The Kraken

Yeah, maybe we should just ignore the £70K that Man City are throwing in on top of that. Its quite a clever approach to transfers actually, surprised no-one has suggested it before. Why wouldn't Bridge throw away £60K a week to join us?

He's on £80K a week as it is. And you wonder why people didn't follow your logic before?

Christ alive. You know your defence (and your fan base) is in trouble when Aaron Martin is promoted as a potential solution to our current malaise.

The happy clappy brigade are out in force tonight. HOW DARE YOU identify that we're 5 points and -6 on goal difference away from being above the relegation zone after a quarter of the season. Monday now looks a vital game. But hopefully this will put to bed the glossing over of the worst Premier League start in Southampton FC history (and that is f*cking saying something) and stop the "but we're only a win away from mid-table, stop being so horrid and negative" utter desperation from the mongboard glitterati.

Jimmy Saville used to play left back for Brighton.

No idea if true, but rumours at the time suggested Man City would subsidise his wages only if Bridge went to a Championship club; any Premier League club taking him on loan would have had to pay his wages in full with no contribution from City. If true, it would explain why no PL teams were prepared to stump up for his £80K per week wage, including us.

When you look at the amount of game time Rodriguez has had compared to Lambert; its probably about the same. So I'm not sure what it is you're asking for. We typically play one up front, and have shared that role around an awful lot. When we play 4-4-2 both of them start.

Wasn't it you pointing out yesterday that James Beattie once went 9 games without scoring?

If he's better than what we have in whatever state of fitness he's in, he'll be picked. If he isn't he won't.

That's all very well when you've got Robin van Persie on the pitch..............or when you can rely on Javier Hernandez instead.................or even turn to England's Danny Welbeck. We simply don't have those options, and Lambert is considerably our best striker, so it stands to reason that we're weaker without him.

Fair play to him; there's no way to answer that question directly, and he still answered it truthfully and honestly. "Getting reassurances" is meaningless anyway; NA is absolutely correct that its only the results that matter.

F*ck that, we'll be 3 goals down by then, get him on at the start.

Splitting hairs. Its a fluid midfield 3, all would have license to get forward, all would be detailed to defend. No need to be so rigid as to have a detailed water carrier; they can switch it about. The formation relies on the full backs to give the width; which is has done all season anyway. This way gives a bit more solidity to the midfield cover and puts our best players on the pitch together (apart from I'd have Lambert instead of Rodriguez). Its similar to our style both under Alan Ball (with Le Tissier and Ekelund behind Shipperley) and under Souness (with MLT and Berkovic behind Ostenstad). I like it.

Whoever Pompey are playing.

With him being skipper, simply not going to happen.

Having Ramirez kind of negates having a set formation; the team really has to be based around him. Take him out and I'd have the same midfield 3, Lallana left and Mayuka right. I don't think there's room to have all four of Lambert, Rodriguez, Ramirez and Lallana all on the pitch at the same time (as we've done in the past), it leaves us far too vulnerable. I like Mayuka but only really see him in a RM role when Ramirez isn't playing; unless he can truly play up front on his own (though I can't see him being given that role instead of either Lambert or Rodriguez).

And a midfield 3 of Cork, Schneiderlin and Davis is as good as we're able to put out. Those 3, Lallana and Ramirez in front of them, Lambert up top; for me, that's our best line-up.

Have we? Which one?

Yep, its good to get those players in the first place. In the case of Theo and Ox, however, it also shows how a move to a top club not only massively increases wages and sponsorship potential, but also provides a fast-track to the national side. Theo hadn't even made an Arsenal senior appearance before he was called into the England World Cup finals squad. And Ox got a call up to the senior squad shortly after his transfer to Arsenal. On the flip side, Lallana has completely bypassed the England setup (and also largely missed out on the U21s) and had to wait for a return to the Premier League before getting a call-up to the squad (with no intention of giving him any game time). Compare that to the abject sh*te at big clubs such as Cleverley, Milner, and JonJo Shelvey; players will always seek out bigger clubs than us as early as possible to progress their careers.

Sounds like an agent-released snippet of information to drive up interest from clubs who've been sniffing around. Two months until we can do anything about it anyway; but at least we're being linked with defenders.

Most people on here seem to think Morgan is the better player. I'm not one of them, never have been. I think Cork is all round better and more effective for us.

He had his own pre-season to get ready for the Olympics, so he's not starting from scratch.

Cork is taking his time to recover; I think we've really missed him. And having some full back cover is vital too.

Then we'll have to hope his teammates have got a bit more backbone to them than some of the wet flannels on here. God forbid we should have anyone with a bit of character in the team. Good on him for not putting up with a bunch of utter bell-pieces mocking and booing him with less than 2 games under his belt.

In-demand-Appy can keep concentrating for a little while longer; Palace have gone for Hollowhead. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20176036