Odear

It's a nice touch that they keep his 2 seats at SJP for either family members or for anyone from the foundation. If the seats aren't used, they get left empty as a sign of respect.

He is more than wealthy enough to buy us. Not that he would. But the guy’s rich. No need to diss his richness. Estimated at around 300-400 million dollars.. and that’s an estimate. The only reason he did the McGregor fight was he needed the money to pay a tax bill. I’d say his lot in reality is significantly less. I don’t think he’d have enough to even buy us, let alone put money in. He’s a publicity whore though so if he wants to bleat on about buying us, he may continue to. It raises our profile over there.

Obvious bollocks. Wealthy as he is, he’s not wealthy enough. But it’s great publicity, hopefully it reaches someone who might have the money who may never have considered buying a PL team and spark some interest.

and... Another poster claiming he isn’t a nonce. The sooner the club is forgotten the better.

I bet none of this actually happened. He probably stays in his office all week like some anxiety ridden shut in. Peeping out the shutters, desperately trying to make eye contact with anyone who’ll help him. He then goes into full Walter Mitty mode during interviews.

I had him as our motm yesterday. Yes he looks miles better since he came back into the team but he also has Dummett playing too. Any defender would look shaky having to cover for Manquillo.

Was watching them warming up beforehand. Everyone else had yellow shirts on but them, who had blue bibs. Some sort of sports psychology? You’d think they’d be able to pick each other out otherwise.

Southampton have a decent academy to call on but there’s a management issue there for sure. They’d be in huge bother if they went down. Same for Stoke and Palace though, short term appointments with their managers, it’s always hit and miss. If Palace go down, who’d have Cabaye back?

Was expecting a very tough game but they were truly awful. Bertrand their only bright light. If they manage to stay up it will be because Stoke and Palace are worse and that’s saying something. Feeling much more confident about our chances now.

He was last off the pitch. Whatever happens in the future, he’s our most important player in the here and now. Wealthy clubs will be in for him for sure but let’s worry about that another time. Air tight at the back with Lejeune today. They were talking to each other the whole match.. it's great to see.

Justice prevails. Shocking ref decision about the penalty in the first half. Although bad result for us. We still have to play them, would have been better if they were resting players

From Twitter.. fairly spot on. “Mitrović is playing in a team at the top end of their division, with a squad that includes some PL quality. Naturally he's finding himself in scoring positions regularly & converting—just as he did at Anderlecht. At Newcastle he's playing 30 yards deeper with his back to goal.“

Pressure is getting to a lot of clubs who should be doing far better. The difference between us and some of the other clubs around us could potentially be that our players want to be here, some of Southampton’s higher earners won’t have the belly for a relegation struggle. I think we’ll get the win, it’ll be tight though. Palace have some very tough fixtures now. Threw it away tonight ?

We’ve had spells of being shit ever since Keegan walked out the first time. But this is really the only spell where we don’t even have a go at the decent sides. I can’t and won’t get used to it. The last 30 minutes we didn’t even bother. Can Rafa be pleased with that?

We actually look like we can play once we start having a go. Some slick passing moves in pretty much every one of our games this season. Rafa is like a bad father. Constantly telling his kids that they’re not good enough to compete.

We literally made 2 mistakes the whole half. I think we’ve shown we can score given a chance. Still a point to play for.

Goal difference is going to be so important come end of season. If we’re to lose today, let’s keep it tight.

This is one of the only instances where Rafa is just wrong. Mitro adds far more than just goals with his general work rate and bullying defenders around. I’d like to think there’s a way back into the team for him. ?

Well he has Diame now impersonating William Carvalho so that will give him the freedom to get on the ball a bit more. I’d still love to see Merino in the team but at who’s expense?

It’s a good question. Rafa has said before that he likes Diame because he follows instructions. Perhaps before Rafa was asking him to do something a bit different before and then due to injuries I guess Rafa asked him to fill Hayden’s boots. He doesn’t quite have to sprint as much as when playing no.10, it just suits his pace and his physique to play like this. Plus it gives other teams more to think about because he can take a shot on if he does drift forward. Great game today but we need more like it.

If Shelvey could play like that for the remainder of the season he’d have a chance for the England squad. Easily his best game for us. Where did that even come from? Knows he has to pick his tackles now as he’ll always be liable to get booked for any 50/50 situation he goes into. Madness that it’s taken him this long to figure that out.

Was there any noticeable trouble at the game? Reports of some of our fans throwing bottles at the Man Utd supporters.

He’s trained every second day. Certainly not fit to play the whole match yet. Would be stupid to risk him against a team we’re likely to lose to. But he should definitely play some part if he can. Why do we just assume to bring him on late in the game? Why not start him and play him for 30 minutes. We could have something to hang on to for the rest of the match as opposed to chasing a result.

6 goals and still hungry for more. Some turnaround for them compared to early in the season.

Only has himself to blame. Falling out with Costa was idiotic. Him and Hazard were holding the team up.