Ivan Katalinic's 'tache

Potentially a fall back if Toby doesn't sign, maybe? I am liking this sentence in the piece: "Ogbonna is prepared to move to club that meets his ambitions, and would consider moving to a club who could offer European football. This is something Southampton can give to the player instantly after qualifying for next seasons Europa League" regardless, though...

Liverpool are a much bigger and more prestigious club. However, whether they have a better team right now is debatable. They have got some good players, like Coutinho, but they seem to play more like a collection of talented individuals than a team. They've lost their binding force and perennial 'get out of jail free' card in Gerrard and, as the squads are at the moment, I'd feel optimistic if I was Ronald Koeman, that Saints could finish higher than them next season, if we add some good additions to the squad, get Jay Rod fit and firing and we replace those that do leave with replacements of similar quality (easier said than done). I guess the decision for Clyne is balancing the potential to go for trophies more regularly, a bigger pay packet & being at a club with more world wide appeal against playing every week (he wouldn't be the first to fall flat on his face there & be sold on as a failure a season or two later) and the prospect of bettering them in the short term.

I'm sure we have money left over from last summer's "fire sale", we banked about £80 million from last season's 7th place finish & Atletico have also just given us £1.8 million to buy back our purchase clause on Toby. And that's the money I'm aware of! Surely we can find enough to meet whatever fee Atletico now want for him and put this one to bed? If the report in the Echo is true, it sounds like Toby is keen enough to stay. As someone said earlier, if they're that desperate for Filipe Luis, they could always reinvest the money from selling Toby to us.

Assume Derby fans are going to be equally miffed about Liverpool's surprise move for Darren Bent? I suspect it's more about Henderson's football chums rallying round after the story football fans could boycott FIFA 16 if he's on the front cover (ridiculous, who spends hours staring at the front cover rather than playing the game??). Clyne may ultimately end up at Liverpool but he has played many times at U21 and full England level with Henderson and he could just be providing some moral support.

Er, no, he's always been a passenger...

Is he any good now?

According to the oracle that is Twitter, Toby got married today. Might be a while before this gets resolved if he's off on honeymoon?

Excellent stuff. Right, who's next? Toby, hopefully!

Hmm. Interesting. Having been told all this, my research tells me THEVMAN's name was Alan Ladlama, a completely unrelated informant who defected to Liverpool when Lallana moved on. Thanks all for your assistance.

I imagine the obligatory official tweet will be sent imminently then?

They even took THEVMAN. Is there nothing a Scouser won't steal?

Hmmm. Toby's said his main motivation is to be playing and not back on the bench as with his season in Madrid. I can't see Chelsea dropping Terry or Cahill so it'll be interesting to see how.this pans out. There's been quite a bit about Atletico wanting Luis back so I imagine this would be tempting for them.

Whatever happened to THEVMAN?

Signed for Pompey today. Looks like we've missed out on him again... Doesn't even cross our radar these days and he's being touted as their "no-risk" transfer. WTFILN???

Good news, if true. Also sends a bit of a message to Clyne that he's not irreplaceable whether or not Cedric joins as a replacement or as competition. At the reported price, he could be either.

Unless it doesn't work out for you in which case a forum member will come up with an amusing moniker for you to remind us how bad you are. I'm sure it won't come to this though...

First Juan of the summer. Excellent news. An ITK point for Crab Lungs too?

Has Toby's loan officially ended yet? We were still covering his international activities for the Wales game so I'm guessing not?

I'm going for Crystal Palace at SMS. Would be nice to finish the season at home too, seeing as we were away first & last games, last season.

With rumours around we may be after Charlie Austin and other rumours Bologna, or other Italian sides, may look to lure Graziano back to Italy, I wondered who others would prefer if we could only have one or the other? Me, I think despite his barren spell midway through last season, Graziano is fairly integral to our forward play & despite the goals, I don't know if Austin would offer as much outside of the box. Any thoughts?

The new De Pedro saga is upon us???

Sounds positive & Crabby has been right before.

Someone put Van Gaal in touch with tactical genius Roy and get Roy to extol the virtues of Jones over Clyne at right back. Then get Roy to speak to Rodgers and let him know how Henderson is a better option than Clyne too. Clyne then signs a new deal with us, with no other bids coming in for him...

The clearest indication that selection for England is less about those in form and more about whether your face fits (and the prime way for it to fit is to be at a 'big' club whether or not you're in the side every week or not). Odd and I'm not surprised Clyney was a bit miffed.

Sounding promising. Have we anyone on hotel watch?