Woody00028

That's not saying much given how low Chelsea fan's opinions of Mikel are. Could be a tidy find though

Lil' Sam Hoskins signed up for Northampton today after a two year spell at my other club Yeovil, where he was ****e but that is the norm.

Any potential gems in this lot? I've heard quite a bit about Slattery, what about the others?

I had a season ticket at Yeovil Town when he made his debut season on loan there. It was clear that even at 17 he was miles ahead of the standard (albeit league 1) and would go on to make something of himself. Sadly he has made abominable careers choices in joining two utter disasters of football clubs in Cardiff and QPR, so his stock has gone down somewhat. That being said he is still young enough that, with the right guidance, he can still be a good premier league defender. I think that if he's seen as initially a rotation/backup defender with the view to unlocking his long term potential, we'll have done well

I did deliberately include "should", "seem", "can"

The results and performances on this tour should hopefully settle some nerves about the strength of the squad this season... seem to have replaced Clyne and Schneiderlin very well, and we've got a stronger attack to boot! Get that CB and this can be a good season for Southampton

This is still a winnable tie. Just because they get players from Chelsea doesn't mean squat really, you can't compare Baker and Brown to Fabregas and Costa. Indeed, you can't really compare then to Chalobah and Bamford even, really. Side note, any chance that there will be telly coverage of this?

That run from Mane though...

A large target man striker, just what Brendan's short passing game requires

Looks quality. With his free kicks, the way he runs out of defence and his actual defending, he reminds me of a good David Luiz

Shame he had to make history on Slippy G day... media should be all over Mane

We'd be a good move for him and I think he's a good match for us as well. Cheaper than Austin with little between them ability wise IMO

Mane playing off Pelle? The small nippy striker playing off the big lump. Can't imagine the centre backs will enjoy it too much!

Whatever happened to Jon Flanagan at Liverpool and Joel Campbell at Arsenal, surely they could find some form at Saints with regular football?