Match Day Thread Southampton v Chelsea Saturday 20/02/21, 12:30 pm, BT Sport

Just look at the likes of Gallagher, Maitland-Niles, Lookman and Areola at Fulham and WBA. I don't see any of them staying there next season (whether on loan again or permanently) of they go down. But there's talent there, and clearly their respective parent clubs are happy to send them out on loan.

It's not all about spending huge sums. Just being smart can be more than sufficient.

 

Totally, and I think Ralph could be good at identifying what he wants, without being hamstrung with players we dont want on huge wages. If you look at our model recently, we have shipped out serious numbers - maybe 30 or 40 since Ralph joined.

I wonder if he will go for Lookman if Fulham dont survive. He is on a contract to 2024, so not sure we could pay a permanent fee yet.

With how close Newcastle are to the drop, I’m even more pissed off they beat us, not only in part about the Lemina deal, but I’d prefer Fulham in the league than the Toon.

What are your thoughts of us looking at players who will be free in this summer, or the one after, as a means to better players on perm deals?

 

Depends who those players are. Theo is the obvious one for us.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55907793

Clearly the talent listed in that XI is beyond us. But there could be others out there (indeed some of them are mentioned within the article).

 

I wonder if we could be interested in Van Arnholt, with Ryan not committing yet.

 

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There was a strip of worn grass where he ran up and down the wing. Grey hair from his mid 20's.

Against Coventry (I think) the keeper went outside his box to clear and the ball spun off the side of his foot for a corner with Woody bearing down on him. Keeper was trotting back to the goal and behind him Woody planted the ball and curled it into the net before he reached it.

Vin

 

I know things didn't quite work out for him but boy I was so pleased to see him score his first and only(?) goal for us, smashing personality.

 

And what a goal it was

Vin

 

That day still upsets me. Got an extra ticket to take my wife’s friend’s American husband to see his first “soccer match”...

driving down he got his betting app on his phone and said, “ Who do I go do first scorer, Lambert?”

I said not to and look at one of our CBs... Jos was 33s or 40s. He popped £10 on him.

Not a drink, nor a thanks. Not even when we got back to ours (where they stayed and we fed them) and he told his wife he’d won some cash

 

Thanks for putting this up! Just wish he'd been able to build in that.

 

Glen De La Cour’s blog on the Chelsea game is, as always, well worth a read.

https://leagueoneminus10.blogspot.com/

 

Just saw those tackles on Moussa, on Ref watch, Dermot says yellow for Kante (it wasn't given), but Werners tackle was acceptable, on this occasion I disagree with him, had they been committed by a Saints player against one of the elite sides they would have both been given a red, in my opinion.

 

Definitely. When Ryan got a red against Leicester in THAT game it was a similar challenge to Kante’s and he had the mitigation of appalling conditions as well.

 

Absolute rubbish.

 

It was not similar. Bertrand went miles over the top of the ball and connected with force halfway up the shin. Djenepo was on the ground when Kante made contact and Kante didn't go in high. He pretty much just stood on him. It was late and should have been a yellow.

 

It is just my opinion, but shared by others. I didn't say that they were red cards either.

 

The vast majority on here have said neither were red cards.

 

I had similar conversation with you at the time - (I think) we all agree that they are not red cards, but our point is that if it were a Saints player going in on Kante, the ref would have seen it differently.

 

Fair enough, I am not convinced, but it's water under the bridge, no going back, can't be rectified, but will happen again I am sure of it.

 

I don't think so. Maybe if the ref was Lee Mason or Mike Dean. But Anthony Taylor is one of the best referees in the country. There's no evidence to suggest that the outcome would have been different had it been the other way round.

 

I said pre match that Anthony Taylor was ok, old school but never trying to be the talking point in games. Had he booked Kante it may have affected how he played the rest of the game. I think AT considered that it was not intentional, so that's fair enough, VAR could have looked at it differently but didn't on this occasion.