Window Cleaner

It will be far more than that this season, probably somewhere around 1.1 million, the average PL payout will be increased by about 50% from last year I believe, some of that will depend on finishing places.

Don't forget the League Cup final in 78.

Too damn right I don't, to me a player who is past it is past it,a player who isn't good enough isn't good enough. I have no sentimentality whatsoever when it comes to football. Davis should have been ditched 2 years ago and a new keeper brought in at that time. Luckily we got Boruc who was out of contract but it could have been an unmitigated disaster otherwise.

As I have been saying for weeks now. I wouldn't mind having Giaccherini or Borini on our bench instead of Guly or some 18 year old schoolboy. Dossena is a far better LB than Fox will ever be. Squad imporvement has been cocked up, no doubt because the money tap has been turned off at some time in the fairly recent past.

The proof of this is that we had to play nigh on our full first team to beat nigh on bottom of the Championship Yeovil. Guly was crap then, he was dire on Saturday, bloke just shouldn't be here any more because there are better players for less money no doubt. Shouldn't have given away Osvaldo in such desperate circumstances, other clubs have had bad boys and yet they manage to limit the effects and get something out of them, why isn't Cattermole supposed to be a real pest ? Lack of top management ability is what it's all about, we needed a real CEO and that got f*cked up.

We have everything to play for in the league, we could easily finish 6th because our remaining programme against Utd's and Everton's in theory allows us to do so, beat them both at home and we're half-way there already. One has CL ambitions starting on Tuesday or Wednesday and the other is still in the Cup with some nasty looking PL games coming up. 6th would get us into the EL by the front door this season because Citeh will beat sunderland in the C1C final. 6th in the PL would give us a superior status to enable us to obtain the quality players we so desperately need.

Lovren and Gaston will both probably be on the bench, little try outs before their respective international games and our home game with Liverpool, we'll need both of them for that.

Exactly. Perhaps we'll get a big Sam type, I mean he must know that the FA Cup is the most importantest thing in the whole wide world right. Then again we might get a Germano-Canadian-Swiss Ice Hockey Coach who'll no doubt be aiming for the Stanley Cup.

It's not just 2 games in one week, it's 12 games in 7 weeks that has done the damage, where we needed to rest players was against Yeovil so what did we do, send out the first team minus Lambert who was injured I think. You just have to accept that our squad isn't big enough no doubt for economic reasons and then all becomes clear. That's what I've been saying for a while now and I can see no problem with Saturday's loss. Every time we have to call upon the dregs the results are disastrous.

Then again Sheffield Utd didn't play in midweek and Forest did I think, so cracking in the last few minutes can easily be explained then can't it. Of the 7 teams that won FA cup matches this weekend 5 didn't play in midweek whilst their opponents did. Wigan and Arsenal being the exceptions. We were jaded, we looked jaded and the "fresh legs" just weren't good enough to make any difference. Jeez it's not rocket science, do you think a fresh Lambert or Lallana would have missed those sitters ? Probably not.

:rolleyes:

but they don't get trotted out in important games though do they. Guly has been with us what 4 years, I feel that he has been handsomely rewarded for the little that he has produced, sums far beyond the totality paid to all the others no doubt. Past it but there's just nothing else because our youth policy is flawed somewhere along the line.

And in the wake of all this has one person bothered to wish SRL a happy birthday ? 32 today isn't it.

Liverpool didn't play their strongest side though did they, if they had Henderson would have started instead of Allen, just like Morgan didn't start for us yesterday, came on in the 2nd half just the same. Allen is obviously a better player than JWP or Guly though and therein lies the difference. Now if they'd started Henderson who knows what they might have done because I've seen Allen roundly criticised today. Arsenal were what about 4 players down on their strongest side as well but their replacements are better than ours, as were Sunderlands. People just need to let this go and accept that our squad is too small and not all of them are good enough.

Dream on phillip, dream on. The very problem seems to be that players like Stephens and Isgrove aren't good enough to step up into the First XI for Cup games, not even a home jaunt against Yeovil which should easily be within their capabilities if they're ever going to make anything of themselves. If these lads (some of them are 20+) are ever going to be capable of PL nay European football they should be pushing garbage like Jos and Guly out of the side altogether but they aren't. We've taken everything viable out of the youth squad already, the rest aren't up to scratch that's all. We should be looking for bargains like the CB that Sunderland had yesterday, 24 or so, about 6ft 6 and an Argentinian international, he's playing already Stephens and Turnbull are just eternal white hopes. They'll be let go soon, as many have been before them.

OK, but to me winning is winning and losing is losing because at the end of the day that's all that counts in football, especially knock-out competitions.

Being an apologist for players who perform poorly on a constant basis is a Southampton tradition. You've only to mention that Davis is garbage or Guly or Jos or even Lambert and someone will jump on you quoting performances from a wet night at Dagenham or Stevenage at sometime back in the dark ages. We're no longer in League 1 or the NPC and we need players who are PL standard every last one of them. If we continue carrying the junk forward for sentimental reasons results like yesterday's will just keep on happening. I want new players, internationals every one if possible and I certainly don't want any more money wasted on Guly Do Prados and Kelvin Daviss.

But Liverpool still lost against a reduced strength Arsenal side right ? I just don't see the difference, a defeat is a defeat at the end of the day.

Future Cup attendances ? Yesterday's game was watched by 16777 souls in the SOL, of that about 700 were ours and yet nigh on 1100 went to Hull on a Tuesday. The FA Cup is dead as a crowd puller. No-one cares, this year's final will be between any 2 of Citeh,Arsenal and Everton because they have the squads to handle it. Key players won't give a toss about it anyway because they'll all have far more important fish to fry a couple of weeks further on.

perhaps they have experts there who can help when faced with depression after getting beaten by Sunderland, you'd think they would have wouldn't you, it happens every time.

Lallana can say what he likes, it obviously wasn't our biggest game of the season, for him perhaps but he's not running the club now is he. Anyway for Lallana his biggest game of the season will be the one who that gets him on the plane to the WC, perhaps the international in what 17 days time, before that he's got West Ham and Liverpool to consider. You just cannot underestimate the effect that the WC is having on players just now. The club already knows who's in and who's not for the games in March, they've been sent lists of players susceptible to play.

But then you'd have to know who choses which young players get a game a which don't. I do not like the Academy first approach myself, obviously we've unearthed some rare talents but there are far too many that don't make the grade and I fear that the illusion that they might is stopping us from signing the players we need. To me if a young player hasn't broken into the frst team squad by the ge of 19 or so then he probably won't make a PL player at all. I honestly have no time for players like Stephens and Turnbull when it's obvious that we're crying out for a decent CB to replace the Dutch Donkey.

McQueen or Gallagher makes a great difference, we'd not deliberately hold back Gallagher just because we weren't particularly interested in the Cup, there must have been some other reason. I am sure that if we knew more about the management of the young players by Reed we'd understand more easily. In the main these are not first team squad players and therefore they must fall under the command of Reed rather than Pochettino.

The fact that Fonte was on the bench is confusing many, he was never ever going to play with that leg. If we'd had a problem at CB I'm sure VW would have dropped back. We just didn't have anyone else to put on the bench, the U21s played on Friday night and the 18 yesterday was all that was left. Check for yourselves. Lallana runs a lot every game, yesterday was his 12 th game in about 50 days I think, you just have to be fair to the lad, he gives his all every game but when the tank is empty it's empty.

they didn't put out a weakened side, they put out a different side because they have made the signings to be able to do so. Look through it one by one, it's a side full of Argentine and Italian internationals. Dossena,Borini,Giaccherini all Italian full internationals, Vergini and the keeper both Argentine internationals. Poyet has made some handy signings and their squad is far more homogenous than ours. He doesn't know who is better than whom yet, these lads have only just got there in some cases. Time they got the WPs and all it must be just about now that they're available. They're in a crap league position because Di Canio got it all wrong but of late they won 7 out of their last 10 and will be away from relegation soon. Their side yesterday was better than ours if only because we had 3 absolute duffers who should be nowhere near a PL club. I would have liked some of their signings actually, particularly the CB Vergini, Argentine full international for a 400K loan fee and we have to play Jos flipping Hooieveld...yeah right. We made no signings so what can you bloody well expect because we have to play donkeys against thouroughbreds.