LeBenali

If Long is worth £12.5million then in this market Townsend is worth £12mill...not a big fan of his but for that price I'd say sign him up,

In The Sunday People today we've been linked with a Bayer Leverkusen defender Phillip Wollscheid, but face competition from West Ham. Think his name was mentioned earlier in the summer?

Only started going to games in 1995/1996 so a majority of my Saints supporting life has been at St Marys, but still brings back many memories posting those photos. Thank you for making the effort.

Your optimism re: new signings is a relief Steve - I've accepted we won't be signing world beaters but the likes of Vlaar, Forster, Redmond (for instance) would be an improvement on the current state of play.

Adds weight to the rumour that we're getting Martin Kelly as part of the Lovren deal...although that now appears to be £20mill straight up rather than £16mill and Kelly.

So this would see us needing a goalkeeper and an entire new back 4? Plus a winger & another striker, and that's assuming nobody else leaves. I'm usually optimistic but I'd worry if (when) this one goes through, signing six players and expecting them to integrate into the team in 5 weeks won't happen.

And he's in the squad for tomorrow

Callum Slattery (one of the next 'big things' from the academy) has agreed a move to Arsenal, according to The People. I know he's been linked there before, but this appears to be a bit more definite.

Have heard we're in for Serge Gnabry on loan - had a look online to try and back up the rumour, and it's on the Caught Offside website. unsure if the person who told me about it knows something, or just saw it on there...

Ryan Bertrand? Solid but not spectacular whilst on loan at Villa last season, although with rumours of Liverpool being interested in him I imagine he's hanging on to see if he can be part of Brendan's "project" there - if not I'd take him ahead of Armero.

For me it was Scowcroft scoring a hat-trick in this match, and a game at home to Barnsley where we got a late equaliser through Idiakez to make it 2-2, only for Barnsley to go up the other end and make it 3-2 - not sure of the latter was 07/08 or 08/09.

Until a respected journalist of newspaper picks this up, then I can see no way it's true that we're after Witsel. When he signed for Zenit two years ago, his transfer fee was £32.5 million!

Small piece in The People saying we're after Tadic for £6 million (seems low in comparison to other reports) & Terence Kongolo, a 20 year old centre back. From my Google research he's only made 23 league appearances for Feyenoord, but has 2 Dutch caps.

Bournemouth have announced the ticket prices for our friendly against them - £15 for adults £10 for concessions and £7 for under-16s. And for Brighton, it's adults: £14, Senior Citizens: £10, Under-18s: £6.

Linked with Dundee United left back Andrew Robertson but face competition from Everton & Swansea, according to The People.

What happened to this shortlist of potential new managers that was meant to be shared with us?

Swap deal for Dawson, Sigurdsson & Townsend would be one mighty way of getting round the 25% to Bournemouth - such deals are very rare indeed, but would certainly sort out some weak positions in the squad.

Hmmm there is a flight that arrives from Amsterdam at 14.10...

FFS another pointless Twitter rumour.

I know it's hard to comprehend that Liverpool signing Rickie will directly make the sale price of Lallana fall comprehensively, perhaps by selling Rickie we're making room in the squad for the only player Liverpool were happy to offer as part exchange for AL - Fabio Borini? So £20mill (for example) + Borini, meaning if we sell Rickie for £8 million including add ons, we've still made £23million (25% of £20mill plus £8mill). Plausible if Liverpool weren't going to budge on their offer for AL but he was determined to move. Pure speculation on my part, just one of many possible yet unlikely theories I suppose!

From memory Yakin was linked with Spurs in December #pointlessfact

Myself & a work colleague both know different people who are on Lallana's stag in Miami. We've both been told the Liverpool deal has been agreed in principal, just need to agree a fee and arrange for a medical once England are back from their training camp. If this is true unsure if it'll be announced before or after the WC but I'd imagine the former to a) stop the speculation whilst he's in Brazil and b) the fact it's quite a big story to try and keep a secret! Make of it what you will etc etc.

Thanks Weston - I appreciate it must be difficult posting on here with everyone taking your word as gospel. Starting next season with one of the three (Mopo, Shaw, Lallana) will be a pleasant surprise.

Back page of tomorrows Sun saying Liverpool are poised with a £20 million bid,

Boa Morte inbetween Dave Jones and Franny?