The9

Both Lallana and Schneiderlin have/had at least two songs.

On the contrary, Ben Smith has been writing these types of articles since the first moment there was any inkling that Cortese might be leaving, long before he actually went. Having read them all a couple of days ago to see how much of what was written in January was prophesy, given that all the information looks like it came directly from Cortese at the time, it's pretty obvious now that his contacts at the club have all left and now he's just writing stuff to keep the sources he did have previously on side in case they become relevant again. This is a tedious hatchet job again designed to attack the Board and promote Cortese, which I linked on FB last night with the phrase "I haven't read it yet but it's by Ben Smith so I bet there's some Cortese love in there"... The only real interest is whether Cortese is keeping up the onslaught out of pettiness and revenge, or if he's doing it because he has some interest in the board being discredited to make things cheaper for any future investment he might be considering... or of course it could be someone else heaping the crap onto the Board to get a cheap takeover - the last bit is pure speculation on my part.

"Box to box" midfielder covers it absolutely fine. It's not a new position, just that the starting position tends to be more defensive nowadays rather than (eg the more defensive CM in a flat 4-4-2).

Also, by Prem rules, the squad numbers don't have to be announced until the first game of the season (there's no link between squad numbers and 25-man squad lists) but obviously it makes sense to release the numbers in time for fans to put them on their shirts. Seeing as the away kit is out on 8/8/14, I'd expect the club to confirm them the day before. And FWIW I think only these ones are "likely". 1 Kelvin Davis 2 Nathaniel Clyne 3 Maya Yoshida 4 Morgan Schneiderlin 5 6 José Fonte 7 8 Steven Davis 9 Jay Rodriguez 10 Gastón Ramírez 11 Dušan Tadić 12 Victor Wanyama 13 14 15 Jack Stephens 16 James Ward-Prlowse 17 18 Jack Cork 19 Graziano Pellè 20 21 22 23 Ryan Bertrand 24 Emmanuel Mayuka 25 Paulo Gazzaniga 26 Jos Hooiveld 27 Lloyd Isgrove 28 29 30 Matt Targett 31 Artur Boruc 32 Harrison Reed (14?) Jake Flannigan (?) Sam McQueen (21?) Billy Sharp (20?) Jason McCarthy (?) Sam Gallagher (17?)

Stuart Balmer for Charlton in mid 90s Simon Vukcevic of Partizan Belgrade Plus Ossie Ardiles for Argentina as already mentioned in 1982 World Cup And Ruud Geels in 1974 for Holland. Oh, and there's this, but unfortunately Blackstock isn't wearing the number 1 as he took over from Bialkowski who was 28, and has a blank shirt on.

No reason Davis shouldn't keep 1, can't see anyone currently in the squad taking 7.

He sounds like exactly the kind of player we won't be interested in.

We loaned Cork about 3 years before buying him, he played half a season at the start of the Championship relegation near-miss season prior to the year we were relegated, and signed for us back in the Championship after we'd spent 2 years in L1.

I enjoyed the previous post greatly. Nearly as much as the Bear's cartoon and its excellent use of French.

Just means he's not really known outside the countries he's played in. Which is right...

Do they have to be "really impressive"? At this point I'd be happy with 6 or 7 good, sound, competent, obviously Prem quality signings. Six or seven of them, mind. It does seem strange for you to fixate on the highest profile player we've been linked to though. I'm not actually that bothered if Rojo comes or not, I can see a lot of potential problems with that even though he's obviously talented. Vlaar, however, would be a good signing by any measure.

Anyone would think dribbling past people was a risky business which often resulted in possession turnovers and that he did it a lot, or something - does it also show how many times his quick feet and control enabled us to retain possession from low quality balls in tight situations in the attacking third?

Controversial choice of short/socks colour there, Bear.

Previous insider comments (eg Monk) have spotted DVDs of players we've been linked with in the analysis room, you'd still have to be daft not to have them watched in person at least a few times, and we've always ( until Osvaldo anyway) tried to sign players with the right attitude.

I think "concerning" is reasonable here - we've put ourselves in a crappy position by weakening the squad, and it's not surprising we can't find someone as a makeweight in the Osvaldo deal. Who knows what might be forthcoming in terms of "real" signings (if anything), but we're starting to look like we'll take anything.

On another note, whilst I completely reject the idea of the subtext proposed by the article that Koeman's tweet about the pictures on the wall of his office was intended to suggest even they could be sold, you do wonder how a manager with a bunch of pictures of himself on the walls of his office can be "ego free". Don't get me wrong, I'd have pics of me playing football everywhere in MY office, but then no-one's claiming I don't have an ego.

I've still got an open mind about what the Board is doing, and will judge them on results when the TW is closed - but it is very clear they are doing an absolutely terrible job of "managing departures". One of the benefits of having a strong squad is the ability to attract other players - as soon as you rip a couple, never mind five, players out of that, you get the double whammy of potential signings suddenly thinking something's wrong AND the selling clubs knowing you've got a pile of cash to use. We may have got good prices for those sold, but we're a less attractive proposition to players who'll improve us, and the gains will be lost in negotiating for replacements with everyone expecting us to pay more. In addition to that, they've suddenly hit an arbitrary point and jumped in and told players who were supposedly in discussions to leave that they're staying, rather than telling a few months ago that they could leave and ensuring the others couldn't long before it became an issue. That, of course, is assuming we had to sell anyone at all for any reason anyway, which is a whole other discussion.

There are a few interesting comments on Schelotto - of the "tries hard and good guy but not good enough for Inter" ilk.

http://www.sempreinter.com/2014/07/31/yes-schelotto-agrees-to-be-part-of-southampton-deal/ Does look like Schelotto (as mentioned above) rather than Taider - assuming Taider's comments about wanting to stay were indeed recent and not a rehash of a January statement?

This one actually made me laugh.

Oh, I dunno, quotes about investing every penny in transfers and/or wages would be a clue - they're not exactly weasel words. Can see your point about the strangeness of bringing in loanees though, but that actually makes sense IF we're interested in making signings because it makes the team look more attractive before pitching to the potential player. Obviously even if we do actually sign players, had we done this in May it would have been a lot better.

Lolz, make me a wiki.

I never had any intention of keeping this maintained - maybe someone can search for it in 3 years' time and update it then.

Replace the word "conceded" with "scored" and "Shaw" with "Lambert" and you'll understand how I felt about our quick breaks.

It's already been noted that Morgan met with the Board BEFORE the broadcasts, and about 3-4 hours before the tweet.