James

I'm not sure fans chanting against him will make any difference and, if he's not playing, he probably won't even be in the stadium to hear them. Not sure anyone is suggesting we chant against him if he's on the pitch in a Saints shirt. If we made that banner we would be an absolute laughing stock for fans of the rest of the league. West Ham fans let Payet know what they thought of him disrespecting their club so no reason we shouldn't let Virgil know the same if and when he is sold.

On the CB to replace Fonte - we probably did need one before Stephens emerged. We aren't going to sign two CBs as then we'd have 6 CBs - unless we get rid of Yoshida we don't need one and, even then, I can't see Stephens wanting to be third choice.

A little disappointing that, if Tom is right (and let's face it he's been spot on this summer), we are bringing in loans when we will likely receive a world record fee for a defender this summer. However, we aren't going to spend a fortune for the sake of it and if we get Lemina, a CB and Roberts then we will have filled the obvious gaps in the squad. I'd like a second CB and another striker but we aren't going to block Stephens and unless we replace Long or Gallagher we won't go for another forward. My only slight concern is, going forward and in an era of ever increasing transfer spends, whether we are going to be able to compete in this league long term without a takeover or fresh investment. If the window pans out as Tom predicts I'll be happy enough but if we are only able to do business having received £50-60m in fees then there will be times where we can't spend anything. We can't continue in the hope of generating significant transfer fees every summer, eventually we will run out of premium assets.

He also earns more in a week than most of us earn in a year. If you can't do the time don't do the crime...if he wasn't prepared to show some loyalty to SFC he shouldn't have signed the contract and taken the extra cash - that's the sole issue here for me - he wasn't strong armed into signing a new deal which has given the club all the aces, it was greed that motivated him to take a higher wage from us and it's greed and petulance that's motivating him to try and force his way out of a situation of his own making. Assuming it won't cause an issue for Bertrand and Cedric I'd get rid and get Wimmer and/or Hoedt ASAP. The sooner we get him out the door and prevent our "captain" from polluting the rest of the squad the better.

Oh do f*ck off Virgil. Nobody forced you to tie yourself to us on a six year deal did they? Oh wait, it must have been the increased weekly wage that convinced you. Had you decided it was time for a new challenge when you accepted the team captaincy? As I recall that was immediately prior to the game you were injured. Must have been during the time you were sitting on the sidelines being paid a fortune whilst being rehabilitated by SFC staff and at the expense of the club. I thought I had a deep hatred for Lallana and Lovren but Virgil has taken it to a new level. The sooner the door hits him on the way out of SMS the better. Not to the dippers though, neither he nor they deserve the satisfaction.

Ordinary people don't have accounts that have the blue tick but Kevin Lemina follows SFC on Instagram and is followed by Mario Lemina's official account so I expect it is legit.

No way MP would indicate it being close after knowing that we've been pipped to the post a few times this window. If Di Marzio says it's happening then it probably is as he doesn't usually put his name to a rumour unless it's basically done.

Great stuff, if this comes off then hats off to Les.

Sounds like a player we need and clearly has pedigree. Let's hope we get him.

There are clearly not 100 full backs in the PL, let alone "young ones". There are 20 clubs in the league, if every club had a first choice and a back up for each side that would still only be 80....

Not sure anyone said they were super talented, more that they were probably capable of scoring at least one goal in the final six home games or whatever it was. By the end of the Puel tenure they were not playing for him, that was relatively clear to a regular attendee at St Mary's. I expect Pellegrino to get more out of the squad than Puel but also acknowledge that it has limitations and that MP has arguably been hung out to dry by the club's lack of transfer activity. People said Puel was not supported by Reed in the market but at least he had some latitude to bring players in whereas MP hasn't had any.

The precedent point is a good one. I do think players come here expecting to be allowed to leave given what has happened before. I'm not clear on how actively we use this as a selling point for new recruits but the club has an image as being a stepping stone club which will be tough to shake (although Les appears to be doing his best this summer). Hard to argue that our pre season has been pretty bad so far. Not all the club's fault but only have ourselves to blame for not bringing in players bar a reserve CB that looks about as far from ready for a PL pitch as Pompey do.

Someone suggesting Targett is better than Shaw...I've seen it all now. The only two on that list that aren't comfortably better than Targett are Chilwell and Holgate and even Chilwell is picked ahead of him for the U21s. He's ok but I haven't seen anything to suggest he is capable of replacing Bertrand when the time comes.

Not anyone in the top half. He is, at the moment, a Championship starter quality left back so if you mean teams like Hudds, Brighton or Newcastle then yes I could see him starting for them along with the rest of the relegation candidates.

Thing is, he doesn't play PL very regularly does he? He doesn't get a sniff unless Bertrand is injured. It's one thing to be a cover player in the PL and quite another to be a consistent starter. So far, MT hasn't shown himself as anything other than cover. Despite what the "experts" say on here he is nowhere near a regular starter for us and if, god forbid, we sold Bertrand we would buy a replacement.

For all the flack Puel got last season (and rightly so in part) that Sheff Utd game remains the worst Saints performance, given the stakes, that I've seen since we were promoted back to the PL. For everything that was great about Poch and Koeman they didn't take the cups seriously enough and for everything negative about Puel he at least respected them.

Targett played best when RK used him as the left wing back in a 3-5-2. If we played that system again with Bertrand at CB then he'd be decent enough. He hasn't got the defensive solidity or the pace to play as a traditional left back in a flat back four or as a traditional left winger (as you say there's certainly no chance he'd be picked ahead of Redmond or Tadic). He's a solid back up defender at the moment and, without a sudden change in attributes (i.e. gaining an extra yard of pace), I personally can't see him being more than that at this level. Glad we've protected our investment but not quite sure why he's worth such a long deal on, presumably, significantly increased wages.

Definitely Semedo (although didn't he move to Villarreal pre MP's appointment?) also think we lost Defrel to Roma. Can't imagine we'd have lost out on Chabolah to Watford (nor that MP was referring to them when he mentioned important clubs). Could possibly have lost Murphy to Newcastle as imagine they are paying more than we are and can offer guaranteed game time whereas he'd have to compete with Redmond/Tadic/Boufal here.

Odd that Gabbi didn't switch to 9. Maybe he/the club didn't want to reimburse all those that had already bought shirts with his old number on.

I agree but I suspect that if the dippers weren't in the CL his stance of "Liverpool and no one else" might change to "actually I'd quite like Chelsea". Chelsea can offer him massive wages, guaranteed CL group stage and a realistic shot at the title and, let's face it, London is a far nicer place to live than Liverpool. I suspect if they make a credible bid that's where he will end up as the board will know they won't face as big a backlash if he goes there and we won't be allowing the dippers to prosper from what we believed to be an illegal approach.

If we get thrashed again with our so called starting XI the week before the start of the season then people would rightly be worried.

Some news is better than no news but I'd rather see our issues addressed than a massive contract being given to a squad/back up player. Don't see MT being anything more than a steady back up left back for our profile of club. He's about as good as Pied but gets a better rep from fans as he supports Saints and didn't follow an unpopular manager into the club.

I'd also love us to sign Kane. It's not going to happen.

If I were VVD I'd wait until the dippers actually make it to the group stage given their tricky qualifier v Hoffenheim. It would be absolute hilarious if they c*cked up and he then back pedalled on his desire only to move up there.

I'd give it to Ward-Prowse or, failing that, Romeu.