Lallana's Left Peg

Great find - will give it a listen

The only thing you need to do after high intensity exercise is replace glycogen levels as that is what the body is screaming out for. However, you need to eat the right glycogen food sources for this otherwise its no good. The only athletes who need to worry about salt levels are distance runners, and not footballers.

Absolutely nothing with a kid in Shaw's shape eating a Burger King every once in a while but if you think salt and saturated fat is what the body is craving after a workout you are mental

He is the heir apparent to Steve Davis I think. He plays deeper for the U21's but he'll get gobbled up playing there for us (although he did look good as one of the deeper two away at Sunderland in the Capital One Cup).

Pochettino systematically fouling anyone

I don't begrudge him it for performance. Would have been nicer if most of the staff didn't hate him / live in fear though.

Possession is respected because it gives you a foothold in the game. Where you have possession and what you do with it is more important but it is hard to find a way to measure that. In general stats in football are over-rated because they are so circumstantial and focussing on one thing in particular can be misleading. It would appear to be a contradiction to learn that we have second most possession yet play the most long balls. But anyone who watches Saints know we use possession as a form of defence and when we get pressured we tend to hit it long (and we also play a lot of diagonals). For me I wouldn't want the way we play to change. I think we have a wonderful style and aggression in our game. It has its risks but I don't think there is one style of play in the modern game that doesn't.

They definitely mix it up but they are very rigid in principle and there isn't much fluidity as to how they play. If we had even better players than we do now I am sure we'd be more successful - I do not believe the way we play is an issue in any respect whatsoever.

Chelsea play attractive football!?!

Highly doubt someone uncapped is going to get the call be that our lads or Flannigan.

He came in for some stick under Adkins but under Pochettino he has shined. He plays front to back. He starts upfield but actually moves back towards the ball when we have possession which creates space for others to move into. He is very diligent on and off the ball and looks after the ball as well. Just a year left on his deal...

I don't think we've copied Barcelona's style at all personally. I'm quite happy with the way we play - we're open on the counter but we play as the protagonists and I like watching us play. We don't have the players to play on the counter all the time anyway.

Having had to sell his best players for 4 years at Espanyol I would suggest a part of the attraction of coming to Saints was Cortese telling him we'll keep our best players and he'll have the opportunity to build a team. This summer he gets to see if the new Board feel the same as Cortese (not withstanding whether or not Cortese would have the ability to back up his words with actions but Pochettino clearly thought so). You can understand why Pochettino is waiting even if it doesn't feel great to know his commitment is to the ambition and means of the club as opposed the club itself.

I think it's a marvellous achievement considering both Swansea and Norwich beat us easily in the transfer market last summer

If it happens, it's because the club isn't matching his ambition. I don't think it'll happen because he wants it to regardless. It's quite clear that the players and management team have been alluding to pushing on and building what we've got. It's obviously what the fans want too. For the Board they need to balance the books. The players and Pochettino are challenging the Board. It may be a bit unfair of them to do so publicly but right now the ball is in the Board's court. Up to them which way we go unless the financial situation dictates we have to sell a couple but based on last years financial results and this years TV revenue then I think we're in pretty good shape. If we shifted Osvaldo then there is immediately money for another player who can hopefully make an immediate impact. January's squad purging will also contribute towards freeing up wages as well. Maybe Ramirez leaves too?

What do you think was dodgy about our transfer policy? Went after the best we could get and players who are better than we've got? Not sure I see anything wrong with that myself.

JR is already due a new contract apparently (he has made 45 starts for us). Hooiveld and Davis also out of contract in 2015.

9/10 Best shape we've been in all my supporting life.

Good news

Twitter only this morning apparently. Can't say I blame them

He said not negative. Unless you want Pochettino to leave

Here we go...

I have no issue with them tempering summer transfer expectations if they are going to keep all our best players. But sell a few of them and fans will quite rightly expect a decent level of it reinvested back into the team.

Players develop at different rates and Gallagher is playing in a position where it is hard to grow into a game and take it easy. I absolutely trust Pochettino's judgement so if he sees something in him that is good enough for me. That said we are chronically lacking pace in the final third and I would dearly love an Academy player with some pace to at least be on the bench this weekend. Even if they only came on for the last 15mins it would get the crowd going if the player had a good go at the defence and even if he struggles he will at least create space for other players and keep the Everton defence honest. As it stands, they can push right up the pitch with absolutely no fear about a ball over the top.

Not sure you're aware of Liverpool's history of signing players at World Cup time