melmacian_saint

Given that Nigel is gone and although he didn't admit to it it's clear that MP will bring his own signings along who do we expect to fall down the pecking order and move away from the club, either now (unlikely) or in the summer? While it has become quite clear for some of them, new signings may see other more popular players definitely fall out of favour. GK: I suspect Kelvin will leave at the end of the season. Could see us getting a new keeper from La Liga (definitely an interesting market), to give Boruc a run for his money and allow Gazzaniga to finally have some much-needed game time on loan in the Championship to keep progressing. Defenders: While Seabourne will be off, I suspect Aaron Martin is out of the club's plans and if we do sign another CB I could see Hooiveld leaving too. This may become our most settled position for years to come, with Fonte/Yoshida/Forren/new signing a potentially strong quartet (and one we can probably manage to keep together for a long time). As for full-backs, Richardson will probably be off in the summer, alongside Butterfield (retire?) and we'll probably try to bargain with a NPC club for Danny Fox. With Clyne and Shaw looking to stick around, and a couple of youngsters around their positions as well, I suspect we will sign another RB and rely on Clyne to do a job on the left (which he did without much trouble) should Shaw get injured, assuming their progression carries on at such high levels. Midfield: Schneiderlin, Cork and Davis will remain and JWP seems to be a safe bet in a few years (loaned out for a short time may be good?). In fact I think it all depends on how the rest of the season goes for Steven, because I suspect he wants first-team football and will leave if MP does not give him that chance/prefers a new signing of his. Ramirez will definitely be a big part of his plans and Lallana is of a very high standard as well and I'm sure he will appreciate Adam's flair. While most people don't think so I expect Guly to leave, as will De Ridder and here I can see at least two La Liga/Serie A signings (or at least players of Hispanic origin coming in). Chaplow I reckon will be off as well. I expect Isgrove, Chambers and a couple of other academy starlets to get their respective chances. Puncheon is a very big question mark for me. More than the fans, MP has a big challenge in getting the best out of him just like NA until now. Let's see if he'll even bother. Strikers: Rodriguez is a bet for the future and will feature more and more. Lambert will carry on featuring but I can see a traditional PL mid-tabler lining up an offer for him (Stoke, West Ham or the like) and we won't say no. I expect us to bring in a heavy sounding signing should RL leave. What do you people reckon? These are all predictions so feel free to discuss...

Not only. Removing Hooiveld was what really changed it, as it gave our defensive line the composure it had lacked, but not something Danny Fox lacked. In fact, say what you want, 4 points and all that but 2 games with him back on the side and the moments of extreme chaos have returned, and we've got Boruc to thank for bailing us (and Jos in particular) out. Of course he's superman and we conceded two goals against Chelsea for some senseless defending under pressure.

Did we slice our wrists when Souness and Lawrie Mac left because of Lowe and because we were now a trading business?? Did we remember it when we were getting boozed up in Cardiff or Birmingham?? Thought so. Nigel wasn't the first, won't be the last. We may miss him at some stage, we may find out it wasn't all roses. It's not just football, it's life. Anything other than this is hot-headed talk.

I am sorry to come up with this and I do bear in mind that we're all very upset about Adkins, who we all appreciated and was by any means unfairly dismissed, and knowing that his replacement is not someone who the jury has long dictated a positive verdict on doesn't really help our anger. But I am appalled with some disgraceful comments that have been made in the past few hours here, particularly those concerning the new manager's nationality and in some cases the players that may join the club. A disgusting show of disrespect towards people from another country and don't blame it on being angry, some things are just wrong regardless. As someone who has come over to the UK being from another country myself (Portugal), I really do appreciate the British culture and the country as a whole and have British friends. It has been a positive change. However, even though I don't know any of you, I can say I'd be quite reluctant to meeting a good number of you based on your comments about someone from a different nationality, who you don't even know in any sense, and the only thing you have to judge him is his nationality. You seem to be the part of Britain I'm happy to avoid, and it doesn't impress me a lot that a number of you walk down to SMS almost every match day. If you want you can insult NC for being arrogant and cruel or whatever you like. But calling him an Argie and creating hatred around him for that reason is very poor. Be careful with you comments about continental players, I've seen a few who have been very disrespectful. Very low times for this forum. Have a look in the mirror and I hope the mods do something about those made those comments.

In Spain managers are not directly responsible for signings. More often than not these decisions will be made at a higher level (director of football and his department). It's now become more the case where managers have a say but in many cases the manager role in Spain is more that of a coach.

Benali, while loyal and good fan of our club, I'm afraid only got such because of the time he spent with us, considerably disproportionate to his quality. Nothing else in there and at any stage of his Saints career most of us would be happy if the club had seen the back of him. IMO he is one of the reasons why we always seem to think that loyalty will sort everything else out, and not recognize that constant change is essential especially in the pitch-side of things. One of the main factors that lead to the 2005-2009 meltdown.

Why are people so obsessed with Bournemouth? You're worse than some of their fans. All they wanted was a bit of attention when the team they usually listened to on the radio while at Dean Court for years and years was going through a bad time and came to visit them. It'll be forgotten in no time. The "do not enter" zone is Pompey. Bournemouth on the other hand should (and are) a strategic partner for SFC as its a good place for academy players to go and get game time as well as fringe players from the squad, everything under the close eye of staff at St.Mary's. In fact, I can recall a few PL players who have kickstarted their careers with a loan period with them (we've got Lallana and Cork for example), so there must be something in the water down there. It's not like the south is full of clubs at a decent level so that we can hate some and have good relationships with others... I wonder if Gazzaniga should not be going there as well because that Jilal guy isn't good and the boy needs games.

A lot of stuff: Fonte's rise. Shame for his injury, not only has he been great but he's also been one of our top 5 performers this season IMO, and this is considering our woeful defensive start. Consistently became MOM candidate with captaincy too. Shaw's progression. Better at every second of a game. I know Fox left the standards quite low, but he's building very solid credentials. Great run for the 2nd goal shows he's mentally up for the big time. SchneiderCork. Looked something really special when they played last season, and I thought Hammond kind of blocked the synergy between both of them. Top midfield pairing. Lambert's adaptation. As good as in any other league. Looking more confident than earlier in the season too. A nice season so far no doubt!

GET IN!!! What a result. Really unexpected which makes it all just taste better!! Schneiderlin MOM. Great stuff!

We don't look half as composed with Jos at the back.

I like Bournemouth. Their fans are just annoyed tgey couldn't beat us to promotion the only they challenged us for it in their history. It'll go away. Also I'm sure they're at least as many Saints fans down there as ST holders at dean court...

If he's an improvement on Jos then I guess it's fine. Although I'd stick with Fonte-Yoshida whenever possible. Of course, it would help knowing what really is wrong with Jose.

Should do ok IMO. Levein was bad but a slight improvement of his results will probably be as much as anyone can get out of the Scotland team right now. Even Northern Ireland are looking a better side.

I was just writing an observation of mine... Some of you need to chill your beans. The Tanners showed less contempt for me.

Seems to be the standard in this forum recently. People are angry and looking for flesh.

Italian football has a very slow pace to it, which is why it is generally not appealing to the public. Teams are either very defensive or to patient and lack any cutting edge. Ramirez's lack of pace when doing his moves comes from that. Hardly the mecca for physical preparation that it was once known for.

(No reason to moan about this title IMO) I was looking at this the other day and it strikes me a lot that our most reliable and consistent signings are those we made in League One/came with us from administration. Sure this has been mentioned before but it is not very common and I doubt this is the case of our predecessors in their rise from the ashes (maybe Norwich but certainly not Swansea). So far this season, and despite injuries, we have had Fonte, Lallana, Clyne, Rickie, Cork, Puncheon, Shaw and Schneiderlin as our most positively consistent players. Shaw is a rising star so he doesn't really fit my theory but interesting to note that he's home-grown and KD is past it now so I won't include him in this as well. Of these, 4 were from our main team in League One (both seasons really), while Cork had been involved with us when we went down. Puncheon showed his abilities but his head was letting him down back then and being loaned out didn't really help (maybe the Blackpool loan was fine). However, for most go them their involvement with the team goes back to the days when we visited Rochdale or Yeovil or dwelled with no mercy around the Championship, wondering if pay-day was on. Worth noting that Cork joined us in the Championship and Clyne himself was signed from a Championship team. Both had been playing in mid-table teams when they joined, so hardly expected to run the show. As for the rest of our signings, while Ramirez is a star who unfortunately had the pre-season of a Sunday league footballer (i.e.Serie A prep), and Guly has been utilized throughout the divisions (quality is disputed but some positives there, certainly in League One), most of our other signings have had a relatively short high-return period. Most of our Championship signings (not many really) have left or been almost written-off, with players like Chaplow, Hammond and Sharp being axed, and Hooiveld appearing sporadically but really not up to the level despite this forum's delusion. And to be fair, apart from Gaston, only Yoshida has really become essential so far from our signings of this season. Davis is consistent but hardly runs it, Gazzaniga has had one too many games for his age and experience IMO, Rodriguez looks better now but hardly 7 million already. A mention for Boruc that seems to have regained some fitness! But in general terms, there seems to be a thing about those who've come from way back to get here. What do you think?

Davis will be in all match day squads unless he's injured. It happened when Boruc was first introduced to the team for the West Ham game. Gazza went straight from the starting team to the stand. He then came straight back down to the pitch as well. The games where Davis was in goal and Gazza wasn't in at all represented the duration of his injury (i.e. he's been back for 2 weeks).

Do we have any rumours as to when Fonte will be back?

You guys are a bunch of picky obnoxious bellends... A "misleading" title and you just ignore the whole post and make it sound like the credit crunch is happening all over again... Unbelievable.

I think this would a very good move for the club if we decided to loan Paulo Gazzaniga out for 3 months during this transfer window, in order to earn precious game time. It has become clear that Boruc will be given the run his CV seems to deserve, and because of his seniority and role in the squad Nigel doesn't want to demote KD at least from the subs bench. This means that unless Boruc shows no improvement and makes mistakes, Gazza will be left with nothing but a couple of naive mistakes to think about, and right now he needs to keep building some confidence and IMO this can only be done if he is loaned out to a club either in the Championship or maybe in the Scottish Premier as the added pressure from playing at Celtic Park and/or a couple of local derbies can only do him good before coming back and progressively establishing himself as our no.1 He was clearly thrown into the side out of desperation in the face of our concession crisis and this is never good for any player, especially a GK. I think he should've spent this year playing max. 1 League Cup game (in that sense it was a good start to his development), then U-21s and getting loaned out through the rest of the season, just like Joe Hart at City when he signed from Shrewsbury. It took him 3 seasons to become an undisputed starter FFS. I felt Bart could've been a good successor to KD (though I feel Gazzaniga is better than him) but we let his progression stagnate by leaving him on the bench/stand and not letting him get decent runs of game time. In the end Blackpool was the result of 5 years of benchwarming and spectating, suprised he still knew how to get his gloves on! Let's not make the same mistakes, give Gazza a chance to up his game and build some confidence, even if he must spend a month in Dingwall for that. He looks athletic, has great distribution skills (exquisit technique included), was quick closing down on most of his 1-on-1s and showed great reflexes in 3-4 saves he made. Only then can we think of getting him back on the firing line of world's best strikers.

Is it me or is he looking thinner?

Football is indeed very unfair. An absolute mercenary who was lucky to be dragged into a PL pay-check, spends half a season doing absolutely nothing but running around for 2 hours a day, and walks into a team on the verge of history (let's hope they can achieve so). Hope he's going there as a sub player and never makes the list for any of their remaining LC fixtures (probably what they have in mind, given they're going for a lot of things squad rotation becomes key for a L2 team currently just surviving above its weight).

Definitely this one! Speaking of chants, has anyone imagined Schneiderlin's chant to the sound of the Adams family? Would work well IMO.

Any news?