Matthew Le God

First time in years they've used ticket prices that should get a healthy attendance at a pre-season game.

Adult tickets for the Bayer Leverkusen game are only £10 for season ticket holders and free for under 11's... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/news/article/tickets-southampton-vs-bayer-04-leverkusen-1766984.aspx

No. They aren't using Sharp as a striker, they are using him in central midfield because he is a contracted senior professional at the club and he makes the numbers up with a number of people who play in central midfield not available at the moment.

I said minus last seasons top 7, so that leaves your list with Palace, Hull, Newcastle, Stoke and West Ham. Lets take Newcastle, from their 2013/14 season they've lost... Remy Cabaye Debuchy Those are some very important players for Newcastle, in the same way Shaw, Lallana and Lambert were important for us. Have the players they've replaced them with really taken them above Saints? I'd say its very debatable if any of the replacements are better than the Newcastle players that have left. How many Palace, Hull, Stoke and West Ham players would get in our starting XI?

Please list teams (minus last season's top 7) that have improved on their squads overall from the 2013/14 season taking them ahead of Saints meaning we'd drop to 15th.

Please list teams (minus last season's top 7) that have improved on their squads overall from the 2013/14 season taking them ahead of Saints.

Saints already have signed replacements for 2 of the 3 players that left.

The link is to the Southampton website where there is a short written profile, not the video.

Click on the link I provided.

http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/team/developmentsquad/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdREYBgawOs

I'd imagine he'd miss his £100,000 p/w contract and Champions League football.

No, we've lost 3 players from a squad that came 8th and already signed big money replacements for 2 of them. The clubs below us last season and the newly promoted ones haven't all overtaken us in squad quality. A few have made some reasonable additions, but lots have also lost or will lose key players.

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC GOAL: @sportinghasselt 0-6 @SouthamptonFC (@SamGallagher40 87) #saintsfc

Players ahead of Sharp for central midfield in the pecking order... Schneiderlin Wanyama S.Davis Ward-Prowse Cork Ramirez Reed Koeman is using a different XI in each half and has a number of central midfielders not available, Sharp playing there vs two lower league Low Country teams is largely meaningless. He's just making up the numbers until the full squad is available and we aren't making mass changes at half time each game.

I think he is merely being used there because we are using the system Koeman wants us to play and as he is using two XI's in each game he needs Sharp to make up the numbers in central midfield in the absence of Schneiderlin, Ramirez and Wanyama from the tour. I very much doubt Koeman sees Sharp in his plans at all, let alone in central midfield. He is just making up the numbers at the moment and shoehorned into central midfield until the full squad is together.

The system Koeman wants us to play appears to be something like this... 2nd half [color=#292F33][font=Helvetica Neue]Boruc Chambers Fonte Yoshida Turnbull Flannigan Reed Sharp McQueen Mayuka Gallagher[/font][/color] Sharp used in central midfield due to the absence of Schnedierlin, Ramirez and Wanyama from the squad.

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 2m #SaintsFC second-half team: Boruc, Chambers, Fonte, Yoshida, Turnbull, Flannigan, Reed, Sharp, McQueen, Mayuka, Gallagher I think Turnbull is the most likely left back, although he is a centre back he is left footed.

I don't even know where to start with that!

Pellè is having a good debut so far... Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 5m 3: Early chance for #SaintsFC as @GPelle9 chests it to James Ward-Prowse, but Hasselt goalkeeper Dylan Swinnen tips his shot wide. [0-0] Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 3m GOAL: @sportinghasselt 0-1 @SouthamptonFC (Graziano Pellè 5) #saintsfc Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 2m 5: #SaintsFC take an early lead through debutant Pellè, who converts @lloyd_isgrove’s cross from close range. Calm finish. [0-1]

Or... they are being honest and he has a groin strain. Why is that so hard to believe?

Southampton FC ‏@SouthamptonFC 1m Anyone worried about @Nathaniel_Clyne – don't be. He's just got a slight groin problem. #SaintsOnTour

I'm not the one who created this thread because of the following vague conversation... Your opening post to this thread is vague in the extreme to anyone who wasn't aware what you were referring to...! Talk about twisting people's words!

Because Chambers was so terrible last season? Pochettino at times last season was finding it difficult to choose between Chambers and Clyne at right back when they were both fit. Because the club has such a poor record of producing and playing teenagers in the Premier League?