Chez

aren't Defoe and Rooney both injured? he might actually get a game. Pleased for him. Not sure it is good news for Saints 3 days before the season starts. Maybe Saints players getting caps will help improve our profile and help with future recruiting.

I wouldn't mind reliving Horne's equaliser against Bolton or SRL's goal at **** park. if allowed I'd like to go back and stand on the post and volley that skate's volley clear or better still quantum leap into Guly's body and go through Ward like a freight train.

Hard to tell much from a youtube video, but as videos go that one doesn't sell Finnbogason all that well to me.

I was thinking exactly that for some reason - must be the tap in description used on this thread, but in reality there is no chance he'd come to us I'd of thought. There would be a long old queue of clubs before us probably.

that worries me also. It seemed a lot of money for a player they didn't seem to rate.

if that is accurate it's not the most glowing of endorsements. I'd be worried about the time it might take for a Brazilian striker to settle. I don't watch Brazilian football, but I imagine it's a very different style.

care to expand?

how would I know? We got them quite early in the window, so that might suggest yes, but I think the term `targets' was used by Alpine rather than `first choice targets'.

Can someone tell me why we thought we could ever sign this guy when Spurs have failed to do so for the last few seasons? Was it the extra tv money at our disposal that meant we might actually be able to match the selling clubs asking price? Why have Spurs not used that extra money themselves to buy him? Out of interest, do Brazilian strikers have a history of bagging lots of goals when they come to Europe? For some reason I can't get Mirandiha out of my head, but I ma sure there are some good examples where they have thrived.

I know we have been over this a thousand times, but don't nearly all teams have difficulties prizing away decent players from other clubs at the price they want to pay? I mean there's a small side in Madrid that seem to be having a little spot of bother getting that Bale kid. All very frustrating I imagine. Why don't thy just give Spurs whatever they want and just be done with it? If the two clubs valuation of a player match then deals have a chance as they did with our targets Lovren and Wanyama. besides, these signings show that we don't always struggle to capture are targeted players.

any reason why?

Interesting to read above that Damiao had scored just 29 goals in four season. That is not quite the full picture. according to Wiki in: 2010 he scored 7 goals in 25 Brasileiro Série A games. 12 in 35 in all competitions. 2011 he scored 14 goals in 28 Brasileiro Série A games. 38 in 51 in all comps. 2012 he scored 7 goals in 19 Brasileiro Série A games. 24 in 43 in all comps. 2013 he scored 1 goals in 2 Brasileiro Série A games. 9 in 20 in all comps.

if you needed a guy to trap a bag of cement, he wouldn't be the ideal choice. I'd give him 8 out of a 100. He gave his all in games and in the odd one he was effective because he won some headers, but by and large I rank him as the least talented footballing professional I have ever seen at the club. Fair play to him for making a career out of kicking people

I really hope we don't get to test this theory.

didn't we sign Yoshida last summer? Oh... I can see now why you were left dissappointed.

he signed for us in Jan 2006 so I don't think he did. Are you thinking of Blaney with regards to save of season?

QPR are requesting a £2m loan fee for one season

Adkins simply did not trust him and because of that I thought he treated him rather poorly at times. Steve would come on have an impact on the game, but then not see playing times for weeks. When he did get a chance he didn't always take it of course, but you do need a decent run in the side and I'm not sure he ever got that. I guess our promotion shows that Adkins got it right selection wise, but there were a few games when I thought he should have been brought on and a few when I thought he shouldn't have been taken off. Water under the bridge now. Hope he gets his career back on track. He's not nearly as bad as some make out. He just needs better direction in more ways than one.

Not seen enough of Caulker to make a judgement, but do Spurs have a recent history if letting players go that come back to haunt them? They are a top 5 side so are looking for world class player to improve them. Cardiff could be yet another former championship side that surprises the blase Prem sides. Could be a good season...

fair point, but for us to go down there might need to be some poor seasons for some of these guys and that can make it tougher for them to be sold. You only need a few £50k a week guys stuck on the wage bill to bleed you dry.

Really would like us to have three or four players that have come through the academy (manunited-like) all in the side pushing each other on and encouraging each to stay and take the club onwards and upwards. Best of luck to the lad. Look forward to seeing him up at the Hawthorns

As a regular on the Skate transfer Saga thread I can confirm that the blue few have been derided for the last three years for not questioning some of the mega money signings they made and their ability to fund them. TV money has gone up for sure since then and we have a larger stadium to bring in greater income, so perhaps there are big differences, but current fees and wages are bigger than ever and I have not seen a single Saints fan raise a question about our own spending and perhaps more importantly what might happen should we have bad season and somehow get relegated. I therefore thought I'd do that now. Do you think these new £10m-£20m signings have accepted a reduction in wages in line with the reduced in income of the Championship? Has Lovren got a 60% reductuion relegation clause in his contract similar to the Higginbottom one mentioned above for instance? Is a relation clause standard practice these days? If not will the huge parachute payments keep us out of difficulty? Is our wage bill well within our limits now, but more importantly if we went down. Or is there simply no chance we will go down so it doesn't matter?

excellent comparison.

depends on how much the work will cost. If it is not too much they might get an instant return on their investment.

do you think if another club came in for him right now and offered Everton say £5m they would sell him, cos I think they'd bite their hands off to accept it.