess the infringement was that it was a goal against Qatar. An offence in itself.

As he always was when he was here, without him during those seasons we would have been done for. It was the failure to adequately replace him that's put us in this position we are right now. Armstrong was targeted as his successor (we couldn't even buy him until we had cashed the Ings money), and that has been a total disaster of epic proportions. If you look back we had similar issues with our game when Ings was here (conceding lots of goals, letting leads slip, open on the break etc) but we always had that clinical edge to take a chance ourselves. I know it's very simplistic, but that's the single difference between us being comfortable and dredged in the mire.

When the best praise you can give Adam Armstrong is that he 'ran around', you know you're struggling. Bloke is nowhere near good enough, really shows up our window that he is a regular in this team - he wasn't last season for the reason he's shit, and that's not changed in the summer.

Not surprised, on form alone he is nowhere near international level this season. He's never really done anything for England either, so you can somewhat understand why Phillips has gone as he was a proven success in the Euro's. I'd say that JWP's chance of establishing himself as an England regular is now gone, so he should just focus on his club career, get his head down and get those PL records he craves. I'm sure he'll get picked for the odd squad every now and then in the future, but I don't expect much more than that.

Everyone has had their chance to vent their opinions, but now is the time for everyone to put those to one side and support the club. The reactions to this are much the same as 'big name signings' who make everyone excited and relative unknowns get people feeling underwhelmed. I would say during my experience as a fan of Southampton it has been our 'unknowns' who have been our greater successes. What is obvious from this appointment is that it's been strongly vetted, this isn't decided on a whim, and it seems as if we have been studying him for some time - and in Rasmus's case, many years. I remember similar opinions vented around Poch, there were calls for protests at his first game and all sorts. At the time we'd got rid of a popular manager and replaced him with someone who was unknown, spoke zero English and had to carry a translator around with him everywhere - on paper a worse situation than Janes. People proclaimed at the time we were down, relegated, no way back etc. The point I'm trying to make is that these sorts of appointments often work out better because there has been clear thought behind them, we've not just gone after the latest name or the first name manager on the out of job list (the easy choice), we've taken a risk and a gamble on someone we believe in and he has my full support.

I'd agree, I never thought 1-4 was a fair reflection on the game. You had a couple of chances in quick succession and put them away. Our keeper seemed to have the sort of day where everything on target went in. We had equal if not better chances with Elyounoussi and Adams and we didn't put them away. There's the difference. If we'd got it to 1-1 there's a different game IMO. But anyway, it's gone now and everything is different!