CB Fry

That boy has got a heck of a lot of "new Gareth Bale" pressure to live up to if he ends up going for that kind of money.

This is my favourite quote from a disingenuous strawman over the last couple of days... ‘In order to try to reach their [ie Manchester City] level we need to have a major international budget resourcing and try to match them on their own terms.’ Guess who? And the board "matching the commitment" is a beautifully disingenuous statement yourself Strawlock. Because for likes of Lallana and Shaw that's six figure weekly wages and, either Champions League football next season and/or playing for the biggest clubs in the world. But yeah, just a simple little easy "matching of commitment" should do it. Don't know what all that scaremongering could be about when it is all so easy to resolve.

1. So you have a go that "some folk" believe NC left because he couldn't get the cash he wanted, and then the second half of this ramble is you saying you think he left because he couldn't get the cash he wanted. Classic, grade A Franko. 2. Yes. We had a load of guff that MP was so loyal to NC that he would quit in January, he didn't. The idea MP would stay forever, and that Shaw and Lallana would turn down six figure weekly salaries and CL football because of some Italian is fantasist nonsense. 3. Speaking of fantasist nonsense, off we go again with the "look how ambitious Franko is" routine. Where is the "bastard" Franko? Is he "fighting like hell" to get Saints top 4? Where is he? Where is he? He ran like f uck. Fight like hell? What a joke.

Well I think at least one of them will leave, more than likely both. What's your bet?

A bet on what?

What are you talking about now? Never said anything of the sort.

And you are? Your suggestion that we are trying to actively sell these players is total speculation based on f uck all information. My opinion is based on what the club officials have said in more than one occasion in more than one place. Believe or don't believe it but don't belittle my opinion - your is based on nothing except baseless paranoia.

It's a stupid premise. We don't. There is no if. And you were rambling about the same topic earlier - we won't play Lallana today to preserve our fire - sale pay day. Guess what? He played.

We don't want to sell to get funds. Where are you getting this nonsense from?

That is so beautiful I could cry.

Why would Saints stop him getting injured to preserve a transfer to Liverpool? That transfer will happen only because AL wants to go. Try not to be influenced by the Cortese fed bile in the press.

It's a weird way to treat a former employer who just happened to make him the highest paid chief exec in the premier league.

I've had a good think about it, and my conclusion is that it is because he is a bitter little short-arsed pri ck.

Nice to see MP reducing Cortese's "vision" to the pie in the sky bulls h it most sensible posters knew it was a long time ago. Turns out we aren't going to magically qualify for the CL on the cheap with half a squad from the academy. Who knew? (Everyone. Except that Italian and the forum intelligencia. )

100% this. The single most important thing the "vision" needed to actually happen was a strong leader determined to see it through against a heck of a lot of adversity. Like big clubs waving huge cheques. Like relentless press speculation. Like vulture agents. Like ambitious or greedy players. But we were going to see the vision come true. All we needed was someone driven to make it happen, come what may. A man who could look players in the eye and say "stay here. With me. Go nowhere, like me". Someone who had the unequivocal support of the owners. Someone in it for the long haul. But we had the man. He was going to do all that, showing that vision is far more than just empty words. Now, what happened to that driven, determined, visionary? Oh yeah. He quit the gig before a player was even thinking of handing in a transfer request. After one entire Prem season. Some vision.

Even by your standards, that is a breathtakingly pointless ramble about nothing whatsoever. Just more flailing about to make up some way we can get into the top four without spending hundreds of millions of pounds, laced with your current "I refuse to accept mediocrity, me" routine. And what you've rambled your way to is a recommendation for to let key players leave at the end of their contract for free. Brilliant. Keep em coming.

I can guarantee you I will never, ever rue the day he left. Cortese quit on us precisely at the point that bigger teams started circling our manager and players. But yeah, Cortese did a breathtaking job of warding of Man United with their multi million pound bids for Danny Fox a couple of years back.

It's looking likely that will be the case - although as long as we get the replacement right we should be clear of the bottom three dross. But Fulham fans probably thought that this time last year.

I apologise for being hysterical and mentioning Les Reed. I know you hate people being hysterical.

Comments like this would have more impact were it not for the fact that throughout every single moment of our "stellar rise", you moaned like a slag. You moaned about not making the L1 play offs in season 1, you merrily wrote off our chances of promotion in season 2 - we were bottling it and Huddersfield were going to pip us easily. Same again the following season, just with West Ham instead. Then in season 4 Wigan had the guts and bottle to stay up and we were definitely relegated. Then during last summer we were as badly run as a seaside hotel. Gash was Gash, you hated Osvaldo, you've moaned extensively about Adkins, Poch, Pardew, Les Reed and Cortese himself. You moaned about not buying players and you moaned about the players we bought. So maybe don't make out you are wistfully looking back at some "stellar rise". From where I'm standing, you hated every minute of it. Except that day the played a match in your village or something.

Basically they are the Ian Brennan of shirt sponsors.

I don't think Veho have paid that much is what I am saying.

What have I taken out of context? I am saying I don't think we'll get the 3-5m you said you think we should be getting. And, for good measure you've said the same thing again. What's out of context about that?

He really isn't. He's not and never will be a Saints fan. He's a man who could double or triple his wages and raise his profile hugely. It's sweet people think he is fretting about the "Project" at a club in a city that two years ago he couldn't point to on a map. We could give him a transfer budget of fifty million and he could still want to go to Spurs.

Poch wasn't at "Poch ' s level" when we hired him.