david in sweden

Rickie did - what he does best, even in the 90th minute. New players /debuts: I thought Lovren was EXCELLENT - did he miss anything? Wanyama got in and mixed it a bit, looks the part but early to see how he will play - (but it meant Schneiderlin was almost invisible). was very impressed by Calum Chambers Premier League debut (if he plays like that consistantly then Clyne will be on the bench for a long time). Very impressive team performance in first half, a tough-fought game (they had four yellows yet we none.)..but overall thought we definitely deserved the three points.

'' well.....tbh....sort of ....like August 16th 1980......? which was the first game for new signing England captain Kevin Keegan, ¨ However, it was that long ago that I've forgotten the excitement from that day, but I also feel good about today, too. Aug 16th. 1980....Saints 2 Man.City 0 . That season we finished 6th and the Man.City of that generation ended up as a mediocre mid-table side (12th).

No don't worry, they just want you to use a dictionary more often, watch your punctuation...and avoid swear words like..... Pomp*y. Otherwise it'll be fun to read you.

there are few players I really feel glad to see the back of ...and Fox isn't necessarily one of them, but it's clear he's not consistant enough to be first choice in a Prem. side. To his credit...he delivered 13 assists (was it ?) ......in our promotion season from the Championship, and if for no other reason ...for my money, he earned his salary in that season. If this (Bolton) move is on for him, then it's about right because it's his (real) level.......so good luck Danny

....or do you mean Woy of the Rovers. Rickie certainly saved his bacon.....what a game.

COWARD......having called him up... don't you have the courage to start the game with Lambert, Woy?

.......and Defoe and Sterling and Carroll ...........and Rooney, and Uncle Tom Cobley as well -if he's standing in the way of RL getting regular games.

Darn right !...I wouldn't have gone out of my way to watch young players from the top six clubs who hardly get off the bench in their club games....and then get given an England shirt as though it were a PR giveway from Tesco. I don't know how many England games Rickie will end up getting but he deserves every one of them ...

I was sure that Brighton would keep him, but he's not mentioned in their squad at all. New broom - didn't like him , ?...or

+ Chris Baird perhaps ?

that sounds like a fair appraisal of the situation The 9, but it would still be better for everyone concerned if they were playing football ....ELSEWHERE as none of them are likely to feature in any match this season.

Good call The 9, ....and of these I expect only Lee to still be here, unless he gets a good offer from a Japanese club.

Agree with the sentiment Chez, and we could say the same about Rickie Lambert, too Eh?

OK he was good... whilst he was here . A bit sorry he left, but IF he did make denegrating remarks about the club, I'd expect similar sentiments to come from Billy Sharp - when he eventually goes. it's part of the PR game for the media. Along the lines of : " I was never really settled there, but now I'm here you'll see the best of me " yeah, yeah.....

well this deal seems to be "back-on " again. His goal-scoring record looks impressive, and MP clearly knows his ability from his Espanyol days, so IF he signs ...I just hope that he's the " real deal ". A quick review of our leading goal-scorers over the past 50 years........shows that - with the exception of Ron Davies - nearly all of them were " bought for a song" ...or even signed for nothing, whereas the majority of those that we previously paid " bigger money" for were somewhat less than brilliant. I've nothing against the club spending £20 million on a player of " his class ", but I just hope that he picks up the European Golden Boot at the end of the season.

I think it's more case of Tottenham saw us coming and sold us a dummy and claimed he was an England prospect. I don't think that we knew much about him (surely few clubs would have scouted Spurs 3rd choice keeper(!) but at the end of the day....we paid an undisclosed fee ..and then gave him a five year contract - probably at some ridiculous amount for a player who wasn't even squad material. People say that Spurs cheated us when they bought Bale, and then gave us a cut-price pay-off when we were hard up for cash, but I think it was a worse crime to sell us such a player - and make so outrageous claims about his ability.

Now" the Committee" will come in for a lot of stick because " we haven't signed anyone else - YET .......but players have the right to choose (ask Bale and Rooney) and No!.. I understand were not in for them, but if only half the "rumoured " contacts we've been linked with are true, then no-one can accuse us of not trying to get someone who CDAJFU...... It seems were not afraid to bid high..and presumably have the salary offer to back it up, but I think " some agents" are only looking to move their clients to a top six side and are discouraged from recommending us....but I think " the Wanyama saga " is proof that many of these so-called links are in someone's imagination, and are often far from reality. HOWEVER; I will be more impressed if we sign a left sided defender PDQ........It's was nice to think that Luke Shaw was going to have a great season, but that may not be the case now, and ....if he does have / gets a serious injury, then we are back to picking Fox and about that extra striker.....if the £20 million South-American isn't interested then move on .......who's next on the wish list? I'm not disatisfied with any of our present strikers, providing they can stay fit .....and score some goals, but if not ...do we bring in Ryan Seager, or?

I thought that, too. Maybe not a four year contact:scared:but he's certainly got the experience, or does anyone think Fox is a better bet ?

Funniest parody I've seen for ages.....:lol: Do they also have a baseball coach who wants to take over managing the England cricket team ..?

I'm not sure if you are criticising my comments - or what, because you seem to have created a contradictory meaning in your own text. YES - we hung onto players who might have been useful..had we been relegated, but everything was up in the air after NA's departure, in mid January. ...and with the shaky start to the Pochettino era, there is no way he could know who he was going to keep, and he clearly had some alternate views (to NA) in re-introducing Steven Davis and Jay Rod as regular starters in his sides. ...and so as he didn't know all the players potential (or lack of it) there was little or no way he would have got rid of them (in the window) by the end of January - barely 2 weeks after his apppointment. Clearly, most of us agreed on who we thought might go....certainly De Ridder and Chaplow - and everyone wondered if Forran would ever play first team football, but the other departures were fairly predictable to anyone - weren't they? Of course many of the departing players were OOC anyway, and perhaps not on high salaries....perhaps 5K - 10K / week, but even the departure of a dozen (lowly-paid) players does provide some savings to go into a budget for buying in some " highly-priced " talent in the future, as we are clearly not going to buy in a half-a-dozen new players to replace those who have already gone, plus another half dozen who will be looking for new clubs. (Barnard, Forte, A.Martin, Hammond, Sharp and Butterfield to start with). As a matter of interest, those (on here) who have criticised our " lack of signings " may have missed the fact that we have also signed Luke Shaw and Calum Chambers on long contracts without spending millions into the bargain, and those two young men seem to have more of a future in the first team than any of the above-mentioned who have already /are going to leave.

Praise ? .....Praise........?? In real terms it has substantially reduced the salary bill - even if most of them may have been at a lower wage level. I think it's obvious that a club that has gone from League 1 to the Premier League in 2 seasons would have quite a number of long-contract players who wouldn't make the grade...and so it has turned out. Some were / and may well be...very good players in L1, and others who won't disgrace a new club in the Championship. I don't think we've " dispensed with the services " of anyone who we might later regret, and will look good on their footballing CV that they were part of the successful Saints set-up ....even if they all weren't star players on the team sheet every game. However, we still have; Kelvin Davis, Jason Puncheon, Morgan Schneiderlin, Adam Lallana and the latest England recruit Rickie Lambert - who have " made it " from the L1 days. Pleased to see that most of those who have gone who were not OOC were given free transfers, when a lesser club might have held out for some sort of fee...good luck to them.

if Damiao's reported " attitude " about Saints being " not ambitious enough " ...is actually true ?..then he can go hang himself for my money.

Don't have a record book to hand .....BUT I seem to recall that Leslie Compton, a central defender - and brother of the footballing-England cricketer Denis - won his first England cap at the age of 37 (?) in a post WW2 international ...???????? However, in this day and age, it says something for a man over 30 to even get a look-in an English squad for the first time.

there are those times when a sense of genuine joy and satisfaction surpasses even the euphoria of hearing such an announcement. I'm really pleased for Rickie's sake, (and the birth of his daughter makes it a double celebration). Part of me says, wouldn't it be just great - if he scored against the "Old Enemy" and really stood all those media hacks on their heads.... the worse case scenario..... might be that he gets one game and then no-more.....but by then the credit will be justified and he can celebrate a career that has gone from non-League football to become the England centre forward, surely every ENGLISH footballer's dream! (-that's if you don't count opening the batting for England at Lord's but then again that's another sportman's dream.)

Yes ....£20 million for 2 players plus Luke Shaw (best of the lot IMHO) and a couple more promising ex-Academy lads, (surely that's why we have them) ......and likely another before the end of the month. Inactivity ??? ......what did the OP expect.... 20 players for £1 million each ?