westofshannonsaint

I've had the following going through my head over the last couple of days. The end needs work..

Don't ever leave Pochettino,

The truth is we've always loved you,

But we are fickle,

If you start loosing,

Then we will Boo you,

Pochettino

Offload??? Do you mean "retain". The above would be 5 to retain, surely.

I presume he did, but thankfully we are no longer a "selling club". Other than Ox, who was the last player we were "forced" to sell? Puncheon was made hold to his contract.

If we stay up I expect all those out of contract to leave with the exception of Puncheon and maybe Boruc and those currently on loan to move on. Rest of squad will stay unless we get replacements or they want to leave. We're already set for starters in most positions so I wouldn't expect massive changes and I suspect many squad roles may be fulfilled by youngsters as the process of promotion from the youth teams starts in ernest.

I think your right. Chaplow & Richardson are out of contract, http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/southampton-fc/kader-vertragsende/verein_180.html

Thanks for the service lads.

Players on loan - I see that Sharpe is signed up until 2015 & think Pochettino will want to watch him in training before a decision is made. I think most of the others will leave or go out on loan again. Will Hoskins & Reeves get contract extensions? I thought they were ones for the future.

www.firstrowsports.eu

 

tends to work OK once you have gotten rid of add pop ups ranging from TV companies to professional ladies - best to click on full screen to avoid them popping up during teh game but depending on volume image quality seems to suffer - and volume may be high given the 'global' Manure fans may be online

use chrome and download the adblock extension, works a treat

I use the Adblock Plus extension on firefox, works a treat

http://adblockplus.org/en/

A criticism I had when Pardew was sacked is that it took us too long to bring in our new manager. This thread goes to show that NC will be dammed whatever he does.

He might not have handled this situation as well as he could/should have & only time will tell if he made the right decision. I'm happy that the new man was lined up to come in, it's better than 4 - 8 weeks of Les Reed in charge.

Perhaps, our recent good form was a result of NA upping his game in an attempt to keep his job, I think he probably knew it was a matter of 'when' rather than 'if' he was going.

Together as one

Together as one

We are Southampton

Together as one

Well, apart from the fact that you fell at the first hurdle, as I discovered this morning, our relegation rivals also play 7 games at the same time as us (well, they play 6, but who cares), and some of them are facing bloody nightmares too.

I'm disappointed in you alp's. far to positive

how does anything on this page relate to the thread title?

ho ho ho

Many on here, including me would have happily taken £1m or less for him this time last year. But,

He has been our best player. To lose him in jan would be a blow

Not going to bring in anyone better than him for the 2m, I would rather keep him and let him go for free in the summer as he's been decent this year.

We would be foolish to sell for £2m now. He's an important part of the team and we will have to spend more to replace him. It's probably better for both sides to let this play out until the summer. Saints have until then (I think) to renew his contract & Punch will know if he wants to commit to us/play prem football next year. After the last few years, if Punch wants to play for Saints he needs to prove his commitment.

not sure that Puncheon has an agent per se at this moment.

good, regardless of anything Saints related, I think football agents as leeches on the game.

Interesting read, does not include info about assists & overall work rate though (i'd presume that SRL would finish top of that list too).

However, (if anyone didn't already know) a quick look at the league table tells me that scoring goals is not our problem. The Attack Table has us in 10th place & we are dead last in the Defence Table.

We are improving though. Looking at the form table, were in 7th place & have only conceded 4 goals in the last 6 games. The only tighter defence over the last 6 is Stoke who have let in 2. I find this surprising and encouraging

sorry for the poor grammar/wording, had to many Guinness & I'm too scabby to pay for the privilege of the edit function.

these are 2 important games but for now at least lets continue to take one game at a time. We are in the sh*t but it isn't even Christmas yet & there are a few clubs with worries about going down next May (villa/Wigan?).

A win against reading would is important, I think they are definitely going to be in the relegation zone at the end of the season & we owe them one after last season. Then we have a break, the team will probably go away somewhere & have the christmas party.

We'll probably come back "sluggish" and having picked up "training ground injuries" I would take a point against Sunderland right now. Provided we pick up 3 points against Reading, if we don't, it might be as good a time as any for NC to appoint RDM. IF that is his intention anyway.

Great news, and a 5 year contract. Good to see the club are continuing their policy of hanging onto our better prospects.

I made Bale my Fantasy Football captain, it might take the sting out of the result.

have we any players away on international duty?

Personally I think he's a brilliant manager and have done since he was appointed. I don't want any old has beens in charge. Who would we get that's so much better- from the Prem? I'd have Sir Alex Ferguson, Wenger.. or Moyes (perhaps the only likely one out of the three). I honestly wouldn't want any of the others, including Mancini - because I don't think any of them are any BETTER than our Nigel.

No, I want him(NA) on a long contract. I love his signings- made I'm sure with lots of discussions with a "buying" team- recently- and believe that we will surprise a lot this season and be in the top ten- nearer 6th by the end of the season- (see my prediction before the season started!)

I love his positivity...it's catching!

His contract runs until 2015.

from May 2011, has it changed since?

How old is he? 22? Far too early to write him off.

just what I was thinking, when do defenders come into their prime?

However, if he is to improve he needs to be playing, imho.

It's early in the season, were only 3 points away from "safety".

If we beat villa we have a good chance of going above Liverpool.

Lee coming on after 70 minutes to run at them could be good, if we are still at 1-1 or behind.

I can't find odds on Paddy Power (the only betting site i'm signed up to) for TD to score

Sorry chaps and chapessies but why is it clever management to leave your best goalscorer on the bench? Lambert plays for just 35 minutes and scores 1 goal, so might he not have scored more than 1 if he'd played 90 mins? Ditto Steve Davis, our most experienced player at this level, produces a brilliant counter-attack and scores but was only on the field for 25 mins. I must be missing something if keeping your best players out of the game is good tactics. It might also be why we lost.

The team played incredibly well and Adkins deserves all the credit for that but lets not be blind to the fact that City had most of the possession and most of the scoring chances, maybe because we didn't have our best team on the pitch for most of the match.

In reverse order...

- Surprise, Surprise, the best team in England were the better team on the pitch.

- I don't know about Davis. Perhaps it was due to his lack of preseason games or maybe it was wanting to show that we are willing to give youth a chance.... JWP put in a very good shift.

- I think SRL starting from the bench was an inspired decision. He came on & gave the team a lift when it was needed. Today he was an impact sub & it's a squad game. But, what an impact, the city defenders didn't have time to 'figure him out' & he is off the mark - scoring against wigan (at home) won't be a big deal now.

am I wrong in thinking Clyne was at fault for the second city goal?

Good post up Tim, I don't disagree with most of it. I might have agreed with it all earlier but I doubt many of the above teams will put in a similar performance against Man City as we did today.

Two of the people (in football) that I least respect greet our triumphant return to MOTD

Perhaps we should invent a drinking game for 'arry's clichés... "the boy did good" = have a shot.

There's not a lot about our qualification for Europe mentioned anywhere....

& no comments on our defensive shortcomings either = lazy journalism (they didn't even bother to search this site).

journalist's opinions are about as meaningful as the bloke down the pub.

this.

this.

.......not enough to have three CBs and we can't bring any in on loan during the season..

what's the story with emergency recalls?