Matthew Le God

Jack Stephens might be a bit miffed if we sign someone younger than him (Wesley Hoedt) who then goes above him in the pecking order.

Wheelies without a helmet on a wet track possibly not a good idea for multimillion pound footballers with hamstring injuries...?

Why do they need to make him promises? He signed until 2022, if they tell him no for a summer 2017 move he has to live with it. Just like Schneiderlin & Wanyama did when they were forced to stay another season. When September comes, if van Dijk is still at Saints, he isn't going to strike. When in world football has a player gone on strike after the transfer window has closed? If he wants to play for the Netherlands, going on strike from Septemebr to January or May isn't going to help him.

How big a squad are you saying we should have? You can only have a max of 25 over 21 year old players.

You keep complaining like a broken record about lack of spending, lack of ambition and then make those as signing suggestions! You are out of touch with judging player ability if you think they'd improve us.

It was streamed live on the Saints Facebook page, so the video is there to watch at any time.

Central midfielders rarely have pace, it isn't really an attribute needed for the role. If they had pace... they probably wouldn't be playing in central midfield.

Votre mère était un hamster et votre père sentait des baies de sureau!

Stephens is the replacement for Fonte. Yoshida & Stephens both had a better season than Fonte did in 2016/17. Fonte is on the decline Yoshida & particularly Stephens improved a lot last season. 1st choice - van Dijk 2nd/3rd choice - Yoshida/ Stephens 4th choice - Bednarek

In the last 3 years Southampton haven't sold an important 1st team player after 28th July in the summer window. Today is 28th July, tick tock Liverpool... (I know we could of course sell a player in August, but it appears to be club policy that if a player is going to be sold it is done before August so that the club has a good amount of time to find replacements)

26th July... 27th July... 28th July...

We have a very talented 20 year old winger of our own... Josh Sims. I'd think the club would see more benefit spending game-time developing him, rather than 20 year old Roberts for the benefit of Man City and not us. Since promotion we haven't loaned a youngster from a top club (Bertrand wasn't a youngster he was 24 and with a view to buy him), I doubt we'll start blocking pathways and do youngster loans now. As a club we have moved to a level where we don't need to loan youngsters from the top clubs... that is what newly promoted and bottom half sides do.

I doubt he is itk, he probably read it in The Sun 8 days ago on the 18th July... https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/4047637/southampton-man-city-patrick-roberts-loan/ The rumour about Roberts today doing the rounds on Twitter appears to originate from a bull****ter Twitter account.

I very much doubt he literally did that! Would have been a bloody mess.

Sky have a conflict of interest. They run a betting website and due to reports linking van Dijk to Chelsea, Barcelona & Real Madrid today perhaps they created a story to get money from punters betting on Liverpool again. Sky are able to manipulate gullible gamblers to read stories on Sky Sports News, which then influences betting markets... of which they have a vested interest! Really shouldn't be allowed.

At what point are you going to realise it hasn't been called the Premiership for the last 10 years? I'm also puzzled how you think we are "struggling financially"? We post a profit in accounts and also have one of the most expensively assembled squads in world football and a huge wage bill.

The FA and the Premier League are two different governing bodies. Any tapping up is for the Premier League to decide, not the FA.

He was a coach at Liverpool for 2 years. And played for Liverpool for 1 year...

Should we bid £30m instead? Buying clubs want to get the lowest possible price.

Not enough :mcinnes: in the world for this nonsense. I'm glad you aren't in charge of the club if you think Smalling, Delph and Defoe would be good signings for Saints! If the club didn't have ambition van Dijk would already have been sold. Instead they've told him no and he has thrown his toys out of the pram.

What price is way over the top, Saints haven't given a price for him. Unless you have good evidence they have...? In any case, what do you mean "over the top". Because van Dijk going for £70m doesn't seem out of place compared to other transfers this summer. That is what it should be judged on, not the prices of 2014, 2015 etc. The £35m you suggest is ridiculously low when you look at other 2017 transfers. There would be extremely little incentive for Saints to sell a player like van Dijk who is under contract until 2022 for £35m.

Holding a player to a contract they signed by their own choice. Yeah... what a dreadful thing to do! van Dijk didn't have a gun to his head when he signed a new 6 year contract in 2016. Now van Dijk is throwing his toys out of the pram, Les Reed becomes a man with a "dark side". ffs!

Nonsense. Schneiderlin asked to leave in 2014... the club said no... he didn't leave in 2014... he stayed 1 more season and left in 2015 Wanyama asked to leave in 2015... the club said no... he didn't leave in 2015... he stayed 1 more season and left in 2016

Niemi > Forster >>>> Boruc >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Blayney

Why do you think that? It is pretty standard practice in the industry, especially for young players when they are sold.