spyinthesky

Will be interesting to see how Pompey get on against Bournemouth Reserves this Saturday I thought that perhaps our squad players/second string would give Pompey 1st team a decent game, and perhaps they would, but familiarity/teamwork often [pays dividends over technically better individuals Eddie Howe has a tricky decision to make Bournemouth should be good enough to avoid the drop but he needs a degree of certainty set against the prospect of a decent cup run Hope they wallop the plucky Pompey team

Provided everyone is fit: 1st Choice ..........Bench ............ Squad Keepers Foster.................Stekelenburg ...Davis/Gazzaniga Right Back Cedric........................................Martina Left back Bertrand....................................Targett Holding Midfield Wanyama............Romeu.............Reed Central Defence VV Dijk................Yoshida............Gardos/Stephens Fonte Midfield Clasie................ Ward Prowse......Juanmi Davis................ Tadic................Ramirez Forward Austin..................Pelle................Rodrigues Mane...................Long All subject to formations etc and assumes Yoshida will provide full back cover but shows strength of squad and number of decent players who are unlikely to feature in the match day activity.

Interesting to compare how many ex Saints Youth are currently playing in the professional game Just off the top of my head Bale Walcott Ward Prowse Targett Baird Reeves Oxlade Chamberlain Mills (Matt) Mills (Fish) McGoldrick Poke Cranie Gobern Best Blackstock Lallana Martin Surman Reed Gallagher

Charlie Austin £4m 0r Jon Jo Shelvey £12m Know which one I would go for

Wonder if the initial fee is £4m + add ons or a straight £4m up front Seems a decent price notwithstanding possible injury/fitness problems There was some suggestion a month or two back that he had bought property at Hythe Marina Could be true!!

Interesting debate Has any English club been fined over FFP? All sorts of sanctions were threatened on QPR and more recently Bournemouth Don't believe any real sanctions have been applied but could be wrong

Re Davis I thought he played very well Was his 'goal' offside or not Not shown on MOTD Whatever it was a terrific finish

If we worst was to happen and we did get relegated, I wonder how many of the current squad would remain at the club? Undoubtedly Ronald and team would go More or less all of the current squad, apart from a few of the fringe players are likely to be on weekly salaries in excess of £20k and therefore likely to be too expensive to keep with drastically reduced revenue The likelihood is that the average wage of our top 20 players is £30k per week so you could see most/all of these depart. A guesstimate of their combined transfer market value is around £150 million. If these figures are realistic the club should be in a relatively healthy state to start again in the Championship with a new squad and manager if there is a reasonable investment in new players with the ability to win promotion. However there is no guarantee of success and would Kat look to take 'profits' knowing that if promotion back to the Prem was secured it would take a fair old wedge to build the squad back up to compete again at the top level.

I'm going mainly because I have always gone to watch Saints - possibly from a misguided sense of loyalty started at a very early age However I can well understand why some Saints fans, particularly the younger generation who have enjoyed a fairly positive spell of success, feeling a bit let down by the current situation. I think anything over 25,000 at the current level of 'despair', even at attractive prices, will be fairly good. Also with important home League games coming up in close succession, I would be tempted to give fringe players a go. I do sympathise with those who believe we should always play our strongest team but staying in the Prem is the major thing these days and it is difficult to see our current team progressing too far in the Cup What a turn round though from last year where we were relatively confident of beating Palace in the 4th round. This time I would put us down as underdogs

Presume Boro don't fancy him He hasn't started many times for Boro

I was fortunate enough to test drive a Tesla Really impressed by the experience. Nice looking car too What would be major considerations for me as a private buyer would be: 1. The cost - £50k + 2. Repairs in the event of an accident (needs specialist bodywork repair) 3. Insurance - Group 50 4. Battery Life - Batteries will degrade over time

But aren't Reed/Koeman/Kreuger limited by what the owner wants? I guess all three would want to invest more in players but if the owner says no all they can do is make the best of what they have or walk away

Sad to hear that dear old Roy a stalwart of the Ex Saints for many, many years has finally passed away after bravely fighting a number of health issues in recent times. Real character and will be sadly missed by the Saints family and his friends in the Docks and at Soton General. RIP Roy Also sorry to hear that another good lad with strong Saints connections, Bill Beaney, is suffering from the effects of a long and distinguished career on the field. Nothing life threatening but enough to cause him a fair bit of pain and discomfort.

Video prior to Villa = 6-1 Video prior to Arsenal = 4-0 Its down to him I tell yer!!

Agree with this

Perhaps it is the 'Caulker effect Three relegations in a row???

Long + Ramirez + Osvaldo Getting on for £40m in transfer fees plus approx. £8m a year in wages Combined re-sale value £5m? Great bit of business

There seemed to be quite a few at home games last season Don't think I have seen any this year. Indicative of our less than impressive start to the season?

Final score 2-3

Blimey I have seen far worse comedians than him, at least 2 who didn't make it more than 10 minutes into their set . He was mildly humourous at least. Lots of rumours flying about re Charlie Austin buying a pad at Hythe Marina. Ergo 2+2 = 5 and he is on his way despite Ronald's rebuttal. Ronald said that pre season transfers of Clyne and Morgan were big losses which perhaps suggests that their replacements haven't lived up to expectations which for £11m cost versus £37m income is probably to be expected Have to say that the catering at the De Vere continues to be poor (only noticed 3 or 4 tables occupied in the main restaurant which shows they still struggle to get guests to eat there) The veggie option on the evening 'do' main course probably cost less than 50p a head for ingredients

Didn't McInnes 'Guarantee' promotion under the current manager? Recollect that he also indicated they were expecting to sign Rueben Reid from Plymouth That doesn't seem to have worked!!

I would like to agree with you re Stephens but the fact that he has rarely played for Middlesbrough in the Championship suggests he wouldn't be up to Prem standard atm

Agree that Yoshi is not a suitable RB but neither, so it seems is Martina He can't deny responsibility for City's first goal or the mistake v Utd However he wasn't given much protection from whoever was playing right side of midfield on Saturday We do need to look at improving cover at RB in January

Presumably playing against Pompey tomorrow

Haven't the parachute payments already gone?