Chez

all that is a given, but you can't force him to sign a new contract and if he doesn't then his value depreciates massively. Forget how long he might stay, the club simply must protect the value of the asset by getting him to extend during this window. If not it becomes another tough decision like it must have been when they didn't get Morgan, Wanyama and Clyne to extend when they had two years to go.

Could not agree more. He goes then so too will Marez and Kante. Stay and perhaps the other two will do the same. Going to cost Leicester a shed load in wage rises though, which I guess they can afford. It's a very interesting scenario. Similar in some ways to us when we faced losing Shaw, Lallana and (lets say) Morgan (because I don't want to say Lovren). At that time we really needed to have made that extra giant step forward straight into CL football, which we of course we didn't get anywhere near, but possibly (I know its stretching things a bit) could have attained and then to use that as the carrot to keep them here (plus of course monster wage rises). I'm interested to see how it pans out for Leicester, if all three stay and get huge wage rises. I hope they do well in the CL, but I wonder how it will effect the rest of the club for the years to come.

Couldn't afford to let both Morgan and Wanyama leave at same time explains the first, and the club thought CLyne was singing a new deal possibly explains the second. Also we may have learned from both situations and realised that players are simply going to leave. We shall see. Not sure we will get £25m for Mane next summer by the way. That a lot for a player with one year left. Mind you he could have an amazing season I suppose.

First it was not letting players wind their contracts down and leave for a free, but now perhaps it's not let them get to one year left otherwise you can only expect to get the money you paid for them back as looks likely with Wanyama. If Mane won't extend his deal then maybe we have to take £40m now rather than £15m next summer makes financial sense.

We will need to replace him with some height. The side has been strong defensively against set pieces for many years with the likes of Lambert. Pelle and Wanayama supplementing the centre backs. We see to be losing a little in that area.

Where's Deschamps on your list?

It's 10%.

maybe one below par game in all the games since he was here. Brilliant first touch and ability to keep the ball and get out of tight spaces. Obviously he has certain limitations if you want to criticise him, but if you prefer to look at the positives there are lots to his game.

I thought that too. Has a pop at all parties. Nice of him. Interesting that he said Koeman is only getting £3m a season not the £6-7m mentioned in the press elsewhere.

Are you?

So let me get this straight. You are telling me that we are not paying him £100,000 a week despite that being the strong suggestion in the press. Fair enough, that might be true, as I said I don't know. However, because the other players read the papers they will have all demanded wage rises anyway. Thats a bit of a ****er for the club. They get a good deal on Austin but they get shafted by everyone else. Somehow I don't see that. For starters players can't keep asking for wage rises every time they read the papers. Also there are quite a few agents. How many do you think covering the saints first team? As far as I am aware there are over 20 different agencies and Austins agent doesn't have another saints player on it's books. As for players quizzing each other, well maybe it's just me, but when I was an employee I didn't ask everyone else in the office what they were getting paid. It's private and doesn't happen in normal business. What makes you think that happens at a football club?

Not sure I follow?

Any reason why you don't think it is him? I imagine he knows pretty much every French player worth knowing... Supposedly the luckiest manager in the world, which is a handy trait to have.

Perhaps the players we have here and how Martinez wants to work and play the game may be the perfect fit. Maybe not. BY the way, beat them and finish above them and who the **** is laughing now?

How would they get to know what his wage was? Unless of course a rival chairman told everyone what they might be of course! What is a our wage bill at the moment by the way? Creeping up steadily as I recall, offset by the bigger TV money of course, but don't think for a minute that we are paying peanuts to a top stars.

I certainly don't know, but wouldn't he know exactly what was being demanded by Austins agent, as West Ham enquired about him? Why would he come out with a figure unless that was quoted to him by the agent? It's amazing how we choose to ignore evidence and information that we don't like the sound of. Feels to me like some Saints fans simply don't want to accept that we may be paying a shed load of money to an injury prone player that hasn't really provided value for it just yet.

In the short term maybe, but if he is successful (and RK isn't) doesn't that just show who is the better club? No excuses. I am not saying it is a possibility or I want him. Just putting it out there as none of candidates mentioned grab me much so much so that I still want to push Gary Rowett's name even though he's probably not quite ready for it.

Decent job at Swansea and he did pretty well at Wigan considering the funds and players at his disposal. Obviously less so at Everton, but does that mean he is a busted flush? Pretty much every manager `fails' in the end. Good timing is everything for managers. when you take over, what you have in the squad when you get there and who you can bring in whilst you are there. In the end its all about matching manger, players and club. Look at how successful Adkins was for us and how he has struggle since. Is he a good or bad manager? Maybe Martinez is totally the wrong guy, but I'm struggling to see the right guy in all the names mentioned so far.

If you were an egotistical director of football at Saints, you wouldn't half want to show the world that it was you, the board, management and the backroom staff that were more important than RK to the success in the last two seasons. You could make that point perfectly by appointing the manager who had failed at Everton and then still be in the top 6 in the table come next May. Of course that would require Martinez and the team to be successful... or have we gone beyond the point of being able to suggest managers now?

on a fractionally more serious note, wouldn't appointing Martinez be the closest thing to it - effectively saying that in our structure, with our practices/procedures, support and `black box' behind him we think Martinez can do as good, if not better job than RK. If you were an egotistical director of football at Saints, you wouldn't half want to show the world that it was you, the board, management and the backroom staff that were more important than RK to the success in the last two seasons. Achieving that with the manager that failed at Everton might rubber stamp it. Of course that would require Martinez and the team to be successful...

you are kidding? This design is fugly

The idea of keeping players for `one more season' but allowing them to go on a bosman is wonderful except that when they do go the following season you still need to replace them, but you don't have a big hefty pile of cash on your pocket in which to do so. I hate to say it, but in the long run its financial suicide to sign players for millions and then allow to leave for nothing. If we want to make steady progress you just can't do that and we won't. That said if we don't get reasonable offers (I'm looking at you Levy) then we wont allow them out the door.

I don't see any drop off in sharpness this season, nor any reason he can't continue doing what he has been doing for two more seasons. Yes he goes through periods when things don't go well, but he leads the line well and offers a good alternative to the pace of Long. I worry about Austin's fitness, so allowing him to leave would be a slight gamble IMO. With no genuine young striker coming through it must be worthwhile us keeping Pelle at SMS.

Good prospect when at Brum, but not sure he has fully lived up to that yet. Time on his side, but didn't he struggle to get in the Norwich starting eleven last season?

This is true, but will Austin stay fit and can Rodriguez ever get back to where he was. If not then allowing him to leave could end up costing us goals and points.