James

The fact they aren't in training pictures doesn't mean they won't be back in two weeks time...

He just does absolutely nothing.

Very worried re that statement from Koeman, I mean, what the actual ****?

Just awful. We look a shadow of our former selves. We look knackered and its only mid-August. Very worrying. Never thought I'd say it, but I'm losing a bit of faith in Ron. We were awful at the end of last season and we are still awful and incapable of scoring. He doesn't seem to know what to do at the moment. We are 100% reliant on Pelle, he can't do it by himself. The service to him is quite frankly appalling and I feel a bit sorry for him if I'm honest. With a supporting cast of Davis (never scores), JWP (never scores) and JRod (very very rusty) we were never destined to score to be honest.

Absolutely spot on. My thoughts exactly. Club need to restore our faith with a firm no as they did last year with Morgan. If they don't then this summer is almost as bad as last and we were assured it wouldn't happen again.

They've sacked it off because he's rejected them to go to Chelsea. They are hardly going to have sacked it off because they are confident of getting Mane for less than £21m. That said, I bet we do end up selling him. We always do no matter what Les or the rest of the merry gang tell us. If he does go then there will be no time to get a quality replacement and, given he's been one of the only positives thus far, I fear we are in for a long hard and disappointing season.

No way we are accepting less than the amount they would have paid for Pedro so nothing to see here I don't think.

You can't sell top quality players every year, replace them on the cheap with "highly rated" players from Europe and constantly get away with it. It worked last year, doesn't look like it has this year (or at least not yet). We are starting the season without an on the pitch replacement for Toby or Morgan and it shows (yes I know Clasie is injured).

Sort it out Ron, this is dreadful.

Need Targett off at half time. Just awful, getting done every time.

According to who?

Have emailed you.

Yes.

Guys Very last minute I realise but have a spare for Vitesse away. Can meet outside SMS tomorrow pre espanyol or post to whoever wants it. Obviously only want £11 for it (£1 for booking fee!)

Guys Have got a spare for Vitesse away if someone wants it. Assuming it arrives in the post would be willing to meet outside Sms pre Espanyol to do a handover. Face value to a Saints fan of course.

Very impressed with Soares, he looks absolute class.

Not sure how quickly we will move to identify new targets, by all accounts we assumed he was signing. Big test for the club now - must be well behind in our pre season planning with only 2-3 weeks before our first competitive game.

At the very least it sounds like we've been taken for a ride here either by Toby or Athletico. All pointed to us being able to complete the deal but looks like Spurs are going wrap this up. Hope we haven't banked on keeping him and now we are well behind in our pre season plans. We need reinforcements pronto as our defence for the opening games looks quite weak and inexperienced. Only one of our first choice back 5 will be available! Our departures this year are shaping up to be as significant as last year despite Reed saying we were well prepared etc. Lot of work to do now just to make the team as good as it was last year. Just hope we didn't try and be clever and get him on the cheap on a technicality and it blew up in our faces. Much too risky a game to play with such an important player.

Agreed, this is what will happen IMO.

They won't hand us the player, but it sounds as though they've been pretty difficult to deal with. My guess is the club is seeking to do a deal with Atletico at a price which is less than £11.5m but more than the originally agreed £7m in return for us not taking this to the courts etc. Our hand has been shown at a key time just as Spurs looked to have agreed a deal. As St. Chalet says, why give away millions you don't have to when you believe you have a deal in place at a cheaper price? My prediction is that we meet in the middle with them.

Exactly and in any event if the contract was in Spanish and translated into English then the contract would say which language (English or Spanish) prevailed in the event of any conflict. It's therefore unlikely that anything 'lost in translation' would have caused this.

Talk about old news...this was reported weeks ago! Just shows how journos will use anything for a new story.

Agreed. Absolute nonsense.

He has behaved honourably in getting his head down and having a great season for us when told to stay. However, its true that he finds it remarkably easy to talk about leaving whenever he goes to France and is interviewed which is mildly disappointing.

Yes, but even a fully firing JRod didn't set the world alight playing down the middle. My big worry is if Graz is injured for any length of time and we have to rely on a combo of Long, Mane, JRod or Juanmi playing as the central striker for a considerable period then we could struggle. We would have to change the way we play so hopefully Koeman has a contingency as none of our other options have shown they have the ability to replace Pelle through the middle on a long term basis. As for Gallagher, it's a nice thought, but a club with our level of ambition shouldn't be relying on a kid that has one Premier League goal to his name as back up for our main striker. That said, we have to trust that the club know what they are doing (although we all saw we were short of a back up keeper last summer and that came back to bite us when FF got injured).