Brave Sir Robin

As a Saints fan of nearly 40 years, I demand the club respect my right to be disappointed

Here's my theory: Under Adkins we played a fluid passing game and clearly had a great, positive team spirit running throughout the squad. The only catch was that ultimately, at PL level, we got found out defensively. In came MP, an expert in getting the whole team defending better, largely by playing further up the pitch and concentraring on keeping posession. As MP had inherited a team that already had the right attitude and instinct for attacking play, the fact that he was less skilled at coaching that aspect of the game didn't matter too much initially and we reaped the rewards. However, as time went on and the team's overall approach continued to evolve further away from Adkin's influence, towards MP's more patient style, the goals naturally dried up. If this is the case, it might be a very good thing he's gone, and perfect timing to get someone in who's more skilled at inspiring spontaneity and finishing. I guess time will tell...

Shaw is the next Gareth Bale Chambers is the next Wayne Bridge

Won't it get confusing that they're all no. 11?!

I'd appoint Brendan Rodgers as assistant manager, buy Sturridge, then loan a promising youngster to Liverpool who'd I'd then pay £1m to for breaking Suarez's leg in training

Double post/edit malfunction faux pas - sorry

Lol why stop there? Why not Maurinho or Guardiola?!

Rakatic Reportedly being tracked by Liverpool

If Lallana stays, yes (long shot, admittedly!)

1. When Man U were sniffing around in l1 days, he said he wanted to be just like MLT. Nothing since then. 2. Agreed. Maybe we are 3. My guess is that they may well be worth more after the world cup, and Liverpool want to get in there before their prem league title rivals.

There's no way he would've started more than 10 games for us next season. You could see his body's starting to call time on his career yhis season. He's had to work as hard as anyone possibly could to keep match fit, but still clearly struggled to keep up for the full 90 mins. He'll be a bench warmer at Liverpool. Super sub if he can keep his skills honed. Brilliant for team building to have his enthusiasm, attitude and experience at the training ground though, so another shrewd move by Rodgers.

The exact same one's we're in the process of selling. Looks like we'll have about £90m to spend. Let's hope we spent it more wisely than Spurs or we're nailed on for relegation!

Absolutely 100% spot on! Most sensible post I've read about our current predicament yet. Personally, I cant begrudge Ricky going home to Liverpool. It's the perfect happy ending for him, and a great time to cash in and reinvest for us (he'll never be worth as much and realistically will spend most of next season on the bench at either club).

Blaming the wrong people! The club have made it clear that they wished to keep MP and all our star players, but if a bigger club comes along and turns their head, that's it. Has always been that way and always will. We're basically just victims of our own success.

Poch is a good manager. Not in Mourinho or Benitez's league, but a step up from the likes of Adkins and Poyet. Suitable for a mid table premier league club. If I was a Spur's fan, I'd therefore be disappointed. From our point of view, he did a good, solid job, arguably slightly overachieving with the squad he had to work with. Plenty of other managers would have done just as well. The main problem with him leaving for us, then, is the effect on continuity. It'll be a fresh start next season, and results might initially not be as good as they would've been if we'd kept the same setup throughout the summer, just because the new management time will need time to settle in. If I was on the board, I'd therefore be tempted to go for a like for like replacement, and if possible someone with slightly more pedigree than Poch at the same or slightly higher level. The obvious choice would therefore be AVB (how ironic!). If we can't attract our first choice due to limited funds being available and star players leaving, I'd say someone like Steve McLaren or Steve Bruce would be a sensible appointment. As this is Saints, however, and we seem to enjoy being a bit left-field these days, I wouldn't rule out the club holding talks with Moyes. He was set up to fail at Man U, so it'd be fairer to judge him on what he did at Everton, where he brought through some really good youth players, had a good relationship with everyone at the club, not least the squad, and consistently over-achieved season after season to build them up to genuine European contenders. In this respect, he'd be a perfect fit. And before anyone starts spitting their coffee about how disgraced he's become, cast your minds back to Hoddle & WGS when they joined us. Both had fallen from grace previously and were regarded as a gamble at the time.

We can't. Well we can, but it'll involve someone in the academy now deciding they want to emulate Matt Le Tiss, then having the talent, determination, belief and respect for the fans to pull it off. Only, preferably, then not cocking it all up by fecking off to a bigger club just when we're starting to look on them as a potential legend

I'd be very disappointed if I was a Spurs fan and they sign Poch. If they're serious about trying to get into the Champions league, they should be signing Rafa Benitez or Klinsmann. They were after Van Gaal a few weeks ago. This would be a clear sign that at worst they're resigned to living in Arsenal's shadow for at least another season, and at best they're willing to take a risk and/or don't want to/can't spend big.

He picked the players that were most fit and on form that day. Unless you were standing next to him on the training pitch then on the bus and in the dressing room, it's difficult to argue with that.

I don't think we can count on having another run of spectacular form as good as the one we enjoyed at the start of this season. Other teams have wised up to how to beat our system, and it'll only continue to work if we can eliminate the frequent errors in certain areas, so the signings you're talking about would probably just about even things up and see us obtain 8th or 9th again.

I was there that day too! As MLT was leaving, I stepped forward and said "Matt, on behalf of everyone here, I'd also like to thank you for stuffing Pompey the other day!" He shook my hand and said "It was a pleasure!" One of the proudest moments of my life!

Leicester, Forest and Burnley to come up, Sunderland, West Ham and Fulham to go down please.

Eh? There's currently only 8 teams that have had a better season than us. Hull are below us, so they aren't one of them. And it most definitely isn't over yet. Savour the feeling of going into every game knowing that whatever happens, we know we'll still be a premier league team next season. We might not experience that luxury again for years!

Very similar to what Poch has done at Saints, then!

Can't see any value in being pessimistic, so right now I'm going for 69 points and an England team featuring 5 Saints players in the starting line up to win the world cup!