Matthew Le God

If this were true, then Cortese would be talking to Derek Llambias the Newcastle managing director and not Alan Pardew.

Pompey's "area of influence" for their fanbase/youth recruitment etc is going to be squeezed even smaller from both the west (Saints) and the east (Brighton). Brighton will soon overtake them as the 2nd biggest South coast team with the £90m Amex and this announced today... http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/8814763.Albion_plan___15m_training_ground/ http://www.seagulls.co.uk/page/Latest/0,,10433~2277776,00.html

Robert Mculloch was fully aware which bridge he was buying.

Not unforeseeable at all. He has been tracked by all the big clubs for years! Having been at Saints academy for the last 10 years and playing against other academies, Saints are more than aware of his talents and potential. Saints would have known it was highly likely a bid would come in. Not the point I was making anyway... Cortese would have had dialogue with the Chamberlain's and I very much doubt he would have said the things he did to the BBC on 8th December if he didn't think he would be keeping him.

Many Saints fans want to field a weakened side. Does that mean they expect Saints to beat Man Utd easily?

I doubt Cortese would risk his credibility by making such a claim without knowing the players intentions beforehand. After-all, Chamberlain had signed a 3 year deal with Saints three months earlier, so discussions about the future would have taken place about what would happen in the eventuality of bids in January.

That thread doesn't give me that impression at all.

Well as Nicola Cortese will play a key role as to what happens, you would think that a journalist would at least mention he said Chamberlain is not for sale. They all seem to think it is a given that Chamberlain will move. Cortese has done nothing so far for anyone to doubt his word. He said Lallana and Chamberlain would stay. Since that interview, Lallana signed a 4 and half year deal and 26 days into the window Chamberlain is still here...

Not one newspaper has even briefly mentioned in the last month and a half of their idle speculation that Nicola Cortese said Alex Chamberlain won't be sold. Will be interesting to see how they cover their tracks if Chamberlain is still here next Tuesday as a Saints player. I'd guess they will make up a story that a deal has or is close to being arranged for the summer.

Are we? So you know how much Guly and Chaplow cost for both their loans and transfers and how large Lallana's signing on fee and agent fees were? Summer 2009 until November 2009 Lambert Hammond Jaidi Connolly Harding Papa Waigo (on loan) Antonio (on loan) January 2010 Fonte Barnard Puncheon Seaborne Otsemobor Summer 2010 Richardson cost £450k Dickson cost £225k Butterfield (Signing on fees and agents fees for a free transfer) Winter 2010/2011 - Plans for multi million training ground, probably costing close to £8 million. - Guly (would have been a significant loan fee and transfer fee) - Lallana (new contract, signing on fee, agent fee) - Chaplow - N'Guessan on loan Still 5 days of window left...

Exactly what I did for FM, try to make an educated guess. I could be very wrong, but I doubt we'll ever know how much he cost.

It isn't quite as bad as it sounds, as that is only 6 games without a goal.

Anyone in the world can edit Wikipedia (something the Daily Echo still hasn't learned based on one of the articles they published yesterday). It is not something anyone should use to gather information unless it has a link in the article to a credible source which backs it up. Neither Leicester or Saints have said it is a loan with option to buy. Saints have in the past said when the loan includes this option (they did with Papa Waigo and Guly) on the day they signed on loan.

Frankie Boyle would be proud of that.

17:15 actually

I wonder how he would react to that?

I bet Guly cost a sizeable sum. Both for the initial loan fee (Aug '10 - Jan '11) and to make it permanent a week ago.

Because he is 35 (36 in Feb 2011) and was last seen playing non league football in tier 6 of the English Leagues (but was released a few days ago) and also had a recent spell in the Northern Irish League. Lost his pace (probably his main asset) and old. Why would Saints want him?

Care to elaborate why not? Especially as you were the one that posted them in this thread initially!

I'd imagine he likes Saints quite a bit, as he has been at Saints since the age of 7. Most kids only start really taking up football, supporting teams properly at around that age. I'm not saying playing for Saints is his ultimate ambition and of course he'll want to play at the highest possible level and earn the most he can, but having been at the club for 10 years and over half your life will mean something you would hope.

Spot the bad journalism competition.... http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/173519/Alex-Oxlade-Chamberlain-for-sale-but-it-ll-cost-you/

Taken from here... http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/36710/wenger-reaction Without knowing the question we don't know if it was in response to AOC. It seems like it is a general response to any activity by Arsenal in the window. But I'm sure he has said similar in the past and still made signings.

Look at how much Walcott and Bale are worth now. Lowe didn't do that great a job really when selling them. Of course they would go for millions no matter who was Saints chairman, they are good players. He could have got more if he ran the rest of the business well and didn't weaken his bargaining position.

Plus we have one more game against them.