Lallana's Left Peg

It could be any one of the following: 1. Means (transfer fee or wages) 2. Agents fees 3. Selling club don't have a replacement lined up Where you can question recent transfer activity is: 1. Allocation of funds proportionately to perceived team need 2. Purchase of players with lack of experience in Premier League 3. Purchase of young players based on premise that whilst they get better (assuming they do) the club can continue maintain its Premier League status and push on. At the start of the season it looked like the risk wasn't working but as the season has gone on the strategy has seemingly worked. That is not to say the club will entertain the same risks next season - we have the core of a team that is very promising (and performing well) and with some high profile signings to rubberstamp the desire to push on then it will make last summers work very satisfactory. The absolute key is a better central defence (both in terms of defending and distribution with the ball) and more options in the final third (more power, more pace). I would expect both those areas to be addressed with established signings - assuming of course the deals can be done.

Regardless of our transfer activity this summer, there are plenty of clubs who have more work than us to do. Just like our league position, it is all relative regardless of our performance in isolation. Without going into a rant on transfers, our scouting network right now is huge - not just paid employees, but also our network of contacts. If we come out the other side of this summer with fan unrest at either numbers of transfers of quality of player it won't be for lack of trying from the club. Identifying talent is only the first 20% of the equation in a transfer.

Two teams whose entire season was summed up in a single game. Terrible football, and add to that the quite literal need to win to even have a mathematical chance to stay up and neither of them could muster a goal between them, which is pathetic.

Has Premier League quality but needs to influence games more and impress himself on them. All a part of the learning process for players in that part of the field. When you play in a position where the game comes to you it is easier than when you have to find a way to get involved in the game. Not entirely sure about him as Captain however definitely glad he is a part of our team and I would expect him to push on next season.

We're still very much a confidence team and having to play catchup after 6mins was very going to be easy for us, and then with the West Brom tails up after seeing what movement and power in numbers can do to our defence it escalated from there. We lack a lot of natural leadership and know-how, but with a young team and / or players inexperienced at this level this sort of games will happen. At the end of the day we have a team capable of beating the best in the league but also fragile enough to perform as poorly as they did today. It can sometimes be a fine line as to which way we go each game.

Blackpool away under Pearson was bad. Stood in the temporary stand with no roof and the rain coming in horizontally from the Irish Sea all game. Thought I'd managed to save my match programme by tucking it in my jeans and under my two layers only to remove it at full time and realised that too was soaked through and disintegrated.

Independent of the ambition debate, there are only one or two players in a Spurs squad chasing 4th who cost more than Ramirez. So we don't need to be spending a ridiculous amount of money to be in a challenge for 4th and you can build slowly over a number of seasons as long as you invest right and keep hold of key players (although Spurs even routinely lose theirs). However if you want to go from lower mid-table to CL qualification in a season then you need to spend a massive amount.

We've not achieved anything this season to justify a pitch invasion, would much prefer a lap of honour after a good win and a focus on next season. I doubt the club would be happy with a pitch invasion either, as I don't think they'd want a lower mid-table finish (if that is where we end up) as being seen as a great thing given our ambitions.

Couldn't get further away from a player that meets the criteria the club has for signing players.

Also known as the 'Gerrard role'.

Thank-you for posting this. I'd already purchased flights for my Dad and was on the verge of wondering how to tell him we couldn't go to the game, when I got through on the above number and got tickets.

Completed in bold.

Thanks, so it has a bit of an impact on the balance sheet (but doesn't realistically mean much) and our wage bill would have to swell massively before we are even impacted by the new rules on growth? With quite a few fringe players leaving when their contracts expire, and potentially others shown out of the door, it sounds like there is still plenty of scope for bringing in new players (not withstanding how much of the 'new' money needs to be used for the BVI loan).

Can anybody informed on the new passed Financial Fair Play rules tell me if Saints gain any advantage from getting all these new contracts sorted before the end of this season? I'm not suggesting that if there is an advantage then that is the reason we've renewed so many contracts it but I'd be interested to understand what impact (if any) the new contracts being sorted now has, assuming it increases our wage bill ahead of next season when the rules come in. It might be that there is no impact whatsoever but just curious to understand and whether or not it is something that gives us more opportunity to increase the wage bill in the summer.

A decent point given we're away from home and the quality of the opposition, then plus with Wigan losing it feels good as well. Sunderland and Norwich winning mean they are right on our tails but ultimately with Villa and Wigan facing some tricky games you have to say the final relegation spot is between those two and I feel like Saints will be fine (though not all my worry will go until we're mathematically safe). Bit worrying about Pochettino mentioning Lambert struggling with injury over the last month or so. I know last season he had a hip problem we had to manage throughout the last few months of the season (same with Lallana's groin) so lets hope that clears up for the run in.

Not sure if anyone else caught it on Talksport but Redknapp appeared to blame the Loftus Road pitch today. Claimed it wasn't great for playing football on and hard for a team to establish a 'brand' of passing football on it. Yes, that is right, Excuse #1267 out of the Redknapp book, blame the pitch for season long woes. The man is really a nonsense. He then had the cheek to suggest the owners may want a cheaper Manager next season, as though he might be doing them a favour by walking away in order to save them money despite the amazing job he is doing. Having been on the verge of the England job a year ago, his career is now utterly ****ed - I think you'll all join me by declaring it a massive shame for him.

I only think the assertion that we couldn't cope with it is based on our squad as exists today, as I am assuming you are taking a position that our potential for a decent league position next season would be compromised with Europa League football. Under the conditions that the squad exists as it today, I would agree with you however I don't think those conditions are based on reality. The squad will improve over the summer (we won't stand still, but I don't expect the same number of signings), and the circumstances that impacted our start to the season (unexperienced players, unexperienced Manager, lots of new signings) won't be present at the start of next season either. Therefore under the assumption that a) our squad will improve and, b) the start we had to this season won't occur next season due to the circumstances that caused it not being present, then I see no reason why we shouldn't take the opportunity to compete in Europe. And *if* we did get the chance to play in Europe, and *if* we did start slowly in the league there is no problem just to stop playing our best team in Europe and concentrate on the league. I can't see any circumstance where the club would turn it down given our agenda for growth as soon as possible. Also, if anyone thinks we shouldn't compete in Europe, then I wonder if Swansea (3pts above us in the table and sell their best players every summer) and Wigan (7pts below us in the table) fans and players think the same, or whether they are looking forward to it next season. I can't see either of them turning down their opportunity so would they be as silly as us for getting a chance to play in Europe?

Are you suggesting we don't enter the Europa League next season so we can focus our efforts on qualifying for the...Europa League? I imagine the club will take the chance if given it. They want to play in Europe and won't care how we qualify. I doubt they'll be so ignorant to assume we could take on the extra 10 - 20 games in the season without a squad big enough to also deal with the league.

Very interesting player - great distribution and passing and a good 'sense' of how to defend in terms of positioning and reading the play but as slow as I've ever seen play for us in any position. Originally I wondered how on earth that would work with our high line but I can't remember too many times when the centre-halves have had their backs turned with balls dinked over the top since Pochettino took over. If anything it's been the diagonal over the full-backs heads but either way Forren looked like he needed lots of conditioning and fitness to deal with the pace and power of our league irregardless of a high line. But it would be nice to have a central defender in the team who when he passes it forward knows what he is doing.

Don't understand this forum sometimes, there was a thread on Scott Sinclair several weeks back where it seemed 80% wanted him at the club despite the fact he probably earns 60k+ and hasn't played at all this season and in his career has cobbled together two good seasons in the Championship and Premier League yet we get linked to a player who has had a bad season but has a body of work that has seen him play nearly 70 times for Real Madrid and people don't want him

I don't think anyone is so stupid as to suggest he is great no matter what, but if you want to build a case as to why we should seek to replace him in the team, then purely focussing on the mistakes is going to make it particularly justified. He's come back brilliantly under Pochettino and been part of a starting 11 that has beat Chelsea, Liverpool, and Man City. Of course he has his limitations - I don't like his distribution, he has the turning circle of an oil tanker, and sometimes he doesn't look too comfortable doing his work which can give the opposition something to build momentum on. However aerially I think he is our most accomplished defender, he doesn't try to complicate things, and he's been a part of a team that has safely steered us away from relegation, so to hang him out to dry like this is short-sighted. You'll find that there have been plenty in our squad that have made mistakes this season, just as there will be in every single squad top middle and bottom in the league. I think in time he will be replaced, but not because he made some mistakes, it'll be for other reasons that are a consequence of us trying to push on rather than him not being good enough to contribute at all.

Just to play devils advocate, if we had a striker, say, a striker who has scored over 100 goals for the club in under four seasons, and he misses a good chance to score which he should really put away at least once every four games, would we want him replaced?

Much of our progress over the last 3 years has been aided by a financial advantage over our rivals (not to diminish what has been achieved though). We're not too far away from a place in the league where that advantage no longer becomes ours and instead belongs to our rivals (or at the very best we are equals). So I'll be interested to see how he approaches things and how much patience he has in that position when it can't be about how much money we've got, but about how we spend it to even the playing field.

Lucky suggests complete fortune when in reality he was promoted to the first team squad in the summer and he has always been earmarked to be someone to play for our first team sooner rather than later. We did try to sign a left-back but the deal fell through - if we had extreme doubts over both Fox and Shaw I would imagine we'd go the extra mile. It's been great how quickly Shaw has adapted and I think most have been surprised at how good he has been straight away, however I think lucky is the wrong word to use in this case. Otherwise you can also suggest we're lucky how well other players without Premier League experience have done - which would be most of the team.

Football is far more enjoyable when you stay positive, even when you recognise things may not be great at certain times.