Sour Mash

Bit of a strange signing, particularly in this window, not quite sure where he'd fit in the squad.

There's still a fair few left, but yes, going to fully sell out in the next couple of days.

This is the bit that I assumed must be a joke "We all like to talk about our great academy but when it looks like we have to play some of the youth people start complaining they aren't up to it and we need experienced players.". Chambers, Shaw, Reed, JWP, Targett all getting plenty of playing time for us over the last two seasons, plus various others making their debuts - I can't think of any other Premier League team that compares.

But it could be argued there has been a combination of things changing from earlier in the season. Rodriguez not being close to returning and Long, who was ultimately our back-up striker despite being different in style to Pelle, now being injured.

I expect him to go at the end of this season. We could do without too much speculation and uncertainty as we enter the last couple of months though, pushing for a European spot etc, don't really want the focus to be on will he/won't he stay.

Please tell me you're joking here?

Quite, the point is the same really.

He does look a good fit. Anyone clued up on Dutch football know the chances of Twente selling now? If he would go on a free in the summer, would circa £5/6m do the job now?

I think he's improving, slowly, but surely. How many other 19 year olds are regulars in a top 4 Premier League side? Or a Premier League side full stop?

I can't remember the exact details, but think I read something from the fans of a previous team Koeman had managed where it said he would often openly criticise his players if he felt they hadn't played well. Will be interesting to see how Koeman manages Gardos going forward. I don't think he suffers fools easily and Gardos has generally been a bit of a disappointment all round.

Was there any cheering? I just noticed a little light applause. Atmosphere was s***e in general though.

Agreed, I guess Tadic may be one of those players that is always a bit frustrating, blows hot and cold, but for someone that is so good with assists his crossing is really hit and miss and he doesn;t seem as focused and engaged as the rest of the team at times.

I can understand his frustration, gets battered every game and gets very little change from the ref. Both him and Elia let their frustration show a bit too much yesterday though.

Not read through the 7 pages yet. We were crap today. Lost the game in the first half, abysmal defending, we were generally far too slow in every single thing we did, poor focus, poor impetus. Gardos and Cork were bad and quite rightly subbed.

Did the club ticket office not tell him he could buy a ticket for £27 in hospitality?

Yeah, completely stuffed for trains up to Liverpool on that weekend.

Yeah, end of March.

I think that lower tier below the away end is definitely the best place for Saints fans to aim for, easy enough for those that have missed out to snap up tickets there.

The lower tier below the away allocation should be fine I reckon.

But he doesn't really sound like the quality of player to be a replacement for Clyne does he? And although not impossible, sitting on our bench from playing regularly for a Serie A side isn't an entirely obvious move.

He doesn't say it is unbearable does he? Just that it'd be the preference of most of our away support to make a day of it up in London and have a good few beers. I'd say 90% of our support at Newcastle on Saturday were p***d up, as with a lot of away games. I think pretty much all our match going fans would prefer 3pm on a Saturday to a Sunday lunchtime.

But you will get a worse atmosphere on a Sunday lunch time than a Saturday 3pm. And tougher travel in terms of trains to London.

Would be a bit of a strange signing that, guess as back-up right back?

Yep, on a par with that Tranmere game, unbelievable really.

This is a very different Saints side to what we've seen before, even previously when we've had very good sides, we've usually been susceptible to a late goal here, a soft away defeat there. I can't ever remember anything as close to such a clinical, professional, focused efficient set-up as we've got now.