James

Completely agree. So much better than Puel's turgid, negative cr*p. Shame we can't finish our dinner.

Did you watch the game? It was far from atrocious and Tadic played very well. You really are clueless.

Agreed that some of our play was absolutely first class. However, this set of attacking players don't appear to have the composure required to hit the net regularly. Some of the misses were unforgivable.

Wow that really isn't good. We had a clear problem last year, we haven't addressed it in the summer and so can't be surprised at this.

Can't miss that many chances in this league. Same problem, same players.

No chance. It was about a yard away from him. Can't give those.

Not sure what we can expect. Same players that couldn't score goals are on the pitch today. Much better performance mind.

Playing much more attractive football and seem to go forward with a lot more purpose and press but just can't score.

Called out Charlie Nicholas for saying that both Saints and Liverpool should let VVD and Coutinho leave as they'd handed in transfer requests and then saying that there was no need for English clubs to introduce release clauses (like Spain) as clubs could just refuse to sell... There was also some back and forth with Thompson but only caught the tail end of that.

No Hoj on the bench...

They are, without doubt, the most deluded and self entitled set of fans in the country. Haven't won the Premier League ever, last won a major trophy over a decade ago and behave like a club far above their current station. Last week they were going to win the league because they beat Bayern in a meaningless friendly, this week they are being outplayed by Watford. The inconsistency of comments on the Coutinho vs the VVD situation is the most annoying. It's literally the same situation, was good to see MLT pointing out some of the hypocrisy on Sky this morning in front of their big club biased panel.

It's absolutely ridiculous. How they can get away with effectively endorsing breaking the rules on live TV is beyond me. Completely unprofessional. Whilst we have all these so called ex-pro experts showing disregard for the rules then they will never be properly enforced.

Jamie Redknapp: "call Van Dijk and add an extra £20k to the contract". How about first putting a bid in that's acceptable to his current club you humongous cretin?

Sky saying Lemina will start.

Our central defence was pretty bad under Poch but I'd say the midfield and attack were both comfortably better than what we've got now. How anyone could argue that the Wanyama and Morgan shield plus an attack of Lallana, J Rod and Lambert isn't better than what we've got now is beyond me. We arguably had better full backs under MP too. Our squad was a bit thinner under MP but ultimately the quality of the starting XI was better and we still had players like Cork, JWP and Yoshi in reserve. Two of those players are now starters...

Llorente is out with a broken arm I think. It's just assumed Sig won't play in the same way that Virgil won't play for us but don't think it's been confirmed he won't play.

The way that the pundits are appraising this situation is nothing short of disgraceful. Totally insulting to clubs like Southampton. Modern football is rotten to its core. Oh and Jamie, if you have any ambition to be a top player why on earth would you join Liverpool? Talk about living in the past.

Exactly. The notion that we are only risking £13m is completely moronic. We've got a potentially world record fee for a defender at stake here. Only the most irresponsible business would risk losing that out of "principle" - deep down most fans know that full well. We wanted to keep him because we wanted another year out of him and to then sell him for an even larger fee on the back of another good year and, hopefully, a top performance at the World Cup. He's forced out hand now so ultimately we will sell but it will be on our terms and probably not to Liverpool. Morgan and Vic showed the professionalism to buckle down but it doesn't look like Virgil is going to do us that courtesy so we will sell whilst his value is preserved. A patchy season followed by a Berahino situation won't do us any good at all and will only serve to decrease the fee we get.

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.