The Kraken

Precisely. In my eyes both cases show how absolutely mental the transfer market has gone in this country, particularly for younger English players.

He has. It's a shame when people have to revert to aggression and personal attacks etc etc

Wow. That's a flip out, and then some.

I think that would likely crash the forum.

Pedantry aside again, £11.2M is 14M Euros.

With Stuart Pearce at the helm I don't have as much faith as you do. This is the manager who on more than one occasion has chosen to throw on a goalkeeper to play up front whilst leaving an actual striker on the bench.

Oi vey

If you're saying it wouldn't set any precedent, at all, then fair enough, we'll have to agree to disagree. I believe it would.

You're over-reacting. No-one has said that it blows the argument apart. Simply that it sets a precedent.

Check the link provided above (post #70); he can't sign a pro contract until 17 years old, what he has signed is a pre-contract agreement. So his pro contract will (as it stands) kick in on 12th July.

Well it would, actually. The point has been made before, by a number of posters, that as we're back in the PL and with wealth behind us we are in a much better position with our academy as our young players are now much LESS likely to leave early than Walcott, Bale and AOC were. Of course Chelsea are a big club, so were Arsenal & Spurs when they came in before, so its a very valid comparison to make if Shaw does decide to leave (I have a hunch its unlikely he'll go).

Well if that's correct he's on a pre-contract agreement, as Theo was when he left at 16 years old. The tribunal system these days is much better (fairer to the selling club) than it used to be, but is still a bit of a risk. Still with only 9 days to go until his 17th birthday I'm sure we could just neglect to pick up the phone for a few days.... EDIT: Here's the link on the OS, he HASN'T yet signed a professional contract. http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10280~2776895,00.html "Luke will begin a professional contract when he turns 17 in July, having joined five other Academy players in agreeing to do so 18 months ago".

Cracking over-simplification there. Its not a case of being confused by which team is which, is it? Its whether there is any risk, at all, of any of the players in the heat of the game not being able to distinguish instantly between a team mate and an opposition player. If the PL and referee decide they're happy there's no conflict then we're fine. If they decide there is then we'll need a third kit.

With our financial state right now its a hell of a lot easier to turn down bids of £4M that it would have been before. Even £5M or £6M, while being a great financial return, would send out a terrible message were we to sell Luke Shaw for that. The real test IMO comes if/when he establishes himself in the side and the likes of Chelsea etc come calling with bids around the level we sold AOC for, and the player has the potential to go straight into their first team/squad. Shaw wouldn't have that right now or for potentially quite some time.

Where did I say he doesn't hold some value? I said £4M is a huge amount for a player who has barely played first team league football. You could say that loads of young players could be worth more than their value now. He is 16, about to turn 17, so still has a long, long way to go in terms of footballing development. Its a risk, a big one, no matter how many times he's been watched. Not sure why I had to clarify that, really.

My opinion would be that we're less at risk right now to losing rising stars than we are when they've actually made it through to the first team and played some games. If Shaw left for Chelsea, as has been said he'd be behind Cashley and Bertrand, who are both highly rated, and he'd have to do fantastically well to get noticed. Now we're in the PL the wages we pay will be decent enough for young players; it'll have to be if NC wants his vision of academy players in the first team to succeed. I'm more worried about losing these types of players when they've played 10, 20, 30 games for the first team. However much he's been watched by the top teams, £4M is a huge amount for a player who is still only 16 and has barely had a sniff of first team football.

He's only just about to turn 17 though so plenty of time to fill out a bit. How tall is he? Doesn't look like a shorty.

You've got to say that the football transfer market in this country has gone absolutely mental if this is anywhere near true.

The sad thing is that its so predictable and highlights a consistent problem within the ticket office. Why are the club so bad at this?

The thread title was misleading and wrong; the rest of it was interesting enough (if its true that we're clearly in advanced talks with a player). A bit harsh on Pat throughout this thread I think.

Sordell has been talked about in terms of an Olympic place for a while now, so its no surprise he's been called up. Whether it should be on place of JRod or not is another matter, but the fact he's played more for the U21s than Rodriguez was no doubt a factor.

Do you get your shirts printed like this? THE 9

I agree. I think for the forseeable future, as long as we're in this division we will be chasing Man City.

Or you could note that the part that referenced "press conference" might not be accurate but that rest of the link suggests there is a player we're interested in staying at a local hotel with a conference room booked for tomorrow which could be for discussions between player and club or other purposes? F*cking hell; this is a message board for idle speculation and gossip, its a sorry state when someone gets "flamed" for passing on a rumour.

I think your fag packet maths earlier kind of put it into context. One till in operation at the West Quay store, estimate 1 transaction per minute, 11am to 5pm, so on that basis potentially 360 shirts sold.