S-Clarke

It's a shame really, not sure what the point of an academy is anymore for clubs like us. We used to get maybe 6 months or a year out of a top, top academy talent - but it's getting to the stage now where they're nicked before we even see them play and that's really sad. We shouldn't be forced to break the bank to keep a 15 year old, it's just nonsense. (That guy who went to Chelsea was another one)

I think he had an ankle injury and then on his comeback from that, tore his hamstring? (or the other way round). I think he's had two bad injuries back to back which has prolonged his recovery. Hopefully he's not injury prone, but his build is so slight that it looks like he could be snapped in half by a burly Champ CM!

Larios is back in full training as far as I know, I notice him on the training galleries from time to time. Martin said they won't rush him back this season, but he'll come back in pre-season and be able to start on a level footing with the rest of the squad. Not sure we'll see Ballard this side of the summer, probably one for the autumn? it was a pretty bad ACL.

I've noticed Sky have been trotting out Troy Deeney more and more in a punditry role, he's awful. Made the stupid prediction for the final championship games that he fancied Hull to sneak into the playoffs, at the expense of Norwich, totally forgetting the required 18 goal swing for that to happen. The presenter pointed it out and he still stood firm on his view that it was 'possible'. They were also comparing our achievement in 2012 (back to back promotions) with Ipswich, and according to Deeney we had Chamberlain and Wanyama in the side - so it was easier for us. Just let these guys sink into the background please, they have nothing to offer.

Speak for yourself, but I'll always remember JWP as a proper Southampton stalwart. He'll always be fondly remembered by me and I hope to see him return one day to see his career out. He was on 100k a week, there was probably a relegation clause to reduce that slightly, but there's no way we could have sustained JWP in the Championship from a financial pov wage cut or no wage cut, and he deserved an opportunity to get back competing in Europe which WHU were going to give him. I've got nothing against him and fully understood the move from a club and player pov.

Not sure what you're getting at here gio. If we're not practicing penalties then it's negligent, arrogant or whatever you want to call it. We are effectively now in a cup knock out competition of which penalties can decide the outcome between £0 and £180m - we better be bloody well practicing!

He scored in the away game, scrappy over the line job. But was injured in our home game. Yeah the Aberdeen striker is another interesting option, our head scout (Mowbray) will know all about him as he scouted him for Aberdeen. I can't see him costing as much as £10m, probably more in the 5-6m range. Definitely could be an option.

I'm not sure where your 'broke' angle is coming from, I've noticed you saying this on multiple threads. Are you ITK about something? Sure, we won't be as flush, but if we're still in this league next year we will still be competitive financially. We made more last summer than any Championship club has ever made, which helped us offset our horrible window the previous year. If we fail this summer we'll still be looking to potentially recoup £60m+, with the sales of AA, KWP, Bednarek to name a few (there will probably be a surprise in there as well). Let's not forget the huge wages on McCarthy, Stu Armstrong and Adams being saved. IF we fail next year (if we're still down here) then I'd start to buy into the financial struggle bits, but we won't be skint next year. We'll still be able to compete (if our recruitment is right)

He was injured for the home game. He does seem a little injury prone, but he is a good player. £10m is about right, I have no idea what on earth went through our heads a few years ago when we were talking £34m for him though (it was £22m, up to 34m with add ons). That was before Wilcox as well, I think it was Shields trying to push us on that one. The more you look at it the more fishy these deals with Man City look. If i'm honest I'd rather put that £10m down on Jay Stansfield from Fulham.

He's saving himself for when we bring him back on loan as a PL team, then he'll resume his target to break the record with us. He's just paused it for the time being!

If you have a look at what are effectively his players - Garnacho (came through under him) Hojlund - £75m striker Antony - £85m of nothing. Mainoo (came through under him) Onana - £35m pick for GK by him. Martinez - £40m pick by him for CB Malacia - £40m pick for LB (although he's been injured) Amrabat - Loan signing, his pick Christian Ericksen - Free transfer, his pick. Casemiro - £70m, his pick. The players he inherited were the likes of Shaw, Varane, Rashford, Martial, Fernandes, Wan Bissaka, McTominay. So in my eyes he's already reinvited that squad, added loads for lots and lots of money - and they look worse for it. They need new CM's, new strikers, new GK to start with - and that would be replacing his big signings. It's quite funny watching them struggle so I don't care that much, but I think it's wrong to say he needs time to mould his own team and that he's still got players that aren't his, the majority are his picks or players who have come through under him.

I always thought Rosenior had flopped a bit given the players he had at his disposal, I think I can somewhat understand why their owners expected a bit more with players like Delap, Morton, Seri, Greaves, Carvahlo, Zahorey, Phillogene, Tufan etc available to him. They had much more quality than WBA in my opinion, I'd have been more worried had we ended up facing Hull! I was always a little confused by his Manager of the season nomination.

Yeah, all comps. To be fair, how long do you give him though? He's already had 2 full seasons there and they're now 10x worse than when he started. His player picks have been horrendous, Antony for example is one of the worst football players I've ever seen - £84m! If I was Utd, I'd cut losses. From a pure neutral point of view though it would be good if he stayed, as it's quite fun watching them be this consistently shit.

Only way this has a chance if we are promoted, we won't be going anywhere near him if we stay down.

This is the chink that will always be in the back of my mind, like you say we're fine in the games that don't matter. When we were chasing down Ipswich and Leicester, 16 or so points behind, there was no pressure going into Blackburn or Swansea at home, no expectations...just win the game and see what happens. As we got closer you could tell the weight got bigger on their shoulders, and then we just wilted when we got to 2nd and were being chased rather than the 'chaser' - and that was the end of that! The game against Ipswich at their place was great for 60 mins, one of our best performances of the season up until that point - but the pressure told, they went into their shells, retreated and ultimately couldn't resist the Ipswich mentality which beat ours - it wasn't quality which done for us that day, it was the mentality and how well we both coped with the pressure. Playoffs are more pressure than either of those scenarios above and that makes me nervous. Yesterday was great and all, but we've shown we can do this when the expectation is low and the pressure is off - it's when we're needed to do something that we fall flat. The next 2, and then hopefully the third, is the opportunity to rid us all of those doubts.

When you look at the makeup of our squad and the players we have, what with our noticeable weaknesses in CM, it does make me wonder why we've not tried 3 at the back more often this season. It gives us more protection off the ball, and then on the ball one of the CB's can step out into midfield to provide an extra number in there. I didn't think it particularly nullified our attack either, as it enabled Manning and KWP especially to hug the width and play as our wide players essentially. The two up top, playing somewhat closer together, gave us a stronger outlet when we needed to retain the ball. It also meant we could have a player like Fraser playing LWB and not end up being particularly exposed. I will add that Leeds were inept though, they didn't use the ball well at all and kept giving it away, so this setup will have much stronger tests - but It's something I think we could have seen on other occasions this season.

I think it's important to ignore what our previous records have been at this stage, they really mean nothing in these one off games. Without sounding too overconfident, I think we've got the better of the draws though. Don't get me wrong, they're a good side, but they don't have any of the attacking talent that Norwich have for example. They'll be tight, will close us down relentlessly and will probably try and foul the crap out of us - but I'm hopeful that moments of our quality will catch them out. We'll see what happens! One thing I didn't realise is that they'd signed Yan M'Villa on a free since we played them, so he'll be playing against us. If he's even a tiny bit near the level he was at Sunderland then that's added an extra challenge!

What an effort by Ipswich, it's nice to see someone different in the PL from time to time rather than the usual yo-yo's, they'll need to do a hell of a lot to be competitive for sure, but they'll enjoy the summer trying to do that and being linked with players they could only dream of 2 years ago! Birmingham were served the ultimate dose of karma - Eustace was fine for them, but they got all celebrity-focused and brought in someone who should never be a manager. That relegated them, nothing that happened after could save them. To see Eustace then saving Blackburn at their expense is the ultimate slap for them and their daft yank owners. They do have a lot of money behind them though and at L1 level that will make the ultimate difference, so I expect them to rip L1 to pieces next year and return with a bounce - could be a relegation that provides them the reset they need. I see a lot of people saying Rosenior has done so well to get Hull as close as he did, but he's flopped massively with the players he had imo. Carvalho, Philogene, Delap, Greaves, Seri - they shouldn't be scraping to get into the playoffs ont he last day, they should have been in there with WBA/Norwich. He had better players at his disposal than WBA.

That was an enjoyable game, can't say I expected that, but we did play well. I find it hard to read too much into it though given the dead-rubber nature of the game - we played without any pressure or nerves and it showed. The playoffs will be a different kettle of fish. This was, I reckon, the first game we've had this season with less of the ball - a back 5, sitting deep and breaking in transition (which is what we did well) were the keys to this match, somewhat of our kryptonite in recent games - we turned it on the head today. Leeds were, very, very, very flat though - they won't be that bad in the playoffs, I still think they'll have way too much for Norwich. Bring on the net 2 and let's see where we are. The games will be different, nothing like the league games, so in my eyes the 'unbeaten' stats mean zilch - WBA will be very tight and hard to breakdown, I would happily take a draw in the away leg and finish it at home. Overall it's games like today which just add to my frustration! Blackburn away, Boro home, Rotherham home - it could have been so different!

That would require Huddersfield beating Ipswich on their patch, which is pretty much not going to happen.

I always had a feel that this game would be a total dead rubber, but if I'm honest I thought it would have been because Leeds had wrapped it up - no idea what happened to them. They're obviously very strong for the playoffs - maybe the best of the 4. It's not good for us that we may have to get past them in a final., as they have so many weapons on the break that are our kryptonite.

Maybe in the third year it will be a bit like that, but I just feel we have a tiny bit of grace next year - not based on anything other than a hunch and looking at what went on in the summer. If you think about it, we pocketed a hell of a lot in the summer (more than anyone else ever has at this level), we're likely going to pocket another 50m+ this summer with the sales of Bednarek, KWP and some others (maybe ABK). We'll trim the wage bill even further with Adams, Stu and McCarthy off - so as long as we aren't financially absolutely screwed and all this will have to service extreme levels of unknown debt, then I don't see any reason why we cannot compete strongly again. A lot will be down to recruitment as like you say, we will lose lots - pretty much an entire 11, and will need to start all over again. Cock it up next year and I see no way back for us for a long, long time.

I don't class a little week or two flirt as being in the hunt to be honest, we've always been on the edge of it and playing catchup by some distance. As soon as we get close, we're back to 10 points adrift again. If we were switching places over months, back and forth, then yeah for sure - but it was no more than a brief flirtation, we never really competed strongly enough for it in my eyes.

I think if we stay down I would still expect us to be competitive next year, It won't be easy as we'll need to add a lot of players...but we will still have a massive financial advantage to do so over pretty much 80% of the league. I've always thought we have two shots at this, this season has been a bit underwhelming because we've never been involved in the auto hunt, but if we fail in the playoffs then I do genuinely expect us to have another promotion attempt next year (as long as our recruitment is right) - Martin will be out of the door if we don't start in that manner. It will be our last shot.

The Rasiak equaliser was magic, one of my best ever moments. Place was rocking. The ET, from memory (it's a bit hazy!) was pretty much a dump squib though as Derby just resorted to their generic tactic of kicking us into what was becoming a mud pit. Leacock and Moore, their CB's, were absolute thugs.