VectisSaint

Agreed, said this to my neighbour early in the game tonight and many were saying the same. It is just plain daft not to leave an outlet. 10 in the box makes no sense.

So stop reading Alpine's posts. He is the only one. Its quite amusing finding some people who expect to see these sort of posts and even though they don't exist they pretend that they do. No-one other than Alps is writing off the season, but really if you can't see that we have a lot of problems that need to be sorted then that's as bad as those (one) who are supposedly writing off the season.

Apparently he went to Chelea because Cesc's girlfriend persuaded his London was better than Manc. She has a point. We need some influential WAGs.

Good memories. Heaney did join them when they were in the Championship (or whatever the second level was called then). Mills made 2 appearances. Baker and Channon are more my era, and I remember both going to Citeh and returning afterwards.

Appears that you are the only one who is actually stating this in any form whatsoever. Imagining bed-wetters, that really is about as bad as it gets.

How many of our players have the top 2 clubs actually taken so far? Who was the last player transferred from Saints to Man City or Chelsea. I guess Chelsea was Wayne Bridge. Man City - Graham Baker? Who have I forgotten? Its really only the teams chasing the CL spots that have bought our players in bulk, Liverpool and now Man U, even Arsenal have only bought one every 2 or 3 years over the last few years. Spuds - Bale? I think theres plenty of scope for more :-)

Scottish

Little item of note from the OS Training Gallery, the appearance of one Gaston Ramirez. Otherwise all the usual suspects (though no keepers in the pics) including Mane, Caulker and Romeu.

Probably makes it even less likely we will get Koulibaly, since this helps the Napoli financial situation.

So just collect players because they are alleged to be good players, even though they might not bring anything to our team and may block the progress of an existing player. It is about as far removed from saying we were only developing Toby for Spurs as it could possibly be, that is patently a completely daft comparison. With Toby we at least believed we had first option on buying him, and so were developing him for us, at worst we could have been accused of developing him for AM. Spurs were never even in the equation. Bottom line is I don't see what this kid brings to Southampton, unless we have an option to buy clause in the loan. Van Gaal doesn't think he contributes (enough) at Man U, so why should we? Seems like Ronald agrees anyway, we are only looking for one more player, and that is a defender.

Link to an article about Brentford/Midgetland mathematical modelling approach that was mentioned several times in the presser today. Had not heard this mentioned previously (but maybe it has been): http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2015/feb/22/brentford-mathematical-modelling-denmark

Has there been mention of loan with option to buy? Haven't seen that. If not then its developing for Man U, can't see that he brings anything that we need to the team, not saying he won't turn into a fine player, but doesn't seem to fit our style and if we don't have an option to buy at end of loan is not really any great benefit, and probably just gets in the way of another academy player.

More to the point he is a Belgian international. Belgians play for Spurs, not Saints. Really can't see the attraction, doesn't appear to fit our system, why should we develop him for Man U? Think there are more interesting/useful young players out there, who maybe are not such "big names".

I hate Andy Townsend. Never speaks well of us either.

There seems to be a whiff of meddling by 'Arry with some of the suggested/actual Boscombe business. I hope not, for their sakes.

This is the play-off stage.

Perhaps you missed the last bit, the conclusion. You were going to highlight why Ronald does not think Reed is ready.

Not in my view. The issue is not having an advanced midfielder who can provide attacking and defensive inputs to the game. Tadic was supposed to have done this job on Saturday (very clear from Fonte's berating of him during the 1st half). Davis was doing a def midfield job (whether you agree he was playing alongside Vic or not, thats what he was doing). But Davis was also doing the corners, and then not only was he not there to provide the protection but neither was Tadic - what is the point of playing Tadic if he isn't able to take the corners. When we pushed Davis forward 2nd half and let Romeu do the DM role we showed exactly how we should have been playing. We then destroyed it again with 10 minutes left by replacing Davis with JWP who cannot provide the defensive side of the game that Davis does in this advanced position (I am deliberately not using the word attacking). Soon after Everton scored their 3rd, though by then it was irrelevant. I believe when Clasie is fit he will be the alternative (probably the first choice) in this advanced midfield position providing defensive cover when needed and attacking play as well, unfortunately without him as an option we have to rely on Davis at the moment, and are screwed when we need Davis to cover the DM duties as he did on Saturday. Saturday was a disaster, but to be honest I believe the issue is resolved now that we have Romeu, and will be strengthened when Clasie also becomes available. Have to say sadly I can't see where JWP or Reed will fit in when everyone is available, especially if we get the Napoli CB who also seems to be able to play RB or DM a la Toby.

What we need and the reality are two very different things. Clasie's pre-season has been messed up, what with the transfer, his new offspring, his pre-season injury and then the injury in the u21 game which was being used to work up his fitness. Not his fault and not a mistake, just what happens sometimes. He will be good eventually but don't expect to see much of him before mid/end September. Unfortunately Bertrand is not much ahead of him, if at all.

Watching him in the game before he was injured he was also clearly not fully fit anyway and still some way off being ready for the PL. Even when his injury is recovered he will still be 2 or 3 weeks or so off being available for PL action IMHO.

They are after a CB regardless of what happens with Stones. They will be after 2 if Stones goes.

There will only be one Europa group away game that will go on sale in September (not August), the others will be on sale in October and November (depends a little on which number we would get for fixture allocation home and away). The last group match is scheduled for 10th December. I think your piggy bank will not be too badly damaged [TABLE=width: 624] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday one[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]17/09/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday two[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]01/10/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday three[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]22/10/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday four[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]05/11/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday five[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]26/11/15[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: TableNoBg]Group stage, matchday six[/TD] [TD=class: TableNoBg]10/12/15[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Apparently tickets are expected to sell out on or before Saturday 15th August. Magic.

We will still have half a match to play by the time their fate is known.

We already signed the defensive midfielder, were you not watching the game yesterday (second half). No way will we sign a left back, we have two plus Martina as cover. Get real people, other than a CB (VvD) it is quite likely that we have our squad, nothing too wrong when they are fully fit, trouble is that is going to be a few weeks. I would like to see another forward midfield, but I think we already have that covered with Davis and Clasie and I suppose JWP so don't expect one. I would also like to see another keeper, but its looking unlikely, so perhaps the situation is not as bleak as it may appear, perhaps Forster will be back sooner rather than later.