James

I do think we still have a decent team on paper even without any new signings but if we sustained any injuries (especially to Pelle and Fonte) we would be in serious trouble. I am a little concerned that our last three signings have all been on loan (especially Schelotto who doesn't sound brilliant). I think the consolation for most fans about selling players was that we received serious cash to re-invest but as it stands we simply haven't done it. I do think we are biding our time to get players in at the right price, but the board have to understand that the fans need to see some kind of statement of intent by spending some money and that simply hasn't materialized. Loans are fine for the medium term but next summer we will have to do a major rebuild again. I still think we will end up getting a couple more decent permanent signings in but the way the board have gone about things this summer is as bad as even the most optimistic fan could have imagined. The failure to secure top targets in a timely manner could cost us and make it a particularly painful season. I think we will scrape survival but it won't be easy and it certainly won't be enjoyable.

Came on here looking for news of a signing but we've sold two players.... What is going on? Wonder if Koeman regrets what he has walked into..

Hope we give Rogers hell on the opening day. One of the most arrogant men in football. Signing four players from a team that finished 8th to try and win the title? Yeah good one Brendan. You utter prat.

If our players were being courted by Everton or Spurs I'd agree with you but they aren't they are being courted by genuine title contenders. Liverpool finished 30 points ahead of us and almost won the league. If reports are to be believed then they want to strengthen their squad by spending the majority of their transfer budget signing three players from a team that finished in no man's land. I agree that Fox, Hooiveld and Gaz aren't Prem quality but even if we hadn't had to call on them we would never have been in the running for CL qualification. We are now being told that Premier League title challengers want to sign our players to try and win the league. If the spine of our team is as good as other managers seem to think then I genuinely believe that Poch underachieved with the team we had - back up players aside. We should have done better than 8th. Also, if it was so patently obvious that we had a lack of squad depth why did we spend most of our transfer budget on an Italian flop that headbutted one of our most popular players? I know hindsight is a wonderful thing but even at the time I thought it was bad management on Poch's part as it was clear the money could have been spent better elsewhere.

Very excited by koeman. Biggest name manager in my lifetime. COYR.

Agreed. If our players are that good how come we only finished 8th ? MP overrated I think, we played pretty football but we didn't get results when we needed and we couldn't score. Everyone said we lacked a quality striker but I disagree, it's not like we missed a shed load of chances we just didn't create that many (certain games excepted ).

Spurs trying to nick our new manager before we've even appointed him...! Can't they make do with one?

Completely agree, it feels like a fire sale and it doesn't look good to any prospective manager. We're going to be left to rebuild a decimated squad likely after the WC when prices will be hiked and a lot of average players will be touted. I cannot see this ending well . We need a new manager ASAP to take control of the situation otherwise he could be left with too much to do and too little to work with.

Anything less than £10 million would be giving him away and we won't even replace him for that. Wonder what the odds are on us going down next season...the way things are going I honestly wouldn't be surprised.

If this is true then the new board are an utter disgrace. Rickie is a Saints legend and was the one player I was sure we would keep. My hope for next season has just dropped off a cliff.

No one - board should introduce a policy of selling nobody to that bunch of toasters. That said, Morgan and Lovren are the ones I'm most concerned about.

Jumped ship at the first opportunity to a team that are effectively only one place higher than us (I'm taking Man U out of the equation as they will improve) we are better off without people who don't want to be here. It's pretty galling that it's Spurs that are pillaging us again, I'll be furious if any of our players end up there with him. Can't wait to play spurs now. Hope we smash them and MoPo is out on his ear within a year when he fails to live up to Spurs' ludicrous expectations...a club who think they are way above that they actually are. They won't get close to CL qual next year as there are too many sides that are simply much better than them and hence Poch will get the AVB treatment before too long.

MoPo is about to drink from the poisoned chalice and I hope he chokes on it. Will be sacked by January I reckon.

At least Shaw still cares.... Concerning that this has nothing to do with MP's future. Who made this decision then and why? New board better have good reason but I'm now increasingly worried about the state of play at SFC .

It's really not. Have you been watching some of the premier league teams this year?!

A lot of negative comments posted by a lot of posters who have absolutely no idea who Veho are and what they represent...typical of Saintsweb these days...

As I said, don't claim to know anything about American football at all, I wasn't suggesting you were wrong I just wanted you to elaborate. I have now been illuminated. Many thanks for the sarcasm.

Please elaborate as to why the comparison is laughable. I don't claim to know much about it but you clearly seem to. If you're going to knock down other poster's views then at least bother to give reasons.

Slowly backtracking from your statement that "only a few clubs don't rely on it" then?

So do you agree that if this is a standard business model amongst Premier League clubs then this is not something that we as Saints fans should be particularly concerned about? I wonder if villa or Everton forums have threads agonising over the instability of the financial model adopted by premier league clubs? I think not. You're scaremongering as usual.

So all clubs have a fragile business model then? If it's standard practice and all clubs do it then we are as much as risk as them. Your post makes it out as something of special concern for Saints.

Who said we relied on it? It certainly helps though.

Lots of statuses about Gazza on the Saints FB page, he must be playing which means this game will be harder than we think because if they have a shot on goal then we'll concede....a truly terrible keeper.

Haven't seen any mention of that anywhere - please elaborate.

Yaya is a *****. So petulant.