david in sweden

Our genuine sympathy for Luke shouldn't take away our desire to win on Sunday.....after all ...with or without him... MU have still spent £200 million in the last 18 months.... ...... they still have a huge number of very expensive players....are they expected to beat us?

I trust there are not so many Saints fans left ....who still blame Luke for his move to MU......the lad has the talent and United paid our asking price.... However, after watching him in the Saints ranks for 10 years, it seems, that Luke still has an affinity with Saints...and the club with him. " Black sheep, white sheep" ..it's still " family ".

you don't really think that bothers Mr. Abrahamovic - do you ? .....if they can keep a highly-skilled professional doctor un-employed on their payroll for weeks at a time....any eventual " loss of income on a few seats " is surely a drop in the bucket for Chelsea....

no way would he be likely to go so early in his career, but what sort of £ee would he likely to command next summer ...if ...?

a bit after The Lord Mayor's Show I know, but some of us will inevitably watch to see how Midtylland progress in the Europa League - if indeed they do, ........but Swedish press have reported that their goalie Dahlin (who is Swedish ...btw)......is injured ....and will be out for some months...... bad luck for them .....worse for us.... .it was he kept them in the tie several times with some fine saves.

Agreed. Fast improving. I think he is still quite young, (not sure of his exact age) but I know he was still playing games for the U18's last season....

after watching those two games .....I could think of crazier ideas, he seemed to be their best player.

good idea......Er ....who did you have in mind?

at least they won't have Van Persie in their line-up this time. He always seemed to score against us.

think I might go with most of that....but I'm not so much anti-Arsenal, perhaps it's the former Saints' connection but Tottenham are much closer to the top of my list - maybe even higher then Man. Utd - and that's saying something.....(but that's a personal thing going back 50 years ).....

You made your point, but it's early days yet, and it takes time for new players to settle in - (ask José Mourinho:D) I'm sure that given time things will come together. Dull watching though it maybe - we are still unbeaten in 3 games away from home. Not so often you can say that .

can't recall the exact date, but there was a rumour that his Dad (Tony) was up for the Saints manager's job - as it was the son was signed - but not the father .....not sure what job Mayuka's father applied for .......

another 4 years may give him to time to improve...?. It's a long haul being a young keeper, but Joe Hart finally made it OK ..and Jack Butland is improving ...at last. .well.... if PG does move (eventually) - we have a better chance of re-couping some of our original fee than if he walks away for nothing next summer. after 3 years...he has shown little sign of real improvement, and has hardly been outstanding in the U21's. Right now he needs real game time at Championship level.

.....oh! you're going for one of the cheap seats then ?......

and just perhaps - given time ......Toby might also (?)

well at least it doesn't harm our team selection anymore ....

back to square one ?........ if Bournemouth are struggling around New Year..... maybe he'll go back there on loan .....can't think he'd be welcomed with open arms at SMS....

At the time he left the club....perhaps only Nicola Cortese considered he should be sacked...and that certainly wasn't the majority fan opinion. Maybe he should have been given the whole season?. I think we might still have survived. As it was Pochettino's "inheritance" was Adkins' team plus more hard work. Whatever your personal opinion, Adkins took the club from its lowest level and up through two divisions and back into the Prem. Ultimately, he may not have been a " Prem.level " manager (?)...but there are many with bigger reputations than his who have fallen by the way side before and since. Of course we will never know....but the man deserves our respect for what he did achieve.......and it was a great couple of seasons - wasn't it ?

noted that; (Les Reed?) stated that Saints would not have future dealings with Spurs (buying /selling)....because of (Daniel Levy's ) behaviour in the transfer market. seems likely to be followed by West Brom AND West Ham who have their own axe to grind in that area......

......of course not, you will have noticed that there are NO English players anywhere on that list........

..and the other 21% are actually guesswork. Statistics are usually based on the answers to questions that aren't properly thought out from the start, or correctly reported in the end. Famous quote There are lies, damn lies ..and statistics ......Winston Churchill

Theo Walcott (in a Telegraph interview) suggested young English players in Prem. clubs should take the opportunity to get game time with lower league clubs. Theo of course - was with us whilst we were lower league; (as was Gareth Bale and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain), and even then it was difficult for them to make the transition to the first team at their new clubs. Indeed Bale was a bit of a laughing stock at Spurs during his first season. ....And so it was interesting to see that Morgan Schneiderlin made a similar comment recently, stating he'd never have become the player he is, had it not been for his years with Saints when we were in L1 / Championship. The standard for becoming a succesful Prem. player is so demanding that only real game time - even at a lower level - is preferable to playing U21's - who are similarly inexperienced. Whilst Roy Hodgson vainly searches for new talent capable of even getting us past the group stages of international tournaments, he surely realises that scoring goals against the likes of Andorra (fun though it is) is rather like playing our best English players ....against an L2 side. He will get little help from the many " foreign-born" Prem. managers who (in the effort to hold on to their own jobs) are ready and willing to sign the best of their fellow countrymen they can be sure of, rather than introduce younger English talents. The more than £100 million spent on German footballers brought in to English clubs will go a lot further to improving their national side... than it will ours. Theo may have enjoyed a lot of success, also realises that being English in puts you in a distinct minority when it comes to playing in the Prem. side. Perhaps more of our emerging talents should get "loan -outs", let's face it - if they can't cut it at Championship / L1 level - there's not much future in being at a Prem. club where you can't even get onto the bench - let alone off it .

......hardly a minor American literary figure, surely ... and isn't the quote ..." reports of my death have been ....greatly exaggerated ?

Final score 3-0 .....a good game to be on the bench for ....... ..when the Dutch coach drops a few defenders maybe VvD will get his chance...they can hardly do worse.

the stats I read said the opposite. Charlton actually scored more in friendlies, and Rooney has scored more in competitions than in friendlies... .......though to be fair, Charlton didn't play the likes of Andorra and San Marino so often.......