S-Clarke

Seems a bit of a pointless debate given that we're not going to get said manager, as he's out of our reach as was confirmed by Martin. I think a lot has been taken out of context with his comments, in essence how I read it is that there is a continual dialog about potential successors to Ralph and they are all open and honest about it. One of the successors that may have been on a list has actually rocked up in the PL now and is thus no longer on our list, that's how I read it. It could be one of 3 or 4 people, but it seems a bit pointless debating it as they're not going to be our manager now.

It's all a bit weird isn't it, still not a dicky bird on this re-arrangement! I can see it being shoehorned to right at the back of the season, they'll need to make sure they've got Wilson and Trippier back.

I'm not convinced by Armstrong at all but you still never know....I don't believe the club have given up on him and so they shouldn't. Jury is certainly out and he's not shown much but he deserves a decent crack. You have hits and misses though, it's part of football. I'm fairly confident that we'll have far more hits than misses going forward though, we genuinely seem to know what we're doing. Not painting a rosy picture based on nothing, just look at the likes of Perraud, Salisu, KWP, Broja, Tino, Diallo, Adams....not bad. When you compare it to previous efforts with Hoedt, Vestergaard, Carillo, Lemina, Boufal etc I'd say that is enough grounds to be optimistic about as this new lot (Martyn and Matt) seem to know what they're doing.

I'm fairly sure the club are all over that. When we were fearing that Ings would go I imagine we all thought the same, who can we get without spending serious money etc etc. I was worried as I thought Ings goals kept our heads above in the last few seasons. But our scouting was sharp enough to identify someone like Broja, who not only provides more competition, but actually evolved our entire game and has made us more threatening. We're more of a threat with Broja than Ings, and I never thought I'd say that. So basically, trust the scouting and trust the club. If Broja doesn't stick around next year then I'm sure we have many options that won't require us having to spend stupid money.

One of the things Semmens said is that this takeover will allow us the opportunity to buy a 'Broja' in the future, rather than only going in for a loan. We were massively handtied in the summer financially and after Armstrong could only go in for a loan for Broja. If we had more finances behind us I reckon we'd have acted quicker and paid a fee for him even before he'd signed his contract, as he hadn't signed that too long before we got him on loan.

I think you've completely missed the entire point of it all if that is your summary to be honest. This takeover was never going to enable us to sign £40-50m players and blow Villa out of the window, it was to allow us to continue our plan with a lot more flexibility than we had. We will still sell players, and we will still buy players and develop them to sell them again. That's our model, that won't change and we do it bloody well.

Will Cope and Case on a Saturday afternoon on the Saint, the sound of many a weekend afternoon!

I cannot help but be impressed by Martin whenever I hear or see him speak. I don't think there's a better CEO in the PL if i'm honest. We've got some amazingly high quality people at this club.

I don't think you'd make that statement unless it was someone from within, imo. Step forward Kelvin Davis!

I don't think it's a case of coaching it out of him, I just think he needs to be coached to calm down a little bit in those situations. His power and pace gets him into great situations and at times he gets a little over excited at that point for me, a little bit more composure and calmness once he gets into that situation and he'll be in a similar realm to some of the best strikers in Europe. It must be exciting for the coaches to work with someone who has so much raw potential.

In that case, I imagine we'll hear about our re-arranged game once he is available again.

I think that's incredibly harsh on us, I feel we have top class coaching here. Would you say the coaching is better at Man Utd or Arsenal? I wouldn't. This is the best place for him to develop without an enormous spotlight on him, whilst surrounded by good coaches and good players. The worst thing for him right now is to be plonked on the bench at a 'big club' and be restricted to sub appearances when they're chasing games. He will get game time here and an environment to allow him to make mistakes and then learn from them.

Feels like Vestergaard is being a bit scapegoated by the Leicester fans on this result, he didn't actually cause their equaliser to be honest. He's made that bed though as generally he has been lower-league standard for them, and bar a purple patch in 2020 he wasn't ever much better than that for us.

West Ham have handled the entire situation disgracefully. Should fine that club as well.

Burnley well adrift now, they're all but gone in my eyes. Games in hand or not, they're absolute garbage and this is the season it finally comes to roost I think. If anything that Bottom 3 looks the bottom 3 to me, I'd be surprised if it changes apart from the order.

Certainly improved, looked a better player than I remember him most of this season. The Celtic move done him the world of good. He's being really well coached though, that much is clear. I think it's the first time Ralph has really had to work on him as he's been out on loan all of his time here. He's not the quickest, but he has a good brain and ability to find space in between the lines.

We've got several ways of playing, we switch systems a couple of times in games. We also have the ability to play certain systems to play certain games, against City on paper it was a 4-4-2 with two banks of 4 in a low block. That restricted city to playing in front of us and restricted the space in behind, which is the way to do it against them. Against Brentford at home we exploited the way Brentford played by matching up with their 3-5-2. That allowed us to overload their full back areas and given we were dominant on the ball they struggled to get out. We're incredibly flexible tactically and that is because of the squad we have, we have options to fit into these different ways of playing if required. It's amazing what happens when your bench isn't filled up with L'lundulu, Ramsay, Watts, Jankewitz etc. This is the first season Ralph has had what I'd call his own squad, he's not having to shoehorn Vestergaard or Bertrand into the side, or fill the squad with young players who will quite frankly never make it. We've been able to get talented young players which is right up his street. What this season has demonstrated to me more than anything is how good a coach he is when the players he has have the correct tools in the first place.

He's super talented, but he is still a little raw around the edges. Just saying that's why I think he's best placed here for at least another year as this is a great environment for him to realise his potential.

Happy for Everton to get their win and goals out of the way this week to be honest.

Such sad news. Condolences to you and the family. RIP Minsk

He's done great, but I still believe this summer is the opportunity to change up our goalkeeping situation a little bit. It has got a bit stale over the last 4 or so years. If anything his contract situation is probably seeing his level lift as he's playing for a club really, so if that benefits us between now and the end of the season - win win. I still expect him to leave and a new keeper to come in to freshen that area of the pitch up.

I love Broja, but today you saw the good and bad of him and why he's no where near the finished product just yet (Similar to Wednesday). Physically immense, so much pace and power, but his finishing is erratic and he needs to calm that down. I have no doubt he will but being at a club like Southampton allows him the opportunity to be erratic and grow as we don't expect to win every game, at Chelsea he'd struggle to get a run of games without shouts for him to be dropped if he kept missing chances like that. Different world at the big clubs. Definitely think his best option is to grow and develop his game here and then leave as a complete player to a top club a few years down the line.

Filled the spot really well, great 45 from him. Won so much that was put into the box.

What a great performance, we weren't hugely different from the Spurs performance in terms of our approach, I felt Utd had more of a threat though. First half we struggled to start with, Utd were moving it very quickly and we struggled to get near them. We were off it by a yard or so. For some reason, not complaining, Utd just stopped with the quick play and went a bit more passive - similar to how Spurs played against us, and it played into our hands really. All of a sudden we started finding time on the ball, space was popping up in between the lines etc. 2nd half went the same way, great start with the early goal but that was produced through Moi picking up space in between the lines and leaving their centre backs caught in between two minds. I thought we had the better chances in the second half, although Utd were always a threat on the break as they had pace - that was the main difference between today and Wednesday I felt, the pace they had in the attack always kept them in the game but we stuck at it ourselves. Tactically spot on, the mentality and application of the 11 absolutely spot on. There are partnerships all over the pitch. Special mention to Forster who is currently in his best form since 2016 without question. If he doesn't stay here he is playing himself into a decent contract elsewhere, that's for sure.

Still well in the game. Utd started at a much faster pace than us and it took us a while to get into it as we couldn't get near them. Utd have dropped off a little though, certainly after 30 mins, which allowed us to get more of a foothold as the pace slowed down. Certainly still in for a chance of something, we looked the most likely in the final 10 mins.