Saint Pete

Would you rather he had given interviews saying he would be happy to stay at Saints for the rest of his career, when that clearly wasn't the case? He was simply being honest by saying he wanted to move up to a Champions League club, which is what he is now doing. I think it's perfectly understandable he wants to play at the next level after 7 years at the club.

Pelle will need to be rested for a lot more than half a dozen games this year if we are to challenge in Europe as well as put in a decent league campaign.

Can see what you're saying and you may be right. But the noises coming from the club are that they want to progress to being a club regularly qualifying for and playing in Europe. Can't see how that is a realistic aim unless we can achieve better strength in depth, as Pelle will never last the season if he's played in more or less every game domestically and in Europe. I personally don't think Pelle (or Austin) would have a massive problem with not playing all the time as long as they are getting a decent amount of games at a successful club, but agree with you that wage structure would likely be the main issue.

I think if we are involved in a European campaign this year, we will need better options up front so that Pelle can be given a rest more often - I think this was part of his problem in the 2nd half of the season anyway, he should have been rested more. So, I would like to see us have both to allow more rotation. (If we need to let someone go to afford Austin, I would rather it was Long than Pelle).

Hodgson got it badly wrong by selecting Jones at right back instead of Clyne - definitely demonstrates his apparent bias towards the big teams. However, don't think you can criticise the half-time change to bring on Lallana for Jones and slot Henderson to RB? This was clearly a tactical change, which resulted in a more fluid midfield in the 2nd half. There would have been little point in bringing Clyne on at that stage and not using a more attacking sub.

Although it's great that Rodriguez is on the mend, it would be foolish to expect too much from him straight away, so I still think Koeman may want more firepower and another option for the central target man striker. I would still say an injury to Pelle for any length of time would leave us looking a little lightweight in attack, and Koeman has been reluctant to use Long or Mane as a central striker up top in place of Pelle. It's possible we may still sign Austin but look to recoup some money by selling Long?

Come on Theo, WIFS!

I wonder if there's any time limit set on Atletico to decide if they are going to pay us to cancel our option to buy Toby?

I agree, Sissoko would be great for us. Great goal against West Ham, the kind of goal we just don't have anyone (midfield-wise) who could score at the moment. There may be competition from CL clubs though if he is available.

Hmmm, would certainly sweeten the pill of losing Morgan, and keep him out of the clutches of our opponents to boot Not sure if Morgan will go for it though, who knows?

Yes, but wouldn't necessarily rule him out on that basis alone. Not sure if Fer is the right man or not TBH, but was just making the point that perhaps we need a midfielder with a bit more physical stature than Clasie when you look at the other midfielders in our squad (assuming we will lose at least 1 of Morgan/Vic).

Nice one big Vic

This is what worries me a little about us potentially signing Clasie as a replacement for Morgan and/or Wanyama. I'm sure he's a good player but we already have a number of short midfielders in the squad with Davis, JWP and Reed, so we could be leaving our midfield a bit vulnerable to more powerful opposition. Perhaps we should be targetting a midfielder with more stature like say Leroy Fer of QPR to give us a bit more balance in the squad?

Personally, I don't think the Europa League thing really has much impact on the Clyne situation - it's more about whether Man Utd are serious about making an offer for him or not.

They're being linked with Arturo Vidal from Juve a lot at the moment - not really a holding midfielder in the same mould as Morgan, but if they spend big on him, can't really see them offering a big fee for Morgan as well.

Don't think anyone can really argue with anything Morgan is saying here. If a Champions League team comes in with the right offer for the club, he'll go. If they don't he may well stay.

Think we would be wise not to expect too much from Jay Rod straight away! I would hope we will sign another central striker to provide more options.

Totally agree about Djuricic - I also find it odd that some see so much potential in him when there's nothing in his record in other leagues to really justify it (unlike say Mane who despite being out of form earlier in the season always looked like he had the potential and previous record to come good in the end). Hope we move on to other options in the summer.

Overall a terrific season for us and a great start by Koeman, after joining the club at an exceptionally difficult time. Defensively, we have been the best I can remember in my 30 odd years of supporting Saints, and really hope we can keep our back 4 together next season. I do feel some frustration that we faded in the run-in despite what seemed like a reasonable run of fixtures, and feel like we would have achieved 5th if our attacking play had been just slightly better in the last couple of months. But I think this has been a reflection of the lack of depth in our squad, which has meant we haven't had good enough options to rotate players who are tired or out of form. The strength of the squad in terms of attacking players who can weigh in with goals is the main area we need to address in the summer, particularly if we are in Europe.

Disagree to be honest. It's a lack of goals that has cost us in the second half of the season, particularly away from home. You can't consistently score so few goals and expect your defence/goalkeeper to compensate. Don't think we were ever going to keep up the amazing defensive record we had in the early part of the season even if Forster had been in goal throughout.

Some have suggested on here we should sell Gardos and use Stephens and/or Turnbull as centre back cover next season. Think that may be a mistake on the basis of the play-offs. Swindon conceded 5 in the 2nd leg of the semi and now another 3 today so far.

Found it quite amusing when some of the Southend fans left the ground towards end of extra time thinking it was over, then turned round and tried to go back in for the penalties! Why on earth would you leave early when your team are only 1 down at Wembley FFS?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/liverpool-forward-rickie-lambert-line-5712930

Absolutely agree - he could easily have tried going down in build up to first goal, but was rewarded for keeping on his feet. He has good strength on the ball, so hope he keeps using it like he did in this game. The speed of his reaction to the rebound on the second goal was also superb, and great finish for the third. Was a great day all round - really good to finish at home on such a high note after the disappointments in recent weeks. Whatever happens next weekend, 60 points is a brilliant achievement after everything that happened last summer.

Djuricic hasn't done nearly enough to earn a permanent deal. We should be looking at fresh targets. I wasn't encouraged when he chose to go down looking for a penalty 30 seconds into his debut against Liverpool when clean through on goal. Showed a complete lack of confidence in his own ability to score, and in his appearances since then, there's been no cutting edge to his game.