spyinthesky

Any idea what the situation is with our loaned out players? I guess Hoedt, Lemina, Carillo, Forster and our Norwegian/N African who's name I can never spell, are on season long loans and only the latter two have any real transfer value and neither would feature in the current squad. Harry Reed seems to be doing OK at Fulham and could be worth recalling if the loan deal allows, as we are not overblessed with midfield cover. Jake Hesketh is at Lincoln and probably wouldnt feature in the current line out, similarly Jones and O'Conner at Gillingham are in the same category.

Wonder what the view is of Cedric's performance today in amongst plenty of creditable individuals performances throughout the team? He hasnt been in the greatest of form but believe the change of formation ie providing more midfield cover on the right side of the pitch has helped significantly,

Difficult choice for Manager Wholesale changes? Perhaps: Gunn ??? ( Valery, if fit) ??? (Danso (if fit or Vokes) Yoshida Vestegaard (unless he off to Bremen) Romeu Slattery (unless he is still in the doghouse) Boufal Long Adams Djenepo Cant see too many of today's starting lineup being involved unless their fitness levels are suitable. Certainly not many options at full back.. Crowd .. Approx 10,000?

I really want him to do well but cant see anything that justifies his transfer fee

Always different views. Talking to Palarse fans after the game they thought the Ref was definitely biased towards us.

Where I was sat it seemed a definite offside but VAR seems to show it was marginal Thought the Referee allowed the game to flow and we benefited for the most part

Probably will get shot down for this but thought Ref had a decent game as did VAR (again)!!!

Agree we cant afford to be doing anything to upset our majority owner or our High Profile sponsors (Messrs Lander & Co)

Going to back to the days when I was out and about in town there were plenty of players enjoying themselves The drinking culture was arguably far more prevalent than now

There have some pretty bad performances at SMS over the past 3 seasons and this up with the worst of them. Even with VAR in our favour we were woeful. West Ham arent a great side but were in a different League to us, which will be the case next season. I'm not sure this side would do well in the Championship and without Ings, Ward Prowse (who isnt the greatest but did OK today) Bertrand and Romeu we would struggle to make the top 6. I have been a Saints fan longer than most but this team reminds me of the dark days of Branfoot. Dark times and I can fully understand why very few people are daft enough to buy a ticket for home games. Us season ticket holders have to sit and suffer

Question is, what influence does RH have with signings.

My Xmas list for New Year would be: A decent Centre Half - £20m+ (lose any of our current mob apart from possibly Bednerak?) A left footed midfielder/attacker - £15m ish (possibly lose Armstrong?) with a bit of pace A tall forward, good in the air - £5m/£10m (lose Shane Long?) (not necessarily a starter) Cant see any of this happening unfortunately despite the fact that we have approx £75m of 'Talent' out on loan ie Forster/Elonouyssi/Carillo/Hoedt/Lemina

Good shout. i would do the same

Everton have just announced season ticket prices for 2020/1 which they intend to keep unchanged for the 5th successive year. Prices are: Under 11 £99 11-18 £149 18-21/ 65+ £299 22-24 £380 All others £420 Apparently there is a high % of younger fans taking advantage of these prices and I reckon it is good policy to encourage the next generation of supporters. I reckon prices around this level would help lower the current age profile at SMS and hopefully add to the atmosphere diluted by the pipe and slippers brigade like me!!.

I am likely to be shot for this but I have sympathy with whoever plays right back in our formation. Most clubs who have decent attacking left backs will push them up and often double up on our right back position. I like Djnepo but he is not good of protecting his right back and I was hoping that Ralph would bring on Romeu sooner than he did to put more protection into midfield In my view 4-3-3 is our best formation but, of course, 4-2-4 paid dividends in the first half. Anyone think that was a stone wall foul on Shane Long on the edge of the box? Norwich were given a free kick for a similar but less obvious foul soon after.

Good point. However we dont have the midfield creativity to play the ball on the ground. My view is that we should have invested in a forward with a bit of physicality, height and ability in the air which has been missing since Pelle's departure.

My view. Wrong team selection and we were absolutely shi*te first half. Reminded me of the Branfoot era. Too many passes backwards, possibly due to lack of forward movement. Great save by McCarthy (with his feet) from a volley. If we had gone 2-0 down then 'goodnight vienna' I feel sorry for Jack Stephens. I think he cares more than most but he made two major mistakes, one of which gave Watford their goal. Playing two in midfield is a mistake. We need 3 in midfield plus two upfront from Ings/Redmond/Djnepo/Boufal. You could feel the relief form the hardy Saints fans who were blasting out 'Oh When the Saints' at the end. Despite all the euphoria, I reckon these are two poor sides who will be down in the Championship next season.

One of them is to limit the pay of a company's top earner to 10 times the salary of the lowest. Will cause quite a problem for most companies and begs the question that if a cleaner at SMS is on £15k a year how are our superstars going to be able to manage on an annual salary that is the equivalent of a couple of weeks of their current wedge??

Well beaten by Monaco 0-3 Men against boys!! Separately understand Josh Sims back from loan period in the USA

They are a bit of a roll at the moment. FA Cup 3rd round pretty much nailed on and a placed in the play offs on the cards. Could be more derbies to come this season and possibly next!!

They are a bit of a roll at the moment. FA Cup 3rd round pretty much nailed on and a placed in the play offs on the cards. Could be more derbies to come this season and possibly next!!

A mate of mine has consistently been bigging up Jarred Bowen at Hull City He scored another cracker today at Boro taking his total up to 12 so far from midfield this season and he was Hull's top scorer last term. Should have bought him last season when his price would have been lower.

Lemina/Hoedt/Carillo/Forster/Elyounoussi all out on loan, combined transfer cost approx £75m. Current value possibly £10m tops.

I have been watching football a lot longer than most on here so this possibly helps provide a more balanced view. Everything is, of course, subjective but I would definitely say that Ray Wilson was the best left back I have ever seen. I only ever saw Duncan Edwards play once when Man Utd beat our own decent (at the time) Youth team in the SF (1st Leg) of the Youth Cup but by all accounts he was looked upon as the best English player of his generation until his untimely death post the Munich Air Crash. Bobby Charlton reckoned he was a 'colossus', tall and very strong, power in both feet, quite quick and at home in every position on the field. He was only 21 at the time of his death so would undoubtedly have improved with age. So he would be a given along with Bobby Moore, Tom Finney (who Bill Shankley rated as the best player he ever saw), Bobby Charlton and possibly Beckham and Gascoigne from more recent times. Difficult to decide between Banks and Shilton but probably, by a hairs breath, go for Banks.