CB Fry

Didn't realise Boro v Brighton was on the last day. Brilliant - should be like a bonus play off final. I want Brighton and Derby to go up but not fussed about either Burnley or Boro. Probably prefer Burnley at a push. Boro going up will only fuel the Gastonettes on here and we'll have five years of people droning on about how he single handedly promoted Middlesbrough.

I'm saying 15.

We do get some beautiful "no one ever said that" posts on this forum, but this one is a pearl.

You're not signing for Southampton unless you eat up your carrots.

What I am asking is whether you think it is right that we signed "stepping stone" players like Mane, Forster, Virgil and Victor. Players like them have contributed hugely to our success on the pitch and I hope we sign more of them. So, should we have signed Mane and Virgil or should we have questioned whether they plan to "use us as a stepping stone" and let them sign for Sunderland or West Ham instead?

He "let him" play for us before. Also, Alex is a fully grown adult.

Frazer Forster who used Celtic as a stepping stone to get into the Premier League with us, and is entirely feasible that this summer or more likely next could transfer to a CL contender especially if he displaces Joe Hart for England. That Frazer Forster? Personally I wished we'd never signed him and stuck with Kelvin because he "gives a ****" about the shirt and that's all that matters.

That's a very different requirement to assembling the best squad we can to compete in the league. I'd rather we put together the most effective and successful side we can. "Giving a sh it about representing the shirt" is nebulous meaningless rubbish. Still trying to work out whether you think it was right for us to sign Forster, Mane, Virgil and Victor or whether we should just pack the squad with lads picked up from Millbrook Rec because they'd "give a sh it" about the shirt. Who are our best players right now would you say?

Well I've worked out what you are. Would you rather we hadn't signed Mane, Forster, Wanyama and those others? Yes or no? Would you advise the club not to sign a highly rated striker from a European League for ten million quid because he might be too good, score forty goals in two seasons and end up at Man United in two years time? Would you rather West Ham or Everton signed that player instead?

So you agree with me then. Good.

Er, I thought all teams everywhere in every league try to win the league? According to this guy, anyway.

Still don't understand how this bonus place is conjured up from. In all the other scenarios UEFA seem to cover the missing third EL place somehow and we stop at two places but in your last scenario they can't and suddenly give it back to us? Why? If Liverpool win the EL and finish, say, ninth then they qualify for the CL. Man City win the CL and finish fifth. The top two qualify too and third gets the CL qualification spot. Then fourth and fifth (or fourth and FA Cup winner) get EL.

So you don't think we should be signing players like Forster, Virgil, Mane, Jay-Rod, Wanyama and Clasie? I do. They've made our team, like, pretty good. Fair enough. Who do you want us to sign?

Personally I think Sadio Mane has been a good signing for us. Shame you don't agree.

This is a pointless ambition that is never going to happen. Being a 'stepping stone' club is perfectly fine for us, and signing 'stepping stone' players like Mane is exactly what we need to do. If ambitious players see us as a gateway to Manchester United, then good. They only get to sign for United after performing well for us for two years at least, therefore contributing to fine league placings and one day maybe even a cup. I take it you didn't object when we signed Virgil, Victor and Forster from our own favourite stepping stone club, right? Because that's fine, isn't it?

It's not about people "bleating" that "there isn't one economist". Obviously there will be some economists supporting Leave. Obviously. The question Kate Hoey couldn't answer last week was about Independent economic reports/analysis from an independent group/source showing a positive forecast post-Leave. A Facebook group called, er, "Economists for Brexit" is not going to answer that, I'm afraid.

This. People are hugely overestimating this - whatever team he sends out we will be in a game. Who remembers that weakened team Everton put out only a couple of weeks ago?

So nothing to learn at all from what any club does then because everyone is trying to win the league. So that's alright then.

Whether they do or not isn't really relevant to the point SW5 was making, which was a very good one.

Someone here is being naive, that's for sure.

Dont disagree, we'd still be in the mid twenties though, would we? I always worry about players on the way down. Far more likely we'll sign someone I've never heard of (not difficult) for £10m. If there is a Southampton Way, that might be it.

Toby didn't want to sign for us. You seem to be confusing football transfers with eighteenth century slave trade.

It can be done, like it has been done by, like, us. We've been buying loads of players in the £8- £12m bracket and hardly bought any duds at all. Apart from the now historic disasters of Osvaldo and Ramirez, our record is excellent from Victor and Mane to Lovren and Long and Virgil and Bertrand and Tadic and Pelle and Forster. Clasie clearly getting better and better too. Plus cheaper signings like Austin and Romeu, Cedric who will also prove their worth, and decent loans like Toby and Stek. We won't be buying big club cast offs like Bony and Benteke any time soon and neither should we. I'm sure there were plenty grumbling about Villa signing Sinclair and Lescott last summer. We've established a nice niche in the type of players we've signed and we will carry on in that vein. Weird we're already getting "sort that black box out" type comments when our transfer record is absolutely superb on any measure you like.

Er, League. Obviously. They'll finish top four.

Because Leicester didn't "aim to win the league". Or, if they did, (which they didn't) then we can interpret aiming to win the league as signing free transfer full-backs, Stoke City third choice centre backs and not spending any more than £8m on anyone. Or, to put it another way, Saints have "aimed to win the league" every season since we got promoted.