VectisSaint

According to that article Mitchell oversaw the following players joining Spurs in 2014: Ben Davies; Michel Vorm; Eric Dier; DeAndre Yedlin; Federico Fazio; Benjamin Stambouli; Dele Alli. In fact of that list only Alli joined after Mitchell (because he actually joined in 2015). Then 2 of the later 8 (in 2015 and 2016) he also brought into Saints (Wanyama and Toby). Maybe the man is not so good after all.

Does he? "Southampton have mostly used 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 in the past four years, systems that he is likely to favour"

Arsenal are either pursuing Shkodran Mustafi or won't be buying a new CB depending on who you believe. They already have decent players in this position, just a short term injury crisis. Buying Fonte as well and then having Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gabriel coming back is not really good business and would be most un-Wenger like.

Of course he does, he just likes to persevere with his Cult of Cortese obsession, bashing everything the guy ever did, whether or not it is fact or fiction. No one else really gives a **** but Turkish finds the fact that Nick is no longer in charge leaves a huge void in his life which he finds hard to fill. Afraid that Exec Boxes are a hangover from the past. Unlikely that we will ever sell more than a handful whatever is done in terms of marketing, pricing etc. Only a handful of Clubs will continue to sell Exec boxes to a similar commercial level as in the past, Chelsea, Spurs, Arsenal, Man Utd and City and Liverpool, probably, maybe West Ham now. The Club should be looking at other ways to increase the commercial revenue of this space. The seats that are reserved for the Exec Box users should be returned to the general sale/season ticket market for a start. The best use of the boxes is probably as small office space, unless we go down the road that Stadium MK has and make them into hotel rooms.

Apparently both there, entered through the main entrance, so not playing.

Davies scored his 4 against Man Utd in August 1969. Sniffer Clarke joined Leicester from Fulham for 150k in June 1969 (then a year later joined Leeds for £165k). So at the time Big Ron scored his 4 the English Transfer record was £150k for Clarke. Chivers transfer was the biggest at the time (Jan 1968) but is usually not credited in the records because of the Frank Saul transfer, meaning only 80k actually changed hands. Martin Chivers' last game was coincidentally my first, the 3-5 home defeat to Chelsea on 6th Jan 1968, stood in the Milton in the pouring rain. My football heroes as a young lad were formed that day, Big Ron and a young lad called Michael Channon (who seemed to fall over a lot). He sat with the Saints fans at Highbury a couple of seasons later after he broke his leg, still have my autographed copy of the match programme from that day somewhere.

He will be if he joins Blackburn. Needs to go to a good team rather than a struggling one again.

This, contines to baffle how Big Ron can be omitted from the Banner. So sad that we never got to see him back at St Marys.

He will only get half a cake, has to share with Hojbjerg. This may have upset him and so he is off.

I'm with 8 being striker (Channon) and 10 being midfield (McCalliog). 4 is defensive mid, or right half if you want, 5 and 6 centre backs, 2 and 3 right and left back respectively. Showing my age, but thats how I've always considered 8 and 10.

So he will be off before the window closes then.

You didn't seriously expect Fonte or Cedric to play tonight did you? Bertrand is more of a concern, injured presumably, like Targett. Chance for McQueen who has looked capable in pre-season.

Is Bertrand fit? No sign of him in any training videos/pics. Also no sign of Florin still. Guess we will find out tonight.

In the beginning NC was responsible for bringing in over 30mill of commercial income from his business partner and great friend Markus. Of course Turkish would not admit this, since Turkish and Cortese are not the bestest of buddies. Bringing in significant commercial income after that while we were in L1 and CCC would have been difficult and it is clearly much easier now that we are established as a Top 8 club in the PL. I'm sure that Cortese could have done better on this account, and possibly would have if it had been considered strategically important at the time. Our hockey coach and heiress seem to be making a reasonably good fist of generating commercial income despite their lack of business background now based on the platform that Markus and Cortese originally put in place, and so credit is due and long may it continue and hopefully improve. Still good to see that Turkish still believes in his Cult of Cortese, even though really no-one actually gives a damn about the Milan Midget any more.

Sorry, but that is just plain stupid. You are quite right about the 50:50 chance with a coin toss, because that is a random event with previous events having no bearing on the outcome. But the level of risk in adopting the strategy (that some claim we do, personally I think it is not much more than lucking out) is not a random event and is heavily influenced by the changes made in the previous season. The chance that the strategy will eventually fail gets larger each year (if you believe it is a strategy).

If you consider that it pushes Yan Valery down the order then perhaps you're right, but he is only 17 and although he has looked good in pre-season he is probably a year or two away from making any sort of breakthrough. Jason McCarthy has been loaned to Walsall for the season. So signing Jeremy Fisher on a 2 year deal really does nothing of the sort, and provides good backup/alternative for Cedric, and no need to rely on Martina or Yoshida any more, neither of whom are good enough at RB. Good signing in my opinion.

Looks a decent addition as backup RB. Have seen only a few clips but what strikes me most is that he is a bit more aggressive and robust than many of our players. It is something we have lacked a bit, reckon he will pick up a few yellows but sometimes, against some opponents a more aggressive style is needed. Certainly looks a better option than Martina and far better (at RB) than Yoshi.

Exactly. The more times the Club goes with this risky strategy, the higher the probability that it will not succeed the next time. We've been "fortunate" for three seasons, maybe we will be fortunate again this season, then again maybe we won't. But offering new contracts (and they are only offers, nothing has been accepted) is not a sign of ambition in any real world.

Launch of an advertising campaign for his old man's buffalo mozarella I expect.

Batman may be a tool, but to consider what we have done is a sign of ambition is just plain stupid. Selling 4 players (Juanmi was forgotten but we had already signed Pelle's replacement), losing 2 keepers (one through loan and one through retirement), losing one other squad player due to his contract running down, losing a successful manager and coaching team, signing 2 players and getting others to sign replacement contracts is hardly the mark of an ambitious club is it. Take off the rose tinted spectacles, we are working to a model that has worked so far, but no gaurantee that it will continue. We no longer have a player that puts bums on seats (or these days gets bums off of seats). There is still a month to go until the transfer window closes, but to make out we are clearly showing ambition is just laughable to anyone who does not kowtow to the current board and think the sun shines out of their arses.

David, revisionist theory at its best. Les was interviewed during Pochettino's reign and stated quite clearly that his view and the club philosophy was that young players would develop better by being in and around the first team and being coached by the Southampton coaching staff. Soon afterwards Jack Stephens was loaned to Swindon. The "philosophy" was then changed to giving players loan experience at nearby clubs where Saints could keep a close eye on them. Then Poch left and Les's "philosphy" changed again with several players going out on loan, although two (Stephens and Turnbull) were at Swindon, who seemed to have become almost a partnership club. Then last season players went out on loan all over the place, the "philosophy" had changed again, though Turnbull went to Swindon again. The truth is Les (and the Club) do not have a "philosophy" and do not know what is best for young players development. They change with the wind and state that their philosophy matches what they have actually done. Personally I believe it is better to loan players out, but not necessarily to Champ or L1/L2 teams, Chelsea's idea for a lot of their players going and playing in the top division in Holland (or other "second level" leagues is the right way to go for both their football development and their personal and educational development. I suspect that we won't see Gazza back again, it looks increasingly like the club "philosophy" for goalkeepers now is to bring in/develop English keepers, who have worked or are working with Dave Watson, the England goalkeeping coach. Besides bringing in McCarthy would be surprised if we don't also bring in another younger English keeper who already has some linkups with Watson, in order to bring our compliment of keepers back u to 4.

Suggests we will sign two keepers, we can't go through the season, including the PL2 and ELT with 2 senior keepers (assuming we sign McCarthy) and one u18, however good Lewis might be. Maybe it will just be another young keeper, unless we are going to rely on Kelv coming out of retirement in case of emergency.

McQueen looks like he will be in the squad, has looked accomplished, apart from one error against Twente. Actually looks better thsn Targett now he is playing in his original position. Stephens is clearly ready, probably no worse thsn Gardos. Isgrove makes no impression. Valery looks good, probably decent backup for Cedric. Jones is good, but probably needs another year or so. Afraid Sam G is mot up to it, and not sure about OO. Reed looks good for a while, then disappears. Haven't seen anythimg from snyone else that would indicate they are ready. Hopefully Seager can make an impression when he recovers.

OK, I'll go with that, and save my massive thumbs up until the current board have improved 5 seasons on the trot I was happy to acknowledge their achievements after 4 though (even 3 would be remarkable, were it to happen).

We improved 4 seasons in a row with the previous board, and 2 (that's 6 not 7) with the current board. Will give a massive thumbs up when the current board match their predecessors