beatlesaint

He will still be playing for Southampton FC next season. The Newcastles of this world, if back in the Premiership will go for prem proven players or foreign players with a reputation gained from this coming World Cup. Teams in the CCC would not be able to afford him. He is 28, he is not a youngster worth taking a gamble on, he has never played higher than this division and he knew there was a very good chance we would take a second season to get oput of this League. If we fail to go up next season it just may be a different story.....but I doubt that too.

Can you tell me why you seem to think the players are blameless ? As sadoldgit has pointed out the team AP picked were good enough to easily overcome Norwich, Walsall and Huddersfield yet they failed to overcome Tranmere. I fail to see why you think thats his fault. If he had made four or five changes and they had lost then fair enough but you, as a manager, put out you best eleven, and sometimes they let you down. Thats not just football, thats any sport or any walk of life where you, as an individual, are reliant on others for your success. Its the first League game we have lost in 2010 and its March. When the hell did any Saints team last get this far into the year without recording a League defeat ?

On last 8 game form, we are 4th in the league. Since December 1st our league form is: WWWLWLDDWDWDWWL That's 15 games and 28 points - with nine of those games away from home. As posted above. Tell me, does he get any praise for that ? Teams do lose football matches you know

Why ? Is he to blame for picking the same team that won the last two games so convincingly ? Is he to blame for Lallana missing a couple of very good chances in one match ? Is he to blame for the ref not giving us a penalty yet awarding them a very soft one ? Is he to blame for their player scoring his first goal in five years ? What is he to blame for ?

He obviously wasn't doing the things he was expected or asked to do, what else could it be during the course of a game ?

Puncheon is cup tied

Got a feeling this is going to be the most common question they get. I do hope Solent dont bottle out of asking it.

Got a feeling this is going to be the most common question they get. I do hope Solent dont bottle out of asking it.

we didnt play with one striker !!!

Hope so and hope he stays fit. Would love to see him up front with Rickie in the JPT Final.

That will, for me, always rank as one of the most "strange" managerial decisions at Southampton......and we have had a fair few over the years.

Sorry 19C if I offended you by saying your logic is "totally flawed", perhaps just flawed. Unfortunately you have only compunded that ill thought out logic by suggesting we play 3 in midfield and 3 up front. Simple reason being, when a pitch is a mud bath which area of the pitch is most likely to be worst affected ? You should by now be saying to yourself "through the middle" !! Unless the whole thing is a ploughed field then the wings nearly always retain an element of grass and are easier to play on. The other point to remember IF playing 4-3-3 is that you would, currently, have to play Papa or Lallana as with Connolly not fully fit yet we are limited on choice. As to your point about me questioning our strength of squad then yes I am. I dont believe it is that strong once you get past the first 15 or 16 that AP normally picks from. With James out injured, and now Holmes again as well the choice of who plays through the middle if Hammond or Morgan are not availiable becomes limited. He will play Wotton but who else ? Doesn't seem to rate Simon Gillett very much so you would have to move Puncheon back into the middle and go with Antonio. Puncheon through the middle seemed not to work at Wycombe according to those who went. We may have the squad numbers but out of the 40 odd players listed on the matchday programme every week then I defy you to get past 20 and still retain any real quality. With Connolly, James, Murty and Holmes all unfit for selection on Saturday removing Puncheon, Lallana and/or Papa would leave us extremely light. If we had signed that one extra quality central midfielder like Stock or Danns then just maybe we could do it but then you open a whole new cann of worms by deciding who to leave on the bench every week. Quality players cannot be used as just cover in League 1, they would never come here for cameo appearences.

He did look quite impressive.......but then again last season anyone who could kick a ball straight would have looked impressive Would like to judge a fully fit McLaggon coming on for half an hour or so in this team.

That was some guy called Fisher, cant remember his first name. I think he was something to do with Radio Solent. He was awful.

Well to be honest I think your observation is totally flawed. For one you dont know what sort of pitches Puncheon is used to playing on, he may not get "mud bound" like some apparently do. When Morgan was out injured at Wycombe AP bought in Antonio who went off after 37 minutes, it wasnt an injury, so he obviously wasn't effective. Add to that you want a player you admit not knowing much about to play right midfield ? ummm. Players who are "struggling" on anything that does not resemble a crown green bowls surface should not be taken out of such games, they need to learn how to play on these surfaces. Its not American Football where you have certain players only capable of playing certain moves. The problem is that if we keep hearing about these bad pitches then the players will get a mental block about playing anywhere that isnt ideal, they will then be beaten before they step off the coach. They need to adapt to these surfaces, AP has as good as admitted it. It is one of the last bits of the jigsaw that needs putting into place to ensure that this club gets promoted next season at the latest. Chopping and changing the side during the Cup runs was after all the reason given for our dropping off the pace in the League. Introducing that policy again for tricky pitches would IMHO be folly.

Probably a better player than Bradley Wright-Phillips even at 90

Up to 36,200 sold by mid-day today

James is injured anyway. I would just like to see who 19C nominates for those two replacements to be honest

Who are you bringing into the side to replace Lallana and Puncheon ?

and Lancashire plus Jake Thompson.

I assume they dont buy the Green and Gold scarves from the official club shop then ?

Not Pardew players ? Are you serious ? He praises Lallana and Morgan every chance he gets, he is yet to drop either of them and are so much centre to his vision its untrue.

At last, a voice of reason, as so many of your posts are.

2 out of 4 IMO. Connolly will still be here on a pay as you play, similar to what he is on now.....why would you lose someone that classy who even playing only half the games will still net you a dozen goals ? Please expalin your logic. Jaidi signed a two year contract, end of story. Perry and Murty will go yes....as will Molyneux, Pulis, Lancashire etc

I have no doubts about that so I stick with my opinion that if we are not in the top 6 come Christmas AP will be gone. I sincerely hope we are top and about 6 points clear come 25th December cos this is the best manager we have had for many a long year.