Wes Tender

I mused on whether that precluded Lawrence on grounds of not being sensible, not having knowledge of football in this country (outside of the glory team) or a combination of both. As well as the statement he made about Chelski's defence being the best in the PL and that we wouldn't finish in the top four, I also noted the comment that you highlighted too. All in all, an illustration of what an ignorant and biased individual he is, not fit to be classed as a pundit. Why do the Beeb continue to employ him? Is it for comedic value?

The nation had the misfortune of having to endure the imbecile Lawrence as a pundit on MOTD2 tonight. He was comparing the defences of Man United against Chelski's and opined that it was the team who couldn't defend (United) against the team with the best defence in the league. (He must have meant Chelski, as United weren't playing us). I realise that this thought made a nice sound bite from the point of view of hyperbole, but I think that he would find with minimal research that it is lil' ole Saints who have not only the best defence in England at all levels but amongst the very best in Europe. I know that he doesn't like to do any research on the teams outside of what he perceives to be the elite few, but even the most cursory glance at the table would reveal that we must be in second place for a reason and if that wasn't enough of a clue, the goal difference ought to give him a huge hint that we are not conceding many.

The ultimate plastic fan. Doesn't it make you want to laugh at the pathetic specimen? Or punch him.

I agree. I don't see why finishing above any of those teams is out of the question. There are those who have been consistent in their lack of faith in the abilities of our players and manager to the extent that it is a step too far for them to have any belief that we can somehow finish higher than this mythical top six, whose position in the Premier League is something carved in stone and given to them by divine right. Many of these same people are the ones who thought that we couldn't get out of the third division so quickly, couldn't get out of the Championship so quickly, coudn't get into the Premier League so quickly. Pardew coudn't be bettered by the virtually unknown Adkins and he couldn't be improved upon by the relatively unknown Pochettino. Although Koeman couldn't really be better known, he would struggle to adapt to English Premier League football, especially as the best players followed Pochettino out of the door. Anybody who thought that we might actually commence the new season with a better team that we ended it with, was a deluded fantasist. I'm optimistic enough to forecast 6th place above Spurs and Everton, with a decent chance of beating Liverpool and Man Utd. I know that even thinking that in the past was tantamount to heresy, but neither of them is yet what they used to be.

I'm delighted that Newcastle beat Spurs at WHL. Pochettino was apparently left scratching his head about how they didn't win. However I recall a few occasions when we were all over a team possession wise and didn't get the points under him. Pochettino must be beginning to think that he had a good lot of lads here, but that the best of them have been improved upon by Koeman, who is also an improvement himself.

We did rather better against Sunderland at hime this year, didn't we? Even West Brom have proven to be no push-overs and arguably if we played Liverpool now, we would beat them. So we do indeed have a good run of results like we did last season and in retrospect the OP question "will this be the best transfer window for Saints ever" can be argued quite positively yes.

A brilliant summary.

I'm confused by your statement. If it was supposed to have been a kick in the back, how did Tadic know it was coming? Does he have eyes in the back of his head? Regarding the replay, you infer that there was a camera angle that showed conclusively that he was not touched.Therefore i'm guessing that it would have needed to have been adjacent to the right-hand touchline facing from the Northam towards the Chapel, or in the Chapel facing along that touchline. Are there cameras there? And why did Clyne mime that Tadic was kneed in the back? Frankly, I just don't believe the inference that Tadic went down deliberately to break up play.

I forgot to mention. It was heart-warming to see how Mane ran over to give Koeman a hug after scoring his goal. The players obviously love playing for him and are happy to show how much it means to them to get him results.

A battling win against tough and stubborn opposition. We came out of the blocks much faster than last Saturday and were dominating the game, winning the midfield, but Stoke had come as spoilers and parked the bus in front of their goal. It was up to us to break them down and we did on occasion get behind them, but failed to finish. When Pelle hit the post and Mane pounced first to put it away, it was well deserved. Having gone behind, Hughes had to ditch plan A and attempt to get something from the match, so I had anticipated that they would have to come at us, or rely on getting something from a set piece. They have to be one of the best teams for grabbing goals from their lanky beanstalk Crouch and other big burly hulks and at least they no longer have Delap adding a threat from his long throw-ins. But the defence held firm, as did Forster, although he didn't have overmuch to do. I had wondered whether Wanyama would have started the game against such a physical team, but Koeman got it right tactically once again, as we were the better team in the first half and then Koeman brought on the big man when they began to get their heads in front. I had wondered whether we would see Long on for the last 15 mnutes to punish tired legs in their defence, but again on reflection the introduction of Gardos was sound thinking. Ultimately, despite a nervous last 10 minutes when Stoke lumped everything into our box, they failed to break us down and another three points and our defence unbreached for yet another week maintains our momentum, increases the teams self-belief and applies pressure psychologically onto our next victims. This was a sterner test than some others because of the physicality of Stoke, who have some cynical players prepared to put themselves about. I'm sure that Tadic will have been identified as our playmaker and instructions given to nobble him, which they did with a knee in his back, according to Clyne's mime. Dirty bastards. How the referee didn't see it, I'll never know. He was pretty poor throughout, allowing them to tug shirts, hold players down and kick sh*t out of us almost with impunity and then when Stoke's players went down from the merest contact, he was very obliging to them. Stoke are very adept at their gamesmanship, as Moses proved with his dive last week, but today there were another couple of instances where their players found their bootlaces to be a useful device to buy time for a player to return to the pitch or to break up play and waste time. Thankfully the second time it happened, the referee sent the player off and the laces were done up in double quick time. On another occasion we gain a free quick and it was blocked to stop us taking it quickly. A shame that we didn't kick the ball against their player to get him yellow-carded. But despite the poor refereeing and the spoiling tactics of the cynical Stoke, we have come through with the spoils. It won't be pretty viewing on MOTD, but the conclusion from the pundits must be that we can win ugly when the opposition tries to prevent us playing our passing game. As under Pochettino last year, it is almost as if we would do better playing a passing attacking opponent rather than the likes of Stoke, but it is tempting to believe that we might not have got all three points last season.

I picked up the two same things. At one point we were second and dropped a place behind City and had been a solid third well before we played Sunderland. It isn't even as if the goal difference was significant. As you say, there was no need to mention Clyne, inferring that he had been a signing by Koeman. I liked the way that he poked fun at Van Gaal and United, but he really ought to be able to get simple facts like those right if he any pretensions of being a serious Sports Journalist.

How many drives are affected by cars parked opposite them? I get the impression from what you say, that the road is narrow and full on Lodge meeting days, so many others seem to be inconvenienced. Why not get a petition signed by all the other households similarly affected and present it to the council with a request that double yellow lines be placed across driveways and also across the road from those driveways? That will sort the buggers out.

I'm glad they're back. I started my STs with son number won with the Christmas 2-2 draw against Man Utd before the 3-1, 6-3, 1-0 run of victories against them and it got me hooked ever since. With the way that we have started this season, it ought to be tempting to some who didn't renew because of the summer of discontent.

Who are we playing Tuesday? Isn't that a bit close to Wednesday's match?

It isn't a fact. It might be unlikely but it is not factual. It isn't even unlikely at the moment that 6th is beyond our capabilities.

So Kuyt's potential signing is dismissed out of hand by Koeman, who says that we have expressed no interest in him. So this is just yet another instance of the media getting it all wrong, publishing stories which must be based on speculation, hearsay, rumours spread by players' agents, selling clubs, etc. Quel surprise.

Hughes castigates Hartson for his comments about Moses diving to gain the penalty against Swansea. Well, he would, wouldn't he? Not unnatural for him to defend his player, although I'm also sure that he would employ double standards and moan like mad if it had happened against his team. A poll of fans asked to judge on whether it was a penalty or a dive woiuld come out massively in favour of it being classifed as a dive, therefore the worst form of cheating, and it does Hughes no credit at all to try and justify it. Asked whether Moses will therefore be classified as a diving cheat as a result, Hughes hoped not, but suspected it was a possibility. All I can say, is that I hope he tries it against us, because the referees will be looking for it from him now. I'm sure that we will be happy to remind the referee with chants of "cheat" every time he goes down a little too easily.

Really? I think that it might come to pass in a year or two that Tadic is playing for them or Barcelona. I believe that he will prove himself to be as good as Modric.

Totally agree. Just picking a couple of nuggets, I recall several posters expressing the opinion that there was no way on God's Earth that the team that started the season could be anywhere as good as the team that finished last season. Anybody who thought that it could be, was derided as a fantasist. Ditto the situation regarding Lallana. If one dared to suggest early days that Tadic appeared to be as good as Lallana, it was pointed out scornfully that Lallana was in the Premier League Team of the Year, Saints Player of the Year, the England team, etc. No way could we sign a player even fit to lace his boots, let alone one better than him. It's still early days in the season, but it isn't too early to make valid comparisons between the players who left us and those who replaced them. Morgan has been key though and thankfully he is very happy that he stayed now and seems to be enjoying himself immensely.

Having read back over this thread, there were some real gems. Thank God that Katharina hasn't given up on us, as we are arguably in as good a position under her ownership as we've ever been. Whilst listening to the chanting for Markus on Saturday, I wondered when there will be a chant showing our appreciation of her.

Says the biggest moron on their forum, totally oblivious to the wealth of our owner and neglecting to notice the £30 million or so profit on our summer trading. We're all a bit gay apparently; the real men go and watch the Skates. Hello Sailor. Stoke play more attractive football under Hughes than under Pulis, but the Pulis team would arguably have been the harder one to break down and more physical. Personally I'm happier that we're playing the Hughes team than the one Pulis had last.

There may have been any number of reasons why Morgan might have wanted to leave, among them the domino effect of several others leaving, his agent causing trouble in order to gain commission from his sale, thoughts that he might have a better chance of playing for France at another club, many things like that. But it can't have helped that there was all this speculation in the media that Katharina was conducting a firesale to sell the club and other baseless speculation peddled by the media and swallowed hook line and sinker by some of our more gullible fans. The generally accepted view from most on the players leaving was purely that they did it for motives of naked greed, rather than the reasons that they would like us to believe, that they felt the club lacked ambition and no longer targeted playing in the Champions League. I don't see many claiming that the board should be above criticism, merely that it was not acceptable to have been so pathetically childish and insulting with the name-calling. You admit yourself that there was a small handful who were consciously slagging off the board without thought. Do I detect some mild criticism of them from you? Surely not! You say that the majority of those were on an obvious wind-up. If that is so, then I really don't see why you need to make such a song and dance of protecting them.

Reed comes out of this extremely well and yet he was vilified as a waste of space in a thread. It seems that all the groundwork meticulously carried out by him for just such an eventuality as this Summer's events has been rewarded with success. Thankfully the point has been made very forcefully that no player is bigger than the club.

My position on this is exactly the same as yours. Much of the concern felt by fans was due to the hysteria whipped up by the media which proved to be groundless. Despite assurances being given by Reed and Krueger, the media was relentless in its conspiracy theories and groundless speculation. Under the circumstances, the more gullible would believe that because it was printed in a Red Top newspaper it must be the truth, whereas others had a giant pile of salt that they periodically took pinches from. Ultimately, the factor that changed the perception of most sensible posters, was the signing of Koeman. That made no sense if the Club was being sold and if he hadn't been convinced at his interview stage that he would be given the funds and support to rebuild the team to his specfication. Those that lacked the faith in our board and are relieved and happy to admit that they were wrong, are worthy of praise for being big enough to admit it. Those who went way over the top and called Reed a waste of space, who insulted Krueger and indulged in puerile name-calling towards Katharina, deserve all the derision they have got and I note that some are bleating about it now. In future, they really should not dish it out if they can't take it back.

It obviously wasn't clearly a penalty. The referee had a clear view of it and decided on the basis of what he had seen. From Sunderland's point of view, it is a shame that you weren't refereeing the match, as you are almost certainly better qualified than him