Matthew Le God

So Saints, Chelsea and Man City will have the pick of the nations youth. Man Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal will soon join them, as will probably Spurs.

It passed 46 votes to 22, with 1 abstentions and three no-shows.

Sky are also using the 125 year anniversary badge for Saints! ffs

It is not quite as bad for the lower league clubs as some media sources are making out. As the BBC's Paul Fletcher states... The Premier League has proposed a framework that involves lower up-front payments but significant add-on fees if a player goes on to fulfil his potential. This could involve a youngster progressing to become a first-team player or an international, with each new achievement triggering another payment. The idea is that it will help facilitate a situation where the best young players end up at the finest facilities at an early age, thus improving their chances of succeeding, but the smaller selling club also wins because it will end up handsomely recompensed if a player becomes a success.

I don't know for sure, but seems likely they'll have to leave. If they then aren't good enough for a category one or two academy they will have to find a normal club side. Which is why this whole idea seems stupid.

As a category one, Saints will be able to train players under 12, those in the lower two categories won't anymore. Chelsea and Arsenal aren't currently taking players from Saints aged 8 to 16, I don't see why this will change matters.

- Saints currently play 23 league games a season on the St Mary's pitch. - By the time 2015 comes there is a good chance Saints will be in the Premier League and playing 19 games a season. - Unlikely St Mary's will get more than 3 or 4 games at the World Cup in the group stages. So no real difference.

Yes it does. The 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand was held in stadiums of under 20,000. Gloucester's stadium is potentially being used for the 2015 World Cup and is tiny compared to St Mary's. Saints will be hosting minor fixtures in the group stage only. Togo vs Georgia at a Rugby World Cup doesn't exactly need a huge stadium. In any case, there simply isn't any money to be made from Rugby World Cup's to justify large stadium expansions or new stadiums like there is for FIFA and UEFA competitions in football. St Mary's will be increased as an when Cortese decides it is the time, given the progress at the moment I think that will be relatively soon.

- McMenemy had Saints win a FA Cup as a 2nd tier team and finish 2nd in the whole of England. - Strachan had Saints runners up in the FA Cup and 8th in the Premier League. Although Nigel is doing superbly, he still has to achieve something at a higher level before he can overtake those two. Consecutive promotions would certainly help his cause!

As is the 90 minute match video. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/20111019/full-90-saints-1-0-west-ham-1st-half_2264122_2487530/0,,10280~2487530~1,00.html

As I said earlier this year in June about these proposals, Southampton due to the Liebherr investment will be getting category one academy status which means these changes should benefit the club compared to others. Thread I made about it 4 months ago... http://www.saintsweb.co.uk/showthread.php?30588-Premier-League-Academy-Elite-Player-Performance-Plan-Category-One-Status It will screw many teams, but it should be good for Southampton.

Just because there were a few empty seats doesn't mean they weren't sold. Not everyone with a season ticket comes to every game, particularly those with young children on school nights. The club announced it was a sell out long before kick off, why would they stop potential customers trying to buy a ticket by doing that?

Really? The two games he has missed are against 3rd and 2nd place teams at the time of the match and... Derby 11 shots - 7 on target Southampton 15 shots - 9 on target Southampton 18 shots - 9 on target West Ham 9 shots - 4 on target Yes, with Lallana we'd likely create more, but to suggest "we are not creating many chances" without him is clearly wrong.

Saints are actually the favourites to win Tuesday's game with every major bookmaker. http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/southampton-v-west-ham/winner Plus West Ham aren't that "red hot" to win the league, Saints are close behind as 2nd favourites with every major bookmaker. http://www.oddschecker.com/football/english/championship/winner

I doubt Cork was under £1m, plus you left out De Ridder, loan fee for Hooiveld and the numerous contract extensions/wage increases over the summer. In any case, my original point was that Saints have one of the highest wage bills/transfer fee spends, this point still stands. Out of the 24 Championship teams Saints would be high on the list, that was my point.

They didn't spend more than Saints in the summer. Why do you think Fox and Cork are at Saints? Burnley have a tiny wage budget in comparison, they pay £10k p/w at most. Forest and Leeds squads didn't cost much to assemble and I doubt their wage budget is as high as Saints'.

"Widely reported" where exactly? Name some squads other than the three I mentioned that cost more and have a higher wage bill then?

If Karl Robinson gets it we will hear some cracking excuses again on Radio Solent, he is up there with Steve Cotterill for spouting rubbish after defeats!

Davis £800k Richardson £450k Hooiveld Loan Fonte £1m Fox £1.8m Lallana Youth Cork £1m Schneiderlin £1m Guly Do Prado Undisclosed (but I bet it wasn't cheap) Lambert £1m Connolly Free Then you also have... De Ridder Undisclosed (and like with Guly I bet it wasn't cheap) Harding Free Dickson £250k Puncheon £250k Barnard £200k Seaborne £200k Butterfield Free Jaidi Free Chaplow £50k Forte £200k Hammond £400k Saints had a £12m wage bill in their first season in League One according to the accounts, that is more than most Championship clubs! It will be a lot higher this season with all the new contracts handed out. A number of them will be on £20k+ p/w. I reckon only West Ham, Birmingham and Leicester have a more expensively assembled squad than Saints for wages and fees combined.

Really? Saints have one of the most expensively assembled squads in the league and one of the highest wage budgets. Plus Adkins doesn't exactly play hoof-ball like the crazy gang.

That was what Adkins told him to do.

Hammond is fit, he is on the bench.

David Lampitt on today's events... http://audioboo.fm/boos/505818

Nice to be linked to current internationals again!