Lallana's Left Peg

Will Wood has been one of the finds of the season from the Academy - definitely an emerging talent out of nowhere really.

Reports in Italy say Tevez could decide to move to Boca Juniors this summer. If he does that would surely mean any permanent move for Osvaldo is out of the window?

At this stage I'd prefer Mane on the wing than Elia, and if Mane is on the wing that only leaves Pelle and Long as our striking options - one is struggling and other isn't really that good in a striking role. So I don't really see the outrage at suggesting Gallagher is a viable option on the bench ahead of Elia.

He is on trial for them, which could give an indication he doesn't have a future at Saints for one reason or another.

Still thought we would win even after Reed got sent off. We're the better team in every respect - not just in terms of talent, but also our structure and set-up outside individual ability. That should be expected though given our Academy and facilities against that of Blackburn's, who themselves had a very young team and made the most of what they had. Over the two legs they defended well even though we missed several chances - they put forward a very good account of themselves. It's always hard to know who will 'make it' at Youth level - ability is just a small part of the equation (but perhaps one that gives you the most time for the other stuff to click). I usually see who is coasting through games (in a good way) as an indicator of how they hold themselves and manage the game and to that end I thought Targett, Wood, and Seager were very good. Slattery aside, this may be our lot for a few years as the current U18's aren't as good as previous years (though I appreciate Sims, Slattery, and Wood are now a part of the U21 set-up) and a few on here have mentioned that only a couple of the U16's were offered scholarships (the rest will come from other clubs and / or foreigners).

No, they don't count. I can't work out if Blackburn are just clumsy or a step behind fitness / speed wise, but they are big lumps who really leave their mark on the opposition when they foul.

Dangerous but Blackburn were kicking lumps out of us at Ewood Park so this is a little bit of payback.

His injury record appears fairly good until this season. I do wonder if the frequency in which he gets injured (which could just be a coincidence) will impact how far we stretch to try and sign him permanently. It's not the fee, it'll be the wages.

:lol: :lol:

Davis - Par Forster - Par Clyne - Par Bertrand - Hit Fonte - Hit Alderweireld - Hit Yoshida - Hit Gardos - Par Targett - Hit Schneiderlin - Hit Wanyama - Hit JWP - Par Davis - Par Tadic - Par Elia - Miss Reed - Par Djuricic - Miss Long - Par Mane - Hit Pelle - Hit Koeman - Hit

Shaw will be fine. LvG is going through a process of stamping his authority on the team and there are victims of the way he establishes himself. Shaw isn't the only one - Falcao, Rafael, and Di Maria are getting the same treatment. Mata and Herrera had it earlier in the season too. The article doesn't touch on Shaw's unprofessionalism in keeping himself fit and healthy of course, but that doesn't suit the narrative of the piece.

It's hard to say as we know there will be changes in the squad over the summer and we don't know what the clubs attitude towards the (likely) Europa League campaign will be.

I wouldn't care. It would be nice if they went up - I think it's good for football to have different teams come up and get a slice of that Premier League money, but really I do not give two ****s.

I don't think the club will give a contract to a player just to have him fill a registration spot for Europe. If we can only register 20 players for Europe, and yet that list doesn't need to include the likes of Targett, JWP, and Reed etc. then we'll be just fine.

It's not that much of a problem if we lose some registration spots and the likes of Reed and JWP don't need to be registered. In fact looking at our squad now I don't see it being a problem at all?

81/82 - 7th div 1 82/83 - 12th div 1 83/84 - 2nd div 1 I'd take that after this season

As in, the Managers above him in the table are better than him? I'm pretty sure a few of them wouldn't be able to get Saints in the position we're in this season.

There isn't really a compelling reason for Clyne to stay. He'll get European football at his new club, which will also be able to offer him a salary likely at least double what we could. Saints don't stand a chance, do they? The only thing he has in his favour here is pretty much being first choice. He risks that at his new club. But there aren't many players in history that don't back themselves and reject a move away on that basis. Bye bye Clyney.

The deadline was end of April and now it's the end of the season. He won't sign a new deal regardless.

If we're in the race for fourth on the last game of the season and Jay Rod makes the pitch with the game in the balance...I think we all know what would be a dream return...

Bournemouth and Norwich for me. Think Norwich will turn over Boro.

We've definitely tracked Phillips for a while as we were after him when he was at Blackpool (in fact he told Blackpool he wanted to move to us and Holloway saw his arse about it). I would imagine his attraction to us also increases with his nationality given our potential European campaign. Plus Ellia hasn't exactly been great.

Mane apparently refused to travel for a CL Qualifier game as he was on the brink of a move to us and / or he was trying to push his move through. Though someone also told me his move was arranged for a few weeks before he actually signed so he may have been trying to protect himself. Either way we're the beneficiary of somewhat interesting player behaviour as much as we're on the receiving end of it.

He's in his mid twenties and has the opportunity to join the biggest club in the country (who are better than us) and treble / quadruple his wage. There is no scenario on earth where it makes sense for him to stay at Saints. And lets not forget the manner in which he joined Saints in the first place. We've benefitted from this as much as he has.

Bony doesn't drop deep really - no more than Hernandez would / does. When we play at home against bottom half opposition we would benefit greatly from a player like Hernandez. Our failure to break down defences definitely includes the reasons you've stated but is also because we do not have good enough movement in the box and a proper finisher. If we had a player like Hernandez I think more chances would manifest themselves because of his movement and the way he plays.