saintbob40

Nope and Palace's result today puts the Sunderland result in perspective. Sunderland are terrible. I would rather play without VW, Osvaldo and Ramirez and bring back Puncheon. We were a much better side last year. Thank god for the easy start!

I have been ploughing a lone furrow as our results have masked our performance but glad to posters with a similar view. We need to get Clyne, Shaw and Cork in. MP seems to have lost the plot. As the centre of our issues is Mr Wanyama. He does not fit our playing style.

Bid is actually £6m+ apparently.

....... Like being savaged by a dead sheep..... So you know more about football finances than West Hams David Gold ? I would suggest you get back to your day job of teaching Stephen Hawking the finer points of astro physics..... You delusional feckwit.

…Wanyama never mentioned or are you being mischievous? I am now only allowed to say VW is a very gifted footballer with fast feet and a cunning football brain that suits are free flowing fast passing game and that he is not in the least bit clumsy in the tackle. Also I said "(i.e. not one of this group)" so someone who is not "Sharp,Fox, Hammond, Forte, Guly" as we cant seem to shift that lot....and for the other poster....clearly I was surmising from a basis of my understanding of how businesses set budget and FFP ( inc Gold’s recent comments on the Saints finances) and also my knowledge of how football contracts tend to work.

Aren't we bumping up against our financial fair play budget? NC has spent an eye watering amount all ready this year. I wonder what NC had in his cash flows/budget as presumably agreed with the owners with regard to Sharp,Fox, Hammond, Forte, Guly (?) et al? NC was probably expecting some cash in for transfer fees and a reduction of the monthly outgoings. The problem is these players all presumably had a significant hike in their salary on promotion ( ...more or less a standard clasue) which probably can't be matched by any buying club hence the Mexican stand off. My guess is that he would need to sell someone worth buying on sensible money having regard to their talent(i.e not one of this group) to help to buy someone like Moses. Any thoughts who he could sell who would raise £4/5 million?

With ponderous Wanyama pondering around we have a slow ball now and a lot less zip in our game, therefore we need pace as we don't have much. Best solve the new problem we have created.

Sunderland sat off the CMs on Saturday as they figured we didn't have the guile to brake them down. They were more or less right but for one bad piece of defending for the Fonte goal. JWP is not a DM but may make an AM.

Morgan didn't play well against WBA and got hooked at half time v Sunderland. He seems to be struggling to come to terms with fans favourite big Victors agricultural style of football. Perhaps Cork may be able to make more sense of the conundrum presented by VM . To me VM looks like a "second ball" (West Ham/Stoke type). Odd signing that has changed the balance of the team. We could i guess sell Cork, truly embrace the long ball game and get Papa Bouba Diop in to finish the transformation. At which point I will give my season ticket to a tramp.........

Wanyama and Morgan hasn't worked so far. JWP and Wanyama only looked better because Sunderland sat back and let them have the ball. The team now moves the ball far too slowly and we have lost our fluidity. Most posters are judging the team by it's results rather than by the performances and we have played poorly against two poor sides. Eventually we will be found out. Yes you all love Wanyama because he is big and strong but he has slow feet, is not aware of what is around him ( hence Morgans decline) and he does not get through the work that Cork does. Don't bet on us beating Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool this year.

I wonder sometimes what I must be watching having read this thread. But for the first 20 minutes of the WBA game we have been poor against two poor sides but have been lucky in both games. Wanyama is slow on the ball and if you haven't got pace up front you have to move the ball quickly. We have not done this and look stodgy. Morgan looks lost without Cork.

Other than the first 20 minutes against WBA we have not been very good. Wanyama is ponderous on the ball and the whole team suffers for it. If you haven't got pace up front you need to pass the ball quickly which we did with Morgan and Cork last year. Now we look stodgy and very average and Morgan looks lost without Cork. Don't be fooled by the league position because if we continue to play like this we will drop like a stone.

West Brom were shocking and I think VWs clumsiness in the tackle will get us in trouble at least 4 times this season. How about that?

Can't see them playing together unless we go with 4 4 2 so he either will be left out a lot (as logically Osvaldo will then also be)or one of them could be asked to play deep ( i.e the middle of the 3 in the 4-2-3-1) like Rooney for Man U ( ... and that turned out well....!)-. How SRL and Osvaldo would react to lengthy spells on the bench is an unknown but I would not underestimate the possibility of fireworks from either player-that's off the pitch by the way . MP has a big task ahead of him and will need to quickly establish a clear programme of rotation if he is going to keep a squad motivated, happy and on side. Failing that teddys will, IMHO, be thrown....

Carragher -his voice is shocking and can only be heard by my dog at times. I was watching Gary Neville's face last night and he looked like he was being slapped every time Carragher spoke. And why did they need two people to do the same job? Is Carragher an unpaid intern? Mind you better that than the bland, smug bastards at Match of the Day. Shearer would send a glass eye to sleep! Neville is by far the best thing on telly and ( controversial no doubt but....) I have a soft spot for Stan Collymore on the radio.

VW doesn't show for the ball or make space to receive a pass and we were forced to play down the flanks a lot. Morgan's game suffered as he wasn't getting the ball all much as he would from Cork. VW is also very clumsy in the tackle which may cost us and him as the season progresses.

Managing Mr O will be the least of his problems I would have thought.

Blue touch paper lit........ Squad based pyrotechnics to follow. Lets see how good a man manager MP is now.

The debate in it's wider context is a very important one. Cortese is too impatient and may well destroy what he was building.

But the choice is Cork v Wanyama ; Rickie v Osvaldo........

If Osvaldo signs........Rickie on the bench at his age? We will have a serious issue to deal with as Rickie will want to leave. With Cork and Rickie out of the team you have then lost two of our leaders on the pitch and swapped them for a couple of untrieds who , let's face it, would rather be elsewhere in the first place judging by the delay in each transfer. A team of well paid reluctant mercenaries..........is that we want to see? It might work on football manager but the likes of QPR is a more graphic representation of the likely reality. Personally I would like to see players playing for us who actually cared about the club and will not be sulking or agitating for a move after half a season. I am surprised few posters think the same way.

MP and NC seem to be treating Cork appalingly. We let 3 goals in at home on Saturday so difficult to see that Schneiderlin and Wanyama as defensive mids " have gelled very quickly". To me VW looks to be too heavy and cumbersome and his feet are very, very slow.... With no Cork and no Shaw it feels a lot like the start of last season. The only saving grace is that we have got an easier start and may scramble a few points early on...

So we shipped 3 goals at home in an entertaining game where our defensive midfielders were "outstanding" but the defence were crap. Sound a bit like the start of last season to me. Perhaps the opposing team shouldn't be getting to our defence. Or we just call them midfielders............

He needs to play and learn his trade rather than give lots of media interviews. A loan to a championship club where he can play week in week out would be ideal.

Cork and Morgan outplayed the top midfields in the country last year. Looks like MP and NC want to split that up. VW looks too heavy and slow on the ball but let's see. JWP has a lot to learn and needs to find his right position......currently he is not physically developed enough to play in the two. Davis is decent enough away from home in the 3. I am intrigued to see how Morgan will play without Cork next to him covering for him and feeding him possession. To answer the OP- yes to Cork and Morgan last year. This year I think MP will initially persist withVW and MS but I have my doubts.