spyinthesky

£1.25m for Puncheon seems a decent fee but, as said above, puts the Gaston fee into some perspective To my mind Jay Emmanuel-Thomas looked a decent player (definitely better than Gaston despite Gash's goal) when we played Bristol Cityu earlier in the season. Surprised J E-T has been snapped up by at least a Championship club

DT I think you are being rather harsh on KD He had no chance with the 1st goal OK 'keepers are often criticised for being beaten at the near post but if you have ever played in goal with a forward steaming towards you from the angle Danny Ings had you assume the ball will be hit across goal and that's what Davis did. Ings took the goal very well and credit to him Didn't have a good view of the third but it seemed the finger of blame could be pointed as much towards our defensive frailties as KD's indecision. Don't forget KD's top drawer (and I really mean top drawer) save from Sam Vokes at 2-2 which possibly saved us the game and he made another good finger tip save at 4-2 but unfortunately the resultant corner led to their third. Davis is not as good as Boruc but he is a better stand in than Gazza at the moment

My view fwiw Thought we totally dominated the first half. Burnley had a sniff although they wasted a good free kick position close half time. If SRL had converted a half decent chance then we would deservedly been 3-0 up at the break Second half Burnley were more into it and scored from their first real attempt. Jos then got skinned (from a ball he should have won) for the second and only a couple of very good KD saves plus the woodwork prevented us going behind The introduction of Lallana for Ramirez (another extremely frustrating performance - some good/often bad) made us stronger and we scored a relatively fortuitous third before Lallana fashioned a beauty before we conceded a another sloppy goal Overall our passing was at a much higher tempo and success rate than theirs but our central defensive partnership was poor otherwise we could have won comfortably Just as well MP played a relatively strong side The side who played against Bristol City in the League Cup (relatively strong on paper) would have lost today

Just an aside to this, apart from say 10-12 Championship clubs who have deep pockets/wealthy owners, are there any other lower league clubs who actually pay transfer fees these days? Years ago fringe players from Prem clubs would generally have some value in the transfer market. I guess nowadays they are on such high wages that there is no benefit to them (or their Agents) to drop down a Division or two and the parent club has to subsidise wages rather than benefit from a transfer fee

Are all three still training with Saints or are they left to their own devices whilst continuing to pick up a weekly wedge?

Bit similar to the game at Stamford Bridge where we looked the better side 1st half and then undone by some excellent substitutions from the Chelsea manager We had some half decent chances 1st half (after a dodgy early spell) but credit to some good Chelsea defending Real problem was the wind which we had 1st half and to Chelsea's advantage second half when the game opened out. I really want Ramirez to come good but he ruins some good work by then giving the ball away. Two needless bookings in successive games too. Just goes to show we are well away from top 6 quality Need to get the required 13-15 points under our belts asap in forthcoming games before the natives start getting restless Sub 10k crowd for the Burnley game?

A 2010 production If Razor Ruddick has piled on additional poundage since then he must be fit to burst now. Frank Worthington and Alan Ball tried (unsuccessfully and understandably I think) to chat up a girl friend of mine at the Concorde Club in the mid 80's Carlton Palmer has obviously looked after himself and so has Fashanu

Apart from honours Saints are ahead of Pompey in every respect eg 1. Saints founded in 1885 v Pompey 1898 2. Southern League record - Saints higher placed in 11 of the 17 seasons the two teams competed together winning 15 and drawing 5 of the 'head to heads' 3. Note that the Southern League included all the big London clubs and Saints won the title seven times in 21 seasons up until the Football League was extended in 1920/1 4. Since 1920/1 Saints have been the higher placed club in 51 of the 87 seasons 5. Since 1920/1, Saints have a higher average home attendance despite having a smaller capacity ground for 74 seasons 6. In the League and Cup 'head to heads' since 1920/1 Saints record is ... P 38 W 19 D 10 L 9 F 69 A 48 7. If the comparative records since 1960/1 are looked at (ie the first time the two clubs were in the same League since 1926/7), then Saints domination is even more pronounced and perhaps explains why some Pompey fans have such a dislike for the Saints as in the intervening 54 years Saints have been the dominant force for all bar seven and have enjoyed a higher home support level for all bar three!!

Wouldn't it be ironic if his next club was Garforth Town to be reunited with Rupes

I am a great fan of Rickie Lambert and he has been a huge influence on our recent history but to put him second behind MLT might be taking things a little too far. Some of us old timers might argue for Terry Paine and Mick Channon both local boys done good and, possibly in future terms, Adam Lallana, As for 'bought in' players Ron Davies and perhaps Charlie Wayman would be very strong contenders. To finish on a controversial note, if I was a dispassionate Chairman, I might consider selling Rickie if a decent offer came in. It would be good to remember Rickie at the top of his game not falling away as tends to happen when some players get into their 30's

Pure guess work but I reckon he was probably on £5k a week during his 5 years here plus he probably qualified for Prem promotion bonus so potentially Tommy could have 'earned' well over £1m in wages during his stay here as a squad player. Shame the Sale of Goods Act doesn't apply to players!!

I was speaking to a Saints fan yesterday who occasionally watches Dartford Apparently Tommy only played one full game on loan at Dartford, a 5-1 home defeat by Wrexham back in mid November,Brett Omerod, (remember him?) scoring twice. It was rather embarrassing as our Tommy had the rise taken out of him by both sets of fans and was shipped back to Chelmsford City straight after and replaced by a keeper not felt to be good enough by Div 2 strugglers Portsmouth (Phil Smith?) Tommy now is reserve keeper at Chelmsford who play in the same League as Eastleigh. I guess a further move down the leagues will soon be in order? Meanwhile interested to know what has happened to our other young prospect signed at the same time as Tom ie Anthony Pulis

Interesting piece on Southampton and the Saints team contained within Not exactly complimentary but I guess we are all big enough to take the adverse remarks. It is a bit embarrassing if the comments on the behaviour some of the (youthful) away support last year is correct

First of all anyone giving players stick should be ashamed All of us can get frustrated but to abuse your own players is counter productive and does nothing to enhance the individual's or the team's performance. That said I had tried to keep an open mind on Danny Fox, Jos and the keeper. All three were found wanting and I am sure this is recognised by the management team. It was very unfortunate that both first choice 'keepers were injured and were the two full backs plus the team's defensive midfielder. Both Jos and Yoshida have not looked secure playing alongside Lovren and again it is unfortunate that Fonte is carrying an injury. As regards Danny Fox, I recollect that Burnley fans reckoned he was Ok going forward but suspect defensively (during Burnley's short spell in the Prem) and were somewhat surprised that we paid such a large transfer fee for him (£1.8m?) for him. I reckon their comments were spot on It is eveident

Indeed I assumed that there would be somewhere in the region of 50% allowance for 'stoppages; ie top rate tax plus NI. Not sure how much (if any) players pay into their pension schemes nowadays but the PFA scheme used to be quite beneficial as players could draw down at a relatively early age.

Just out of interest I am reliably informed that Guly nets £40k a month so presume, by this, he is on approx. £20k a week which, I guess, is not a massive amount for a Prem player. However I guess most of us would find this level of recompense to be pretty well acceptable if it came our way

A place where you would not enter if you had a favourite tie?

Who was the Academy striker who scored loads of goals and eventually went to Brentford before disappearing off the radar? There was also the young striker who got sent off playing for Saints in the Man Utd cup tie a few years back and ended up at Southend

Agree entirely Was it last year (or the year before) when our decent Youth team were dicked 5-1 at home by Nottm Forest? Their main striker was, if I remember correctly, Patrick Bamford who Chelsea then snapped up for £1m or so. He is now learning his trade in the lower leagues (Milton Keynes Dons) That what the 'elite' clubs seem to do with their players I am not saying this is right for everyone as we seem to have done alright by blooding our youngsters in the first team However I think it is probably more difficult for young keepers, central defenders and strikers to make the step up than fullbacks, midfielders or wingers

A very fair assessment by Andy Awford (which couldn't have been easy) including condemnation of their idiot fan contingent

I was one of the 8,000 or so who forked out £22 to watch was basically our second string struggle to beat Bristol City in the League Cup. Team looked strong enough on paper to beat Div 1 basement dwellers but if it hadn't been for Kelvin Davies we might not have got through We will need to be relatively strong for this fixture and prices will have to be reasonable too

Not sure if mentioned elsewhere but the number of English players on the field for both sides at the final whistle Saints: Callum Chambers Academy Luke Shaw " Jack Cork £750k James Ward Prowse Academy Harrison Reed " Adam Lallana " Jay Rodriguez £7m Rickie Lambert £1m Man City Ziltch

I went with Jevon and Micky Pearce Both made their way in the world Arthur Fowler was nearby. Has moved on from supporting Walford Town to bigger things

Have been invited to the occasional corporate but first time at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Went with someone who hadn't been there since the 1976 S Final win over Palace ad we were reflecting on the changes since the days when you approached a Chelsea away game with a frission of fear. Have never been 'wanded' prior to entry to a football game before. The Restaurant area was packed but it appeared a good 50% of the guests were speaking in a foreign tongue (a good percentage were Russian - understandable I guess) The food was excellent. However when we came in at Half time there were a surprising amount of people still eating their 3 course mains. Either they hadn't watched the first half or had arrived late and were making up for their lack of grub by tucking in during the break. There was no cut off time for the consumption of alcohol as is rigorously enforced in the Boxes at St Mary's There are large electric heaters in the roof space of the stand. Presumably the cost of power is sponsored by Gazprom or the like as the cost must be substantial. There were quite a few women and children around us, most either chatting away or looking at their phones/Ipads etc I expected to get some abuse when I involuntarily leapt up to celebrate our first goal but no one said a word (thankfully!!) Whilst the corporate experience was interesting (and enjoyable to a long standing Saints fan like me who was brought up generally wet and cold on the terraces), the disappointment of losing (especially after taking the lead) remains the same at whatever age

I was in the corporates at Chelsea (very interesting experience) and those regular Chelsea fans around me were all predicting a Saints win at the half way stage We looked very comfortable at that stage To be fair to the Chelsea manager he changed the teams formation and immediately this paid dividends Losing at Chelsea and Arsenal is no disgrace but it shows how far away from the top 4 we are in terms of squad strength