JonnyOldBoy

if you email gerry_heath@swett.com , he can help , he is the guy that sent me the T-Shirts.... :-) Hell of a nice guy...

you don't make anyone stay anywhere. You try your best to sign players who will respect the contract norms and want to play for us for 3-4 seasons. its really as simple as that.... if a few shallow money grabbers like Clyne are in-and-out more quickly then that matters not if we have overall stability. I think at the moment the balance is right... just.

So if its 30degC and sunny one day at your house... do you then go out and order an unheated outside pool ?

Wanyama is good but he can not pass accurately past 20 yards and does need to be surrounded by the "right" players. I can see why he would be unhappy now , his deficiencies are more exposed, and no pro footballer likes that.

Bumped into Gerry.... who runs the California Supporters Club... on a Hire Car shuttle bus in Honolulu and we exchanged contacts... and chatted about Saints. He sent me and my lad two of their club T-Shirts.... THIS is why I LOVE the Saints..... Fabulous supporters all over the globe.... mahalo Gerry !!

Pelle got 4 league goals from the beginning of February to the end of the season.... he has one this campaign.... so that is 5 league goals.

LEAGUE form is what Pelle and Mane have to be judged on..... and their conversion rate since feb has been dire..... hopefully it will improve and they will form a stunning partnership. I do not want to see either go but if they take the cheque they have to deliver the goods and Saints need at least one of them to start banging in League goals....when the chances arise....

Good points... but our defence would not have had to handle so much pace if we were properly organised in midfield... we were a total shambles in that department. I am expecting Koeman to re-invent our defence, not only personnel but also tactically. Would not surprise me if we end up playing 3 centre halves at times as proper centre halves...

I don't think its "hysteria" to point out that the first goal we conceded was pub league stuff... or that we clearly need a striker who can modestly put away 1-in-3 chances.... last season our run-in was dire attacking wise [ with the obvious single exception ] , and we had a defence that made that issue less of an issue. Now we have a serious problem to fix. Its not hysteria to point this out and discuss it. And its not "getting at the manager",, because to be honest he looked as surprised as anyone else who knows anything about football as to how the hell we allowed Everton almost the entire left 1/3 to themselves to counter attack in. Pelle and Mane were luxuries last season in the run-in. We can not afford luxuries now we have dismantled our defence. We need goal scorers.

Everton were made to look better by our shambles of organisation. The first goal was a Div1 give-away... truly pathetic to leave that avenue wide open in the top flight. We keep talking about Pelle and Mane's chances... but just to be clear , these are NOT the same as goals !! We need to get a bit real here.... sign a goal scorer... a decent replacement for Spiderman and get this team organised.... 10th or 11th would be a great consolidating finish for us consider we are re-building but there is a lot of work to do and we can not keep deluding ourselves that Pelle and Mane are going to get us the goals we need.....

interesting observation... I think its simply because we have sold the best passers of the ball we had...

The back four were a disorganised mess. The reason was simple, without Spiderman and responsibility/marshalling in the midfield there was no confident handshaking between fullbacks and wide midfielders ( hence first goal ) ... our full backs did not know where they were supposed to be half the time and Fonte and Yoshy did well I thought today considering.... Our attack is no surprise.... its exactly the same as the last 10 games of last season, bits-and-pieces and little end product against half decent defences ( and Newcastle certainly were not that ). Alarm Bells ? well both full backs looked off the pace and with no sharpness in attack we will have to change things... The new guy looked worryingly over confident... a stupid haircut never bodes well but I thought he was poor... And someone needs to remind Mane and Pelle that back flicks only work 100% of the time if the rest of your players are clairvoyants... Were there any positives to come out of today ? Well for me it was Yoshy's performance under that amount of pressure.... but little else.... worse than any game from last season..

not sure why people think its "one or the other" with these deals.... Saints need 4 CHs of top quality all competing for a place and with Europa we will need to rotate a bit more..... Since Toby sh@t on us from on high the urgency is there, not to have "utility" defenders but ones that are key in that vital position.

Saw the game and just feel sorry for him... the Liverpool was move was idiotic and his heart ruled when his head should of. His England career is over and I sadly think his professional career at the top flight is about to fizzle out. He looked very poor. Regards the comparison to Pelle.... not sure any of that is that valid. Pelle is a different play with different strengths and is giving us a new edge up front and making us less predictable in my view... The lambert-Lallana show in their last season for us was becoming predictable and teams were sussing us out to easily... last season we looked inventive and varied in comparison and even though our season stalled a bit towards the end, I still saw promise. Pelle will score more Prem goals than Rickie this season, of that I am certain.

I am glad we are shot of the muppets we got rid of... with the obvious exception of Spiderman who is going to be a hard act to follow both in his football and his manner.... regards the others.... good riddance.... I am happy with what we have.... 2-2 was a great result considering who we having missing and how pumped Newcastle were... onwards and upwards and try to remain realistic...

interesting comments on this thread... regards Mane and his hopeless finishing yesterday... Shane Long made it perfectly clear in the post match what he thought. Missing 1 clear cut chance per game is no sin , but Mane will have to sharpen up. I thought last season he was very effective in most games whilst often playing like a headless chicken. This season for him will have to be one where he hones a few skills and becomes ( cliche alert ) a most complete player. He is a professional and can handle criticism.. In the same way Pelle did at the end of last season....

Loving the Guly observations.... He was talented but could not be ar5ed..... He seemed to divide his games up thus : 20% fabulous , 30% average and 50% dire from the ones I saw. The standard of American soccer is rubbish, about the same standard as our Div1 so he will earn a good wage and good luck to the fella but for me he was never doing the business as Saints and put in some truly shocking performances.... Pompey away amongst his worst.....

and Newcastle's abomination is higher than ours !?!? LOL.....

Good luck to MS... he will need it with that shower... Still baffled as to why a decent club did not come for him... thanks for the shift you put in with us though... fondly remembered unlike the other muppets....

10th...

Totally agree with OP.... Clyne and Toby have been ****es..... and they are gone.... but Saints are building much more and its a process , if we have to take one step back this season and finish 10th ( my prediction ) then the following season we may have a more stable squad of players who want to be here... its a shame that players are not all honourable but it takes all sorts. One this is for certain. RK is a better manager than either Brenda or Pinnochio and I think the future's so bright.... we gotta wear shades...

seems open and shut to me... Toby is an ungrateful can't...... hope he is totally sh1t at spurs.... LOL..... move on Ladies and Gentlemen... nothing to see here... ;-)

Any "fan" that posts on another club forum is a bit of a kn0b really... The phrase "get a life" springs to mind... ( and presumably a job ) LOL From my own experience I only know 3 spurs fans and they are all complete to55ers.... but that may be a co-incidence....

And furthermore it seems to have escaped everyone that Athetico did not want him !?!? There must be reason for that and I think we have seen it ,,, he is not the "utility" player some say he is , he was clearly a centre back , and one who seems a tad injury prone... Would not surprise me if this signing comes back to haunt Spuds.... Also Yoshi for me is an improving player and has still to get to his best.... So long as we have decent cover in the centre of defence then I am not gutted about this....

What is really odd about all this .... is that it appears the contracts regarding TA have been amateur and vague it would seem. Surely if he was loaned to us , that would have happened within an air-tight legal framework and the terms for the end of the loan would have been black and white. Its incredible that something so cut and dry has got so murky. From a purely footballing point of view I would rather see him stay ( although he does seem prone to injury ) , but its not the end of the world if he goes... but from an admin point of view , its chaotic and embarrassing really....