Cabrone

This was the one I really wanted but never dared thought we'd get. He's a genuine class act and if MP can get the most from him (and Ossie will be fired up in a WC year) then we've got a bit of a monster striker on our hands. Salivating at the thought of Ossie as the spear head and Rickie as the foil. Gonna be some fun. Cortese is like a terrier, once he locks his jaws around his target he just won't let go. Welcome Pablo and enjoy your stay.

Well that's a surprise. Great result against a very decent team. Love it when we grind out a game like that one, sounded like we had them under control most of the time, defensively we look good. Just need Ossie to fill the missing link. Arsenal losing at home and the fans singing 'spend some money' makes me wonder if they are about to go into panic buy mode. Hope there isn't a last gasp Arse bid for him.

If Osvaldo does not materialise would Jordan Rhodes be worth a shot? 27 goals from 45 games in the champ is none too shabby. Decent British player - could he have a similar impact at prem level as Ricky did?

Should find out soon, the club have put a deadline down and should stick with it. I'd love him to come here but there has to be a limit to how far SFC will go. Shame about Vydra, who else are we looking at?

Can't see more than a draw TBH, West Brom are a decent footballing side and whilst Lukaku is a loss Anelka is a decent replacement who will get the goals. Be interested to see how Diego Lugano gets on at WBA. A decent player and a good battle between him + Jonas Olsson vs Ricky will be worth watching. 1-1 or 2-1 to them.

Why would the club sell him for what would be a modest sum? He's worth a darn sight more to us than his transfer value would ever cover. As for the emotional angle I think SFC have a pretty big pull on him, even if the rival was LFC (which it won't ever be IMO). Osvaldo - Lambert would be a dream up front.

Put in a decent shift tonight, score 20 goals, stay injury free and hope his competition have uninspiring seasons.....oh and Engerlund also need to qualify.

Even if they could I can't see him wanting to play in the Portugese league. He wants to catch the eye of the national manager and Roma want him out of the country so that means he'd only look at Spain, England or possibly Germany IMO. We must be in with a good shout at the moment.

That bloke in the middle, is he any good on crosses?

Interesting, looks like he's definitely off then. Being as Roma don't want to sell him to one of their rivals that must currently put us in a pretty good position. Hop Nicola has told him that Southampton is on the doorstep from London, he could put a shift in at SMS and be up in the bright lights by early evening ready to wine and dine his other half. Failing that he could always grab a kebab in Bedford place.

If we do land Osvaldo I really hope the club keep Ricky as he'd be fantastic in the hole. Osvaldo the spear head, Ricky the foil, Gaston supplying the bullets and JRod/Adam/Punch roaming wide sounds good to me.

I wish I'd seen him play, he must have been catastrophically bad to have got that review. Bale for Forecast, has there ever been a transfer in the history of football where the ability of the swapped players was as wide as these two. Rupert L**e

The whole Osvaldo-Roma situation is pretty complex. The owners want him gone - the management\players appear to want to keep him - the fans are split with strong opinions on both sides. Let's be honest - Osvaldo is a loose cannon, when the manager didn't pick him for the Italian cup final for not training enough he openly and strongly criticised the manager for his non selection saying that the manager should 'celebrate with his Lazio fans'. Imagine Ricky getting dropped for bad attitude and then going on TV accusing MP of being a Pompey fan (but 100 times more incendary). It's going to get a reaction although the management have said when the cameras are off he's quiet. He's also had run ins with the fans, telling them that he'd take them out one by one and that he's scored 200 goals - what the f**k have they done? Obviously very theatrical and not to be taken seriously but this is going to incite in a big way, especially in Rome. His private life is also a bit lively - he has 3 kids to 2 women and he's no longer with either. The guy is a live wire and a real character - I think he'd be marmite - you'd love him or hate him. I'd be in the love camp, I like characters in football and this guy is a big character. Whether NC would see it that way is highly debateable. The other side of the argument is that he is genuine world class, he has played under MP and by all accounts was perfectly fine and I believe that if you take him out of a cauldron like Rome he'd calm down and get on with his football. If Osvaldo is this good with all the distractions around him what could he be like when his surroundings are much calmer? He wants to play for Italy in the WC, that would rule out Zenit for me - a lesser league with less media attention and different scheduling, Roma don't appear to want to sell to one of their rivals so that leaves Spain, England and Germany. The Spanish clubs look skint (outside the big 2) so I can't see him going there, I'm not convinced that he'd want Germany as I still think the prem is higher profle but whether he'd want to take what I suspect he'd think would be a backwards step to us is very debateable. If I had to put money on it I think a kiss and make up session at Roma will happen. He'll make a few grovelling apologies and become the fan's favourite after scoring a few spectacular goals. All just my opinion. Saints need to bring this one to head ASAP though and if he's a no go then we need to pursue new avenues. We need a striker and there are still a lot of quality options out there.

In summary...... The article is saying that Osvaldo would love to go to Inter and the new look Inter would love to have him but Roma are not stupid and wouldn't want to sell to one of their rivals. The journalist questions the sense in getting rid of a player as good as Osvaldo and how Roma would replace him. He suggests that Roma should keep him close and save face by offering him to Southampton knowing that he doesn't want to go with the result that he stays. This is only the journalist's view though so needs to be taken as such. Roma themselves do seem to want to sell the player.

Interesting, this is the one I've wanted the most and if we get him he'll be fantastic in the prem IMO. He'd also open up our game allowing Ramirez to start spraying balls down the channels. We can't really do this at the moment. If we signed him I'd love to see Ricky play in the hole, a Ramirez\JRod-Lambert-Osvaldo combination would be fantastic.

I think most neutrals would say Utd had an overall stronger midfield but central midfield is very close and may even turn out to be better this season. If they play to their potential we have a wrecking machine central midfield.

Overdue, he's the best English CF around at the moment IMO. England look seriously threadbare though. Some of those selections are real head scratchers.

Watching us score 6 in the 2nd half against Coventry in 1984 was good fun. Can't think of a game since that one where we've scored 8.

Aron Jóhannsson - young hungry goalscorer.

Leeds, Millwall and Everton. Never liked the fans of the first two and Everton seemed to put a spell on us just as I was starting to watch the Saints starting with that crushing defeat in 84. Funny how you remember things so vividly from years ago yet don't seem to for more recent fixtures.

If we don't sign another forward and Sharp is jettisoned I won't get it too. Everyone knows his limitations but the fact is we are currently threadbare up front, that he would be a direct backup for Ricky, that he has actually got a good scoring record with us albeit in the champ (17 games - 9 goals) and that he seems to be a decent bloke that would fit in just fine. If we buy a decent forward then let Billly go but if we don't then we should use him.

No, we just don't have enough goals in us. With a Osvaldo\Damiao I think NC would have been entertaining a shot at top 6 but we are very vulnerable up front. As things stand at this moment 8th-12th looks the best bet but NC may yet pull a rabbit out of the hat so we'll see.

Not sure how it works with registering the squad but if we don't end up getting another striker I'd bring Billy Sharp into the squad. He might not be quite prem standard but he does know where the goal is and would be well capable of doing a useful backup job for us. I'm sure he'd get a few goals too. Hopefully we'll get someone as it's looking as threadbare up front as it was in defence+goal this time last season.

If buying lots of players meant success then we'd never have gone down in 2005. Quality over quantity is the correct approach. We have almost a month left to get that forward to finish off our business and I'm still hopeful that we will. Don't forget that our best signing of last season, Boruc, was signed after the season started and he went on to make a huge contribution to the team.

Boruc Clyne Lovren Yoshida Shaw Cork Wanyama Schneiderlin Ramirez Lambert JRod