Mowgli

Why on earth do people write off players with such ease? He's not my preferred option in midfield to be fair but against some sides I can see him being very effective. One pre season review identified Hammond as one of the players who will easily step up to top flight football.

Neither are crap. Both are premiership standard. The question is probably answered by thinking about who you replace when Ward-Prowse is ready for first team action. I thinks with the cup games last year, Prowse will replace Morgan who in turn will replace Cork in a fensive midfield role. Exciting to have those option though eh?

He's better than div one standard but this will give him a platform back. It's all about confidence and self belief.

.... of course if we sign someone like Jarvis or Ince, I reserve the right to change my mind!!

Resepct the view but he played there for quite a while with Burnley didn't he... .....read what the Burnley fans say about him. Not good with his back to goal. Will go deep to collect the ball. likes to run the channels..... Someone else suggested a similar role for Lee and I harshly dimissed it. Truth is, when you play with wing backs, we don't actually use wingers in the traditional sense. Anyway we'll see pre season. Personally I don't see the point in playing £6.5m for someone whose play is so limited we can only put him in one position.

Davis Butterfield Jos Curtis Davies Fox Rodriugez Morgan Cork Lallana Sharp Lambert Subs: Butland, Richardson, Fonte, Hammond, Lee, Guly & Puncheon

Hate to put a dampener on this but it was first mentioned on football-rumours site a week or so back. I rarely pass on rumours from this site because they are so random and lacking in substance (good fun to read on a quiet day though.....)

Unfortunately Ireland cannot talk to Saints at the minute as his Grandfather's sister-in-law has got mumps. Allegedly.

Probably (hopefully) outside of our wage structure.

Puncheon is a Saints player. Get behind him ffs

Hmm. I'm obviously the only one not to get excited about this. What is the point in taking a loan (no matter how good) unless here is an option to buy? I would much rather see a Jarvis or Phillips in that role knowing that they are going to stick around and actually have a vested interest in where we finish in the table.

Not much really. Most of the animosity was in fans minds. There was clearly a bust up behind the scenes. Allegedly with AC. Resulted in him going out on loan and NA indicating he would not play for club again. But attempts by his agent to orchestrate a transfer were thwarted by NC holding out for big fee to get the transfer fee we paid back. Eventually Punch made a derogatory tweet about NC along the lines of 'Nicola is some lil hater KMT'. That brought it all to a head and everyone agreed on a fresh start. Some fans don' really understand what hat means

Bobby Stokes. Who then got his cult status scoring the cup final winner. Actually addressed the boo boys outside the civic centre the next day announcing they would have to put up with him another year after getting a contract extension. I always was a big fan of Bobby Stokes after witnessing his two goal debut against Burnley on a hot bank holiday monday. Like many whipping boys what he lacked in skill he made up for with effort which is probably why they have so many fans. Then again, there was always David Speedie.....

I watched the Coventry game again this week and was surprised to see Guly playing a role in 3 of the 4 goals. His contribution to the first was amazing. Almost MLT style. Never thought he would step up from div 1 and pleased to be proved wrong. Seem to recall Cortese saying something very similar at one of the dinners. Was reluctant to make the loan permanent but was persuaded by his staff

Has anyone else notices that Newcastle and Saints seem to chasing a lot of the same players (allegedly). Presumably this is something to do with Pardew memorising the 'wish list' he was given by scouts at Southampton.

I think the loyalty comes with honouring contracts and recognising that the full squad is part of an amazing family. But the 18 that show the best form in traning will get the nod to line up on the day. I even think we have moved on from the starting 11 being the 'best' 11 - tactically you may hold your pace back till the second half. The summer signings will have the same benefit as others to impress both in training and in the pre season games.

I think people forget what an amazing achievement it was last season. Ipswich, Leicester, Derby, WHU, Leeds and Boro were all teams people picked before us to go up. Add to that Forest, Hull, Reading and Cardiff and you realise how well we did!

Would rather have both tbh

I think that was probably for his own safety....

Unless he is buying JayRod to play right midfield in which case there is a place for Hooper too. Personally I think we could do with one more on the wing. Ince or Matt Phillips from Blackpool but Jarvis would work. The real intersting selection is who we bring in to back up (and eventually replace) Kelvin. Kasper was my preferred option but I'm starting to think they have some unknown lined up...

Sky sports have put up an article quoting Scott Brown at Celtic hoping that Gary Hooper and Fraser Forster stay with the club. The way it is worded it seems clear there is a link with Southampton. Something along the lines of the lure of the premier league but the reality that only the top four or five stand a chance of champions league football. That aside, I had not realised that Fraser Forster would be an excellent first choice keeper in waiting to work alongside KD. Still prefer Kasper myself but this would be a good candidate as well.

I'm blind...

You can't help feeling people are dissing him because they just don't like him. Very few people have actually seen him play and are allowing themselves to be led like sheep by the mob. To put a bit of balance to the argument he made a big impact on the spurs academy, taking the team to the semis of the youth cup and saving a penalty at anfield in the shoot out. He has done very little since and being farmed out to non legue clubs has done little to his ranking at st Mary's. He will surely get a chance to show he is still motivated in pre season but in the last year of his contract (I think) the writing could well be on the wall

You can't help feeling people are dissing him because they just don't like him. Very few people have actually seen him play and are allowing themselves to be led like sheep by the mob. To put a bit of balance to the argument he made a big impact on the spurs academy, taking the team to the semis of the youth cup and vying a penalty at anfield in the shoot out. He has done very little since and being farmed out to non legue clubs has done little to his ranking at st Mary's. He will surely get a chance to show he is still motivated in per season but in the last year of his contract (I think) the writing could well be on the wall