Matthew Le God

Neither of those are relevant examples, they weren't released on free because the weren't good enough. I was also saying such a transfer doesn't have the "wow" factor, not that by default being released makes him a bad player. He may well be a good signing for Stoke but that wasn't my point.

He'll have to overtake Huth and Shawcross in the pecking order which will be difficult.

Lovren and Ramirez suggest that some will. Yes, alot won't like the lack of agent fee on offer and we'll get a lot of rejections but some deals for big players will go through imo. Just a question of patience and sticking to your principles. Which I think Cortese will do. If more chairmen took Cortese's approach to agent fees football would be better off!

I was responding to the thread title which is "Inexperience in the transfer market".

In the last 4 years Nicola Cortese has completed 51 incoming (loan/transfer) player transactions for a total cost of over £50m, including ones for £12m, £10m and £7m. Last year he secured circa £35m worth of incoming transfers whilst paying only £600k in agent fees. He is not "inexperienced in the transfer market".

And were any of them released from Barcelona B on free transfers? My point was a player released from Barcelona B is not a "WOW signing".

I wouldn't call a player on a free from Barcelona B a "WOW signing". He may well be a good player (I don't know), but it isn't an awe inspiring signing.

In the Kingsland.

Yes.

I still think there is a good player in there somewhere struggling to get out. He has a lot of good qualities but his crossing and his decision making lets him down and he dwells on the ball for too long.

tbf to Bournemouth they only have 11k seats, Leicester have 32k seats and so could charge less in order to pay Real Madrid's fee.

By agreeing to pay Real Madrid the huge match fee they ask every friendly opponent to pay. A similar reason to why Saints are playing lower division Spanish side early in their pre-season - to gain fitness. Plus the money Bournemouth are paying them.

As Steve Grant said in the pre-season thread... Real Madrid play Galatasaray in Istanbul the day after the Bournemouth friendly, so it might be £60 to watch the Real Madrid "reserves".

It is not Sky that are being misleading, it is this thread! Sky have a headline that a team with the nicknames "Saints" have signed a player called Wotherspoon, that is 100% correct. It just happens that it is St. Johnstone and not Southampton.

Now that is an expensive friendly! Cherries season ticket holders: Adult: £55 Concession: £40 U16: £25 Executive: £75 General sale price: Adult: £60 Concession: £45 U16: £30 Executive: £80

Keegan was the England captain and reigning European footballer of the year, Defoe well...umm... isn't.

Don't forget the puking Adrian, the puking is a top priority in all the modern sports science academic literature.

Players at Solent Uni today and tomorrow doing Vo2 max testing...

And your source for that is...?

Do you expect people to take you seriously when you continue with such utter nonsense? Its 1st July, we already have a better squad than Cardiff and signed Dejan Lovren for big money two weeks ago.

Sunderland in 1936 Unless you count the Liverpool pinstripe kits of the 1980's... In which case the most recent striped top flight winners would be Liverpool in 1984 - the year Southampton were 2nd and only 3 points behind Liverpool with Saints not wearing stripes!

Indeed they are!

Plug it into a computer USB port.