Matthew Le God

We play a formation with 1 striker, we don't really need 4 senior strikers for a 433 system. It won't be overly long until Austin is back, so fitting Austin, Gabbiadini, Long & Rodriguez in to a match-day squad of 18 isn't easy when we also have Boufal, Redmond, Tadic & Sims for the 2 wide positions in the 433 system. - Play 2 upfront and you need 4 senior strikers in the squad - Play 1 upfront like Saints do and you only really need 3 senior strikers in the squad Any more that that and it bloats the squad a little, senior players aren't even making the matchday squad of 18 and get unhappy.

Commercial revenue increases is what we need to progress and it seems the club's commercial department are starting to get better deals than they used to with this deal with Unilever/Sure and the big Under Armour & Virgin Media deals. https://southamptonfc.com/news/2017-01-30/southampton-sure-announcement

You avatar and posts like this suggest you believe he is a liar. Can you prove this with evidence? Just because something doesn't happen, doesn't automatically mean the person is a liar, it is possible for someone to change their mind based on new evidence.

I doubt we'll be signing a right back as Jeremy Pied is back doing ball work. Would be bloating the squad to sign another right back now.

Merson isn't employed by Sky Sports for his football knowledge. He is there as a jester and figure of fun. Two large companies use me for my knowledge of Saints & football in genral. They don't use me as a figure of fun on an afternoon sports results programme, I'm paid for Saints knowledge by one of them and they both wouldn't bother if they didn't think I knew what I was talking about. I know some on this forum disagree with lots of the things I say, but many don't.

You misunderstand me, my point was Sky use idiots as football experts like Merson, yet everyone jumps at them when they use a resource actual clubs use for scouting.

A large number of professional clubs use the FM database as an initial data resource. It is the largest database of footballers in the world and the biggest scouting network in the world. Prozone uses FM data. News organisations public interviews outside stadiums etc and football "experts" like Paul Merson... so why ridicule a resource that professional clubs use? https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/12/why-clubs-football-manager-scouting-tool

Player value is not used to determine the value of football clubs in business transactions.

Man City sold 13% to a Chinese company... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/dec/01/manchester-city-265m-deal-chinese-investment-group

...to reach a major cup final! Some perspective there for some people on this forum! #PuelIn

In which case why have you changed the system from the normal 433 Puel uses with Romeu as the lone DM, to a 4231?

The club have tweeted pictures of them getting on the plane...

It appears you don't know what an emergency loan is.

I think it undervalues the squad and doesn't consider the barmy nature of English club to English club transfers. I think we have quite a lot of players we could get £20m+ for from another Premier League club in the current crazy transfer market. For example... van Dijk Bertrand Forster Ward-Prowse Boufal Redmond Hojbjerg ...and some others - I imagine many Saints fans will be surprised at some of those, but for example it would take a big fee to get Ward-Prowse from us when he is under contract until 2022. We got £16m for Chambers ffs! - Forster also written off by many; but we paid £10m for him, he is under contract until 2022... so for him to be sold it would take a very big offer. - Even though they joined in the summer (Boufal, Hojberg and Redmond) I doubt will leave the club if there is good time left on their contracts for less that £20m each. Jordan Ibe cost Bournemouth £15m ffs, so Redmond at £20m isn't out of place. Even someone like Sam McQueen or Josh Sims if sold would fetch a large fee. Players with not Premier League exposure in the Championship are going for £12m - £15m! Are they good value compared to what you could get for £20m abroad? No But as I said this report appears to underestimate what Premier League clubs can get for their players in 2016/17.

Why would you want them to take a huge risk and switch to a formation they haven't used under Puel? Last time was under Koeman many months ago and it is a huge risk using it unprepared. Only worth switching if they've had weeks of preparation in that system in training as a back up to the 433, no evidence atm Puel ever intends to use that system.

Have you considered their intention might be to get Sakho and Liverpool want us to wait until after the semi final so he can't play?

You think we are being cheap with managers? The Telegraph reported we offered Koeman £86,000 p/w. Ok, Everton offered more, but Saints were still willing to pay one of the highest salaries to a manager in European football. That isn't being cheap is it?

Just to let you two know... Jordan Turnbull left Saints on 15th August 2016. He isn't on loan, he joined Coventry City on a permanent deal. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37089943

He wouldn't have been "free in 6 months". West Brom would have received significant compensation if he joined another English team in the summer. And Mane wasn't £30m, it was a deal potentially worth £38.5m.

- Sign Fonte for £1m as a 26 year old - Rise from League 1 to the Premier League with Fonte in the team - Sell him to West Ham for £10m as a 33 year old - Get 26 year old Mamadou Sakho to replace 33 year old Jose Fonte ________________ Not bad really, if that is what happens.

Austin's last full Premier League season saw him get 18 league goals for a terrible team that created little. He was the 4th top scorer in the league, only Aguero, Kane and Costa scored more.

You've made 27,380 posts on here in the last 10 years,I challenge you to make a list linking to 10 positive posts of your from those 27,380. I'm guessing you will struggle as pretty much everything you ever Say on here is negative. Don't you get bored of it? The last 7 and a half years have been a relative golden era for the club compared to most of its history.

Obligatory "best bits" video... [video=youtube;G-hzlahTsdk]

The interest from China in Pelle started to be reported in January 2016. We signed Austin in Janaury as the opportunity to get him cheap came up. The club have briefed the press Austin was indeed a pre-emptive replacement for Pelle. Some Saints fans appear to think that a replacement can only be signed after the original player leaves.

Do you have a viable alternative strategy you would like to outline? Does it involve... - letting Wanyama's contract run out in summer 2017 and him leaving for £0? - or signing players that none of the rich clubs would want to buy in the future? Football has a pecking order, Saints will never be at the top of it. So if we are to have very good players you have to accept they will be sold. We simply can't compete with Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal & Man Utd on wages. So stop with these daft threads you start and posts and engage your brain.