DuncanRG

The impression I get from Adam Blackmore and the like is that Pochettino would talk if the club approached him, but they haven't yet. Doesn't mean he's desperate to start talks, only that he wouldn't refuse. It's not really his decision when to get going. They may want to leave it til the end of the season so he can focus on the players and their last few games. Maybe they're giving themselves time to prepare the right offer. That will be more than just a salary figure and transfer budget of course - they'll want to give him a vision of where they see the club going and what part the manager plays. There are all sorts of potential reasons they're waiting and besides, most managerial contracts don't get signed until May time. Nothing to worry about yet. If and when it's done they'll be quick to announce, but the players will hear first.

We wouldn't be top of the league if we had Suarez but we'd be a whole lot better. Who wouldn't? Also, are you implying Lambert is 'glacial'?

To expand on the above, not being in Europe naturally offers an advantage in terms of squad fitness and focus but not one that can go any great way to explaining a title win. First and foremost they're up there because they're bloody good. They've been lucky with injuries, but most champions are. You do need luck to win a league title, and that's come for Liverpool with that and their competitor's failures. It's still reasonably tight. What is fair to say is that they would be the worst title-winning defence for a long time. I'd be interested to see the stats on that, because most champions do have grind out 1-0s now and again but they haven't. The only top team with a particularly good defensive record this year (Chelsea) has been too blunt up front to capitalise.

That's where the Green Bay bit comes in, then. Start feeding that line!

Double post

I still believe Pochettino is the best by a way. However, he has a great pool of young talent without the big names to keep happy, like Sherwood does. Tim's situation comes with its own challenges, but it looks like he's not keeping those players happy and will lose his job as a result. If Cortese really is planting stories, it won't just be out of spite. Surely he's got better things to do than brief journalists without a useful purpose.

You're doing Paul Lambert a disservice. I believe Villa are the youngest team on average and he's stuck by his boys even in tough times. I don't know whether he's failing to improve them or whether he's got less talent to work with in the first place but you can't knock him for effort. Magath's got some boys out there as well - brave or foolish in the context of a relegation scrap, I don't know. Tim Sherwood is also to be admired for his selections. He hasn't got a great wealth of young Englishmen but Rose, Kane and (the admittedly foreign) Bentaleb are getting regular game time now over some expensive egos. Harry Kane's getting a game over the man who became their record signing in the summer!

This is such a myth. All title winning teams have a great goalscorer but that doesn't mean they're carried. If Chelsea win the league they will be the first team I can remember in the Premier League era who did it without a striker reaching 15 goals. Of course Liverpool have powered to the top because of their talent and tempo going forward, but that has been supported by a dynamic, buzzing midfield (Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho), a back line which enables that style of play (Mignolet, Johnson, Flanagan) and squad players who have done their bit when called upon (Sakho, Allen, Lucas). Suarez would have won the league for Chelsea but they're a top class team who are only missing that striker. Liverpool are a top class team who've got one.

I'm sure he's done plenty. Do you want to see his diary?

Good post and I agree. It seems players (and their parents) no longer see Arsenal and Man Utd as the clubs to be at for young players. Sensibles ones never thought it of City or Chelsea. They think it of us. It is unlikely but not impossible that we can capitalise on that. The difficulty is that as our players improve and demonstrate their ability to play at the top level, more first team spaces will appear for them at big clubs. If we can't break in quickly enough ourselves then some will move up and fill those spaces. I'm sure the likes of Shaw are desperate to play for Southampton in Europe and will play for that cause for a time, but if we don't look like offering it in the forseeable future then they'll choose Europe over us. If we do what you describe and keep the team together, adding to it here and there, 8th-10th won't be enough for long. Finish 10th next season and there will be players on their way.

Klopp's staying at Dortmund http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/22/jurgen-klopp-job-manchester-united-moyes-borussia-dortmund

I think they might go for Giggs long term, but it won't be from next season. A few years of big name(s) to get things back on track and he might be ready. Giggs is a United man, understands how the club works and understands how to motivate the dressing room. He'll command the sort of respect only a handful of few proven managers could. Provided he gets his badges and all the technical/tactical aspects are there he might be a good fit. But what do I know, I thought Moyes was the right appointment!

That's a good team, but you'd be mad to leave Sturridge out. He's scoring for fun and Rodgers has turned him into as much a team player as any striker needs to be. Welbeck can be deployed tactically for his workrate without going up front. Mmhmm. Lambert is only at his best in games where we totally dominate midfield because those players then have the freedom to make runs. Carragher's analysis of United last night made a point about meaningful possession and penetration, showing how Barcelona/Dortmund do it with their high possession and United don't. We normally do, but sometimes we struggle and when we do Lambert becomes totally peripheral.

It's only under Pochettino's direction that these players have proven that they're capable of pushing that high, though. Rodriguez, Lallana, Fonte, Davis, Shaw, Chambers and Ward-Prowse have all improved under him, some massively so. There's room for more, though, and Mauricio will be the first person to tell you that. We have a great team but it might not have been so great without him.

He turned down a contract at Bremen, so he's available on a free. Get him in!

To be fair there aren't that many 'in' stories kicking about at the moment. Clubs and agents, meanwhile, are planting stories about our players all over the show. Doesn't mean there will be more outs than ins or that anything published will actually end in a transfer. ...but yeah, a round-up would be appreciated

We certainly could have done with a good keeper and striker, but the January window is not the time to make big signings. Our next centre-forward is without doubt the most important signing for the club and had we signed someone in January we would have been rushed for time, extorted for money and quite possibly left with the wrong man. If I remember rightly there were some noises about going after targets but they didn't work out. No point spending masses for the sake of it if we can't get the guy we want. Anyway, as this table demonstrates we haven't done too badly since then. In fact, we were 9th at Christmas and didn't pull up to 8th until February, where we're now likely to finish.

That's a good idea in theory, but I don't know how I'd feel as a non-graduate player if my wages had to be capped while my team mates were getting big rises every couple of years. The other thing of course is that, were clubs to rely on academy players, the rich clubs would still do better because they can afford the best facilities. See the enormous academy project Man City are undertaking with Abu Dhabi money.

I think Hodgson was most of the way to getting his team together by the last round of friendlies, and we looked okay. That's been changed with Liverpool's success though, as he'll no doubt want to fit Sterling in and maybe Hendo as well. If we're talking about strike partnerships, Lambert and Welbeck looked red hot against Moldova...but we can't start with them.

With Gerrard behind them, and even Henderson...though we can't expect to play like Liverpool do so it might be someone else in there. This England squad is much stronger than the one we took to the Euros.

We were very dangerous from corners earlier on in the season, when Ward-Prowse was taking them. He's the first good taker we've had for years, though Fox could ping them in on occasion.

If you lose the dressing room then it's hard to see this as a temporary decline. They (correctly, in my view) saw Moyes as terminal, and they can't risk that with £100m+ being placed at the manager's feet in the summer. They're in need of a revolution no matter who the manager is, and Moyes' ability to do that himself (after he fluffed the first chance) is severely weakened by the players' lack of faith in him. When they talked about the long-term, they were anticipating maybe a season or two without trophies, third or fourth-place finishes. Not this, a failure on every level conceivable. The only thing that went well in Moyes' entire reign was bringing Rooney back on board and tying him to a contract. That honestly won't be much consolation for a committed football manager. He's already plenty rich but this will follow him to the grave. As for this correct forum business, it's fair to say that this might have a knock-on effect on Saints matters in the form of potential player sales or changes in the managerial market. Pochettino's name is being mentioned as a rank outsider, though obviously the Van Gaal/Spurs issue is more likely to come into play.

That's also quite tough on him. He had next to no budget and lost his best players every year, did well to keep them up when he did and won the FA Cup. Wigan really aren't a Premier League club and every year they stayed up had to be taken as a success. A Dalek club, you might say.

He'd do well in other circumstances, but he's not the type we'd want. He couldn't instil any kind of playing identity at United (or Everton, really) and our entire club is now set up with one that goes against what characteristics he does promote. The youth conveyor belt relies on the way we play now.

I know haha, I was joking. But that is some form! Newcastle didn't so much progress as return to normal service. They had an unusually time season last year because they were in Europe. To be fair though they're going to need some serious changes to stay in the top half next year. They're no kind of team, and without the individuals they rely on (Cabaye, Remy, previously Ben Arfa) they've got nothing.