labibs

No way do we have to get a result on Saturday. Not many sides will go to Emirates and come away with points (yes I know Sunderland went there and didn't get beaten). I'm going on Saturday and I fully expect a heavy defeat (3-1?) As people have said, just a quirk of the fixture list that we had some tough fixtures up early. Had we had say, West Ham's opening fixtures I'm fairly certain we would be comfortably in midtable and all the naysayers would be as happy as when we made a roaring start to our league campaign last year. If we do lose though, Villa game becomes massive. If we lost that, given our next game is Everton away where we nearly always get turned over, could conceivably be 6 straight defeats. Then any manager would be under pressure.

Personally don't want him here. Adkins has made a lot of the fact that we are no playing 4-3-3, in order to make us more solid and competitive in midfield. This also allows us to play an attack minded mifielder (either Lallana or Ramirez) in the middle, to help try and unlock defences. Where does Owen fit into that? Presumably as the centre of the 3 upfront, but that offers no pace, physical presence or work rate. In short, he won't fit our system. Add to that he would presumably want sizeable wages and his ridiculously poor recent injury record and it would just be a stupid signing.

Thanks for that. Can't stop laughing!

I asked Jonathan Wilson (football writer who covered the CAN extensively last year) for his thoughts on Makuya. "@jonawils: He was excellent at the CAN. Held the ball up well, good movement, cd finish." Doesn't sound like someone who would play wide, but positive nonetheless. Personally very happy with this signing, we were crying out for some pace on Saturday. Squad is starting to look a little unbalanced now though, very short in some areas and bloated on others. Hope we use the remaining few days of the window to sort this out. Although I suppose a few of the lads may be stuck here until the transfer window closes and the short term loan window to the championship opens.

Originally Posted by merrimd I am confused over the whole guarantee business. If the Bank Bologna are getting their loan from require us to supply a guarantee for the final instalments of this deal, would that make us liable for that loan if Bologna 'do a pompey'? I would imagine if that is the case then there is absolutely no way NC will agree, and nor should he. I don't think so. If you took out a loan based on your earnings and then defaulted, you wouldn't expect your boss to be liable for it would you? Effectively, we are just guaranteeing their earnings, not the loan itself. If Bologna have money problems, they'll need to let Ramirez go before the end of the window. I think they are just hanging on to see if anyone else wil come in for him and if they can get an auction going. All the other talk is just a delaying tactic. As Friday gets closer, they may even come back to us and push for the deal to be done.

Again, how has this thread got to four pages? Theo simply wouldn't come here. Were he available, several champion's league clubs would be interested in taking him, in addition to several other 'big clubs' (E.g. Liverpool) who are not in the champion's league this season. The wages / transfer fee issue is something of a moot point. We are simply not that attractive a proposition for someone in Theo's position. Regardless of how nice a place Southampton may be to live, Theo would (I imagine) have aspirations of winning trophies and building an international career, interests which would not be best served by moving to us this summer.

My thoughts exactly. Also need to factor in that they woud have to fit in with our wage structure as well. I think Dann fits the mould of the kind of player we need. At £6m, I wouldn't be interested, but at the reported £3.5m, that's not bad value when you consider his age, previous form, potential etc.

He would be a wonderful signing for a L1 club and if he was available, I would expect a number of championship clubs to be interested. He could do a great job for someone like Derby, Barnsley, Millwall etc. If he moves on (which I think he should as I feel we have outgrown him as a club now), I would wish him all the best and hope he would go on to have a decent career. He was a big part in us getting out of L1 and definitely worth his fee.

Oh god. I had forgotten the old 'gelling' excuse. I swear Burley was still trotting that one out in mid March!

I don't think we will sign Hargreaves as he is very much not in keeping with the kind of players we look to be signing (young players who can improve [and yes, are 'hungry']) but if there was a manager who I was confident could help a player overcome any injury problem they might have, it would be Adkins.

Stephens, Shaw and JWP don't need to take up squad places, as they are young. I think it would be very, very risky to go into a new season with only 3 Centre Backs as well! Are you assuming the Steve Davis won't go through as well?

I don't believe we have bid £6m for him. Even if we have, it won't be £6m up front will it? It will be something like £1.5m up front, with the rest dependent upon appearances for Saints, international caps and Saints' achievements (E.g staying up) If the deal is structured in such a way, Butland would basically have to usurp Joe Hart as England's number 1 for the deal to cost Saints the full £6m (which if it happened, will mean that Butland is a great deal for us). We're not spending £6m up front on a keeper. We're not.

No-one saying he's doing anything wrong, he's perfectly within his rights to claim his wages for the final year of his contract. However, if that is what he chooses to do, he can't then moan publicly about the situation being unfair? He has a choice to make, play or take good money for a year. If he chooses to take the money, he can't then moan about not playing (or vice versa)

He could just get a new agent? If it is wages (which seems likely as that it specifically what has come out of Yeovil connections) then I imagine clubs have said that they will only pay those wages if they can get him on a free (or for a nominal fee). Saints obviously don't fancy letting him go for nothing, hence the impasse. It could also be that no other club are willing to take on 100% of his wages to take on him loan and we refuse to subsidise them. Dickson certainly could negotiate a lower wage packet with a new club if he was keen on moving elsewhere, but he's under no obligation to. His agent can't force him to do anything

Would be surprised if Pogrebnyak deal is really £65k p/w. Why would they offer him so much money? I can't see anyone else offering him that much cash? It's the Mail so hardly guaranteed, but they have the figure much lower (and more reasonable IMO) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2161427/Reading-ramp-Pavel-Pogrebnyak.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Car windows at half mast in Tottenham today... Not that surprised to be honest, his style is very short term, with large contracts given to older, injury prone players. This is acceptable when you achieve something, but crazy with no success. I imagine Levy would like Spurs to start bringing young players through, whereas 'Arry prob pushed for a 3 year contract, wage increase, higher transfer budget, free reign to sign who he wanted etc. Couple this with him flirting with another job for ages (England), court case and health problems and it seems like it might have just been a risk too far. Be interested to see if he takes another job here, shoots off to China or the Middle East for a payday, or ends up down the predictable punditry route... I am sad we won't get to see him down here with Spurs next year, that would have been a very tasty fixture!

Would be surprised if he came here, unless no other club comes up with the money. His star is massively in the ascendancy, people were concerned that Jay Rod may not choose us over more established Premier League sides and he is very likely to be a first choice striker and is nowhere near getting an England call up for a friendly, let alone going to a major tournament. If he is not going to be the clear 1st choice here, he may as well go to a large premier league team where he can get a large contract and the option to go out on loan somewhere to prove himself. Put yourself in his shoes, would you come to Saints for wages likely lower than he could earn elsewhere and the prospect of being 1st choice when Kelv retires? I think it would take an awful lot for KD to not be clear 1st choice next season, unless we get some hidings in our early fixtures and confidence drops. I'm just not that sure that we are that attractive a prospect to players, despite our impressive recent progression. We're broadly similar to where Norwich were last summer to outside parties IMO

Lallana's going to Wigan. They've offered him £50k per hour, Saints will only pay £10k per hour. I have a source. There you go. It really is that simple.

Leadbitter has gone somewhere else very recently. Middlesbrough?

I would be astonished if he came here. His progress at Ajax has been hampered by the emergence of Cristian Eriksson, but a few years ago he was rated as arguably Uruguay's best young player. Would be delighted with this, though I imagine it would take him to adapt to the premier league (it feels good to be able to say that and not just 'the English game'!)

He might be... In time. SRL is player of the year and best player in the championship last season. No way we're dropping him for an expensive kid who we would have no chance of signing permanently. I'm confident Lambert will do well next season.

Cuellar and Guzan wouldn't be bad signings, if they came here for reasonable wages. Cuellar a glaring example of why O'Neill left villa. Signed him due to his fom as a CB for Rangers. £7-8m? Presumably big wages. Then played solely at right back, despite it not being his best position (I realise he can play there). Crazy. If he could recapture his Scotland form, could be awesome. Definitely no for Lukaku for me. Considering the fee he went for, imagine Chelsea would want a sizeable loan fee and his wages would be big. Considering he is a target man, he would essentially only be back up for Lambert, so think the money could be better spent elsewhere.

This. 40/1 could be some eachway gold. Has been brilliant for Dortmund all season.

They spelt Kelvin's last name wrong in this poll. Guess they're not that serious about including him..!

Did you email Kieron and ask if you could reproduce his stuff on here? Linking is one thing, but cut and pasting is frowned upon without permission...