angelman

I know things evolve, and as far as the away shirt goes, that to me should be the one that chops and changes. I came across this www where it seems stripes arrived in 1896 http://www.teammead.co.uk/saintsfc/1896.htm. We can forget the shirts from 1985-1989, but like the shirt at the beginning of the 80s or the one 99/00 We haven't gone quite as far as Cardiff, who changed colour and got a truly crap top, but I want stripes (or one stripe at least!)

goalkeeper's kit looks OK.

This. As it is, I wonder why Bud are taking on Bellville rather than the Bellevue Brewing Company (Washington, USA). I seem to recall they also took on Budweiser Budvar and lost, so hope it happens here as well.

Interesting to see the difference between the successful signing of Lovren and this unsuccessful one. One constant is that Saints keep their mouths shut.

on soon TalkSport - about agent's fees and Wanyama (apparently)

Interesting that the final offer from us was made 2 weeks ago. Says a lot to me - we have put our marker down and are not moving and Wanyama's plans might not be going quite to plan. Interesting that there is so much in the news now from him and his party. NOt surprised that there is nothing from Cortese. I know that some of it will be from journalists digging up a story, but seems that the agents are going to have to work pretty hard to get their exorbitant fee. To a certain extent, I hope the young lad's career isn't adversely affected by the greed of his representatives.

Not wanting to be argumentative, but do you think this can be applied in any way to Gaston and Wanyama?

Maybe we shouldn't be looking to sign good foreign players, and instead look to sign good domestic players.

Agree. The top 4 or 6 that he is hankering after, no doubt are either well complemented in DCM or have other targets in mind. That leaves the likes of us (and a number of other teams), stay at Celtic or go to Europe. We will I suspect pay better wages, although it has been mentioned that Turkey pay less tax so don't have to pay such high wages. There is a certain amount of brinkmanship involved, although we would all love it if players like this actually wanted to play for us over and above other teams. This brinkmanship gets to a stage where I frankly don't mind if he comes or not.

Barry you might be right, but if you let yourself get fleeced once by an agent, every other agent will fleece you so it's much better to lose out signing the player and keeping your hard ball reputation in tact. I think that most of us have some faith in the dealings of the chairman.

Well then, I wouldn't worry about it.

A few weeks ago, I started a thread saying that I hoped that SFC retained a core of English players (and even better if they are Soton born and bred), but given the constant press coverage and people like K****u, I think **** it. Let's splash loads of money, sign these players and stick two fingers up at all these people who think that the PL exists solely of ManU, ManC, Arse, Chel, L'pool, Spurs and maybe Everton. I suppose that these people can't be blamed for it as most of them can't remember what happened before the grotesque PL appeared. Maybe they would prefer a 6-8 team league. Did anyone in 1983/4 say how little old Southampton shouldn't be finishing second, while Chelsea, bought for £1, were in Div 2 (winning it)? What about Chelsea pre-Ambramovich? It was a complete dump. And what about 2002/3 when we finished 8th in PL - why can't we finish ahead of Fulham and a pre-Arab owned Man City? I am sure that these same people don't see us at the same level as WHU. That they might get a big stadium on the cheap will make a difference in a few years, but I am not sure that 3k and £100m more of debt makes them hugely bigger than us - where is the comment about them splashing £15m on Carroll?

NOt sure if this posted yet, but Stetanta saying the move is off due to personal terms: http://www.setanta.com/ie/reports-wanyama-move-to-southampton-off/

So he is back as is Lee. Can either do a job for us?

Not sure how accurate this is, http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/billy-sharp/transfers/spieler_49542.html, but they say £1.892m. So given that the contract has run some of it's time, then that is about the same as we paid (pro-rata). Sad that we used him and his 9 goals to gain promotion and then discarded him, but guess that's the nature of the beast and there's not a lot of room for sentimentality.

They were saying on Talksport that if there was nothing in it and that he was making it up, Newcastle would have squashed the story quick smart. As they haven't, this might well be true. Interesting bit of support from Steven Taylor (if this is true, but it is the Mail who do embellish things on occaisons!) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2343747/Alan-Pardew-fighting-save-Newcastle-job-Joe-Kinnear-arrival-Steven-Taylor-welcomes-appointment.html

Well it was madness to give anyone an 8 year contract, so I guess you are right and that this is the cheaper option.

What does our manager, who played 20 times for Argentina, know about centre backs? I am sure that the OP is much better informed and therefore we should be bedwetters.

Yes, but then some revert to type - "Great coup for them he is a good player and with all respect to Southampton he is probably a level above them" - and the typical arrogance comes out. There is a feeling amongst the top 7 clubs or so that no one has any right to challenge them for their position. I don't buy into this top 4 finish - yet - but why not challenge the likes of Liverpool and Everton for 6th and 7th? I am sure the likes of West Ham and Newcastle will be thinking along the same line.

Arouna Kone has also been linked. http://www.dailystar.co.uk/football/view/319400/3-way-battle-to-land-Wigan-ace-Arouna-Kone/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-star-sport+%28Daily+Star+%3A%3A+Sport+Feed%29 http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/southampton-liverpool-rival-everton-wigan-striker-kone-3962402 etc etc

^ I wonder who he thinks could do a better job???

You might be right. Still recall him blazing a penalty way over the bar at the Milton Road end, Possibly the worst penalty I've ever seen.

Delgado without a doubt.

Patrick Collins obviously isn't a fan of Saggy http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2338083/Patrick-Collins-The-inequality-game--93-27-TV-billions-goes-Premier-League.html

My mistake - put 2+2 and got about 179864. It was the Croat Dejan Lovren playing for Lyon.