The Kraken

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.

It would be a bit off for the club to sell it full price if it really is only going to be used once or twice though.

This is, once again, rather a slur against our stated ambition of offering “The best in class both on and off the field of play.”

Over on TUI a couple of people are claiming to have finally completed the transaction online for a new season ticket and have only been charged the renewal price....

There will be some. But as I original guessed, I reckon less than 2%. I used to work on the business enterprise centre near the stadium, lots of small offices for small businesses on one managed site. There was a draw for every Saints home game to use the centre's 2 season tickets which my office won a couple of times, and they went to people who'd never been to St. Mary's before. The draw stopped after relegation as it wasn't considered worthwhile to continue. I imagine there will be a decent increase in corporate tickets, in the boxes, suites, and just normal STs whereby non-Saints fans will have access to tickets and will come along for the Premier League experience. But I don't think it'll be many; anyone willing to lash out up to £780 in fees for an ST will have been to games last season.

Speak for yourself, fatty.

I find Richards to be a bit of an odd choice. Unless Pearce is offering him an olive branch. Richards could have gone to the Euros with England but threw his toys out of the pram when he wasn't originally selected and said he wouldn't go on standby. So we took Martin Kelly instead. Kyle Walker seems to be currently in favour and when back from injury will surely provide competition to Glen Johnson for the right back spot, so Richards' actions have pushed him further down the England pecking order. So either Pearce thinks Richards will be out of the England reckoning in future for his snub, and considers him the best over-aged option (I'd disagree if he does think that); or Hodgson still has him in mind for the national side and wants to see him at a "major" tournament (which again I find unlikely).

I miss Keith. *wipes nostagic tear from eye*

The sign of a good referee is if you don't notice them. Or something.

Oh I'm thoroughly annoying MLG; of course it applies to me. Most of the time I annoy myself. The thing is I don't really care; I'll either give back any criticism I get if I think its incorrect or unjustified, have a laugh at how wrong I've been, or just move on and try to learn from it.

amen.

Well said Tokyo.

Its awful. Tight fit too.....

Being announced now online. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18672198

If you think asking genuine questions is "attacking" you then I think you must have a bit of a persecution complex.