Alanh

I don't know if Jack Stephens is ready to play regularly in the Prem, but the club will want him to have a pathway to the team. I think we'll see him fight it out with Jobs for the number four CB in the squad.

Pretty sure that RK said in his interviews about Jay and Morgan, that they wouldn't be sold before the start of the season and would be Saints players for the Liverpool game. Gives the club the opportunity to sell between the 16th and 31st and not have broken their word. Personally I'd rather they stuck to their guns and made him stay until January at least, if only as a way of achieving the best possible price for him.

Kruger didn't put a timescale on when the receipts of the transfers would be spent when he gave that interview. It could quite easily be that we spend it over the next three windows, adding to a squad that doesn't get shorn of its talent like has happened this window. He would not be lying in NY way if this scenario played out.

A fire sale is "a sale of goods or assets at a very low price, typically when the seller is facing bankruptcy." Selling assets for absolutely top price in the face of an intractable situation i.e. the player threatening to go on strike, is definitely not a fire sale. I'd say the right phrase is maximising the situation for the club when backed into a corner.

What about them? I'd expect that there will be a pretty much like for like transfer of wages between outgoing and replacement / additional players so the increases for the likes of JRod and JWP would be funded by sales revenues.

Les Reed said in this interview that all funds generated by the sales would be reinvested into the squad. He didn't give a time scale and he didn't say that the investment would be in the form of fees paid for new players. IMO it would be unrealistic for Saints to spend in the region of £75M on transfer fees in one window, however there is always January to make further investment and I would expect JRod and JWP's new contracts to have been funded by some of the incoming revenue.

If accepting less means that we don't have a payday loan shark (Newcastle) or betting company (Villa, Sunderland, West Ham, Swansea) on our shirts I'm all for taking a bit less money. We'll never make up the difference between us and the top 5/6 clubs on any financial comparison, but it's always 11 v 11 running after a bag of air and we've proved we can still beat them on several occasions.

I think you are reading too much into that photo. Just about anything 'exciting' could have just happened to get a response like that from certain members of the crowd. If I had to guess I'd say it looks like a near miss, with some fans up off their seats celebrating too early and the fan with head in hands agonising over what might have been.

Change of manager - Adkins out, Pochettino in.

I see the last matches are scheduled for 24th May. Any idea why the season goes on for approx. an extra 3 weeks compared to previous years? Will impact on the dates for the various end of season cup finals and playoffs.

Yep, it's always one of the landmarks of that part of the close season when nothing much happens, along with the announcement of pre season friendless and the new fixture list. The fact that Veho become sponsors on 1 July makes this date the most likely for the announcement IMO. New manager and possibly a player or two to look forward to before the kit.

To replace Lallana I'd go for Silva, Mirko Marin or possibly Ben Arfa. Rakitic would be amazing but he might be out of our league. Couple one of them with Ramirez and you'd have creativity in the team. Not sure they would offer the defensive side of things that AL offers, and they would have to buy into Poch's philosophy - which might be tricky for someone like Ben Arfa. None of the combinations would offer what AL offers but with time and discipline they could work out.

As you were writing this did you think about how ridiculous your argument is? You buy a ticket to a football match on the premise that you know which teams are playing. Nothing more, nothing less. The same applies to an individual match ticket or a season ticket. You don't know (with 100% certainty) the players that will play in the game or who the managers will be. Now I would understand if you had said that the uncertainty generated by press reports over potential transfers of some of our players is making you uneasy about the quality of the side that Saints will field next season and the information coming from the club about this situation is not resolving our concerns. Unfortunately you didn't say that, you came up with the ludicrous comparison to buying a cinema ticket. About a week ago you threatened to withdraw your long standing support unless you got guarantees that everything in the Saints garden would be rosy for next season, well before the transfer window has officially opened. If you really meant that I suggest you keep the £700 in your pocket as you must know that in football it is impossible to get the sort of guarantees you are asking for and that as a fan all you can do is support the team.

Chelsea - Terry & Cahill, Arsenal - Koscielny & Mertersacker, Man City - Kompany and Demechelis (second half of the season). All IMO of course, and accepting that all defences / defenders make mistakes occasionally.

It's not your criticism of SFC that's being questioned, but your statement "....Neither am I" in post 866. No idea what that means as the words of a long term supporter. Either it's a childish hissy fit or it literally means you're going to stop supporting the club. Which did you mean?

In response to St Richmond's post no 53.

What exactly do you want the club to do to allay people's genuine fears? MP has got another year on his contract so unless he breaks it he's here next season. Even getting him to sign another one won't stop the speculation about him being poached by someone else, or the possibility that he might leave should an 'too good to refuse' offer comes along. Season ticket holders (me included) will be buying into seeing Saints play 19 times in the Prem next season. We aren't buying into a guarantee that Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana or any of the other members of the current squad will be playing for Saints in those games because that's impossible for the club to commit to. It's the same for all clubs everywhere.

I think that was one of the best GPs I have ever seen in terms of racing, overtaking and interest up to the final lap. Great battles throughout the field, nothing was certain until the flag. Shame for Jenson on his 250th race, but a potentially season defining win for Lewis. Very good to see Mercedes not play the team orders card like they did in Malaysia last year. Ferrari would never have done that and it made for a much more interesting final 10 laps. Maldonado needs to calm down a bit. He's made a bad choice of team for this season and it seems to be affecting him.

That's a simplistic and naïve idea IMO. There's no such thing as a strongest 11. It's a squad game and the manager picks a team / formation / strategy to win a match. If that means giving match time to a youth team player to give him experience then that should reap dividends in the future. I don't think we have gone into any game this season without the intention of winning it. I know that you will cite the Sunderland cup games but I believe we put out a strong enough team on each occasion to at least draw each match.

What does success look like for me next season? More points gained than this season - don't mind if it's 1 or 10 more really. Losing no more than one player (who we would rather keep) from the current squad. Seeing similar levels of transfer investment in the squad as in the last two summers. No team doing the double over us. See us continue to play the style of football that we have been playing either under MP or another manager. A cup final would be fantastic but realistically there are only two finals to get to each season so success in them is always more of a lottery than something you can plan for.

I thought PS showed how little he knew when suggesting AL should go to Utd. They've got Mata to do the job he would do. If they need anyone from us it's Lovren, Shaw or Schneiderlin.

No, we shouldn't break the bank on a striker this summer because there is no need to put the club in financial danger, but I can see that position being the one where we spend most money. As said above it's going to have to be either an emerging star who isn't considered quite ready by the CL clubs but who has the attributes that we need, or someone like Osvaldo who comes with baggage and will have to be persuaded with a big salary. I'd like us to go for Bony from Swansea but doubt we'd be able to get him unless he's disillusioned with the managerial changes there.

You being concerned about summer transfer activity is up there in terms of certainties with the Pope's Catholicism and bears' approach to using the woods as their lavatories

Haven't read the rules so don't know what your restrictions are, but make sure you get a Merc engine and don't pick a team with a Renault engine. Pick number one drivers in their teams so the likes of Alonso, Hamilton, etc. Williams and Force India look like they might do better this season than last so it might be worth looking at their drivers.

Born 20 Jan 1995 so 19 years of age. U21's next season I guess.