CB Fry

Arf.

So we're not doing really well then? That's pretty disappointing to be honest.

Not much of a stretch to see them winning the league either.

Being that he won the league on both his previous jobs then I think Manchester United would accept that level of failure.

I had you down as a Toffee Man.

We all have our little rituals, don't we? Some people have a daily ritual of ploughing through a 24-pack of Ferrero Rocher every morning before ten thirty.

I'd say you're right. But if and when we sell Mane this summer, the structured deal is going to be worth more than £17m.

We sold them a right back who had played four and a half games for £16m. They wouldn't even get Mane's nutsack for that much.

Sure can!!

Not when the management of the club would be expecting and planning for this eventuality. In other news, we finished sixth and are in the Europa League group stage. But fill your boots and meltdown away.

My biggest fear is if they all go then we have absolutely no chance whatsoever of competing with Everton, who I believe have never sold any player to another club in their history, as well as the likes of Stoke and Palace whose breathtaking strengthening throughout last summer turned them both into the Geoff Capes of professional football so very much stronger than us they were what with all their strengthening. Frankly bumbling Les and clueless Gareth have not got the capability to compete with those giant clubs if Juanmi goes.

Three of them have been expected for a long time - Austin is basically the Pelle replacement already in place - and one of them is bloody Juanmi. Tadic is the only surprise but cannot see where he would go that would be a genuine step up.

Those five are hardly a meltdown. Pelle is at an optimal time to sell, would be good business to ship him off to Italy. Tadic is going to go where, exactly? Juanmi, give a sh it. Mane, still not convinced someone is nuts enough to give us thirty old mil for him. Victor, fine. Not entirely sure where he's going though. The challege for this year's meltdowners will be the fact that we will probably end up selling players to Everton or West Ham because the players angling for a move are hardly Champions League shoo-ins.

After the conclusion of the two qualifying rounds that. we. don't. have. to. play. and. West. Ham. effing. well. do. Beautiful.

He's not a real Saints fan.

I imagine the first six or seven questions for Van Gaal in the BBC post-match interview will be about how Manchester United have impacted Southampton's Europa League qualification.

WE'RE GETTING A FAVOUR FROM VAN GAAL!!!!!!

Bizarre.

It is indeed complex but you've also missed plenty of other parts of the complexity - you focus entirely on the "board showing ambition/money where mouth is" line of argument which is quite a narrow view. He might just want to do something different at the end of three years. One can sense the aching desperation for a few on this forum to start wailing and whining about lack of ambition when he goes but sometimes not everything is about you. It might just be about him. He's lived in England for two years, maybe three is enough. Maybe he is a contractual purist and just wants to be free next summer come what may. Maybe he just wants to sit tight and be available when the Dutch job comes up. Maybe he backs himself to be a Champions League level elite manager and wants to free to take that on. Maybe he wants a crack at Serie A. Maybe he wants six months off next year. There's a heck of a lot of complexity that expands far and wide beyond Les Reed saying you have forty or fifty million in the transfer fund. That, clearly is not the only dynamic.

I have just read something very similar to this.

Asset stripping.

Koeman starts at Goodison in the morning.

Nah. They're world famous and American non-sports fans would be able to name them. Similarly I know nothing about American Football but I can easily name a couple of famous teams, like the Kansas City Bengals and the Texas Red Sox.

Will be nice taking players from Brendan Rodgers from now on.

We wouldn't have finished as high as we did in the table and the squad would be half-filled with ego-signings bought on a whim.