Lallana's Left Peg

Anyone else notice Ward-Prowse pick the ball out of the net when we scored and then spike it in the centre-circle NFL style like '**** this ****, I want a winner'

800k difference in prize money for every league position you finish means we need to go with strongest team and finish as high up as possible. Had we be going into the game where our league position would be unaffected by the result I would have been tempted to start a team half made up of Academy graduates (Lallana, Shaw, JWP, and three debuts) or at very least have the players on the bench to be able to finish the game like that.

In the circumstance it is a great achievement and a weight off my mind. In the context of what the club wants to achieve moving forward I don't think they will be celebrating at all. We avoided relegation and the club won't want to be thinking just doing that is acceptable with the goals they want to achieve. Travelling back after the West Brom away game I thought that was the lowest point of the season. Such an abject performance. The hopes that an open game playing pretty football would be enough were shattered and it was back to the drawing board. Credit to all involved at the club for turning it around. The future is promising but I think this season will be a great learning curve for all about what is required to win games at the highest level. It is now a summer for the club to make a statement and plans are already well underway for that to occur.

Doesn't everyone else see through the Dalek persona like I do? He is the worst of the 'happy clappers' - he is so desperate for Saints to do well that he believes if he can be superstitiously negative and downbeat then everything will turn out ok in the end. It bursts through in his posts (most notably his pre-match predictions). It is a part of his routine - predict the worse as superstition that Saints do well if he predicts they won't. He's done it for a good while now and deep down inside there is nothing more he wants than to be wrong, but he is scared stiff the moment he stops the nonsense things really will take a turn for the worse for Saints. He is everything he doesn't want to be

You heard right. But it was far too late on deadline day to get it done and West Ham were involved too. Was told it was a late one as any move was dependent on shipping out Hammond and Sharp and that only happened that day.

I may well be up for this one Steve.

None of them other than Zaha and he's gone to Man Utd.

On what grounds do you affirm we did crap business? We went after Coutinho and lost out to Liverpool. We also signed a centre-half that the club acknowledged was for the future (his agent has also since stated the plan was for Forren to contribute starting next season). In the subsequent period we've also remained outside the relegation zone and look poised to confirm our survival in the league for next season, so there does not appear to be any bad consequences of waiting to sign the right players. Conversely, our fellow lower-half rivals also stood still, and those who did invest have not seen ANY immediate positive impact whatsoever. So it is hard to understand how you could even assume investment in January would have resulted in more points either, and even then, I'd be interested to learn your thoughts on who we should have signed and how you know they were available and for a price we could afford.

To be fair if the report suggests we're looking at him then I wouldn't read too much into it. We're monitoring around 100 players and we'll sign around 4/5 players this summer (some not immediately for the first team) so I wouldn't conclude anything other than the quality of player we're looking at more than position etc.

Wait and see what the squad looks like at the start of next season before we say he doesn't fit in. I've also heard a few mumblings about him playing deeper in the future as he does for Uruguay at times. We'd need to be a far stronger side for him to be able to do that but perhaps that gives you an indication of what the club will get up to in the summer transfer wise.

Just booked my ticket for the game - are the away fans still behind the goal to the right of the dugouts? I think I saw the Stoke fans tucked away in the Gods ala Newcastle last night so I assume location of fans may be dependent on how many tickets are sold?

To prove your point Newcastle significantly strengthened in January and they've accelerated away from the relegation zone. Oh.

Considered it all briefly and there are loads of advantages and disadvantages to all results - I can't see a real preference from a Saints perspective other than a card-fest and lots of injuries, which aren't likely.

Pochettino's system requires moving the ball more quickly in the final third than any slow build up to tease an opening. The club wanted more pace and power in the final third when Adkins was Manager and that need is more pressing now. We tried for a direct winger with pace and power all summer and couldn't get one - expect that to be sorted this summer.

Whilst we'd all like to think we'd be safe by now I still think we're in good shape, and I think the performances / results post-Reading have also shown up some real deficiencies in the make-up of the squad which may shape summer transfer activity. I wholly expected things to get a little worse heading into this weekend based on who we were playing and the points other teams could pick up. However come next Monday I expect us to be safe.

Down to 20/1 with the bookies but Wigan, Norwich, Newcastle, and Sunderland all have shorter odds. Would still taking something pretty extraordinary for us to get relegated.

Not overly keen on this team but hope to be proved wrong.

I think sometimes Adkins was a bit over the top in the way he made a 'thing' of not revealing injury news - that said I don't really see why any team would ever show its hand with injury news. There is no advantage to saying what it is other than to appease fans.

It is worth pointing out that Pochettino did not say we were close to signing two players, and that the BBC journalist (Ben Smith) stated that in his article - his source would not be from the interview, so worth bearing that in mind.

I think we'll have our moments but I suspect Spurs will have too much for us. Spurs seem to go though phases in most games where they don't play very well at all - I've rarely seen them dominate a game this season so if we can capitalise on that we may have a chance but I can't see our defence keeping them at bay for 90mins anyway.

Pretty good achievement for Lambert given the deluge of other talent in the league

I've no issue whatsoever with Carroll being called up (and playing) as long as we play to his strengths. But if we continue to call up players and not play to their strengths then I'll lose all interest.

I don't believe our interest in him has subsided at all, however the terms under which a transfer can occur have changed since January in relation to Calglari's financial situation (they may be able to sell other players instead of Astori) and / or the level of interest from other clubs. I can't see it being something that gets sorted quickly so we'll go back to the old chestnut of pursuing our number one target all summer and then if it doesn't happen switching to other targets - and the inevitable criticism fans will throw at the club if that happens. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

If that is the case then it makes the brainfart tackle from Fox even more silly. I wonder if results go our way by the time we play Sunderland if we're safe whether Pochettino will mix things up a bit or stick with the tried and tested as we fight for the best finish possible and prize money that come with it.

No - it is far more likely that the same strong physical characteristics which are enabling him to play Premier League football at the age of 17 are also causing him to often get injured which can be attributed to the level and amount of training he is undertaking while his body is still growing considerably (and will do so for the next 5 years). It's something that will need to be managed over the next few years.