The Kraken

Unlikely, but anyway.... Ben Foster Nathaniel Clyne - Jose Fonte - Curtis Davies - Dan Fox Matt Jarvis - Tom Cleverley (loan) - Jack Cork - Adam Lallana Rickie Lambert - Jay Rodriguez For the record, I don't think we have any hope of getting Ben Foster or Tom Cleverley; I'd suggest the others are reasonable enough targets. And I can't see us going with Schneiderlin and Cork as the first choice CM pairing; if its not a youngish loanee then I wouldn't mind an older head in there, a PL version of Dean Hammond if you will.

It seems our Champions League expectations could be in jeopardy if QPR can outbid us, and £50K per week is out of reach for us.

Yeah alright, that's pretty ugly! Hadn't seen that one.

He's available on a free transfer, so we wouldn't have to fork out for him. Wages are the only question mark; but any experienced keeper at PL level is going to demand high wages, so I'm not sure how much of a factor that can be.

You're 100% right.

What's wrong with Liverpool's? Prett classic and plain.

I'd suggest we should go for it. Platini may not be a fan of England, but he's a fan of money and an English tournament would be one of the highest possible in terms of ticket revenues. And as stated, we already have the stadia to fit the requirements. Add in the lure of a major tournament and it encourages clubs to upgrade or modernise further, which I only see as a good thing. Wembley, Old Trafford, Emirates, St. James Park, Stadium of Light are already very good and fit the bill. Newcastle still haven't ruled out extending St. James even further which would give them a 60K+ capacity. City of Manchester stadium is decent but I think regulations would restrict the bid to one stadium per city (apart from one which can have two). Liverpool (and Everton before hitting the skids financially) have been promising investment for a new 55K - 60K stadium, so that would add one more to. The 50K Cortesedome would also potentially get a look in (in all seriousness I'd hope St. Mary's could be 40K by then so its a real possibility). Then you're left with a choice of Villa Park, Elland Road, or MK Dons and Molineux if their further design plans go through. Its a decent bid, and I certainly wouldn't mind football coming home once more.

He really is, by almost every comparison.

Well I can't help thinking you'd be unhappy about any new design if that were the case. We've done the sash; great kit, best selling ever and will remain timeless as it had no sponsor and was such a simple design. After the sash we wore red and white quarters; we did that for the commerorative game at The Dell and it looked awful. We had red and white halves for a couple of years after that; not tried it but the mock-ups look extremely daft. We then had red and white stripes for 90 years. But apparently you're bored of those, so that's out. So really, based on "history", we're really only left with the Patrick Air Florida/Rank Xerox red and white, the Hummel Denmark kit, or the all red Patrick Draper Tools (with white/black shoulders). The mockups seen so far seem to be a cross of the Hummel and the all red, but apparently that's an abomination too. So I don't think there's anything there that could possibly meet your design brief, apart from the Patrick Air Florida as a starting point.

I imagine Levy's nose has been put seriously out of joint by Redknapp whoring himself out for the England job for months, and at the same time f*cking up his side's title ambitions (shortly followed by their Champions League ambitions). And he'll also know that the longer this saga goes on, the more Redknapp will stop his car, wind down his window and give his media chums yet another quote for the headlines. 'Arry of course will want the cash from his final year, so I doubt he'll just walk away; but a financial settlement for him to go is in no way out of the question.

This was in Boyatt Wood. He also had a Triumph TR7 which I used to think was the coolest car in the whole world.

Steve Williams used to live a few doors up from me when I was a kid; one day he came and had a little kickabout on the green with me and my mates. Steve Williams

There's all sorts of ways that it could work; Brum could offer a buy clause that is only conditional on them not actually getting back to the PL. I certainly wouldn't like to suggest that I know for sure what all 20 Premier League clubs think about that sort of deal.

F*ck me; from the BBC updating their football website to a bitter rant about the state of the nation in less than 20 posts. :lol:

I don't necessarily disagree that it would be nice to sign 1 or 2 experienced heads. That said I don't see it as the be all and end all; Norwich and Swansea both had effective seasons without those types of players. QPR on the other hand went down the expensive experienced route and considerably struggled.

On the flip side; if they can afford not to offload him, they can potentially get a decent season long loan fee for him and then see where they are next year. If Butland plays well in the Premier League, and indeed goes on to actually play for Enfland, his stock will have risen massively and he'll likely be worth significantly moe than the £3M approx that is being talked about now. At that point Birmingham will have the option of recalling him if they gain promotion to the PL or selling him for a much higher price.

I had the misfortune of watching England v Portugal in Euro 2004 in Dublin airport. In a bar, myself and around 10 other English lads, and a completely packed bar full of rabid, angry Irish. It was the most hostile environment I've been in when just sat in an apparently "neutral" bar; they were so bitter and fired up for England to lose it was incredible. The barman at one point refused to serve us drinks as we were English (and winning). Utterly pathetic, it was so hateful. Their massively over the top celebrations when we lost on penalties were like their own team had won the tournament.

And that type of moronic idiocy is apparently in charge of moderating a forum. Dear Lord.

What a ridiculous point to make.

F*ck the other teams. We are Southampton; we'll wear what we want.

It's extremely difficult to get a working visa for the US. Perhaps the best way (apart from marrying someone) is probably to try and get an inter-company transfer from a UK office to a US office. But of course this requires you to work for a company that has offices in both countries. There are also other temporary visas (J-1), but these are typically only for around 4 or 5 months. Just turning up in America, hoping to get a job and therefore a visa would very be a waste of time.

They certainly have similar attributes in comng across as intolerable know-it-alls while at the same time showing a complete ignorance of the game in general.

Once again you prove the name "Professor" to be completely inapt. You and Alpine clearly have the same inability to recognise that the club don't choose to make signings later in the summer. In an ideal world it would be great to have all transfer activity done and dusted by July. But it simply doesn't work that way for a hell of a lot of signings, players and agents hold out for the best deals, which often takes time. The fact you think this one signing heralds a new way of thinking concerning incoming transfers just shows your entire naievety to the situation, as if we've suudenly discovered how much better it is to get players in earlier than later. The Rodriguez transfer is pretty much the highest profile Premier League transfer so far. There has hardly been any transfer acitivity to date. Does this mean that all other PL clubs have got it wrong? No, it simply means that transfers will happen throughout the summer. If we can get players in early, then fantastic, we absolutely should try to do that. If it takes longer to get in the right player, then I'm sure the club would much, much prefer to do that. Tell me; you place such importance on getting players in early. Is it therefore better in your opinion to get some players, any players in before July, rather than wait and get better players in, but not until August?

If someone like Tottenham or Arsenal had bought him, it would be seen as a wise transfer for a potential up and coming player. They see Saints buying him and assume it'll eat up all our transfer budget. Sunderland have been the absolute kings of wasting money in the past 10 years or so, so I don't think I'll get bothered in any way if they choose to mock us for this.

Yep. Our delayed transfer activity last summer cost us dearly last season. Thank God they've learnt from that.