Saint Fan CaM

Completely agree with this - Gallagher is scoring for a good reason - he's found his level. However, there's a good reason for sending him out on loan to provide him with match-time to hone skills - he's done that well...served the apprenticeship...so he deserves a chance back at Saints. If he's found wanting however, then we can sell or loan again - it's a win-win.

Yep fantastic...Boufal will be sure to bag a goal or two for us....oh.

Got no confidence that Puel and Black know how to win against this type of team. 2-0 Sunderland.

Have been waiting for a freaking age and I logged in at 8am this morning.

Marco Silva with Nigel Adkins as his deputy. Would be an awesome combo.

Not a good display, with only Gabbiadini looking a positive. I do not blame the players for this however. Puel and Black are to blame for not getting the best out of a largely gifted group of players - the coaching and method is just not good enough and they are dragging us down. I also hold Reed accountable for allowing the CB situation to have developed into a shambles - Stephens and Yoshida as a pairing provide us with almost L1 levels of ineptitude. If we win the cup it will be a miracle. Something significant needs to change to ensure we're not dragged into a relegation tussle...6 defeats in 7 should be a clear indication that the management of the team is not up to the job.

What a pathetic thing for anyone vaguely interested in competitive sport to say. We have as much right to expect our team to compete at the highest level as any other football supporter. Does a track athlete start his/her training thinking "you know what, I don't have a right to win this race, but I'll try anyway"?!? Throughout you HAVE to believe you have the right to be with the best or whats the point competing at all? It has nothing to do with what resources may or may not be at your disposal. Why are we so special? Easy - we are Southampton. And if you don't believe THAT then you should perhaps question what kind of supporter you are.

Top post...sums things up nicely.

Crazy to think that any team in the Prem right now could not hurt us - overall we have a very average Championship level central defensive pairing in front of a 6'7" statue. The only saving grace is Romeu but if he gets drawn away to compensate for Clasie/Hojberg we will be hugely exposed. Watch the crosses reign in from Snodgrass, watch Carroll fall over at every touch, watch Snodgrass score from the deadball - that'll be their game plan. I hope Buefal and Gabba play - we might see something different to the dross we've been dished up. 0-2 loss is what I'm thinking. Thanks for nothing Les.

Well 85% of £235m is about £200m which has been touted as the stake, so there's your evaluation roughly if the rumours of Kat holding 15% are true. I would say that's a realistic sale figure but perhaps a little low?

Guys, at £200m I would imagine Lander are taking a major stake in the club. What remaining control Kat and the current Board retain remains to be seen - hopefully she has ensured that legally the club still has the strong backing set-up by Marcus as I do not have a lot of confidence in any Chinese investment. It seems like a significant step outside the comfort zone we have enjoyed for the last 5 years.

Hands up - I was one of the many who thought this to be a step too far for our depleted squad, but I was wrong. Puel put together a game plan that was simply masterful. Romeu was without doubt IMO the MOTM - just bossed everything in front defence. JWP in the last two games has somehow managed to find the extra something that has been missing in his game - hopefully he knows what that spark is. Josh Sims - he is turning out to be the real deal - not only pace but intelligence too - watch how he travels in front the retreating player before laying off the ball to Long for example. Stephens and Yoshi did a great job, although we did get lucky on a few occasions. Cedric and Bertrand were absolutely superb in defence and attack I thought. Fair play to Redmond who dominated the left side and gave them some real problems. The only two players who looked off were Tadic and J-Rod - both looked tired and not sharp at all. J-Rod doesn't seem able to anticipate ball delivery into the box now like he once did. Anyway - onto Wembley - I will be wearing my yellow 1976 commemorative shirt whatever happens. Happy days.

Sign Sakho FFS. Will know it's gone to rat-sh1t if we don't replace Fonte AND sign a decent striker.

Can't say I'm looking forward to the game much - I want to but the boring rubbish served up cold by Puel is just ******* driving me mad. Leicester will be parking the bus and trying to get something on the break - once they score we'll be stuffed. 0-0 if we're lucky otherwise 0-2 or 1-2. Yes it's a wholly negative view - seemed only a short time ago I went to a game thinking we could beat anyone on our day - now it's the complete opposite.

I've been told by someone who would know that he came back from the Europe with a big attitude and demands. Trouble is his ankles apparently need constant care by the club medics to keep him going and when you look at his performances of the last 18 months (ish), you can see he gets in trouble turning on a tight radius - hence his tendency to shirt-pull. I was also told that we were looking at signing a top name CB, but the inference was to replace VVD not Fonte. I think Les and Puel are thinking good riddance, however now we're into a whole different era of player with the last of the old guard gone. Expect to see more mercenary style performances from players who have little connection to the club or it's history - even it's recent glorious history. Times'a'changing.

GKs Forster - lower prem to champ McCarthy - lower prem Taylor - unknown Defenders Van Dijk - prem Fonte - lower prem Gardos - champ Yoshida - lower prem Pied - unknown McQueen - lower prem Stephens - champ Bertrand - prem Targett - lower prem Soares - prem Martina - lower prem Midfielders Clasie - lower prem Romeu - prem Ward-Prowse - champ Höjbjerg - champ Davis - prem Reed - lower prem Isgrove - champ Forwards Boufal - prem Sims - lower prem Tadic - prem Redmond - champ Rodríguez - champ Austin - champ Long - champ Above is my view of the level of this squad right now - it's pretty average with some notable exceptions. We've done two things over the last 3 seasons - watered down the quality and watered down the team spirit (i.e. sold or alienated most of the squad that achieved back to back promotions). Add to this a manager who appears to not be inspirational to the squad, a deputy who has previously struggled to find any level of success, both of whom are working a system that does not suit the squad of players at their disposal. The decline will continue unfortunately I suspect unless one or more of these issues is corrected. Add to this the atmosphere at SMS is likely to get worse, meaning the '12th man' effect could diminish. Many I know are disillusioned with the style of play, lack of ambition shown by the Board etc. Overall, it is easy to see how our size club could get sucked into a spiral of decline that leads to relegation - it's happened before and it could happen again.

JWP - what is the point? Hardly in the game unless he has a dead ball to hit. Redmond hitting walls as usual. Long has good work-rate but no finish...again. Rotation will once again deny us 3 points.

I heard sometime ago that Saints were looking to sign a big-name CB - perhaps it was Sakho. I hope so - would be one of the biggest statements of ambition made by the club IMO - a player at a prime age with good background who could prove to VVD that the club means business. Despite Yoshi looking well improved, I do hope we get Sakho.

Really good performance by all, but particularly Romeu who was a rock and Yoshi who seems to be gaining in confidence. Davis as usual, seems to make all the hard stuff seem simple and ran the midfield - if he could shoot consistently he would be an awesome player and not with us probably. The only niggle is the lack of accuracy in our shooting - Redmond in particular needs to be far more clinical - it really does make all the difference at this level. I will be very disappointed in the club if we do not bring in another top class striking option. If we play like that in the 2nd leg at Anfield we will be going to Wembley. Anything less and we will not - simple as.

This is not going to be pretty - fancy an early spate of possession and then 0-2 to Pool, making the return fixture a waste of time and effort. If I'm wrong I'll be a very happy chap, however I can't see this team being dynamic enough to trouble them and even if we do go ahead, we'll try to defend the lead and fail.

Clearly VVD is the only option on the table right now. It might be the best chance of keeping him a bit longer.

Of course you've read it wrong - the bit about the press conferences was contextual. Anyone with half a modicum of intelligence is surely going to be bored stupid by Puel's monotonous drivel and I keep hearing rumours that he's lost the confidence of a number of players. Blacks reputation is hardly Earth-shattering (other than for the wrong reasons) and it would be of little surprise to find the players are totally underwhelmed and lack inspiration. I don't believe our squad is poor in general (yes, we need more striking options) and very much believe the rotation/style of play is being dictated by the management team. Unless they change then it's only going to get worse. The salient facts (9 goals against in 3 lost matches?) is plain to see.

Mainly bowlocks eh? So which part of my post did you not agree with? Let's take a look... * It would be good to have a main striker, but they're hard to come by...well let's see...perhaps if the scouting team and the Board had done a MUCH better job in the summer window, we would have a decent 15 goal/season striker? * The problem is that our talented team is not clicking. Well let's see...yes, I do believe I mentioned Puel's system is not working and rotation is a big part of the problem. * The main issue is confidence - a good couple of results (etc.). The ultimate stupid happy clapper statement. Of course good results breed confidence - derrrr - problem is we're not performing in a manner that inspires the players to deliver good results or even in manner that inspires supporters. In terms of Puel, I don't want to see us sack another Manager in less than one season - awful thing to do. BUT - I can't listen to his interviews anymore - they are boring drivel and I can only assume the players think the same. When you're faced with a tough decision like this, taking the hardest of actions can be the bravest too.

What's all this nonsense about "everything was great until 70 minutes"?!? The game is about winning across 90+ minutes - about setting up a team and tactics that will allow you to score goals to WIN games FFS - not defend 0-0 or even 1-0 if by some miracle you've gone ahead. Puel and his coaching staff need to take a long hard look at themselves - whatever they are doing, it's not working with this set of players. Not only that, but the style of football is dire - we've gone backwards and it's very boring to watch. Teams that win consistently field the strongest side possible continually - only injury should stop a sub-26 year old professional player (an athlete) from playing 3 games in a week. If the players do not believe in the Manager, then all aspects of individual and team performance will suffer. Team spirit must be at a 7 year low in the changing room right now and I strongly suspect that shaves a large % off any chance of winning a game. Lastly, did anyone really expect the wheels would not come off the 'Southampton Way' when Pelle, Mane and Vic were not replaced properly? You could look back and pick almost an entire team that we've sold - top players not replaced. Top managers not replaced. The summer however was the 'straw that broke the donkeys back' - it was obvious to me that Redmond, Austin, Long and even J-Rod were not the forward line that would tear up the Prem and push us onto greater things. We didn't change things around and find ourselves relying on a sub-standard forward line that would probably struggle in the Championship. Romeu and VVD are the only two signings that you could actually say were of the right standard. There needs to be something done Les Reed - the club is really running a thin line now...we've loved the journey so far - we've supported the club so far - but don't try to disguise the fact that we're marching backwards - NOT forwards - as things stand.

Been saying for a little while now that Forsters development was significantly hindered by his recent (knee?) injury. Prior to that he was not great at commanding his box, but most other attributes were reasonably sound. Now most elements of his game are not great - no command of his box still, statue like with no mobility to save and distribution extremely poor (not just his kicking accuracy, but the time it takes for him to move the ball upfield). My view is he's damaged goods, but the club need him in the shop window to be able to sell-him, although it has to be said, there's no talk of any big clubs showing interest in him and there's a reason for that.