david in sweden

well to be fair, perhaps I've answered the question, but if my count is correct....we've had 21 players called up to different international squads. Sadly it'll only be 20... now that Forster has been injured, but 13 players to foreign squads and now 7 players for England (at different levels). Regardless of other teams in the EPL.. it says something for the quality of the Saints playing staff to get so many selected.

Whitey ....you have a fairly good (if not unique) view of refs. who come on this site. What is your view of those refs. mentioned above.....and were the " bad" decisions ...so bad ..or just difficult. I assumed the ref's creed is ....when in doubt - do nothing ..or is that a wrong assumption ? also ....would you (as a ref.) welcome the help of technology during a game (that all TV viewers have at present) .....or carry on regardless?

TRUE....we don't know exactly what this refers to .... ....but if it's over-publicised..... some Spuds friendly journo will tell the World some story and it'll cook RB's chances for the future ....DAFT !

Nice thought but ..Gazzaniga played Prem. matches last season (and a right catastrophe he was) ....so I can't see us being able to plead that arguement to the League. Noted: Newcastle were forced to play an untried 20 year old (?) goalie earlier in the season due to injuries to TWO keepers. So we can hope KD holds those clean sheets.

I'd like too think PG has improved, and he looks good.....just standing in goal.... but the problem come when he has to save a shot.....he's slow and lacks agility. Our back line maybe good, but much of that confidence comes from having a keeper of Forster's class behind them. They looked a bit shaky and uncertain after KD came on.

maybe (?).....even though Bertrand skinned him and made him look poor on a number of occasions.

this is really my hobby horse and I wrote we should have had a more experienced goalie ....when we came up from the Championship...fortunately we got Boruc. Really hope Forster's injury is less serious than feared, but he may well be out for the rest of the season. Everyone seems to suggest that KD is playing out time on his contract, and if he were to keep another half-dozen clean sheets he'd be worth it, but time will tell. Bring back Boruc ?....sounds the safest thing to do.....but will Koeman do it.?

FOR INFO: I'm actually (born) Sotonian, I've just lived here for half of my lifetime.......

this thread gets funnier all the time. So here's another idea..... ..why don't the "big clubs" who are so dependent on signing our players..leave them to play Saints' games at SMS.. and let their own U21 / B teams play at home. At this rate-by... next summer, they'll be an entire" former Saints Academy" squad spread around other clubs in the Prem. ...and we'll be about £200 million richer...

those types nearly always are ...

Sheffield Wednesday, eh ..? at least I got something correct see #26

I'd consider it a successful season .. as long as we finish above Spuds...Europe or not.

Careful ....now you're bringing morality into it ....don't you know football (nowadays) is only about £oney......and entertainment. Sadly ....gone are the days of " honest " sportsmanship and fairplay....and he who dives ....wins ... (oops ..... where have I heard that before?)

haha..nah ! ...e's nuffink to do wiv' me .....'aint 'e one of dem posh geezers....from Win-chester ...

well in one way, we'll always have players left..the real Q. is....would they be good enough replacements?....... .... but judging by Les and Ronald's past delvings into the Black Box.. it'll be like waiting for a bus ..another one will turn up sooner or later. on a purely mercenary note; we know not all Academy lads will become first-teamers earning international caps, but there will be some gems there and so selling today's Crown Jewels won't stop us digging up new treasures...(excuse the literal comparisons ).in the coming years. ....and the incoming fees would give us " big income / bank balance " to help overcome the threatened restrictions of FFP. Whether we get Euro football next season .....or even the season after doesn't really matter so much....if you consider that a stable top half finish every season will ease the heart attack stats. at SMS....especially after 27 seasons of " just managing " to avoid relegation up until 2005.

IF......there is any credibility to this at all (which I personally doubt)......would Mane want a move?... He seems to be happy here, although we know money talks .... IF... it were to come to pass.....would Theo want a move? .Why not ..doesn't his wife come from So'ton ?.....if he stays injury free ... then it would sound like a good arrangement. FEE?.. considering his "sale " to Arsenal was between £6 mill --£10 million, he's now 8 years older ..can he be worth more,?... IF...Arsenal are willing to part with him already... As for a fee for Mané ...the sky's the limit. As we paid a " reputed " £12 million....as he 's younger than Walcott...why not start discussions at £20 million...?

Sane comments from a ref. but what about the " handball in the penalty area "?, I always think it's unjust for someone to play a ball onto someone's arm from 3 feet away, and claim a penalty.....

yellow cards are given for all manner of minor offences - aren't they. "excessive celebration" after scoring a goal seems a bit of a dud to me - after all - who amongst us wouldn't be happy at scoring a goal in the Prem?. ..I mean what do we expect?...A few friendly slaps of the back from fellow players, and an echo of " well-done old man, or good shot." Agreed....some of it is overdone, but do refs have guidelines about this?... and are they all interpretted in the same way - I think not ! Time-wasting by goalies, and kicking the ball away, also seems to merit a card, when surely a verbal warning ...and another 30 seconds on the match time would seem more appropriate. Although bad fouling and abusing of officials does seem to be negected and come lower on the list compared with activities like "diving ". I've always asked myself ..How a player who is fouled (or claims he was fouled) can then proceed to roll over on the ground, if - as we suppose - he's injured /or has even broken a leg. Surely common sense should tell them to stay still, and any subsequent display of gymnastics would only go to aggrevate an injury. In all this flurry of card-waving, the one thing that really sticks in my craw is ..DIVING. (more properly called " simulation " I think?) Of course, if a fast-moving forward comes up against a bigger, more muscular defender --- or a goalkeeper, there's almost bound to be contact, and we could spend all year argueing the validity of who was right or wrong in the Sunderland game, or recently at Chelsea, but it seems to me that this is often a major game-changing incident that occurs in nearly every match, and which refs battle with and even media commentators don't always agree. Noted: Mourinho got two differing opinions from TV and newspaper journos' after " the Mane incident " leading to the penalty on Sunday, however, I also recall that Jose admitted....that he had warned Oscar about diving.. (which the player did in our SMS fixture against Chelsea last season.) The question remains... How does one accurately judge a dive from a "sneaky foul " that the defender makes..and what should be a " just punishment ". I've not seen any analysis of yellow cards for ...just "diving", but I'd bet that a number of players would appear regularly on such a list. Who are the contenders?

1- A very poetic phrasing, but he knew a negative answer would probably have got him the sack sooner rather than later..... 2- ...... of course we don't know all the other questions that he was asked before that one... 3- at least he managed to keep us up that season, but perhaps " his straight-talking, rough Northern manner" didn't suit Rupert Lowe & Co. .... as it was their replacement didn't manage to do that. He's not be the ideal Saints'-type manager, but I have a sneaky admiration for the fellow who has got the shi**y end of the stick. Note: Leicester were a good side in a rather mediocre league last season and thus did well enough to get up. What they didn't realise was ..(as with Saints' promotion to the Prem.) was that most of last season's players simply weren't good enough for the top echelon. Same goes for QPR and Burnley. Villa and Sunderland stayed up last season because there were 3 teams worse than them, and it maybe the same story this season. IF Leicester had any money, they didn't spend much of it ...and what they did clearly went on players who weren't good enough either. Let's face it ....at one stage we were looking like relegation certainties in our first year back up in the Prem.. I wonder what Gordon Strachan might have said had he been posed the same question..(?)

are you a journalist?...by any chance ? ......if I'd been there I'd have asked a better set of questions than that idiot did ? ....." is your team waxing or waning? " Total stupidity:lol:

He's basically a fast left-sided winger with a real change of pace. He has been hampered by a nad injury , and is still ..on the way back. His age (22) is irrelevent at present, if he's still here as an overage U21 in two years time, it'll be sad, but with a transfer to a lower league club we might re-coup a fee. In the short term ..at best, he will be a good sub. in case of injury to Mane / Elia ....otherwise a Championship/L1 loan-out might improve his game.

I rather like him. He's direct and says what he thinks-even if it isn't always P.C. I watched the interview with the dumb journo' asking a list of even dumber questions. I don't know how NP kept his temper so long, but it's asking for trouble if you act stupid with the manager of a club struggling at the bottom of the Prem. Expect a War.

MLT had his technique, and Peach his, as long as Tadic has the job and the ball crosses the line, we shouldn't complain too much. Rickie's was faultless in whatever he did with pens........but on the subject of penalty-takers, I can't never forget the words of my first boss...50 years ago. He was an Arsenal fan and always raved about an old post-war Gunners centre-forward called Ronnie Rooke. Although there was no technology to measure speed of a kicks then, he swore that RR hit them so hard he often put the ball and the goalie in the back of the net. a great story and real Boy's Own stuff.

Aside from the use of those over 21 players...the rest of the side were also U21's ----just like Liverpool's, so it bodes the question - why is our Academy better than there's? ..not only did the U21's do the double over L'pool (won 3-1 at Anfield in October)....when we played with a notably younger squad. Good all round performance from Sam Gallagher, but although Ryan Seager didn't flattening every blade of grass, he's always the right man in the right place at the right time. Goal #16

footballers frequently have a bad day at the office, (although I'm sure that many people on here do their jobs 100% job .....24/7) Many others in the squad are quite excellent, and so it difficult to compare for a young player, but that's how they learn. He has quality, but it takes time to get established .....much as I liked him (Jack Cork) never did, although he looked OK much of the time) JWP is overshadowed by Schneiderlin and Davis (who didn't look so hot yesterday either) but we used the long ball clearances and Forster's " big punt " much of the time. I don't see so much criticism from other clubs about their out-of-form players, but some people on here are willing to ditch someone on the basis of a few poor games. JWP is still learning and has lots of time to improve. He's been out of luck with scoring, but my guess is that his first League goal will take him to the next level (mentally).