Junior Mullet

One thing's for sure - it'll be an exciting season like it was this year! Everton have really impressed me this year - Lukaku will be a big loss to them but other than that I think they'll cope fine without the other loanees - Martinez will surely strengthen over summer and build on what is a pretty good core of players. Barkley could be a real monster for them next season.

Does anyone think Spurs will achieve a top 4 place next season? I don't, regardless of who their manager is. Therefore I think, as others above have said, any manager is doomed. Teams I think will be better than Spurs next season: Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, United and quite possibly Everton. I see Spurs coming bottom of the Prem 'A' League as some have described it, finihsing 7th.

I hear that Shaw to Chelsea is a done deal. It would be unfair to reveal the source.

In case THEVMAN reads this, I do think Adam will become as big a Saints legend as Matt Le Tiss. I recall a good debate about that a few years back. With Adam entering the best years of his career I really think he can match the great man.

He didn't fancy you then.

That made me smile :0)

I'm actually developing a soft spot for the fella!

If England win the World Cup, we'll be like the new West Ham. Unfortunately we won't win the World Cup and our lads will probably come back tired and demoralised to face an angry press.

Clyne is excellent. In time Chambers could be excellent too. MP is doing a good job to ensure that Chambers reaches his potential and doesn't just warm the bench. This week I heard Neil Warnock on Talksport saying how good Clyne is and what a lovely lad he is too (he signed Clyne at Palace and he recalls how nice his Mum was). I instantly wondered whether perhaps he is too nice and perhaps isn't being vocal enough about starting games ahead of Chambers, especially in a World Cup year. Anyhow, our three fullbacks will get plenty of game time between them with injuries, international breaks etc.

I think we'll win tonight. I know they do well at home and that they've strengthened up front but still, it was boys v men at St Marys earlier in the season. If we play well, we'll win. J Rod to continue his excellent scoring run away from home (when his pace on the counter is really effective). 2-1 Saints.

^^ I'm in floods of tears here ^^ It's like Surprise Surprise for football fans

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.