tajjuk

Forgot Rosicky,think Arteta is a holding player these days. still lots of competition for places and he needs to play games at his age.

I wonder if going for Oxlaide Chamberlain might be a possibility, with the signing of Ozil, the emergence of Ramsey, you have basically have 4 spots behind Giroud with Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey, Walcott, Podolski, Cazorla, even Gnabri comepting with him. Maybe a return (initially on loan ) to his old club?

Utd are even doing that well yet Cleverley not in the squad today, Wellbeck and Smalling both on the bench. Sterling on the bench today for pool and hasn't done anything this season or really much since bursting on the scene early last season. Milner on the bench for City. Not sure how these players keep getting in the England squads when they don't play. He's shown hell pick new players by picking Townsend and Lambert so I think Lallana deserves a shout, doesn't have the pace of a Wellbeck or Stirling but far more technically and more to the mental side of his game. I've always though Lallana has a bit of Joe Cole about him and England were never really sure where to play him either because like Lallana he didn't have pace yet played on the wing.

The tie is still blue though isn't it

We are 26 points from 40 at the moment. If and when we get to that point then see where we are then.

Yeh 10 men behind the ball and counter attack. Total genius no ones ever thought of that before.

He's average and does a job for teams, if he was any good he would have got a better job. He plays sh*t football and that only gets you so far. Hence why he gets sacked because he turns out the same old every year and gets similar results with terrible entertainment and no player development. Hence why a team like Everton will employ someone like Martinez before they will employ someone like Allardyce, despite Allardyce probably having a better record.

You aren't going to change their minds, certain people on this forum have agendas and at the moment Gaston is about all they have to further those agendas. The fact that again he has his own thread highlights it. The 'special' level of criticism he gets on these forums is staggering. Coutinho for Liverpool does similar negative things that Gaston does, but he contributes goals and assists that turn games, Gaston did the same for us last year but people expect far too much. You only have to see after the guy wins the game with positive reports form the coaching staff and the media, yet you still get overly negative opinions from people on here.

Great Result, had to stop watching the updates after we scored was very nervous. Quick read of the Liverpool forum and their reactions makes this place look pretty good!

Not sure how anyone can moan, maybe we expect too much. We've signed two players in Osvaldo and Lovren that fans of other clubs laughed off our interest in. Wanyama looks quality as well and I only thought we had a good chance signing him because of the league he was in. We've bought 3 quality players, increased the quality of the team, integrated 2 more young players in the team which has reduced the need for buying old expensive squad players and we've signed our best players to long term deals. We lost an average away game to a team that are very difficult to beat at home, in a game either team could have won. We played a bit below par maybe, but I'm not sure how that one game dampens our transfer window? Also we have 4 points from 3 games, two of which have been away. Realistically we would have been very pleased with 5 points from those 3 games. In comparison to other teams we've gotten our top targets, something Arsenal, Chelsea, and Man Utd have struggled to do. Compared to our mid table rivals, only arguments could be made for maybe Everton (loan signings though and lost their best player), Swansea and Norwich having a better window than us. Teams like West Ham, Newcastle, WBA, Stoke have also had very poor transfer windows IMO.

Better from us, we need to score now we are on top. Would like to see Gaston on for one of the midfielders, neother morgan or wanyama have been that good, move JWP in the middle.

Norwich have been better, we need to keep the ball better.

Hmmn Fox against Redmond doesn't fill me with confidence. Would prefer Clyne there.

Like this team but very harsh on JWP. I can see him starting on the right and then Gaston being introduced later.

August bank holiday weekend, people are always doing various things. As an example my cricket club has over 70 players on the books, only 27 were available yesterday to fill 3 teams. Weddings, Festivals, Visiting family, holidays etc etc If we were 3k down regularly it would be a concern but last season pretty much every one of the last home games was sold out weeks in advance.

It's been amazing. I think only Swansea and City can compare, same use started low and built back up they have exceeded us and reached cup wins, got to Europe and in City's case the league. Plus Swansea have part fan ownership. Norwich deserve a mention, they have done it with less money than us, but not with the academy players or the same style IMO. Chelsea yes have won the Champions league but so many players, so much money, so many managers, so much controversy and very few local lads to cheer on. At least with Utd you know they will always bring through a few youngsters. - Recovering from near extinction. - back to back promotions and then staying up. - excellent youth academy products throughout the time. - investment in facilities and infrastructure. - decent attacking football style throughout. - a good core of England players. - focus on youth, not many clubs field 3 18 year olds in a starting line up. - Our own Roy of the Rovers story in Lambert scoring for England. - and most recently some excellent top class signings that wouldn't look out of place at Liverpool or Arsenal. We couldn't have really asked for much more.

Have to LOL that poor old wum Barry has latched onto this thread like a Limpet, must be killing him that his nonsense is getting ignored, he obviously saw this thread as his time to shine. I don't think anyone is getting carried away, quietly optimistic I would say is the general feeling from the sensible fans. We're not going to finish higher than Arsenal but the club as a whole and our team are probably in a happier place right now than they are down at the Emirates. Off field nonsense can make players under perform, I would imagine Arsenal fans are just as worried about this. Lets be honest last week if it wasn't for a great save from Boruc we might have drawn and did we really do enough to win the game? I'm not sure, but it was a pleasing contrast last year to see us grind out a result where we played ok, I'm pretty sure last year in similar circumstances we would have drawn. It's one game though, fail to beat Sunderland and the doom merchants will be out in force again. Difficult really to be negative about the club right now though isn't it? - we have had an excellent summer transfer window, with 3 quality additions (way before the end of the window as well) - signed up all the young players on long term contracts, - had a good pre-season, - introduced some more youngsters into the first team (just like they said they would) - Lambert got and England Call and scored on debut. - And we beat a team away from home (that thoroughly outplayed us twice last season), on the opening day of the season. Can we ask for more right now? I don't think so.

This. Far too many times he goes inside and runs into no one. People concentrate too much on goals, he scored some good ones and important ones but not a lot else IMO and was very frustrating. Lallana is simply a much better player, he just struggled after his injury.

Can't see us buying anyone else. Think wide we are going to stick with Lallana, Jay Rod, Puncheon, maybe Gaston.

BBC seem to have forgotten Shaw played last year - Great result looking forward to match of the day.

I would presume both Gaston and Yoshida are a bit behind in there pre-season prep. MP even said he didn't think either would be ready to start the season, so good to see Gaston get 20 mins, he'll gradually get up to match fitness

Could we not just get him a Helicopter as a singing on bonus. http://www.aso.com/listings/spec/ViewAd.aspx?id=146980&listingType=true&IsInternal=True&pagingNo=1&searchId=6565761&dealerid=] £725,000 I'm sure he can afford to hire a pilot, probably what like two weeks wages for yearly chopper pilot salary. Cruises at 140 mph, so it would get to central London in about 30 minutes from Southampton.

Although he's a bit older than we usually go for what a top summer of signings that would be. Lovren, Wanyama, Osvaldo + Luke Shaw on a 5 year contract. Lets hope that deadline bit is right though, as we need to move on to other targets if he's set against it.

Agree with most of this but 1 goal a season Wellbeck needs to do a lot more than he has to get a spot on that plane.

Probably, although asking a lot of Isgrove to make the step up, he;s shown early promise pre-season. I don't think Gaston is a regular wide option either. We also only have no wide left option who is left footed. Like I said, price around £3-4 million would be good.