a1ex2001

What a player, such a shame we didn’t find him before he was 31!

Other than the free kicks JWP has never been a flashy player and to many fans seem to see this as a negative and throw around the ‘crab’ nonsense. He is clearly an incredibly talented footballer, never in the real top bracket that would see him playing for one of the big clubs but massively under appreciated by some because he does the basics incredibly well and makes room for others to excel. I for one am incredibly glad to have him back, he is a class above this league and we are lucky to have him!

Fortunately Argentina are nothing like a near peer they in effect have no Navy with which to take the islands and no air force to ealistically threaten the on station Typhoons. It is as always just posturing from an Argentine president because there is trouble at home the classic right wing distraction/othering solution to hide the real problems!

Nige will drag out his MAGA playbook and blame it all on 'the establishment' 'fake news' etc etc then distract this afternoon with some attention grabbing bilge about small boats and boom his supporters will be out commenting 'boring' every time the rampant corruption in the party is mentioned anywhere. Sadly it has been shown t work time and time again.

Which ever way you look at it he has replaced him in the team, maybe not like for like but he is clearly going to be our first choice going forward, obviously the club wanted another but couldn't get them doesn't stop him being a replacement.

I've yet to see anything from Schlotterbeck to suggest he isn't a good enough replacement for THB at this level particularly, so he misplaced a couple of passes in a poor team performance the other night it's not like THB never made a mistake, prior to christmas last season plenty of people would have told you he was average at best and happily seen him move on for 30million. Yes he was a good player for us but lets not turn him into peak van Dijk! I really don't see it with Shea, again he was a good player for us (mainly off the bench in the second half of the season) JWP is still in the prime of his career it's not like he is some unfit 36 year old with a terrible injury record, he might not have the potential to get better that shea still has but he should be comfortably one of the best midfielders in the Championship. Lets not pretend Stewarts injury problems had miraculously disappeared last year, how many times did he play 90 minutes or start two games in a week he was a carefully managed crock who managed to stay just about fit long enough to score a few goals. There is every chance he would have missed large chunks of the season once again and a top prospect like Mubama would likely not have come here had Stewart still been here. If we loose Peretz is injured I would be amazed if Ramsdale wasn't suddenly available for selection but only time will tell and McCarthy was pants so replacing a pants player (who hardly played last season) with another pants player (who will hardly play) isn't weakening our spine!

Weaker all down the spine seems a bit of an over reaction, we've lost three first team player in THB, Shea and Stewart. The German lad looks a perfectly adequate replacement for THB, JWP is at least as good as Shea which just leaves us lacking a little upfront but looking at Swansea's squads so far Stewart has once again gone AWOL so it would be fair to say any forward is better than him right now!

Or they could give us Reed back he’d fit nicely into the team!

The one game he played for us at this level against Sheffield Wednesday he looked far too good for this league. He has been plagued by bad management ever since but I still see him as being better than most of the midfielders in this league and hopefully his love for the club will inspire him and others!

My gran would be an upgrade on BBD and she has been dead over a decade!

Why wouldn’t he? We will still be one of the biggest clubs in the division next season and the -4 gives him a pass if it doesn’t work out.

The 12 month ban the FA hand out will likely apply globally, UEFA and FIFA only support cheating if it makes them rich and Tonda doesn’t have the Wonga for that!

We should be the club worried about civil cases not the other way round! I’m sure the clubs who just missed out on the play offs will be eying up a juicy payout! Might add to the drama nicely for the next season of Disney FC!

He might well have a better career than Lavia who seems to be made of glass but I’m not sure he is a better player Lavia on his day is a beast!

Would be a massive loss if that injury is significant but one injury doesn’t make him injury prone. Stewart on the other hand is made of glass!

I’ll give him a little leeway as he had a terrible GK and only one striker but he failed miserably to get a tune out of a decent squad and persisted in making the same dumb choices over and over again which reminded me of Martin. I’ve decided I’m not a fan of coaches who have a rigid system they want to stick to regardless of the players available or the circumstances managers need to be flexible, able to work with a squad and change things that obviously are not working!

Think I’ll reserve judgement on that, JWP was a key player for us in the premier league and made the England squad! He was just below the standard required to be a top premier league player and is among the best we have ever produced. Bragg has made a great start but let’s not get carried away just yet if Bragg reaches JWP levels he will have done extremely well and we will have another great player.

It is amazing the difference a top quality keeper can make and we’ve seen it so many times before! Boruc arriving on a free turned us from relegation fodder into a mid table team. Niemi took us up a step from Paul Jones and this season we’ll talk about night and day.

The table certainly makes it look that way although we’d still be in with a shot if results went our way on the last day I’d prefer it was in our own hands, two wins should see us finish above Boro regardless of other results.

Can see Bragg and Azaz missing out, Bragg is still so young and Azaz is clearly carrying some sort of injury and both ran themselves ragged at Wembley.

It’s nice just to have two decent centre forwards to choose between! Stewart’s return to something resembling fitness has been a very pleasant surprise an Larin looks a million times better in a Saints shirt than he did on paper before we signed him!

Be disappointed if it was anything other than a decent one, nothing special but he certainly never did anything to warrant a bad reception on his return. A limited player who always gave his all but was never quite good enough!

Bree has been a key component in the teams success since he returned Jelert isn’t getting a start unless it’s a dead rubber and he hardly rotates the centre backs so it’s not surprising Quarsie is struggling for game time as he has been bang average.

Southampton XI Daniel Peretz James Bree Taylor Harwood-Bellis Jack Stephens Ryan Manning Cam Bragg Shea Charles Kuryu Matsuki Tom Fellows Cameron Archer Cyle Larin

Was expecting to loose, would happily have taken a draw before kick off so chuffed with 3 points. so good to see us playing for at the back again after wasting half a season on the 3 CB’s experiment and so good to finally have a goalkeeper who is actually half decent at his job!