washsaint

Saint George - you really sure about your statements re. bundesliga and MLS? MLS is scorned up here on the East Coast and people, by and large, follow the Prem. Bundesliga does not even get a mention and only Barca and Madrid from the Spanish. EPL is still by far and away the biggest soccer brand (certainly here on the East Coast) and MLS barely registers.

This summer has made it even more obvious that outside of 4 or 5 clubs the Prem looks like always being a closed shop. We have 1 decent season and the vultures descend and players heads get turned/tapped up, whatever. Realistically there is no chance any club like Saints can then hold on to these players and they will leave. As we are finding, we can have all the money in the bank we want but we then have to try and attract players when suddenly we don't seem such an attractive option and they may be hesitant to come here because some of our 'stars' are being sold/forcing a move. So now some of our new crop of youngsters might get a chance to shine. But if Reed, Targett, Chambers and McQueen do well (as an example) we all know the vultures will descend and take them off of our hands - and there is, realistically, nothing Saints can do about it except get top dollar. It is all very depressing and means that the League really is not a competitive League and that Saints (or any other similar club) will always struggle to break into the top 6 (let alone top 4) because of the disparity in resources. Really don't know what the answer is - we could offer mega wages but then we would end up down the Leeds/Portsmouth/QPR route as this is not sustainable for a club our size. It comes to something when a player like Caulker is demanding, allegedly, 80K per week!

Yes he does....but you have asked why De Vrijs would want to come here. Well why is Vlaar at Villa using your logic? Surely he is too good for them and should be playing for a Champions League side having been a World Cup semi finalist?

Using your logic why would Vlaar want to play for Villa? Unlikely to happen but if him and Keoman have a great relationship, who knows?

Except there was on PLan B, c, D or E last year. Do you seriously not think that teams might well now cope better this season with the 'pressing game' now they know what to expect?

Saint Robbie......yet again you surpass yourself with your absolute idiocy! Why don't you just go and support Man City/Man U/Chelsea if you just want success without having to earn it? Firesale - what a prat! 25 million Lallana, 30+ million for Shaw. How is that a fire sale? How the hell do you know that our targets are mediocre eh? You on the committee deciding targets? Was Pelle mediocre? Was Tadic mediocre. You are beyond hope....... If the owner is to blame why don't you put your own money in? You could obviously do a better job than Koeman, the Board or anyone else for that matter. This might only be a forum but my god, we have a large number of morons that purport to "support" Saints.

Only kidding (mainly). Good couple of run outs for the squad and getting the new signings some playing time. Very encouraged by how it looks (albeit based on short highlights) Reed and McQueen are shaping up for the season ahead. 3 or 4 more high quality signings (assuming we lose Lovren) and we will be well positioned to battle for that 6th - 8th spot this year methinks. Looking forward to the next friendlies and see how the style of play changes from the Pochettino era.

See some folks over on UI are claiming that we have signed Caulker for 8.9 million. Anyone know if there is any truth in this? Seems, IMO, obvious Lovren is off as he was not even in squad tonight (and good riddance to the piece of c**p) and Caulker could be a good signing if true. Young, highly thought of and with prem experience.

dull days - your attempts at WUM'ery are pathetic. Either that or you really are as dense as much as you come across as.

Supposedly we are in for caulker....

what a pathetic bunch of squinnying little girls we have as a fanbase (on here at least). Why don't you all just wait and see what happens before throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We have made 2, what look like, quality signings and there will be more on the way. We have players like Taggert, McQueen and Reed looking to step up to the plate. Maybe Cork and FOnte have not been offered new contracts yet because RK is not sure they are his type of player? I will reserve judgement on our Board until after the season has started. Obviously if we have no new players in there will be a problem but you are smoking crack if you really think that will be the case.

Really very impressed with pelle interview (and Tadic) and both look like strong additions. If we can keep MS and bring in a GK, LB, CB and another striker I think we will be looking very strong for the new season and, arguably, stronger than when we started last season. Add in a sprinkle of youngsters to make their mark this season - Reed, McQueen and others? - and it could be a good ride. Tadic and Pelle for less than the Lallana fee without even touching the Shaw fee yet! RK seems like a very big step up on MP: seems very forthright, honest and committed. Looks like he won't stand for any nonsense and his 'name' has already got us Tadic and Pelle: how sweet if we could get Blind too? Really looking forward to kick off of the new season now!

Really very impressed with his interview....English is great and obviously huge respect between him and RK. Very much looking forward to seeing him play and, have to say, with the exception of Shaw right now it feels we have a great chance of improving on Lallana and Lambert with our first 2 signings.

Some of the papers are claiming Liverpool will meet 25 million valuation.....if so, bite their bloody arms off!!! Good riddance to a guy who is the epitome of the premier league greed culture.

I wouldn't class myself as a 'bedwetter' but am getting increasingly concerned that we have not made any signings yet. We are going to need 6-7 new players to replace departees and improve squad depth but we have made none yet. Other clubs like West ham, Liverpool, Man U, Hull, Swansea are getting deals done early doors and I truly hope we are not left behind. I'm sure the club have signings lined up (or at least hope so) but would truly love 3-4 signings over the next week or so to settle things down. Hopefully RK can persuade Morgan to give us one more season and, if we don't hit targets this season, allow him to leave with our blessing next summer. Lovren can p**s off after we helped resurrect his career. Here's hoping for some good news over the next week or so.....we are due some for sure. Academy alone will not be enough to bolster the squad but maybe the likes of Reed, Stephens and McQueen will be like new signings for us.

Let him rot with the kids....mercenary little s**t: his career was rescued by Saints and he wants to jump ship at the first opportunity. Piece of crap...

If Koeman does want to sign 7-8 players and we spend 18 million on 2 players. How on earth do you think we will "only" spend 25-30 million this window. I would say closer to 60 million is what we will spend.

Potentially a pretty exciting signing.....ready made Lallana replacement for 40% of the cost of Lallana. If it comes off this could be great business.

ok...FF: you seem to have reverted to type. From a few weeks ago saying you felt more confident with the current Board than when NC was the sole decision maker on everything and now you seemt obahve turned full circle. For all those saying the dream died with NC: exactly what dream was that? DO you really think that Lallana and co did not have their heads turned when they made the England squad? Do you really think that Saints could offer 100K+ per week salaries (which they are now getting). We have to get real........we are what we are and despite it being disappointing that the successful team from last season is breaking up I am also equally excited to see what Koeman pulls together to "start the new project". Just to repeat, we had no squad depth last year and without building a stringer squad (not players but squad) it would have been difficult to repeat the success of last seaosn. And lets face it we only played one way and this time round you can bet most teams will have a plan for dealing with the way we played

perhaps a bit optimistic (don't think Lovren or Schneiderlin will be here at kick off) but definitely on the right tracks. last season our lack of squad depth cost us big time....we need a stronger squad to move forward and need to give the Cups a real go this season. Lallana had a golden spell in the middle of last season but then became very ineffective towards the end of the season: like Pochettino, very one dimensional and can only play one way. If we sign this Tadic(?) bloke for around 10 million that could give us a Lallana like creative player and still have 8 million left to spend (Pelle too). So 2 new players that will hopefully strengthen us and the n there is the small matter of 30 million from the Shaw sale which could get us another 4 or 5 players. So we lose 2 players (1 world class, 1 not) and get in 6-7 players to strengthen the squad. What's not to like about that?

What a surprise.....Crab Lungs comes on with a well, well, well statement. very good Crabs - full of information. You truly are making yourself look a prat with your constant negativity and nudge, nudge, wink, wink nothing statements. I'm sure more will leave but others will come in: and that really is the time to judge the Boards intentions. Does that make me ITK like you? Lets face it - do you really want the Board to bust the bank to pay outrageous money to players we can't afford with our small gates? Have you not forgotten what happened last time that approach was tried?

And whose money was Cortese playing with? Certainly not his! It's time for a reality check: we are a mid-table Prem team and the vultures will pick up our best players: in the same way we will pick up other teams best players. To think we can compete with man U, Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City spending power is deluded. Plus our gates are around half of those teams which is a huge commercial gap before even considering they are also global brands and we are not.

Put up or shut up! You used to post some fairly interesting stuff but not any more.....full of nudge, nudge, wink, wink I'm ITK without saying anything of any note. We're still waiting for these bombshells you were going to share because of your unique position with Saints. I'm not Nostradamus but we could all have predicted Shaw, lallana (and probably Lovren too) would be off as well as Pochettino. Like many of the deluded fantasists on this forum, you seem to think that if NC was here none of these players would be leaving. And that is absolute twaddle: if a player wants out then they will leave. Personally, I'd far rather we had players here committed to the cause as opposed to prima donnas wanting out. We are not, and likely never will be, a club of the stature of Arsenal, Man U, Man City, etc and while not ideal that is the truth. Doesn't make them leaving any more palatable but there is squat we (or the club) can do about it. Feel free to slate the Board and the club if we fail to bring in adequate replacements. For all any of us know we may actually strengthen the squad (although individual players may not be as high a caliber as those sold) and improve on last season. Guan seems to be OK with what is lined up and - unlike you - does not seem to have an agenda to attack the club at every opportunity. And I didn't see you, with all your ITK capabilities predicting we would land Koeman as manager. Sure you probably thought limit of our ambition was someone like Steve Bruce.

So Alpine....you underwrote those transfers and know exactly how much we received? No, didn't think so. All reports are stating at least 30million + add ons for Shaw 4 million for Lambert say 18 million net for Lallana = more than your calculations for sure.

Rumor has it (from UI board) that Ings is currently having a medical now and signing is imminent. Poor old Burnley if true.........we get shafted by the big boys and we in turn take the best players from teams the same level/level below us. Unfortunate but the way football works these days. Bring on the Dutch revolution!