saintwbu

Would love Pellegrini, think he wants to stay in England if the opportunity is right, his job at City was good but not great, but his job at Malaga was fantastic and performances in Europe with a limited side were equally so, which is what we need. The same with Emery, but I do feel like both may not be interested. Laurent Blanc maybe an outside bet? Left PSG but as far as I'm aware not linked with anything at the moment unless I've missed that he's taken a job elsewhere! Feel like De Boer is the easy link for journalists because we've gone Dutch before. Knowing us it'll be someone not on the list of favourites with the bookies, which is the way I like it. As bad as it sounds I hope we don't go British, just nothing inspiring out there for me. We need someone who has handled a European campaign, in a state of transition as we may be this season, and the extra demands of 6 Europa games, we need someone who knows how to deal with it and then we'll be fine. Starting to get excited now.

The only thing irritating me more than the Koeman saga is seeing people on Twitter saying Giggs to Saints would be a good appointment. On what grounds!?!? Why does everyone assume this bloke is ready to be a Premier League manager just because he was a good player!? And how condescending that most think his route into football management should be with us. **** off.

Hasn't dawned on any Everton fans that having to almost triple the wages of the manager of the 6th best team in the Premier League just to get him suggests they aren't as 'big' as they think they are...

errr.. no he can't! May turn into a good centre half one day, but certainly can't play there at the moment given that in his first season at Arsenal he was deployed there on a number of occasions and was severely out of his depth to the point where it was sometimes painful to watch. Really liked him at full back when he was here, something different to the marauding full backs of today's premier league but very sturdy. As others have said though, only get him back if it's permanent, especially if we are seriously considering ourselves as competition for the big boys.

Think a lot of people on here are underestimating just how good Mane is. Admittedly has had off days aplenty this season, but even during those I still feel he's worth his place in the team because he still causes so many problems for the opposition. One of the very few players we have/will have sold since our return to the Premier League that I see as possibly irreplaceable. Thats not to say we won't cope and push on further, but we won't find someone as good as him I don't believe.

Les makes a very good point about last season not being a fluke. After the 2014/2015 season I was gutted as I thought our chance to come above Liverpool had come and gone and next season it would be back to normal. Of course I was wrong, and in fact we were able to jump Liverpool and obviously Leicester jumped everybody. So it actually suggests the top 4 are getting worse and have been for some time. The new managers coming into the country is understandably getting people excited, but as Les touches on they're all going to be going for the same type of players at the same time - have we ever had this many 'top' clubs in this country beginning a season with a manager in his first full season as we will do next season? (City, United, Liverpool). I think if Klopp is backed this summer (I'm not convinced he will be) then Liverpool may well challenge the top 4 this season, but it's going to be interesting just how well these new managers actually do.

Eto'o and Zlatan. But yes it does seem like the go-to story for journalists over the summer and is very rare nowadays.

I know it's easy to when you don't have £26million a year on the table but if he really is considering a move to China over Man United then it tells you all you need to know about this chump (if you didn't know already). It's hilarious that United are actually trying to sign a 35 year old target man who's played the last 4 years in one of the worst top division's in Europe - free transfer or not he's still going to cost an absolute fortune in wages and signing on fee with absolutely no resale value - good to see they aren't steering away from the 'quick fix' approach any time soon and will probably hang around the 4/5th mark for a few years yet.

Still skewed though, you could make a two yard pass to someone who turns and smashes it in from 30 yards and get an assist, but you could take it round 7 players including the goalkeeper, cut it back on the goal line and the striker put it over from 5 yards and you don't get anything. Always makes me wonder what sort of stats Ozil would have if he had an Aguero in front of him!

Ibe looks decent, fell out with Klopp apparently, so attitude perhaps questionable but then again a 20 year old from London having to live in Liverpool without being on top money or playing regularly would probably turn me into a bit of a ***** as well. Sheyi Ojo however looks brilliant in his cameo's this season but I'd imagine he'll be a regular feature before long so probably not for sale. Although perhaps his life long ambition is to play European football and therefore just couldn't turn down a move to Southampton...

Think I'm right in saying he's recently signed a new deal rumoured to be in the £120,000 a week mark. At the end of the day, that's what keeps a player, and evidently if any of ours end up at Liverpool this season then it's what lures one away as well, apart from history of course because all players care about that...

I think Tadic wouldn't be a case of "I'm good enough for a top 4 club" but more "I want to play every week" - I could see him making a sideways step to an Everton or West Ham type, but can't really blame him if it's on the grounds of wanting to play more often. It'd be a shame, because I think when he has a good game we seem to be unstoppable. As for the others, expected but still disappointing to hear it. I love our approach to replacing with cheaper but capable (and sometimes better) replacements, but I think after a couple of years of this it'd be a nice lift to everybody for us to make a bit of a statement... GET OXLADE-CHAMBERLAIN

I know everyone will say 'oh it's in the championship', which yes in parts is a lower standard league, but I think Bournemouth, Watford, Leicester show that the gap isn't what it once was. In the games I watched him in, he looked like he could see what nobody else could, which sometimes I felt was the case here when he set up chances that no one else saw coming (West Brom at home for Lallana), but understandably if that only happens once every game or two then it does give the appearance of being a passenger. Hopefully he stays with Boro and makes a Premier League career, never seemed to be a problem within the squad like Osvaldo was, so I think a lot of the criticism is slightly excessive, he just wasn't what the manager required.

I have maintained since that hat trick against Villa last season that one day Mane will fall into that bracket of players just below the Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar/Bale/Suarez one, so in the company of players like Hazard/Lewandowski/Ribery/Ibrahimovic, providing he can find some consistency in his game. The way he can stop dead, stand up to two players, and just leave them in his wake is astounding, his change of feet and speed is rare and he just makes everything look effortless. But on top of his skill, I think his work rate goes completely unappreciated, even when he was going through that bad spell mid-season I still didn't want him dropped because even when he's not on song he still causes constant problems because he is always working. I remember when we beat Chelsea away from home I saw so many opposition fans tweeting how hard he was working that night, but he does that every game even when it's not quite happening for him, which is something you can't always attribute to a player of his variety, who often go missing when it gets tough. Sadly it almost certainly won't be for us, but I really believe Mané will make it right to the top.

Cedric had some very good games this season, Chelsea away in particular if I remember rightly. But he sometimes was dropped following decent performances in what seemed like an attempt to provide a more physical presence in certain games in the form of Martina or even Yoshida, so I don't think this helped his cause and probably knocked his momentum at times. I think Martina has acquitted himself well though, he lacks in certain areas a right back shouldn't but he has contributed in an attacking sense too, and for his price has been a bargain.

I think that if we lose Wanyama we need to replace him with someone who can at the very least cover a hell of a lot of ground. It's going to be difficult to replicate the physical presence of Vic in the middle, but if we get someone with a lot of pace and energy to play that breaking-up role then we are part way there, as shown by the success of Kante at Leicester (albeit he does obviously possess a lot of technical ability too, but his energy is probably his greatest attribute). So as it is, Carrick would not be of use to us i don't think, despite his obvious qualities.

Anyone else feeling slightly less hatred towards Poch after that picture...? almost feels a bit like some form of closure haha.

As others mention often, Sigurdsson would be an unbelievable signing, but I just can't see it happening as I feel like his experience at Spurs has probably put him off moving to another Prem team. I know he has been accused of going missing but I really think that Wijnauldum is a player we could do with, the top scorer in a very poor Newcastle team that all go missing, I think the good he has shown this season (his first in the prem of course) should be taken more notice of than the not so good.

They've refunded the ticket for today's game, but then also given them a free ticket for the next game. So instead of just getting a new ticket for a new game, you get your money back altogether so you're watching the game free of charge.

Whenever I have seen Derby on Sky Sports highlights reels over the last few seasons I've found them to be really entertaining and the atmosphere in the ground looks brilliant. Whenever I take the time to watch one of their games they look absolutely ****. Hillsborough was rocking last night, think I'd like Sheffield Wednesday to come up, but also a big fan of Steve Bruce so likewise would be happy with Hull coming up. Definitely, absolutely, positively, certainly not Brighton.

Completely pointless fact but Southampton Solent University football team wear Under Armour kit I saw last week. Considering it's probably just bog-standard catalogue teamwear it was really smart, and seemed very fitted.

I'd probably put Martina in the 'wins' category due to his performance in relation to cost and expectancy. Came over with a really bad reputation, but has put in a few good displays recently (and some not so good, admittedly), but for his cost I think he's been good value for money. Seems a popular guy in the squad as well. Agree on all the rest though.

Like getting a penalty away at City after it hit Sterling on the back? Or scoring a second which came directly from Aguero wrongly being called offside? meaning you win a game that probably kept you in the title race. Oh no wait, that was Spurs. Leicester's luck/bad luck has been no different to anyone else's, people in the media are just trying to blow it up because it's little ol' Leicester

But they played alongside each other on Saturday and you still criticised him so what was the reason for that?

It felt like the early goal made us realise we would cruise, fans and players alike, and the intensity was never really there. Predictably unfair criticism of Pelle as usual, thought he was brilliant, nice finish for his goal and some great touches to bring others into play, but most of all an absolutely sublime directed header/flick on to put Long in behind, really hope they show it on MOTD tonight. Long's energy was a huge loss when he got replaced, wonder if the clash with Darlow affected him more than it looked? Clasie's delivery from set pieces was absolutely woeful, as was 99% of his passing, and Wanyama's wasn't much better in the first half but he looked like a completely different beast in the second half and I loved his reaction to his goal, you can tell he has been frustrated by going all season without one and it seemed like the team were delighted for him. A strange, but good day at the office! Can't we play Newcastle at home every week..?