Junior Mullet

Best bit of news this window so far.

Sunderland will stay up, probably finish comfortably around 13th/14th and have a good day out at Wembley to boot. Gus is a good manager - stick with him and Sunderland can look forward to a better season next year. I have Mannone in my fantasy football dream team, so thanks for that - he's doing me well. Bardsley has also been good since returning from injury. Now, if Sunderland can sort out their forward play I think they'll give most teams a good game, but that is the toughest bit to get right. We were fortunate in having time to develop our forward play in Div 1 and the Championship.

He did try to buy the club in the summer. Not to keep, but to sell on to someone he could work with and who would share his long term vision. He was willing to resign in summer unless she sold to him. That's as much fact as I know - a couple of days later this became public and shortly after they appeared to have come to some sort of amicable arrangement. I have no idea what they agreed to keep him at the club until yesterday but given his ultimatum in Summer I believe it did have something to do with him buying the club.

Yes, that is very detailed. Notably it does not talk about her wanting to sell, whereas most articles elsewhere state she does want to sell.

I wondered why Cortese wasn't at the last game.

Fun and games again. Seriously, if anyone is worried - just have faith in our league position, our players, our training facilities, our accademy and our fans. It'll all end well. PS. I have to laugh when I see the press say things like "the club have declined to comment". Lol, who do they think provide the info for the stories that are breaking? As I say, all good fun and games.

Ah-yes, Belmadi...the poor man's Lallana

Champions League spot gone this year, relegation doesn't look remotely likely and I don't want us to fight for a Europa League place via league finish because we've seen what it can do to thin squads like Newcastle a couple of seasons back and Swansea this season. I think it's an ideal time to go all out for the cup. But I don't think the club will see it that way. I expect we'll see a fair bit of Reed and Gallagher tomorrow. Let's hope they do well - careers can pivot on such moments.

We miss Clyne :0( He's a great player, hardly ever loses the ball and has a great end product. It's mad that he probably won't go to Brazil. By far the best RB we've had since I started supporting Saints in 2003.

Really good effort yesterday. Chambers stepped up and looked very good. It's not beyond imagination Chambers and Clyne will be fighting for the England RB slot in 3/4 years time!! Cork was superb - his passing was superb - deep-lying playmaker role added a different dimension compared to Wanyama the brick wall. Davis was excellent as ever. Osvaldo's goal had it all - control, strength, confidence, technique and timing. He should have won the game for us and I expect without reading the rest of the thread some people may be knocking him for the two chances he missed. But, fact is he was getting in the right positions - something we have failed to do a lot this season. Good strikers do miss chances, good strikers make sure they get a lot of chances, good strikers convert enough to win more games than they lose. He certainly did enough to keep his place ahead of Lambert. Really good game to watch yesterday. Shame we didn't get the win especially when I think we just edged the better play against a very good and in-form City side.

Thought Cork was excellent yesterday. Wanyama is a brick wall but Cork's passing was a pleasure to watch - much more of a deep-lying playmaker than Wanyama ever could be. Added a different dimension to our game. Loved seeing a favorite from last season come back in and do so well yesterday.

Lowe wasn't all bad. He really wasn't. The problem was more the PLC structure than Lowe's talent or the lack of it. With Lowe I felt the academy was run like a farm. Take the kids in really young, train them, build them create something worth having and thus saleable and then sell them. Makes profit for the PLC. Problem was, we never had the resources to keep the best youngsters under the PLC structure. We could not compete on wages nor in terms of fmatching their ambitions. There was a ceiling on our resources and our ambition. It was so painful to watch. I used to go to Staplewood and watch the kids come through and then take great pride in see them break through into the first team and get the plaudits - I saw a lot of Walcott, Bale, Lallana, Dyer etc and I'm glad I did. The sale of Walcott was particularly hard to bear. Things have changed - our financial budgets are competitive and we have massive ambition. At the moment the best young players seem to be happy in that - they seem to believe in the Chairman's ambition. Hopefully we can begin to fulfill that ambition before their patience runs out and whilst we have the winning formula of the Katherina and Cortese. The foreseeable future really is bright.

Not a must win game, but a pivotal game nonetheless. It will suggest how we will fare without Boruc and how well we bounce back from defeats. After the game Wednesday we could still be flying high, full of confidence going into the weekend's game against City playing down the significance of the Arsenal and Chelsea games. On the other hand we could be lamenting the club's failure to get convincing cover for Boruc, crying over new injuries and our lack of squad depth and our ineffective attack. Personally I think we will do well against Villa. They have improved since last year but are still beatable. I think our style, if we turn it on as we did vs Hull, will see us win by two clear goals. I also think the defence will keep a clean sheet.

Some very odd comments on this thread. I wonder if you guys actually watch the matches? Having seen him at home several times he does press high up the pitch and works hard to close defenders down. In this respect he's better than Lambert in my opinion. His touch is first class. Possibly the most technically gifted player we have. He doesn't seem to lack passion, far from it. Anyone who has seen him celebrate a goal will know what I mean. He seems to want to win and be part of a successful club - admirable traits IMO. Therefore it's understandable that he's not happy when we lose, especially when he wasn't able to affect the team very much due to being kept out by a very good in form Lambert (I do question the person above who said Lambert is out of form - unless of course form equates to just one match now). I'm excited to have him at the club and think he has what it takes to go on a very good scoring run once he gets his chance, provided he can stay injury and niggle free. He has not yet had this opportunity.

Quite possibly Lallana was the "senior Saints player" who reported back from England duty last week, surprised to hear that he would be thrust immediately back into double session training if wanted to keep his place in the team. The fortnight Adam has just had would have been a massive emotional journey. He's been outstanding this season and he must now put thoughts of Brazil to one side (I think he's done enough to be confident of going) and continue his excellent form for Saints.

Some of you have short memories.

Anyone else notice Adam shaved his yokle beard off for the Germany game? I reckon the lads ripped it out of him. lol

Happy birthday

I watched the way he totally bossed for the U.21's the other night, considered the plaudits he got and the way he has progressed with Saints this season and then listened to his brilliant interview post-u.21 game and I have no doubts he will one day captain England. How many players have captained England in the last 10 years? There's a good one for MLG ;0) I guess it's a fair few. JWP will, over the course of his career, captain England. Last time I thought about a teenager was Gerrard.

Piecing together everything I know and have seen this is a bolt-on. Comparisons to Scholes were obvious but I think he's more like a not so pretty Beckham with his set pieces, crossing, work-rate and technique. Top top player.

I sort of agree with this. Club players know one another inside out and have a tactical format to follow whereas the national team is just a hotch-potch of players who come together once in a blue moon. Yes, I think Saints would beat England more times than not, as would most of the top Prem League teams. They would also beat several other national teams IMO, it's not just England.

I may just let ride the money I won at 3/1 tonight on Chile. Seriously, 5/1 is very high odds.

Is all this attention and time out for our players an unwelcome distraction? No doubt long-term it will help us attract and retain top players, but what about the effect on this season's league progress? Your thoughts?

I agree to some extent with your sentiments. England over the last decade or so have been completely disappointing in every way. I think things are improving however under Roy. I don't think you can use Rooney as a good example here. He seems to be the most consistent of the England players and I would say gives 100% every game. Shame he doesn't wear a Saints shirt - just imagine the effect he'd create in a top pressing side.

The U.21's are playing Finland tonight - game being shown on BT Sport, kick off at 7.45pm. I shall be watching our lads with interest.