Chez

Perhaps Reed/his agent were not asking for a huge weekly wage like Cork might be doing? The players/agents know there was £32m more income from TV money last year and they will probably want a sizeable slice of that. Before committing to a huge new deal for Cork, perhaps Koeman wants to have a good look at him.

was he ever a target? Virgil van Dijk seems to be the man Koeman is after if the news reports are accurate.

what are you angry about? why do you feel cheated?

Are there lots of skates posing as Saints fans on here posting utter twaddle in an effort to annoy and also make Saints fans look like mugs? Or are there just lots of Saints fans that are mugs?

he knows **** all, he's just one of their regular ex pros that they interview from time to time whenever there is a story about Bolton, or fat Sam, or Blackburn or whoever else he has played for.

makes total sense. There isn't anything more to it than that. No huge debt, no dissatisfied owner, no inept board, just a perfect storm-like situation whereby our players have impressed enough for the big clubs to come in with sizeable bids that are enough for us to accept. The inability to keep unhappy players from earning bigger bucks elsewhere is not exclusive to Saints, it's just that we have 5 or 6 players at the club at the same time all good enough to play in the champions league. It's ****, it's annoying, it's depressing, but is it avoidable in any way? I'm not so sure.

A release clause in your first pro contract? Can't see it myself.

He hasn't changed after all. Boy am I going to hate seeing him in a Liverpool shirt.

Are we chasing anyone actually better than we have or did have? I guess you could argue the keeper might push Boruc close.

Skate and/or stupid? You decide.

I hope they all fail. They won't, but I hope they do. I'll have a packet of crisps with my bitter thanks.

Watch this war chest sink into the championship.

Seriously? Not a chance.

Could just use the wedge of cash we have to fill those positions we don't have one top notch players,besides having two good players in a position is hardly an unbalanced squad.

Chamberlain, Walcott, etc. you know, the players they won't sell and who won't want to come here anyway. I'll pass on the rest. Over paid average players past their best or never will be are not what we need. Wenger doesn't let many slip,through his fingers.

He may have said all the wrong things on his route out, but in the end we are losing an absolute top notch player here in a position notoriously hard to fill. Again I think we have undersold and again I fear pretty much no matter who comes in we will be weaker than last season. Maybe we will buy the right player again, time will tell. Quality wins you games. Take Morgan out of the side and all the real top quality has gone.

Interesting point. Personally I think Mertesaker (does he count?) is pony and I wouldn't break up the Lovren/Fonte partnership to play him. But if Lovren goes, and he will, maybe my opinion would change.

Very surprised a championship club hasn't tried to sign him. As you say he was a major reason we got promoted. Perhaps the televised own goals have put them off. He'd be a great signing for someone or if not he will do just fine for us as 4th choice.

Zouma has been given the number 5 squad number suggesting perhaps that Jose rates him. Mind you Jose doesn't rate Ivanovic at CB (all according to Jason Cundy yesterday). Lovren would be a good acquisition for anyone though. He was fantastic for us and as with Lallana and Shaw we will struggle to replace with equal quality and immediate performance levels.

I would assume their outgoings will have included the agreed annual payments to ex-players.

Much prefer we bargained as hard as possible with transfers fees in and out. Any savings could then be passed on to the fans in the form of cheaper tickets. Fat chance.

But didn't Wanyama's injury show exactly why we need to retain Morgan? You need competition/top quality cover, not just cover.

he will be here all summer and will eventually go out on loan on the last day of the window for no fee and maybe even us paying some of his wages. Buyers marketing with him. We don't hold any cards at all.

No one will buy him because of the injury yet we are prepared to offer him a five year deal despite it.