Lighthouse

... It were an annual competition. By which I mean we had one every calendar year with the break coming in winter not summer. I think it would be much more enjoyable having away days in sunnier weather with longer days. More beer gardens, fewer games called off because of frozen pitches (more of an issue in the lower leagues) and probably fewer muscle injuries. Probably better attendances too as I'm willing to bet a lot of older fans are put off by freezing cold winter games. I know it's not going to happen, just asking who would prefer it.

Apart from not being useless.

David Bentley, Christian Benteke and Jim Broadbent for scoring in that Eveton game.

What exactly did Heath do wrong part from his job and score against us? If there's one moment in our history Saints fans seem to have an irrational obsession over its that semi-final and Heath's goal. For me it's Roy Keane. Anyone who, by his own admission, goes out onto the pitch with the intention of deliberately ending someone's career has got to be a grade A kn*bber. I'm struggling to think of others. Nugent always came across as a bit of a tool. Likewise Riccardo Rocha, for smacking the ball at a fan in our most recent South Coast Derby. I get much more peeved at that kind of tw*ttery than people doing their job and scoring against us.

A statement which could be made about pretty much any team or individual in any sport in history, if we're being honest.

Alaeddine Yahia scores an own goal for SM Caen.

That's the spirit! Surely the oldest football cliche in the book is, 'a game of two halves'.

Unlucky tw*tbeard

Why would you define Saints managers by their win ratio? Might as well grade them by their hair styles for all the relevance it bares. To put it into perspective, Van Gaal has a better W/D/L ratio than Koeman this season. Does that hold any bearing on who has performed better this season?

Humour us. What exactly are you suggesting his win percentage is evidence of? There are old men managing over 50s pub teams on a Sunday morning who have a 90% win rate. Would you say they are of a higher calibre than Burley?

In the Championship, with probably the biggest wage and certainly the largest transfer budget, yes it was. When you're out spending everybody but the other team is equal or better in more than half the games you play, you're doing something wrong.

On the whole though we do have a good record with developing players over event years. All clubs have flops but few have sold so many players at such large profits like we have and are likely to repeat.

No doubt he did achieve varying levels of success at previous clubs but with us he failed. To say he was better than a disinterested Redknapp, who had only spent £90k on the squad which got relegated really isn't saying much. If anything the second summer properly summed up his time at Saints. Okay he could do nothing to prevent the departures of Bale, Baird and Kenny but how he reinvested the money was just hopeless. John and Vignal were decent enough signings but his complete ignorance of our defensive frailties, combined with a midfield recruitment policy bordering on fetish was just bizarre. Having spent about £10m, he left us floundering in mid table, exactly as he found us 2 years previously, albeit with a huge wage bill which put us into administration.

I assume you're joking but on the off chance you aren't; Bale, Surman, Pele, Jones, Dyer, Baird, Kelvin, Rasiak, Guthrie and Best all went on to play in the Premier League. Prutton, Lundekvam and BWP all had previous experience. Not to mention Skacel and Saganowski.

We scraped into 6th on the last day of the season. Given the money spent on an already talented squad, it would be akin to Man U scraping into 6th this season and climbing it a success. Anyone half decent would have taken that squad up automatically, we had an embarrassment of riches.

No he's sh*te, although he was quite good at Derby.

Would like Januzaj but perhaps on loan with an option to buy. £12m seems a bit steep but probably about right for a player his age, highly rated in today's market. If we don't pay that, I'd imagine someone like West Ham or Everton probably will. I'd want him to prove he's worth that before we go forking out though.

Odds just reflect betting patterns. I'd say there have probably been a few people having a flutter on Saints, now that we have Austin and FF in the side.

Think we'll have to replace Wanyama, Pelle, Kelvin and Mané and I've got a horrible feeling someone like Utd might come in for FF to replace De Gea. Apart from that I think we're firmly well covered, potentially a RB if someone decent is available.

http://www.foxsports.com/soccer/story/referee-shot-dead-by-player-he-red-carded-in-argentina-021616 Let's hope he never takes things this far.

Think it was Laurent Robert at Newcastle if it's the incident I'm thinking of.

I'm pretty sure Bernard wanted to sign for Pompey, he was just 17 miles out of position. Will never forget that Villa game.

Toby has arguably been the Premier League's best defender 2 years running now. Really wouldn't surprise me to see Poch leave and take Toby with him. Can't say I'm all that sad about Toby, he is clearly a class above Saints and probably Spurs too.

So often people make the mistake of thinking form is permanent. 6 weeks ago people were talking about relegation, "if we only win 1 more game in our last 19" now people are talking about overhauling a 7 point gap on Man City. Neither is realistic, City will improve and sooner rather than later we will let in a few goals again. 5th though is definitely up for grabs. How sweet would it be to finish above all the defectors at Liverpool and Utd. 21 points from our remaining 12 games would see us top last year's points tally. 6W 3D and 3D, that's got to be a realistic challenge. No reason we can't win all 4 in March. Bompey, Stoke and Sunderland, then Liverpool at home. Villa and Newcastle in April, then finishing at home to Palace are all in the winnable category. That's assuming we get nothing from Chelsea and City at home, as well as trips to Spurs, Leicester and Everton.

I think it's more a case of having a lot of coveted talent at the same time. Young English players have always been in big demand and attracted inflated fees. A few years ago Villa couldn't hold on to Young, Downing, Barry and now Delph. Before that it was West Ham with Defoe, Lampard, Ferdinand and Carrick. The last couple of years it's been our turn and soon it will be someone else. Probably Everton with Stones and Barkley.