Matthew Le God

Playing Devil's advocate... 15 goals from 37 caps shows he is doing something right on the international stage

There are 3 left backs... Rose, Delph and Young. Delph and Young have been playing left back this season.

Standby list is Tom Heaton James Tarkowski Lewis Cook Jake Livemore Adam Lallana

Bertrand is not even on the standby list...

What is wrong with a 10th place finish in the Premier League? That would be a good season for Saints.

A broken clock is right twice per day... A broken Dalek on an internet football forum for 12 years is indistinguishable from a broken record!

If Liverpool win the Champions League Saints apparently get £10m in bonuses from deals they've done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8KFTLmm2Ug

Friends Provident St Mary's Stadium didn't last long.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0678t7z

I'm Glasgow Saint and so is my wife.

Stephens is 5 months older than Stones. Neither of them can really be considered youngsters anymore.

The three amigos!

Perhaps you should have read the rest to see it in context. Of course Bale is light years ahead of Redmond now, but when Bale was 17 years old he wouldn't find it easy displacing senior first team players like in 2006 when he was competing in the Championship for a starting role.

Again, I doubt it. I think Redmond would still be preferred over a 17 year old Bale, sure Bale would have been good enough for the first team squad but I doubt he'd be starting as first choice. Plus of course it wouldn't have taken Bale long to become first choice, but it was easier for Bale, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lallana etc to get Saints 1st team games when we were not in the Premier League. Our youth players need now to go on loan to build up to a level where they are good enough for the first team in the Premier League.

The club made the choice for Stephens to be a first choice player. He did come from Plymouth, but Stephens played a season for Southampton academy under 18s & the under 21/23s so that makes him a Southampton & Plymouth academy product.

How have you figured that out? Shaw left in 2014, my hypothetical is a 17 year old Bale at Saints in 2018 would struggle for games at left back due to Bertrand.

My hypothetical scenario was if we had Bale aged 17 now in the Premier League rather than Championship, Bertrand signed 4 years ago... at which point this version of Bale would have been 13 years old. So why wouldn't the club have signed Bertrand?

They would have found it harder. Bale broke into the side as a left back when we were in the Championship. If Bale was 17 and at the club now he'd be competing with Bertrand and Bertrand is currently better than Bale was when Bale was 17.

Of your example players... - Oxlade-Chamberlain did not play for the Southampton first team above League One - Bale did not play for the Southampton first team above the Championship - Walcott did not play for the Southampton first team above the Championship - Shaw played for the Southampton first team in the Premier League because we were a newly promoted side, he was exceptional and the competition was Danny Fox - Lallana gained experience through multiple seasons with us in the lower league and didn't play in the Premier League until he was into his early 20s - Dyer did not play for the Southampton first team above the Championship Why have you written off the current academy players? Targett, Ward-Prowse, Sims, McQueen, Stephens have all had good exposure to the first team and others in age groups below will likely do the same and gain experience on loan before reaching the quality level required for Premier League football. The quality bar is now higher to reach our first team, so where as in League 1 or the Championship a player might make the first team in their teens they now have to be exceptional to do so in the Premier League whilst a teenagers. Due to the rise in first team quality many young players will need to gain experience on loan int he Football League and may then be ready for us when they are in their early 20s.

Saints & Leicester were top 6 as recently as 2016.

Is this a serious suggestion? He has had a failed drug test, doesn't turn up to training and is on a massive barren spell of not scoring a league goal for years. What makes you think he has a 20 goal season in him? He is a mess of a player!

Can you name another European league that has better quality in the bottom 14 of a 20 team league? This is the squad that finished in 17th in Spain... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_Legan%C3%A9s#Current_squad They would be blown out of the water by any Premier League team for wages and transfer fees.

That is simply not true. If multiple clubs offer the release clause then they will all be automatically accepted regardless of what Celta Vigo want to do, it is then for the player to pick.