Chez

cherry pick the best one or two players from the championship and you usually don't go far wrong. They might not be instant success though, but as imports usually get time to bed in, there's no reason why they shouldn't be given that time too. Whether Ings or Rhodes really are one those two top players I am not sure.

Shaw is absolute top draw. Chambers is very good.

Running scared? Blimey, that's some opinion. You have watched Shaw play for Saints? Not seen anyone really beat him in two seasons, never mind have him running scared. Baines takes a great free kick but doesn't have the pace needed to get the likes of Jagielka out of jail.

Might have new owners this summer that will save all bluenoses from the madness

Will they? We didn't sell out this season in most games.

I must have saints blinkers on then because all I saw was Valencia passing it square because he knew he didn't have enough to beat Shaw. Baines will get done for pace and we'll all wish we had started with Shaw. I agree he didn't get forward much, but With that line up maybe it was wise he held back. Formation looked A little top heavy of you ask me. With those centre backs you don't want to be caught on the break.

Chambers keeping him out of the side cost him badly. Still don't understand why right back is the one position we have chosen not to select two players.Jones, Smalling and Milner are not good enough to play there so should not be considered as cover. 23 players means there is no need whatsoever to take a utility player.

Right back and centre half is devoid of quality. Not convinced by second deep lying midfielder either. Wiltshire is not suited to that role and Henderson is overrated.

Roy will play it ultra safe when we should go for Italy's jugular. Barkley a better option in the hole. Chamberlain a shoe in on the right side. Shaw to start ahead of Baines. Milner turning the Liverpool game on its head is not enough to justify his inclusion. Shocking game played out of position.

Can Roy still change the 23 because we have a serious problem at right back. Milner was worse than Johnson. Is that even possible?

I honestly think Roy wants to pick Shaw ahead of Baines, but just needs Shaw to have blinder so that he has the whole of England wanting the same.

I'd take Zaha and Fellaini to try badly to fill Rodriguez and Rickies shoes. No chance of that happening. I suspect there is no chance or us signing any half decent player from a top four clubs just because of the wages required.

contracts these days for the top players are more to protect the club from the player walking on a free though aren't they?

IMO selling Shaw will be like selling Bale. You may strengthen the squad, but you can only play 11 of them and that 11 will certainly be weaker at left back for starters as we won't sign anyone better than him. I wonder if we will sign any player that is better than our current best 11 (centre forward apart now that Rickie has gone).

Premiership Wolves bid for him when we went down league 1, but he opted to sign a five year contract for us that kick started our change of fortunes. I have little doubt it was a big old contract, maybe as good as he could have got at Wolves, I have idea, but he stayed with us.

Ramirez linked with Torino. Ah, too slow. He certainly doesn't want another season of sitting on the bench.

fair enough. The web is not to be trusted. Samuel Etoo to Chelsea maybe? You are right though that over 32 and big fees are rare as the players simply don't have a resale value

that's a very good point/question, although the huge rise in fees over the last couple of years does change the playing field a little. Diego Milito went to Inter for £30m and he was 33.

when the club is taking mattresses with them to away games, then you know there are very fine lines between winning and losing. Take absolute top, top players out of the side and that leaves you with a team that is weaker and those 1-0 wins can start to become draws and those draws can easily become defeats. Just losing Shaw will have a huge effect on the balance of the side IMO, never mind the Lambert/Lallana combination that has worked so well. With Rodriguez with a lot to prove, that's another `edge' player that we might miss. Personally I thought Morgan would be the one player certain to leave, and he may still go. Take him out of the side and more often than not we struggle. These players have't left yet, so we are far from ****ed at this point in time, but don't kid yourself on the strength of the squad. We finished 8th not top. Replacing what Shaw gave us is an impossible task. The others? I don't know. Hopefully we won't need to find out.

Don't sign a contract of multiple years and benefitting from all that security only to jump ship five minutes later when a better offer comes. Mind you contracts are only given so that clubs can benefit from a transfer fee should another club want them.

What does that actually mean? If a player asks for a transfer the club just says no and you are in exactly the same position you were before he asked for a transfer aren't you? Handing in transfer requests these days seems to just be players willing to forgo their entitled loyalty payment to make the transfer more palatable to the owning club.

Gotcha. In which case I have no reason to doubt its validity. Danielle Kelly certainly is a friend of Amy Lambert on Facebook. Whether he goes is a different story. I guess the right offer has to come. Shame that all three England players appear, if you believe the papers, to have all but agreed moves which no doubt will be announced after the World Cup. It's not going to be the same watching the games knowing for sure they are Saints players.

I love these threads, they really show the passion/mental nature of the fans on this forum.

I notice that there is no @amylambert tag next to the name. Does that mean it's a fake? I certainly can't find that user on twitter.

it's called the `Hoddle Tactic'. Give them a manager that fails and you have one less team above you come the end of the season! Some patience is required as it's a two season approach.