John D

Very true. You rarely saw kids in City shirts outside of Manchester 10 years ago either. One of the kids at a family Christmas event yesterday was proudly claiming to be a City fan having lived in Hitchin all his life.

Interesting. None of the City fans I know have that sort of attitude. Most are still suprised at where they are and enjoying being above United. Having worked with many for 20 odd years up here I've enjoyed watching them be able to give the banter back to the Utd fans for once. Add the scousers into it as well and the Utd fans are getting it from both sides. Most entertaining for the rest of us.

Thanks for replying. So said pre Hughes sacking. Clearly things have changed since then so I don't read that as a definitive no incomings if that is the only source. Back to the game today. A big gamble to play Ramsey over Cedric but then we are unlikely to get anything whoever plays RB so why not give him a go. As said above I'd play Ings, Redmond and Long from start to press their defence and hopefully grab a goal. Can't see us keeping a clean sheet mind.

When/who said there are no incoming transfers in Jan? Cheers

Cedric, Ings and Long all possible for Sunday Bertrand out after back operation - min 2 weeks

According to the Echo the rumours about Mitchell are not correct stating "it is not an opportunity that is currently being explored"

Plucky performance where we control large portions of the game but fail to move the ball around fast enough so don't create any sustained pressure. Gabbi misses our one clear chance and we eventually lose one nil to a scrappy goal by Lukaku after a mistake from Yoshida/Stephens/Hoedt/Cedric*. Hughes finds positives from the performance that no one else can. I have to decide whether to watch from the comfort of the sofa or brave the local which will be full of Utd fans! * could be any of the above.

First half we weren't that bad but got worse as the game went on

Spot on - we just let them at us, complete lack of mental strength Hughes has to go

No chance - Krueger is just a figurehead; this was decision by Gao or one of his advisors. He owns the club and it is his money at stake. Any decision like this would have been made by him I suspect Hughes will get a bit longer now as well though

Looking at the table this morning I think all teams from Palace down are the in the scrap. But still tight and a couple of wins changes everything. We seem to lack confidence at moment. We create opportunities but not real clear cut chances. Need to address that asap. Today is a write off but must target Watford and Fulham for 6 points.

Now confirmed to be at Wembley on bbc

I agree Spurs should foot the bill for all fans out of pocket by their failure. No chance of it happening though. Just checked dates and TV games were announced, 7 Aug, spurs v city date change confirmed on 3rd Sept and Saints issued their warning note on 7 Sept. So a whole month when fans will have booked tickets expecting a Saturday date. It's such a small amount to the clubs to compensate fans and would be a great good will gesture. Not to mention we will now probably have half the number of fans there!

Nothing to do with Sky for once. Blame Spurs for this one for not having their stadium ready in time and Wembley already in use for NFL over the weekend. To be fair to Saints they put a story out about 2 weeks ago suggesting that this would happen. Just waiting now for our game against Spurs to be confirmed at Wembley too

Couple of mates who were there have confirmed this is correct [EDIT: they have confirmed that both Austin and JWP were stripped off ready to come on; it is not clear if he changed his mind or got the timing wrong. I'm assuming the latter]

Which are what? Clubs are declaring tickets sold and presumably playing tax in line with that income. That is a higher amount than police figures so if anything they are overstating

How the **** does a loan signing make it worse? If it doesn't work out we send him back!!

But players are on fixed term contracts so aren't being let go. We have legal obligation to pay them £xxx over the time of the contract. Players are happy to sit there and pick up the money or put pressure on selling club to pay % of wages if they do move. There are some players who will sacrifice some money just for game time but many are happy to pick up the pay check.

JWP seems to have a better reputation with fans from other clubs than with Saints fans. Spoke to few at work today who all thought £10m was a stupidly low price. Few Everton fans said they would snap our hand off if they could sign him for that For him to go with no re-investment would be pointless. Good solid player in my view.

All will be revealed with the next financial statements. Where do you think the money has gone?

Agreed - I used to use newsnow to pick up all the gossip across the papers but it is pointless these days. Wish you could just turn off alerts from sources such as transfertavern etc full of sensationalist headlines!

It was clear we needed a striker in January hence the Carillo signing. I heard that we would have recalled Gallagher if the Carillo deal fell through. So, if Gallagher leaves I'd be amazed if we didn't bring someone in. I'd love us to anyway but Hughes comments from a week or so ago suggests we may not. Would also love a pacy winger but don't think that will happen Not too fussed about a right back as we probably have enough cover in the squad even without a recognised deputy. Still need to shift Forster and perhaps one or two others

At the end of the day the black box was (and still is) a glorified database. It is only as good as the analysts who input and then assess the data derived from it. The club made a decision to promote this for PR reasons and it gave this false impression we had a fall proof way of identifying players to sign. The reality, as mentioned already is that unless you are prepared to spend mega bucks to sign a proven premier league or other top flight player then it is a gamble. Saints don't have the money to do that so all the black box does is try to mitigate the risk of signing someone who makes it (Alderweireld / Mane / Pelle / Bertrand / Clyne / Lovren / VVD etc) than one who flops (Claisie / Boufal / Carillio etc). We've had mixed results but seemed to have lost our way often than not recently. I do think Mitchell leaving is a factor in this but also our luck may be out and it could easily reverse. Les has to be held accountable as he is the Head of all Football matters - not quite sure he deserves all the abuse he gets though

Been going on for years and pretty common. In a previous role I had access to the accounts of 10 plus top flight teams and it was happening with all of them.

All 7 of us have renewed - never in doubt really although lack of transfer activity is disappointing. But then I remember watching Paul Moody and Frankie Bennett up front so it's all relative