The9

I didn't know he was a Skate, obviously all the Newport refs were, you know, reffing in Newport at the time. Not sure the 4th official can do much other than telling people to get back in their box, he probably spent 20 minutes learning how to use the subs board. I'm still waiting to find out what Newport's goal in the first half was disallowed for, haven't seen it on any highlights programme. On the bright side, Jazzi Barnum-Bobb is the greatest footballer's name ever.

"You're f'cking shiiiiiiiiiiit".... repeat. Not that I want to hear it again after Saturday, we really don't learn, do we?

I'd be quite keen for Klopp to try and find out that he and Skrtel can't play in the same defence for himself too.

Oh my goodness. Media exposure alert, all the talking heads will be there now.

As angelman said, £400k. Even if he was at the end of his contract (and I'm not sure he was), before Bosman clubs were about to retain player registrations even if their contract was up, and didn't have to sell players if they didn't want to.

Interesting reflection on modern football that 9 of the 10 highest transfer fees Saints have ever paid are for players currently at the club (and all of them would still be under contract if one of them wasn't a nutter): 1 Pablo Osvaldo Roma £12.8M 2013 2 Victor Wanyama Celtic £12.5M 2013 3 Shane Long Hull City £12M 2014 4 Gastón Ramírez Bologna £12M 2012 5 Virgil van Dijk Celtic £11.5M 2015 6 Dušan Tadić FC Twente £10.9M 2014 7 Ryan Bertrand Chelsea £10M 2015 8 Sadio Mané Red Bull Salzburg £10M 2014 9 Fraser Forster Celtic £10M 2014 10 Graziano Pellè Feyenoord £9M 2014 Also a reflection that we've bought and sold a lot of players recently (though weirdly our 10th highest purchase is for more than our 10th highest sale).

Rumour has it Eastleigh offered him more money...

But he wasn't a transfer - though I suppose it says "free signings", so yeah, ok.

We brought Romeu on against Swansea and completely shut the game down. Can't say I'm too worried about it, Leicester just showed why they're where they are (in the second half), and also why they're not going to be there at the end of the season (in the first).

How? Gazzaniga is clearly one for the future, he's obviously not costing us as much to keep as another keeper would to sign, he might save us a fortune and if he doesn't work out he's at worst going to get sold to a Championship side which will recoup plenty of the cost. Fairly sure if Gazzaniga hadn't already had a dodgy experience against Leicester last season he'd have been the starter. And let's not forget we're debating third and fourth choice keepers here.

Completely agree on the Clasie/Romeu front, we locked the game down against Swansea by shoring up the DM position, I guess he felt 2 goals was enough of a buffer to get Clasie some low-risk game time. Leicester were excellent second half though, I looked at the clock the first time we had the ball on the floor in midfield without a Leicester player immediately closing down and it was Wanyama on about 70 minutes. Even with all that we somehow managed to get to 90 still in front due to some dodgy finishing on their part and with Mahrez and Dyer running us ragged. As for Yoshida, any full back playing a striker onside when they can't get to the ball needs to take a long look at himself - though Kelvin's awful goal kick, low and directly to a Leicester player in 10 yards of space, didn't help us at all.

Well, yes, if you overlook that your audience here is a load of biased Saints fans who probably won't want to bet on the opposition.

I was under the impression that whoever paid the most money to FIFA or their various constituent parts ALWAYS got the World Cup, dating back to the time when Rous got ousted by Havelange after the latter offered a World Cup place to Africa.

He was out of contract as opposed to a free transfer (nowhere to transfer from), which is why he didn't appear on the list.

I'm hoping we start signing all our players to new deals which reflect the fact the new tv money kicks in soon, it'll probably be cheaper to do it now than when everyone else is getting pay hikes everywhere else.

That's enough to see him to the end of his career then - assuming none of the top 6 want an emergency CB any time soon.

Only if you're betting against Saints.

James signed for them August 2006, Beattie was so long gone by then that Peter Crouch who replaced him had left too. Crouch played in a friendly for England (against Colombia in May 2005) before he signed for Liverpool, alongside James and Glen Johnson - but neither were Skates at that point.

I knew there was someone I'd forgotten. Again. Could be, but Yoshida covers all 4 back positions so I'm not really sure we need a second defensive player at all.

Two absolute dead-certainty penalties alone that I've only seen Mourinho claim weren't, would be enough without the yellow card and free kick nonsense on top. Second half he had clearly seen the decisions at half time and was favouring Saints, but nothing like to the same extent.

I can't see it NOT being this. Bench has a Long-shaped hole on it, I wonder if we'll use a Dev squad player (McQueen deserves a look) instead of the relatively pointless use of Caulker/Targett I've put here: Gk, Yoshida, Caulker/Targett, Romeu, Clasie, Juanmi, Rodriguez.

As someone who's broken their nose 7 times during football matches and has a concern in the back of my head about 30 years heading gigantic hoofed clearances, goal kicks and corners, and who has actually seen stars after heading a ball, I'm pretty sure there's plenty of scope for head injuries (not to mention other injuries) in football.

Bearing in mind the US national team has worn red and white stripes in the past.

Does ANYONE expect honesty and criticise bland responses any more? It's absolutely what is expected from managers and players in every situation. It's not what's wanted, but it's completely understandable and acceptable for managers to say nothing of interest. Mourinho of course just uses his comments to distract from his team's rubbish results, always has done, there are just more rubbish results this season so he's run out of even vaguely legitimate gripes.

Two penalty decisions and a heap of midfield decisions all going Chelsea's way, plus the booking of Saints players for challenges which were ignored in terms of cards when Chelsea players committed them - if he even gave the foul.