Doctoroncall

It might be due to the FA wanting a 'wet' signature as its the easiest for them plus they seem to be behind the times. There are perfectly good ways to sign electronically around in the world - chip and pin counts for your signature in credit/debit card transactions for example.

The deal still needs PL approval. So the fat lady isn't on stage yet.

It would be interesting to see when QPR received the info from Saints. I know QPR were involved in a few late deals so maybe Saints held up their end of the deal, if not someone deserves a bashing for it.

From a sky report: Queens Park Rangers are hopeful they have successfully concluded the signing of Jason Puncheon. A deal for the Southampton winger was agreed late on by QPR on Wednesday, who were busy concluding a host of deals. Puncheon did, though, put pen to paper for Rangers and the deal was lodged with the Premier League. The club are now waiting for official confirmation that the deal was finalised before the 11pm deadline.

What he said. Enjoy the evening and I hope you are able to report back on what was issues were raised and discussed.

Maybe not? 1.48pm: This just in from Andy Hunter in Liverpool: "Everton have not broken the mould by signing Denis Stracqualuisi just yet. They have received a £2.5m bid for Jermaine Beckford from Leicester but whether the suddenly coveted striker wants to drop down a division is another matter. They still need some money in, and several clubs are interested in Yakubu, before Everton's club secretary can blow the dust off a transfer form and invite Stracqualuisi to sign. With his own pen."

Would you have expected Norwich to have gone up this time last year? Just because there is no big spending or huge in-take of players like other teams doesn't mean Saints are not pursuing promotion. There are many roads to the promotion goal.

It's being reported Beckford is going to Leicester for £4m.

It comes across as lazy as they are not providing you a service if you have to go to the bar and order and also type in the amount. Why don't you put in half the amount and see if they notice.

Isn't that the million dollar question that is hard to answer even for those involved in football development let alone a fans forum. Plus that is only one aspect, other considerations are the relationship with the partner centre back, willingness to learn and not always be in the starting eleven etc

The parting of ways has served both parties well. Good luck to him, he did his bit in our resurrection.

Maybe it's the support staff that identify the players and negotiate with other clubs (Law and Rowley) that are at fault and not the manager.

I will probably get lambasted for this but Poyet has the making of a good manager, the same as Adkins. It will be a good tussle this season between them.

Didn't we play norrkoping and wasn't it 2 2 draw and I don't think la ling played for us (or them) and Sven wasn't the manger.

Personally I would go with Adkins wanting to build a team, knows where to strengthen and seems to have a plan rather than wanting to pick up a whole new team each season. Just because there maybe more money available doesn't correlate to spending on more players, besides the averages included frees and loans for both managers.

The averages were throughout their careers not just at Saints. Also remember that there must be pressure on Les Reed to produce players that will be capable of moving up the ranks to join the first team squad. Those players that know the 'Southampton way' and training methods. I've no idea on what the target will be to have academy players join the first team squad but the establishment of the development side at Saints is only a couple of years in the five year plan.

I posted this a while ago when Adkins was first muted as a manager for us. His record of bringing in players has been good both in terms of quality but also number. It seems he clearly identifies a position and the potential targets with some thought as the average number of players he signs is around six a season, whereas Pardew is double that on 12. I can see this strategy fitting into the way Saints deal with transfers especially as the academy will fill some of those transfer in places to the squad.

Not forgetting that it would be available for selection and not crash like the old Chamberlain.

That had nothing to do with their relegation. they had a couple of key players out for the last third of the season.

I have to agree. The good things tend to last a bit longer than anything badly implemented, so there was a shell to work on and the biggest piece of the puzzle is obtaining the right personnel to perform as a team and have the ability for looking after their own department. It looked liked Pardew had the ability to manage the first team but added nothing to the rest of the vision of Saints whereas it looks like Adkins ticks all the boxes. I only know Les Reed is a respected coach so it will be interesting to see if he can deliver on his task of getting the talented youngsters through to the first team.

That's a no then.

Didn't sunderland get 100+ points in a season?

But do you know it is SC that is saying these things.

Even more so for those without sky.

Wahoo. Morgan is on the bus.