Sour Mash

But the point is, why did Puncheon want to leave? My take on it is that he wanted more game time, which is fair enough, but goes to show how difficult it is for us to build a squad to the right level. I expect Ramirez will be off this summer, for much the same reasons.

What is scary? We complain on one hand that we have a weak squad and on the other let key squad members go. It goes to show how hard it is for a club our size to build the right kind of squad. The kind of players that we need as back-up are rarely happy waiting around to be called upon.

I know it can be a common moan on here after a game, but what the f**k has happened to our support? I don't think I've been to many grounds over the years, even the likes of Old Trafford or Emirates with all their "day-trippers" that sees such an exodus from about the 88th minute, the ground looked over half empty at the final whistle, in a game that wasn't that bad and we weren't being thrashed in. Even happens when we win. Absolutely bizarre.

No-one has mentioned the games specifically, but the fact we do struggle to break teams down that come to St Marys and sit back and make life hard work has been mentioned a fair bit - it's one of the few criticisms that can be levelled a bit at MP, certainly one for him to think about for next season. Our home form this year hasn't been great relatively speaking, it's our away form that has stood out really. Probably something to do with teams coming out to attack us and leaving us room to play the game with space in the right areas.

Once again? He wasn't great yesterday, but has been excellent of late. None of our attacking players offered much yesterday.

If I'm honest I'm not sure what our solution is. We obviously missed Rodriguez today, but should have had enough creativity all told. I personally don't think either of our full backs give us enough end product, relative to the demands put upon them in such a system, but it is a big ask from them.

He's never going to be a top 10 Premier League 'keeper. If he gets his head down he could make a good living in League one or the Championship.

Thats not the way we play or try to play, we should have a shot a bit more often, but the rest is irrelevant.

I know you're on a wind up, but there is a weirdly high number of people at St Marys that love to shout 'get it f****g in there', and love to throw complete disregard to the way we play these days.

He's not going to be playing for us next season is he? Is any further debate to this relevant?

Hard to be critical of anyone if they don't want to continue to sink money, substantial money, into a Champions League dream. I feel comfortable that the current regime are good people to own and run the club, with the right intentions. If we do drop off a bit, of course that would be disappointing, but it's always something that could happen. I don't see why any fan wouldn't appreciate the greater effort into looking out for them?

Does any player not want their club to progress? You really think that is just a regular, normal interview for a player to give? I think it's gone over your head a bit. I couldn't care less what any of your mates think of you to be honest.

He's making it up.

Champions League hasn't really been mentioned, top 6 does seem important though; "He said: “If they say to the main players and to the gaffer ‘Listen, we’re going to make you sign a long-term contract, we’re going to keep the main players in there, we’re going to bring in three, four, five more players to improve that squad to be in the top six’ then why not? "

You may well be happy with a few years of "Progressive improvement", but if we were to take Schneiderlin's comments at face value, he wants a bit more than that over the next couple of seasons.

For what its worth I don't want or expect us to follow the loan route to the extent Everton have, but it's definitely something a club in our position should look at and be open minded towards.

But doing it has qualified them for Europe and put them on the brink of the top 4, as oppossed to being well off that, it's helped them become a much more attractive place for top footballers to be than if they were finishing 8th, for example.

I'd like to completely scrap the loan system, but that's not going to happen. Yes, it's not completely cheap and yes it's not risk free, but it is a way of keeping the club's momentum going short-term with attracting players we couldn't otherwise it may do us good in the long-term if it helps keep hold of the likes of Schneiderlin.

Yes, different dynamic and change in approach, but we should be quite well set up for it, well regarded manager, rep for developing players and playing decent football. One of the ways we can attract top 5 players without breaking the bank or gambling too much.

Depends what he considers sufficient ambition manifested in expenditure to be shown by the board in attempting to break into the top 5 or 6. £20m spent? £30M? More? Where Saints need to start being a bit cleverer is looking at teams like Everton and their use of loans, our policy of developing our own talent is great, but sometimes we need to look at the bigger picture for the club and that can be the use of a loan from somewhere like Barcelona or Chelsea is that helps us challenge where we need to keep the club's momentum going.

Regardless of whether anyone like stripes or not, do you really think this year's kit, with or without gold, is a stunner? It looks s**t, very cheap indeed. By the way, what other kit styles suit certain styles of play? I never knew the two were so closely aligned.

I was referring to post 20.

What do you want discuss? It's clearly a one-sided rivalry, no great shame in that.

Well how much would you sell him for then?