Jez

ha!! As if you believe that is true. Douche.

Roy didn't mention he was, but did say that Shaw was the only player to be a doubt due to having a "head cold". Very minor though he said so perhaps he'll still take part.

I love the "quote" in the headline, but yet no reference to where it came from, who said it or when in the story... usual generic press speculation then.

One of the worst points/examples I have ever seen anyone make on here. People have annual memberships to go to the cinema with no idea what will be appearing in the future. And as many other people have said, you buy to watch Saints generally, not to watch 2 specific players and the manager and you always know exactly what you will see. When the fixtures get announced, you will know exactly what you will be watching in May 2015, the location, time, opponents etc. You won't know who will be playing for either side, but why does that matter when you are a Saints fan? You'll be watching the club regardless of personnel and opponents... unless you're not really a fan of Saints at all.

they are some pretty horrible looking boots Baines, Lambert, Shaw (and one other) are wearing! Though not sure Lallana's are much nicer...

never could have guessed!! I think you should be more upset though. If not though, could you update your username to "doddisok". Thanks

Awesome!

I remember that Walcott signed for Arsenal from us, never played a senior game for Arsenal, but was then selected for the World Cup squad. Obviously Arsenal owned him, but we got little credit for him having been picked etc, and it was mainly just that it was an Arsenal player appearing (or not as the case was) for England. And that was just in England - I can imagine around the world he would be known as an Arsenal player with no mention of Saints at all.

To be expected following Cole's dropping to the 30 man squad and subsequent retirement but still...yay!

Good friends with Hart are you?

How often are BIG transfers completed prior to a world cup? I have a poor memory for facts like this, but do expensive deals/players ever move prior to a world cup? I guess it would depend on whether there was interest pre world cup, or they had a good tournament and then that secured them a move to abig club. But Adam can't be the first player in this situation. He won't need the stress of being involved in a prolonged transfer deal prior to the World Cup. Come Monday when the squad is announced, and he is included, I wouldn't imagine he'll be thinking much about next season in the Prem, purely focusing on the World Cup. You could expect he'd even be thinking that once the World Cup is over, if he is confident in his own ability (which I am sure he is) he'd be able to secure a better deal with either Saints or any other club, both personally and for his current club. As the decent person he is, you know he would want Saints to get the best deal, as Bournemouth too I expect, and moving prior to the World Cup wouldn't help with this. It would be painful to watch Lallana star for England knowing he is already a Liverpool player. At the moment, everything is only rumours, so personally I remain optimistic he will still be with us at least by the time the World Cup starts. After that, who knows...

Is there actually any story to this or simply a headline...? Who from Liverpool has said this, if anyone? It's gonna be such a long summer if this continues!

A few had predicted Man Utd's finish very badly! To be expected I guess considering how badly Moyes done. I count two people correctly predicting Saints to finish 8th. Based on the 11 predictions above (not counting jjsaint's of 1st!) it seems Saints have certainly hugely outweighed most peoples expectations (if 11 can be used as a decent enough gauge of opinion) especially we were were closer to 7th than we were 9th.

The guy has gone back on twitter (hours ago now but no one else has mentioned it here directly) and admitted he was joking about having 40 scarves. Or selling any. They were just his mates scarves he was carrying - 4 or 5 of them as Steve Grant mentioned above. Loving the outrage from some people (OP especially) when they had no facts about the story!

Terrible news that Walker is out? Does that mean you'd rather have Walker starting over Johnson if you don't rate Johnson?

It is almost a shame we have had Chambers coming through so strong this season, as if we had the equivalent of Fox as our reserve right back, Clyne would have played another 10/15 games this season, and almost certainly be the 3rd England right back, and maybe even pushing for a England squad place regardless of injuries. Walker is a liability anyway. Both the Spurs fans I know don't rate him (a whole two of them!) (from a Saints perspective... yay Chambers obviously)

I think the fact this thread is pretty long quite quickly is indicative that people are of the common consensus that "trolls" are a problem on this forum. A few suggestions have been made as to how they could be tackled, and it would be nice to see something at least trialled in some way, or just straight out implemented. I cannot see how ignoring them works though, as their comments just encourage responses (as that is often their aim) and then additional comments/feedback from other people are added, and threads are ruined. It's not like it is just one out of turn comment, and everyone glosses over it, the "troll" comments end up driving the threads, and therefore ruining them.

Your opinion etc so fair enough, but you gave it a 1 out of 10. I guess you'll be killing yourself when we finish 11th then?

I like this theory a lot!

Welbeck was nailed on 100% anyway. Hodgson on TalkSport yesterday described Welbeck as a "bona fide England player" and waxed lyrical about him. If it was j-Rod vs Welbeck, no contest, but there is space for both. Fingers crossed J-Rod is back soon and can get in a few games before the end of the season to try and convince Roy he is worthy of a spot. Always unlikely to make the final 23 anyway but be awesome if he can at least have the chance to prove himself.

Published 18 April last year. Perhaps in a few weeks we'll have a clearer picture how we compare. I always thought and assumed the plan was to overspend initially, when we got promoted, as we had to to play catch up with the rest of the established Prem teams. We have done more than catch a lot of the teams, we have clearly overtaken a lot of them too. Our future earnings would cover this initial expenditure, due to the increased revenues from TV etc, so for example we could spend the same again during the next period, and still make a profit (in theory, without going the into mathematical calculations). And hopefully we can respend the Osvaldo money if we sell him. Plus it sounds as though if things improve on the commercial side of things, then it only looks better. Besides, do any teams ever pay upfront for transfers? I thought the majority are structured over time in some way. Can't see much bad news from this myself. I would much rather we were spending money on the training ground instead of wages too (a la Pompey), as it'll recoup its own value overtime in improving our players (that is of course taking a simplistic view like something off a computer game whereby better facilities instantly means better players!)

Brilliant. Who pays up the remainder of his contract? The fans?

That would have been my ideal (not alone I am sure!) starting XI from day one this season. Shocking they've not yet had one game together! Davis not done much wrong, but still think Gaston is a better bet, especially at home, especially when he needs gametime to get up to speed, and he has looked quality recently. Get him in there!

Probably one of the most positively themed threads ever in the Saints history, with four Saints players being recognised internationally by England at the same time, and the thread is still ruined and hijacked by the usual suspects with a load of pathetic point scoring rubbish and repetitive nonsense. Like a large number of other threads always are too. Congrats to the four involved - really hope that all four of them can make that final flight to Brazil. Will certainly make watching England (more) exciting!