Matthew Le God

Walcott left before the Liebherr takeover, but he has also included Surman.

Or its the club is now in a different place to then. Shaw for example wouldn't have become a regular as a teenager if he was up against Bertrand at left back. Shaw was up against Fox and quickly overtook him. The bar of quality in Saints first team squad has risen and it may take our academy players until their early 20's instead of teens to be ready. Koeman as a manager of a top seven club gave debuts to 5 academy players last season and under 21 players are often training with the first team. How many other clubs do that in our position?

The academy system started in 1997, in the recent past Saints haven't had the need to send them on loan to Football League clubs. Between 2005 and 2012 Saints were themselves a Football League club. Bale, Walcott, Lallana, Oxlade-Chamberlain and others found it easier to break into our first team. In 2012/13 we were newly promoted to the Premier League and at the start of the season Fox was the left back, Shaw was able to quickly overtake him but he'd have found it a lot harder if Bertrand was at the club. The bar in 2015/16 is now extremely high for any teenager, but Koeman still gave debuts to 5 academy players last season and many of the under 21s often train with the first team. Any Saints teenager now would have to be exceptional to make it as a regular in our first team which is packed with senior internationals. In the past when Saints were a League One, Championship & newly promoted Premier League team themselves, teenagers were more likely to break through early. As a top half Premier League club it may take some until 20 to 23 to be of the quality we need, so loans to Football League clubs for them to gain experience make more sense than in our recent past as a Football League club or soon after promotion back to the Premier League.

I'm surprised anyone would even ask that. He isn't going to be sold to a Championship team, if he leaves it'll be on loan to gain experience.

The question Koeman was answering was if Romeu was the first choice transfer target for the role and not if he'd be first choice starter or not.

Isn't there a conflict of interest with Sky having the major Sports News Channel in the country and then making up stories which influence gullible people to place bets on Skybet? Skybet is the only UK bookmaker with a sister company that can influence the market significantly through "news" stories. Story in the Independent about it here... http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ian-herbert-sky-sports-reports-sky-bet-reacts--is-there-a-conflict-of-interest-8807662.html

From his claim of a 23,000 capacity to the actual capacity being over 32,500 is quite a large margin of error. Every Premier League season at St Mary's has averaged over 30,000.

Can you give examples?

He also omitted Saints paid Palace a % of the Clyne deal. Its a simplistic way of looking at transfers as it doesn't take into account for example signing on fees, agent fees, other extras and that fees are rarely paid all upfront.

That second XI of subs wouldn't be a bad team. I think we now have the best depth we've ever had in the Premier League.

Add Matthew Targett to make it a choice from 11?

Not just N'Zonzi... Begovic sold, Moses loan ended and Shawcross out injured needing back surgery. As for Palace, they may not have lost key players but they were below us in quality last season so had a lot to catch up even before we started signing players.

Yep, I did it so each player was only in one position. You could also say S.Davis and Ward-Prowse play at times in an attacking midfield role as one of the three in a 4-2-3-1 system.

With Romeu and possibly van Dijk they'd be a good amount of depth to the squad... Goalkeepers Stekelenburg Forster (long term injury) Gazzaniga K.Davis Right backs Cedric Martina Left backs Bertrand Targett Centre backs Fonte van Dijk? Caulker Yoshida Gardos (long term injury) Central midfield Wanyama Clasie Romeu S.Davis Ward-Prowse Reed Attacking players Pelle Mane Rodriguez Tadic Juanmi Long Plus some promising under 21 players if needed.

Its happened before, but he quickly returns to his negative jumping to conclusions without evidence ways.

Forster signing for Saints and Celtic being reinstated to the Champions League happened on the same day. Perhaps the Forster deal was too far advanced by the point they knew they were definetly still in the Champions League.

van Dijk has had two seasons of European football with Celtic. That is a higher level than League One of the Championship, Celtic played... 2013/14 Champions League group stage vs Barcelona, AC Milan & Ajax 2014/15 Europa League group stage vs RB Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Astra Giurglu and a final 32 tie vs Inter Milan

What does that mean? Are you accusing him of having some kind of agenda against Saints?

Based on the nonsense he just posted I doubt it, but you never know with ART.

Shoehorning Davis into the side as a left wing back isn't a great idea. Why play Davis completely out of position and not use Targett in a role he is suited to?

Who on earth would lend them the ten of millions of pounds to build such a redevelopment? They aren't exactly blessed with a good credit rating having failed as a company multiple times in the past 20 years. Effectively Pompey have done this with the Tesco deal...

It looked like he came off as a precaution and wasn't that bad as he watched the rest of the match from the bench rather than having treatment. Plus he just tweeted this... Jordy Clasie ‏@JordyClasie 3m3 minutes ago Happy to be back on the field #SaintsFC Would he do that if injured again?

He is struggling to cope with their left winger as he doesn't have the pace to keep up.

He was injured during the RB Leipzig game on 8th July.

True and often when Koeman is asked about a player he isn't interested in he dismisses it - like with Leon Goretzka. He hasn't done that with van Dijk.