Professor

Hopefully, Wanyama is not for Saints. How £10m-£12m can be quoted for a player from the SPL who cost less than £1m just the day before yesterday seems to have mystified a lot of my Saints' supporting pals. For that money, if we are going outside the Prem, we should be looking for a midfield player with experience playing for a top side in Italy, Spain or equivalent. Please let this one go wherever he can get the most money but not here where we value loyalty.

I agree, colour of skin is immaterial, we all have whatever it is imposed on us, but hairstyle is another thing. Since that's a matter of choice it can tell you a bit more about someone and I'd rather see a bit more Brylcreem or Tony Curtis and a bit less Sid Vicious in a potential signing..

I expected to hear his response had been, "What! Southampton! I had no idea such a club could be interested in me. It would be my dream move....."

Who benefits? 5.15pm here is midday in the eastern United States and morning in the western US. Means that Sky can sell it in America through Fox Television; the answer to question is Rupert Murdoch.

Still not the final game of the season because the Championship Play-off Final is at Wembley the following week. As Saints' fans well know, you can't rule out a second tier side being in the cup final so a good Championship side could have consecutive games at Wembley. OK, that won't happen, but its still true that the FA Cup final is not the last game.

Very different start to the season compared to last year. Could it be a title decider against Man U at St Mary's on the last day of the season!

There's a major problem with stripes. However much you vary the shirt with different collars and the shape of the stripes, the fans can get away with wearing an old shirt that still looks similar to the latest version. So having stripes allows some fans to avoid having their pockets picked for another over-priced shirt every season. Teams in the Premier League are so hard-pressed for cash that they need every penny they can screw out of their fans and lets not forget that buying a new shirt every year allows fans to donate towards the miserable wages of Premier League players.

Anything in the Echo story about Slovakian left-sided winger Miroslav Stoch? Sounds more like a war criminal than a footballer but can't help his name. Doesn't seem to have set the world alight recently, but we do need a fast, tricky, wide player.

Who is EyeFootball to have any reliable information? Might be a 16yr-old in his bedroom.... Undoubtedly a brilliant player who could transform Saint's midfield but there is the risk that off the field antics could cancel out the benefit unless he's begun growing up.

No evidence that SFC have any interest, just the Express re-running out-of-date information to bulk up the story of his transfer request. Looks a good player for Hull or Reading who could help them in their fight for relegation.

Nwob

Not sure there is any age in their 20s when players can't improve as experience and technique is added to natural skill. There comes a plateau and then a decline but hardly at 25! Isn't Rickie is a good example of a player improving all through his 20s? Maybe its unfair to judge a guy on appearances but Banega looks like he might not be a stranger to the nightlife, of which Southampton has much to offer a 25-year old....

My wife hasn't been thrilled by Lovren but she's seen his picture and says she'd be willing to let him try.

Watched the game and listened to the biased pro-Brazil commentary. The viewers heard that Oscar plays for Chelsea and that a Liverpool player hadn't been selected. Heard no mention of Yoshida being a Saints' player. Usual TV approach of assuming the viewers are only interested in a few teams.

Appreciate that out there on the Island its still the 1980s, but as Nigel Adkins famously said, "Do try to keep up". The 'gelling' of new players into the squad will begin when the players report back for pre-season, so players signed prior to that will benefit from the whole of pre-season compared to any later signings who will have less time. Doesn't mean there may not be later signings if the right player isn't available until later but surely its common sense to say that the earlier the better.

"Are we signing players too early?" The amusingly sarcastic replies suggest this is a silly question and it is tempting to add to the sarcasm, but just taking it seriously for a moment, there are such obvious reasons why the answer is "No". Signings made before pre-season prevent a player that our club wants from going elsewhere, allows the player full pre-season to gel with the squad and gives maximum time for coaching the player into the Southampton way of playing. Late signings, such as last year, can mean putting out an inadequate team leading to a poor run of early season results. So far it's 'a signing' not 'signings', but it looks like there are are more to come. Exciting wide player, please.

Always thought Skacel might have been better if the club had been able to buy him a pair of shorts that fitted. Having over-sized bloomers flapping round his ankles made it difficult for him to take a corner.

The days when top tier teams could have players named 'Billy' have long gone, along with the Berts, Freds and Tommys. If he was Wayne Sharpe he'd be in the squad.

Hearing Mourinho talking about Chelsea players returning in the first week of July brings home how short the close season has become. Can anyone tell us when pre-season starts for Saints? Thought there was mention of another training camp in Switzerland and presumably the Memorial Cup competition will be held again but can find nothing on the OS. Any info, anyone? The silence on transfers is not a surprise as it is the Cortese way to do things quietly. It can be unsettling to see the 'big 6' being constantly linked with this player or that, but that's largely the media using their favoured clubs as fodder to fill the football spaces. All the same, it was suggested that Pochettino would like his squad in place by 1st July. How likely is that?

Although living close enough to go to most home games, I can't make it every time but with streams on the web, I rarely miss seeing a game on the computer screen if I'm not at the match. Total transformation from the days when you only got the results from the radio at 5pm and to read a report on Saturday night meant going to the newsagents by New Milton station for the Echo's Pink Paper to come in. Tend to use First Row Sports or Wisiwig when I need a stream.

Agree. And looks likely to happen to Adkins. It still seems wrong that he was ousted when he was, just as he was getting things under control defensively, but would he have got those victories over Man C, Chelsea and Liverpool? We will never know, but without them we could have been relegated. Despite the Adkins sacking seeming unfair, the club feels better without his management speak around and with Pochettino's professionalism in place.

I wonder how many of the Adkins fans in this thread were previously Pearson fans. Is it something about Nigels?

Top 6 can still leave a club quite detached from the 4 Champions League places. This year, Liverpool in 6th were 12 points behind Arsenal in 4th and 28 points behind Man U. Saints in 14th were 20 points behind Liverpool and had nine teams between them and 4th place. All of those 9 teams will also be strengthening and trying to make the top 6 so the scale of this task is monumental. Michael Laudrup's estimate of £200m+ needed to be spent for a team to reach that level is an opinion by someone who knows.

The qualification for England captaincy is that you must shoot a young player with an air rifle and publish foul-mouthed insults aimed at the FA. Players wanting to get into the England team need to take note.

So The Echo thinks there has been no approach for MP. If so, what's wrong with our manager?